Coronavirus in Massachusetts (credit, pharmacy, inspection)

[OutdoorLover]

This article in the Jerusalem Post doesn't make the situation there very clear, maybe because it's not very clear to anyone there yet either? But you need to be careful about interpreting a statement like “We do not know exactly to what degree the vaccine helps, but it is significantly less".

Not only is the statement not quantitative, it also doesn't make clear what kind of vaccine "help" he's talking about. Maybe he's only speaking about case levels where they're saying the Pfizer vaccine is significantly less effective, but hospitalizations and mortality are still strongly protected against - if that's so, then it's not really cause for alarm. Cause to watch closely, yes, but not cause for alarm. My take on that is in line with Dr Fauci's statement that we don't need to start a booster campaign right now.

Our big problem now is that only 48.4% of the nation is fully vaccinated, because millions of people don't want to be vaccinated. We can do a lot more to lower mortality and morbidity with the vaccines we already have available if we can overcome this reluctance, and certainly for all of those who are currently refusing, offering a booster or an updated vaccine isn't going to do anything - they're just going to refuse that too.

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

This article in the Jerusalem Post doesn't make the situation there very clear, maybe because it's not very clear to anyone there yet either? But you need to be careful about interpreting a statement like “We do not know exactly to what degree the vaccine helps, but it is significantly less".

Not only is the statement not quantitative, it also doesn't make clear what kind of vaccine "help" he's talking about. Maybe he's only speaking about case levels where they're saying the Pfizer vaccine is significantly less effective, but hospitalizations and mortality are still strongly protected against - if that's so, then it's not really cause for alarm. Cause to watch closely, yes, but not cause for alarm. My take on that is in line with Dr Fauci's statement that we don't need to start a booster campaign right now.

Our big problem now is that only 48.4% of the nation is fully vaccinated, because millions of people don't want to be vaccinated. We can do a lot more to lower mortality and morbidity with the vaccines we already have available if we can overcome this reluctance, and certainly for all of those who are currently refusing, offering a booster or an updated vaccine isn't going to do anything.

It's frustrating. On one hand, there is a large group of people who are so quick to grasp at anything negative and react with extreme COVID fear that they are (prematurely) declaring that the vaccine is ineffective and that some variant will eventually kill us all. On the other hand, there is a group who has been of the opinion that COVID isn't really a problem and have convinced themselves (and too many others) that the vaccine is dangerous and treats something that "isn't really a problem". The two sides seem to be working at opposite ends of the COVID panic spectrum to reach the same (and wrong) conclusion that vaccines are useless.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

It's frustrating. On one hand, there is a large group of people who are so quick to grasp at anything negative and react with extreme COVID fear that they are (prematurely) declaring that the vaccine is ineffective and that some variant will eventually kill us all. On the other hand, there is a group who has been of the opinion that COVID isn't really a problem and have convinced themselves (and too many others) that the vaccine is dangerous and treats something that "isn't really a problem". The two sides seem to be working at opposite ends of the COVID panic spectrum to reach the same (and wrong) conclusion that vaccines are useless.

Broadly speaking, I agree that there are people who kind of over-react to *any* developments that might be negative, and there is another group of people who don't react to any developments at all. *LOL*

[Amontillado]

I mix optimism and pessimism: the vaccine is effective, but I'm still afraid that some variant will eventually kill us all!

[msRB311]

How long are people going to worry is what I wonder. At this rate things will never be normal again.

[ben young]

Seems some folks on CD relish living in fear and making others fearful of their phobias.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by Amontillado

I mix optimism and pessimism: the vaccine is effective, but I'm still afraid that some variant will eventually kill us all!

I wouldn't be worrying about the survival of the species - so far, no pandemic has been able to do that across 10s of thousands of years. Of course we don't want to set the bar of concern at survival of the species ;-). There have already been about 4 million people worldwide who've been killed and many more who have serious ongoing complications, so this is nonetheless quite serious.

Between social distancing, masks and multiple vaccines with high efficacy, we actually have multiple effective tools available. The main concern in developed nations is widespread disinformation leading people to refuse to use any of these tools, and in developing nations, they don't have access to the vaccines.

When leading Republican voices tell people not to listen to the FDA, CDC, NIH - call them incompetent, liars, crooks engaged in heinous conspiracies, call for investigations of scientific leaders and call for them to be jailed - no wonder so many Americans refuse to listen to the science. To say that I have been frustrated by this persistent disinformation campaign is quite an understatement.

[Amontillado]

I'm not concerned about the survival of the human species. I'm concerned about the survival of me!

We could say that the Republicans should carry on with their campaign, and at the next election, there will be many fewer of them. But as a good liberal, I think we should try to protect people from their own foolishness. Perhaps that's a foolish policy!

[LeavingMA]

Originally Posted by timberline742

Jesus. I volunteer weekly at a testing site.

No one is refused a test. No one is asked if they are even vaccinated before testing. It's all counted. It's all tested and tallied the same.

Stop the bizarre misinformation campaign.

https://rightsfreedoms.wordpress.com...oes-this-mean/

Didn't realize you were doing the testing also. The CDC has already said that isn't severe or death that is vaccinated won't be counted as a case. Wonder why they can say, oh its only unvaccinated people who are testing positive. They keep changing the numbers on the game. If they tested people at 28 to 30 thresholds back when this began we wouldn't have any casedemic.

[LeavingMA]

I do believe the same organizations that have lied to me for the last year. They haven't been wrong yet, with not political influence at all. They are all about science, but yet show no peer reviewed studies to back their BS. Sorry, stop telling me I'm going to die if I don't get vaccinated when I'm a healthy 40 year old who already probably had the virus (was a little sick). When they start recognizing natural immunity and stop pushing a vaccine that only creates spike proteins then talk to me. Or when big pharm takes liability, or when they promote healthy living or drugs that work that they discredited, so they could push a vaccine...great. Or when they do at least 5 years of actual studies.