So, what science, exactly?

 So, what science are we talking about?

A few people have said to me in the past two years, more so lately - Why can't we just follow the science? And I have read or heard about others saying the same. It is always associated with the idea that we have to wear masks or get vaccinated, etc. So many say it, I have to presume it's a mantra on one of the left-wing media outlets, or maybe all of them. Sometimes I respond - What science? This they do not seem to understand. I have to presume that they are substituting their favorite media outlets' opinions for science. And those media outlets - and the government, are just lying to them OR incompetent. Since the science they are advocating is never based on actual scientific studies, I feel it is fair to compare it to what we used to call Soviet science or pseudo-science.

But even if they are following what the commentators on CNN, MSNBC or other pro-government (right now, with a Democrat in power) outlets, at least by now they should realize, they have been lied to for two years now or they just don't know what they are talking about. CNN has at least come out of its slumber, with its main medical correspondent referring to cloth masks as basically ornamental. So, why did people keep wearing them? I can't help but notice those who watch CNN/MSNBC or other mainstream media were more prone to saying - follow the science (even though they could not refer to any science) and blindly following the rules.

Let's break it up into masks and vaccines.

Masks: Only a few days ago a good friend told me that masks were still necessary and helped prevent the disease. I have, from the beginning, believed masks do a little something in terms of virus protection (almost any barrier would) but not very much. And the downside is devastating socially. When I think of the little children going to school with masks over their faces, becoming habituated to a restricted life, I want to scream. Yet many teachers seem to think it is a good thing. Is it just that they live in a liberal echo chamber?

I think the actual science supports my instincts. In November 2020, the Annals of Internal Medicine published a Danish a randomized controlled study, Effectiveness of Adding a Mask Recommendation to Other Public Health Measures to Prevent SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Danish Mask Wearers. Effectiveness of Adding a Mask Recommendation to Other Public Health Measures to Prevent SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Danish Mask Wearers: A Randomized Controlled Trial: Annals of Internal Medicine: Vol 174, No 3 (acpjournals.org). I give the full name and link because media articles almost never do and you should read it yourself.  The study (all scientific studies) are hard to read and I constantly have to stop to check definitions and the like. But, the conclusion isn't hard to understand. Unless you can't bear to read anything that bursts your bubble. Then don't read:

"The recommendation to wear surgical masks to supplement other public health measures did not reduce the SARS-CoV-2 infection rate among wearers by more than 50% in a community with modest infection rates, some degree of social distancing, and uncommon general mask use. The data were compatible with lesser degrees of self-protection."

Hmm. Naturally, it was criticized, but mostly ignored by the media and politicians who had their own agenda. You would think it would have given pause to some, but, it went against the narrative. And nowadays, the narrative is everything.

A more recent study from Stanford University was initially used to ballyhoo its supposed conclusions that masks were effective. It was a large study. There is still a page from the university website claiming that it proves the opposite of what it actually showed. It really showed less than 10% effectiveness of cloth masks and not even 12% for surgical masks. Not surprisingly, despite Stanford's salute the (Biden) flag approach, the mask rats started jumping ship. Even the medical correspondent for CNN, which is mostly a propaganda organ for the left, Dr. Leano Wen, shocked viewers by saying cloth masks are little more than decoration. Michael Osterholm, a longtime viral expert said much the same thing. Biden's spokesperson said, well, we are going to follow our own experts. Dr. Wen also said just this month: “I’m not saying — I don’t think anyone really is saying — that no one should ever wear masks but rather that the responsibility should shift from a government mandate imposed from the state or the local district on the school rather it should shift to an individual responsibility by the family who can still decide if that their child can wear a mask if needed.” Who would say never? If a disease is deadly enough (especially to children) and prevalent enough, I might go along. But, it should be incredibly rare and it should be a family or personal decision.

Some politicians still feeling powerful by making others wear masks have been caught maskless themselves or otherwise violated their own restrictions:

AOC, 

SF Mayor London Breed, 

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, 

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, 

Austin, Texas Mayor Steve Adler, 

Calif. Gov. Gavin Newson, 

L.A. Mayor Eric Garcietti (best excuse yet - he held his breath), 

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, 

Calif. Sen. Diane Feinstein, 

Masker-in-Chief Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, 

Denver Mayor Daniel Hancock, 

NY former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, 

NYC Mayor Eric Adams (when he was Brooklyn Borough president) and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. 

This is just a list of well-known ones. 

The hypocrisy of these people knows no bounds. Now, even in some D controlled areas, after the Stanford study, though I don't know it was the cause, have dropped mask mandates. In some of the worst areas they have kept it up on school children, likely only to appease the powerful and reprehensible school unions, who care about as much for children as most BLM leaders care about black people - not at all. But, it's bad for kids. Even the increasingly woke American Medical Association published a study showing it was physically harming children - Experimental Assessment of Carbon Dioxide Content in Inhaled Air With or Without Face Masks in Healthy Children: A Randomized Clinical Trial | Pediatrics | JAMA Pediatrics | JAMA Network.

Since I started writing this post, most states that had mandates have ended them. Sadly, I know people who think the masks still do something and you can still see them on otherwise healthy people (so it appears) in stores. Some schools have kept them on for the children for no known reason - even after they have ended them for everyone else. This seems like cruelty or a gross exercise of power on those who cannot fight back. 

The idea that the policies concerning masks were scientific is nonsense. Fauci, who has basically declared himself identical with science (which should pretty much disqualify him as someone to be listened to) stated in an email to a traveler in February 2020 - 

"Masks are really for infected people to prevent them from spreading infection to people who are not infected rather than protecting uninfected people from acquiring infection.

The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through material. It might, however, provide some slight benefit in keep out gross droplets if someone coughs or sneezes on you."

"I do not recommend that you wear a mask, particularly since you are going to a very low risk location."

He later took it back when the CDC policy changed, claiming he wanted the masks to go to the health professionals. But, what he earlier said was actually true. There was no new science - the facts didn't change. Masks weren't irrelevant, then necessary, then irrelevant again. Now, many professionals seem to agree that they don't work. So, why are people still wearing them? I get angry every time I see employees forced to wear them in businesses for no reason, or simply because the owners fear someone will complain. 

The absurdities with masks are there for everyone to see. Even some pro-mask people recognize that it is just insane to have a roomful of diners at a restaurant - could be a hundred people, with the poor schmucks walking to their seats having to be masked until the magical moment they too sit. Just today there was a news piece about the unvaccinated New York Nets player who can play away games, but is banned from playing home games even though - ready for this - he can sit in the stands with all the fans and the visiting players don't have to be vaccinated. I mean, seriously, what kind of bizarre pseudo-magic is this based on? You do not ever have had to have taken a bio class in high school to know it certainly isn't science. Did you see the Super Bowl? I didn't, but I did see a few minutes of the pre-game show where a band was half masked in a stadium with tens of thousands of unmasked people? Why in the world would some of them wear masks?

Vaccines: To start with, I am vaccinated. I got the original (2 doses for the Pfizer vaccine) and then at my doctor's recommendation the booster about 8 months after the original because I have a form of Leukemia and it's considered a co-morbidity (although, as long as I treat something like every 5-15 years, it will not kill me). I thought about not getting it, angry at the mandates and the bullying and politicization from Biden & Co. But I realized that this was possibly cutting my nose to spite my face, and in the end decided to do what was best for me health wise - or what I thought was best for me. 

The norm for testing vaccines is not months, as these vaccines were created and approved for emergency use, but years. It might be that the people who refused to get them were right in the long run. We will see, and we may not be very happy if it doesn't turn out like we thought. Yes, the idea that the vaccine was some kind of death plot by the government to thin the herd was insane, but so is the idea that the vaccines couldn't possibly be bad for you. We know people who died. I have met people who have others in their family who died within days of receiving the vaccine and others who were hospitalized. At some point, for healthy people, perhaps under 70, certainly under 60, once the health industry knew better how to treat patients, and many people had the anti-bodies from actually having Covid, the need for a vaccine clearly declined. 

Personally, just from what I have observed from the sample of people I know who got it, those who were unvaccinated were much more likely to be hospitalized and I the believe the vaccine saved lives overall. That is obviously very important. Last year we had a visitor in my household who unbeknownst to him when he arrived, had Covid, likely the Delta variant. We were all vaccinated in the house and two of the three of us had the disease 8 months prior. I was in a car with him for 2 1/2 hours and did not catch it. His wife slept next to him, had never had the virus, and did not get it. Was it the vaccine? I can't be sure, but I believe it helped. Believed while acknowledging, I could be wrong. 

When Omicron came around though, the lies and lack of knowledge of the CDC and other groups became obvious. Remember, when these vaccines came out, they were telling us that they were 90 some odd percent effective in preventing us from getting the disease (the Johnson & Johnson vaccine somewhat less). Now, they only claim that only about hospitalization. We have seen countries like Israel, highly vaccinated, get record setting numbers of cases. The vaccine was not stopping it.  As more and more got it here, it seemed pretty obvious. And it appears that it is not effective against Omicron (although, again, possibly so in helping prevent hospitalizations or death).

General comments:

I don't like to beat a dead horse until it is dead at least 3 times, but I know that I can't go on forever and will stop. What I do want add to is just  some general facts and opinion:

We all know this is a novel disease that is hard to figure out. Every time you think you do, something different happens somewhere. But, there is also outright lying and ridiculous pressure and bullying going on. Dr. Robert Redfield, former head of the CDC stated: "“I was threatened and ostracized because I proposed another hypothesis. I expected it from politicians. I didn’t expect it from science." Well, you should expect it from the Soviet style science - that is, political non-science - that is going around. 

One of the discoverers of Omicron variant in South Africa, Dr. Angelique Coetzee, recently stated: “I was told not to publicly state that it was a mild illness,” she said. “I have been asked to refrain from making such statements and to say that it is a serious illness. I declined.”

Dr. Michael Yeardon, a 32 year Pfizer veteran, now retired, has been excoriated for his warnings about the vaccine. He claims that there are 8 lies that have been circulated by the government and companies:

1. Covid-19 is very deadly. Rather, it is 99% survivable by those without co-morbidities.

2. PCR tests are effective at detecting Covid. The PCR tests used are specifically calibrated to detect even the tiniest fragment of any coronavirus, artificially boosting the number.

3. Masks work. They were never designed to filter breath and breath particles. They were designed for use in hospitals so that doctors and nurses do not get blood and other bodily fluids in and around their mouths and noses.

4. Lockdowns can slow down the spread of Covid. He didn't say it, but I'll note that a John Hopkins U. study recently found that the difference of lockdowns 

5. Asymptomatic individuals can spread the virus. He says it is not true. They had symptoms that were mild and not being addressed. 

6. There are no proper treatments. That's a big topic. The FDA has even now approved several monoclonal antibody treatments for emergency use (that is, not yet formally approved) but there is more and more evidence that the much maligned Ivermectin may in fact be an effective treatment. It is at least debatable. But, as with other incidents we know the censorious tech giants like twitter and so forth have banned people over it.

7. Natural immunity is ineffective. How long did it take the CDC to even acknowledge the fact that natural immunity from having Covid was better than a vaccine? Last year they claimed the vaccine was better. But, only late this January, they acknowledged that natural immunity was much better. Did the world change? No, they are just pushing the vaccine.

8. Covid-19 vaccines are safe to use. Does anyone have any doubt that the vaccines did kill some people? I'm not saying a lot, but certainly some. Nowhere near as many as the disease, but some. I do not know anyone personally who had more than a mild flu-like reaction (usually less than a day, but my own booster reaction lasted a few days) but I do know people who had friends or relatives die very soon (hours, a few days) after it. Dr. Yeardon says that 1000s have died - I don't doubt it - and perhaps millions have been adversely affected? Would they have been better without the vaccine? Some. But, often they were forced to do so. I honestly do not know whether they are more effective than they are unsafe on balance. I just know the mandates are not science based. 

The federal government has been at least temporarily blocked from certain mandates and has even given up on some (the Osha vaccine mandate requiring workers at companies of 100 or more people). It should be blocked from all. The one Supreme Court case from early in the 20th century indicated that vaccines were an aspect of the state's police powers. They should really keep out of the medical business period except for the rare occasions when only the federal government, because of its financial power, is necessary to do certain things. It should be rare and limited.

I certainly don't see how the CDC gets out of this pandemic with any kind of reputation for science. Their predictions have been laughable and their prophylactic measures, enforced by this administration often ridiculous. Do you remember Spring 2021. The CDC predicted that Covid would become worse than ever in the following months. What happened in reality? For several months it pretty much disappeared from the states. It did come back, as we knew it would, but their prediction was nonsense. Hence, when mid-December last year the CDC, announced that we would face 15000 deaths a week from Omicron by January 8th 2022 - what happened? It ended up being a tiny fraction of that number, at its peak a little more than a fifth as many. 

In January, the CDC admitted that its Covid hospitalization counts for the nation were about a 40% overstatement! FOURTY PERCENT.

And, indeed, we also know that in fact so many of our statistics were faked. Recently New York State, certainly a liberal pro-mandate state, admitted that there was a 42% overstatement of hospitalizations for Covid-19, 51% in NYC. That's because they counted anyone who came in with it, whatever the reason they appeared, in their statistics. NJ admitted to over 50% and Texas to 30-40%. 

Stop believing what they are telling you. Are there conspiracy theories out there? Of course. Always are. But you cannot believe government generally (I fall for it all the time too, because you want to believe). Stop thinking that we shouldn't treat the unvaccinated. Did you want to stop treating AIDS patients because they had homosexual sex (maybe you did, but you shouldn't).  Stop thinking you are following science because your media tells you so.

And then, take a long hard look at any supposed science your government or media tells you is settled. It's an automatic non-starter.

That's all, folks.