December 24, 2020
For all my friends who are celebrating Christmas tonight and tomorrow… may it be happy and joyous and merry and… well, I won’t say memorable… because that’s a given.
I think my Christmas wish for everyone is that next year’s Christmas be as similar as possible to last year’s. And, as far as this year is concerned — and much that came with it… may it one day be nothing more than a distant memory that we can look back upon and smile and be grateful for what we presently have.
This year, everything that’s usually been “a given” and was suddenly taken away has come with the obvious silver lining; you don’t appreciate it till it it’s gone. After that, when it comes back, it’s a lot more meaningful.
This year, there are many empty seats around what would be the usual big Christmas get-togethers. Next year, those seats will be filled… more than anything, with tremendous appreciation for what that represents.
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December 23, 2020
So… today I got vaccinated. But no – once again, not *that* vaccine. This was the good old-fashioned flu shot which, for some reason, I hadn’t managed to get around to this year… yet.
If you think it’s too late in the season, it’s not. If you think it’s not worth it, it is. If you think it’s too risky, it’s not.
With respect to the *other* vaccine, a lot of people have been vaccinated recently… Joe Biden, Dr. Henry… and a whole bunch of Republicans who spent a long time telling us how this is all overblown, open things up, it’s just a bad flu, it’s low-risk to most people. Those despicable hypocrites are happily tweeting their vaccinations… leading people to ask a lot of questions, including why are they getting their shots ahead of other more elderly or at-risk front-line workers. Because they’re important leaders, of course… we want to make sure they’re protected!
Joe Biden, for numerous reasons should get it, and publicly. He’s the soon-to-be president, he’s in the risky age category, and he’s in contact with a lot of people. Dr. Henry should have gotten it too, because she was going to get slagged either way… if she doesn’t get it, it generates mistrust… why isn’t she getting it if it’s so safe?!?! And if she does, why does she get to jump the queue.
By far, the lesser of those two evils is take it, set the example, and move on.
Canada today approved the Moderna vaccine… an approval process which normally would have taken weeks took hours. Close to 200,000 doses will have arrived before the end of the month. Two million more before the end of March.
The more, the merrier. The more people who get it, the better. The sooner they all do, perhaps the sooner a lot of people who are waiting around to see that things will be ok can be convinced that indeed that’s the case… and then we are all one step closer to putting all of this behind us.
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December 22, 2020
Here’s a great word to add to your vocabulary, if you already haven’t done so: Askhole
An askhole is someone who asks for advice, listens to it, does the complete opposite, and then complains when things go wrong. They just seem to be coming out of the woodwork these days.
In some cases, the advice wasn’t explicitly asked for… but you’re told – don’t travel, essential travel only, don’t go to the U.K, and so on. There were many non-essential travelers stuck on the Coquihalla last night, who this morning are whining about their misfortune. There are Canadians who flew to London last week who are now whining they can’t come home.
The King of the Askholes is the man who’ll be president of the U.S. for another 28 days. He’s the biggest askhole of all, because he actually keeps asking for advice, and then shuts down the people giving him responses he doesn’t want to hear. Then he asks other people, hoping for a different result. The Latin term for his species is Askholo Perpetuo.
As a result of Trump’s askholish behaviour in recent weeks, his inner circle has shrunk to a tiny number of soon-to-be footnotes, but a lot can happen in four weeks when you’re arguably the most powerful man on the planet.
This all came to a bit of a head over the weekend where an Oval Office meeting resulted in some staffers running to the phones to contact the press. After a lot of screaming by the president, it got scary when he starting asking for advice on how exactly to go about establishing martial law in a few specific states. That sent the sane people fleeing for the hills.
Intelligent people don’t listen to, nor feed, the askholes. But even better, don’t be an askhole. And if you’re an askhole, don’t whine. If you’re mature enough to ask for advice, and to listen to replies, you’re certainly mature enough to understand that if things don’t go your way, it’s your responsibility. Unless you’re the president; then it’s apparently everyone else’s fault.
Tomorrow is the last day before the Christmas trifecta of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. And this trifecta is locked in, because the horses have already left the gate; I’m pretty sure everyone already has set in stone their plans for those three days. It’ll be sad to see the numbers rise, because they’re relatively stable these days; flat or better across the country.
That’ll change… and I’m not here to tell you what to do or what not to do. But I would ask that you don’t act all shocked and surprised as a result… stuck on the highway in a snowstorm? Stuck in the U.K? Stuck with a positive test… you and your family? Unfortunate. But don’t whine. Don’t say you couldn’t possibly have seen it coming. Don’t be an askhole.
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December 21, 2020
We keep hearing about *the* vaccine, but of course, there’s more than one. Besides Pfizer, there’s Moderna… and we’ve all heard of some Chinese one and the Russian one which Putin gave his daughter but refuses to take himself.
Any others? Yes… plenty of others. This petal-to-the-metal race (locally) was won by Pfizer, if that’s how you want to look at it, and Moderna is set to come in second and Oxford-AstraZeneca will likely be third.
But really, there are multiple winners in this race… to win, you just have to cross the finish line. How many horses are in this race? Surprisingly… more than you might imagine. There were originally 90. Not all will finish the race, and while crossing the finish line counts, it’s probably a bit hollow if it happens in 5 years. However… the more, the merrier.
At present, Pfizer is approved and Moderna is approved for emergency use only (for the moment), but Canada is looking at it as we speak and it’s likely to get the green light within weeks. Beyond that, there are a few approved within China and Russia, but we’ll never see them here.
Beyond that, there are actually 18 different vaccines in phase-3 trials… most of them in the U.S and China, but other countries thrown into the mix and approaching the finish line are Japan, India and Australia. And Canada.
We don’t hear a lot about it, but we sure will if this gets beyond phase 3… Quebec-based Medicago, a private company, began their phase 2/3 trial on Nov 12th. In a somewhat eyebrow-raising arrangement, they’re being partially funded by cigarette maker Philip Morris. Medicago literally grows vaccines in plants – specifically, the Nicotiana Benthamiana plant, which is a wild species related to tobacco. The Canadian government has 76 million doses on order in case it all works out.
The fact you can grow vaccine inside tobacco raises some interesting possibilities, not the least of which is slanting the marketing towards “all natural” and “organic”. For all the anti-vaxxers with their “I don’t know what’s in it so I’m not putting it in my body!!!” crowd… notwithstanding I can assure you, you have no idea what’s in a McNugget but you’ll happily ingest that… but all that nonsense aside, hey… this vaccine grows out of the earth, in a plant that billions of people happily inhale into their lungs every day. The irony of that, given that this virus attacks your lungs…
You know, all of that is just one step away of creating a very unique vaccine delivery device… forget injections or suppositories or sublingual sugar cubes… how about…
“Hey dude, smoke up! This is some good shit!”
“Yeah man… whoah… where’d you get this?”
“Doctor B.”
“Who’s he? Never heard of him!”
“It’s a she… and don’t worry about it.”
“Awesome dude, can you hook me up with some more?”
“I can hook you up with one more; that’s all you need.”
“Whatever dude. Awesome.”
Vaccination rate… at least, in B.C….? 99.44%
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December 20, 2020
No B.C. news to report till tomorrow, but here’s an assortment of other news:
The bad news is that there’s a new, apparently far-more virulent strain of C19. It’s up to 70% more transmissible.
The good news is that it isn’t around here… it’s in Europe, mostly the U.K.
The bad news is that who cares where it is, it’s still going to affect us… because many of us have friends and family over there, and, anyway, it’ll soon get on a plane and make its way over here.
The good news is that likely all of the current vaccines will be effective against it. Like… The Vancouver Sun, The Province, The Georgia Straight, The Courier, The North Shore News… whichever one it is, rip a page out of it and scrunch it up into a ball and toss it into the fire; it’ll burn. Unless someone is suddenly (and very surprisingly) publishing the news on asbestos, it’ll burn. Like all C19 new-strain mutations, given the vaccine.
The bad news is that there is a huge outbreak presently underway because of it… and whereas most people in London were expecting to be able to spend Christmas in town, with family… they’re all fleeing the city, leading to crowded, crammed trains as everyone bails to every corner of the country, where there are fewer restrictions.
The good news is that while this new strain is far easier to catch, there’s nothing to indicate that the illness it causes is any worse.
But the bad news is… as per all of the above… that this virus will soon have reached every corner of the United Kingdom.
I want to end this with good news… and it’s this: Vaccination programs are well-underway in many places, including the U.K… and as pedal-to-the-metal as they are already, they’re going to get a turbo-boost with the approval and quick distribution of the Moderna vaccine.
I’ll end this news update with the same one-word sign-off that Dan Rather used for a while: “Courage”.
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December 19, 2020
When I was in high school, we had a coach who employed a very unique form of punishment. When you screwed up, everyone had to run a lap around the field. And when I say field, it was actually four rugby fields… roughly a 600-metre jog for everyone. Well, almost everyone… you, the perpetrator, did not run. Just everyone else.
In fact, the first time that happened to me, I wanted to run too. I didn’t want everyone else even angrier at me. But no, that was the point.
“Sir, I’d like to run the lap as well.”
“No, Kemeny… you stand here with me and enjoy the consequences of your actions.”
The only thing missing was him providing some hot chocolate while I got to watch my friends and teammates being punished for my transgression. Just to really hammer home the point.
I mention this, because it’s interesting to note that collective punishment of this sort, where the said collective (friends, family, acquaintances, teammates, etc) is targeted, is a violation of the Geneva Conventions. It is literally a war crime.
If wearing the wrong jersey to rugby practice is so serious a crime that it warrants a punishment so severe that it’d require an international court to sort out, what do you do with a significant number of Republicans trying to overthrow the U.S. government?
The end-game of this election is starting to look like a horror-version of whack-a-mole… where there’s no cheap prize at the end, but that’s irrelevant… because the game never seems to end. You could argue it’s been going on for four years, but it’s certainly been going on since the election. After 46 days, those are some pretty tired arms. With still 32 days to go.
Every day, some nonsensical mole makes an appearance, and it’s swiftly whacked back into the hole by evidence, lack of evidence, a court ruling… or just plain common sense. And yet, the moles persist. The most recent mole to get whacked was Mitch McConnell, but that wasn’t enough. Now come some Republicans who literally want to overthrow democracy. Martial Law, and the whole thing.
Far beyond just cutting through the bullshit of Trump trying to pre-emptively pardon himself and his family, maybe it’s time for Joe Biden to make a much stronger statement. Number one, anyone who gets pardoned with some sort of cobbled-together Frankenpardon shouldn’t feel too safe. Those pardons will be rescinded within hours of the new administration, chopped up into little bits, just like the parts that came together to form this attempted monstrosity of legality.
And number two, anyone from this point forward trying to actively mess with the very foundation upon which American Democracy is based… will be charged. I don’t know if “attempted treason” is “a thing”, but it should be. Even if Biden gets tossed after four years, there needs to be something in place to prevent this derailing nonsense in the future… that those who instigate this sort of thing have some real consequences to face, not just running some laps in the dark, pouring rain.
But this is what the president is focusing on. This is what he’s re-Tweeting… while every single day, the new cases and deaths pile up. While some rogue nation, still not sure if it’s China or Russia, digitally broke in and stole everything. While a Covid relief bill still hasn’t wound its way through the process.
Allow me to quote Joe Biden: “C’mon, man.”
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December 18, 2020
Louis Armstrong was perhaps the greatest and most innovative trumpet players of all time, so it’s a bit ironic that he’s probably best known as a vocalist, for his timeless rendition of “What a Wonderful World”. Similarly, Wayne Gretzky, perhaps the greatest and most innovative hockey player of all time… might be more remembered for something he said; something that’s been repeated about five hundred million times, in every context imaginable: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it’s been.”
To some extent, that tired, hackneyed phrase has lost all meaning, having now become so ubiquitous and diluted.
But… it has its uses. For example, if you’re Dr. Bonnie Henry, by now you have some vision as to how things work… how the pandemic works, how hospitals work within its confines and, most importantly, how the general public seems to behave.
So… if I had to criticize Dr. Henry for anything, it would be for her failing to skate to where that particular puck was going to be on Halloween. It was becoming evident that things were about to break at the seams, and more should have been done.
On October 31st, B.C. was seeing about 350 new cases a day, and about two deaths a day. Then came the parties and the crowds and the “it’s no big deal, come on man, it’s Halloween!!” excuses.
Around 10 days after the numerous private parties and the overrunning of downtown, there was a sharp rise in daily case counts; they had doubled. But deaths hadn’t gone up, so everything was fine, right?
Ten days after that, there was a sharp rise in daily deaths… to levels we haven’t yet managed to recover from.
This isn’t rocket science, and this isn’t unpredictable… because it’s the exact same pattern we’ve seen several times. Where the puck has been, and, more importantly, where it’s going, has now become glaringly obvious.
From the “this is why we can’t have nice things” point of view, Dr. Henry has imposed measures over the holidays that seem harsh. It’s unfortunate she didn’t impose them before Halloween, because there’s a chance this would be a far more normal holiday season if she had. As it is, these measures are now necessary, but probably not sufficient. Without enforcement to back them up, these orders are merely good suggestions, and many people are planning to ignore them entirely. This has always been an issue of education, and many people simply don’t get it. Accordingly, we will see the consequences of these actions in the next 6 weeks.
If I had to predict it, the sharp rise in infections will all take place starting tonight and lasting till New Year’s Eve. That will start appearing as a rise in daily new cases during the week between Christmas and NYE. The deaths resulting from those new cases will peak heading into the second week of January, but the last of those new cases won’t have “kicked in” until two weeks after NYE… which means those deaths won’t hit the books till the end of the month.
So there you have the prediction… new cases will keep rising till mid-January, and then start to tail off. Daily death numbers will start dropping off in late January. If the question is “When will all this be over..?”, I can’t tell you the end of the end, but the beginning of the end…? February. When things start improving in February, I would expect them to continue to improve to the end. Between vaccines and summer, there won’t be a third wave… just a slow and steady path to the end of this nightmare.
At the end of a long shift, Dr. Bonny just fired the puck into the corner. She’s skating to the bench to catch her breath. In the meantime, for all of us still on the ice… where should we go? To where she shot the puck from? To where the puck is now…?
I think to myself… we should skate to where the puck is going to be. And I think to myself… there’s an end to this game… hopefully soon. And also, all together now…. I think to myself… what a wonderful world…
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December 17, 2020
A quick thought with respect to the winding-down of what history will undoubtedly call the ugliest presidency ever… I wonder if it’s occurred to those who support Donald Trump – at least 74,000,000 Americans – that after all is said and done, no matter what you believe is broken and needs fixing… that this wasn’t the guy to do it.
Notwithstanding he didn’t keep the very election promises upon which he was originally elected (the border wall that Mexico will pay for, the healthcare plan that’s just a few weeks away, etc), suddenly there appeared this whole notion of a large, left-leaning group of overlords that’s controlling everything… well, if that’s the case (which it isn’t, but let’s say it is) – Trump has failed miserably in dealing with it. If you’re a staunch Republican who thinks these are real issues, I think you have to admit your guy failed you. You, like him, can scream fraudulent election and all that… so, ok, let’s say it was… it was a huge fix, all aimed at getting Biden elected – Trump, with his genius intellect and intuition saw through it all along; he identified countless examples of voter fraud. But then what?
In four years, he’s appointed more federal judges than any president in history… placing these people in roles with lifetime appointments – roles that had been gleefully held open by Mitch McConnell. These guys, with their frenzied zealous desire to stay in power, did everything they could… and it still wasn’t enough. With all his appointed judges, with all the vague but passionate handwaving, with all of the alleged evidence, look what he managed. Nothing. From the sounds of all that, you’d think it’d be a slam dunk. But no. Zero. What. A. Loser.
Forget for a moment what he’s broken (and there’s plenty) – in some crazy world, one could argue it was for the greater good, and you have to break eggs to make omelettes or whatever. OK, let’s entertain that for a moment… so, sure… lots got broken, yet… nothing got fixed. If there exists a Deep State (there doesn’t) that’s controlling the radical left (it isn’t), then… despite knowing all this, he couldn’t do anything about it. That deep state now sits well-entrenched, now in power, ready to take over the world. Your guy failed you miserably; more miserably than somebody caught by surprise, who didn’t see it coming. This guy saw it all coming, for four years, and was unable to do a damn thing about it. All talk. Zero action. Is this the guy you want leading you?
Setting aside the obvious fact; it’s hard to fix something that’s not broken because it doesn’t actually exist – notwithstanding it’s his main money-raising platform… but let’s forget all that crap. Let’s look at real things where Trump could’ve made a difference… things he promised.
There’s no better healthcare plan, there’s a bit of new border wall, but most of it is renovation… and Mexico didn’t pay for any of it. Hilary isn’t locked up. There’s no renegotiated Iran deal. There are lots of illegal immigrants still around. There’s no right to carry a concealed weapon in all 50 states. There’s no freeze on hiring federal employees. There is no end to birthright citizenship. There’s no automatic death penalty for cop killers. Eliminate the federal debt in 8 years? It’s higher than when he came into office. And, oh yeah, his tax returns… we’ll see those any day now, as promised.
Actually, that last one – we might, because of a court order coming next month. Between that and going to prison for contempt, he’ll probably eventually provide them. And then he’ll go to prison for what’s on them.
And yet… some staunch Republicans still stay by his side, sending him their hard-earned money, believing everything he says. Up to you, I guess… he’s going to need friends and he’s going to need money. But, between you and me… I think you could do a lot better than this Loser.
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March 18, 2021
As I like to say (and have experienced numerous times in my life), the first 90% of any project takes up 90% of the time, effort and resources. Then, that last 10% actually ends up taking 90% of the time, effort and resources to finish the project. It’s so incredibly easy to start something, but as time goes on, everything becomes a little more difficult… and continues on that path, with every aspect becoming a bit more challenging as time goes on. The “Time/Effort” graph looks exactly like the exponential growth graphs we’ve been trying to avoid for a year.
Ironic that as we approach the finish line of this pandemic, that’s what the end of this adventure is beginning to look like; in some places, because cases are once again growing at an alarming rate… but even where they’re not, the “We’re done with this” attitude of people who’ve already “checked out” of the effort. The “Forget everything, we’re fine” crowd reminds me of the people who start bailing on projects in that final 10%, because they figure they’ve done enough… the momentum will carry it through to the end, other people will pick up the slack, and so on. I don’t think I need to spell out what happens when a critical mass of people suddenly all switch to that mindset.
You’d think if you have a bad infection, the worst thing you can do is leave it untreated… while the best thing is to throw some antibiotics at it and cure it. But actually, the worst thing is to throw some antibiotics at it in a half-assed way, and then drop it because you yourself came to the brilliant conclusion that you’re cured, even while the doctor, pharmacist, Google and everyone will tell you: Take the antibiotics for the entire recommended course. Do not leave a single pill behind, even if you’re feeling 100% and think you’re cured.
If you don’t stamp out the infection properly, then the 90% of the bugs you killed won’t hurt you, but the 10% that are left… the strong ones… will be happy to make a re-appearance. These are the 10% that were tough enough to withstand your 90% effort in dealing with this in the first place, and now they’re mad. And resilient. … [Continue Reading]
March 17, 2021
March 17th… St. Patrick’s Day, of course. Many, many years ago, this would’ve meant a green Shamrock Shake at McDonald’s. Years after that, it would’ve meant green beer pub hops, though I must admit those memories are pretty hazy. In recent years, a pint or two of Guinness.
Last year, none of the above. Last year, right at this time, a state of emergency was declared, and, instead of imbibing pints, I was reading through a bunch of stuff, like the rest of us… trying to make some sense as to what the hell is actually going on here. It led me to find an interesting little table of numbers… showing how Italy had gone from 100 cases one day to 1,000 in less than a week to 10,000 about 10 days later… and how the U.S. growth in cases was mirroring that, step by step, only 11 days behind. I wondered how Canada would compare, so I found the data and lined it up… and to make things easier to visualize, graphed it. And realized we were on the exact same track, a week behind the U.S. And thought, simultaneously, “Wow, cool”… and, also… “Holy shit”.
I thought it worthy enough to post… and since enough people were interested to see how it would evolve, I resolved to update it and post it at 5pm every day. And I resolved to myself to update this thing for as long as I could… ie, the end of the pandemic.
Facebook was kind enough to remind me earlier today, so I didn’t have to scroll back 365 articles to find it. It’s reposted below this. That lame little graph and tiny columns of numbers pale in comparison to what I’m cranking out these days, but I must say… I felt dread looking at those graphs for the first few weeks.
So, yes… that was exactly a year ago… and during that time, I have posted the ever-evolving numbers and charts and details exactly 365 times. Yeah, I find it remarkable too – I haven’t missed a day. I’m a computer guy, so the numbers and graphs are now at the point of complete automation… click-click-click and today’s picture and numbers are ready to upload. That’s the easy part. But what’s more remarkable is what … [Continue Reading]
March 16, 2021
As I’ve said before, instead of “Do unto others…”, I much prefer the subtle but distinctly different: “Don’t do unto others… as you’d have them not do to you.” In other words, don’t impose your crap on others… unless you’d be happy with them doing the same.
So… for those who keep screaming about their human rights with respect to masks, perhaps it’d be easier to shift in your mind the mask to something like a big cigar. A huge cigar, just to make it a little more offensive… one of those gigantic Cohibas that Fidel Castro used to smoke.
Now, imagine you, flaunting your anti-mask awesomeness, sitting in Starbucks, glaring at anyone that gets close to you, let alone tries to address your masklessness. Now imagine me… I wander in with my gargantuan cigar, puffing away, and sit down right next to you. You start screaming at me to get the hell away from you. In fact, obviously, the entire coffee shop, customers and baristas alike, are all yelling at me… “WTF do you think you’re doing!”, “Get the hell out of here!”, “Hey, that’s Cuban, there’s an embargo, I’m going to have you arrested for treason!”
First of all, this is Canada… so Cuban cigars are available everywhere… and let’s at least agree on something: That’s hardly the issue.
The issue is, I’m invading your space (and everyone else’s) with this foul stench that you find indescribably awful, toxic and unhealthy. Fair enough, many people can’t stand cigar smoke, and why should I have the right to exhale it all over you. In fact, there are laws protecting your rights specifically because it’s known that not only is it unpleasant for many people, but it’s also a health hazard. Appropriately, it’s banned in public spaces and it’s banned in private places to, to the extent that the owner of said private space is entitled to make their own rules.
We all agree that in my own private space, I can do whatever I want. I can sit on my deck and smoke cigars all day long, and nobody can do anything about it… nor should they able to… and nobody should care, either. It’s my business and it’s not hurting you and it’s not being imposed upon you. And if I invite you … [Continue Reading]
March 15, 2021
Beware the Ides of March… happy March 15th. Indeed, one day after Pi Day comes Die Day… at least, that was the case for Julius Caesar who, on this day 2,064 years ago, quickly realized that unfortunately, sometimes even your best and loyal friends can literally stab you in the back.
It’s good that politics, at least around here, have evolved beyond that. The House of Commons would be quite a different place if that were still an accepted method of resolving disputes.
One dispute that continues to make some waves has to do with the AstraZeneca vaccine… the opinion of which seems to widen with each passing hour. More people vehemently say there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it, yet more and more countries continue to “cancel” it.
I wrote about it yesterday, so let’s update this evolving story. In Europe, 17 million people have received the AZ vaccine. 37 of them developed blood clots. That is 0.00022% of the population. One in 460,000 people. The typical European rate is actually significantly higher than that. I wonder if this story can turn a 180, where suddenly people realize that the AZ vaccine significantly lowers the risk of blood clots. I’m not a doctor, of course… just looking at the numbers. But that’s what they imply.
This is a great example of politics versus medicine. The science, the data, the everything battle tested says it’s safe; more than safe. The politicians who need to cover their asses always like to play it safe, so once those dominoes start falling, “the optics” dictate you need to follow suit. If eleven countries have decided to suspend it “out of an abundance of caution” (and to hell with the data, such as that analyzed and reported by the World Health Organization), and you’re the leader of the 12th nation, what are you going to do? Even as the scientists tell you… it’s fine, it’s ok, here’s the data… yeah, you’re going to cave. This is high-school peer pressure on a global level. Look around; everyone is putting up their hand. What was the question? Who cares, follow along, don’t look like the idiot.
Unfortunately, as I wrote about and am now believing more strongly by the hour, this might have a profound effect … [Continue Reading]
March 14, 2021
You know… if you take a pizza with radius “z” and thickness “a”, its volume can be calculated as pi•z•z•a – and that is my π contribution for the day – so Happy Pi Day!
Pi, like many people, is irrational… and Pi, also like many people, goes on forever… but it goes on forever after the decimal point, so it doesn’t get much bigger after a while. But let’s talk about numbers that *do* get big, and what happens when they collide with the fallacies of causality.
For example, unfortunately, sometimes people die unexpectedly. It happens a lot. People unexpectedly choke to death or have heart attacks or strokes or burst aneurysms or whatever else, and when they do, especially when it’s unexpected, people tend to try to blame it on something… because, somehow, our brains don’t like to accept the fact that sometimes, bad shit happens… and there’s nothing that caused it and there’s nothing anyone could have done to prevent it.
If someone ran the stats, I’m sure one would find that more than 99% of heart attacks happened in people who’d had a glass of water in their last 2 hours. Did the water cause those heart attacks?
At the moment, the AstraZeneca vaccine has been paused in Ireland… the usual “abundance of caution” reasoning, which pleases some liability lawyers tremendously, but does little to instill public confidence in vaccines, a topic where there’s still a lot of uncertainty and hesitancy. “Just in case, until we figure this out.”
I’m not sure what they’re hoping to figure out. This started in Norway, where “a number” of cases of blood clots were discovered in people who’d recently received the AstraZeneca vaccine. That number was 4… out of hundreds of thousands of shots. Italy banned a particular batch of AZ vaccine following the death of a serviceman in Sicily… who died of cardiac arrest one day after his shot. Cardiac arrest, blood clots… same thing. It must be the vaccine.
When you look the actual large numbers, 17 million people in the EU and UK have received the AZ vaccine… and the number of people who’ve developed blood clots, some number in the hundreds, is actually lower than the expected number out of a random sampling of the population. The number … [Continue Reading]