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naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   33194 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 10, 2022

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What is actually going on? I understand the argument of vaccine mandates if they prevent transmission, (even though I dislike it, and disagree, I understand the argument.) But if they didn't substantially stop the spread then why are we firing people from their jobs? For their own health?

Somewhat. In my blue-tribe environment, the primary story was always about the health system getting overloaded. If it's true that vaccines reduce COVID severity to at least normal cold levels, then even if they have no effect on transmission, in a setting where everyone is vaccinated COVID can be ignored from the perspective of societal organisation and policymaking just as mild seasonal flu is.

Of course, there was always an unspoken sense in which the most technocratically-minded people thought that those who_don't take COVID seriously_ are a real problem, which unlike the other thing I do find to be an instance of ugly tribalism - that is, those who would still go to a friend's birthday party and hang around in their personal space and go on a road trip and hug the stranger next to them at a football game. Legal and enforcement feasibility prevented going after those people directly, but it was understood that not taking the vaccine was a reasonable proxy for the worst offenders. On paper, you fire for refusal to get vaccinated; really, you want to fire for believing that COVID is not a big enough deal (and therefore probably sabotaging all aspects of the response).

the statistics would appear such that the "saline vaccinated" were less likely to get Covid.

Why?

Within a 3 month period, the saline vaccinated are only being being measured for 6 weeks. Since they only count as vaccinated 2 weeks after the second saline shot. We would expect them the saline vaccinated to have 50% less likelihood to develop Covid within the three month period.

It's a sleight of hand magic trick.

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