Without Public Health Safety Mandates and Containment Actions--Vaccines Will Leave Us All Behind
the Covid 8 Ball
Also see "Covid-19 and School Openings"
Also see "Public Health Was Killed by Big Money"
The Center for Disease Control defines immunity as follows-- Immunity: Protection from an infectious disease. If you are immune to a disease, you can be exposed to it without becoming infected. For example, the measles vaccine gives you immunity from measles. You cannot be infected.
Covid-19 vaccine does not give you immunity. It does protect against severe disease and death. It will not prevent a person from getting infected, sick, or transmitting the virus to others.
Furthermore, the existing Covid-19 vaccines effectiveness wanes, after 6 months. New variants such as the Delta variant are more easily able to escape vaccine protection. All this means that vaccinated people can be infected, get sick, transmit the virus, and still end up in the hospital or develop Long Covid and other disabilities. Nonetheless, it is important to get vaccinated with the present vaccines until there is a better vaccine that provides true immunity.
The millions of unvaccinated children, age 12 and under are at extreme risk. Opening up schools for children, even with masks, will spread the virus rapidly throughout the country. Sending children back into schools is dangerous, deadly, unscientific, unethical, and criminally negligent. These policies are leading lambs to slaughter.
Those who claim repeatedly that “vaccination is the best weapon in the fight to curb transmission” are wrong. It is only one weapon, but not the most important one.
Multiple countries have shown that the best weapon to curb transmission is public health mitigation and containment strategies. These methods have been able to quickly contain, and curb transmission in New Zealand, Taiwan, China, and Viet Nam.
Public Health Science is the key to preventing more illness and death worldwide. Stopping transmission, and the growth of new and perhaps more dangerous variants depends upon the only measures definitely shown to work—6 week lockdowns with full payment for everyone doing non-essential work, closing schools, mass events, isolation of the infected, and quarantine of travelers, all combined with mass testing and contact tracking. https://covidactiongroup.net/
Without these measures, viral transmission will continue as will mutations and viral variants. The longer transmission continues, vaccines will always be behind the newest variant. Disease, disability, and death will continue.
The government’s duty is to protect. Let us do more to make this happen.
[Written 8/4/2021]
WHAT ABOUT MASKS, AND CHILDREN IN SCHOOLS?
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics, the Tragic Misinformed Battle Over Masks While Covid-19 Pandemic Rages On
The Delta variant is one of the most contagious viruses according to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) director; it is as contagious as Chickenpox, which is known to infect 90% of those in a household. “The Delta is much more contagious, more likely to break through protections afforded by the vaccines and may cause more severe disease than all other known versions of the virus, according to an internal presentation circulated within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/health/covid-cdc-delta-masks.html
Chickenpox, Measles and Covid-19 are spread by aerosols and the virus can remain infectious in the air of a room for an hour or more. This is why Infection control authorities around the world recommend that protection from these infectious viruses is provided by an n95 Respirator, NOT a mask. An n95 respirator, such as a half-face respirator which has been seal checked and tested by NIOSH,(National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) to prevent any entry of aerosols. This is CDC standard PPE (personal protective equipment) for respiratory infectious agents. https://www.cdc.gov/infectioncontrol/guidelines/measles/index.html
Only these respirators can prevent people in the same room from being infected by a contagious individual. This fact was highlighted by the recent CDC report about school infections in the New York Times on Aug 31, 2021. An infected elementary school teacher taught for two days before testing positive for Covid-19. The teachers and students were mandated to wear masks, doors, and windows to the classroom were open and there was an air filter in the room of 24 children. Half the students tested positive for Covid-19 which then spread into the community. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/28/health/coronavirus-schools-children.html.
The Journal of the American Medical Association notes that masks are only associated with a decline in infections, when combined with public health mandates---“Mask wearing policies have been associated with reductions in the number or rate of infections and deaths… This association is strengthened because, in many cases, other mitigation strategies (school and workplace closures, recommendations for social distancing, hand hygiene) had already been deployed before enactment of mask wearing policies, after which the reductions were observed.” https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2776536
Masks alone are not very effective in protecting children from an infected individual in the same room. Only n95 respirators are protective. The CDC knows, without the shadow of a doubt, that masks do not prevent students from becoming infected with the Delta variant, yet they say that students can safely return to in-person learning in schools. Aug 5 2021 the CDC posted online the following update:
“When teachers, staff, and students consistently and correctly wear a mask, they protect others as well as themselves. Consistent and correct mask use is especially important indoors and in crowded settings, when physical distancing cannot be maintained.” https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/k-12-guidance.html
This is clearly a false statement for an infectious viral aerosol. Given that a huge amount of viral transmission exists nationwide, occurring as a result of the lifting all social distancing mandates in June 2021, returning children to schools will endanger the unvaccinated children and accelerate the pandemic. Children and their families will be neither protected nor safe. Dr Fauci said the US could see another 100,000 preventable deaths by December 2021. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/who-warns-of-possible-236-000-new-covid-19-deaths-in-europe-by-december-and-fauci-says-u-s-could-see-another-100-000-11630333932?siteid=rss
Fighting over masks is a tragic, misdirected battle. We should be fighting to stop the chain of viral transmission with a plan for ZERO Covid-19. This starts with a 5 week paid stay at home for all but emergency services and the closing of all schools and worksites combined with mass testing, tracking, and isolation, quarantine, vaccinations, and travel restrictions. https://covidactiongroup.net/ This is the national strategy for Covid-19 elimination followed by other countries around the world—from New Zealand, to Taiwan, and from China to Iceland, over one billion people now live free of Covid0-19. Let us become part of the struggle to bring Zero-Covid to the U.S. and the rest of the world.
Written 9/3/2021
THE NEW YORK TIMES TELLS CHINA TO STOP PROTECTING THEIR PEOPLE, & LET COVID-19 SICKEN AND KILL MILLIONS
For almost two years now, Taiwan, New Zealand, and China have had a successful Zero Covid-19 national policy to eliminate Covid-19 from their populations. With this strict public health policy in place, and over nine months before the production of any vaccine, over one billion people have been kept free from the ravages of the pandemic. Occasional outbreaks, generally due to the virus entering from another country, have been snuffed out.
Rational people, who value public health and life, above all, would understand that protecting these Zero Covid-19 countries requires rapidly extending Zero Covid-19 policy to the entire world, so as to eliminate the virus from the human population. Tragically, a major newspaper in the U.S., which is one of the most Covid-19 infected countries in the world, is advocating an END to Zero Covid-19 policy, and recommends that we allow the virus to continue to spread its disease and death throughout the world’s population. The New York Times opinion/editorial title on 9/9/21 is entitled: “China Needs a New Coved Strategy”.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/07/opinion/China-covid-pandemic-delta.html
Why would a newspaper advocate ending A POLICY THAT IS WORKING? Why would the think tank the Council on Foreign Relations, for whom the author works, WANT THE PANDEMIC TO CONTINUE?
The answer is in the article. “It is time for China to change tack, as the socioeconomic and public health costs now outweigh the benefit.” This logic is consistent with Ex-President Trump who said, “The cure can’t be worse than the disease”.https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-recovery.html
This is not the logic of the millions of working people who want their family and friends to stay safe and free from the virus. It is the rationale of a TINY MINORITY in big business and finance.
Behind all the fancy words, the New York Times is telling us that Zero Covid-19 policy does absolutely work, BUT it’s bad for profits, so let’s destroy the policy and let Covid-19 infect the world. We must accept “living with not eradicating Covid-19”
Protecting the population is the government’s duty.
During the pandemic, trillions of dollars have gone to Wall Street, BUT it is too costly to pay workers to stay home for five weeks to stop viral transmission. The U.S. government is pouring in $120 billion dollars a month into the financial markets, BUT it is too costly to fund testing and tracing for Covid-19 across the nation. The stock market has doubled its worth and billionaires have doubled their wealth, BUT it is too costly to tax the rich to pay for a public health infrastructure and health care for all.
We must reject this dangerous, inhumane, and deadly policy. Please join us in the struggle to combat Covid-19 with a plan for worldwide Zero Covid-19. https://covidactiongroup.net/ https://www.worldhealthnetwork.global/
Written 9/10/21
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Dr. Nayvin Gordon writes about health and politics. gordonnayvin@yahoo.com