It remains a mystery to me why I've never come down with COVID, or at least haven't come down with it that I'm aware of. It's not like I've ever been particularly careful. I didn't start wearing a mask with any frequency until the last few months, after vaccination. Social distancing is really a joke anyway, but I was never particularly careful about that either. My wife's niece and her kids are living with us, and she works in retail. My wife is a teacher. My eldest son has kept working all through the pandemic, at a business where the various protocols have NOT remotely been enforced, and despite my urging and his promise to do so, he is as yet unvaccinated.
All the opportunities for this to hit me have been there. But nada, at least no symptoms remotely like anyone describes. There was a nasty little cough that lingered for several weeks that went around my household in late February and early March of 2020. But none of the other COVID symptoms.
Interestingly, of my immediate family, only my youngest brother has come down with it. Neither my dad nor my other siblings have come down with it. My younger brother has been twice exposed, and closely - first when his wife and eldest daughter came down with it, and again when our youngest brother and his daughter got breakthrough cases. Neither of my sons have gotten it.
I'm beginning to wonder if most of my family is carrying some sort of resistance, maybe the phenylated OAS1 gene.
This thing is a finicky bitch, to be sure. My vaccinated MIL and daughter both got it and had mild symptoms (my MIL a little worse), but my unvaccinated youngest didn't get it (or at least didn't show symptoms of it, since we didn't get her tested). It gives mild symptoms to older folk, and completely ravages healthy people in the prime of their lives. Lots of younger kids seem to be immune, while others have died. If it WERE a Chinese bioweapon, you'd have to at least tip your hat to them for their inventiveness.
It isn't a Chinese Bioweapon, but I am pretty convinced it was a Chinese lab fuckup.
There is definitely some information which points in that direction.
Just between us and the walls, because I don't want to fuel anyone's conspiracy theories...but I've spent quite a bit of time with folks from the CDC over the past 17 years, I've got a collection of certificates of appreciation from them, and I've got lots of stories about working with them and partying with them. But that place is a snakepit. I have been recruited multiple times, but even if I WAS inclined to live in Atlanta, I wouldn't go to work there. There are some very smart people who work there, but the place is absolutely shot through with egotism, ambition, backstabbing, and politics.
You can blame Trump all you want over his handling of the pandemic, but if you really study the history of the CDC, you'll find that they have precisely NEVER been able to put out coherent messaging. Now, messaging isn't really their job, so that shouldn't be a problem, but everyone wants to look to them for guidance, and rely on them as authoritative, and that's just laughable.
And anyone who believes their protestations that they weren't supporting Gain-of-Function research in China is a mental midget. That is exactly what they were doing. I'm not shocked they were doing it, I'm shocked by their protestations that they weren't.
As far as blaming Trump, fast tackling the vaccines was the one thing I actually agreed with. He deserves more credit for it. I'm a bit surprised how quickly his supporters turn on him and boo for him suggesting that people get vaccinated.
Agreed for the most part. Biggest misunderstanding of fast tracking is that corners were cut. Biggest impact of fast tracking was speeding up FDA reviews which usually take years. Companies did all their full clinical trials although they were done consecutively where normally they would wait between phases for FDA response taking on the cost risk associated. (only Pfizer paid fully for their own with others taking government subsidies. One part that was not completed was real time duration studies (which couldn't be accelerated) which has led to the booster debate. Normally this would have had to be completed prior to approval which would have meant having to wait until next year for initial approval. Trump was late to the vaccine support bandwagon after initially touting various internet "cures", so add that to the mixed message debacle. Although not perfect, besides vaccination, masks are the best and easiest preventative measure. People will be quick to forget that with many wearing masks last year, regular flu and colds were also greatly reduced.
