You know who doesn't try to hide this stuff from people?
Bad actors. Conspiracy theorists, scammers, straight up liars.
So you've got on one hand "the experts" who are being vague and seemingly not wanting to tell you anything, and then on the other hand you've got the crazies who will tell you whatever you want to hear.
It's something that is increasingly frustrating me about the vaccines. The vaccines have become a political battle. You've got the president saying absolutely ridiculous things like "we are losing our patience with the unvaccinated".
I got phone calls immediately after that speech from my conservative friends and family members pissed off at me (who is on a different political quadrant than they are), wanting to know if I was "losing my patience" with them, and explaining how they are NEVER going to take the vaccine. How they now see this as an important idealogical battle that they want to win.
Where it's Dr. Fauci starting off saying "The vaccine is 100% safe and 100% effective!" (a lie, obviously), and as the video continues that number goes down and down and down.
It was the same last year when he said that we needed something like 70 or 80% antibody presence to reach herd immunity, but then was quoted in a more private interview saying that was basically a white lie, and that we wouldn't be in the clear until nearly 100%. THAT got shared among the conservative spaces, and basically erased ANY credibility that Fauci had going forward.
--
I wish they would just say:
Covid sucks.
Yes, it almost certainly leaked out of a lab in China.
Yes it was gain of function research. Yes this is the worst industrial disaster in the history of the planet.
Yes we did say masks didn't work. It was a lie to keep the masks available for doctors.
Yes the vaccines do have dangers associated with them, but for many people that danger is probably less than the danger of covid.
Yes there are alternative treatments that show some effectiveness in cohorts, but not in RCTs.
No we don't know why.
We aren't sure if the lockdowns are actually effective, but we think it's worth it to try them.
We aren't sure if the masks are actually effective but we think it's worth it to try them.
The vaccine is available to you and free if you want it. This is a huge privilege you get because you live in the richest country in the world. Basically your access to the vaccine is an example of how kickass the USA is.
Just stop freaking lying to people. It's making the problem 100x worse!
> Covid sucks. Yes, it almost certainly leaked out of a lab in China.
> Yes it was gain of function research. Yes this is the worst industrial disaster in the history of the planet.
There are plenty of factual, logical arguments for and against a lab leak and there is a decent chance we will never know. Suggesting the matter is decided is a lie in its own right.
> We aren't sure if the masks are actually effective but we think it's worth it to try them.
Imagine after the Chernobyl disaster somebody insisting that the reactor didn’t melt down, but in fact there was a giant earthquake that opened a fissure in the ground and shot a bunch of radioactive rocks all over the town, and that that then triggered a volcano which shot radioactive dust all over Europe.
At some point: the reactor in the nuclear power plant next to Pripyat is the source and alternative explanations are conspiracy theories.
Hey: maybe a bat carried covid all the way from the Laotian border and just happened to land right next to a lab doing GoF research in bat cornonaviruses. I’m not ruling anything out. But at this point it’s going to take a LOT of evidence to disprove the obvious.
There is possibly a form of survivorship bias here - it is likely that the WIV became the world leader in coronavirus research because it met the criteria for a BSL4 lab and is within a one to two day driving distance of places where previous coronavirus outbreaks started. In some ways it is unsurprising that it would be near the epicenter of an outbreak.
I am not stating that it did not escape from the lab, just that there are additional factors to consider and the likelihood it was an escape is less obvious than you are making it out to be.
For anyone who comes to look at these conversations at a later date, the most recent information about work by Peter Daszak has shifted my opinion. I find it to be significantly more likely that it was a lab leak following the new evidence.
One of my problems with masks, for example; is that COVID is already prevalent in wildlife. That was known last summer. Chasing "less exposure" via masks after that is silly, seems to me.
I'm delighted they're making the vaccines freely available as they are. That's a magnificent success that is not yet as well celebrated as it deserves. Making vaccination status an issue, instead of immune status; is so stupid one has to wonder if it could be intentional. Especially as they keep doubling down on such decisions.
I watched the video you linked, it's amusing and well presented, but if you pause and read the headlines, a lot of the lower numbers (<90%) come from either:
- results on only one dose of a two dose series
- efficacy declining after several months from the second dose
So those ones seem kind of disingenuous to include, especially the former.
(I don't disagree with your general points though)
Oh yeah, and I don't mean to imply that the video I linked is a good example of truth, just that's the sort of thing that gets shared in conservative spaces.
If the response was "wait, WTF is this video? Fauci always just gives us the bare truth", that would be great.
But unfortunately, some of the things that the authorities have lied about have become the ground truth for conservatives, so videos like the one I linked get taken as truth without any additional inspection.
Bad actors. Conspiracy theorists, scammers, straight up liars.
So you've got on one hand "the experts" who are being vague and seemingly not wanting to tell you anything, and then on the other hand you've got the crazies who will tell you whatever you want to hear.
It's something that is increasingly frustrating me about the vaccines. The vaccines have become a political battle. You've got the president saying absolutely ridiculous things like "we are losing our patience with the unvaccinated".
I got phone calls immediately after that speech from my conservative friends and family members pissed off at me (who is on a different political quadrant than they are), wanting to know if I was "losing my patience" with them, and explaining how they are NEVER going to take the vaccine. How they now see this as an important idealogical battle that they want to win.
Conservatives are sharing videos like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=TSZMtSPX3iE&feat...
Where it's Dr. Fauci starting off saying "The vaccine is 100% safe and 100% effective!" (a lie, obviously), and as the video continues that number goes down and down and down.
It was the same last year when he said that we needed something like 70 or 80% antibody presence to reach herd immunity, but then was quoted in a more private interview saying that was basically a white lie, and that we wouldn't be in the clear until nearly 100%. THAT got shared among the conservative spaces, and basically erased ANY credibility that Fauci had going forward.
--
I wish they would just say: Covid sucks. Yes, it almost certainly leaked out of a lab in China.
Yes it was gain of function research. Yes this is the worst industrial disaster in the history of the planet.
Yes we did say masks didn't work. It was a lie to keep the masks available for doctors.
Yes the vaccines do have dangers associated with them, but for many people that danger is probably less than the danger of covid.
Yes there are alternative treatments that show some effectiveness in cohorts, but not in RCTs.
No we don't know why.
We aren't sure if the lockdowns are actually effective, but we think it's worth it to try them.
We aren't sure if the masks are actually effective but we think it's worth it to try them.
The vaccine is available to you and free if you want it. This is a huge privilege you get because you live in the richest country in the world. Basically your access to the vaccine is an example of how kickass the USA is.
Just stop freaking lying to people. It's making the problem 100x worse!