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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 10, 2022

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By all means disagree (and one should disagree) with these ridiculously stupid or at best unnecessary policies, but the consensus in my circles was always that the vaccine might only ever help reduce severity and potentially transmission to a limited extent, albeit perhaps enough that hospital capacity could meet demand.

Okay, I get your point that you were part of enlightened community that knew what WHO message was false and what was correct, maybe you had some link to researchers and all that. You had privilege to act individually, you were probably one of the "nonessential workers" who could do so. But then I have to challenge you about your quote (bolded):

I thought literally everyone at the time said that the purpose was to reduce severity in most patients (who were typically still expected to get Covid - and indeed eventually did outside of China) and maybe reduce transmission somewhat? Doesn’t seem like a slam dunk.

You meant "literally all my 20 friends who knew what's what" or is it "literally" billions affected and probably hundreds of millions of shills?