“a real vaccine would have eliminated the need for
masks, and would have LOWERED the incremental daily
incidence. reconcile.”
Only a minority have yet received the vaccine. Among those, it has dramatically lowered the incidence. Reconcile that, with your supposition that the vaccine is not effective, or even real.
When enough of the population have been immunized to reach herd immunity (as in Israel) we do see greatly lowered incremental daily incidence (down 52% in the last seven days in Israel). https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#global-percent-change
Reconcile.
Our hospitalizations have stayed. Why? Because old people aren’t being admitted with it. The two I saw yesterday have been in since January.