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Marius Clore's avatar

I think the way to look at things now with regard to covid boosters, and for that matter the RSV vaccine is that : (1) these are just 2 viruses among many that result in an ILI; (2) both viruses result in mild disease with the usual spectrum for all ILIs; (3) the adverse events surrounding both vaccines, and especially the COVID one are substantial and common, and some adverse events are really severe; and (4) multiple boosting, if anything, deadens one's immune response (original antigenic sin); (5) there is a very sizable shift towards IgG4 which does not protect one against foreign agents but rather allows one to tolerate them; and (6) the duration of any potential efficacy is very short-lived for the COVID vaccine and boosters. Bottom line: there is absolutely no evidence that COVID boosters protect against hospitalization and death and the risks vastly outweigh any possible benefits. In fact, the original Pfizer and Moderna RCTs provided absolutely no evidence that the vaccines reduced death since there were in fact slightly more deaths in the vaccinated arm than the control arm – there is no point in having a vaccine that may protect against COVID if it increases one's chance of death for adverse events such as myocraditis. The second bottom line is that Vinay is absolutely correct in regard to the current status of COVID vaccines.

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M Makous's avatar

It is not wrong to keep covid on the front burner. The lessons of recent history strike at the heart of a wide array of issues in medicine and the larger non-medical media, and so are worth discussing. A few examples of a very long list:

- The major public health institutions in the USA (NIH, FDA, CDC) have rightfully lost trust due to their insistence on pushing a narrative based on power and whim. Regarding medical studies and internet platforms, they have transparently put their finger on the balance to support their narrative by suppressing unfavorable studies and censoring views and opinions that challenge their narrative.

- These institutions are a textbook example of regulatory capture: They do the bidding of the organizations they are supposed to regulate at the expense of the general public.

- Way beyond covid, FDA approval of all new pharmaceuticals and devices should be suspect.

- The legacy media are very much guilty of cooperating with the PH narrative of fear and ignorance. It's a head scratcher that the polemics are framed as left wing vs right wing. Aren't the left wing supposed to be anti-corporation and anti-government intrusions into personal affairs? It seems that the left wing has become "the man" these days.

- By throwing objectivity and neutrality out the window, medical journals are as guilty of manipulation as the other spheres of activity mentioned above.

- The similarities of the covid story to climate alarmism and the DEI metastasis is striking, and not in a good way.

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