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Uhhh, How Long Can This Keep Going On

By July 27, 2021Commentary

You have to be old like me to remember that song reference from the group Ace, a haunting tune and here are the relevant lyrics:

How long has this been going on?
How long has this been going on?
Well, if friends with their fancy persuasion
Don’t admit that it’s part of a scheme
But I can’t help but have my suspicions
‘Cause I ain’t quite as dumb as I seem

Those lyrics came to me as I listened to the DOH briefing.  Even after a large number of very stiff drinks (not true, I rarely drink, maybe I should take it up), I was sobered right up by the tone of the briefing.  Commissioner Malcolm still has her world-weary, matter of fact method of speaking, delivering constant warnings about the edge of the cliff under your next step.  Kris Errorsperson’s role continues to be spreading as much misinformation as possible.

We didn’t get quite as much Delta terrorism as I suspected, but we definitely got the lies about it.  It is not significantly more transmissible.  It is definitely not more dangerous, as Kris said, but is actually leading to far less serious outcomes.  It is 75% of current cases in Minnesota and we are seeing no surge in hospitalizations or deaths.  Our vaccination rate in Minnesota continues to rise, which is certainly good, but we got lots of vaccine shaming.  Breakthrough cases so far are small, but again the communication is bad.  As of July 15 there are 3886 such cases and Kris and Jan kept emphasing that out of 3 million fully vaxed Minnesotans this is a low percent.  It is, but over time that number is only going to rise, so the messaging should emphasize that especially with PCR testing, we will see so-called cases because the virus isn’t going away and people will get exposed.

Kris absolutely lied when she said Delta is resulting in more serious disease among younger people.  There is zero data to support that.  And of course we got the keep wearing your masks even if you are vaccinated and keep social distancing, blah, blah, blah.  If we can’t return to life as usual, what people hear is why get vaccinated.

I was also reminded of how eager that press is to hype up the terror.  The questions almost all have that eagerness to hear news of impending disaster that the media can spread.  If journalists had any remaining sense of self-awareness, they would be completely ashamed of their inability to be objective or actually gather facts.  Where is the skepticism that should be the core of reporting?

I want to make one other thing clear.  Readers know I have been trying to be sure people have accurate information about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines.  I am generally a vaccine booster and think they will play the key role in ending the epidemic.  But I am strongly opposed to vaccine mandates, partly because for some groups, especially younger, healthy ones, the risk/benefit calculation is different.  In addition, if you are going to force people to get vaccinated, then you need to let them sue the government or the employer who told them they had to get vaccinated, if they have a serious side effect.

Join the discussion 13 Comments

  • Dan Riser says:

    If they wanted to be truthful and they arent, the spikes and surges are in southern states. Where is the border that is a sieve right now where they allow anyone in no matter if they are sick or not.

  • Richard Allison says:

    FYI- I don’t have access to the original Telegraph article but found it on the attached URL.

    Point being about half of the English Covid hospital admits either didn’t know they had Covid when admitted or picked it up in the hospital. I assume it’s the same in the US. I SLO’s assume that it’s the Delta variant they picked up.

    “The leaked data – covering all NHS trusts in England – show that, as of last Thursday, just 44 per cent of patients classed as being hospitalised with Covid had tested positive by the time they were admitted.

    The majority of cases were not detected until patients underwent standard Covid tests, carried out on everyone admitted to hospital for any reason.

    Overall, 56 per cent of Covid hospitalisations fell into this category, the data, seen by The Telegraph, show.

    Crucially, this group does not distinguish between those admitted because of severe illness, later found to be caused by the virus, and those in hospital for different reasons who might otherwise never have known that they had picked it up. -Telegraph”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/majority-hospitalized-covid-patients-uk-only-tested-positive-after-admission-leaked-nih

  • Gary Boyd says:

    Kevin,

    First, let me concede a relatively low risk factor for covid vaccines. But following up, if I, a person of nearly 70 with no significant health issues, have an indicated survival (i.e., non-fatal) outcome from the “Delta” variant of well more than 99% (and likely to further improve with Epison and Zeta), what benefit/risk ratio would be considered acceptable?

    The relative risk factor is probably no better than 0.008 (0.01 risk of death times 80% vaccine efficacy – which is probably high as vaccine efficacy retreats to the mean as for most ILI vaccines). The risk of injury from the current vaccines is likely rare but not zero. Clinical interventions not including vaccines are improving. What is the appropriate risk/reward calculation for someone well into their sixth decade?

    For healthy children under age 18, the relative risk factor is even more slender. Assuming a non-fatal outcome of 99.997% and a vaccine efficacy of (let’s go ahead and accept a lower number) of 65%, the numbers work out like this: 0.00003 times .65 equals 0.0000195. That, in calculus terms, approaches the infinitesimal,

    Bottom line, I’m having a really hard time finding personal justification for myself or for suggesting to anyone, except a person with profound commodities, any reason to line up for a covid vaccine.

    Your thoughts are appreciated.

    • Kevin Roche says:

      the biggest reason I would give people to get vaccinated is that it gets us out of all the restrictions, and it clearly does limit the risk of serious illeness.

  • correct me if i am wrong, but as i am hearing the chatter, the testing is only positive or negative and they are not testing for variant? therefore the tests (pcr or rapid or both) are recalled as they are detecting sars-cov-2 and other influenza?
    how else have flu deaths gone from 10s/100s of thousands to under 1000, other than bad tests?

    • Kevin Roche says:

      I tried to address, the FDA action is routine, not letting people use tests with emergency approval when there are now lots with full approval. And CV-19 apparently replaced flu infections and deaths because it is capable of excluding infection from several other viruses, but interestingly, rhinovirus infection appears to limit CV-19 infection.

  • Ganderson says:

    Anyone have any thoughts on why the airports and airlines are not backing off on masking/ social distancing/ general COVID Ian madness? Flew from Bradley to MKE yesterday- i( brand new grandson, yayyy!)t was as if it were a year ago. (Not that all that was warranted then, either) oh, except them selling the middle seat, which I was lucky enough to get.

  • Ganderson says:

    …Covidian madness. Typing with a baby on my lap.

  • Al Chemy says:

    Kevin Roche wrote: “the biggest reason I would give people to get vaccinated is that it gets us out of all the restrictions……”

    They fooled you Kevin………..The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday reversed its mask guidance to specifically target areas of the country with the highest levels of the coronavirus and recommended that everyone in those areas, vaccinated or not, wear a mask as the delta variant continues to spread rapidly across the U.S.

    The public health agency also recommended schools embrace universal masks, departing from guidance released earlier this month that suggested vaccinated students and staff were safe to go without.

  • Rob says:

    Think about military personnel that get exposed to dangerous substances and get forced to take investigative medications or risk court martial.

    If you think the federal or state governments are going to admit any culpability if anyone suffers debilitating effects from those exposures, you are naive and ignorant of history. As it is, all vaccine lawsuits go through vaccine court and any damages are covered by taxpayers and not pharmaceutical companies.

    And this government denial of culpability is routine- it matters not one whit which party is in charge.

  • J. Thomas says:

    No jabs will get us put of this madness as long as spineless sheep continue to accept the tyrannical politicians crap. For a seemingly smart individual, you are surprisingly naïve Kevin.

    Go read “It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Lewis, 1935 !! But, it’s happening folks. Anyone who caves into this vaccine fraud whose motivation is believing that this is a solution to tyranny deserves to live in a cage.

    • Kevin Roche says:

      saying someone is naive because they don’t agree with your ideology or opinion makes no sense. Calling the vaccines a fraud with out any evidence to that effect is just mouthing words.

  • Alex Dahlseid says:

    I would say that I have points
    1 the MDH has close ties to Walz hence why Malcolm and Kristen “Kris” Ehresmann aka Kris Errorsome and aka Kris Errorperson alongside the Governor.
    2 Walz essentially used Ehresmann and Malcolm to fuel the state’s COVID misinformation and fear mongering.

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