From a comments thread at Instapundit.
Of course you wouldn’t want to doubt the vaccines. Correlation is NOT causation, but it is a necessary, but not sufficient condition for causation. If the vaccines work, then high vaccination rates MUST be correlated w/ lower death rates ABSENT a confounding variable. Of course, the mere fact that confounding variables exist would minimize the significance of vaccination. My point here is why has everyone forgotten basic math & logic in order to “save” vaccines from the obvious conclusion: they don’t work? In any one circumstance, we’d declare vaccines a failure & move on. The difference, I think, is that people are just too invested in vaccines to admit they’re wrong. Heck, if they’re wrong about this, what else are they wrong about? And, more importantly, what else can save them from COVID & COVID hysteria? If you really really want something to be true, you’ll find a way to convince yourself that it’s true, but – if you’re honest – you’ll know it’s a lie. Vaccines have failed by every reasonable measure. We’re left with anecdotes &, of course, the untestable hypotheses (it would have been worse? How do you prove that?)
I believe you’re comment on being ‘too invested’ is the answer for all the covid policies/procedures etc. The politicians are too invested in lockdowns and masks to admit they were wrong. The pharma’s are too invested (literally) to admit the vaccines are just upgunned flu season type shots (at best). The medical community is too invested to admit there apparently is no actual treatment, as of yet, to cure this virus and basically once you have it you have to let it take its course. etc etc
What’s most amazing to me is that it’s common knowledge that if you are “fully vaccinated” you can still get and spread covid. Just like those who are completely unvaccinated and have never had covid. But those people who are unvaccinated but have had covid, lost their sense of taste and smell etc., are actually the ones who are most likely to be the way forward and yet they aren’t even considered. Such a person can tell their doctor this, and he’ll say “But have you got the vaccine shots yet?” Um, doc, why would I do that. I have natural immunity? “But have you got the vaccine shots yet?” It’s like there’s an alternate reality the Branch Covidians inhabit.
Company is pushing us to get booster shots but I had Omicron. Seems like people who had COVID and got the vaccine caught COVID again and some of them had it worse than before the jab. The “vaccines” seem to mess with your immune system and your immunity. I have immunity and worried the booster will actually lessen it. I’d rather skip the shot and potential side effects. Isn’t that the healthiest option? Not that anyone wants common sense anymore.
The data is suspect. Sorry, not sure I believe it. I know too many people vaccinated who ended up in the hospital anyway. I watched literally everyone catch Omicron in the North Dallas area regardless of vaccination status. Some got hospitalized, even being less severe, some did not. My sister has been having heart problems since getting her 2nd jab. Her lips are perpetually blue like she is not getting enough oxygen. She is not even 50 yet. The vaccines are doing more harm than good and seem to be killing people in their 20’s. Ok, the last point I haven’t seen in my circles and in fact I know few outside of my sister that seem to be having long term lasting effects from the vaccine. At the same time they don’t seem to be doing a thing while representing serious harm. It’s Russian Roulette with medicine to protect us from a virus that is highly survivable. If we were pushing HCQ and Ivermectin (I took Ivermectin doing my run) we may well have seen better results without the health issues the vaccines have introduced. What I keep being told is “trust the data” while one set of data says one thing and another set of data has obviously been collected in such a way to get a result (Death FROM vs. WITH COVID) and I work with data in my job. What they’ve done is created skepticism and doubt while causing very real harm.