Some thoughts
First of all - I am shocked by the number of deaths this 2nd and 3rd round of the pandemic is taking. It is unpreccidented. After 11 months of 'dealing with it' there's no relative cure that pulls you out of being violently sick for many people. I am shocked doctors cannot slow it down.
Which brings it to the next point, that the research on immune systems is incomplete. While we made great progress in 20 years with the genome project, we know so much detail, but we don't know enough of the immune system. If we had put the same efforts into the immune system we might have been better off. Yet some countries seem to have lower deaths and that remains a puzzle. And that is why I am shocked the US doctors are not bringing down the mortality rate.
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For the people dying after taking the vaccine - they probably fall in the 5-6% out of the range of effectiveness of the vaccine's expect at 94-95%.
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CORRECTION:
AS OF MID-JAN RUSSIA SAYS ONLY 1.5 M PEOPLE HAVE BEEN VACCINATED. WE ASSUMED AT LEAST 100 M WOULD HAVE BEEN VACCINATED IN 4 MONTHS. THAT WAS AN ERROR.
SO WE CANNOT DETERMINE THE EFFICIENCY OF THE VACCINE FROM 1.5 M PEOPLE OUT OF 146 M PEOPLE. HENCE CONSIDER EFFICIENCY OF SPUTNIK AS UNKNOWN, TILL MORE INFO BECOMES AVAILABLE.
WHAT IS KNOWN:
Italy and Russia have the highest rates of 'recovery', almost 60% more recoveries than the USA. Recovery means those recovering from Covid. Means those who have Covid. Those who have Covid are not given vaccines. So it is something else besides vaccines that is driving the high rate of recovery. Something for your doctors to find out. So you can be saved too.
Russian vaccine seems to have a lower efficiency as 140 days have passed since it came out. In a 'more controlled' country its not as hard to reach herd immunity for 146 M people. I can't say for sure if the US target of 1M vaccinated per day is easily possible but in a controlled country, yes probable. Yet the numbers in late Jan don't show a steep drop as expected. At this point they should have been able to vaccinate at least 100M people and the deaths and infections should have drastically dropped. They have dropped but not as much. Hence the conclusion.
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I didnt realize the pros and cons of Executive Action until this Administration took over. Its easy to override Congress and just as easy to override Executive Action. Which brings you back to the point of how difficult it is to pass bills in a democracy when no one seems to agree. But the point made is a Bill passed is more permanent, while Executive Action is temporary.
Which brings us to an important point on why they are debating the filibuster. To make sure 'undemocratic stalling' doesn't kill bills. So this is quite interesting. This was the main reason why the provious administration embraced Executive Action and bypassed hours of negotiation on bills that very often never got passed.
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The issue with combordities is a paradox. Diabeties patients in a 2016-2017 study of 7 years on the Flu vaccine apparently 'did not get much benefit' in terms of mortality rate from the vaccine but "saved critical care hospital visits" . The conclusion was confusing. But it did help reduce severe infection. It was not stated clearly that the vaccine helped reduced mortality. That was not stated.
The main point is - for people with combordities, the immune system does not 'kick in' on encountering disease as does for normal people. So a vaccine is supposed to 'kick start' the immune system. If the vaccine has the same or similar cells as the disease, nothing's probably going to happen. But it might activate 'some fighting cells' which might or might not kill the 'real disease cells'. So thats a problem with people with combordities. To find out what a vaccine should contain to 'kick start' their immune systems.
And this relates to the story of the covid patient who got the vaccine and died a few hours later. Its either - nothing happened. The vaccine did not activate anything as it had the same cells.. Or whatever 'some fighting cells' that the vaccine activated, didnt do their job. Either way, couldnt save him.
So thats why many people said earlier, forget the vaccine and build your immune system using Vitamin D & C.
But doctors will know this better - there's a 3 scenario case here -
1. Did the immune system fail to trigger due to a genetic disorder or lack of proper diet,
2. Did it trigger but produced the wrong fighting cells because of a genetic disorder
3. Did the immune system trigger but because of lack of proper diet or a genetic disorder, not enough fighting cells were produced.
WE DON'T KNOW WHY PEOPLE WITH COMBORDITIES FAIL TO FIGHT THE DISEASE.
So that's something to find out.
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Other than the above, there are a few new bits and pieces to look at in the Global Warming Puzzle that might yield some interesting answers. I hope to check CO2 maps in the next few days to see if something new can be found.
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Other sensitive stuff I don't want to comment on is the Russian protests but it always brings me back to the US & Canada Constitutions, where to a large extent, you can have a system that is not dependent on the people in power. So that we'll leave for Davos2.
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And that concludes some of the most boring stuff you have ever read.
Thankyou.
Howdy, Stranger!