Dr. X's Free Associations

Latest Data Continues To Show High Efficacy Of Vaccinations

WaPo:

People who were not fully vaccinated this spring and summer were more than 10 times more likely to be hospitalized, and 11 times more likely to die of covid-19, than those who were fully vaccinated, according to one of three major studies published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that highlight the continued efficacy of all three vaccines amid the spread of the highly contagious delta variant.

A second study showed that the Moderna coronavirus vaccine was more effective in preventing hospitalizations than its counterparts from Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson. That assessment was based on the largest U.S. study to date of the real-world effectiveness of all three vaccines, involving about 32,000 patients seen in hospitals, emergency departments and urgent-care clinics across nine states from June through early August.

Who Got Us Through The Pandemic?

Daily Northwestern:

The Daily spoke with several Evanston residents about their opinions on the Good Neighbor Racial Equity Fund. Many were pleased with the financial support it will bring, though there were some criticisms.

“It’s about damn time,” resident Denise Barreto said of NU’s decision to give money toward racial equity. 

Barreto, a board member of the local artists’ organization Evanston Made, said she was thankful the fund recognizes and financially supports the arts, which she said are an important part of the fight for racial justice. 

“We all know that artists got us through the pandemic,” Barreto said. “I 100 percent believe that artists are people who pursue their art and pursue justice through art. It’s a form of resistance to capitalism. It’s a form of resistance to these systems that have been trying to crush us.” 

Is she referring to NetFlix and Prime? Seriously, I don't know what she means unless she's referring to streaming entertainment, but this would be a lofty view of corporate movie and TV production.

Me? I had work, books, lots of walks, some streaming and people. Most of all, people.

One Month Ago, Trump Said That He Started The Process Of Troop Withdrawal, And They Couldn't Stop It

Trump speaking about the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan one month ago:

I started the process, all the troops are coming home, they couldn’t stop the process. 21 years is enough. They couldn’t stop the process, they wanted to but couldn’t stop the process.

And in April:

I (Trump) made early withdraw possible by already pulling much of our billions of dollars and equipment out and, more importantly, reducing our military presence to less than 2,000 troops from the 16,000 level that was there... Getting out of Afghanistan is a wonderful and positive thing to do... I planned to withdraw on May 1st, and we should keep as close to that schedule as possible.

Whether the US should have withdrawn the rest of our troops or whether we should have done so differently is debatable, but to be clear, Biden finished the last part of what Trump began. He just did it three months later than Trump said he would do it.

Freedom

In Dallas County, TX, Judge“ Clay Jenkins said yesterday:

"We have zero ICU beds left for children. That means if your child’s in a car wreck, if your child has a congenital heart defect or something and needs an ICU bed, or more likely if they have COVID and need an ICU bed, we don’t have one,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. Your child will wait for another child to die. Your child will just not get on the ventilator, your child will be CareFlighted to Temple or Oklahoma City or wherever we can find them a bed. But they won’t be getting one here unless one clears.”

Meantime, Gov. Greg Abbott is sticking to his guns, still prohibiting counties, cities, towns, and school districts from instituting local mask mandates in response to local conditions.

Meanwhile, In Johnston County, Kansas

So this happened at a city board of commissioners meeting regarding masking in schools last week. (Link to board’s original post in comments) pic.twitter.com/vcQ2VxwHsI

— Jerri🌻Jamz (@JerriJamz) August 13, 2021

Posted Without Comment

The parking lot after a school board meeting last night in Franklin, the wealthiest place in Tennessee. Parents harassed medical professionals who had spoken in favor of masks in schools. “We know who you are. You can leave freely, but we will find you.” pic.twitter.com/SzR0uvMeE7

— Natalie Allison (@natalie_allison) August 11, 2021

Radio Host and Ex-Newsmax Host Who Called Dr. Fauci A Lying Freak For Promoting "Scamdemic" Has Died of COVID-19

Daily Beast:

An anti-vaccine right-wing radio host in West Palm Beach, Florida died Wednesday from COVID-19 complications.

Dick Farrel, 65, used his local talk show and social media to rail against Dr. Anthony Fauci, who he called a “power tripping lying freak,” and say that no one should get the coronavirus vaccine. When COVID-19 sent him to the hospital for three weeks, though, he changed his tune, urging friends to get vaccinated, friends told local station WPTV.

Farrel wrote in early July, “Vaccine Bogus Bull Shid!, Two peeps I know, got vaxed, now have Corona, hospitalized critical. Thank you Moderna, FOR NOTHING!” He erroneously told his followers they would not need the vaccine if they had already survived COVID-19. The CDC has advised former coronavirus patients to get vaccinated.

According to friends of Farrell, the late radio host urged them to get vaccinated in the days before his death.

The virus is real. The vaccines work. Two of my family members died of COVID-19, and one has been left with serious lung damage. At least a half dozen patients and friends have lost family members to the virus.

Virtually everyone I know is now vaccinated, and no one has had any issues with the vaccine other than well-tolerated side effects in the 48 hours after vaccination. None of the vaccinated I know have gotten sick.

This isn't about politics. It's about saving your own life and protecting the lives of others. Get vaccinated if you haven't done so already. Will you feel embarrassed if you change your mind? Don't tell anyone. Just get vaccinated. You will not regret it.

 

Rudy Giuliani: Confused About Heaven and Hell

Rudy G:

I am more than willing to go to jail if they want to put me in jail. And if they do, they're going to suffer the consequences in heaven.

I thought Hell is the place people suffer. Seriously, though, something began to happen with Giuliani about a decade ago. I don't know if it's about his rumored drinking, cognitive decline, or something else, but he is not the same person he was 15 years ago. It's not merely about Trump. His relationship with Trump has always been corrupt. Something else is going on with him.

Trump Pressured DoJ To Falsely Declare Election Corrupt

We've recently learned that Donald Trump waged a daily post-election pressure campaign to get the DoJ to declare the election results corrupt. Despite the DoJ finding no evidence of significant electoral corruption, Trump continued to battle for a finding favorable to him:

During the December 27, 2020, call, Trump pressured Rosen and Donoghue to falsely declare the election "illegal" and "corrupt" even after the Justice Department had not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud. "Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen," Trump said on the call, according to Donoghue's notes.

Mask-wearing As An Act of Charity

I'm wearing masks again. I'm not happy about it. It's not required by law, but I'm doing it.

The latest we're hearing is that COVID-vaccinated patients who test positive for the virus rarely get very sick, but their nasopharyngeal viral load is as high as the unvaccinated and infected. The latter, however, tend to get much sicker than the vaccinated because the vaccine better protects the lungs than it protects the upper respiratory tract. What this also means is that COVID-vaccinated persons transmit the delta variant of the virus via fluid droplets passing through the upper respiratory tract just as aggressively as the unvaccinated transmit the virus.

The upshot is that vaccinated people don't have much to worry about by not wearing the mask. Wearing a mask would be more of an act of charity toward the unvaccinated, including those who are afraid of the vaccine and those who belligerently reject the vaccine as a political statement. Many of the latter ridicule those of us who are vaccinated, so it really does take an act of charity to wear a mask not for ourselves but for those who belittle us.

That's something that many docs and nurses have experienced with this pandemic. They must care for people who have demeaned them, dismissed their warnings, and laughed at their pleas to wear masks and vaccinate. But they do it because that is the ethos of a professional. In an ideal world, everyone would have that attitude.

Trump Supporters Are Nice [/sarc]

Officer Michael Fanone was violently beaten and repeatedly tasered by elements of the 1/6 Trump mob. He suffered a TBI and a heart attack during the ordeal. Here's a voicemail Officer Fanone received while he was testifying before the 1/6 committee.

Trump called his supporters to D.C. for a "Stop the Steal Rally," which sounds like an instruction to his supporters. He called them there on the day of the certification vote at the Capitol to Stop the Steal. He and his supporting speakers riled up the crowd by claiming the election was stolen, still without any evidence that stands up in court, even before Republican-appointed judges. Then he told his supporters to march down the street to the Capitol and fight like hell. He lied and said he was going with them.

Yesterday, several prominent Republicans blamed Nancy Pelosi for what happened.

No need to mince words here. The intellectual dishonesty and the outright lying among Republicans and Trump supporters are so breathtaking that one must consider the possibility that it's delusional for some of them. At the least, it is madness in the very real sense that crowds can go stark-raving mad. Throw in a sociopathic demagogue, and a nation can go mad.

The Republican Turn Toward Active Vaccine Support

The number of prominent Republicans strongly endorsing vaccination efforts has grown this week. As Damon Linker notes, something is going on, though the impetus for the shift remains unclear.

Was there an agreement that it would be in the interests of Americans given the recent Delta variant surge in cases? I'm skeptical of that explanation because the interests of Americans haven't mattered much to many Republicans who resisted even the simplest inconveniences to protect Americans from the pandemic. Has there been a shift in perceived political self-interest with the virus surging, especially in low-vaccination-rate Red states? That seems more plausible.

Whatever the reason, I'm glad to see this happening. We have the means to end this thing, but not the unified political will. Perhaps the Republican change of heart is inadequate and comes too late because of the now deeply entrenched resistance to vaccination, but again, I welcome this public shift in attitude.

 

Alabama Physician Writes About Her Experience With Sick And Dying Unvaccinated Patients. Receives Death Threats

AL.com:

Dr. Brytney Cobia said Monday that all but one of her COVID patients in Alabama did not receive the vaccine. The vaccinated patient, she said, just needed a little oxygen and is expected to fully recover. Some of the others are dying.

“I’m admitting young healthy people to the hospital with very serious COVID infections,” wrote Cobia, a hospitalist at Grandview Medical Center in Birmingham, in an emotional Facebook post Sunday. “One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late.”

[...]

“You kind of go into [the patient's room] thinking, ‘Okay, I’m not going to feel bad for this person, because they make their own choice,’” Cobia said. “But then you actually see them, you see them face to face, and it really changes your whole perspective, because they’re still just a person that thinks that they made the best decision that they could with the information that they have, and all the misinformation that’s out there.

“And now all you really see is their fear and their regret. And even though I may walk into the room thinking, ‘Okay, this is your fault, you did this to yourself,’ when I leave the room, I just see a person that’s really suffering, and that is so regretful for the choice that they made.”

Dr. Cobia is refusing interviews because she is receiving death threats since urging the unvaccinated to reconsider their decision.

British Right-wing Personality Deported From Australia Over Quarantine Violations

New York Times:

Katie Hopkins, a British right-wing provocateur who has drawn criticism for hateful comments including comparing migrants to cockroaches, will be deported from Australia after bragging about flouting the country’s hotel quarantine rules.

Ms. Hopkins arrived in the country to take part in a reality show, “Big Brother VIP,” and was required to isolate for two weeks in a hotel under coronavirus safety rules. On Saturday, she posted a video to Instagram and YouTube mocking these rules and detailing how she tried to frighten hotel staff by flinging open the door of her room “naked with no facemask.”

She seems nice.

Not The Onion

No, this is not satire. It's the Columbus Dispatch:

In a packed hearing room at the Ohio Statehouse, Republican lawmakers gave the microphone to a known conspiracy theorist who has spread misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.

Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, a physician licensed in Ohio and author of "Saying No to Vaccines," shared her views, promoted her credentials and fielded questions for more than 45 minutes during a House Health Committee hearing on House Bill 248.

"I'm sure you've seen the pictures all over the internet of people who have had these shots and now they're magnetized," Tenpenny, of Middleburg Heights in Cuyahoga County, said. "You can put a key on their forehead, it sticks. You can put spoons and forks all over and they can stick because now we think there is a metal piece to that."

And this led an agitated woman to show lawmakers that she's been magnetized.

We should show this clip to aliens who invade our planet. Prove to them we're the dumbest species in the solar system.pic.twitter.com/OpnpLSyN0v

— Isaac (@WorldofIsaac) June 9, 2021