Mike Rowe
August 8 at 5:41 PM ·

Off the Wall

Here’s a delightful headline, followed by a charming article, written by a guy named Jonathan V. Last. I don’t think he likes me. Strap in. It's a doozy.

MIKE ROWE'S DIRTY LIES

The voice of the working class goes anti-anti-anti-vaxx.

Mike Rowe—the famous real man, dirty-jobbing, tough guy—is trying to pioneer a new lane in political discourse: anti-anti-anti-vaxx. In a Facebook post this week, Rowe decided to answer a question from one of his fans. The gentleman asked why, since Rowe had gotten a COVID vaccine, he had not used his platform to urge others to do so. Rowe’s response is worth reading in full, because it is either an example of despicable dishonesty or breathtaking stupidity.

Hi Jonathan

Along with “despicable dishonesty and breathtaking stupidity,” I’d like to offer a few additional options for you readers to consider. How about, “a refreshingly honest take on a controversial issue,” or “a thoughtful series of observations wrapped in a patina of common sense,” or maybe, “a brilliant blending of facts and inconvenient truths that leave the skeptical reader with much to consider.”

As you surely know, tens of millions of Americans are not even remotely persuaded by our current cadre of elected officials and health care experts. Obviously, the same was true when Trump was in office. Can you imagine the resistance to a vaccine today, if Donald Trump told Americans to simply “get the jab and trust the science?” It seems to me, if you want to persuade the unvaccinated to reconsider their hesitancy, you must first put yourself in their shoes, and acknowledge a few of the reasons for their skepticism.

Also, I’m puzzled by your sub-head. If “anti-vaxx” means I’m against vaccines, “anti-anti-vaxx” would mean I’m for vaccines, right? So, wouldn’t “anti-anti-anti-vaxx” mean I’m against vaccines? If so, you’re fundamentally mistaken. As I wrote in the very first paragraph, “Vaccines have saved more lives than any other advancement in the long history of medicine, and to your point, I got the shots the minute I was eligible.” I was careful to include that early on. You were careful to omit it. Understandable, given your headline, but not very fair, in my opinion.

JL: Rowe begins his explanation by saying, “I’m not a doctor, Steve, and even though I occasionally play one on TV, I’m not inclined to dispense medical advice to the people on this page.” And you know what? That’s fair enough. If Rowe doesn’t feel comfortable telling others what to do when it comes to public health, that’s reasonable. Except that two paragraphs later he starts asking questions about public health.

MR: Not to nitpick but asking questions about public health is very different than telling others what to do. Don’t you think?

JL: Rowe says the following: The fact is, millions of reasonable Americans have every right to feel confused and skeptical. Those people you refer to, Steve – the ones now telling us that we can “get back to normal just as soon as everyone is vaccinated” – those are the same people who said, “two weeks to flatten the curve!” Those are the same people who told us that masks were “useless” before they told us they were “critical.” Those are the same people who told us that a return to normalcy would occur just as soon as “the most vulnerable” among us were vaccinated. Then, just as soon as “half the population” was vaccinated. Then, just as soon as we achieved “herd immunity.” Those are the same people who told us they wouldn’t trust any vaccine developed under the last administration. Now, those very same people are belittling the skeptics.”

For a guy who makes his living pretending to be concerned with grubby details, this is a wildly, irresponsibly generalized set of charges. For starters, who are “those people”? No links here. No names. Just a vague, faceless assertion so he can’t be called out on facts.

MR: It was the original poster, Jonathan, not me, who said that we can “all get back to normal when everyone gets the shot.” He didn’t attribute that sentiment to any one individual, because he didn’t have to. It’s a widely held belief currently embraced by millions of Americans who affirmatively support a vaccine mandate. Check it out. https://53eig.ht/37sBWip

Obviously, I could have provided specific examples of people in power who favored lockdowns but went on to violate their own mandates, but I didn’t do that because those people are no longer the point. The point I was trying to make, is that half the country has lost faith in our most important institutions. We have a massive credibility problem, exacerbated by powerful people who not only moved the goalposts time and time again, but championed the same restrictions they chose to ignore. In my view, this steady drip of hypocrisy helped foster a deep level of mistrust among millions of unvaccinated Americans. If you really need specific examples, just google “COVID-political-hypocrites.” Those are the people to whom I refer, and they are legion.

JL: But the individual characterizations he makes of what “those people” supposedly said are at best misleading and at worst, patently untrue. Let’s go one by one.

“Two weeks to flatten the curve!” The idea of flattening the curve comes from late March 2020, when COVID was starting to run wild in the United States for the first time. The curve in question was the rate of new infections and the curve needed to be flattened because it’s increase was so steep that it was nearly an asymptote. The country faced a shortage of PPE and doctors hadn’t yet come up with best practices for treating patients. Had the rate of infection continued its geometric increase, not only would a higher percentage of COVID patients have died due to lack of adequate resources to care for them, but more non-COVID patients would have died because the healthcare system would have been overrun. The idea of “flattening the curve” was never about beating COVID, but about buying the healthcare system enough time to be able to treat patients optimally. And you know what? We flattened the fucking curve, Mike. And because of that, we saved a lot of lives.

MR: I agree. In just a few weeks, we flattened the curve, and we saved lives as a result. But what did our leaders do next? Did they say, “Good job! The curve is flat! Now let’s get back to work!” No. They extended the lockdowns and offered no benchmark as to when the restrictions would be lifted. To this day, we have no criteria as to how many deaths or how many infections or how many hospitalizations are acceptable. They could have told us the truth a year ago, which was more along the lines of, “Two weeks to flatten the curve, and then, an undetermined amount of time to keep it that way.” But they didn’t do that. They simply shut us down, ratcheted up the fear, and told us to trust the science. In short, they treated us like children, and that hurt their credibility.

JL: “The same people who told us that masks were ‘useless’.” Again, it’s hard to find details about “those people” but I assume Rowe is talking about Anthony Fauci’s comments to CBS News on March 8, 2020 where he said the following: There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask. When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is. And, often, there are unintended consequences — people keep fiddling with the mask and they keep touching their face.

MR: You’re correct, Fauci’s contradictions were on my mind when I wrote that. So too, were his more recent comments regarding the lab leak, gain of function, and lots of other remarks that are now seen by millions of people as demonstrably false. https://bit.ly/3jvXznE But again, I didn’t mention his name, because Fauci is not going to be part of the solution. His credibility is shot, and nothing he says will convince the skeptics to rethink their skepticism. (Earlier today, he slammed the Sturgis Bike Rally as a potential super-spreader event, while saying nothing about Obama’s birthday bash, and Lollapalooza. That’s the real problem. His slip is showing, and that’s made him unpersuasive to millions.

JL: Let’s stipulate that much of the medical establishment was slow to understand that the primary transmission mechanism for COVID was aerosolization. But the point here is that even Anthony Fauci, in this big gotcha moment, didn’t say that masks were “useless.” He used a heavily lawyered construct—no reason to be walking around with a mask—which was true. Also, Fauci allowed that masks might block “a droplet” while warning that it wasn’t the “perfect protection” some people thought. Again: Both factually correct. Was Fauci perfectly and fully transparent here? No. But neither was he saying what Rowe says.

MR: Again, I didn’t accuse Fauci of anything. I didn’t even mention his name. But the fact remains, we have tens of millions of highly skeptical, vaccine-hesitant Americans who no longer trust him. I don’t have to prove or justify their skepticism – it’s real, and the numbers prove it. Forty percent of the country is unvaccinated. Honest question, Jonathan - do you really think those Americans will be persuaded to think differently about the vaccine, when guys like you rush to defend men like Fauci and his “heavily lawyered constructs?"

JL: One more thing: By June, Fauci was admitting that he soft-peddled masks in early March because he was trying to keep people from hoarding them at a moment when the public wasn’t in danger and didn’t need them, but front-line workers were and front-line workers desperately did. Maybe you’re okay with the noble lie and maybe you’re not. But the fact is that people were hoarding them at the time. And if this episode discredited Fauci for you for all time, then there are myriad other health officials who can and have verified the vaccines’ efficacy.

MR: No, I’m not okay with a noble lie, or an ignoble one. Neither are millions of other people, who would prefer to hear the truth. Toward that end, I’m not comfortable telling people the vaccines are “perfectly safe” when the FDA has yet to approve them. As I said, “there is risk in everything, and I find it unpersuasive to pretend otherwise.” As for the vaccine’s efficacy, I could not have been clearer. My exact words on the matter – which you also omitted - were these.

“At this point, I’m afraid the government has but one course of sensible action - get the FDA on board, stat, and then, provide an honest, daily breakdown of just how quickly the virus is spreading among the unvaccinated, versus the vaccinated. No more threats, no more judgments, no more politics, no more celebrity-driven PSA’s, no more ham-fisted attempts at public shaming. Just a steady flow of verifiable data that definitively proves that the vast, undeniable, overwhelming majority of people who get this disease are unvaccinated.”

JL: And of course, if this episode discredited Fauci for you, then I assume that Donald Trump has also been discredited for you because of how he liked “playing down” COVID.

MR: Of course. Donald Trump should have apologized for that, and a few other things as well. Doing so might have made him more credible in the eyes of his many detractors. But Donald Trump, as you may have noticed, is no longer the president. And those now skeptical of the vaccine, are not limited to his former supporters. Far from it. Vaccine hesitancy is alive in well in every major city, particularly among minority populations.

JL: “A return to normalcy would occur just as soon as ‘the most vulnerable’ among us were vaccinated.” I’d like to see a cite for this.

MR: It’s the sentiment, Jonathan. It doesn’t matter who said it. I recall very clearly, a recurring talking point that revolved around “protecting the most vulnerable,” so the rest of us – (the less vulnerable) – could get back to work. If I was trying to build a case against specific individuals, I’d call people out. But that’s not what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to remind people that there’s never been a declarative statement about the metrics and circumstances that would allow us all to return to work, school, and play. And that’s a problem.

JL: The most high-profile example I can find making “back to normal predictions” is President Joe Biden who went in the opposite direction. On February 16, 2021, Biden said: “As my mother would say, with the grace of God and the goodwill of the neighbors, that by next Christmas I think we’ll be in a very different circumstance, God willing, than we are today. A year from now, I think that there’ll be significantly fewer people having to be socially distanced, having to wear a mask.” At the time, people lost their minds over this estimate because it was so pessimistic. But on February 16, we were still only getting 2.3 million doses administered per day and the government hadn’t yet solved the logistics problem left to it by the previous administration. And by the by, Biden’s pessimistic estimate is looking pretty dead-on right now, isn’t it?

MR: Beats me. I don’t have a crystal ball, and neither does the President. But I am starting to believe that COVID is likely here to stay, in some way, shape or variant. We’re going to have to learn to live with it, and I’m of the belief that doing so will be a lot easier if more people are vaccinated. I could be wrong, but that’s why I wrote what I wrote. I’m pro-vaccine, but anti-mandate. I’m also of the belief that half the country doesn’t trust anything Joe Biden says. You can blame the president for this, or you can call me a liar, or you can blame half the country for being unreasonably skeptical, but either way, this administration – just like the last one - has a massive, self-inflicted, credibility problem. I think it’s okay to acknowledge that. In fact, I think it’s critical that we do, if we hope to make a more persuasive case to those who believe they’ve been lied to.

JL: “Then, just as soon as ‘half the population’ was vaccinated.” Again, I have no idea who “those people” are. The medical and scientific establishments were exceedingly careful in not hanging numbers on what percentage of the population was needed to hit “herd immunity.” Most guesstimates put it in the mid-60s, but just about everyone involved was careful to acknowledge that they were dealing with too many unknowns to be making more than guesstimates.

MR: You’re right – there were lots of guesstimates being thrown around, but I think you’re mistaken about the care that people took to make sure those guesstimates were not taken at face value. The airwaves were filled with various experts and journalists talking with great certainty about the way everything would change when herd immunity was reached. I don’t blame them for being wrong – only for sounding certain. From the start of this mess, politicians, experts, and journalists have all been very long on certainty, and very short on humility. That too, has made them all less credible in the eyes of many.

JL: “Then, just as soon as we achieved ‘herd immunity’.” You know who pushed the idea of “herd immunity” over and over? The COVID deniers and anti-vaxxers. Those people. Those people who wanted to hold “chickenpox parties” for COVID instead of trying to mitigate the spread. Those people who kept insisting that no measures were needed to combat COVID because herd immunity would save us. Those people who declared we should just follow Sweden’s example and fast-forward to herd immunity. Those people whose medical advice in March of 2020 was “Get it. Get immunity. Feel better. The herd triumphs.” Mike Rowe is taking irresponsible bullshit from the bad guys and ascribing it to the good guys in an attempt to discredit them.

MR: Good guys? Bad guys? How shall I respond? With links to Nancy Pelosi, encouraging people to celebrate the Chinese New Year, cheek to jowl? Or Gavin Newsom, dining mask-less with his pals? Or Laurie Lightfoot, getting a haircut when no one else was allowed to? But what’s the point? This is the problem, Jonathan. You’re stuck in a gunfight. White hats and black hats and nothing in between. The point of my post, which you’re working very hard to ignore, is to acknowledge the undeniable fact that millions of Americans see the country exactly as you do - Good Guys vs. Bad Guys. And guess what? No one sees themselves as the Bad Guy. In the words of Dave Mason, “There ain't no good guy, there ain't no bad guy. There's only you and me and we just disagree.”

JL: “Those are the same people who told us they wouldn’t trust ANY vaccine developed under the last administration.” I’m sure you can find five people on Twitter who said something like it. Maybe even a guest on MSNBC. But show me serious people in the media, in medicine, in research, in politics—anywhere—who said such a thing?

MR: I’m talking here about the millions of Americans who would fundamentally distrust any vaccine recommended by Donald Trump if he were still in office today. If you don’t want to acknowledge that those people exist, please revisit the above quote from Dave Mason. Better yet, listen to it. https://bit.ly/3Cp9IU1 It might cheer you up.

JL: Maybe he’s talking about Kamala Harris? But she said something very different than what Rowe charges. Here’s what she said on September 6: “I would not trust Donald Trump. It would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the efficacy and the reliability of whatever he’s talking about. I will not take his word for it.” This is the big gotcha?

MR: No, Jonathan, I wasn’t talking about Harris, and no, it’s not a big “gotcha.” (But, for the record, she did say very clearly on 10/7/21 at the VP debate “If Donald Trump tells us to take it, I’m not taking it.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dAjCeMuXR0)

Again, I didn’t call her out by name, because it no longer matters if Kamala Harris should have trusted Donald Trump two years ago. What matters now, is that she and Trump and so many others have made themselves fundamentally unpersuasive to many millions of people. The issue at hand is how to persuade vaccine-hesitant Americans to reconsider their hesitancy. I propose we first acknowledge the reasons they distrust those in power and tell them the truth. You seem determined to dismiss their concerns and tell them their mistrust in our institutions is unjustified. With respect, I don’t think that’s going to work.

JL: And for his part, even in the fall of 2020, Joe Biden was worried that Trump’s mismanagement of the pandemic was going to make people reluctant to take a future vaccine. Here’s what he said: Why do we think, God willing, when we get a vaccine—that is good, works—why do we think the public is gonna line up to be willing to take the injection? We’ve lost so much confidence, the American people, in what’s said . . .Joe Biden was doing exactly the opposite of what Rowe says “those people” did. He was trying to argue against distrust of vaccines developed under Operation Warp Speed.

MR: That’s pretty rich, Jonathan. If Biden really wanted to champion vaccines in the Fall of 2020, he could have said, “My fellow Americans, I am praying that President Trump succeeds in his efforts to create a safe and effective vaccine in record time. I fully support his efforts to do so, and I am personally committed to doing all I can fight this disease, no matter what it means for my own future in politics.”

But he didn’t say that, Jonathan. Instead, he blamed Trump for creating a massive lack of trust among the American people. I get that. Trump failed badly at getting half the country to trust him. But can’t you see why the other half now sees President Biden in the exact same way?

JL: The reality is that our problem has been the exact opposite. The people who maintained over and over that COVID-19 wasn’t real, that it was an exaggeration, that it was a media conspiracy to hurt the Orange God King—many of those people now won’t take the vaccine because it has been administered by the new administration.

MR: How then, do you explain this, from the CDC. “Black and Hispanic people remain less likely than their White counterparts to have received a vaccine, leaving them at increased risk, particularly as the variant spreads.” https://bit.ly/2VA9Cs7 Weird, right? Did all those Black and Hispanic folks worship the Orange God King too?

JL: If Mike Rowe doesn’t want to encourage people to get vaccinated, that’s his right. That’s his privilege. But to go out in public and misrepresent recent history in an attempt to discredit vaccines is reprehensible.

MR: What’s reprehensible, and cowardly, is your attempt to mischaracterize what I wrote, and deliberately misinform your readers. If I really wanted to discourage people from getting vaccinated, why would I admit to getting vaccinated myself? And why would I write the passage you deliberately omitted? Here it is again, lest your readers forget it. “Vaccines have saved more lives than any other advancement in the long history of medicine, and to your point, I got the shots the minute I was eligible. – Mike Rowe.

JL: Rowe says he wants people to make their own decisions. Great. I celebrate everyone’s choices. But they should make them without Mike Rowe lying to them about the real things which happened in the real world.

MR: I’m happy to let the readers make up their own minds about who’s telling the truth. But let’s be clear about what you’ve done with your little slice of the Internet. You have ignored the point of my original post, omitted key passages regarding my actual position on vaccines, written a damning and fallacious headline, and picked a fight with a guy who just reminded six million people that the overwhelming majority of Americans currently hospitalized with COVID have not been vaccinated. Oh yeah, AND told them that he got the shot as soon as he was able. That was the point of my post, Jonathan.

What was the point of yours?

Mike

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Mike Rowe
August 5 at 10:53 AM ·

Off the Wall

Mike – I read several months ago that you got the vaccine. I’m glad. But I’m also curious. You have a lot of people on this page who respect your opinion - many of whom I’d wager are unvaccinated. Have you encouraged them to follow your example? If not, what are you waiting for? As you surely know, Delta is raging. The sooner we’re all vaccinated, the sooner we can get back to normal!

Steve Manchin

Hi Steve

The short answer is no - I have not publicly encouraged anyone to get vaccinated. In fact, I have recently declined to participate in several PSA's designed to persuade people to get the jab. That’s not because I’m opposed to vaccines, obviously. Vaccines have saved more lives than any other advancement in the long history of medicine, and to your point, I got the shots the minute I was eligible. But I’m not a doctor, Steve, and even though I occasionally play one on TV, I’m not inclined to dispense medical advice to the people on this page.

True, I did appear in a few PSA’s early on, back when they assured us that locking down was essential to keeping our hospitals from being overrun. “Two weeks to flatten the curve!” Remember that one? That of course, turned out to be untrue, and I regret my role in helping perpetuate that particular falsehood. I also regret what I said during the first Zoom show to air in primetime. It was an episode of After the Catch, where I discussed the lockdowns with a few crab-boat captains. At one point, I looked into the camera lens on my computer and said, with uncharacteristic earnestness, “For the first time in a long time, it appears we’re all in the same boat.”

Well, I was wrong about that, too. We were not in the same boat, not then or now. We were in the same storm, but our boats were very different. Some prospered during the lockdowns and rode out the gale in yachts and pleasure crafts. Others floundered and weathered the storm in rowboats and dinghies. Some had no boat at all and hung on for dear life to whatever flotsam and jetsam they could find. Point is, I said some things I regret back then, and spoke too broadly to too many. Thus, the only thing I’ll say now regarding the vaccine, is that there is risk in everything we do, and there is risk in everything we don’t do. Thus, there is risk in getting vaccinated, and there is risk in not getting vaccinated. Obviously, I made my decision, but again, I’m not a doctor. Thus, I am not equipped to answer questions like, “But Mike, if the vaccine is so safe, why hasn’t the FDA approved it? Or, “But Mike, if the vaccine is so effective, why is the government now treating us all as if we’re unvaccinated?”

These are fair and reasonable questions, and I have no logical reply. Here in California if you’re inside, you must now wear a mask, vaccinated or not. What kind of message does that send?Yes, we have a new variant, and from what I’ve read, it’s highly contagious, but far less virulent – especially if you’re vaccinated. According to the CDC, just one 1 in 27,000 vaccinated people have contracted it. That means if you’re vaccinated, you’re more likely to get struck by lightning than contract COVID. And yet, people are once again calling for more lockdowns, more restrictions, and more compliance from those who already got their shots.

The fact is, millions of reasonable Americans have every right to feel confused and skeptical. Those people you refer to, Steve – the ones now telling us that we can “get back to normal just as soon as everyone is vaccinated” – those are the same people who said, “two weeks to flatten the curve!” Those are the same people who told us that masks were “useless” before they told us they were “critical.” Those are the same people who told us that a return to normalcy would occur just as soon as “the most vulnerable” among us were vaccinated. Then, just as soon as “half the population” was vaccinated. Then, just as soon as we achieved “herd immunity.” Those are the same people who told us they wouldn’t trust ANY vaccine developed under the last administration. Now, those very same people are belittling the skeptics!

If this were a Peanuts cartoon, those people would be Lucy, pulling away the football at the last moment while a nation full of Charlie Browns land flat on their collective back, over and over and over again. Those people you refer to - elected officials, journalists, and most disturbingly, more than a few medical experts - have moved the goalposts time and time again, while ignoring the same rules and restrictions they demand we all live by. They’re always certain, usually wrong, incapable of shame, and utterly void of humility. Is it any wonder millions find them unpersuasive?

I’m sorry, Steve, but even if I were an actual doctor, I wouldn’t know what to say to the skeptics on this page. But as a fake one, I’ll say this. Every single American who wants the vaccine has had the opportunity to get it – for free. Those who have declined will not be persuaded by the likes of me. At this point, I’m afraid the the government has but one course of sensible action - get the FDA on board, stat, and then, provide an honest, daily breakdown of just how quickly the virus is spreading among the unvaccinated, versus the vaccinated. No more threats, no more judgments, no more politics, no more celebrity-driven PSA’s, no more ham-fisted attempts at public shaming. Just a steady flow of verifiable data that definitively proves that the vast, undeniable, overwhelming majority of people who get this disease are unvaccinated.

In other words, give us the facts, admit your mistakes, try on a bit of humility, and stop treating the unvaccinated like the enemy.

Mike

PS Dirty Jobs, as the attached photo should prove, is coming back. New episodes probably start in October. The doctor will see you then...

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We are past the point where naivete can be blamed. Rather, probable explanations are now moving toward the realm of the nefarious, either via self-interest or something else. Fauci has had ample opportunity at this point to absorb every negative revelation out of China throughout this pandemic. There is no longer any excuse for him to not affirmatively condemn their actions and pledge to sever the relationship.

That Fauci won’t do that is incredibly disturbing and suspicious.

Yesterday, the CDC reported Florida’s COVID data, something that is part of a normal cycle after a weekend, claiming that the Sunshine State saw over 28,000 new cases on Sunday. That would have been a record high, and it helped drive another round of anti-Florida media coverage.

The problem? The CDC’s reporting was false. //

Florida Dept. Health
@HealthyFla
The number of cases @CDCgov released for Florida today is incorrect. They combined MULTIPLE days into one. We anticipate CDC will correct the record.
WSVN 7 News
@wsvn
Florida reported a record-breaking 28,317 new cases of COVID-19 for Sunday to the CDC.
https://wsvn.com/news/local/florida-reports-record-1-day-total-of-28317-covid-cases-to-cdc/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_wsvn
8:18 PM · Aug 9, 2021

Taryn Fenske
@tarynfenske
Incorrect. Here’s the data: Friday, August 6 (21,500), Saturday, August 7 (19,567), and Sunday, August 8 (15,319).

Scott Travis
@smtravis
Florida still breaking records for daily COVID cases. Single-day high reaches 28,317 https://sun-sentinel.com/coronavirus/fl-ne-florida-covid-cases-still-breaking-records-20210809-uq2u3bhll5bh3npr6paqb53rwa-story.html //

The conspiracy theory that Florida is misrepresenting COVID data was originally started by Rebekah Jones, a grifter who claimed to be a “data scientist” in charge of Florida’s data entry. But her mantle has been picked up by many, including Feigl-Ding, another person who has used wild COVID allegations to raise their profile.

https://redstate.com/sister-toldjah/2021/05/26/fired-florida-coronavirus-data-fraud-rebekah-jones-month-just-went-from-bad-to-worse-n387006

Senator Rand Paul
@RandPaul
We are at a moment of truth and a crossroads. Will we allow these people to use fear and propaganda to do further harm to our society, economy, and children?

Or will we stand together and say, absolutely not. Not this time. I choose freedom. //

WATCH: Rand Paul Blasts Dem Tyrants and Mandates, Causing a Leftist Meltdown
By Nick Arama | Aug 09, 2021 11:30 AM ET

Stefani Reynolds/The New York Times via AP, Pool
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) put out a powerful video against any further lockdowns and it’s driving folks on the left wild.

Paul made it very simple, saying that we were done with any more lockdowns and if they tried to impose them again, “It’s time to resist.”

Paul ripped apart mandates, starting with the mandate on mask wearing on House members.

“They can’t arrest all of us. They can’t keep all of your kids home from school. They can’t keep every government building closed – although I’ve got a long list of ones they might keep closed or might ought to keep closed. We don’t have to accept the mandates, lockdowns, and harmful policies of the petty tyrants and bureaucrats. We can simply say no, not again. Nancy Pelosi — you will not arrest or stop me or anyone on my staff from doing our jobs. We have either had COVID, had the vaccine, or been offered the vaccine. We will make our own health choices. We will not show you a passport, we will not wear a mask, we will not be forced into random screenings and testings so you can continue your drunk-with-power rein over the Capitol.”

RedState reported on Rowe’s original Facebook post some days ago. That led to this a hit piece over at The Bulwark, which RedState also wrote on. //

Charlie Sykes
@SykesCharlie
“Mike Rowe—the famous real man, dirty-jobbing, tough guy—is trying to pioneer a new lane in political discourse: anti-anti-anti-vaxx.”
Mike Rowe's Dirty Lies - The Bulwark
thebulwark.com //

AG
@AGHamilton29
Mike Rowe went line by line responding to the recent hit piece from JVL: https://facebook.com/116999698310182/posts/4564421360234638/?d=n

When you write out of anger and try to caricature everyone who disagrees with you, you end up with some very weak and easily refutable arguments. (Ht @Bmac0507)
10:37 PM · Aug 8, 2021 //

https://m.facebook.com/116999698310182/posts/4564421360234638/?d=n

Health officials have lied to us. They have failed us. They have blown up their own credibility over and over. They have constantly moved the goalposts. It is not unreasonable to point out that their behavior has driven skepticism of the vaccine. In fact, it’s an extremely important thing to point out when talking about combating vaccine hesitancy to the extent one believes it must be combated. //

John R
28 minutes ago
There's no need for confusion about why the powers that be do what they do in response to this pandemic. There are two rules. (1) policies must promote solutions from drug companies (explains suppression of cheap, safe, effective early treatment so that there could be an Emergency Use Authorization >> $ billions to drug companies, who then spread the wealth to politicians, lobbyists, medical journals, supposedly public agencies, etc. Explains also why now the Fauci pivot to early treatment with patentable drugs from Merck and Pfizer now that the vaccination campaign is winding down/ failing to deliver on its promise; again, ignoring cheap generics). (2) consolidation of power to government, international corporations (crushing small business), quasi government organizations etc. //

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cafeblue32
3 hours ago edited
The real issue is that the left cannot stomach anyone who speaks up for the working class and they must be slapped down. Trump, DeSantis, Cruz, Rand Paul, and other conservatives and now sensible apolitical guys like Rowe.

They simply shut us down, ratcheted up the fear, and told us to trust the science.
This is what is amazing to watch. Science is a process and a method to arrive at a conclusion, and is not the conclusion itself. True science is never settled and is always met with skepticism. When they accuse you of being "anti-science" for not blindly accepting their premises, what they mean is that you are anti-political science.

There is no "the" science. There is just science. The Science™ is a term used by people demanding control using the Expertise Fallacy

A new study has found that individuals that have previously contracted COVID-19 show a more potent antibody response than those who were solely vaccinated for the respiratory virus.

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20210801/Antibody-responses-following-SARS-CoV-2-infection-more-potent-than-vaccine-elicited-ones.aspx

Conducted by a research team at Rockefeller University in New York, the analysis found “that between a first (prime) and second (booster) shot of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, the memory B cells of infection-naïve individuals produced antibodies that evolved increased neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2,” but also that “no additional increase in the potency or breadth of this activity was observed thereafter.”

Meanwhile, researchers determined that not only do recovered COVID-19 patients possess neutralizing antibodies up to a year after infection, but that such infection simultaneously assists in offering protection against developing variants.

“Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection produces B-cell responses that continue to evolve for at least one year,” the study read. “During that time, memory B cells express increasingly broad and potent antibodies that are resistant to mutations found in variants of concern.”

The analysis later goes on to conclude, “Memory antibodies selected over time by natural infection have greater potency and breadth than antibodies elicited by vaccination.”

Moreover, the results suggest that “boosting vaccinated individuals with currently available mRNA vaccines would produce a quantitative increase in plasma neutralizing activity but not the qualitative advantage against variants obtained by vaccinating convalescent individuals.”

It’s summer, and that means a fresh wave of stories about COVID-19 in Florida.

Last year, the press fixated on the state’s rising case and hospitalization rates, blaming them on Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decisions to eschew government mask mandates and allow businesses to reopen, children to attend school, and residents to recreate without excessive restraints.

DeSantis was often unfavorably compared with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose iron-fisted restrictions were considered the epitome of enlightened governance.

Enthusiasm for Cuomo has waned, but heaping scorn on DeSantis is still in vogue. Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson has dubbed DeSantis “public enemy number one,” first in line among “cynical and irresponsible Republican politicians [who] have created an environment that is killing Americans.”

So what’s really going on in Florida? Is DeSantis a cynical and irresponsible killer? Here are the facts.

Trends in Number of COVID-19 Cases and Deaths in the US Reported to CDC, by State/Territory
Reported to the CDC by State or Territory; Maps, charts, and data provided by CDC, updates Mon-Sat by 8 pm ET

“What is your response to Gov. DeSantis, who is using your words about ‘don’t be in the way’ and he’s saying ‘I am in the way, to block too much interference from the federal government.’ Your response, Mr. President?” O’Donnell inquired.

“Governor who?” Biden responded as people, presumably other reporters, could be heard laughing. “That’s my response.” //

DESANTIS: Well, I guess I’m not surprised that Biden doesn’t remember me, I guess the question is what else has he forgotten? Biden’s forgotten about the crisis at our southern border. I can tell you that biden has forgotten about the inflation that’s biting the budgets of families all throughout our country. Biden has forgotten about the demonstrators who are fighting for freedom down in Cuba and Biden’s even forgotten about the Constitution itself as we saw with what he did with this moratorium. And I can just tell you I’m the governor who protects parents in their ability to make the right choices for their kids’ education. I’m the governor who protects the jobs and education and businesses in Florida by not letting the federal government lock us down. I’m the governor who answers to the people of Florida not to bureaucrats in Washington. //

greginfla
44 minutes ago
The best thing the media could do for the leftist cause is to ignore DeSantis. They are giving DeSantis nationwide exposure, and as someone said, making him a peer with POTUS. This is similar to how Trump got tons of free marketing from the media. //

DeeInFL
....
I don’t know where you’re getting your data from but Florida is not out pacing Covid deaths from the delta variant. According to the CDC Covid tracker the 7 day average per 100,000 is the highest in Arkansas followed by Louisiana. Even looking at total Covid deaths prior to the delta variant Florida ranked 26th out of all deaths in Covid deaths per capita.

While scouring the bowels of the Internet, I came across some videos by a personality named Hotep God Drelly. A new face for me among individuals I follow, who identify with the Conscious Black Conservative movement. //

All you ngg@s who hate the Republican Party so much, the Republican Party, without bloodshed, is gone be the only way you get out of this sht my n*gg@s! It’s the only way! Conservatives, Libertarians, these are the only people that’s gone save yo’ Black ass!

“You keep on voting Democrat if you want to! I’m telling you—either yo’ ass need to f#ckin’ move, or get that Democrat government out yo’ damn state. Because soon you will not be able to do anything without getting vaccinated.” //

Vaccine passports are a modern-day version of the “freedom papers” that Blacks had to carry around with them pre-civil war in order to have the freedom to travel from the North to the South unmolested. If you saw the movie 12 Years A Slave, you see how well that worked.

What is the difference between “freedom papers” and carrying around proof to prove you have been vaccinated and are not going to infect anyone? Especially since the public and private sector are attempting to attach who is and is not allowed freedoms based on that fact. We already have a black market for fake vaccine passports. Where else will this lead?

This is beyond Orwellian; it’s positively Stalinesque. //

To a greater degree, if you know the history of Black Americans and the government via the medical establishment, from the Tuskegee Experiment to Henrietta Lacks to the CDC study on MMR Vaccines, you would think that if this vaccine is truly in our self-interest, they would be more measured and serious in their approach, as well as acknowledge what has been done wrong in the past, and give us evidence on how this time it will be different.

The vaccine lottery, music ditty, fatty food perks and giveaways tomfoolery is what you do with something that is not that urgent or serious. So, that leads me, and probably other Blacks to believe, that if this vaccine and COVID-19 was as serious as they claim it is, the dissemination of information and access to the vaccines would also be done in a more consequential manner.

No matter what your race, we all know that the COVID-19 response and the vaccine distribution have not been handled seriously, consequentially, or even competently. From the shifting standards, the lies, and the gaslighting done by the Biden administration and the CDC, to the well-paid state health officials and their sleight of hand with testing, actual cases, and actual deaths, they have killed all credibility and all trust. Then there is the fact that the so-called Black leaders in the Democrat Party, from 44th President Barack Obama and his 60th birthday bash with 700 of his closest friends to D.C. Mayor Marxist Muriel Bowser attending a maskless wedding after instituting the mask mandates back into that city, have shown that they are not taking it seriously.

So, why should we?

Antigen testing from the comfort of your home
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Bring this test kit with you on your travels to anywhere in the world. When you need a COVID-19 test, simply schedule a 15-minute telemed call, activate your kit and take the test under our staff’s supervision – all from the comfort of your hotel room. Once your test is completed, you’ll receive a result certificate within one hour – no matter where you are in the world.
$50

Sebring, FL metro

In more normal times, one might be asking themselves how the CDC and the media keep making all these mistakes? It should be fairly obvious that simply being honest about who is most at risk (age and comorbidities) and then targeting those populations for vaccination is the smart move instead of carpet bombing people with fear and hysterics that only breed distrust.

But we don’t live in normal times. Rather, the panic is the point, and when you start things with that point of view, it all begins to make a lot more sense.

You see, Democrats and their media allies recognize that the 2022 electoral landscape is looking apocalyptic for them. //

The panic they are stoking isn’t meant to earn them new voters. Instead, it’s meant to justify a continuation of emergency orders in a variety of states, many of which include key swing districts that will be decided in 2022.

If the COVID crisis simply doesn’t end, then neither do all the changes to the voting system that allowed mass mail-in voting, drive-thru precincts, and ballot harvesting in 2020 under the guise of an existential emergency. Judges will once again override state laws and the DOJ will use COVID to argue that election integrity laws that return things to normal amount to disenfranchisement. Further, Democrats are acutely aware that Republicans typically vote in person. What better way to suppress that vote than to create enough panic that in-person voting is limited in many key areas?

I’m reminded of a different life, ages ago, when a statistics professor of mine made the statement “Statistics don’t lie, but statisticians do.” The CDC might not be lying, but its exaggeration of the data and its relevance to the US health situation certainly borders uncomfortably close on deceit. The picture the CDC seeks to paint is that its whiplash-inducing U-turn over the last week was the result of sound scientific evidence – but the evidence is neither extensive nor does it unanimously point towards what the CDC cherry-picked from it (without, of course, mentioning as caveats the reasons why those pieces of evidence might not apply to the current situation. The data, quite simply, does not support the bold assertions of the CDC. There are perhaps two findings that support an increased risk for young adults with fewer or no comorbidities from Delta, and some evidence suggesting that, and that Delta might be slightly more infectious.

What the data shows is that – contrary to the CDC’s clumsy messaging – vaccines work, and while this new increased risk to young adults should encourage vaccinations among that age group, there is no need to advocate for extreme mitigation based on overstated evidence and exaggerated risks.

A tremendous number of government and private policies affecting kids are based on one number: 335. That is how many children under 18 have died with a Covid diagnosis code in their record, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet the CDC, which has 21,000 employees, hasn’t researched each death to find out whether Covid caused it or if it involved a pre-existing medical condition.

Without these data, the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices decided in May that the benefits of two-dose vaccination outweigh the risks for all kids 12 to 15. I’ve written hundreds of peer-reviewed medical studies, and I can think of no journal editor who would accept the claim that 335 deaths resulted from a virus without data to indicate if the virus was incidental or causal, and without an analysis of relevant risk factors such as obesity.

My research team at Johns Hopkins worked with the nonprofit FAIR Health to analyze approximately 48,000 children under 18 diagnosed with Covid in health-insurance data from April to August 2020. Our report found a mortality rate of zero among children without a pre-existing medical condition such as leukemia. If that trend holds, it has significant implications for healthy kids and whether they need two vaccine doses.

Rather than acknowledge science, Dr. Makary says the CDC continues to use 'flimsy evidence' to push the COVID vaccine upon children. //

A team of Johns Hopkins researchers recently reported that when studying a group of about 48,000 children, they found zero COVID deaths among healthy kids, but the Centers for Disease Control doesn’t care. [https://www.wsj.com/articles/cdc-covid-19-coronavirus-vaccine-side-effects-hospitalization-kids-11626706868]

Dr. Marty Makary is a medical expert and professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Carey Business School. His research team “worked with the nonprofit FAIR Health to analyze approximately 48,000 children under 18 diagnosed with Covid in health-insurance data from April to August 2020.”

After studying comprehensive data on thousands of children, the team “found a mortality rate of zero among children without a pre-existing medical condition such as leukemia.” Rather than acknowledge this scientific reality, Makary says the CDC continues to use “flimsy evidence” to push the COVID vaccine upon children. //

Makary says “a tremendous number of government and private policies” regarding the vaccination of children are dependent upon one questionable data point. The CDC claims 335 children under the age of 18 have died with a COVID diagnosis in their record. However, Makary reports that, “the CDC, which has 21,000 employees, hasn’t researched each death to find out whether Covid caused it or if it involved a pre-existing medical condition.”

“Without these data, the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices decided in May that the benefits of two-dose vaccination outweigh the risks for all kids 12 to 15,” Makary notes. “I’ve written hundreds of peer-reviewed medical studies, and I can think of no journal editor who would accept the claim that 335 deaths resulted from a virus without data to indicate if the virus was incidental or causal, and without an analysis of relevant risk factors such as obesity.” //

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky claims 200 child hospitalizations and one death can be prevented over four months if one million adolescents are vaccinated. Makary’s unconvinced. He says that, “[T]he agency’s Covid adolescent hospitalization report, like its death count, doesn’t distinguish on the website whether a child is hospitalized for Covid or with Covid.”

This is a problem, because there’s an obvious difference between these patient categories. Hospitals often test patients for COVID as a matter of routine, even if there’s nothing to suggest they’re infected with the virus. But by Walensky’s metrics, Makary says “An asymptomatic child who tests positive after being injured in a bicycle accident would be counted as a ‘Covid hospitalization.’”

Sir Patrick Vallance
@uksciencechief
Correcting a statistic I gave at the press conference today, 19 July. About 60% of hospitalisations from covid are not from double vaccinated people, rather 60% of hospitalisations from covid are currently from unvaccinated people.
2:26 PM · Jul 19, 2021

Ethan Kaplan
@ethank
This was a market moving error.

In a piece published by NPR last week, entitled, “Do I Need to Worry About the Delta Variant If I’m Vaccinated?” researchers, other scientists, and even the World Health Organization say that possibility is pretty unlikely. They wrote:

The COVID-19 vaccines are expected to be protective against the new virus variants, according to the World Health Organization.

And those variant (there are several: alpha, delta, but there’s also delta plus) are likely covered by all, current vaccines against the original virus. Here’s the data from the article about the three vaccines in use in the U.S: (emphasis added)

As for the vaccines, one study of the delta variant in Scotland from the University of Edinburgh found that while the variant was associated with a doubling in the risk of hospitalization in those infected in the region, the Pfizer …. vaccine offered a …. 60% protection…. against infection two weeks after the second dose. And a study from Public Health England showed that two doses of the Pfizer vaccine were 88% effective against symptomatic disease from the delta variant.

As for other vaccines, David Montefiori, director of the Laboratory for AIDS Vaccine Research and Development at Duke University Medical Center, is optimistic. Based on research he has conducted that has not yet been published, including the Moderna vaccine, he says that “delta does not look like it will be much of a threat to vaccines.”

Weatherhead has this to say about Johnson & Johnson’s effectiveness for the delta variant: “We just don’t have the data, but that doesn’t mean it’s not efficacious. We know it works against [other variants]. We’re going to have breakthrough infections, but the vaccines really prevent severe disease and death.” //

https://www.kqed.org/news/11879587/do-i-need-to-worry-about-the-delta-variant-if-im-vaccinated