Recently, some have floated the idea that we ought to require proof of vaccination for domestic air travel. This policy, like other mandates, might raise the vaccination rate very, very slightly. Previously I estimated just a few percentage points for work-place mandates, and this action would have an even smaller effect at best.
The decision whether to impose vaccine mandates on air travel will not be based upon science. It will be based upon coercion. I believe Dr Fauci said that. The increasing rates of breakthrough infections among the vaccinated alone is an argument against these non-science based mandates. The data is becoming increasingly clear that the current "legacy vaccines" (and the majority of our monoclonal antibody therapies) are significantly less effective against omicron as they were design against earlier viral iterations. See this pre-print paper released by Columbia University on XMAS eve: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.14.472719v3
To impose mandates and push boosters based upon vaccines designed 2 years ago defies logic. The virus has changed. We must ask ourselves the question: what is the end game here? Control? Preventing disease? Economic degradation?
Anything short of reworking the vaccines is political theater in my book.
Canada has implemented for all air travel, domestic and international as well as train. It is horrific. ( not to mention vaxports for civic participation). I would move to Texas out of this hellhole if we could.
I'm old enough to remember the study from the UK (from October?) showing that vaccinated and unvaccinated were equally capable of transmitting delta to others within a household. The actual science.
I find it impossible to believe that things like this are about addressing what's left of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. It seems quite likely that these things are about acquiring as much control over common people as possible while such actions can be ascribed to "public health." It's incredible that so few people who think they're advocating for short-term safety realize that they're enabling long-term restrictions of THEIR OWN future human rights. How is it that so few people see it as an ethical emergency that we're on the verge of allowing governments to require their people to be injected with whatever they can justifiably claim addresses a public health "emergency" as a condition of full human rights? Oh - by the way, please do not worry about the fact that approval was accelerated by skipping some of the standard safety studies and there is no long-term safety data - it's an emergency! I mean...surely nothing could ever go awry under these wild-west circumstances. Surely no government will ever use this authority in a malicious way to maintain its power or oppress powerless people.
Why do so many believe that such precedents are being set in the best interest of common people? Too many people take the intellectual/bodily freedom we enjoyed in the recent past for granted. I maintain hope that the mildness of Omicron will make people realize that pandemic policy has become completely decoupled from reality.
😂 “some” = Fauci, right? In my 28 years in consumer nutrition and health (corporate), I’ve benefitted from over $100 mil. in NIH-funded clinical trials that have supported our products. While some of the funding seemed too tied to our close relationships with researchers, I generally had tons of respect for NIH. How does it recover from what Fauci and Collins have done since March 2020?
It's been mandatory in Canada for ALL public travel (domestic and international) since the fall. My country is totally ridiculous... and of course it changes ZILCH to the course of the "pandemic"
I don't understand why mandates and passports are still being pushed when the efficacy against getting/ transmitting the virus has dropped MASSIVELY?
Isn't the point of a mandate to stop transmission? And to make people believe they are safe from GETTING covid?
Yes, it's awesome to have reduced chance of severe illness by being vaxxed- but that is not what the calls for mandates are selling- they are selling "to lower CASES" and to be "SAFE".
I just saw this study that was published in JULY 2021, way before Omicron- during DELTA that shows:
How can any ethical "expert" continue to sell false claims and continue to sell the mandate idea knowing efficacy is so low now and boosters only help for up to 10 weeks?
Trying to shoot at a moving target is even worse when you must coordinate through many levels for a decision. Dr Fauci has become a loose cannon inside his own house. He floats an idea that for the fearful is quite enjoyed and his worshippers are excited. Then as the rest of the Executive branch sees the public reaction, they are immediately scared witless. They understand the points of this article by Dr Prasad. We see that Dr Fauci has reconsidered. Never mind, please move along, didn't happen.
As Omicron arrives to trash the vaccine narrative, mass confusion reigns at the top. What shall the new message be? They are blindsided by events in the wild; this can't be happening, they lament. Entire belief systems are coming apart because much evidence affirms we have followed a broken path. Please go onto admitting uncertainty, try honesty. We still are learning. The public will understand; they are not children.
Thank you for the piece. Sharing!! I fear the train has already left on this, sadly. Even my dissenting family now residing in Idaho isn’t safe from the illogical totalitarian madness. Waving a mayday flag here in Vancouver, Canada!! Already no flying or train travel internationally or domestically for me unless I get waxxed.
The decision whether to impose vaccine mandates on air travel will not be based upon science. It will be based upon coercion. I believe Dr Fauci said that. The increasing rates of breakthrough infections among the vaccinated alone is an argument against these non-science based mandates. The data is becoming increasingly clear that the current "legacy vaccines" (and the majority of our monoclonal antibody therapies) are significantly less effective against omicron as they were design against earlier viral iterations. See this pre-print paper released by Columbia University on XMAS eve: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.14.472719v3
Or this research brief published in Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03827-2
To impose mandates and push boosters based upon vaccines designed 2 years ago defies logic. The virus has changed. We must ask ourselves the question: what is the end game here? Control? Preventing disease? Economic degradation?
Anything short of reworking the vaccines is political theater in my book.
Canada has implemented for all air travel, domestic and international as well as train. It is horrific. ( not to mention vaxports for civic participation). I would move to Texas out of this hellhole if we could.
I'm old enough to remember the study from the UK (from October?) showing that vaccinated and unvaccinated were equally capable of transmitting delta to others within a household. The actual science.
I find it impossible to believe that things like this are about addressing what's left of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. It seems quite likely that these things are about acquiring as much control over common people as possible while such actions can be ascribed to "public health." It's incredible that so few people who think they're advocating for short-term safety realize that they're enabling long-term restrictions of THEIR OWN future human rights. How is it that so few people see it as an ethical emergency that we're on the verge of allowing governments to require their people to be injected with whatever they can justifiably claim addresses a public health "emergency" as a condition of full human rights? Oh - by the way, please do not worry about the fact that approval was accelerated by skipping some of the standard safety studies and there is no long-term safety data - it's an emergency! I mean...surely nothing could ever go awry under these wild-west circumstances. Surely no government will ever use this authority in a malicious way to maintain its power or oppress powerless people.
Why do so many believe that such precedents are being set in the best interest of common people? Too many people take the intellectual/bodily freedom we enjoyed in the recent past for granted. I maintain hope that the mildness of Omicron will make people realize that pandemic policy has become completely decoupled from reality.
😂 “some” = Fauci, right? In my 28 years in consumer nutrition and health (corporate), I’ve benefitted from over $100 mil. in NIH-funded clinical trials that have supported our products. While some of the funding seemed too tied to our close relationships with researchers, I generally had tons of respect for NIH. How does it recover from what Fauci and Collins have done since March 2020?
It's been mandatory in Canada for ALL public travel (domestic and international) since the fall. My country is totally ridiculous... and of course it changes ZILCH to the course of the "pandemic"
I don't understand why mandates and passports are still being pushed when the efficacy against getting/ transmitting the virus has dropped MASSIVELY?
Isn't the point of a mandate to stop transmission? And to make people believe they are safe from GETTING covid?
Yes, it's awesome to have reduced chance of severe illness by being vaxxed- but that is not what the calls for mandates are selling- they are selling "to lower CASES" and to be "SAFE".
I just saw this study that was published in JULY 2021, way before Omicron- during DELTA that shows:
"Vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals
have similar viral loads in communities with
a high prevalence of the SARS-CoV-2 delta
variant"
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/07/31/2021.07.31.21261387.full.pdf
How can any ethical "expert" continue to sell false claims and continue to sell the mandate idea knowing efficacy is so low now and boosters only help for up to 10 weeks?
Trying to shoot at a moving target is even worse when you must coordinate through many levels for a decision. Dr Fauci has become a loose cannon inside his own house. He floats an idea that for the fearful is quite enjoyed and his worshippers are excited. Then as the rest of the Executive branch sees the public reaction, they are immediately scared witless. They understand the points of this article by Dr Prasad. We see that Dr Fauci has reconsidered. Never mind, please move along, didn't happen.
As Omicron arrives to trash the vaccine narrative, mass confusion reigns at the top. What shall the new message be? They are blindsided by events in the wild; this can't be happening, they lament. Entire belief systems are coming apart because much evidence affirms we have followed a broken path. Please go onto admitting uncertainty, try honesty. We still are learning. The public will understand; they are not children.
Thank you for the piece. Sharing!! I fear the train has already left on this, sadly. Even my dissenting family now residing in Idaho isn’t safe from the illogical totalitarian madness. Waving a mayday flag here in Vancouver, Canada!! Already no flying or train travel internationally or domestically for me unless I get waxxed.