(2021-10-28) ZviM Covid 10/28 An Unexpected Victory

Zvi Mowshowitz: COVID-19 10/28: An Unexpected Victory. in the land of Covid-19, things continue as you might expect.

Executive Summary
Ryan Peterson managed to get them to change the container stacking rules at the port of Los Angeles, which had otherwise reached a standstill, potentially saving Christmas and/or the economy. This got its own post.
Covid-19 conditions continue to slowly improve.
Child vaccinations for age 5-11 on track for November.

The Numbers

Vaccinations

The FDA committee has now approved Pfizer for 5-11 year-olds, so we are on pace to start those vaccinations soon.

Vaccine Effectiveness

The core problem with booster shots continues to be that the following facts are true:
The vaccines are safe and effective.
Booster shots make them more effective.

Perhaps what they should say is, the truth? There’s no actual contradiction here, unless you are presenting the world in a black and white ‘protected’ versus ‘unprotected,’ immune versus not immune (see: Gupta on Rogan) because you assume people can’t handle anything else.

This pattern has been a problem for a while.

This is a fundamentally nonsensical story. If you think in terms of quantified risks and probabilities, it’s totally fine to say (reasonable guesses but not strongly endorsed numbers) ‘the vaccine works about 85% after a while, also boosters work better and make that 99%, also

But if all you can do is say ‘safe’ and ‘unsafe’ then there’s a necessary superposition of quantum unsafeness that shifts depending on what you’re talking about at the moment and what authority wants you to do.

This is also true in other areas, and has nothing to do with whether the things one is told to do are worth doing.

cars are still inherently unsafe

think about the messaging around sexual activity. Same thing.

This means (along with other similar problems) that authority is prevented from offering a coherent world model that lasts longer than a few sentences.

Vaccine Mandates

There’s vaccine mandates in theory, and then there’s mandates in practice. In practice, in addition to being more imposing on liberty, things are always messier and stupider than they are in theory.

NPIs Including Mask and Testing Mandates

Meanwhile, in Permanent Midnight watch, the New York Times has an advocate for permanent masking who strongly disagrees with Robin here.

Think of the Children

Mandating children get vaccinated, the same way we mandate other childhood vaccinations?

They’re going to mandate vaccination, and then force them to wear masks all day anyway.

There is zero basis in physical reality for such a requirement.

Any organization, such as the CDC, that would make such a recommendation has declared which side they are on, and it isn’t ours. There is a war.

About this next thing: It’s real. I’m going to quote in full so no one needs to click:
My daughter, 11, has been wonderful throughout the pandemic....

...this entire situation is completely crazy. And look at what it is costing us. Permanent damage to this family seems likely here based on how the mother is reacting, and for what? For the crime of wanting to hang out with a friend and act like a human being. This has been going on for almost two years.

Well, did you hear about the horrible latest trend among our kids (WaPo)? That they’re playing (moderate spoiler alert: Squid Game on Netflix, which I highly recommend) actual traditional childhood games?

How the hell did our kids find out about this horrible new game called Red Light, Green Light? That deadly, dangerous game where you have to alternate running and standing still?

Then the author goes on to express horror that children might play a number of other games.

If you’re wondering if childhood and life itself are the enemy these people want to destroy, you have your answer.

In Other News

It’s not only health. Have you tried… drawing fair congressional districts?

Americans not trusting the maps to be drawn fairly is good. It is a feature. Because they’re not fair, at all, they’re completely partisan. It would be good if they were not partisan, but the goal there isn’t to restore faith that the process is fair,, it’s to have a fair process. Everything is like this.

At the movies: I saw Dune, with minimal prior knowledge. People like it a lot. I do not understand.

At home: I saw Squid Game. As noted above, it is highly recommended. Give it one full episode, then make your decision. There may be a Squid Game Sequence in the works, if I can find the time.