“There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily.” —George Washington (1795)

Ahead of the latest cyclical peak of the ChiCom Virus infections and deaths in September, the latter currently totaling more than 730,000, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky declared: “This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated. Our biggest concern is we are going to continue to see preventable cases, hospitalizations and sadly deaths among the unvaccinated.”

At the height of that September cycle, Joe Biden likewise declared, “This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated.” He then condescendingly told the American people to “do the right thing.”

So, are we now experiencing a “pandemic of the unvaccinated”?

Clearly, that is NOT the case given the fact that millions of those who are fully vaccinated are now among the case-positive tests for the latest variant du jour – which are proving far less lethal. One reason the “break-through” infections in at-risk groups such as the elderly and others with comorbidity factors are less lethal is because, by nature, variants are less lethal. Arguably however, vaccines have proven to lessen the severity of subsequent variant infections.

Fact is, we are in the endemic wake of a deadly pathogen created by the Red Chinese Communist Party, which Democrats have converted into a pandemic orgy of government power.

Former President Donald Trump was correct to put the responsibility for what is now nearly five million deaths worldwide at the feet of the ChiComs — something Biden won’t dare do because he’s under the thumb of those same Red Chinese. So much so, in fact, that I have argued Biden should register as a foreign agent.

A prominent break-through case in point would be former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who died this week despite being fully vaccinated. But Secretary Powell was 84 years old — he had lived six years beyond the current U.S. life expectancy projection of 77.8 years, despite the fact he had underlying comorbidity factors. Most people who die of COVID succumb to complications associated with comorbidity factors, if not the disease directly.

Thus, using Powell’s death to deny the link between vaccine efficacy and survival from COVID, as some talkingheads are predisposed to do, is absurd. His death does not dispel the assertion that the vast majority of those who are being hospitalized and dying are unvaccinated even though more than 60% of Americans are fully vaccinated. Full stop.

That notwithstanding, there is an unfortunate and deadly conflation of issues regarding vaccinations.

Most notably, there is the conflation between justifiable objections to Biden’s one-size-fits-all vaccine mandates versus the actual efficacy of vaccines. And there is confusion between being vaccinated and testing positive for COVID versus being unvaccinated, being hospitalized, and dying from COVID.

Before getting to the point — vaccine effectiveness, if you just landed on this analysis from some alien world — here are some quick links to understand our opinion of the little Beltway troll Anthony Fauci, the Biden administration’s colossal trust deficit, and the reckless Biden/Fauci masking and vaxxing mandates on their way to mandating vaccination passports. Canada just implemented the model for standardized vaccine passports.

Biden’s statist mandates are already having dire consequences across the nation. There is significant resistance in the military. And Biden is under increased pressure to soften the federal mandates, including those for federal defense contractors.

There are transportation issues, both with airlines and supply lines that are exacerbated by those who refuse Biden’s mandates.

In one leftist stronghold, Chicago, Biden’s OSHA mandates are on a collision course with police and medical workers, who are now being targeted for firing. The mandates are meeting strong resistance from New York’s firefighters and other first responder unions across the nation.

And now, without any scientific justification, Biden’s next mandate target is children. Regarding Biden’s vax mandate overreach for children age 5-11, there have been fewer than 150 deaths associated with COVID in that age group, and most of those children had significant comorbidity factors, like leukemia.

As Harvard University professor of medicine Martin Kulldorff notes: “I don’t think children should be vaccinated for COVID. I’m a huge fan of vaccinating children for measles, for mumps, for polio, for rotavirus, and many other diseases, that’s critical. But COVID is not a huge threat to children. … They don’t die from this, except in very rare circumstances. … COVID is not a big risk factor for children.”

But the FDA and CDC are fast-tracking approval. On the FDA’s 17-0 panel vote to approve vaccines for children ages 5-11, panelist Dr. Eric Rubin declared: “We’re never gonna learn about how safe the vaccine is until we start giving it. That’s the way it goes.” (Shades of Nancy Pelosi’s assertion regarding the so-called “Affordable Care Act”: “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”)

First out of the gate in obedience to Biden is California’s leftist Gov. Gavin Newsom, who announced he is requiring all K-12 children at public and private schools to get vaccinated.

To put this ludicrous anti-science power play into perspective, in a state with about 40 million people, there have been 37 COVID-related deaths for those under age 18. As with the small number of COVID deaths of young people nationwide, the California deaths are tied to comorbidity factors such as being treated for leukemia. About the same number of children under age five died drowning in pools.

And on the subject of “the science,” the Leftmedia and Big Tech suppression of information about the efficacy of various alternative treatments, ostensibly because that is irresponsibly, is itself, irresponsible. The while unproved claims about the efficacy of alternative treatments is irresponsible, suppressing the suggestion from qualified scientists that some alternatives may be helpful, is counterproductive.

I should also note that because the Biden administration is apparently enforcing a virtual government-wide blackout on publishing evaluations on “natural immunity” in order not to distract from its vaxxing mandates, useful data regarding the efficacy of natural immunity is largely suppressed on the CDC site. However, many respected epidemiological experts affirm that natural immunity in those who have recovered from COVID affords more protection against reinfection than does vaccination.

Recall what Tony Fauci had to say about vaccines versus natural immunity, back when he could tell fact from politically-induced fiction: “The best vaccination is to get infected yourself. … The most potent vaccination is getting infected yourself.”

Of course, as I noted months ago, one problem with natural immunity…it’s free…unlike the hugely expensive and profitable government prescribed protocols. Follow the money…

Notably, I am a contrarian on the issue of COVID “Hot Spot” maps or similar COVID spread maps, which ironically currently indicate the fastest rising cases are in the Northeast. The purpose of publishing these “hot spots” is to condemn Republican governors who are not following the Demo Party line on mandates. But, what I see on these maps are not the most dangerous locations for COVID but areas where natural immunity, and thus herd immunity, is rising fastest — locations which will be the safest in the nation.

Case in point, despite all the politically-motivated media obsession with rising COVID cases in Florida in August, an excuse to criticize Gov. Ron Desantis, his critics have now disappeared. No doubt due to increased rates of herd immunity, new cases have been declining for 8 weeks, and are now at the lowest level since June. Currently, there are only two states with lower per capita infection rates than Florida.

Moving forward: To preface my assessment of COVID vaccine efficacy, let me be clear — I do not conflate strong and justifiable objections to Biden’s mandates with the life-saving efficacy of vaccines.

For those who have been sucked into the unproductive co-mingling of these issues, anti-mandate and anti-vaccine, stop reading, jump to the reader comments link, and blast away. But, in the inimitable words of the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan: “You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.”

I am well aware that the “anti-vax” crowd is loud, but as Galileo Galilei wrote, “In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.” We have made this case repeatedly regarding the “climate change” cult.

Focusing on the anti-vaccine arguments rather than anti-vaxxing mandates and the implications for American Liberty, is tantamount to dumping political capital down a rat hole, much as was the focus on Barack Obama’s birth certificate a decade ago. Some of the anti-vaxxing rhetoric is so fervent that it would make a Christian Scientologist proud!

However, for those who are able to objectively discern between competing issues and are interested in the facts regarding the efficacy of the COVID vaccine, read on.

Let me state up front that the following conclusions are subject to some interpretation, but my understanding is both informed and tempered by the fact that I have two close and trusted friends who, between them, have 80 years of experience as highly esteemed epidemiological specialists.

So, what are the facts related to COVID risk and the effectiveness of the vaccine?

Regarding age as a risk factor: According to multiple data sources confirming CDC data since the beginning of 2020 to the present, 76% of recorded deaths directly related to COVID infection were of individuals over the age of 65. More than half of all deaths were those over age 75. At the other end of the age spectrum, only 513 deaths have been recorded for those under age 18. That’s .072% of deaths to date, despite Biden’s mandate targeting children. As previously noted, deaths at both ends of the spectrum and all in between are almost universally tied to known comorbidity factors.

Regarding vaccine effectiveness, here is the bottom line: The risk of an unvaccinated person testing positive for COVID is 6.1 times higher than that of a vaccinated person, and the risk of death is 11.3 times higher. Accordingly, the risk of hospitalization for an unvaccinated person is 14 times higher.

Those numbers should get the attention of even the most vociferous anti-vaxxing skeptic.

A month ago, at the height of the most recent COVID variant infection and death spike, the New York Post, far from some left-wing rag, provided a comprehensive case study on hospital deaths. In an article titled “The new 99%: These are the people who are getting serious cases of COVID-19,” the Post published a compelling snapshot of COVID hospitalizations and deaths.

According to the Post: “The vast majority of Americans who are getting serious cases of COVID-19 or dying are unvaccinated. Between Jan. 1 and Aug. 30, about 99 percent of hospital admissions were among those who hadn’t been fully inoculated, which is defined by the CDC as two weeks after the second dose… [For the month of August], a little over 1.6 million Americans had been hospitalized with COVID-19 — but only about 0.65 percent of them, or 10,471 patients, were fully vaccinated… More than 173 million people have been fully vaccinated and just 0.01 percent of them, or 12,908 people, ended up in a hospital or have died from a breakthrough infection.”

More to the point, the Post concludes: “In the same time period, about 99 percent of the people who lost their lives to COVID-19 were not fully inoculated against the virus … Only 2,437 Americans, or 0.92 percent of deaths, were a result of breakthrough infections in fully vaccinated patients.”

That data tracks with New York City’s infection and death rates. In August, that city’s data noted that for the first six months of the year, “96.9% of COVID-19 hospitalizations, and 97.3% of COVID-19 deaths in New York City, were in people who were unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated.”

Regarding COVID case counts, there are reasonable questions about the hospital infection rate data – even Anthony Fauci has said what we have long suspected – counting those hospitalized with COCID versus those hospitalized because of COVID, is misleading.

Other research in September indicated that those who are vaccinated have only a 1 in 13,000 chance of contracting a breakthrough case necessitating hospitalization.

This week, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine professor Dr. Marty Makary, who has been one of the strongest critics of the Biden administration’s failure to acknowledge the importance of natural immunity, noted that the risk of death for unvaccinated people who contract COVID is about 1 in 1,000. For the vaccinated who contract breakthrough cases, the risk is about 1 in 27,000.

In other words, Americans in general and particularly those with any comorbidity factors, are exponentially safer from serious infection and death, especially now with breakthrough variants, if vaccinated.

That being said, the data that matters most at this point is COVID death data profiles – who is actually at risk of dying. Surges in COVID variant case numbers are increasingly disproportionate to the number of people who are at risk of hospitalization and death directly related to COVID infections, because variants are, by nature, less lethal – that combined with increased natural immunity and vaccination. In the case of elderly, the greatest risk group, it is difficult to determine if somebody actually died of COVID and not another comorbidity factor with covid.

However, the CDC is continues to bury death profile data because their agenda is to get people vaccinated and they do not want to promote low death risk profiles and have millions of Americans decide they don’t fit that profile and thus, decline vaccination.

Of course, as with all vaccines, there are known COVID vaccination side effects. Data regarding those adverse reactions are maintained by HHS’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. The conclusions regarding the safety of the vaccines regularly [updated by the CDC)(https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/adverse-events.html).

For the record, HHS and the CDC have been so infused with the Biden administration’s political agenda that such data should be interpreted with a commensurate degree of skepticism. I should note that claims about that data have also been politicized by those who oppose any use of the vaccine.

As of this date, more than 190 million Americans have received both doses of COVID-19 vaccines and millions more have received at least one does. VAERS indicates there have been more than 9,000 deaths of those who have taken the vaccine. However, reported deaths in hospitals that occur in patients who have been vaccinated, does not mean the cause of death was the vaccine and it is wholly disingenuous to suggest it does. Such erroneous claims undermine legitimate concerns about vaccine safety.

Further, I fully understand why young healthy people with no known comorbidity factors are resistant to vaccination. Millions of people have experienced side effects from the vaccine, mostly benign and typical with flu and other vaccines. But as I we have noted there are rare but serious side effects including myocarditis and pericarditis after COVID-19 vaccination. If I had children under the age of 18, I would not want them to submit to vaccination until we know much more about the vaccine side effects and alternate treatments.

However, I have known people who had significant and documented comorbidity factors, like diabetes and asthma, who have since died of COVID. Every one of them had refused the vaccine. Based on all the evidence presented herein, there is a substantial probability those who have died would still be with us today had they been vaccinated.

Finally, the pandemic is in decline, though I estimate there will still be cyclical spikes with variants. Currently, among the 920,000 staffed hospital beds across the nation, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC tracker, and other reliable sources, about 8% of all inpatient hospital beds are occupied by those being treated for COVID. Though some hospitals in some regions are experiencing ICU COVID overload, which is exacerbated by staffing shortages, 8% of COVID occupancy is far from the perception Biden and company have promulgated that our medical facilities are overrun.

Fact is, soon, the COVID variants should be viewed more in line with “the flu,” and not churned by Demo politicians and the media, the latter profiting from viewership ad revenue generated by constantly promoting fear and angst. Recall that there are in excess of 50,000 flu deaths in many years.

And a footnote: Remember when then-candidate Biden declared just before the 2020 election: “220,000 deaths. If you hear nothing else I say tonight, hear this: Anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain President of the United States.” According to the CDC’s COVID death data, the number of ChiCom Virus deaths under Biden since taking office, almost 400,000, is overtaking the number of deaths in the final year of the Trump administration. And Biden has had the added benefit of the COVID vaccine, and far improved hospital capabilities and treatments, during his time in office.

So much for his promise “to shut down the virus, not the country.”

Many of the coming winter deaths will be recorded in states like New York and California, where the Demos’ draconian mandates have prevented reaching herd immunity as a critical measure of protection. Predictably and inevitably, the Left’s never-ending pandemic of fear and angst under the now-authoritarian control of Biden and Fauci, has devolved into mandates that are now predicated on 10% science and 90% power accumulation.

(For the most comprehensive SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus timeline on the Web, see The “ChiCom Virus” Pandemic: Timeline, Response and Recovery.)

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Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776

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