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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Thursday, August 05, 2021

An Anti-Vaxer's Questions

Until about a year ago, comments on this blog were unmoderated. That changed when one reader, unhappy with what I was writing, took it upon himself to hijack the comment thread with repetitive comments. He'd also leave huge spaces at the end of his comments, making it more or less impossible for anything else to be read. Having made the decision to moderate, I now refuse to host Q-Anon comments, false claims of election fraud and misinformation concerning Covid or the vaccine. 

Yesterday, I received a comment from an anti-vaxer ostensibly thanking me, but then going on to make arguments minimizing Covid-19. Let me address his questions, one by one. 

"President Biden has said that if you are vaccinated that you will not get COVID - is this a true statement or not?"

No. Biden did make this statement at a CNN town hall, but it was an obvious exaggeration or a poor choice of words. No vaccine is 100% effective. People who have received the vaccine can still get sick and die. This minimizer, unless he's a moron, knows this.

"If it is then those are vaccinated should have no concern about coming into contact with someone who has not been vaccinated - is this a true statement or not?"

Untrue because those who are vaccinated can still be infected.

"You wrote that 52.6% of the [Pa.]  population is vaccinated. And according to the link you provided (thanks)that means over 6.7 million Pennsylvanians are fully vaccinated. The 52.6% is calculated based on the total population for PA and thus includes school aged kids. According to a July 8th article in The Wall Street Journal, 99.995% of the 469,982 children in England who were infected during the year examined by researchers survived. Since the 47.4% of Pennsylvanians who have not been vaccinated includes school aged kids (who have not been approved for the vaccine and are way less impacted by COVID) shouldn't we account for that when assessing the actual vaccinate rate? Adjusting for the number of students listed by the PA Dept. of Education a more realistic number for those that are fully vaccinated is 61%."

The data speaks for itself. You are making several assumptions. First, the study obviously fails to include data from the delta variant. Second, the CDC refuses to use survival rates because so much is still unknown about Covid. For example, many who are infected exhibit  one or more symptom for months. We have known since the onset of the pandemic that younger people, children in particular, tend to be asymptomatic.  But this by means is an indication that there's no need to take precautions. 

"In other words, one could say that the vaccination rate among those that are at risk is actually higher than 52.6%? Is that a true statement or not?

No. The data speaks for itself and you are twisting it to support your opinion.

"The Delta variant is more contagious but it is not more virulent (i.e. deadly) - is this a true statement or not?"

No. It is known that Delta is as contagious as chicken pox and can be spread by people who've been vaccinated. That means more people will get sick and some of them will die. Therefore, it is necessarily more deadly. Anecdotally, children in India have been dying after being infected by the Delta variant.

"If this is true then that should be a reason for those who are elderly or at risk to get vaccinated but not necessarily a rational [sic] for making sure a 20 year old gets vaccinated."

No. The Delta variant, because it is more contagious, is necessarily more deadly.

10 comments:

Bernie O'Hare said...

If a strain of a disease is more contagious, it is necessarily more dangerous because the higher umber of infections lead to more deaths. This is just simple logic. There aren news accounts noting this variant is not by itself more deadly. But the more people infected, the more people die. Also, there are news accounts indicating that the delta variant was indeed more virulent among children in India, but those are anecdotal.

I have been attacked for answering these questions bc I have no medical qualifications. Had I refused to answer or host the comment, I would have been attacked for censoring, which is what I should have done. My answers are almost entirely based on logic, which extends to all disciplines, and what I have read.

Anonymous said...

Here is some truth for you Anti-Vader’s.

https://apple.news/AG3sOd0bJSFCL8RLLuCO9CQ





Anonymous said...

"In other words, one could say that the vaccination rate among those that are at risk is actually higher than 52.6%? Is that a true statement or not?

No. The data speaks for itself and you are twisting it to support your opinion."

This is not a particularly effective response. For one, everyone--including children--is "at risk," even if to varying degrees. But certainly one also must concede that the percentage of adults who are vaccinated is higher than 52.6%. I recall that the percentage of people vaccinated increases with age--that is, a higher proportion of adults 70 and over is vaccinated compared to those who are 50 and older. That just says something about which age groups are more likely to be vaccinated and in no way minimizes the value of the vaccines.

Anonymous said...

PA DOH: 624 CoViD hospitalizations. That's an alarming forty eight thousandths of one percent of the state population (624/12,900,000). We've lost the curve. Shut it all down.

Anonymous said...

Bernie:
This is your reply to the question of Biden's comment.

No. Biden did make this statement at a CNN town hall, but it was an obvious exaggeration or a poor choice of words. No vaccine is 100% effective. People who have received the vaccine can still get sick and die. This minimizer, unless he's a moron, knows this.

You lose all credibility with this reply. You first state NO to indicate that it is not a true statement. You then go on and admit that it was stated and offered the lame excuse of "exaggeration or poor choice of words". Then to top it off, you insult the person asking a simple questions and called him a moron and a minimizer for "not knowing that people who get the vaccine can still die.

It is this very type of excuse making and pitiful meandering that is disturbing and irritating. Was it not the left who accused Trump of saying that people should drink bleach when he cleared asked and made a comparison to using bleach as a tool. He never said to ingest bleach yet it was all turned around. Now you excuse this Dementia Ridden AIR BAG.

People need to rebel against this tyrannical, hypocritical BS.

Anonymous said...

Left wing nonsense--they want total control they must be stopped at all cost

Anonymous said...

If blacks are only 30% vaxxed and you want to force them to take a needle and/or show papers, given that you're white and an admitted racist, this all make perfect sense. Racists gonna racist. Why do you despise black people? You old bigots really need to die off and be gone from us. What stains you are.

Anonymous said...

Per NYT
Covid Deaths are 52 weeks ending in April. Other deaths are through 2018.

Children Ages 5-14 (Deaths per 100,000)

1. Cancer 2.1
2. Vehicle accidents 1.9
3. Suicide 1.4
4. Homocide 0.7
5. Cardiovascular disease 0.6
6. Drowning 0.5
7. Flu/pneumonia 0.3
8. CoViD 0.2
9. Suffocation 0.2

We're overreacting re: child CoViD and ignoring suicide and vehicle accidents (most related to cellphone use). Let's screw up a third school year for the kids and ignore what really kills them.

Anonymous said...

7:22 you are right the left wing radicals want to gain control by making the people fear the so-called virus from China

Anonymous said...

@3:52, you took the words right out of my mouth.