Still Free

Yeah, Mr. Smiley. Made it through the entire Trump presidency without being enslaved. Imagine that.

Monday, March 01, 2021

Variants You Say?

 If you follow this blog you know I got off the vaccine train a long time ago. Actually, I really wasn't on it. One reason was that I saw it as not much different from influenza in that there would inevitably be mutations. I have had each of the major varieties of flu (A,B and C) and the most troublesome one was not fun but I got through it fine.

So knowing that viruses mutate, I was never keen on flu shots. Instead, I preferred to make changes in public habits (not face touching which is hard to do when you're having a losing session at BlackJack). Making sure I get plenty of vit D in the winter months (I'm good during the summer) and getting plenty of  Zinc. None of this means I won't get the flu again but it reduces the chances and the severity of symptoms when I do get infected. Notice I say "when" not "if".  When dealing with a seasonal respiratory illness, it is often "when" and not "if" you get sick. That's how I came at COVID. I assumed, and still assume, that it's a matter of when not IF I get infected (assuming I haven't already been). This put me at odds with what the so-called 'experts" were saying but the experts soon showed themselves to be motivated by politics and personal philosophies rather than actual science and an eye towards our natural rights. And so we got the policies of "If" rather than "when". And when you operate from "IF" you do whatever you can to make "IF " not happen.  Ye olde hammer and nail situation. 

So the country was locked up and locked down. Face diapers became the norm and people were and are deathly afraid of coming to close to other humans because they might be diseased.

Talk about xenophobia.

We, well, YOU were promised that a vaccine would end it all. Then when these "vaccines" were presented, you were told to still be scared, still don the face diaper and still don't go anywhere. 

Science.

Falsey, I men Fauci lied about masks. Lied about what level of herd immunity was needed and who knows what else and yet still too many of the public believe in that man. Meanwhile, people such as yours truly told you exactly what you could and should be doing to minimize the impact of "when" so you could stop worrying about "if". We discussed the various treatments available, that do not require you waiting until you have lost almost all your aerobic capacity and be hospitalized.  Our solutions, based on science, would be effective regardless of strain (thus far) because it isn't dependent on knowing about a particular strain. Rather our solutions make the host inhospitable to coronaviruses. PERIOD. We were called conspiracy theorists and all manner of things. And yet what we said would happen, happened. And now the strains:

A coronavirus variant that probably emerged in May and surged to become the dominant strain in California not only spreads more readily than its predecessors but also evades antibodies generated by COVID-19 vaccines or prior infection and is associated with severe illness and death, researchers said.

Evades antibodies you say?

Well that would mean that vaccines will be ineffective and therefore are NOT vaccines but are "shots" like the flu shot, where you HOPE it's effective THIS YEAR.

Who could have predicted such a thing?

Oh by the way, hospitalizations and deaths are WAAY down. Way, way down. Might want to mention that.

The U.K. and California variants are each armed with enhanced capabilities, and the likelihood that they could circulate in the same population raises the specter of a return to spiking infections and deaths, Chiu said. It also opens the door to a “nightmare scenario”: That the two viruses will meet in a single person, swap their mutations and create an even more dangerous strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

I see. 

Ivermectin is known to inhibit replication of COVID. Zinc is known to inhibit replication of SARS.  Perhaps giving people theraputics that inhibit replication would be a good idea.

I'm not an expert so don't mind me.

The new evidence that the California variant could make people sicker, and vaccines less effective, should spur more intensive efforts to drive down infections, Chiu said. Those should include both public health measures, such as masking and limits on public activities, and a campaign of rapid vaccinations, he added. 

See what's going on here? These new variants are going to be the reason why your refusal to get a "vaccine" presents a danger to the already vaccinated public. And of course more face diapers and lockdowns.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

They like their power. They will not let this end.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, raised a further concern in an interview with The Times. A survival-of-the-fittest contest between the U.K. and California variants could accelerate the spread of the strain that’s best able to elude the effects of COVID-19 vaccines, he said. The best way to prevent this, he added, is to stop the spread of either variant by getting vaccinated, wearing masks and limiting exposure to others.

 Yes, Dr. Falsy...I mean Fauci again. He's going to use this to get Biden or Harris (depending on what side of dementia Joe is on that day) to push for federal level BS.

Walker, who was not involved in the new analysis, said that while viruses often mutate in ways that make them stronger, such genetic changes often impose a new Achilles’ heel. For instance, a strain that spreads more easily often loses some of its virulence.

Something we also know and knew.  Transmissibility is not the worry unless it comes with a nastier payload. This is why, once again, the "when" not "if" strategy is, IMO, best. The more strains you've been exposed to the better off you are because your body recognizes these strains upon next meet. Particularly if the new strain closely resembles one you've encountered before.

This is also why interventions that do not rely on protection from a specific virus strain is a better idea, IMO. 

That observation is based on the medical charts of 324 patients hospitalized at UCSF, a relatively small sample. Still, the researchers found that the 21% of these patients who contracted B.1.427/B.1.429 were more likely than their counterparts to have been admitted to the ICU, and they were 11 times more likely to die. That finding held up even after researchers adjusted for differences in the patients’ age, gender and ethnicity.

The number of deaths in both groups was very small, however, so this finding will need to be checked against larger data sets as those become available.[my underlines]

This is a scare tactic. 

11x! OMG OMG.  

"The numbers of deaths...was very small, however"

Oh.

"Rather, it might simply be a reflection that its greater transmissibility caused hospitals to become so overwhelmed and healthcare resources to be stretched so thin that more deaths were the result — especially in Southern California."

Like last time? 

Any state that hasn't figured out how to ramp capacity after the events of 2021 is TOTALLY incompetent. 

Anyway. Once again, do you notice that there is no talk of ANYTHING other than "vaccine", "mask" and "limiting public activity"

It's as if they don't want you to know about something.