Latest Covid news bulletins:
1) Dr. Fauci: Those who have not been vaccinated account for 99.5% of Covid-19 deaths.
2) The Delta variant is surging in states with lowest vaccination rates, mainly those red states that Trump won last November.
3) CPAC members cheer anti vaxxer who proudly proclaims he won’t be vaccinated.
What conclusions can we discern from these facts?
1) Anti-vaxxers are not just putting themselves at risk of sickness, hospitalization, and death. By preventing defeat of the virus, they are helping it survive and mutate to more problematic variants. Which means they are irresponsibly jeopardizing the health not only of themselves, but also of responsible citizens who have chosen to be vaccinated. Further, they are increasing healthcare costs because more sick people equate to higher insurance premiums for all.
2) Anti Vaxxers are competing for the first ever mass Darwin Award.
Bob Moores
Chestertown
Deirdre LaMotte says
These people see themselves as patriotic “rebels”. And remember, they live for pleasing Trump and irritating “liberal socialist/communist”, whatever that is.
Grenville B. Whitman says
Fewer Trump supporters will lead to more rational, fact-based governance and a stronger political system.
Arthur Cuelho says
I consider myself a centrist. We go back and forth between democrat and republican presidents almost like clockwork. Yes some of the trump supporters are idiots. Some of the Biden/Obama/Bush supporters are also idiots. Try not to lump to much of the population into any of these groups. Personally I think mother nature is just helping to clear out the gene pool. Willful ignorance had never had a sever penalty before in our country, now it does. I fell sorry for that .5 percent of the vaccinated that die, but when I see moronic videos about how bad it is to get a vaccine, and how its all a conspiracy. All I can think is a Mass Darwin award is coming for many in this country. Best thin out the herd before something really nasty spreads.
Ed Plaisance says
A friend had a rather brutal analysis of this situation: as the anti-vaxxers succumb to the more virulent strains of the virus, they will be raising the the IQ level of the rest of the population.
Fred Kirchner says
I will usually not respond to unqualified statements as it will only go to feed the media frenzy for “bleeding” news..
I am not sure which may be the dumbest ? As many, Trump contracted the virus before they had any real vaccine considerations. He elected to take the “cocktail” (NOW RECOMMENDED FOR ANYOINE WITH ADVANCED COVID). that saved his life..
It is a fact today that if anyone contracted the virus and survived, they will be immune being they naturally developed REAL antibodies, and do NOT need to take any vaccine with artificial (man made replica) antibodies. In context, this is what he meant when he said he is not going to take any vaccine, he does not need replicva antibodies when he already has the real ones.. The Anti-Vaxxers are just obstinate people who don’t believe anything.
Now many are finding out, unlike the REAL antibodies, the replica antibodies are not surviving with the single shot vaccinations. I have been, for a long time now, part of a test group now testing every couple weeks, to watch and see if the replica antibodies in the two shot programs “evaporate”. So far they have not, but time will tell, but they seem to have bailed out with the single shot variation.. Anyone who has not taken the vaccine by choice are “walking dead”. You cannot legislate “stupid”. The same has happened with many other epidemics. I am NOT a doctor, but I think I have some medical common sense. Rhetoric like the insinuation above is just someone else who insists on bashing Trump because THEY got on the wrong Train. America is really getting fed up with the ego tripping, social media talking heads spewing nonsense for attention. When people insist on walking into brick walls, they will eventually stop, as long as you do not tell them to do so ! They ended the DRAFT, and now we have millions of 40 year old adolescents !!
All Mr. Moores would need to have said was his list of conclusions, The rest is just traditional barroom banter from those who got on the wrong train. Well, I guess many did not realize that until AFTER the outcome of the election !!
Bob Moores says
Mr. Kirchner, your information on Covid vaccines is incorrect. My daughter is a cell biologist presently working for Janssen Pharmaceuticals, maker of the J&J vaccine. She has schooled me (or tried to) extensively on how both types work. In brief, neither the Moderna/Pfizer nor AstraZeneca/J&J vaccines contain antibodies, “real” or “replica.” The differences between the two vaccine types, quoting my daughter:
“They’re really not very different… in Moderna/Pfizer, they use RNA encapsulated in a nanoparticle to get into cells; for J&J, it uses a viral vector (adenovirus) to get the DNA into a few cells… then, both use the body’s own cells to turn the RNA/DNA into spike proteins that trigger the immune response. It’s just that RNA is more sensitive to temperature/degradation than DNA (so that’s the basis of the different storage temperatures required).”
If you’ve seen graphics of the virus, spike proteins are those little red bumps that cover the ball-shaped body of the virus. Spike proteins are harmless by themselves, but are recognized by your immune system as foreign objects, so it creates antibodies to kill/eat them and anything they are attached to, unfortunately for the virus.
Unvaccinated folks who contracted the virus and survived, as you said, have proved to have effective immune systems against the early variants, but not necessarily against mutant strains which are constantly evolving. That’s why it is imperative that we wipe the virus out before it can mutate to more dangerous forms, and reaching herd immunity is the way. Consider that an unvaccinated person who has survived the virus can still carry and transmit it to those with compromised or less effective immune systems. Who will need a booster shot, and how often, is being studied. For now, the vaccines are saving lives big time.
Vaccinations should not be a political issue, it’s a world health issue. Are antivaxxers resisting because they don’t want the government to tell them what to do? What a great reason to endanger themselves and their fellow countrymen! The rest of the world would love to have the vaccines that many of us fear, disdain, or mistrust.
Respectfully, Bob
Fred Kirchner says
Bob,
This is WHY I really do not want to feed the media frenzies initiated by some questionable theories.. I agree with everyone that they have nothing to lose by taking the vaccine, BUT even the vaccine companies suggest one should check with their personal health care provider before they take any vaccine. The scholarship presented by you, from your daughter is beyond any comprehension of the average citizen. The problem that is becoming very evident is the fact that the Pandemic has turned into a MULTI TRILLION dollar money maker for some. The 4th Amendment will protect the “stockholders” as it should.. Your daughter works for one of the financial beneficiaries in this issue. Unfortunately it is the latest being being bashed in the white collar competition. I am part of a non-biased research group comprised of established research scientists on a fact finding mission since the advent of the pandemic. They are affiliated with the Univ. of MD Medical System as well as the school of medicine, and many other research institutions. They are NOT part of the political entities, such as the CDC or State Health departments. They are not part of any of the pharmaceutical organizations and companies promoting their better “mousetrap”.. This is “marketing” more than a science in many cases. You often hear the sayings: “The Lesser of TWO Evils”, For the benefit of the readers I used the words REAL and Replica to help them understand there are TWO different antibodies, maybe the words I used may not have been correct. As far as the current marketing and all the anti-vaxxers’ conspiracy theories, THE JURY IS STILL OUT, and there are very competent professional independent scientists working on the facts. There are thousands involved in intense testing and monitoring that by no means are not to be compared to some media or political “pole” This is a serious issue and the mainstream and tabloid media cannot refrain from spinning in order to bleed to lead for the ratings. This is their business model. I have no idea where anti-vaxxers got mixed into voting suppression. As the WORLD knows, viruses are a common lifeform on our planet, and they, as we, evolve to “survive”. But we also evolve and develop herd immunity.. But now that the cyber-powers organize to provide a great rainbow of relief, they now will try to reconstruct the issue to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow !!
Mr. Moores, you and I are on the same train in this issue, and I think some of the others in this thread are too.. As I said in my first reply, simply said and all that is necessary, is Everyone needs to get vaccinated and that may be one more person to starve the virus.. BUT the virus will survive and adapt, as we will.. YES, POLITICS ( which is money) needs to stay out of it. Thanks to the internet we have MILLIONS of “Talking heads” with a spinmeister subscription to sell you.. Any doctor or LE officer will quickly tell you that you can only lead the horse to water, but you can’t make them drink.. I go back to the day of the Asian Flue, which killed many, but we survived even without a vaccine !! Vaccines are born out of Pharmaceutical companies comprised of as few scientists and MANY MBAs !! It’s all about money. But the cures always came out of the research scientists in the teaching hospitals, going back to the many epidemics of the past. They will whip this one too, but they will do it without the often proven incompetent, unproven theories and media breaking news bombshells of today. Truth being said, “an expert is mainly a person who know where and how to find the answers” Experts seldom have MBA, or PhD after their names with a ton of other initials..
I am going to have to drop the mike in this, my original attention was to put out some of the other repliers who have no other agenda but to create some contrary belligerence to pump their ego and try to provide some excuse for them getting on the wrong train. As I said before, they may not have realized it until AFTER the last election..
My reply was to remove the unnecessary rhetoric crap from the replies.. Your “conclusions” was all that would have been necessary, but they will never sell newspapers!!
I sincerely hope your daughter will not get some flack from Janssen for “unofficial” public commentary. I can imagine what might happen if she was cited by some bleed to lead media source. I am surprised Jim Dissette even allowed it if it was not an authorized press release. I would have thought it would be limited to your daughter being a biologist for a “leading pharmaceutical company” Remember also, NONE of these vaccines have been “fully” approved, as The FDA only gave emergency limited approval to this date, being the jury is still out in the real research. I certainly do not want to say WHO may have made that happen, lest we would still be waiting for an approved vaccine !!
Please excuse any typos, as I do not have the time to edit it if necessary.. I am not a journalist either !
Thank You ALL
Deirdre LaMotte says
I do agree. My daughter has autoimmune issues and is just now scheduled to be vaccinated; her doctor
feels this is the time to be vaccinated, as the Delta strain takes hold.
Roy R Plamann says
Yea, the anti-vaxxers are also supporting voting suppression laws. Odd, it may not matter as you can’t vote if you are dead from Covid. I don’t think the right wing nuts have thought of that yet.
Maria Wood says
Unfortunately, every person who is infected provides the virus with opportunities for mutations and new variants, which will result in variants that can evade the vaccines and endanger even those who are vaccinated. The more people who are vaccinated, the safer everyone is.
In addition, there does appear to be some evidence that for some people immunity after infection is not as durable and/or not as strong as immunity after full vaccination (defined as 2 weeks after the second shot of a two-dose series, or two weeks after the single shot of a one-shot vaccine). In particular, people who had covid early in the pandemic may be more vulnerable than expected to variants that emerged later (including the rapidly-spreading delta variant).
Kenneth Joseph Marsh says
Let us cheer on the Darwin Award competitors! May the odds be ever in your favor. Down with the Idiocracy!
George Hilman says
“Those who have not been vaccinated account for 99.5% of Covid-19 deaths.”
Reference, please.
Drew Strawbridge says
I remember polio vaccines which were given in sugar cubes if I remember correctly. Polio was a devastating disease. People WANTED a protection for this. They did not want to be paralyzed or even wind up in a iron lung. Smallpox was also deadly and was reduced almost to 0. Measles is bad. Vaccines are mans God given intelligence at work in mankind to eliminate these terrible diseases. Since America has checked it’s brain at the door, decisions not to be vaccinated against covid are not only a failure of social responsibility but also stupid. It has to be said. There are people who are very vulnerable to covid because of immune suppression. It is NOT anti vaxxers right to put other people’s lives at risk. There is no communist plot or threat from socialism. If your sacred of social programs, don’t take social security. If you are hospitalized for covid and have refused a shot then pay your own hospital bills. I’m rather tired of the people who are ignorant and politically uneducated.