Tag: Passport

Government, Health

Did We Screw Up?

Sit back and relax for a minute. I have a short tale that might worry you a bit. One that, if true, would prove to be one of the greatest public health blunders in history. It’s about a vaccine. Wait, wait, don’t go… this isn’t an anti-vax tirade or a rant about mandates. It’s a story about what happens when people rush to make a decision without waiting for all the data.

A question – what happens if we created a “leaky vaccine” and pushed it out to billions of people?

Here’s the background. I follow a number of statisticians. Yes, I know I’m a geek. But I like data and charts and graphs. I admit much of the stats are above my head, but I took just enough statistics to semi-sorta understand what I’m reading. Anyway, I first heard about the idea of leaky vaccines from something that Joe Rogan said on his podcast. He, of course, was immediately blasted for pushing tinfoil hat conspiracy stuff. Which, of course, made me want to read more about it. Enter the statisticians who plot and analyze the data and ignore the politicians and media wisdom.

What you want is a sterilizing vaccine. One that creates an immune response powerful enough that it instantly attacks and wipes out the virus in the host before it can replicate and spread. What you don’t want is a “leaky vaccine” that produces an immune response sufficient to protect the host, but isn’t able to prevent a buildup of viral load or transmission. Every day it’s looking more likely that we’ve produced a pretty leaky covid vaccine. This is generally ok for you, the vaccinated individual. Your immune response protects you from getting really sick. But the population as a whole…

Here’s the worrisome part. The data is showing that when a vaccinated person is hit with covid, their viral load and shedding of virus is equal to that of unvaccinated people and lasts for days. And the best part? Because they have an immune response that starts working to protect them, they are generally asymptomatic. Are the lightbulbs starting to go off? In our mad rush to push the vaccine without sufficient testing, we may have just created a bunch of vaccinated asymptomatic superspreaders, happily walking around and infecting the unvaccinated and those unhealthy folks (vaccinated or not) who managed to dodge the bullet during the first covid wave.

Israel, one of the most vaccinated nations on the planet, got hammered with a second wave. Similarly the UK and many highly vaccinated cities in the US. The hospitals are being overrun in many cities, including my own. In many places it’s far worse than the first covid wave. We’re seeing tons of “breakthrough” cases – vaccinated folks who get covid. Unfortunately many of those folks have multiple comorbidities, which is why they got the vaccine in the first place. Their outcomes aren’t great (but still better than without the vaccine). Get vaccinated so you can safely visit your immunocompromised family and friends! We need a vaccine passport so we can safely shop and go to restaurants! The potential irony would be humorous if it wasn’t so tragic.

It’s a catch-22. The vaccine we rushed into the population is clearly good for the individual, but may be bad for society as a whole. Politicians and public health officials panicked and pushed out something without knowing the potential long term impacts. And now that we’re facing skyrocketing case and fatality rates again, the panicked response is boosters! We need boosters in every arm ASAP!

Never mind that the FDA advisory panel voted 16-2 AGAINST authorizing the booster for everyone. The CDC ignored that and did it anyway. The two top virologists at the FDA resigned over the politicization and handling of all this. Yay! Trust the science bitches.

It’s easy to be an armchair quarterback, I get that. But what makes science all sciency, is a willingness to continually examine the data, re-evaluating, questioning, and rethinking your hypothesis if results weren’t what you expected. Unfortunately politics and fear forced us to throw all that out the window. Politics and vanity will keep anyone from saying out loud, “uh guys, we might have screwed up?” Maybe this is a big nothingburger. Maybe in a couple years this will be a minor, annual flu-like annoyance. Or maybe we’ll be on booster #8 and wondering why we keep getting so many mutating variants? My tinfoil hat fits me just fine, thank you.

Government, Health

A Timeline
  • September 2021 California and New York roll out their vaccine passport. Proof of vaccination required to visit restaurants, bars, and many stores. The original paper vaccine card, CA’s digital vault or IBM’s digital health pass app (Excelsior in NY) are accepted.

  • February 2022 As the Lambda variant begins spreading widely, 39 of 50 states now require vaccine proof to enter most public and commercial buildings. Markets and grocery stores are exempt in most states that require proof.

  • June 2022 Due to rampant fraud, paper versions of vaccine history are no longer accepted. Where required, an approved digital version must be shown.

  • August 2022 One of President Harris’s first actions is to sign the American Health and Safety Act (AHSA), mandating proof of vaccination status for all public venues in all states. Federal funding will be withheld for states that opt out.

  • October 2023 The President signs the emergency funding bill for the newly formed Digital Health Consortium, a joint effort between IBM, Apple, and Alphabet to nationalize the Digital Health Wallet app. The consortium will also develop Digital Health Scanners which will be distributed to all retail, commercial, and office buildings that fall under the AHSA vaccine requirements.

  • July 2024 The annual influenza vaccine is added to the list of required vaccines registered in the National Digital Health database. The CDC continues to advocate for adding Hepatitis, Pneumonia, TB, and the newly developed RSV vaccine. A trial program enabling people to opt in with their sexual health status is added to the Digital Health Wallet, enabling people to share their history of any sexually transmitted diseases with potential partners.

  • January 2026 President Sanders signs the Climate Accountability Act into law, enabling power companies to link all household and commercial real estate SmartMeter data to the National Climate database. Electricity usage will be charged for and throttled based upon your calculated carbon profile.

  • May 2027 Congress approves linking an individuals carbon profile to their Digital Health Wallet, claiming the climate crisis is also a health crisis. Retail establishments are encouraged to charge an additional carbon tax to customers who’s Health Wallet scan shows a negative carbon profile. Retail stores who choose to add the tax earn a “Environment Friendly” blue check symbol on the three approved social media platforms and are eligible for special federal subsidies.

  • January 2028 The retail Carbon Tax is now a mandatory federal tax. The tax is a sliding scale based upon the individuals carbon profile and federal tax bracket.

  • March 2028 In a narrow decision the 12 member Supreme Court overturns the final federal privacy appeals, enabling employers, insurance companies, and a wide variety of “Shared Usage” companies (hotels, rental cars, airlines, etc…) to access the National Digital Health database. Based upon vaccine and carbon profile data, approved companies can restrict or utilize a sliding scale to charge for services. Employers can pre-screen potential candidates.

  • April 2031 The Person Place and Footprint biometrics database goes live. Citizens are given a score, calculated from six integrated systems; Criminal Justice, Experian Credit, Climate, Digital Health, IRS, and the Universal Social Media Ranking System. The PPF score will be available to authorized users prior to citizen engagement, or real-time via facial recognition or iris scan.

  • February 2034 Facing extreme food and electricity shortages, the free states of Florida, South Dakota, Idaho, and Texas begin coordinating violent, cross-border raids and targeted cyber attacks against neighboring states.