https://www.rawstory.com/arizona-audit-ken-bennett/

It has been clear from the very beginning that the “audit” was a joke organized by partisan hacks without the skills, experience or credibility needed for a real review. Now their internal chaos is coming to light with one of the key leaders banned from the campus for the sin of sharing the fact that the “audit” was tracking very closely to the official tallies. Telling the simple truth is often a sin in Republican circles – why would this be any different.

Source: Ars Technica.

I like this story because of the pithy phrase in the title, “pandemic of [the] unvaccinated.” The phrase is sort of a Rorschach test in that it reveals the inner thoughts and assumptions of those who respond to it.

Continue reading “Pandemic of unvaccinated rages with delta’s spread; cases up in all 50 states” →

WSJ How Science Lost the Public Trust

This article bears a lot on many of the discussions here. I wish it weren’t paywalled.

An  excerpt

“He(Matt Ridley) asks: “If you think biological complexity can come about through unplanned emergence and not need an intelligent designer, then why would you think human society needs an ‘intelligent government’?” Science as an institution has “a naive belief that if only scientists were in charge, they would run the world well.” Perhaps that’s what politicians mean when they declare that they “believe in science.” As we’ve seen during the pandemic, science can be a source of power.

But there’s a “tension between scientists wanting to present a unified and authoritative voice,” on the one hand, and science-as-philosophy, which is obligated to “remain open-minded and be prepared to change its mind.” Mr. Ridley fears “that the pandemic has, for the first time, seriously politicized epidemiology.” It’s partly “the fault of outside commentators” who hustle scientists in political directions. “I think it’s also the fault of epidemiologists themselves, deliberately publishing things that fit with their political prejudices or ignoring things that don’t.”

There are many things for which I fault Saint Fauci, but his changing position on a number of beliefs as our knowledge of COVID evolved is not one of them. Of course, if he would at times make the point that his previous position was in error, instead of just asserting the new position as though he had never said anything else, that would help a lot.

People need to understand that science is a process, not a sacred book.

I don’t think so.

At a personal level, if you are vaccinated for Covid-19, then infected people are no medical threat to you. It makes no sense to single out unvaccinated spreaders by calling them a threat when all vaccination statuses are equally non-threatening to the vaccinated.

Continue reading “Are the Unvaccinated a Threat to the Vaccinated?” →

https://www.newsweek.com/florida-hospital-canceling-elective-surgeries-amid-covid-increase-us-cases-tripling-1611990

Elective procedures in Florida back on hold…again. We are apparently slow learners. Now a few Republicans are panicking and starting to push vaccination despite anti-vaccines efforts from many in the last months. This report is a bit of a wake up call to the faithful. And losing voters too.

Source: FactCheck.org.

This story usefully outlines the controversy which underlies the Rand Paul/Anthony Fauci video posted here yesterday. The controversy can be distilled to a single question: Did the National Institutes of Health fund gain-of-function research at the virology lab in Wuhan?

Continue reading “The Wuhan Lab and the Gain-of-Function Disagreement” →

Source: National Review.

The observations in this story ring true to me, as I have lived and worked among Naval personnel all my life.

I would say, though, that debauchery is almost a Naval tradition and it is not confined to the enlisted rates. Having been to sea on small boats (never in the Navy) I tend to think there is something about the at-sea experience that causes the excesses of at-shore behavior. I suspect, too, that navies everywhere have always known this and always found it more expedient to accept the consequences than to try to prevent them. Some things you can’t change.

https://www.npr.org/2021/07/21/1018850848/pelosi-rejects-2-gop-nominees-for-the-jan-6-panel-citing-integrity-of-the-probe

The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, has said “Hell No!” to Jim Jordan and Jim Banks being part of the Select Committee charged with investigating the January 6th Attack on the Congress. She is absolutely right. This work is too important to allow it to be polluted by such egregiously dishonest Trump enablers.

Leader (and probable witness) Kevin McCarthy says that the Republicans will boycott the proceedings if these partisan trolls are not accepted. Good! Things will go much quicker and much smoother without GOP delaying tactics and obfuscation. I hope he sticks to his guns. But, I wonder. Has McCarthy been played by the wily Speaker? Maybe.

Rand Paul comes back to his LIE that our government funded research that lead to the emergence of the Covid-19 virus. Interesting to watch this sociopath make his threats of prison (Lock him up!) directed at one of the most respected people in our country. Trying to out Trump Trump but not very good at it.

There is a tiny fact hidden in this yet another “conservative” LIE. Funding from the NIH did lead to a small sub-contract at Wuhan for ongoing studies that had nothing to do with the pandemic virus. That is enough for such people. Any chance to attack our government, China or Fauci is just too good for such a person as Rand Paul to pass up. My prediction – try as he might, Rand Paul will not be the next Trump.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/18/fact-checking-senator-paul-dr-fauci-flap-over-wuhan-lab-funding/

Source: James Fetzer.

This story has been kicking around for a few days now. I share it to refute the irrational speculation that vaccine hesitancy shows a political bias or that only ignorant people are hesitant to be vaccinated.

I personally believe that the vaccines for Covid-19 have been more beneficial than not, but that isn’t saying much. New and unexpected wrinkles in the Covid-19 vaccination story keep occurring. For example, some pundits have been commenting recently on the observation that populations in Europe with the highest vaccination rates are also experiencing the highest infection case rates, and vice versa (low vaccinations/low case rates).

However that particular observation plays out under scrutiny, politicizing a disease like Covid-19 is clearly a mistake.