August 21, 2022
My understanding of Tom's comment on the effectiveness of the Covid vaccines has led me to a frustrating reality -- where can I find information and analysis about the vaccines that most of us can agree upon? (And how many is "most?"). Three years ago, I would have trusted articles I read in publications like the WSJ, NYT, Reuters and from such organizations as McKinsey, CDC and Johns Hopkins. But I don't know anymore. For me, that's deeply troubling. Our society -- our world -- is built on trusting experts. Our world is terribly complex and complicated -- it is hard to be an expert in one field much less the hundreds and thousands of fields that affect our daily lives.
Covid has created a new paradigm for me that I am still sorting through. "Don't trust" has replaced "trust but verify" as my way of looking at so many things. I ask myself much more often if I am being naive in accepting new information. I always thought of myself as a critical thinker, but perhaps I have not been.
These thoughts tie into the the regaining American exceptionalism. If we are unable or unwilling to accept the roles of experts and our leaders, I fear that takes us down a path that is not labelled "return to exceptionalism."
This is one of the few fundamental differences you and I have, Lucian -- I do not need to have studies to tell me that something is likely to be true or is highly suspicious. The "vaccine" is not a vaccine. Biden took four jabs . . . then got it. Kamala took four, then got it. Fauci took four, got it. The CDC is now reluctantly admitting it does not prevent one from getting COVID . . . as well as changing the definition of "vaccine" so that their previously false statements will be only kinda false.
By early March, 2020 -- when the CDC and WHO declared it a pandemic -- there were a sizeable number of doctors…