20 Comments
founding

There are no words to describe the destruction of medicine we are watching under Biden; even left-wing folks like Vinay cannot stand it.

Many of us have spent our whole lives trying to do the best thing for patients who are entitled to assume that their individual physicians put them first. Now they get no such benefit -- everyone must follow these non-public-health, non-scientific, non-patient-positive guidelines or be pushed out like Gruber and Krause. Because it has now all become about scaring/killing people to win elections.

I refuse to go along, but note that most of the younger generation doctors have no trouble nodding yes and following the diktats of the State. Breaks my heart every day.

Expand full comment

Politicized medicine is an ugly thing. As I've said, we need a separation of science and the state for exactly the same reason we needed a separation of church and state - primarily, to protect the first thing in each pairing from being corrupted by the state.

Expand full comment

Please include the israel data in the arguments. Critical! The study of healthcare workers found no benefit!! (Antibodies rose in the 2-4 weeks post dose 4 but no statistically significant decrease in infections!! 4 weeks should be around peak protection too and we know each dose has waned in efficacy against infection by 10-16 weeks from their peak protection around 4 weeks!

Expand full comment

The mandates that will follow make me tremble in fear.

Expand full comment

Are we officially living in some kind of Pharma-Public Health dictatorship?

These developments are beyond absurd to anyone who cares about reality-based processes.

So what to call it?

Expand full comment

I have run out of disbelief and complete nonsense is now the norm.

Expand full comment
Mar 26, 2022·edited Mar 26, 2022

#4 is so true. I would have crawled over broken glass to vote for Anyone But Trump, but now I actually think we would have been better off - at least in terms of Covid response - if he had won. The media would have held him accountable and there’s no way he’d have been able to get away with this overreach. Regulatory agencies might have felt more empowered to push back. I don’t even know if I want my parents to get fourth doses if there’s no good evidence of benefit, but for sure come fall colleges and private middle and high schools will require them.

Expand full comment

This is agency capture at its most flagrant. Why are the American people not calling the FDA, WH and CDC out on their being in bed with Pharma? Someone mentioned the Israeli HCW fourth dose study. Here it is: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2202542

This study shows 3 important things: 1) neutralizing antibodies increase after a fourth dose is given. So what does that mean clinically? 2) the VE was 43% for Pfizer and 31% for Moderna. This is well below the 50% VE level for the FDA. 3) Despite four doses of a legacy vaccine HCWs still get infected, shed and spread the virus. The authors conclussion: "a fourth vaccination of healthy young health care workers may have only marginal benefits."

There is no justification, that we know of, for circumventing the VRBPAC or ACIP input on this (although they are tarnished and biased in this process as well) on who, if anyone, will benefit from another legacy mRNA vaccine dose. Pfizer and Moderna certainly will.

Will this translate into HCW mandates of a fourth dose? Or universities mandating them? Honestly, we really need to cry foul here and refuse any mandates of a fourth dose. There is absolutely no following the data here. If a person wants to take another dose, then its their individual choice but they must be given all the known data information beforehand because repeated jabs with a legacy vaccine will only solidify the OAS progression.

Here is the link to the full pre-print of the HCW study out of Sheba Medical Center: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.15.22270948v1.full.pdf

Remember what the Sacklers said: Treat breakthrough pain with a 3rd or 4th dose. Deja vu, have we learned nothing?

Expand full comment
Mar 26, 2022·edited Mar 26, 2022

Another great piece. The approvals are one (terrible) thing. The mandates and corporate requirements are another entirely. The long-term implications of this on human rights (in the worst case) are nothing short of terrifying, but few seem to appreciate that (presumably because they think leaders have their best interests in mind).

We can make the best arguments in the world in echo chambers, and nothing will happen. Warm weather is coming. I think it's likely that all this coercion will end if a few million people take to the streets to express their disapproval. Vocal, apolitical docs could be a key part of it. We need to try to convince people that they've been manipulated for the sake of profits (and who knows what else).

Expand full comment

Posing the same question I asked Katelyn Jetelina/aka “YLE” yesterday after her favorable review of 4th shot in Israel:

Any idea why Israel all-cause mortality has been so high in 2022 so far? This is not a backhanded diss at the 4th shot - I am curious if you are aware of anything causing their deaths to be so highly elevated (I'm not seeing this trend in other countries).

Their excess deaths are incredibly high given the data we have from mortality.org (it lags quite a bit, so only have complete view of January and most of February, but expect weeks 6-8 to continue to rise as back-dated data comes in). They typically average 970 deaths/week with previous peaks as high as 1100-1200... yet now seeing upwards of 1300-1500 deaths/week.

Screenshot of total deaths per week: https://imgur.com/a/XVeWwgf

Expand full comment

This is obscene.

Expand full comment

The date on my birth certificate indicates differently, but I self-identify as being nineteen years old. If a biological male can win a women's swim meet down in Philly, shouldn't I be permitted to self-determine my chronology?

To each, his own fantasy.

Expand full comment

Not sure what meaning I can apply to such a silly recommendation. Given the potential hazards of additional mRNA, I refused the booster; I most certainly think it unwise. At 82 I prefer to try avoiding the illness by other means. I feel worried over the silly 50 year old who thinks they are reducing the risk of infection via a transitory leaky vaccine in exchange for a potential risk of vaccine harm. Hazards may be cumulative and we lack those data.

Expand full comment

I just emailed my congressman with this link. Showing how off-course the current administration is with what most sane people are thinking. I'm sure it'll be 86'ed immediately but I tried. There will be a reckoning and Nov can't come fast enough. Having said that, most people have a short term memory. If the gas prices come down by Nov, it'll be business-as-usual, I'm sure. But I also pointed the conressman to https://twitter.com/angrybklynmom Someone who was an ardent supporter of the Left now on a hell-bent mission to throw them all out for the draconian Covid measures - all of it based on politics and not science.

Expand full comment

I agree with everything Vinay sais. I have observed him turn from a 100% pro vax to this brilliant and independent apolitical critique of the Biden administration over the past 18 months.

But … pretending all this absolutely insane obsession with more and more vaccines - made against 16 variants ago- through unprecedented coercion and fascistic methods, is just for the sake of some petty partisan gain or for the sake of the fall election, to me, is equally insane and naive.

Biden admin clearly is just obeying orders from Some superior figures.. and I think we all know who they are.

Expand full comment