Here is another article of many I’ve seen that that uses “efficacy” and/or “effectiveness” to mean “sterilizing immunity.”

The actual researchers cited don’t quite make that mistake, but they also don’t seem all that clear on the difference, either.

Efficacy/Effectiveness: the treatment has some (positive) effect on the course of the disease. For instance, does it prevent hospitalization? Reduce symptoms? Reduce death rates? Reduce sequelae? Reduce viral load? Reduce the duration of sickness? Etc.

Sterilizing Immunity: Does the treatment prevent infection altogether?

These are NOT the same thing. Therefore, nearly all of these panicked articles (and lib tweets) stating that the vaccines are no longer effective are completely wrong because that’s not actually what any of the data indicates.

For people (even many “experts”) who believe that SARS-CoV-2 is on some inexorable march towards more transmissibility and more severity, do you wonder if they ever ask why this is not the case with the flu and other common (disease-causing) viruses?

Because I wonder if they do think about this, even when it’s obvious that they really don’t.

One caveat: our vaccines, as great as they are, makes it more likely to push SARS2 into immunity escape configurations. But as I said, the virus is not infinitely adaptable. As all of us do, it has limits no matter what the experts are claiming now.

You should read this only if you want to read a load of bullshit.

This is essentually an anti-vaxxer pretending to support vaccinations. See if you can spot all the poorly-analyzed data and fallacies, because there are many. And if you cannot spot them, please get your brain checked for errors.

This is written to appeal to lockdown lifer liberal types edging into anti-vax tendencies and as such it’s perfectly done. I applaud the writer’s rhetorical skill even as I despise him. One could learn a lot about propaganda by reading this piece and its framing.

…another reminder.

Don’t let anyone “must be nice” anything you’ve worked for.

— Antwan Eady (@antwan_eady) August 21, 2021

I’ve had people do the “must be nice” thing to me about my achievements, my ability to travel and just to generally do what I want with my life. A few I blasted. A few I could not or was just too angry to bother with.

Motherfuckers, I came from nothing. Rural North Florida weirdo so despised that many of my own family members wouldn’t even acknowledge me in school. I started life in a trailer park (Paradise Village. It still exists; looks it up.). I signed up to join the army when I was still 17 years old and did five hard years as a paratrooper.

Of course people helped me along the way. Of course they did. But when someone says “must be nice” to me about achievements and experiences I worked so hard for, it’s everything I can do not to enact some North Florida-style percussive justice on their fucking sneering faces.

I love the guys who say, “but if I course correct another man about misogyny he might punch me in the face.” Like yeah no shit dude, men getting violent when you challenge their mistreatment of women is a real fucking problem welcome to the conversation.

— feminist next door (@emrazz) August 20, 2021

I’m confused by the feminist belief that men should casually endure violence and the threat of murder just because. Most people are rightly scared of violence. I’m not, but that’s because of where and how I grew up. But I understand that most people (including men) are and that it’s a visceral fear.

Thinking through some things for a piece & wondering — How have the last 18 months radicalized you?

Can be directly Covid-response-related, but I'm also thinking in terms of childcare, healthcare, wages, gender relations, parenting, health communication, etc etc etc

— Anne Helen Petersen (@annehelen) August 25, 2021

The last 18 months has made me much more supportive of open borders and freedom of movement between nations, no matter what’s happening in the world. This is not just out of self-interest, but rather from witnessing how incompetent our elites were and continue to be.