All things CoronaVirus

[dislaxxic]

COVID Derangement Is Working Out Just Fine for the GOP

The Republican treatment for coronavirus is quite simple. You mix doubt with denial, look past the lost lives and then wait. When the infection spreads, the virus replicates and mutates, and new variants jolt the economy, you then blame President Joe Biden.

For nearly two years we have witnessed an entire cohort of Americans reject the social compact and discard the welfare of others, including their own loved ones. In the name of liberty they have proudly protected the rights of Americans to reject vaccines, refuse masks, spread the virus, demand expensive therapeutics, claim ICU beds, clog up hospitals, and gum up the economy.

The virus champions in the GOP know that their unvaccinated supporters are 17 times more likely to be hospitalized and 20 times more likely to die from COVID. You will not hear them lament that more than 10,000 mostly unvaccinated Americans are dying each week as we approach the loss of 900,000 American lives. On this they are largely silent. Mass death is another casualty of the long culture war; the cost of doing business in today’s Republican party.

This attitude is, itself, a sickness. Michael Gerson calls it “GOP political necromania,” and describes it as “an effort by populists to prove that their MAGA commitments outweigh all common sense, public responsibility and basic humanity.”

When Gerson puts it like that, it sure sounds bad. Except that the truth is that this strategy is working quite well. Except for their dead voters, friends, and family members—as a purely political matter—this whole COVID radicalism thing is going great for Republicans.

..

[Bart]

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/covid-w ... warns.html

"Covid will always be an epidemic virus — not an endemic one, scientist warns
Key Points
Last week, the WHO warned that the next Covid variant will be even more contagious than omicron.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an epidemic occurs when the number of cases of a disease increases, often suddenly, above what is usually expected.
The WHO declares a disease a pandemic when its growth is exponential and it is spreading globally."

Swell.

So if its a weaker variant, with less fatalities then we were getting from previous flu seasons is it still a pandemic, or is it endemic, like the flu? Why are we still measuring cases when hospitalizations and fatalities are the things that really matter to the average person?

I know I sound like a dog on a bone with my not letting go of early treatments through re-purposed drugs, but this article is thought provoking. Especially the part where Merck conducted safety trials of ivermectin at ten times the normal dose that showed it was safe. I know it's not your "gold standard" double blind randomized trial. These are simply clinical observations. My point is, if its proven safe and shows some promise, what is your beef with a doctor prescribing it? Even if it doesn't work, what is the harm? Except to Pfizer shareholders.

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com ... 08045.html

I didn't disclose any opinions on the topic. I merely posted an article that I found of interest about the future and off you went to your nominal talking points.

As for endemic vs. pandemic I suggest you READ the article at the link I posted which might answer your questions.

I did read the article, which to me was using cases to define a pandemic. Please feel free to tell me what I missed or misinterpreted. I never took organic chemistry. My point was why panic over cases if the disease isn't causing widespread hospitalizations, severe illness and death. My "if" was "a weaker variant". I go back to Zika. Do you remember the breathless reporting on that as if it was Bubonic Plague? Thank God NIAID ydidn't get too involved or we might be walking around with mosquito netted pith helmets and full body mosquito resistant clothing.

Epidemic/pandemic has nothing to do with severity. It is all about numbers of cases.

So the common cold is epidemic? Or pandemic? Or neither because we don’t measure cases?

Yes, it could be considered that way.

From an epi standpoint at some point in the season if it’s R0 got to a point of log rhythmic growth it could be termed epidemic. Epidemic could be local or more widespread. People don’t say it about the cold because it rarely causes death, hence not counting cases.

[ardilla secreta]

Hard to contain a potent virus like Covid when positive and/or symptomatic people continue to show up for work or encounter others. When confronted with getting paid and paying the rent or car or food many will choose to show up rather than report the illness or stay home.

Had a talk with a friend whose childhood friend had been Covid positive but continued to show to his job as a card dealer at a casino. Another friend had a customer that wanted to come in when only a little bit Covid. There’s a lot of jobs and services in this country that don’t pay sick people to stay home.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Hard to contain a potent virus like Covid when positive and/or symptomatic people continue to show up for work or encounter others. When confronted with getting paid and paying the rent or car or food many will choose to show up rather than report the illness or stay home.

Had a talk with a friend whose childhood friend had been Covid positive but continued to show to his job as a card dealer at a casino. Another friend had a customer that wanted to come in when only a little bit Covid. There’s a lot of jobs and services in this country that don’t pay sick people to stay home.

Yep. I was told this in Spring 2020 only to be told here that the guy who mentioned that didn’t know what he was talking about.

[get it to x]

Hard to contain a potent virus like Covid when positive and/or symptomatic people continue to show up for work or encounter others. When confronted with getting paid and paying the rent or car or food many will choose to show up rather than report the illness or stay home.

Had a talk with a friend whose childhood friend had been Covid positive but continued to show to his job as a card dealer at a casino. Another friend had a customer that wanted to come in when only a little bit Covid. There’s a lot of jobs and services in this country that don’t pay sick people to stay home.

Most of my clients are contractors. They shut down jobs when an employee came down with Covid. Tested everyone and only re-opened jobs when there was an "all clear". Employees were discouraged from showing up if there was any inkling they had Covid, as shut down jobs just burn office overhead while causing cash flow disruptions. Smart business people were pro-active in their approach and it wound up paying off for them, especially when they had payrolls that qualified for a PPP loan that was later forgiven. Free working capital and equity if you played it correctly, so no reason to be careless.

[a fan]

Most of my clients are contractors. They shut down jobs when an employee came down with Covid. Tested everyone and only re-opened jobs when there was an "all clear". Employees were discouraged from showing up if there was any inkling they had Covid, as shut down jobs just burn office overhead while causing cash flow disruptions. Smart business people were pro-active in their approach and it wound up paying off for them, especially when they had payrolls that qualified for a PPP loan that was later forgiven. Free working capital and equity if you played it correctly, so no reason to be careless.

It's certainly the approach we took. It's why we are still closed for tours.....minimize the chance of exposure. Just raw math.

But the minute we had someone who was exposed to someone close who had Covid (family member), they stayed home for a week. It's been a rough 12 months as a result, but we didn't shut down. And no one (knock on wood) has gotten Covid on staff.

But you need buy in from your crew, who have work harder when someone is gone, and be well capitalized.

Some folks don't understand the business side of Covid. We're all vaxxed, so we're not worried about getting really sick...we're worried about Covid-caused shut downs.

[Peter Brown]

Hard to contain a potent virus like Covid when positive and/or symptomatic people continue to show up for work or encounter others. When confronted with getting paid and paying the rent or car or food many will choose to show up rather than report the illness or stay home.

Had a talk with a friend whose childhood friend had been Covid positive but continued to show to his job as a card dealer at a casino. Another friend had a customer that wanted to come in when only a little bit Covid. There’s a lot of jobs and services in this country that don’t pay sick people to stay home.

Most of my clients are contractors. They shut down jobs when an employee came down with Covid. Tested everyone and only re-opened jobs when there was an "all clear". Employees were discouraged from showing up if there was any inkling they had Covid, as shut down jobs just burn office overhead while causing cash flow disruptions. Smart business people were pro-active in their approach and it wound up paying off for them, especially when they had payrolls that qualified for a PPP loan that was later forgiven. Free working capital and equity if you played it correctly, so no reason to be careless.

Pfizer: going to court to block release of their safety data.

Also Pfizer: we’d like to vaccinate your infants, with no liability.


The disconnect of people holding up Pfizer and gang as paragons of virtue, when the evidence is right in front of you that they most certainly are not, is simply unreal.

[runrussellrun]

Their is just so much evidence, to suggest, thoughtfulness in regards to any second guessing about "vaccines", particulary mandates.

a. The shots do NOT prevent you from getting it, even tho you were told otherwize.
DR. Fauci said on May 17th, " ....the vaccines have a high rate, extremely high, rate of prevention...."

b. the shots do NOT prevent transmission of covid, jabbed or unjabbed. Wanna guess who told you this ?

c. Clearly, the shots do NOT work against all these variants. All tho, we were told, again, that vaccines were super effective against them.
Dr. Fauci, also said on May 17th, ".......vaccines will be highly effective against variants aw well "

d. All the focus is NOT on the J & J vaccine, yet, also approved.

e. long history of drug dealers being naughty and breaking laws. pfizer could have paid a penny, in fines. still are guilty of fraud. Most of us have beer in the garage fridge older than the other Mrna.

f. fraudulent to keep calling it a "vaccine", imho. Clearly, it does not prevent, what it's supposed to prevent.

H. the less mild, fewer severe and hospitolizations.........narrative, seems to leave out DEATHS...in that narrative. Curious, that.

Finally, this is for informational purposes only. We may get out of this pandemic if we can remember, we also have the right to listen, that goes along with the , right to free speech. Those that chose not to engange in the former, are enemies of freedom.

If Pfizer were going to date your daughter, would you let that happen ?

no need to watch, you can listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jMONZMuS2U

[runrussellrun]

Hard to contain a potent virus like Covid when positive and/or symptomatic people continue to show up for work or encounter others. When confronted with getting paid and paying the rent or car or food many will choose to show up rather than report the illness or stay home.

Had a talk with a friend whose childhood friend had been Covid positive but continued to show to his job as a card dealer at a casino. Another friend had a customer that wanted to come in when only a little bit Covid. There’s a lot of jobs and services in this country that don’t pay sick people to stay home.

Yep. I was told this in Spring 2020 only to be told here that the guy who mentioned that didn’t know what he was talking about.

I look more at.....what the puck were the casinos OPEN for in the first place.

Nope....nothing is essential. Shut it all down. Cops, EMTS......mean, seriously, early on, hospitals/public health did JACK, even if you got to one.

Ask yourself this: If offered a million dollars, what steps would you take in learning about hospital admissions, for covid, and sorting out the jabbed or UN-jabbed ? at least 3 sources, none can be "media". Where do you start to look?

Ambulences were paid to drive around with their sirens on, in Boston. No call for a "passenger", just adding to the mix and atmosphere. This is a fact. This was 2020. Why are store fronts on Wisconsin Ave. still bordered with plywood.....what happened. awesome. anyone.....but

Wanna look at the EMT's gps tracking logs, admissions and other records, there, fellas? yup....didn't think so.

[NattyBohChamps04]

The old man is mid 80's. Has had a few liters of fluid drained from his lungs over the past couple of months. Doc finally figures out what's wrong, there is a tear in the lining of the lungs. Says surgery is needed to close up the tear. Surgery needs to happen fairly quickly as the old man is starting chemo on a rare and aggressive cancer after he's healed.

His local hospital is not scheduling non-emergency surgeries due to too many COVID patients. They say check back on a weekly basis, call us on Monday.

A big hearty FU to the people in this country not getting vaccinated and spreading misinformation.

[youthathletics]

The old man is mid 80's. Has had a few liters of fluid drained from his lungs over the past couple of months. Doc finally figures out what's wrong, there is a tear in the lining of the lungs. Says surgery is needed to close up the tear. Surgery needs to happen fairly quickly as the old man is starting chemo on a rare and aggressive cancer after he's healed.

His local hospital is not scheduling non-emergency surgeries due to too many COVID patients. They say check back on a weekly basis, call us on Monday.

A big hearty FU to the people in this country not getting vaccinated and spreading misinformation.

How is that considered 'non-emergency'? It certainly is not elective? My neighbor just had minor surgery in Annapolis with no delays.

[Peter Brown]

Their is just so much evidence, to suggest, thoughtfulness in regards to any second guessing about "vaccines", particulary mandates.

a. The shots do NOT prevent you from getting it, even tho you were told otherwize.
DR. Fauci said on May 17th, " ....the vaccines have a high rate, extremely high, rate of prevention...."

b. the shots do NOT prevent transmission of covid, jabbed or unjabbed. Wanna guess who told you this ?

c. Clearly, the shots do NOT work against all these variants. All tho, we were told, again, that vaccines were super effective against them.
Dr. Fauci, also said on May 17th, ".......vaccines will be highly effective against variants aw well "

d. All the focus is NOT on the J & J vaccine, yet, also approved.

e. long history of drug dealers being naughty and breaking laws. pfizer could have paid a penny, in fines. still are guilty of fraud. Most of us have beer in the garage fridge older than the other Mrna.

f. fraudulent to keep calling it a "vaccine", imho. Clearly, it does not prevent, what it's supposed to prevent.

H. the less mild, fewer severe and hospitolizations.........narrative, seems to leave out DEATHS...in that narrative. Curious, that.

Finally, this is for informational purposes only. We may get out of this pandemic if we can remember, we also have the right to listen, that goes along with the , right to free speech. Those that chose not to engange in the former, are enemies of freedom.

If Pfizer were going to date your daughter, would you let that happen ?

no need to watch, you can listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jMONZMuS2U

Your entire post is solid, yet it only makes me wonder why so many Democrats can’t let go of their Fauci idolatry.

[CU88]

Link is much more readable and has clear graphics:

https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substac ... medium=web


Your Local (Infectious Disease) Epidemiologist
________________________________________
Here comes the under 5 vaccine! But I have questions...



Katelyn Jetelina
Feb 2

Today, Pfizer announced they plan to submit an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) application for the COVID19 vaccine for children under 5 years of age. Here is my best attempt to explain what is (and is not) known about the bumpy regulatory road to authorization for our youngest kiddos.
What’s happened leading up to now?
The entire process for a vaccine under 5s started back in May 2021. Since then, Pfizer has gone through several necessary steps to get the vaccine approved. I talked about this extensively in a previous post, but here’s a recap:
• May 2021: Pfizer’s clinical trials for the 6 months to under-5 population began.
o This was almost a year after the adult clinical trials began, which is a typical “age de-escalation” design: We test adults before we test more vulnerable populations like children.
• Phase I/IIa: Pfizer started with the first step: Phase I “dose finding” study where they tested several different dosages: 3 µg, 10 µg, 20 µg, and 30 µg (adult dosage) among a few dozen healthy children. Their ultimate goal was to find the “sweet spot”—the lowest dosage possible causing the lowest rate of side effects, but also enough dosage to generate an immune response. In other words, what’s the minimum dosage with just enough benefit? Pharmaceutical companies have different approaches to finding the sweet spot for vaccines. For example, while Moderna has been trying to push the red line (what’s the maximum dosage without having too much risk?), Pfizer has had the opposite approach (what’s the minimum dosage with just enough benefit?). As you can imagine, each approach comes with advantages and disadvantages.
o Nonetheless, Pfizer announced during an investor call (see slide below) that the 3 µg (lowest dosage) worked. They also decided not to move forward with 10 µg because of higher rate of fevers among 2-<5 years.
o

(Pfizer)
• Phase IIb/III: The next phase of the clinical trials is where a much larger group—a couple thousand kids—is given this “sweet spot” dosage (3 µg). By increasing the number of children, scientists confirm the dosage, but also have more “power” to detect rare side effects and improve the generalizability of the vaccine impact by including a wide range of ages, races/ethnicities, children with comorbidities, etc. At this stage Pfizer also evaluated vaccine effectiveness by randomizing children to the vaccine or a placebo. This allowed scientists to evaluate a pre-determined “primary outcome” called immunobridging. This was not efficacy because we already know the biotechnology worked from our adults trials. Pfizer just needed to make sure that a smaller dose worked just as well: Does the smaller dosage (3 µg) mount the same immune response among under 5 year olds compared to the full dosage (30 µg) among 16-25 year olds?
• December 2021: Pfizer announced results of their Phase II/III trial. There were two big wins and one massive set back:
o Wins: Vaccine was safe, so no severe events occurred. The vaccine dosage worked for kids between 6 months and under 2 years.
o Failure: Vaccine dosage didn’t work for 2- to <5-year-old population
Because of the failure, the process for an EUA stopped. It was even stopped for those under 2 years (although the vaccine dosage did work) because of the nature of de-escalation design: The FDA doesn’t jump age groups. Pfizer announced their Plan B: The same kids from the Phase II/III trial get a third dose (3 µg) 2 months after the second dose. They expected results by mid-2022.
What happened today?
Pfizer announced that they will seek an EUA for the first two doses (3 µg) for <5 year olds. Pfizer doesn’t have data from the third dose among this cohort yet because this takes time (they’re continuing trials to get this data eventually). If there is no new data since the last press release (December 2021), then what changed? I don’t know. But, if we read in-between the lines, we can assume it centers around Omicron:
The Phase IIb/III trial used same outcome as for the 5-11 year old trial: neutralizing antibodies. Neutralizing antibodies are our first line of defense and help prevent infection altogether—they act really fast so the virus doesn’t enter our cells and thus it doesn’t replicate, so we don’t get symptoms, don’t become contagious, and don’t spread the virus.
Before Omicron, neutralizing antibodies were working really well. With Omicron, though, our first line of defense is largely eroded without a booster. Thankfully, our secondary line of defense (T-cells) still works. This is largely why partially-vaccinated people continue to stay out of the hospital. So this begs the question: Are neutralizing antibodies still a fair measure to indicate that a vaccine is useful? Or, should we evaluate T-cell activation or, more broadly, efficacy against hospitalization and death? Discussions have likely been happening behind closed doors at the FDA.
All while Omicron infiltrated unvaccinated pockets, including children, like we’ve never seen before. From today’s press release, it was clear this was a big driving factor to push for an EUA, as it is “in response to the urgent public health need in this population”. In addition, the virus continues to mutate. Together, this changing landscape is pushing the FDA to reconsider the goalpost mid-game.


Hospitalizations by age (Note change of scale on y-axis) (CDC)
What happens next?
Pfizer’s application for EUA needs to be officially submitted to the FDA in the coming days. The FDA will then review the data, which takes about 4-6 weeks.


(Figure created by YLE— Dr. Katelyn Jetelina)
Next, the FDA could call VRBPAC (Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee). VRBPAC is an external scientific committee that would review the data to give their opinion about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine for under 5 year olds. This step was not conducted for the adolescent Pfizer vaccine; VRBPAC doesn’t have to be called for an EUA amendment. If VRBPAC is called, this would make for a very interesting discussion, as this committee made it clear in previous meetings that they want clear, rigorous data to make decisions. Only two voting members have verbally recognized that we sometimes have to make decisions based on limited data. VRBPAC could decide (through a majority vote) that we don’t have enough justification to authorize <5’s the vaccine. The FDA makes the final decision, but rarely (if ever?) do they go against VRBPAC’s vote. There is a lot of power at play here.
CDC Review: If the FDA doesn’t call on VRBPAC or VRBPAC votes that this vaccine is safe and effective, then this goes to the ACIP (an external scientific committee for the CDC). ACIP assesses safety and effectiveness, too. But their key role is policy: who gets the vaccine and how, global equity considerations, etc. For example, ACIP could decide that the vaccine should only be available to the <2 year olds. Or they could comment on off-label usage. ACIP is amazing at conducting rigorous risk-benefit analyses, even with limited data. So, we’ll get a fantastic dive into the benefits and risks of their proposed policy. ACIP will then vote on whether to recommend the vaccine for dissemination in the United States. Then the CDC Director makes the final recommendation.
In all, if all goes well (which is not guaranteed) we could have vaccines in arms by mid-March.
Many questions
As you can tell, there is very limited data and little transparency thus far. So, going forward, we all need the following four key questions answered:
1. What was the original Phase III data for <5s? How far off were the neutralizing antibodies for 2-<5 year olds? If this was very far off, how comfortable do we feel with just vaccinating and hoping that the third dose will work?
2. Is there a new goalpost, like T-cells or hospitalizations? And, why was it chosen? If it’s hospitalizations, does Pfizer have enough sample size to measure effectiveness confidently given that hospitalizations are more rare for kids?
3. What is the safety profile of the proposed dose for kids under 5?
4. What is the plan if a third dose does not work? Is Pfizer concurrently testing other doses? And, what are the implications for long COVID and MIS-C, in particular, if the third dose doesn’t work?
Bottom line: I hope I didn’t make this more confusing, but… it’s complicated. As a mom with two kids under 5, I couldn’t be more excited that a vaccine continues to move forward. As an epidemiologist and public health official, I have lots of questions. We will be getting answers in the weeks to come as our checks and balances play out. I’ll be reporting back, like always, with the cliff notes. Hang in there!
Love, YLE
________________________________________
“Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE)” is written by Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, MPH PhD—an epidemiologist, biostatistician, professor, researcher, wife, and mom of two little girls. During the day she has a research lab and teaches graduate-level courses, but at night she writes this newsletter. Her main goal is to “translate” the ever-evolving public health science so that people will be well equipped to make evidence-based decisions. This newsletter is free thanks to the generous support of fellow YLE community members. To support the effort, please subscribe here:
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548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104

[runrussellrun]

Link is much more readable and has clear graphics:

https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substac ... medium=web


Your Local (Infectious Disease) Epidemiologist
________________________________________
Here comes the under 5 vaccine! But I have questions...

Dec 2021, Failure: did NOT work in those aged 5<
Just keep on applying........you get approval?

what is this, the movie Rudy and his ND process...geez

So, your point of this post is what ?

[runrussellrun]

The old man is mid 80's. Has had a few liters of fluid drained from his lungs over the past couple of months. Doc finally figures out what's wrong, there is a tear in the lining of the lungs. Says surgery is needed to close up the tear. Surgery needs to happen fairly quickly as the old man is starting chemo on a rare and aggressive cancer after he's healed.

His local hospital is not scheduling non-emergency surgeries due to too many COVID patients. They say check back on a weekly basis, call us on Monday.

A big hearty FU to the people in this country not getting vaccinated and spreading misinformation.

sometimes, you gotta have enough sense and toss in the towell.

Old man could always take that " ya dying of cancer, well, boy oh boy, do we have a drug for YOU " drug we see advertized on the "news"

yup........who was the surgeon that popped the hole in oldman lungs, and what was the reason behind the fluid in the lungs ? No FU to the lung popper ? (mistakes "happen" )

FU to the old man, while the young are trying to live life. Many ending them. Aggressive cancer? What the heck. 85 years of wearing masks. Enough is enough, end of life care is a joke.

[NattyBohChamps04]

The old man is mid 80's. Has had a few liters of fluid drained from his lungs over the past couple of months. Doc finally figures out what's wrong, there is a tear in the lining of the lungs. Says surgery is needed to close up the tear. Surgery needs to happen fairly quickly as the old man is starting chemo on a rare and aggressive cancer after he's healed.

His local hospital is not scheduling non-emergency surgeries due to too many COVID patients. They say check back on a weekly basis, call us on Monday.

A big hearty FU to the people in this country not getting vaccinated and spreading misinformation.

How is that considered 'non-emergency'? It certainly is not elective? My neighbor just had minor surgery in Annapolis with no delays.

No idea, basically if you're not coming in via the ER they're not scheduling it. This is a smaller city in a southern state.

We're calling around them fancy schmancy university medical hospitals a few hours away to see what's available.

[runrussellrun]

Their is just so much evidence, to suggest, thoughtfulness in regards to any second guessing about "vaccines", particulary mandates.

a. The shots do NOT prevent you from getting it, even tho you were told otherwize.
DR. Fauci said on May 17th, " ....the vaccines have a high rate, extremely high, rate of prevention...."

b. the shots do NOT prevent transmission of covid, jabbed or unjabbed. Wanna guess who told you this ?

c. Clearly, the shots do NOT work against all these variants. All tho, we were told, again, that vaccines were super effective against them.
Dr. Fauci, also said on May 17th, ".......vaccines will be highly effective against variants aw well "

d. All the focus is NOT on the J & J vaccine, yet, also approved.

e. long history of drug dealers being naughty and breaking laws. pfizer could have paid a penny, in fines. still are guilty of fraud. Most of us have beer in the garage fridge older than the other Mrna.

f. fraudulent to keep calling it a "vaccine", imho. Clearly, it does not prevent, what it's supposed to prevent.

H. the less mild, fewer severe and hospitolizations.........narrative, seems to leave out DEATHS...in that narrative. Curious, that.

Finally, this is for informational purposes only. We may get out of this pandemic if we can remember, we also have the right to listen, that goes along with the , right to free speech. Those that chose not to engange in the former, are enemies of freedom.

If Pfizer were going to date your daughter, would you let that happen ?

no need to watch, you can listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jMONZMuS2U

Your entire post is solid, yet it only makes me wonder why so many Democrats can’t let go of their Fauci idolatry.

Really? "democrats" . You had to go there. Why?

[runrussellrun]

The old man is mid 80's. Has had a few liters of fluid drained from his lungs over the past couple of months. Doc finally figures out what's wrong, there is a tear in the lining of the lungs. Says surgery is needed to close up the tear. Surgery needs to happen fairly quickly as the old man is starting chemo on a rare and aggressive cancer after he's healed.

His local hospital is not scheduling non-emergency surgeries due to too many COVID patients. They say check back on a weekly basis, call us on Monday.

A big hearty FU to the people in this country not getting vaccinated and spreading misinformation.

How is that considered 'non-emergency'? It certainly is not elective? My neighbor just had minor surgery in Annapolis with no delays.

No idea, basically if you're not coming in via the ER they're not scheduling it. This is a smaller city in a southern state.

We're calling around them fancy schmancy university medical hospitals a few hours away to see what's available.

you are blaming me, and others skeptical of getting trumpU's fake "vaccine", for the Doctors classying it as a "non-E".

Keep on listening to the Docs, we guess. This time, last year, did you feel so much rage towards the "unvaccinated" ? exactly.

fake story

[Typical Lax Dad]

917,000 deaths. 2% of the reported cases have resulted in deaths. That figure has pretty much held since the very beginning of the pandemic.

[Peter Brown]

Their is just so much evidence, to suggest, thoughtfulness in regards to any second guessing about "vaccines", particulary mandates.

a. The shots do NOT prevent you from getting it, even tho you were told otherwize.
DR. Fauci said on May 17th, " ....the vaccines have a high rate, extremely high, rate of prevention...."

b. the shots do NOT prevent transmission of covid, jabbed or unjabbed. Wanna guess who told you this ?

c. Clearly, the shots do NOT work against all these variants. All tho, we were told, again, that vaccines were super effective against them.
Dr. Fauci, also said on May 17th, ".......vaccines will be highly effective against variants aw well "

d. All the focus is NOT on the J & J vaccine, yet, also approved.

e. long history of drug dealers being naughty and breaking laws. pfizer could have paid a penny, in fines. still are guilty of fraud. Most of us have beer in the garage fridge older than the other Mrna.

f. fraudulent to keep calling it a "vaccine", imho. Clearly, it does not prevent, what it's supposed to prevent.

H. the less mild, fewer severe and hospitolizations.........narrative, seems to leave out DEATHS...in that narrative. Curious, that.

Finally, this is for informational purposes only. We may get out of this pandemic if we can remember, we also have the right to listen, that goes along with the , right to free speech. Those that chose not to engange in the former, are enemies of freedom.

If Pfizer were going to date your daughter, would you let that happen ?

no need to watch, you can listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jMONZMuS2U

Your entire post is solid, yet it only makes me wonder why so many Democrats can’t let go of their Fauci idolatry.

Really? "democrats" . You had to go there. Why?

Habit