The Chairman had to shrug at this one. There is a major holiday coming up, and the timeline for the Eve has narrowed to “tomorrow.” He has held to a firm position that the holiday should be honored- indeed treasured- despite all the manifestations of looniness abroad in the land.
You are aware of it if you are paying any attention to the various policies being imposed- not proposed- by an assortment of our leaders. It is a bit hard to keep them straight, since at least some of them regard widely disparate approaches to public health. New York and Florida come to mind as variants of approach to the viral variants. The dedicated Interns who did not go home for the Holiday were directed to parade the footnotes on posterboard in random but continuing manner. The position, going in, is a bit problematic. The traditional approach is that if you are vaccinated, there should be no problem. You could capitalize it: “Vaccination worked with Polio, and Smallpox and a host of others when those awful diseases were stalking the Vulnerable.”
The problem appears to be that the currently available vaccines don’t actually seem to work in the manner advertised. In fact, the reverse seems to be true in many cases, with fully vaccinated people contracting the virus, and presumably capable of spreading it other vaccinated people as well as the unvaccinated, who were unvaccinated against the medication that doesn’t seem to prevent it.
The Chairman said we could use an example from his personal staff, long ago, just as a cautionary tale. That member of the Staff was the only one of us who had actually worked a Public Health Emergency with Dr. Fauci. And the Chairman was firm about using the story: “Don’t be alarmist, just point out that opinions have changed over time.” The Socotra House experience comes from the SARS-1 viral outbreak, which followed the 9/11 attacks. Some of us had misgivings with some of the intrusive intelligence collection efforts that began then and which bedevil us today. And the nature of the emergencies contain elements in common, whether they refer to climate, inflation or the Covid.
But we raise that matter only because we actually have a member who personally talked to the Good Doctor in an emergency situation. That experienced was not filtered through the remarkable and sometimes contradictory messaging from our legacy media outlets. At the time of that event, the SARS-1 virus was spreading through a Hong Kong hotel, with potential carriers who had traveled to Canada and the United States. One party that was being tracked for contact had plans to visit Disney World in Florida. Our representative had no epidemiological background that merited selection for the Health and Human Services executive panel, but the emergency was plain, and “he” was available for service due to other concurrent issues at HHS.
The fatality rate of the outbreak then was something along the lines of 10%. The Covid fatalities, so far, have ranged under one percent, depending on the presence of co-morbidities. In some of the meetings at the HHS Secretariat, our member naturally defaulted to a military solution to the spread of the deadly virus, still being in uniform. That was the available Public Health option of imposing a “quarantine” across the land in order to stifle the spread. It seemed a logical approach to a medical threat that could have killed hundreds of thousands.
That particular meeting, one of dozens on the subject, was held as evidence of the spread was still being examined. Dr. Fauci gently leaned forward at the head of conference table on the 4th floor of the Hubert Humphrey Building downtown. He took a reasoned approach, but firmly stated that sometimes the consequences of an aggressive approach to fighting the virus could have more significant effects on the greater social order than even a deadly disease. There were no vaccines available at that early phase, and Dr. Fauci thought we needed to do the best we could without locking down the country.
That was similar to the premise we accepted here as the Covid panic spread. In order to take an aggressive approach against it, “vaccines” were developed without the usual time-consuming lab testing due to emergency. The ‘vaccines’ have those little punctuation marks around them since what was presented for injection to hundreds of millions of people around the world did not qualify for the traditional meaning of the word ‘vaccine.’ That said, the definition was changed without discussion, since they didn’t have quite the success that was advertised.
Here is the issue: If the vaccinated have risk from the unvaccinated population, have they actually been treated with something that stops the spread? Obviously not. If there is still transmission between fully vaccinated people and those who are not, there would appear to be a logical inconsistency in the official policy. Some of the current policy line is that the vaccinated population will have “less severe” reactions to infection. That is a generally good thing, but it also suggests that much of the current effort is misdirected. Dr. Fauci now has a different bit of advice, administered in his new role as Interpreter of Science and master of National Medical Emergencies:
“We should avoid contact with unvaccinated relatives by excluding them from our holiday celebrations.”
This is, in effect, tripling down on things that have not been effective before. We respect Dr. Fauci. But the point at the moment is that people are deciding whether they are going to get on airplanes to be with their families for the holidays. There appears to be a drive for permanent masking on public transportation. As a group, we share the sentiment that there is something contagious out there and we don’t know how deadly it might be.
Initial indications are that Omicron is closer to the common cold in severity than the initial variants of the virus were. That good news aside, Dr. Fauci said yesterday that “Certainly any kind of travel increases the risk. If you are careful and prudent, and the travel you feel is important, necessary travel, like seeing a member of the family that you have not seen for a long time if you are vaccinated and boosted, and the people that you are visiting are vaccinated and boosted. You can get on a plane and travel, so long as you’re very prudent at the airport by wearing a mask.”
That is one of the points that caused further confusion. The official line runs like this: “If someone in your family is not vaccinated, should you ask them not to show up?”
Fauci’s answer, with all respect, doesn’t make much sense, since he said, “Yes, I would do that. I think we’re dealing with a serious enough situation right now that if there’s an unvaccinated person, I would say, ‘I’m very sorry, but not this time, maybe another time when this is all over.’”
It seems a commonsense approach, except that we now know that the vaccines do not provide immunity, masks that do not work to stop transmissions, and wildly oversensitive tests for presence. The now two-year long disruption in society has had its own imperative impact on health, work, education and social interaction. Our former member of a national medical crisis team sighed. “We decided to follow the usual stuff we have done with the seasonal outbreaks of cold and flu. Try to minimize contact with other folks if you are feeling sick. Be careful with cleanliness, and try to avoid large crowds.
Our crisis veteran represents a segment of society that has a certain ambivalence about this crisis. “He” sports what was a fully vaccinated status, which is to say two doses of the Moderna vaccine. “He” did not get them to avoid the virus, but rather to attend the wedding of a son on a different coast. The last thing desired was a show-down at some travel gate with a TSA official tasked to examine documents of compliance to enable travel. In the event, internal travel passports were not required, and there were only minor consequences in reaction to the “vaccine” or from the large family gathering.
Booster? Not at present. There are some questions about both the efficacy of the jab, and the curious effects of the dose on athletes who have had the full course of injections. Heart trouble- myocarditis, specifically-, has been reported for some of the healthy young men who got the third dose. Descriptions of frequency vary from “some” to “rare” reactions among athletes. Given the sensitivity of available tests, it describes problems in a population otherwise at peak health.
The preponderance of hospitalization and death to Covid has been to those citizens with existing and continuing health circumstances. That is mostly in aged populations with contributing factors including obesity and diabetes. Both of these factors could constitute national emergencies, but apparently do not merit a vast expenditure of public funds, social dislocation and immense profits to those companies that produce them.
Part of today’s issue with the Covid Omicron variant is that countries like South Africa, a reported origin vector of the viral variant, has determined the severity of infection are equivalent to those of the common cold. If the mutation of the disease has followed the historical path of other pathogens, this latest variant may be more transmissible but no more virulent than others we have lived with for hundreds of years. The implications are that we are now engaged in a futile campaign to eliminate something that has adapted to us. It poses a threat not significantly different than what we experience annually, and for which no major dislocation in social interaction is instituted.
The Chairman said: “Make sure we are advocating nothing except to follow the precautions that make sense. If you want a vaccination for Covid, get one. Wear a mask? Do so if it makes you feel better. Get the vaccine booster if you wish, and if you feel sick, think about staying home until you get over it.”
The problem will likely be back every year, with modest variations in each visit. Many folks take annual flu shots as a matter of course, and can be adapted to deal with an evolving annual ‘endemic.’ Others do not. The uncomfortable realization is that under current definition, there will never be a time we can say “this is all over.” But thankfully, there is a means to come to an accommodation to seasonal disease. We would all be willing to get a booster if there was a compelling need to do so. Like the Government telling us we can’t travel without it.
So, in the meantime, the Writer’s Section is feeling fine, but are going to stay home for the holidays, wash regularly, and wear those face things only if dealing with other concerned citizens. All of us have lived at least partially in Asia, where mask-wearing is a common matter of personal preference, not a signal of accommodation to some national policy. We support that, and support making a decision that comports with understanding.
In the meantime, take care of yourself. That is where this really should begin.
Copyright 2021 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com