Last Japanese Soldier on Island Warns Against Extremist Claims That War is Over
The FDA recently limited access to Covid-19 vaccines, and oh no we’re all going to die. People may have difficulty getting their 4,349th booster, which is the one that finally keeps you really safe. But watch how these stories are told. Here’s the Washington Post this morning, helping frightened readers navigate the terrifying new world of limited access:
Where can I get my shot, I need my shot, I can’t go on without my shot, does anyone have a line on where to get the shot? The world gets awfully small when you’re fiending.
This is how the newspaper describes the health benefits of the vaccines, and read this carefully:
Based on available data on past versions of coronavirus vaccines, public health experts believe updated shots provide short-term partial protection against infection and shore up more robust protection against hospitalization and death. For people with weakened immune systems because of their age or conditions, that protection wanes after several months.
Based not on recent data or current testing but rather on past versions of the thing now being offered, “experts believe” the updated shots provide “short-term partial protection.” Every round of discussion narrows the prevailing claim. Science is that we feel this may provide brief partial protection. Famous video compilation of the plummeting number (screenshot below, click this link to play):
But major medical associations warn that it’s still extremely important to get the vaccines, which protect populations that may be especially vulnerable to severe illness:
In mid-August, the American Academy of Pediatrics urged parents to get their youngest children vaccinated for covid. The major medical association is recommending that all children 6 months through 23 months old receive the shot because that age group is particularly vulnerable to being hospitalized with the virus.
Young children are particularly vulnerable to severe illness from Covid-19, so — as one of the most-threatened groups! — they have the greatest need for protection.
Meanwhile, actual data:
In the period between serosurveys 8.0 and 9.0, the team estimated one COVID-19-related hospitalization per 300 children aged below five years with incident COVID-19 vs. one hospitalization per 30 adult individuals aged ≥80 years with incident infection, with no COVID-19-related mortality in children but one death among every 80 adults with incident infection among individuals aged ≥80 years during the period.
For an association of pediatricians to be peddling the insane claim that young children are particularly vulnerable to an illness that mostly kills old people has become malpractice. They’re engaged in needless and irresponsible amygdala-punching behavior, sowing panic instead of providing a reality check. The world is probably gonna end in fire and agony real soon, local physicians warn, so doom doom doom. “I got this sackcloth and ashes in medical school.”
Everyone knows all of this, is the thing. The news is all about Robert F. Kennedy’s bizarre insistence on promoting conspiracy theories and dangerous skepticism about Covid-19 vaccines, because he’s an extremist who holds fringe views. But then the Post drops this remarkable paragraph:
Estimated vaccination rates for children have been low. For the 2024-25 season, less than 6 percent of children 4 and under were vaccinated. In total, roughly 13 percent of children between 6 months and 17 years of age received the shot. For adults, estimated vaccine uptake varied by age range from 11 percent for younger adults to nearly 44 percent for those 65 and older.
So only extremists reject the vaccines, because anti-vaxxer sentiment is a weird and marginal view found only among knuckle-dragging cultural outliers and dirty conspiracy theorists. Also, 87% of parents have declined to get Covid-19 vaccines for their children, a number that gets even larger among parents of younger children, and 89% of young adults have stopped receiving these vaccines. The highest level of recent uptake, among the elderly, is still well below half.
Experts warn that very young children have an especially high need for Covid-19 vaccines;
While 94% of very young children no longer get them.
Americans have completely tuned out the “experts,” and the experts haven’t allowed themselves to notice yet.
Anyway, reject the bizarre conspiracy theories of the 94% of parents who hold fringe views about vaccinating their young children, and stand proudly with the 6% who make up the mainstream.
The suicide of expertise, illustrated.
Meanwhile, at the New York Times, the reliably stupid Apoorva Mandavilli warns that experts at the CDC are very weepy and morbid and they have the sadz because pro-vax officials are quitting and being fired:
In interviews, about two dozen C.D.C. employees said that the mood inside the agency was bleak. Some blamed Mr. Kennedy for what they felt was a campaign waged against science.
Others said they were terrified for the future of the C.D.C. and the nation’s health. Some said they were in shock. All spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
“We’re scared for ourselves and for the country,” one said.
At one small group meeting Thursday morning, two people broke down in tears, according to an employee who was present. At another meeting, a senior leader who has always stayed calm under pressure was visibly shaking, another scientist said.
lItErALly ShAKiNg!!!!! Science is in a bleak mood, experts said. Science is hitting the box wine pretty hard, and spending the whole day in its pajamas.
You should inject mRNA products, because the people who want you to feel sad that you won’t. This is now the best argument the Church of Scientism has left.
The term "expert" now elicits nothing but deep guffaws from me. They should be treated accordingly.
I’d hazard that sympathy for the weepy and/or terrified CDC employees is thin on the ground.