Posts Made By: Rod Kaufman

Originally Posted by James Brown

Post 3 of 3

We all know why this is - masks, social distancing, work from home, restricted travel, no large gatherings and all of the other social mitigation efforts we hate so much.

I'm not saying that social distancing, masks and so on are justified by kicking flu's ass - of course that is just a fringe benefit.  I am saying that the virtually non-existent 2021 flu season proves to anyone who still doubts it the effectiveness of masks, distancing, stay at home and so on.

Now; consider that the US has had 29.5 Million Covid 19 cases and 550,000 deaths, even with the mitigation efforts in place.  The comparison between week 7 of the 2020 and 2021 flu seasons certainly gives me pause.  Think about how bad the economy and society might be right now if we had not taken the social mitigation efforts we did.  The flu graphs suggest that literally millions would have died in the US if we had not mitigated the pandemic - something lots of us, me included dismissed as irrational in February 2020.

I'm ready to drop my mask as soon as the experts say it is safe to do so.  I am happy to see the economy opening up.  I am sorry for the death and the suffering, and I wish we had done a better job, although I don't blame the Feds nearly as much as some do.  I think most states did what was necessary and did it effectively.  Somehow we are walking the tightrope between economic ruin and disease.    

I do think that the comparison of the flu graphs is a reminder that we can't let our guard down now.  The experts have been right each and every step of the way in this pandemic.   It could have been so much worse.

Jim

Originally Posted by James Lacey

Messenger RNA vaccines do not modify or manipulate your genes. Full stop. Anything that says otherwise is simply wrong.

Every second of every day, your body uses RNA to create proteins and enzymes vital to your normal bodily function. The main role of RNA is to create proteins and enzymes, and there is nothing controversial about this statement.

What a messenger RNA vaccine does is it uses your body's normal capacity to synthesize or create proteins from RNA to create just the spike protein of the coronavirus. Your body then has an immunological response to the spike protein, and since the spike protein is what the COVID virus uses to invade your body's cells, you become immune to the COVID virus. Since the messenger RNA vaccine causes your body to create the spike protein, not the entire COVID virus, you do not get sick with COVID.

Messenger RNA is not even a new term. It's been used to describe the role of RNA in your body for a long time. RNA is a messenger that tells your body how to create a specific protein or enzyme.

Get the shot. Whatever shot you can, get it.

Originally Posted by James Lacey

Rod, I know people like this. Even some who were very ill with COVID and in the hospital. Yet, they insist that they will not get the vaccine because it's not safe. The crazy thing, of course, is they are motivated mostly by the disinformation campaign that Trump was instrumental in starting and perpetuating. It's a hoax. It's no worse than the flu. It's the state's fault. It's a hoax again. You can't trust doctors or scientists. Only me and the MyPillow guy know what can cure you. It's still a hoax. Look at me. I recovered in a few weeks; never mind, I had state-of-the-art care and treatment not available to you. By the way, I got my vaccine secretly in January. Also, Biden is taking credit for everything I did, even though I did little more than claim it was a hoax.

Originally Posted by James Brown

I find this hard to believe.  Got a link?

Originally Posted by James Brown

I still doubt it.  We'll know soon enough I suppose.  I doubt this too:

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/05/27/863401430/poll-shows-only-a-quarter-of-african-americans-plan-to-get-coronavirus-vaccine

Originally Posted by James Brown

Awesome footnote!

Originally Posted by James Brown

The data is starting to indisputably show the power of the vaccines.  The NYT has a nifty interactive map showing vaccine doses delivered/100 people.  Six economically powerful countries I looked at: 

Israel 110 doses / 100 people 
Great Britain 48 doses / 100 people
USA 38 doses / 100 people
Germany 13 doses /  100 people
Canada 11 doses / 100 people
Brazil 7 doses / 100 people.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-vaccinations-tracker.html

Originally Posted by Greg Shaffer

Is it just me or did ALL the last read pointers get reset for all the forums?

Seems to happen every couple months.......