https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-766-letters/

As one of the co-signers of the letter to Science asking for increased investigation into the origins of SARS-CoV-2, I want to make two points: first, thanks very much for the two episodes of TWiV when you met with the WHO committee and with Robert Garry. These episodes are doing a great service for all to clarify these issues. Second, as a co-signer or the letter to Science, I’d like to explain my motivation for adding my name: namely, I thought the letter would have the effect of prompting more funding for searching for natural viruses in animal reservoirs, which I personally have always assumed represent the origin of SARS-CoV-2 infections in humans. Perhaps naively, I did not anticipate that the letter would be used to promote the lab origin hypothesis. Looking back on the wording of the letter, however, I now think that I should have realized this would happen and should have been more proactive — either not signed the letter at all or else requested more wording changes to make my position clear.

 

A “lab leak” theory info update:

With the country and most of the world believing in QAnon and other fringe things, no mater what and when the real truth of this is found, if ever, there still won't be a belief in it. The way things are going I wouldn't be surprised if we are heading into a "new dark ages".

 

With the country and most of the world believing in QAnon and other fringe things, no mater what and when the real truth of this is found, if ever, there still won't be a belief in it. The way things are going I wouldn't be surprised if we are heading into a "new dark ages".

The percentage of fools is not increasing, only the ability of fools to be discovered in the general population using modern social media. I think we are far from a "new dark ages" as the latest crop of fools are easier to spot and be ignored as fools by the general population. In a few years this slice of history will all be a TV series like the X files where most of the populations watches with amusement at the progression of wild theories instead of agreement.

 

The percentage of fools is not increasing, only the ability of fools to be discovered in the general population using modern social media. I think we are far from a "new dark ages" as the latest crop of fools are easier to spot and be ignored as fools by the general population. In a few years this slice of history will all be a TV series like the X files where most of the populations watches with amusement at the progression of wild theories instead of agreement.

I sincerely hope you're right ... because sometimes I feel we're headed towards an abyss of permanent willful ignorance...

 

as the latest crop of fools are easier to spot and be ignored as fools by the general population.

Not if recent politics is a measure.

 

Not if recent politics is a measure.

I agree. Unfortunately these fools are loud and are being catered to like spoiled children. This is all I see. I have no idea how this can be turned around without things getting very ugly. I really hope I am wrong.

 

I sincerely hope you're right ... because sometimes I feel we're headed towards an abyss of permanent willful ignorance...

We've always been rolling down a hill to hell. Fearmongering and/or scaremongering has always been big business.


The media (a general term for all sides and sources) amplifies fear, promotes the foolish and the outlandish with Propaganda for Profit.

 

U.S. Outlines Plan to Send 55 Million Covid Vaccine Doses Overseas (msn.com)

I haven't kept up with it but also saw recently that USA has 300M spare doses. Umm... How much did we pay for all these doses to have such a surplus or is this geopolitical on our part to offset some of the other foreign entities' donations? Manufacturers and their stockholders must be very pleased.

Maybe so... China Decries U.S. 'Interference' for Donating Vaccines to Taiwan (msn.com)
Why Moderna Just Booked Another $3 Billion in Vaccine Orders and No One Cared (msn.com)

 

A lot of the vaccines in the U.S. are due to expire. They probably thought they would have all been administered by now.

 

Unfortunately these fools are loud and are being catered to like spoiled children. This is all I see.

We've always been rolling down a hill to hell. Fearmongering and/or scaremongering has always been big business.

My comment about a new dark ages wasn't only pointing to politics or fear mongering. I read a lot of things, and much of what I consider good sources are showing the primary ignorance of people today. From what kids are learning in school and able to do when they graduate to adults that should know better.

 

Sturgeon's law - "90% of everything is crap." Works for people too.

 

Maybe so... China Decries U.S. 'Interference' for Donating Vaccines to Taiwan (msn.com)

The Chinese government has no shame.

 

The Chinese government has no shame.

No lack of chutzpah though! China wants Nobel Prize for Wuhan lab suspected in COVID outbreak | American Military News

 

No lack of chutzpah though! China wants Nobel Prize for Wuhan lab suspected in COVID outbreak | American Military News

That's nuts (I don't think the lab leak has much credibility but the Chinese government still is largely responsible for the spread of the virus due to it's policies.) but this is crazy.

Chinese Media Fat-Shames Greta Thunberg!

 

(I don't think the lab leak has much credibility but the Chinese government still is largely responsible for the spread of the virus due to it's policies.)

Does that also apply to what happened here in the US? Maybe not though, America is number one after all.
~602K deaths most of them totally unnecessary if things had been handled better.

 

Does that also apply to what happened here in the US? Maybe not though, America is number one after all.
~602K deaths most of them totally unnecessary if things had been handled better.

OTP

The United States is a federalist nation. The Constitution designates specific powers to the federal government — like the power to regulate commerce and declare war — and the 10th Amendment designates the remainder of powers to the states.
Under the 10th Amendment, governors have “the authority to take public health emergency actions, such as setting quarantines and business restrictions,” according to the American Bar Association.

The responsibility for the conditions where the vast majority of US deaths happened was in the hands of local and state officials because we don't have a centralized controlled communist government like China. This fantasy that the federal government had some sort of magical control over state governors should have been put to rest by what's actually happened in the last year. So yes, those state governors should have handled things better.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/cor...ide-nursing-home-covid-deaths-report/3026360/

 

So yes, those state governors should have handled things better.

Instead of blaming the feds for lack of action. Here in the US the old argument of state vs. federal control is an age-old argument and continues to be argued.

 

Instead of blaming the feds for lack of action. Here in the US the old argument of state vs. federal control is an age-old argument and continues to be argued.

The US federal governments role vs state control for good and bad during a pandemic is pretty clear in law, history and tradition. It's seems not to be a popular option but I think just about everyone involved did the best they could under immense pressure to do 'something' while being pulled by competing 'science' models of a possible future that was as bad or worse than the dead we currently have suffered. We fumbled, fought and did some stupid stuff but in the end, as of today, we're looking better than a lot of the world.

 

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattl...inese-vaccines-now-theyre-battling-outbreaks/

In the United States, about 45% of the population is fully vaccinated, mostly with doses made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Cases have dropped 94% over six months.

Israel provided shots from Pfizer and has the second-highest vaccination rate in the world, after the Seychelles. The number of new daily confirmed COVID-19 cases in Israel is now around 4.95 per million.

In the Seychelles, which relied mostly on Sinopharm, that number is more than 716 cases per million.

Disparities such as these could create a world in which three types of countries emerge from the pandemic — the wealthy nations that used their resources to secure Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna shots, the poorer countries that are far away from immunizing a majority of citizens, and then those that are fully inoculated but only partially protected.

A representative from Sinopharm hung up the phone when reached for comment. Sinovac did not respond to a request for comment.

William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University, said the efficacy rates of Chinese shots could be low enough “to sustain some transmission, as well as create illness of a substantial amount in the highly vaccinated population, even though it keeps people largely out of the hospital.”

 

Does anybody here know for how long after injection do the mRNA "vaccines" crank out the viral spike protein?