COVID-19 Outbreak Information Updates (Reboot) [over 150.000,000 US cases (est.), 6,422,520 US hospitilizations, 1,148,691 US deaths.]

tenordas said
And there's the whole question.

The "science" first said wearing cloth masks was ineffective and useless. Then, the "science" changed its (their) mind and said masks were 100% necessary; then later, after some clinical trials, the "science" said they were right the first time, cloth masks didn't stop anything, only n95 masks were effective.

Fwiw, masks do work, even the sub n95s, just not 100% effective. Only somewhat effective. Somewhat effective, whatever that % is is better than 0% effective. If it slows transmission down, it's accomplished what it's supposed to. And incidence communicable diseases dropped dramatically, and no doubt some of that was due to people working from home, but also from mask usage.

Mask usage has been around a while (long before Covid was a thing) and some people use them regularly for myriad reasons, i.e. immuno-compromised or some health condition. Masks do work, even if not 100% effective. I rarely wear masks, and I don't think they should be mandated unless very narrow circumstances, i.e. an immediate or serious emergency situation.

tenordas said
Astrazeneca withdrew their vaccine, with the public statement that it had become "outdated," but anyone with eyes knows it was because of the excessive number of lawsuits worldwide against them for side effects from the vaccine.

I took the Pfizer version at the time, but the truth is we all acted as guinea pigs for the various vaccines because they had not been properly tested, which is not how scientific research is supposed to go. I don't seem to have suffered any side-effects from it, but I know a few people who have, though none of them are life-threatening.

We weren't exactly guinea pigs. The type of vaccine used had already been around for over a decade. What was different was the vaccines developed were specifically to target the strains already known. It was still a novel virus and with all of the unknown factors, its not surprising that recommendations shifted as more was learned about the virus. For a while there was a lot of debate about the transmissibility and viral loads needed to cause significant infection and debate on who was most vulnerable to the virus because even seemingly healthy people were dying from it during the worst months.

And keep in minds that tens of thousands of people went through through clinical trials in 2020 before the vaccines were approved by the FDA. Anyone saying there weren't trials is using conspiracy theory sources to support their claims.

https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2A22CD/

tenordas said
Now, I don't "blame Biden" or "blame the Democrats" because the truth is before the election, the Republican party was pushing for everyone to take the vaccines once ready while the Democrats were saying "don't trust them," but once the election happened, the two parties changed their sides of the argument. Had the Republicans won, the vaccines would have been pushed just as hard by them instead, IMHO, and the Democrats would have remained the party of the vaccine skeptics. All part of the game they both play... (sorry for the brief political rant)

No comment on the politics as that is for the MAP site.