Monday, April 5, 2021
Sunday, April 4, 2021
The Chinese coronavirus vaccine CoronaVac by Sinovac doesn't appear to be worth very much: Chile as case study
Chile at 20.1% is now Number Two in the world for fully vaccinating its population against COVID-19. (1)
Chile overwhelmingly uses the Chinese Sinovac vaccine. (2)
The vaccination effort began from Feb 2, and by Feb 23 16% of the population had received one dose. (3)
Deaths commenced their recent steep ascent beginning Mar 27 (5), about one month after cases began to soar, at which time 17.1% of the population was fully vaccinated (7) and 33.5% of the population partially vaccinated. (3)
Daily new cases per million on Apr 2 is breaking records in Chile. (6)
The point of vaccines is to prevent serious illness and death. The recent uptick in deaths after the uptick in cases despite the vaccines is very troubling.
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Friday, April 2, 2021
Democrat Congressman Emanuel "Amen and Awoman" Cleaver of Missouri says just raise the gasoline tax, no one knows what it is anyways
That's the Democrat strategy on taxes from time immemorial in a nutshell. Multiply taxes and imbed them in everything so that there's so many of them you can't even list them all or realize that they've gone up.
The federal gasoline tax of $0.184 per gallon, however, is a universal tax, unlike state gasoline taxes which vary, obviously, and is displayed at every fuel station. It hasn't been raised since 1993. The tax started out at a penny in 1932.
There is no excuse for not knowing what it is.
And there's no excuse for complaining the current tax doesn't take into account inflation since 1993. The inflation-adjusted tax from 1932 in 2019 is $0.19, so the current tax is just about on the money.
One problem with a fuel tax is that it is regressive, occupying a much larger place in the finances of hourly workers than it does in higher paid salaried workers. It's not fair.
Another is that since the early 1980s the fuel tax has been split between roads and "transit", as if the family vacation on the interstate system should fund the trains for the well-heeled commuters of America's metros.
Still another is . . . if deficits no longer matter, as is self-evident from the orgy of COVID relief spending, then why do taxes still matter?
They don't.
I say abolish the federal gas tax altogether.
Case positivity rates for COVID-19 are out of control in and around Detroit and Grand Rapids to kick off April 2021
WHO indicates epidemics are out of control when case positivity rates rise above 10%.
Michigan has fully vaccinated 20.8% of its population.
Thursday, April 1, 2021
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
COVID-19 vaccines and Bell's Palsy: Nothing to see here . . . so far
Normal rates of Bell's Palsy in the world range between 100-400 cases per million of population (1-4 per 10,000 / 10-40 per 100,000).
Hong Kong has been abuzz over some cases of Bell's Palsy after Sinovac injections. So far there have been 11 cases from 278,200 vaccinations with Sinovac, which is the equivalent of 40 cases per million of population. But the normal HKG rate is reportedly 230 cases/million.
Similarly in the UK recently the Pfizer vaccine was reportedly responsible for 9.8 cases per million vaccinations, again far lower than the minimum threshold of 100 cases/million.
VAERS data for the US so far shows 81 cases of Bell's Palsy and 420 cases of facial paralysis, for all types of COVID-19 vaccine. Given the vaccination totals in the US so far, you'd have to have 9,500 such cases reported to date just to match the minimum normal rate of 100 cases/million. The US typically has 40,000 cases a year anyway, which is a rate of 122/million assuming population of 328 million.
So . . . nothing unusual is going on anywhere as far as I can tell.
VAERS is rumored to be overwhelmed by a reporting backlog, and there is a relatively small discrepancy between CDC statements of deaths and VAERS data from week to week, but I can't imagine how there would be tens of thousands of Bell's Palsy cases unaccounted for in the reports, which, it must be remembered, can be filed by anyone.
If there were that many they'd be all over the tabloids by now, accusing the government of injury.
Given that the official cause of Bell's Palsy is still debated, it's not implausible that the stress associated with the pandemic in combination with vaccination has been a trigger for cases, just as for other reported adverse effects. People faint, shit their pants, any number of things after they get a jab. Stress is also a trigger for death in some instances.
Most cases of BP resolve, but it is important for sufferers to seek immediate medical attention and get treated with a steroid like Prednisone, which seems to speed recovery from the inflammation affecting the nerve in the face involved in the condition.
Monday, March 29, 2021
Why haven't COVID-19 hospitalizations in the US fallen to the 2020 lows if things are going so great because of vaccinations?
3/01: 49,471
3/09: 38,651
3/15: 35,611
3/16: 32,009
3/22: 34,522
3/29: 35,980.
The lows in 2020 coincided with the seasonal changes. We were at about 25k hospitalized both in June and September 2020 at the approach of astronomical summer and fall, respectively. We are at about 10k higher than that with the advent of spring 2021.
Cases in North America, South America, and Europe are troublingly on the rise.
Saturday, March 27, 2021
LOL, Mittens joins Republican squishes Bush 41, Gerald Ford and John McCain in receiving the JFK "Profile in Courage" award
Mitt Romney voted to impeach Trump.
Bush 41 raised taxes after promising not to ("Read my lips").
Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon.
John McCain sponsored campaign finance reform legislation in 2002, which was partially overturned in Citizens United in 2010.
Romney's award is for Trump's first impeachment, not the second, for which Romney also voted, but I guess the six Republicans who joined Romney the second time are just chopped liver. That took took no courage whatsoever, apparently.
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
Since the beginning of the year the CDC has been propagating false science, publicly claiming that COVID vaccines protect people previously infected when there's no evidence of that
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
Nigeria, Kenya and Angola, all of which have widely used ivermectin for years against parasitical disease, all have enviable COVID records compared with their similarly sized counterparts Brazil, Spain and Peru
Real Clear Politics article floats open borders lunatic Mick Mulvaney for new Heritage Foundation president
Somebody put a fork in it already.
Monday, March 22, 2021
COVID hospitalizations in the US may have stopped falling
In the University of Minnesota data, here's where we've been so far in March:
3/01: 49,471
Friday, March 19, 2021
VAERS update for reactions to the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, as reported through March 12, 2021
VAERS update for reactions to the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine as reported through March 12, 2021
Blindness/1 of 3 categories only: 24
Blurry vision: 175
Chest pain: 516
Chest discomfort: 627
Cardiac arrest: 88
Deafness/1 of 5 categories only: 38
Tinnitus/ringing, buzzing in the ear: 142
Diarrhoea: 802
Thrombosis/stroke: 52
Spontaneous abortion: 42
Facial paralysis: 262
Death: 633
Unable to breath enough/dyspnoea: 1395
Muscle pain/myalgia: 1548
Sense losses: touch/hypoaesthesia (878), smell/anosmia (163), taste/ageusia (174)
Swelling: lymphatic/lymphadenopathy (579), lips (231), throat/pharyngeal (210), face (289), tongue (235), peripheral (322)
Severe itching/pruritus: 1106
Rash: 1099
Hives/urticaria: 774
Tingling sensations/paraesthesia: 1149
Oral tingling/paraesthesia: 520
Joint pain/arthralgia: 1203
Pain in extremities: 1803
Tightness of throat: 387
Anaphylactic reaction: 181
Fever/pyrexia: 3052
Headache: 4467