Posted on 04/02/2021 8:40:41 AM PDT by Jan_Sobieski
Washington — Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), issued a dire warning of a sense of "impending doom" as coronavirus infections and hospitalizations tick up and pleaded with Americans to not let up on mitigation measures.
During a briefing from the White House COVID-19 Response Team and public health officials, Walensky said there are "continuing concerning trends" in the nation's response to the coronavirus pandemic, with the number of infections, hospitalizations and deaths all rising. The number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. has surpassed 30.2 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.
"I'm going to pause here, I'm going to lose the script and I'm going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom," Walensky said, appearing to grow emotional. "We have so much to look forward to. So much promise and potential of where we are and so much reason for hope. But right now I'm scared."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Honestly, I hope you are correct.
Now where’s that “oh noze” gif when I need it.
Those who had mild or asymptomatic cases of the April 2020 variant are susceptible to reinfection by the South Africa and Brazil variants due to changes in the S-protein structure rendering the antibodies less effective. The levels of antibodies in those who had mild or asymptomatic cases are typically insufficient to contain the infection with those variants. This has been observed in both countries to a significant degree.
"You might want to check your calendar."
The first recipients of vaccine doses in the Phase 1 clinical trials got their shots March 16, 2020. My calendar is just fine.
They should be put on a rocket to Thereanus
“Irony....the CDC today said that people fully vaccinated can travel freely now.”
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Maybe the impending doom she’s feeling involves a plane crash? Nah... she’s an idiot.
“I got sicker from the two vaccinations forced on me than many people I saw with covid positive tests.
I trust herd immunity more than these vaccines!”
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Covid positive tests and vaccinations go hand-in-hand in the creation of herd immunity. I think the ill advised closing down of schools and other gathering places of those least affected by COVID-19 were their measures to intentionally DELAY the gathering of herd immunity.
‘(though the “impending doom” is ridiculous overreaction).’
if only it were ridiculous; but it is much more damaging than that...people have been massaged into believing ‘health experts’ to the extent that anyone given a health designation, even a simpleton beaureaucrat like Rochelle, can hold sway over the public awareness...
this has been the basis of my harsh critique against the medical community for the past year; they are the ones who should have been able to dispense common sense knowledge to the public about how to deal with a new virus, not politicians and their stooges in the media, but they failed miserably, and got themselves boxed into following prevailing orthodoxy rather than their own knowledge, for the purposes of controlling public opinion...it’s the least acceptable kind of failure possible...
‘I think the ill advised closing down of schools and other gathering places of those least affected by COVID-19 were their measures to intentionally DELAY the gathering of herd immunity.’
the absurdity of outdoor stadiums not allowing spectators, even though everybody knows virii do not propagate efficiently in fresh air and sunlight, illustrates that mindset all too well...the elites obviously feared the concept of herd immunity, feared that it would cause people to put their trust in natural occurence rather than beauraucratic diktat...
I like the title of James Freeman’s recent column about this in the WSJ: “Ok, Doomer”.
Beneolent tyrants plead for your safety.
Don’t buy it.
Front-line medical workers have been watching the ERs and ICUs fill with dying patients for the past year. They see only the worst of the worst from this pandemic. Some areas had to bring in refrigerated trucks to handle all the bodies.
It’s not the world-ender advertised by the media and the Democrats, but it’s definitely generated a lot of pain and suffering, and the front-line medical workers have every right in my mind to sit back and not run around telling people that it’s no big deal. They’re the ones who have to deal with the results of both the bad policies of the politicians driving infection and the bad behavior of individuals (”oh screw this covid mess, I’m going to visit grandma in the nursing home no matter what!”) bringing people to their hospital.
Of course we do. There have been multiple serology studies, multiple whole-town tests in different states and different countries, and let's not forget cruise ships. We have data from all over the place to establish that about 40% of COVID-19 cases are asymptomatic, another 40% show mild symptoms which don't require medical attention, about 5% of cases result in hospitalization, 3% in the ICU, and 0.65% die. We knew that back in May 2020. Everything since that time has been consistent with that, though we've seen some variation as monoclonal antibody therapy became more available and as variants like the UK variant started pushing back with higher severity. But overall, it's consistent.
"I've had people insist to me that even having a case of the original virus did not make you immune. They've finally stopped doing that."
There were no changes to the S-protein between the original Wuhan SARS-CoV-2 and the April 2020 variant. Anyone infected with either of those has only about a 1 in 10,000 (0.01%) chance of becoming reinfected with either of those variants. That changes significantly when you introduce the Brazil and South Africa variants, which do have structural changes to the S-protein resulting in diminished function for antibodies produced against the April 2020 variant. Again, this has all be readily observed and studied. This is actually happening in the wild today.
"If what you say is true then there will have to be a China vaccination, a Brazilian vaccination, and a South African vaccination. And then vaccinations without end. Who's next? A Luxembourg vaccination?"
A booster is only necessary when the original becomes ineffective. Testing for Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J (all the vaccines available in the US today) demonstrates they remain effective against all known variants. However, because of the reduction in effectiveness for the existing antibodies, Moderna has produced and is testing a booster specifically for the South Africa variant. I doubt it'll be necessary, but it might be useful for those who don't have a strong immune system to get something more specific to that particular variant.
"In numbers so small as to be insignificant to the country as a whole and so therefore irrelevant. Which also means that we have very limited data on the long term effect of the so-called vaccine. Widespread vaccinations only started in more-or-less 2021 and by your own admission have only reached 16% which is not so widespread at all."
We definitely have limited data at this point, but that's always the case for any new medicine. And that's something each individual needs to weigh in their own personal risk:benefit analysis. I absolutely encourage everyone to make their own informed decision. For me, I looked at all the data available and made the decision that it makes sense for me. Maybe you look at all the data and say you'd rather wait or that you don't think you want to get any of the vaccines for COVID-19 ever. That's certainly fine. As long as we're honest about the risks and the benefits are, each person can make that decision.
What we do know so far is that the vaccines available in the United States are safe and effective. Moderna and Pfizer are ~95% effective. Based on data from Israel, Pfizer is 94% effective at preventing asymptomatic infection and 97% effective at preventing symptomatic infection. Moderna and Pfizer both carry a small risk of serious allergic reaction. That risk is about 1 in 90,000 people for Pfizer and about 1 in 400,000 for Moderna. Most of those who've had a reaction to either are people with a medical history of severe allergies (the people who have to carry an EpiPen with them everywhere they go). Those reactions are quickly reversed, typically with a shot of epinephrine. If you have an EpiPen with you at all times, you probably shouldn't risk those two. But the J&J shot should be fine. If you're ardently pro-life (as I am), the J&J shot probably isn't for you as they used fetal stem cells in the R&D process. Moderna and Pfizer did not. Novavax also did not, their product looks great in testing, and they should be approved within the next month.
‘and the front-line medical workers have every right in my mind to sit back and not run around telling people that it’s no big deal.’
I said nothing about telling people it’s ‘no big deal’; I said medical practitioners could have provided some much needed perspective in the early stages and how to deal with it as adults...this, they obviously failed to do, and instead trotted out ‘experts’ who assured us that our best response was to damage our economy for years and forever change the social contexts that hae existed for centuries; and when they attempted to push back against the politically correct narrative, they were cancelled by their own peers...
thus, we have the likes of ‘Rachel’ Levine dictating how we should go about our social affairs, and other state political flaks providing ‘medical’ opinion on our future...sorry, but the medical profession will have to look hard in the mirror to determine how we climb out from under this...
In the early stages, nobody really knew what we were dealing with. This extended into April 2020. China put out nonstop lies to counter the trickle of facts leaking out about COVID-19. WHO was not the least bit helpful. CDC didn’t have a clue. We heard China claiming it’s no big deal, no need to worry, we have it contained, it’s a really minor illness, etc. Then in February and into March we saw it slam parts of Italy to the point that people were literally dying in the hallways of the hospitals and patients were being given triage care in parking lots and on steps. Doctors were literally committing suicide from the stressful, overworked, and frankly terrifying conditions present.
Then it hit here. It was obvious that China had lied, and it was obvious that we didn’t want to end up like Italy. I don’t think front-line medical personnel got the kind of help they needed to actually be a voice of reason in all this. I think the reactions from the state and local politicians drove panic and infection rates through the roof. I think governors like Cuomo and Newsom drove up the death numbers by forcing nursing homes to accept known infected patients, which in some cases wiped out large parts of the nursing homes’ populations.
In the conditions created by China’s lies and the state and local politicians, it was a bloodbath, and I can’t blame overwhelmed medical personnel for things they might have done with 20/20 hindsight. They got dealt the worst of all this. The rest of us have dealt with economic shutdowns, travel restrictions, disruption in our lives, mask mandates, etc. The hospital workers in a lot of areas were loading the bodies of the people they tried to save into trucks. Some of them didn’t feel safe going home to their own families for weeks or months at a time because they were in nonstop contact with infected patients and had little or no protective equipment. A lot of them outright broke under the stress and either quit or killed themselves.
So no, they aren’t the ones able to provide “context” in those conditions. Most medical staff I know were desperate to have everyone do everything they could to avoid any chance of infection so they could just have a break.
It has been that way where I live for the past 8 months.
kinda strange that the cdc won’t mention the potential dangers of the biden administration’s opening the border and their distribution of the disease carrying invaders across our country...
Still waiting for some evidence of your expertise supporting what you say or at least links to someone with expertise. Until then pffffft to you.
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