Last year Jacinda Ardern promised the vaccine was our solution to the war on Covid-19, opening borders and ending lockdowns. Now that just about every other country is ahead of us in vaccine rollout, we can catch a glimpse of our future.
Ardern et al gave us their “A Game” and are still promoting the vaccine like crazy, doubtless hoping to use up this week’s purchases and next month’s shipment before the public lose interest and the vaccines expire. If we are obedient, meaning enough people line up for two jabs, Ardern says she will let us out of our longest Level Four lockdown yet. Doubtless, a carrot very kindly offered, but beware the stick tucked under her arm – the threat of keeping us in lockdown longer!
The vaccine hesitant are already being blamed for the government’s failed elimination strategy, and may yet be blamed for the carnage caused by their extended lockdowns.
But has the vaccine done what was promised? Has it stopped the spread of the disease? Overseas experience does not bring good news.
“What they [vaccines] can’t do any more is prevent transmission.”
Those were the words of CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer last week, as she stated the obvious fact that the COVID shots do not stop symptomatic infection or transmission. Based on data from nearly universally vaccinated regions and countries, such as San Francisco, Israel, Gibraltar, and Iceland, it is abundantly clear that the virus is spreading in some places in greater numbers than before the vaccine was even distributed. Thus, there is no possible legal or moral justification under which any private or public entity can force another human being to take this experimental shot, unless “your body, my choice” is the new guiding principle.
The Blaze
What about preventing severe illness and death, then? Surely after all our pain and suffering we are granted this one small mercy? The answer to this is both yes and no. Yes, in the short term but more likely no in the longer term because the virus mutates.
Alan Dershowitz this week argued that a “vaccine-centric focus” “is obsolete and needlessly killing thousands of people”, claiming Israel rolled out the Pfizer vaccine early this year but now the majority of hospitalised Covid-19 patients are the fully vaccinated, indicating that vaccine efficacy wanes after around six months.
“…COVID deaths are beginning to seep back into nursing homes, despite nearly all the residents being vaccinated. They are being misled with a false sense of security and no proactive treatment or preventives to protect them.”
The Blaze
Strangely, with the exception of South Africa, SARS-Cov-2 infection rate is much less than was expected on the African continent with just 2% of people vaccinated. Without studies to support their argument, experts speculate on how these poor nations dodged Covid-19.
“Relative to Western countries, major risk factors for COVID-19 severity and fatality, such as obesity and diabetes, are less common in Africa. Furthermore, sub-Saharan Africa is a hotspot for sickle cell disease, malaria, and tuberculosis with high rate of BCG vaccination, and some have wondered whether these and other conditions yet unidentified are protective against SARS-CoV-2 infection and its impact.”
JAMA Network
Another speculation is that the drug widely used throughout Africa that WHO determined is not safe for Covid-19 treatment despite its gold plated heritage, provides some protection against Covid-19.
“William C. Campbell and Satoshi Omura discovered a new drug, Avermectin, the derivatives (Ivermectin) of which have radically lowered the incidence of River Blindness and Lymphatic Filariasis, as well as showing efficacy against an expanding number of other parasitic diseases.
For this discovery they both received a Nobel Prize. Since 2015 there have been billions of doses of this drug dispensed to millions of patients with very few side effects. Diseases caused by parasites have plagued humankind for millennia and constitute a major global health problem. In particular, parasitic diseases affect the world’s poorest populations and represent a huge barrier to improving human health and well-being.
In Africa where River Bindness is prevalent in approximately 20 countries and Ivermectin is used extensively the death rate per 100,000 from COVID-19 is factors of magnitude less than the other countries in Africa where Ivermectin is not taken.
Anecdotal? Yes, but it is but definitely eye opening..”
The Conway Daily Sun
Based on overseas experience, Ardern’s “A game” is clearly doomed, and this week it was obvious she is aware of the failure because she drip fed us some information about the government’s new Covid-19 strategy.
Without actually admitting her elimination plan is a failed strategy, the Prime Minister this week signalled a change of direction.
On the AM show Andrew Little admitted his government is considering Covid-19 treatments and also setting up separate Covid-19 wards in hospitals – something that should have been done last year with the same gravitas applied to the 80,000 projected Covid-19 deaths.
In his daily briefing this week Ashley Bloomfield also talked for the first time about anti-virals, including Remdesevir, and the monoclonal antibody treatment produced by Regeneron which was used successfully to treat Donald Trump last year.
Infectious diseases expert Kurt Krause told Heather du Plessis-Allen that monoclonal antibody treatment is effective in mild to moderate Covid-19 infections and a game changer in preventing the development of Covid-19 following exposure.
“An injection of these antibodies within 96 hours has been found to be about 80-90% effective at preventing Covid following that exposure.”
Newstalk ZB
It took the Ardern government a very long time to arrive at the conclusion vaccines are not a long term strategy for keeping the virus out. We must learn to live with Covid-19 by adopting more effective strategies and admitting that the costs, both financial and for physical and mental health, from Ardern’s failed “A Game” are simply horrendous.
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