The View from the Middle
Today there is an absolute and disgusting war on the unvaccinated people in the United States. Politicians, particularly our President, are actually condoning and even encouraging a hatred of unvaccinated people by those who have chosen to be vaccinated. The President is even suggesting that the vaccinated people in this country should fear those who have not been vaccinated.
For the record, I have had Covid-19 and obviously survived, and I have been vaccinated, but I do not hate nor fear the unvaccinated. I don’t fear them because I am immune. A Johns Hopkins study has shown the fully vaccinated people are 30 times less likely to get infected than an unvaccinated person and those that do are 58% less likely to even suffer fever or chills as a result. At some point in time, the risk of getting Covid-19 by a vaccinated person is so low that we can’t continue to disrupt the lives of everyone in America to prevent such an unlikely occurrence. People get struck by lightning every year, but are we going to mandate that everyone in America wear human lightning rods to avoid it?
I also, for the record, don’t hate those who have chosen not to get vaccinated. I understand that there are many reasons not to do so. Some have religious beliefs that are inconsistent with vaccinations. They understand the risks and are virtually no threat to me, so they have the right to make that choice. It is still America, right?
Then there are some that are choosing not to get the vaccine because they mistrust the government. This seems the most likely explanation for why the black community continues to lag far behind the rest of the country in their vaccination levels. Just a month ago, the CDC reported that only 25% of black Americans were fully vaccinated. That was less than half the rate of white Americans. Does this mean we should hate, scorn, exile or fear black people? I don’t.
Finally, what percent of the unvaccinated people in the United States are resistant to getting the vaccine because they have already had Covid-19, survived and have the antibodies. According to a huge, recent study in Israel, natural immunity provides 6 to 13 times more protection against Covid-19 than any of the vaccines.
The CDC has reported over 40 million cases of Covid-19 where those infected survived and have natural immunity. Add to that number the cases that presented with very mild symptoms or were asymptomatic and weren’t even tested. Estimates bring the total of the naturally immune to 100 million people in the US alone. What percentage of the 80 million unvaccinated are already naturally immune to this disease? Shouldn’t the naturally immune be treated the same as the vaccinated when it comes to access to restaurants, gyms, theatres and even employment?
Until the government starts giving us a number that includes vaccinated people plus unvaccinated but immune, it is misleading the American people and reinforcing the mistrust many have in it. Our governments (federal, state and local) need to provide the American people with accurate information (the truth) and even direction, and then allow them to manage the risks as they see fit.
The Biden Administration’s current strategy of fear, shame, division and coercion will not work in a free America. It will only bring out the worst in us. This strategy will cause our people to divide into groups instead of uniting into one great country. It will cause people to pull back instead of reaching out. It instills hatred instead of respect, and will make us, as a country, weak instead of strong.
Arguably one of our greatest Presidents once said that, “all we have to fear is fear itself” in an effort to strengthen and unite our country, and it clearly worked. We need that kind of strong, positive, uniting message today to unleash the ingenuity that comes with freedom and the will to constantly do what’s right. America’s ingenuity will not only create treatments for Covid-19 to defeat this virus but it will also give us the will to defeat terrorism in all of its forms. Without the freedom to create and the will to risk, America will slide from superpower and a force for good to just another impotent, needy nation fighting for scraps to eke out a meager existence on a global stage.
Let me leave you with a message from the bible in this world that seems to want to control us and diminish us through a spirit of fear. God tells us “do not fear” but to place our trust in him:
Isaiah 41:10
So, do not fear, for I am with you;
Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
How durable is the natural immunity? Weren't the initial CDC studies pertaining to the Alpha variant? My sense is the Delta variant has upset many of the initial conclusions.
ReplyDeleteAnd no, I don't hate the unvaccinated, but I sure as heck am disgusted with them.
Nic,
Delete"Come on Man", to quote our current President! Check your thesaurus. You know what another word for disgust is? Hate!
My understanding is that the vaccines and natural immunity are both effective against the delta variant. Also, My research would suggest that natural immunity is actually more durable (some say for a lifetime) than the vaccines. The durability of the vaccine is more in question, although I am pro-vaccine. I have been vaccinated myself.
If you aren't vaccinated, get vaxxed and then let it go and get on with your life. Your chance of being infected is minimal. Your chances of getting seriously sick is infinitesimal. Your chances of dying is almost non-existent. Stop worrying and stop hating and your life will get better. Here's a link to an article about the destructive impact hate has on all of us.
https://www.everydayhealth.com/emotional-health/destructive-power-hate/
Still love ya', Nik
" Some have religious beliefs that are inconsistent with vaccinations."
ReplyDeleteWhat are those religious beliefs? I keep hearing it, but I've yet to see an explanation of what they are.
" Shouldn’t the naturally immune be treated the same as the vaccinated when it comes to access to restaurants, gyms, theatres and even employment?"
If the restaurant, gym, theater or employer wants to treat them the same, sure.
Matt,
ReplyDeleteFirst Church of Christ, Christian Scientists and even some small Christian faith churches.
Why should a restaurant, gym, theatre or employer treat a person with natural immunity different than a person who has been vaccinated. According to the science these people should treat the naturally immune better than the vaccinated. In fact, treating them differently (more harshly) should be considered discrimination. Should we add the unvaxxed but naturally immune to the long list of groups that officially have non-discrimination status, or should we as a country demand that we can't discriminate (require more difficult standards or provide fewer rights) against any group for any reason?
I understand Christian Scientists, as there's are long standing. What are the others? I mean, what's the religious basis?
DeleteHow do you verify someone has "natural immunity"? The unvaccinated are not a protected class under the law and never have been. Why? Because being vaccinated has been a condition of American life for a long time: think public schools and military service.
"Can't discriminate against any group for any reason"? I feel like you haven't thought that sentence through.
Come on Matt! All you have to do is get an antibody test.
DeleteAnd I don't think it is required that YOU understand their religious beliefs and conflicts to vaccines as long as they do.
And finally, why would you want to put heavier restrictions on a group that has 6 to 13 times better protection than those who have only been vaccinated? Even Fauci doesn't have an answer for that and he admits it.
https://politicofire.com/2021/09/10/fauci-cant-give-a-really-firm-answer-on-why-americans-with-natural-immunity-need-vaccines/
I think your position of "disagree with Kevin at all costs, no matter the facts" hurts your credibility. Blinken just admitted on live TV that we left at least $80 billion of military equipment (not salaries, etc) in Afghanistan. You want to quibble over the extra $5 billion? The Israeli study is the most extensive study ever done on Covid-19 (over 600,000 participants) and you seem to not want to accept their findings. Even Fauci doesn't dispute them.
You can convince yourself that you have won every debate by just refusing to admit/accept the most obvious facts, but you will find you have no one to debate with!
"All you have to do is get an antibody test."
DeleteThat's what I was asking. So you have to carry around an antibody test. Isn't that determined via a blood draw? Seems like it would be easier to just get the vaccine, but everyone should do what they want.
Perhaps because the majority don't believe your research? As an employer, I want people to be vaccinated because they have a lower chance of getting COVID, a lower chance of dying, a lower chance of infecting others in my office. That benefits me as the employer, and them as an employee who needs to work.
I'm of the trust but verify type. When you're repeating YOUR thoughts, I take them at face value. When you're giving me the stuff I see in all the right wing sites, then I want to verify for sure. If Blinken admitted it, there will be a transcript. You may well be right, and I'm happy to admit it.
There's no winning. It's just discussing.
Now about those religious exemptions. Beyond the ones you mentioned, any others? Because those are relatively small denominations, and I see a LOT of people claiming they are religiously exempt.
I'm glad you will admit that you were wrong about the military equipment left in Afghanistan. Check the transcript, but also just search on $85 billion left behind.
DeleteMy thoughts are always or at least usually backed with facts. And facts are facts even if you don't like the sources, and I would put Fox and the NY Post on equal ground with CNN and MSDNC, etc. Just denouncing sources is a lazy and weak argument.
And yes, you have to get a blood test to check your antibody levels, but that is far different than having something put into your body. And yes, people who do that can get a card or report that is very similar to my vaccination card.
And Matt, why wouldn't you prefer that one of your employees had natural immunity vs just being vaccinated since natural immunity has been proven to be more effective against reinfection, hospitalization and death. Even Fauci realizes this reality and is trying to come to grips with it.
Here is a story about hospitals in Michigan that are allowing people with natural immunity to work without being vaccinated. This is a movement that is building momentum across the country This would be a good thing and help us get a handle on where we really stand as a country in fighting this virus without punishing people for noncompliance to inappropriate laws and mandates.
https://thepulse.one/2021/09/13/some-michigan-hospitals-allow-naturally-immune-employees-to-work-no-vaccine-required/
Matt,
DeleteThis is not a transcript, but it is a youtube video of the whole thing. It's almost six hours long and I haven't watched it, but I was watching when Blinken admitted to $80 billion in equipment left behind. It is over the last 15 years and he doesn't get into whether this is an amortized number or not, but our troops and Afghan troops were using this equipment (Humvees, helicopters, planes and guns) at the time of the evacuation and now the Taliban have this equipment to use or sell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7UWR4vwm6A
I'm sure the transcript will come out at some point and we can verify it.
DeleteSurely we can agree though that using the retail cost of a pickup in 2005, or even a Humvee or helicopter, to make some partisan point is silly. That's the kind of thing we have to move away from if we want the unity you claim to seek.
We can also hopefully agree that it would have made zero sense for us to plan to take all this equipment back from the Afghan military before we left.
And finally, hopefully we can agree that under either the Administration that cut the deal or the one that enacted it, there was no plan to bring most of this equipment back, again because it was presumably going to be used by the Afghan military.
And with that, hopefully we can agree to put this silly talking point, at least, to bed.
Check the transcript, but also just search on $85 billion left behind.
ReplyDeleteI did, we didn't leave $85 billion behind. See above.
I also keep coming back to something you've never actually been clear on. The decision to leave Afghanistan was bipartisan. Trump had been a fan of it since he first ran.
You are criticizing Biden, but are characteristically silent on Trump on it, but putting that aside is it your position we should have stayed? You've never actually stated.
You actually can't be reading my blog before you make these comments. I am not criticizing Biden for getting out of Afghanistan, but on HOW he did it.
DeleteYes, I read those criticisms. They appear to be 1) that some material was left behind, though you have no idea what exactly, how useful it is, or whether it made any sense for us to bring back. And 2, that 10-15 people died in evacuating those people. Which would mean you'd be criticizing every country's military evacuation from a foreign country.
DeleteIn short, partisan silliness.
"Just denouncing sources is a lazy and weak argument."
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly. That's why I didn't denounce any media organization in particular. That said, I would double and triple check Daily Kos, Newsmax, Gateway Pundit and similar sites before I ever relied upon them. Again, if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.
Good. Then you should quadruple check CNN, MSDNC, The NYT, Wash. Post, ABC, NBC, CBS and NPR.
DeleteIf you think Newsmax and Gateway and Daily Kos are the equivalent of those, or even the equivalent of Fox News, then you need help.
Delete" Matt, why wouldn't you prefer that one of your employees had natural immunity vs just being vaccinated since natural immunity has been proven to be more effective against reinfection, hospitalization and death."
ReplyDeleteYou keep saying this, but even your articles says the hospital only gave people with the antibodies 3 months before they had to get another test. I don't really feel like tracking my people every three months, and most of them probably don't want to take a blood test every three months. At their cost, no less.
Millions are likely naturally immune to the host of vaccines given to get in public schools and the military. Do you advocate that they no longer give them? The truth is you don't, and no one cared about vaccines and masks until Trump made it a thing out of vanity. The irony is virtually all the politicians undermining vaccines, and all the major media types, are vaccinated.
As a private business owner I would take the same stance as Fox News. It makes business sense for me to make sure my employees are vaccinated, to lessen the spread, to reduce sick time and PTO, and to keep morale and production up.
The funniest thing of all? If Trump had embraced mask wearing and vaccines, the entire GOP, including yourself, wouldn't think twice about it. The anti-vax movement would still mostly just be RFK.
But there's always money in division, so when Trump didn't like COVID the for-profit noise machine went to work, even if they got vaccinated themselves. Thus hydrochloroquine, ivermectin, etc. There will be something else soon. If you've ever watched much right wing media, you'll see a host of these products getting marketed because the base is susceptible to them. Whether it's Ben Shapiro hawking brain enhancers or Mike Huckabee pushing sleep aids, it's all just a variation on Trump U, and just about as useful.
Trump most certainly did embrace the vaccine! He developed it and he got the shots even though he already had covid and recovered.
DeleteThe hospital gave three months just to be politically correct. All studies suggest that natural immunity protects better and is even longer lasting. The CDC could come out tomorrow and say that, but Pfizer, etc are making so much money, the CDC won't come to that conclusion until the virus is totally under control.
And You shouldn't make assumptions for me. I would be a mask agnostic even if Trump wore 10 at a time. You've seen my article which was all fact and data based unlike the CDC's anecdotal studies.
You have no idea why the hospital did what it did. It's ok to acknowledge that.
DeleteWhich article? The one from the political think tank that was just a random survey of other studies? Be serious.
"without punishing people for noncompliance to inappropriate laws and mandates."
ReplyDeleteIn all your previous decades, when we've had mandatory vaccines for a host of other things, how come you never spoke out about them?
I was five years old. It would have been hard to object. Would you object to mandating lawyers taking lie detector tests before during and after trials and after every action? I might support that. We all have to draw the line somewhere and our Founders would have supported being VERY conservative with that line drawing.
DeleteYou are supporting things that 70% of Americans oppose (Afghanistan withdrawal) and that even Fauci has admitted must be reviewed (natural immunity). When the virus is conquered, Fauci will have an epiphany that natural immunity was better than the vaccines and should have been counted in the total immune number.
Now, this is enough of this silliness. Our 18 comments are now 10 times longer than my original article. Just buy me lunch and we can put this to bed in person.
You could have objected for others for decades. In 2019 there was a mumps outbreak in Fayetteville schools and all unvaccinated kids who were exposed had to spend 3 or 4 weeks out of school. Did you speak up against mandatory vaccines? Talk about natural immunity? No, you didn't. No one did (except maybe RFK).
DeleteTo serve in the military for decades you've needed multiple vaccines. Did you speak up against those?
If you didn't, and certainly mumps or chickenpox is far less deadly than COVID, yet you're outraged now, then that tells me that something other than principled objection to vaccines is what's driving your position.
Matt,
DeleteIn 2019 I was not forced to get a vaccine nor were my children or grandchildren. And you are talking about Fayetteville vs the entire country (that's what Biden would propose) and you are comparing three weeks to an almost two year lockdown of businesses and schools. You are boarding on the ridiculous to try to salvage an un-winnable argument.
Also, I don't know what is required for military service, but I have a choice as to whether I even join the service, and the military represents LESS than 0.5% (that's less than one half of one percent) of our population. Matt, give it up and just buy me lunch.
Again, don't you find it odd that you only became enlightened on vaccines in 2019? It's not like it's the first time they've been in the news. Heck, we have had a national vaccine injury compensation program since 1988. Yet you never thought a thing about them for 31 years . . . ?
DeleteI'm talking about the entire country. Most all schools (public and private) do the same.
What is this lockdown you keep speaking of? Arkansas was never locked down.
What argument? I'm just stating facts. The only people who said boo about vaccines prior to now were RFK and his cabal. Often based on Wakefield's discredited Thimerasol study of 20 years ago or so.
To err on the side of kindness is seldom an error.
ReplyDeleteVery well said, oh wise sage, Paige!! hey, that rhymes!!
ReplyDeletePost-lunch, I can definitively state if the science bears out that "natural immunity" is as effective as vaccination and can be shown to exist, that should have the same value as vaccination when it comes to access to public places.
ReplyDeleteThose are some big IFs, and as I said I doubt that people who are unwilling to take a needle for vaccination will be willing to take a needle for a blood tests, but I can join your sentiment to that extent.
As I said though, I will always feel that the GOP and Trump specifically, completely blew a huge opportunity on COVID.
I'm glad that you have come around on natural immunity, and in those communities where proof of vaccination is required to go into a restaurant, gym, etc. I would accept that a "proof" of immunity if fair to require. I think, however, that vaccine hesitancy is less about the needle and more about the substance that is being injected into their bodies. I think many would be willing to get the blood test to prove their immunity, especially if that test would be free of cost to them. And I could make the argument that it should be free, although I know of many people who have already had the antibody test and were glad to pay for it themselves.
DeleteCOVID vaccine hesitancy has virtually nothing to do with what is being injected in their bodies for virtually anyone other than those who were anti-vax pre-COVID and think RFK is a genius.
DeleteWeird how the people complaining about socialism want all their medical care for free.