LNL76

Wait, mask mandate extended?! Color me shocked!

rickair7777

They do work as advertised, and certainly appeared to be a panacea for lockdowns and economic recovery.

They were "advertised" to work against covid 1.0...

New variants have degraded that effectiveness but it still provides very good protection against severe outcomes.

So do we hold off and wait while they develop variant-specific boosters, or just roll with what we have? Looks like the powers that be are rolling.

skywatch

They do not work as advertised, nothing about this pandemic is as advertised - although they are plenty of folks willing to make apologies for the constantly moving goalposts.

If they worked as advertised no one would still be wearing masks anywhere and we would be done with all of this - of course it was 100 days to flatten the curve even before we had vaccines. But the vaccines were supposed to put an end to all of this, and first year med students know a virus evolves, so you cannot use that as an excuse, especially as the vaccine loses effectivity against all of the variants in a short period of time.

It’s like an Afghanistan for public health. We will pull out eventually, having gained nearly nothing when all is said and done, but some pharma will make a lot of money.

ASAP

It’s like an Afghanistan for public health. We will pull out eventually, having gained nearly nothing when all is said and done, but some pharma will make a lot of money.[/QUOTE]


One of the truest statements made yet.
The Oregon gov idiot is attempting to pass a ‘permanent indoor mask mandate’ despite the most obvious fact ever that such a thing does less then nothing.
When all the dust settles it will be moot what policies were in place for mitigation. The only difference will be what freedoms were lost in the quest for wokeness.

rickair7777

No one knew exactly how the virus would mutate. No one promised that this or any vaccine would retain 100% efficacy against any and all mutations. That's absurd and was never remotely implied by anyone.

The pandemic mutated around the vaccines to some degree but at least most people are no longer afraid of the pandemic. Problem solved, time to move along. Omicron is looking mild, even with all of it's scary mutations.

Furloughedboi

Rickair you can’t be serious with that one. Even Fauci, with all his nonsense, said it would be pretty much over by now.
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/12/anthony-fauci-offers-a-timeline-for-ending-covid-19-pandemic/
The CDC saying roughly the same thing

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/09/16/coronavirus-cdc-says-us-should-have-enough-vaccine-to-return-to-regular-life-by-third-quarter-of-2021.html

Let’s not forget CA GOV Newsom that “vaccines are the light at the end of the tunnel,” Biden that “just wear a mask for 100 days, that’s it, and we’ll get COVID behind us,”

These vaccines were oversold to a gross degree. First it was severe ailment immunity, no death, and not contagious. Now it’s literally only “it might protect you from severe ailment, you might still die, and stats show you are basically just as contagious.”

ZapBrannigan

So you're flying around a line of thunderstorms. The hole you were aiming towards fills in, and the storm is building beneath you. What was occasional lightning in the distance now fills the wind screen.

What you are saying about Dr Fauci, the CDC, and the rest is that they should have plowed through, "don't be late! Penetrate"

What the public health officials have done instead is evaluate the new weather scenario and alter course - albeit they decided to go all the way to the southern edge of the line before turning back on course.

I think it's a fair analogy. What we do isn't science... but it only makes sense to change course when the current heading is going to put us in harms way.

RI830

Things are going well in Germany!!!

Nantonaku

I guess it depends on your perspective. We had no vaccines for over a year and yet here we are in the second year with vaccines and therapeutics and we have more deaths? Are you sure they didn't actually change course and turn us right into the eye of the storm? We very well could be in a way better place right now as a country if we did nothing for the past two years and just lived our lives. Or at least very minimal intervention (think Great Barrington). You are giving the public health officials way too much credit. Why do you believe these people? Do you believe the head of the CDC that masks are 80% effective? Do you believe Fauci that we aren't funding gain of function research? Which version of Fauci's take on masks do you believe? 0? 1? 2? There is enough hindsight now on all of this to know that these people have no clue what they are doing. Fauci recommending travel restrictions is in direct conflict to recommendations from the WHO. Their decision to not delay second shots for the general population delayed our misery by months. There is a never ending list of all the things these people botched.

Desdi

If you are going to use that analogy, you could always do a 180. Where does it end, when does the government ever loosen up unless it is politically expedient or advantageous for those in the driver’s seat? Never, and in most cases they “double down” because the previous “five point plan” didn’t work……Covid, Delta, Om(ni)……. when will some folks at least take the next freakout and the subsequent “new new plan” with skepticism? Because it WILL come and be another excuse to A) spend more money B) to increase restrictions C) a reason to shame others that raise questions, have doubts or in anyway don’t fall in line as the actual reason for the new strain! All the while deflecting from their own PR and/or policy failures.