VP I'm also a creature of the left but let's face it: ONLY the GOP sweeping into power can reverse this insane course. Team Blue has no respect for basic facts or realities. None. They've even redefined why God (or nature's god, if you must) gave us arms!
Can you and Dr. Prasad please tell me how knowing that you both are "creatures of the Left" helps me to validate your views on this very important topic? Argumentum ad vericundiam remains a fallacy, right?
Your views expressed herein are correct (in my opinion). Your politics are irrelevant to the truth or falsity of them.
I agree that Left-Right political preferences are irrelevant to the truth. Covid has made that very clear.
Political preferences are worth mentioning (perhaps) insofar as it signals to other “leftists” that it’s OKAY to break from the team on this one! Just because one’s political sympathies lean Blue doesn’t mean you have to go full blown Branch Covidian.
Where I live, in the SF Bay Area, people need to get this memo.
I think part of the reason for bringing up political affiliation is the timing of this booster rollout. It is being pushed through with very little data and no human trials at a time when covid is in a slump presumably to help the midterm elections because it makes more sense to wait a couple of months since antibodies it generates don’t last all that long and a surge in cases is much more likely around Christmas and into January as in the past two years. It has EUA approval as well, which is no longer needed since covid is endemic and milder and no longer pandemic (while approval of Covaxin is being held back pending more data - because they are not Pfizer?).
Similarly, the initial rollout of the vaccine in Fall of 2020 was withheld until six days After the election, you know, for more data. But 8 mice is all that’s needed now, when Covid is in a slump.
I want to make sure I’m understanding your comment. You are in fact stating that the GOP respects and realities which include a stolen election and Qanon beliefs. Got it.
Further, the data on the NEGATIVE value of spikeshotting anyone without specific co-morbidities under 50 is clearer every day. The data on myopericarditis continues to look worse and worse, especially for young men. And there has never been any reason to spikeshot children -- ever. The data is clear and voluminous. You do not need to do RCTs where the death/illness rates in both the control and experimental proxy groups (because we avoid doing real studies) are both zero (or, actually, worse in the experimental group).
You continue to be too kind to these apparatchiks whose only job appears to satisfy some set of political constraints likely connected to massive dollar flows from Pharma. Everything you say is correct, but still too understated to grab the attention it deserves. I am not for shrieking at the top of your lungs, but most of your equivocations, while probably attempting to be kind, dilute a really important message.
All of these NPIs and the vast majority of the spikeshotting has been inimical to good public health practice. There is no excuse for any of that -- at least not beyond perhaps late spring of 2020. Many of us have been reciting the "right" things since that time. Why cut these awful "public deprecation" frauds any slack?
What most people miss is that for decades our vaccination protocol has been politicized. What can we say about vaccinating a newborn hours after birth for Hep B and having the entire series of 3 vaccinations done by 15 months to protect them from a sexually transmitted disease (and dirty needles)? And they admit to doing it because they have parents at their most vulnerable and anxious (plus exhausted) point and can get away with it. Covid vaccinations is just a continuance of policy divorced from science and common sense.
I used to think I was a Democrat (and voted accordingly for many years), but in 2020 I realized that I just happen to have principles the Democrats pretended to share (and have since abandoned). Defending free speech, respecting bodily autonomy, tolerating differing opinions, holding power to account, supporting real journalism, advocating for the working class, being deeply skeptical of the likes of big pharma, Wall Street, and other corporate behemoths? Those were bedrocks of liberalism, weren't they? No more. Try the opposite. All replaced by identity politics that do little other than make people hate their neighbors and *absolve* the people with actual power of blame for their failure to take meaningful action to help powerless people (since their donors have no interest in that).
Everyone capable of being shocked by the idiocy and political weaponization (and thus debasement) of once-great institutions that have characterized the past 2 years should seriously consider declaring themselves politically homeless at this point (at least as far as the DC establishment is concerned).
I struggle to see this as anything other than a concerted attack on the foundations of America's institutions.
Me too. Lifelong Dem here who is now polltically homeless. The change happened in 2020 for me too.
In March 2020 I was voting for Elizabeth Warren in the primaries in March (and have the baseball cap to prove it). Doing the summer I watched, stunned, as my party supported insane lockdowns and (along with the media) blatantly misrepresented the risk of covid to the broader population. At the same time I also watched the country go crazy around identity politics. It took me less than 6 months to go from being a hardcore Democrat and Warren voter to completely questioning my relationship to the party.
I’m still not a Republican. I still hold the values that “talons” expressed so well above. These include placing a very strong importance on bodily autonomy - I think no one should be forced to bear a child against their will or take a vaccine against their will (and yeah - if you lose your job or are banned from social activities, that’s coercion). It’s very sad to me that now there is no policital party in this country that upholds bodily autonomy as an important value.
Funny enough, I was a lifelong Republican, in general personally conservative, but leaning libertarian. I was disgusted by Trump, QAnon, and the cultish behavior I watched. But yet, I could never vote for Dems, especially after what they've done the last 2 years. I think both parties are corrupt and many are in the pocket of Pharma. I'm losing hope that anything will fix DC...from any party. If only there was a reasonable option.
Totally relate, Marci. One of my best friends was a lifelong Republican, very active in the party, who left the party over Trump. We used to think we had very different politics - but today we find we agree on a lot. And I agree more with him than with many of my progressive friends who have just gone off the deep end.
I think today people who are thoughtful, non-ideological, and fact-based have a lot in common, whatever their political backgrounds.
What is the difference between the two mainstream parties today, really? Performative posturing over carefully chosen culture-war issues? I felt this way in 2012 when Romney ran against Obama, and I feel even more strongly about it today. It feels a lot like one party, two costumes to me.
Vinay is insightful as always, but the people he criticizes are not making mistakes. They are doing this because they default to control and authoritarianism. That is what they are. Whatever excuse is available - covid, global warming, anything - is why there should be more government, more control,, and less freedom.
"Why are these advisors so hellbent on vaccinating people who we simply do not know if their is net benefit? " These are not dumb people. They are people who serve a different master than the rest of us. I'd like to think it is ego or the desire to transfer billions of taxpayer dollars to huge corporations. But these products are causing exploding early death in woking age individuals and plummeting birth rates in highly treated countries. Read the information on the WEF's Great Reset and lay the goals of that over the effects of the gene therapy products for covid. And also, when you eliminate the control group, it becomes impossible to quantify the adverse effects of these treatments. It won't be too long before we live in a world where children having heart attacks is a "normal".
They certainly are not dumb people, I would bet they are all very bright, much smarter than me. The issue is not their cognitive ability but their preference of authority over freedom. There are no rational arguments that will make them change, that is why they must be replaced.
I try to tell suspicious friends that my distrust of current CDC leadership is not about politics or tribalism. It’s an uphill battle. When I tried explaining to my brother that I was a m@sk skeptic, he said I sounded like Trump.
This has happened to me many times. “Why are we masking children in schools?” = “You must have voted for Trump”. Is there a more frequently expressed non sequitur in human history?
I continue to look at many European countries for what we should be doing over here. We have lost our way, utterly. I don’t think the ship is ever turning around on this one. That being said, it is VITAL that you, VP, keep doing what you’re doing!! Thank you!!
I think you are correct in general. Jha (rhymes with "blah") has greatly disappointed me. The current CDC Director has been -- truly -- pretty darned lame in my opinion. We need some replacements: smart folks who have GRIT and GUMPTION.
You are being too generous with these “experts”-- they don’t care about risk-benefit ratios, EBM or any science other than what they claim to perform or fund.
It’s going to take someone brilliantly unafraid that’s in charge at a major institution to stand up and say “Enough!” And gently explain that the “CDC’s recommendations” are not based on any data - ESPECIALLY for “continued masking or no healthcare” type attitudes.
In California, the UC medical system is ideally situated for this if not populated by too many with a fearful outlook. If the UC system as a whole came out publicly with a statement that the current state of COVID has improved dramatically enough, it would allow politicians like Gavin Newsome enough cover to get the state moving again. It would be OK if Stanford and USC joined in.
I think the tail is wagging the dog. These “advisers” are appointed and so they serve at the pleasure of the president. They will not go against what the White House said over a week before the FDA, CDC decisions were made and before Dr Jha reminded us of why we have 2 arms.
VP I'm also a creature of the left but let's face it: ONLY the GOP sweeping into power can reverse this insane course. Team Blue has no respect for basic facts or realities. None. They've even redefined why God (or nature's god, if you must) gave us arms!
Can you and Dr. Prasad please tell me how knowing that you both are "creatures of the Left" helps me to validate your views on this very important topic? Argumentum ad vericundiam remains a fallacy, right?
Your views expressed herein are correct (in my opinion). Your politics are irrelevant to the truth or falsity of them.
I agree that Left-Right political preferences are irrelevant to the truth. Covid has made that very clear.
Political preferences are worth mentioning (perhaps) insofar as it signals to other “leftists” that it’s OKAY to break from the team on this one! Just because one’s political sympathies lean Blue doesn’t mean you have to go full blown Branch Covidian.
Where I live, in the SF Bay Area, people need to get this memo.
I think part of the reason for bringing up political affiliation is the timing of this booster rollout. It is being pushed through with very little data and no human trials at a time when covid is in a slump presumably to help the midterm elections because it makes more sense to wait a couple of months since antibodies it generates don’t last all that long and a surge in cases is much more likely around Christmas and into January as in the past two years. It has EUA approval as well, which is no longer needed since covid is endemic and milder and no longer pandemic (while approval of Covaxin is being held back pending more data - because they are not Pfizer?).
Similarly, the initial rollout of the vaccine in Fall of 2020 was withheld until six days After the election, you know, for more data. But 8 mice is all that’s needed now, when Covid is in a slump.
Like that.
I want to make sure I’m understanding your comment. You are in fact stating that the GOP respects and realities which include a stolen election and Qanon beliefs. Got it.
My comment pertains to Covid, specifically.
Further, the data on the NEGATIVE value of spikeshotting anyone without specific co-morbidities under 50 is clearer every day. The data on myopericarditis continues to look worse and worse, especially for young men. And there has never been any reason to spikeshot children -- ever. The data is clear and voluminous. You do not need to do RCTs where the death/illness rates in both the control and experimental proxy groups (because we avoid doing real studies) are both zero (or, actually, worse in the experimental group).
You continue to be too kind to these apparatchiks whose only job appears to satisfy some set of political constraints likely connected to massive dollar flows from Pharma. Everything you say is correct, but still too understated to grab the attention it deserves. I am not for shrieking at the top of your lungs, but most of your equivocations, while probably attempting to be kind, dilute a really important message.
All of these NPIs and the vast majority of the spikeshotting has been inimical to good public health practice. There is no excuse for any of that -- at least not beyond perhaps late spring of 2020. Many of us have been reciting the "right" things since that time. Why cut these awful "public deprecation" frauds any slack?
What most people miss is that for decades our vaccination protocol has been politicized. What can we say about vaccinating a newborn hours after birth for Hep B and having the entire series of 3 vaccinations done by 15 months to protect them from a sexually transmitted disease (and dirty needles)? And they admit to doing it because they have parents at their most vulnerable and anxious (plus exhausted) point and can get away with it. Covid vaccinations is just a continuance of policy divorced from science and common sense.
I used to think I was a Democrat (and voted accordingly for many years), but in 2020 I realized that I just happen to have principles the Democrats pretended to share (and have since abandoned). Defending free speech, respecting bodily autonomy, tolerating differing opinions, holding power to account, supporting real journalism, advocating for the working class, being deeply skeptical of the likes of big pharma, Wall Street, and other corporate behemoths? Those were bedrocks of liberalism, weren't they? No more. Try the opposite. All replaced by identity politics that do little other than make people hate their neighbors and *absolve* the people with actual power of blame for their failure to take meaningful action to help powerless people (since their donors have no interest in that).
Everyone capable of being shocked by the idiocy and political weaponization (and thus debasement) of once-great institutions that have characterized the past 2 years should seriously consider declaring themselves politically homeless at this point (at least as far as the DC establishment is concerned).
I struggle to see this as anything other than a concerted attack on the foundations of America's institutions.
Me too. Lifelong Dem here who is now polltically homeless. The change happened in 2020 for me too.
In March 2020 I was voting for Elizabeth Warren in the primaries in March (and have the baseball cap to prove it). Doing the summer I watched, stunned, as my party supported insane lockdowns and (along with the media) blatantly misrepresented the risk of covid to the broader population. At the same time I also watched the country go crazy around identity politics. It took me less than 6 months to go from being a hardcore Democrat and Warren voter to completely questioning my relationship to the party.
I’m still not a Republican. I still hold the values that “talons” expressed so well above. These include placing a very strong importance on bodily autonomy - I think no one should be forced to bear a child against their will or take a vaccine against their will (and yeah - if you lose your job or are banned from social activities, that’s coercion). It’s very sad to me that now there is no policital party in this country that upholds bodily autonomy as an important value.
Funny enough, I was a lifelong Republican, in general personally conservative, but leaning libertarian. I was disgusted by Trump, QAnon, and the cultish behavior I watched. But yet, I could never vote for Dems, especially after what they've done the last 2 years. I think both parties are corrupt and many are in the pocket of Pharma. I'm losing hope that anything will fix DC...from any party. If only there was a reasonable option.
Totally relate, Marci. One of my best friends was a lifelong Republican, very active in the party, who left the party over Trump. We used to think we had very different politics - but today we find we agree on a lot. And I agree more with him than with many of my progressive friends who have just gone off the deep end.
I think today people who are thoughtful, non-ideological, and fact-based have a lot in common, whatever their political backgrounds.
What is the difference between the two mainstream parties today, really? Performative posturing over carefully chosen culture-war issues? I felt this way in 2012 when Romney ran against Obama, and I feel even more strongly about it today. It feels a lot like one party, two costumes to me.
Your comment is exactly how I feel!
Vinay is insightful as always, but the people he criticizes are not making mistakes. They are doing this because they default to control and authoritarianism. That is what they are. Whatever excuse is available - covid, global warming, anything - is why there should be more government, more control,, and less freedom.
That is what it is to be a Democrat.
Amen 👍🏻 Time for VP to check out “the other side” a little more closely.
I’m not pro Trump but he’s the one who walked out and took off the mask 😷…..
The White House needs new everything staff.
You could not be more correct. However, I seriously doubt anyone in the DC bubble will listen.
"Why are these advisors so hellbent on vaccinating people who we simply do not know if their is net benefit? " These are not dumb people. They are people who serve a different master than the rest of us. I'd like to think it is ego or the desire to transfer billions of taxpayer dollars to huge corporations. But these products are causing exploding early death in woking age individuals and plummeting birth rates in highly treated countries. Read the information on the WEF's Great Reset and lay the goals of that over the effects of the gene therapy products for covid. And also, when you eliminate the control group, it becomes impossible to quantify the adverse effects of these treatments. It won't be too long before we live in a world where children having heart attacks is a "normal".
When will VP address the trans issue in children. “Medicine “ is getting off the moral rails 😳
They certainly are not dumb people, I would bet they are all very bright, much smarter than me. The issue is not their cognitive ability but their preference of authority over freedom. There are no rational arguments that will make them change, that is why they must be replaced.
I try to tell suspicious friends that my distrust of current CDC leadership is not about politics or tribalism. It’s an uphill battle. When I tried explaining to my brother that I was a m@sk skeptic, he said I sounded like Trump.
This has happened to me many times. “Why are we masking children in schools?” = “You must have voted for Trump”. Is there a more frequently expressed non sequitur in human history?
I continue to look at many European countries for what we should be doing over here. We have lost our way, utterly. I don’t think the ship is ever turning around on this one. That being said, it is VITAL that you, VP, keep doing what you’re doing!! Thank you!!
I think you are correct in general. Jha (rhymes with "blah") has greatly disappointed me. The current CDC Director has been -- truly -- pretty darned lame in my opinion. We need some replacements: smart folks who have GRIT and GUMPTION.
You are being too generous with these “experts”-- they don’t care about risk-benefit ratios, EBM or any science other than what they claim to perform or fund.
"Vinay Prasad set to replace Fauci" future headline December 2022 :) We can only hope!
Vinay, how is this opinion received in the halls of Moffit, Mt. Zion, or the halls of SFGH?
Biden's advisors are not the only ones who persist giving scientifically unsound advice.
It’s going to take someone brilliantly unafraid that’s in charge at a major institution to stand up and say “Enough!” And gently explain that the “CDC’s recommendations” are not based on any data - ESPECIALLY for “continued masking or no healthcare” type attitudes.
In California, the UC medical system is ideally situated for this if not populated by too many with a fearful outlook. If the UC system as a whole came out publicly with a statement that the current state of COVID has improved dramatically enough, it would allow politicians like Gavin Newsome enough cover to get the state moving again. It would be OK if Stanford and USC joined in.
UC is, like most large institutions, utterly risk averse. There is zero chance of this happening.
Did they take down David Zweig’s tweet? When I try and watch the vid of Walensky it takes me to a message “ nothing to see here”.
More censorship so the public can’t see the incompetence of the CDC?
I think the tail is wagging the dog. These “advisers” are appointed and so they serve at the pleasure of the president. They will not go against what the White House said over a week before the FDA, CDC decisions were made and before Dr Jha reminded us of why we have 2 arms.
Just an FYI the link to the tweet goes to a hashtag for COVID19