covid-19 It will kill everybody.

[James K]

14% of US residents say they definitely will not get vaccinated, but it gets worse. Figures for Europe range around 25%, but vary country to country. In Ireland, vaccine refusal is just 10%, in Bulgaria it's 67%. France, a country where people consume medicine like coffee, the rate was around 40%, until government pressure forced people to reconsider, along with dramatically increasing infection rates.

The people who refuse the vaccine have the right to do so. They are a broad spectrum of society, the only vague connection may be that they follow (fake) stories on social media.

Whatever the reasoning or whatever negative things these people believe, the sad fact is, it will kill us all!

Please re-think if you are a vaccine refuser. Sacrifice your personal misgivings and save humanity. It hasn't touched you yet? It will, on Martinique, a part of France with only a 17% vaccine up take, the hospitals are full, it's an extreme emergency, the whole island is in lockdown and tourists have been evacuated. Perhaps you only get your local or national news, but this is worldwide, and God help us, it will surely come to you if you refuse to be vaccinated. It is life or death, it's that simple, whatever your personal feelings, we only have one defence, the vaccine. The longer you wait the worse it will be, until we are all wiped out!

 

[Camy]

Pragmatically, as a species, we're fucked.

Until we open our eyes and realise we all live on the same planet, in the middle of nowhere, without any lifeboats: it's not going to get any better. And even if we all start pulling in the same direction tomorrow, it's probably too late.

Until we're all vaccinated - not just those living in wealthy countries - Covid will remain an existential threat.

...and then there's climate change - that nobody in their right mind can now deny.

...and a global population that is verging on eight billion - which is unsustainable.

Beam me up Scotty!

---------

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

– Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994

[James K]

I suddenly feel very humble, that was so very apt and poetic...

[R.J.]

I rarely read the news these days (I don't really like watching TV) because I get tempted to read the comments. I didn't even realize there are so many anti-vaxxers (who also happen to be religous nuts—surprise, surprise!) until covid happened. I don't understand it. Worse, there are those who to this day still believes covid doesn't exist. The only good thing (sometimes bad) that came from this situation is having to work from home.

[Camy]

A nice bit of needlepoint...

[JamesSavik]

99.8% is an easy money bet.

 

[Cole Parker]

 At least here in the US, the principal reason for not getting the shot is the 'we're free and no one can tell us what to do' mentality.  Which is of course a vapid argument as people tell us what to do all the time, and we do it without argument.  Stop at a red light?  Okay, I will.  But your freedom to drive where you want whenever you want is abridged by doing that.  To me, it's just that simple.  As Camy says, we're all in this together.  Just as we're not free to shoot up a mall full of people with an AK-17, we're also not free to spread viruses that are just as deadly.

Freedom comes with rules and restrictions. Otherwise, not everyone is free.

[James K]

I read this interesting piece about America and who are the people who refuse the Covid vaccine. I have no idea how many places in the USA resemble Leon county, but it is pretty mind blowing how the folks who live there think. The population of this rural community is 72 percent white Christian, including 44 percent white evangelical, and election data shows 87 percent of the county voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020.  Just over one-third of the county’s eligible population is fully vaccinated, even though COVID-19 case rates are higher than they have ever been. 

What is significant about Leon County is the role religion has played in residents’ low vaccination rates even when faced with death from the coronavirus. "When my classmates were hospitalized with COVID-19, there were repeated calls for prayers and proclamations that God would provide healing. When they died, those prayer requests became comments that “God called [them] home.”"

The belief that God controls everything that happens in the world is a core tenet of evangelicalism — 84 percent of white evangelicals agreed with this statement in PRRI polling from 2011...

Given the numbers of evangelists across America, this may explain why a large number of people refuse to be vaccinated. If you believe what they believe, it seems death is a reasonable outcome and a call to paradise. Some similarity with some Muslim beliefs.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-some-white-evangelical-republicans-are-so-opposed-to-the-covid-19-vaccine/

 

[Nigel Gordon]

1 hour ago, James K said:

The belief that God controls everything that happens in the world is a core tenet of evangelicalism — 84 percent of white evangelicals agreed with this statement in PRRI polling from 2011...

There is a saying that "God helps those that help themselves." On that basis, if you want God's help, get vaccinated, so he can help you.

[Cole Parker]

Yes, there's an old joke about God providing help and people not recognizing it came from him and thus perishing.  I'd guess it's much the same here: a vaccination has been provided, but they won't give credence to God's hand in that, even while believing he controls everything.  That's nonsensical, but then, that's a good word to describe those people.

[Nigel Gordon]

"We are waiting for God to send us a miracle that will save us from Covid."

"But we have a vaccine."

"But God will send us a miracle."

"He did, we got a vaccine in a year - THAT IS A MIRACLE!"

[James K]

It is ignorance that kills, the Covid vaccines based on mRNA messenger have a long history born through research into a cure for cancer. The story started in the 60's and developed twenty years ago into the possibility of curing certain types of cancer, but a cure for cancer is slower to be approved than a vaccine for a worldwide infection crisis.

I think many people believe that mRNA simply popped up and mad scientists pushed it on the public like Frankenstein in the same vein as genetically modified crops, and the great fear of genetically modifying not plants this time but humans.

Humans, like nature itself, are imperfect. We are born with genetic abnormalities and catch diseases, that is the way life is. Correcting a fault is like doing some DIY on your house or home appliances, it makes them last a bit longer. 

"We don't know the long-term effects!" I hear the cry, but we kind of know the long-term effects of over using fossil fuels and warming up the planet. Knowing, or not knowing, appears to make no difference. 

 

[Nigel Gordon]

4 hours ago, James K said:

I think many people believe that mRNA simply popped up and mad scientists pushed it on the public like Frankenstein in the same vein as genetically modified crops, and the great fear of genetically modifying not plants this time but humans.

It is a similar situation with the Oxford/Astra Zeneca vaccine. It has taken years to develop. It started out over ten years ago with the development of a vaccine for Ebola. During that work they used a non-human cold virus as the vector to carry the spike proteins. When MARS broke out, they realised they could use the same vector platform for a MARS vaccine and were actively working on the development of the MARS vaccine when SARS-Covid-2 arrived on the scene. Both MARS and SARS-Covid-2 are Coronaviruses and they are closely related. In fact they are so closely related that the doctors in Wuhan one point thought they had an outbreak of MARS on their hands until they got the full DNA sequence. Once the full DNA sequence of the virus was available, it was a relatively simple job to identify the spike proteins and modify the existing MARS vaccine so it was effective against Covid-19.

I get sick and tired of hearing people say that the vaccines are not safe as you cannot develop a safe vaccine in a year. None of the vaccines were developed in a year. They are all the product of vaccine development programmes that have taken many years to complete. We are just lucky that this pandemic arrived at a time when the technology of using delivery platforms for spike proteins had already been developed and proven with other vaccines before our need for the current batch.

[JamesSavik]

COVID-19 is a modified Coronavirus(1). Coronaviruses are first cousin to the Rhinovirus which cause the lions share of head colds. One guess which family causes the rest of them: coronaviruses.

Coronavirus and Rhinovirus are positive stranded RNA virus which means their genetic material is the single stranded RiboNucleaic Acid (RNA). They differ significantly from DioxyNucleaic Acid (DNA) based viruses. RNA viruses do not have double-stranded genetic material of DNA viruses and are much smaller than their more evolved cousins. As a consequence, RNA viruses do not have the error correcting mechanism built into dual stranded DNA, and are apt to mutate at the drop of a hat.

These mutations happen very rapidly, and soon a population with an Alpha RNA virus will soon have Beta, Gamma, and Delta strains.

It is possible to create a vaccine for a specific Rhino or Coronavirus, but the problem is that each mutation Serotype will differ enough from the original that the probability that the vaccine will work decreases.

This is why there has never been a vaccine for the common cold. There are literally hundreds of thousands of Rhinoviruses and Coronaviruses each with a unique protein shell. It is that serotype that vaccines use to train our immune systems to look out for.

This is also why the COVID-19 vaccine is of very limited efficacy. Most of them do a reasonable job of inoculating against the original COVID strain, it is only partially effective against current sub-strains of COVID like Delta and Gamma. It will be completely useless against future substrains as they diverge further and further from the baseline COVID serotype.

 

Without hysteria, consider what Coronaviruses and Rhinoviruses actually do: they cause mild respiratory illness. In patients who are elderly, present with pre-existing conditions or compromised immune systems, this can escalate to a viral pneumonia.

Nothing has really changed other than we have a wide-spread  virus with shadowy origins that make us all very nervous.

The way that it has been handled on a national and international level is extremely questionable.

Why destroy economies for a virus with a 99.8%+ recovery rate?

Why force vaccinations when natural herd immunity is better for actually killing the damn thing eventually?

 

A much more rational policy is to protect vulnerable populations like the elderly, people with pre-existing conditions and compromised immune systems than to inflict vaccination on an entire population. One of the dirty little secrets of vaccination is that the tiny rate of Vaccine Injury when applied over a large enough population may eventually kill more people than the virus itself.

 

It's not ignorance alone that has people looking askance at the mass vaccination for COVID.

I have had both doses of the Pziefer vaccine. I took it because I am around many elderly people. Knowing what I know now, I won't be taking anymore.

This entire COVID phenomenon has been managed fear and hysteria which has been leveraged by sharp operators for political advantage, and to enrich themselves by the billions while spreading misery and economic disaster to the rest of us.

 

It is past time to JUST SAY NO to the overreach.

 

__________________________

1- https://centerforsecuritypolicy.org/nih-funded-chinas-gain-of-function-research-at-the-wuhan-institute-of-virology/

 

 

[James K]

@JamesSavik your comments are misleading and dangerous, you are telling people who are dying, not to get vaccinated, when this is our only effective weapon of protection against Covid19. 

It is the people who act like you who will kill the rest of us. You are responsible for spreading fake news and promoting the anti-vaccine stance which is totally irresponsible and irrational. 

Think before you talk!

[JamesSavik]

I did think. You did not. Read the post again carefully.

[Nigel Gordon]

20 hours ago, JamesSavik said:

COVID-19 is a modified Coronavirus(1)

There is no evidence that SARS-Cov-2 the virus that causes Covid-19 is a modified virus. Mutated, yes, modified no. There has been extensive investigation to see if there was any sign of modification and no evidence of modification has been found.

[Camy]

Watch this:
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/did-covid-leak-from-a-lab-in-china/on-demand/72973-001

Gain of function research is interesting (gobsmackingly terrifying) - especially when carried out at Bio-Security level 2 (the same as a dentist's office).

 

[James K]

[Cole Parker]

James:

Your reason for getting vaccinated is a wonderful, humane reason.  It's also the reason to get a booster when the time comes.  The way to stop the virus from spreading it so stop people from getting it so they themselves won't spread it.  To date, the number of people who have been harmed by the vaccine is extremely small.  Any medicine seems to have this capability, yet we continued to take our meds because the chances of disaster are minute and the chances for a cure overwhelming.

Without the vaccine, people were dying in large numbers.  Since vaccinations have increased, hospitals are no longer overrun with patients, and very few people are dying, except the ones who are most affected by the disease.  The vaccines have stopped the epidemic, and waiting for herd immunity to do the same while thousands are dying every day and our health care systems are overloaded to the point of shutting down is an answer to the problem most people just shake their head at as being innane.

It's easy when down the road a ways from how things were back in the early spring to begin to minimize the effects of it all.  Yet in the states where the government is anti-vax and anti-masks, the epidemic is getting worse.

The risks from getting vaccinated are exceptionally small.  I had my two shots back as soon as I could get them.  I'll get my booster shots when advised, too.  Not just for me!  For the people I don't want to kill by spreading the disease when there's no need to.

  

[James K]

You are absolutely right about getting a booster if proposed. Some research suggests long term protection from the two shots and explains the booster initiative (previous image). Here is the article, it's interesting: Immunity To COVID-19 Could Last Longer Than You'd Think

 

[Camy]

...and along comes a new variant - mu

https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/health/2021/09/03/covid-19-mu-variant-here-but-fauci-says-not-immediate-threat/5715182001/