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Okay that "WE HAD THE VACCINE THE ENTIRE TIME" headline... decent article, shitty, shitty headline
Yes, Moderna came up with a vaccine candidate literal days after the SARS-CoV-2 genome was published
Yes, it went to trials immediately
Yes, in the future we probably COULD get to a point where we have a suite of vaccines that are plug-and-play, like the flu vaccine, where we know this construct works for this family of viruses and it has been safety tested to hell and back and we just drop in the relevant genes
But you know what?
WE
ARE
NOT
THERE
YET
WE
ARE
NOT
THERE
YET
We for sure aren't there with mRNA vaccines like Moderna's.
We needed to do the trials this year.
We needed to do the trials this year.
Okay? As shitty as our government response has been, as 100% it has been "fuck 'em let 'em die" the vaccine process these candidates are going through IS NOT THAT so far as we can tell
I also want to draw attention to a couple side notes in the article that I think are WAY more important than the conspiracy- and rage- and fear-provoking headline
"...At least some of the threefold decline in COVID-19 fatality rates observed over the spring and summer... can be attributed to doctors no longer trying so many experimental treatments and focusing instead on the basic, old-fashioned job of simply keeping patients alive."
Which is also not to cast aspersions on the doctors desperately trying something, anything.
But some of those, like hydroxychloroquine, killed people.
But some of those, like hydroxychloroquine, killed people.
"In February and March, we were warned against the use of masks, in part on the grounds that a false sense of security would lead to irresponsible behavior — on balance, perhaps the most consequential public-health mistake in the whole horrid pandemic."
The mask messaging in the US has been a fucking shitshow.
And I mean, it would have been better if we had heard "We think, but cannot prove, wearing a mask will help. At this time we are recommending everyone wear a mask when outside of their home."
But we got told "Don't wear masks."
But we got told "Don't wear masks."
And I mean I remember looking at comparisons of mask-wearing countries and non-masked countries and seeing the rates and saying yeah, the masks probably play a role, here is how you would do a causal study on it to prove that (some of which have now come out and YES MASKS WORK)
I also wish we funded more basic science so that people had already gone "hey look, these kinds of masks stop the spread of colds and flu, I bet they help here too" but here we are
"But in September, we opened bars and restaurants and gyms, inviting pandemic spread even as we knew the seasonality of the disease would make everything much riskier in the fall."
And this is what has me pissed. We have known for MONTHS that indoors is riskier than outdoors, that maskless is riskier than masked, and I could go have dinner inside a restaurant TONIGHT with case rates already spiraling out of control.
So I think if you wanna scream and fight over the article, the things to fight for would be:
- oh my god, fund science
- oh my god, organize and fund the research and development of the "plug-and-play" vaccines described, like we already have for flu
- oh my god, fund science
- oh my god, organize and fund the research and development of the "plug-and-play" vaccines described, like we already have for flu
- That Man has blood on his hands, as do a lot of his lackeys, as do a lot of governors
- Fund public health
- Fund public health
- capitalism is poisonous and we are a nation of utter ASSHOLES and I don't know how to make you care about other people
- the government should have made PPE, not stolen it
- the government should have made PPE, not stolen it
I mean the fact that we were at the point of people donating their N95s to hospitals and making cloth masks to donate to hospitals is ENRAGING and SHAMEFUL and absolutely a government failure.
