Tidewater News and Opinion Forum
A place for civil discussion of the events of the day for Tidewater residents without the limitations imposed by media forums.
Democrats are giddy seeing their intellectual opponents silenced and after telling conservatives that if they didn’t like how they were treated on social media, to create their own platform, and now celebrate that platform being shut down.
Karma has not been repealed.
“Imagine the power to censor in the hands of you worst enemy.”
Liberal Majorities Don’t Last Long
The last 30 years have taught us that when Democrats win, they mistake a narrow win for a mandate and overreach, shocking the voters by the first Mid Term.
And it’s not even a debate I have to win, I can just pull up a lawn chair and watch them do the same thing and expect different results.
Right about now, Joe Manchin, and West Virginia, can have pretty much anything they want.
I have been trying to find something positive in 2020, but the best I can come up with are Winston Churchill’s comments on his service in the Boer War.
“There are few things in life so exhilarating as having been fired upon without effect.”
Reason: Distillers hit with fees
Early in the pandemic, we were short on many supplies. One of those was hand sanitizer.
Small, craft distilleries stepped up because we asked them to, making sanitizer instead of booze. The FDA then required them to denature the alcohol so people couldn’t drink the sanitizer and avoid paying sin taxes on booze. That meant that their equipment would be contaminated, requiring the replacement of plastic and rubber parts and chemical cleaning of metal parts at great expense.
Now, the FDA has billed each of these craft distilleries for over $14,000 to register as drug manufacturers.
And thanks for answering the call when we needed you, now pay up.
AstraZeneca vaccine in April??
How did it happen that bureaucratically mired Great Britain is doing everything right and we are doing everything wrong?
Maybe it’s because they have the memory of what it is actually like to be at war.
Will we at least have the sense to follow as they show the way?
A couple of months ago, AstraZeneca was on track to be the first vaccine approved in the US, but then it had the misfortune to work better than expected, being more effective at a lower dose. Faced with this wonderful news, the FDA sent it back to Phase 3 testing, delaying it until April.
It is saving lives in Britain today.
Britain is prioritizing vaccination based on a straight maximum lives saved criteria. No favoritism, no politics, just saving lives.
The US, and Virginia in particular, is using the vaccine to pay off favored supporters and assuage white guilt, at the certain cost of tens of thousands of lives(many, of course, elderly Blacks)
Britain prioritizes first doses
As we discussed here, Britain is focusing on getting the first dose to as many possible as quickly as possible, rapidly reaching herd immunity and preventing serious outcomes for as many as possible as they go.
So, Britain is leading, will we at least have the brains to follow? What they are doing is going to work, and it is going to work very quickly. It will be clear by the beginning of February,maybe even sooner, that their fatalities and hospitalizations are plummeting.
At that point, will the FDA see the light, or will it insist on going down with its overcautious ship.
President Trump, if you are listening, it’s not too late for that drone strike.
Crude oil prices have fallen by almost a third since this time last year due to the reduced demand from the pandemic.
But gasoline at the pump in Tidewater is up by about $.45 per gallon, another wonderful gift from the “Green Lunatics” in the Northam administration and the Democrat majority in the General Assembly.
Part is from the higher statewide taxes(many hidden) and the rest is from the regional tax we pay here to pay for things we don’t get because all the state money goes to Northern Virginia
But not to worry, were it not for the pandemic dropping oil prices, we would be paying even more.
And they go up even more next year. Of course, if you live in an urban area and have no commute and never venture into the outdoors, I guess that’s no big deal.
Reason: A quick route to herd immunity
We’ve all heard that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are 95% effective with 2 doses. But they are actually 90% effective with just one dose. Switching to a one dose regimen would effectively double the rate of vaccination of the population and bring the pandemic to a speedy end.
Remember that the original requirement was for the vaccine to be 60% effective.
But the FDA will not authorize the change, and tens of thousands will die needlessly while we reject the good in chase of the perfect.
It appears that Parcare Health Services in NY fraudulently obtained vaccine doses on the pretext of needing them for front line health care personnel and sold them to preferred customers.
I don’t know how you prevent this kind of thing, but where there are favors to be sold, they will be.
WSJ :therapeutics not being used
We discussed this here earlier. The problem is that Health Depts have discouraged Primary Care Physicians from treating COVID patients, instead telling them to send their patients home and to call the hospital only if they become severely ill. By the time they call the hospital, they are past the effective window for the monoclonal preparations.
PCPs need to be empowered to order these treatments without further consultation for their high risk patients. As a general rule, your PCP should always be your point of contact and specialists should report to the PCP.
