Goldtent TA Paradise

WALL STREET JOURNAL ARTICLE

1. Fullgoldcrown says:

   January 10, 2022 - 5:28 pm at 5:28 pm

   Amid a mounting pile of unfulfilled Biden promises on Covid, from his pledge to shut down the virus to his assurance of abundant testing, the president’s favorite experts are suddenly sharing relevant facts that were too inconvenient to emphasize during his predecessor’s administration. Last week this column noted that two years, $4 trillion of federal debt and millions of isolated children too late, White House Covid czar Dr. Anthony Fauci has discovered the massive costs of pandemic restrictions. Now we have Dr. Rochelle Walensky, head of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, implicitly making the case for a strategy she once disparaged.

   On Friday, ABC’s “Good Morning America” program touted research showing that Covid vaccines are highly effective in preventing severe illness and then asked the CDC director: “Given that, is it time to start rethinking how we’re living with this virus, that it’s probably here to stay?” Dr. Walensky responded:

   The overwhelming number of deaths, over 75%, occurred in people who had at least 4 comorbidities. So really these are people who were unwell to begin with and yes, really encouraging news in the context of Omicron.
   Dr. Walensky seems to have been trying to make the point that the vast majority of people do not face as great a risk as one would think from listening to Covid-era apocalyptic forecasts from people like her.

   Sure, it may be hard to forget her unscientific March 2021 declaration at a White House briefing:

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   I’m going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom.
   Then there was her decision that the threat could somehow be addressed by issuing an unconstitutional ban on evictions. But if Dr. Walensky has since gotten a hold of herself and is now trying to enhance understanding of the threats people face, that would be progress.

   Her CDC website notes that close to 95% of death certificates listing Covid as a cause also mention other causes along with Covid and states:

   For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 4.0 additional conditions or causes per death.
   Unfortunately, in her Friday ABC interview, Dr. Walensky’s phrasing of the “encouraging news” about modest risk for many Americans sparked an online backlash as some interpreted the remarks as callous toward those at high risk. Kamau Bell of HBO and CNN tweeted, “I counted up my comorbidities. Now I can let my family know that if I die from COVID it is ‘encouraging.’ ”

   On Sunday Dr. Walensky tweeted:

   We must protect people with comorbidities from severe #COVID19. I went into medicine – HIV specifically – and public health to protect our most at-risk. CDC is taking steps to protect those at highest risk, incl. those w/ chronic health conditions, disabilities & older adults.
   Fair enough, but this recognition that some face great risk from Covid while others face much lower risk has been obvious from the start. In response, a group of accomplished and wise scientists crafted the Great Barrington Declaration in 2020 to promote a ”focused protection” strategy—taking great care to shield those at high risk while allowing the vast majority who are at low risk to continue working, learning and doing all the things that sustain life. This sensible prioritization sounds very much like what Dr. Walensky is suggesting in her Sunday tweet.

   Yet back in 2020, when President Trump found the idea appealing Dr. Walensky joined the politically correct establishment in dismissing the Great Barrington doctors and researchers as operating on the academic fringe.

   Whether she ever retracts her 2020 comments or not, Dr. Walensky should now act on her new insight, focus on protecting the vulnerable, and stop demanding ideal conditions and masks in schools, where children are not at great risk.

   ***

   A number of online commenters responded to last Monday’s column by claiming that it was unfair to criticize Dr. Fauci’s disastrous lockdown medicine with the benefit of hindsight. But this column was a lockdown skeptic from the very start of the pandemic, warning as early as March 10, 2020, that any proposed virus countermeasures should be subject to analysis of costs and benefits. The refusal of officials like Dr. Fauci to consider the staggering costs and questionable benefits of their prescriptions will haunt today’s children for the rest of their lives.

2. TimH says:

   January 10, 2022 - 7:47 pm at 7:47 pm

   Part of the State’s problem right now is that defending the vaccines means downplaying covid since the vaccinated are getting covid. So it could be that the apparent 180 from hyping covid to downplaying it is to minimize the largest of all side effects of the vaccines in the public’s eyes which is widespread infection and spread of covid after vaccination. Just as they are attempting to trivialize heart problems and now autoimmune diseases (recent Guardian article) so that people think they’re part of normal life, they’re also doing it with covid but not because they want us to get over covid and stop worrying about it but because they need us to accept the reality that repeated vaccination will come with repeated infection due to destruction of the immune system by the vax.

   She’s talking to the herd, not to us, the unvaccinated, I think.

   Or… the State is getting a little frightened by the possibility of real Nuremberg trials and is trying to cover their tracks or make themselves look more moderate. It won’t change the guilty verdict but it might change the sentence. Assuming they aren’t ripped apart by a mob first.

   • Fullgoldcrown says:

     January 10, 2022 - 8:35 pm at 8:35 pm

     I like Door #2 …..especially the Ripped apart part

   • Strider says:

     January 10, 2022 - 9:53 pm at 9:53 pm

     Door. #2 for me too.
     None of this was accidental. It was all purposeful. Many people need to be called to account. The damage they caused is incalculable, and our judgement should be severe.