Blog/August 2021/Aug 13th

August 13th

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It was a mostly stay-quietly-at-home week. That’s the kind I like.

I just signed-up for my third COVID shot, early next week. Why would I do that? That’s a very good question, to which the short answer is: because I’m already on that path, and one more shot won’t likely cause any more harm than the first two (assuming, arguendo, that the shots do in fact cause some harm, which is not supported by hard evidence).

A rational discussion about COVID should bring in facts and figures. So let’s take a look at the Israel Ministry of Health’s COVID statistics page. Sorry it’s only in Hebrew, and only about Israel, and it’s dynamic so by the time you look at it the numbers will have changed. I’ll refer to the data as of this writing.

The total number of people who have passed-away from COVID-19 in Israel is 6,604 of 924,762 who were known to be infected. That’s a mortality rate of 0.7%. To put it another way: according to our statistics, your overall chance of surviving this if infected, is at least 99.3% (consider that many more people were infected but didn’t get reported). Now look at other slices of the data:

The graph showing age-distribution (inception to date) indicates that by far the majority of “infected” are the young (0-30yo). But by far the majority of “ill” are the elderly (60+). Very few children are ill. Deaths are almost entirely in the 70+ range. This is one set of data to bear in mind.

The graph of “seriously ill” vs. vaccination status for the last month, for the entire population, shows that “completely vaccinated but ill” people outnumber the non-vaccinated by almost double. But if we look at the 60+ age group, that changes to almost three times as many vaccinated-ill. And if we look at the under-60 crowd, the non-vaccinated-ill are double the vaccinated-ill. So does the vaccine work or not?

The short answer: yes, it does. The long answer: first of all, almost all the elderly are vaccinated, so elderly ill will likely be vaccinated. Second, no vaccination is 100% effective. Third, the elderly tend to have much poorer overall health, and weaker immune systems, so despite the best efforts of any vaccine, they are more likely to get seriously ill.

The hard truth is: you will get COVID at some point. Keeping yourself healthy (exercise, raising your levels of vitamin D, eating properly) is your best overall defense. Getting vaccinated helps prevent more serious illness, and staying away from other people can help. But you will get ill at some point, and the silly masks aren’t going to prevent a thing (and masking children is just theatrically asinine). Being in panic about getting ill is counterproductive and ruins your quality of life.

Of mites and money:

• A new Israeli treatment for COVID reduces the length of hospitalization significantly.
• What is the cost of the recently approved trillion-dollar paint-job in “slave lives”? Assuming a median US income of $40k and a working lifetime of 45 years, USD 1.2T amounts to 666,667 fully-consumed lifetime efforts just to pay for this monstrosity of a bill. Give that a think for a bit. Next up: the 3.5T budget resolution aimed at utterly transforming the US economy. Don’t worry, though: the current POTUS apparently doesn’t know what the population of the US is…
• Ready, set, don’t buy! Are you prepared for the imminent “no-buy-list”?
• Laurel Southern comments on the classicism of COVID restrictions, and how the “elites” ignore them (or pay a fine) while the majority of you plebs suffer financial, social, and mental distress.
• Why does Hollywood always ruin old beloved franchises?
• Near my old stomping-grounds: a “trans-woman” (who is an elected official) confronts an elderly veteran shop-owner who displayed a “transphobic sign” in his shop window. It didn’t go well for the woeman.
• On a positive note: why you can expect to live past your life expectancy! Though, the way the world’s going, that may be a net negative…

And as to the first question raised? Well, I’m almost in the 60+ category, so better safe(r) than sorry.

The temperatures went down to seasonal norms this week, so that was a relief from the previous week! They’ll stay that way, presumably, for the next week.

Our shabbat menu includes:
homemade ḥalla, marinated steak, roasted chicken, roasted veggies, various salatim, melon, and watermelon.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!

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