I'm sitting here, at this moment, reading news headlines.
Nearly 1/3 of Americans have been vaccinated against COVID-19. Dr. Marty Makary, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, believes nearly half of all Americans have developed natural immunity to COVID-19. Now some of those who had the virus also got vaccinated, so there is overlap that does not allow us to calculate the actual number of immune individuals in our country. I believe I had COVID before they had a test, or even knew the disease existed. With recent news of three researchers being hospitalized with COVID symptoms prior to the Chinese deciding to report on the virus, it is even more likely my belief is correct. A recent study has found that even asymptomatic and those with mild symptoms have the same level of immunity as those vaccinated, and the studies propose that people who have been infected could continue to make antibodies or the rest of their life. I am choosing not to get vaccinated. That is my choice, and I will not allow anyone to bully me into getting vaccinated on the idea that I am a danger to others. Vaccinated people are protected, according to the CDC. They do not have to mask up in all but very specific circumstances. Why? Because they are protected from the virus. Those with natural immunity are also protected. Those who either didn't have COVID or aren't vaccinated should take whatever precautions they feel necessary.
OSHA has decided to avoid discouraging employers from encouraging or even mandating the vaccine, so they will no longer require employers who mandate the vaccine to report adverse effects as worker's compensation claims. I'm trying to play this out in my head, but if you are injured or made sick by something you employer mandates that you do as part of retaining your employment, isn't that the definition of a worker's compensation claim? Whether it's being vaccinated or driving a forklift shouldn't matter. But, we need to jam vaccination down everyone's throat, so no, even if your employer makes your continued employment contingent on you getting vaccinated, they don't have to pay up should you miss work, be hospitalized or even die from their mandate. This is not safety, it's asinine.
The University of Louisville did the first major study on the efficacy of mask mandates at stopping the spread of COVID. Guess what they found? Yep, you got it, mask mandates did not, in any way shape or form, regardless of the level of the outbreak, slow the spread of COVID. Got that? Mask mandates were nothing more than political theater. They even say that, in a nice way. The mandates provided a sense of solidarity and community, but as an effective medical protection, they were utterly useless. Since mask mandates did indeed increase the level of mask wearing, but had little to no effect on the spread, you can extrapolate that masks themselves did little to stop the spread of COVID. We had virtually no flu this season and people insisted that was because of masks, yet we had a huge winter spike in COVID, and that was because people weren't wearing the masks. Common sense fails people, all the time.
Places all over the country are trying to hire employees but can't. Some people (see common sense failing) are insisting that it's because employers aren't paying enough. But most of the places around me are paying twice as much as minimum wage, sometimes even more. See, when you pay people to stay home, they have no incentive to go to work, and some states allowed you to refuse to return to a job if you were scared of COVID. They incentivized people to stay home. Duh.
Yeah, today was all COVID all the time. Sorry about that. That other subjects on my list cannot be covered in one paragraph.
Until next time....
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