COVID-19 Rant

[Rev. Powell]

Some interesting points in the NYT newsletter:

Why is the F.D.A. encouraging people to receive a Covid-19 vaccine — but hasn't formally approved those vaccines?

Even as President Biden, the C.D.C. and virtually the entire scientific community are urging — pleading with, even — Americans to get vaccinated, the government has not formally approved any vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration has instead given only "emergency use authorization" to the shots from Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. That's a temporary form of approval that allows people to receive shots while the agency continues to study their effectiveness and safety...

The situation also feeds uncertainty and skepticism among some Americans who have not yet gotten a shot. Those skeptics, as Matthew Yglesias of Substack wrote yesterday, are effectively taking the F.D.A. at its word. The F.D.A. leaders' official position is that "they don't have enough safety data yet," Yglesias noted.

The strangest part of all this is that the F.D.A.'s official position does not reflect its leaders' actual views: They agree with the C.D.C. and other scientists that Americans should be getting vaccinated as soon as possible...

Why, then, hasn't the F.D.A. taken the final step of formal approval?

It is following a version of its traditional, cautious process for vaccine approval. That process has historically had some big advantages, reducing the chances that Americans end up taking a faulty drug. To move much more quickly would risk undermining the public's confidence in the F.D.A. and, by extension, the medicines it approves, Dr. Peter Marks, who oversees the process, has argued.

But I think the F.D.A.'s leaders have failed to understand how most Americans really think about the vaccines. It is different from the way that scientists and epidemiologists do. It's less technical and based more on an accumulation of the publicly known facts.

It reminds me of another example of expert miscommunication, early in the pandemic. Back then, public health officials made highly technical statements about masks that many people interpreted as discouragement from wearing them. These statements ignored the many reasons to believe that masks could make a difference (like their longtime popularity in Asia to prevent the spread of viruses) and focused instead on the absence of studies showing that masks specifically prevented the spread of Covid.

Later, officials insisted that they were merely "following the data." In truth, though, they were basing their advice on a narrow reading of the data — and not understanding how most people would interpret their comments.

The long wait to approve the vaccines is similar. F.D.A. officials are acting as if most Americans are experts in the nuances of their approval process and will be shocked if the agency expedites it. In reality, many Americans know almost nothing about that process. But some are understandably confused by the mixed messages that the F.D.A. is sending.

Hundreds of millions of people around the world have been vaccinated. Tens of thousands of them were followed for months in clinical trials. And F.D.A. officials have repeatedly urged other Americans to get vaccinated. "In the history of medicine, few if any biologics (vaccines, antibodies, molecules) have had their safety and efficacy scrutinized to this degree," Dr. Eric Topol of Scripps Research wrote in The Times.

TLDR: The FDA is structurally ultraconservative in approving new drugs, treatments and vaccines, to the point that their caution may be misleading people as to the safety and effectiveness. (Personally I've always thought that the FDA is too CYA, cautious and overregulated).

[Leah]

Coworker tested positive for Covid so I went and got tested .

[Alex]

Coworker tested positive for Covid so I went and got tested .

Hope you are clear. Take care.

[Leah]

Coworker tested positive for Covid so I went and got tested .

Hope you are clear. Take care.

Thank you

[Rev. Powell]

Coworker tested positive for Covid so I went and got tested .

That sucks. I bet you'll be fine, though. Keep us posted. 

[pennywise37]

smart man getting tested yeah keep us in the loop if you are okay or not

[Leah]

Coworker tested positive for Covid so I went and got tested .

Hope you are clear. Take care.

Coworker tested positive for Covid so I went and got tested .

That sucks. I bet you'll be fine, though. Keep us posted. 

smart man getting tested yeah keep us in the loop if you are okay or not

Test came back negative. 

[Alex]

Coworker tested positive for Covid so I went and got tested .

Hope you are clear. Take care.

Coworker tested positive for Covid so I went and got tested .

That sucks. I bet you'll be fine, though. Keep us posted. 

smart man getting tested yeah keep us in the loop if you are okay or not

Test came back negative. 

Glad to hear.

[pennywise37]

me too i'm glad you are okay too man

[Leah]

Man if I had gotten Covid I would be depressed since I wouldn't be able to go with my family to the beach in a week.

[pennywise37]

personally i wouldn't go to the beach at all unless it as in a private area with nobody else around but me and my family or whoever is with me, it showed up on my celly that they want 100% of schools to be open when school starts, how is it that we have a pandemic still going around and the delta Strain plus this new one and they still want the kids to go to school? how f.... up is that?

[Jim H]

They're bringing back the mask mandate here in STL on Monday.  Going to be interesting.  I think it will have almost no effect on transmission here at this point; those who will follow it again are already vaccinated, and those who aren't won't as enforcement here was always poor.  But Missouri is one of the worst places for COVID in the USA, so I get they wanted to do something.

[zombie no.one]

They're bringing back the mask mandate here in STL on Monday.  Going to be interesting.  I think it will have almost no effect on transmission here at this point; those who will follow it again are already vaccinated,

none of the currently available jabs were designed to disrupt viral transmission, and a WHO spokesperson said in a press conference quite a while back that the jabs were only ever intended to "compliment" additional social measures like masks and distancing, not to substitute them...

[Trevor]

Man if I had gotten Covid I would be depressed since I wouldn't be able to go with my family to the beach in a week.

Glad you're OK 

[Trevor]

We've been in lockdown level 4 for almost a fortnight and our Prez will address us tomorrow night in one of the now dreaded "family meetings" so we might go down a few levels.

Level four means no liquor can be sold, no theatres etc open and inter province travel is restricted.