Credo

It's pretty clear from almost every study and from real-world observation and data that masks do help prevent the spread of the virus. Some masks are better than others, some people are more compliant than others. But keeping the virus from getting massively airborne inside is going to slow the spread. The other part of the equation that a lot of people seem to miss is that social distancing is an important component to preventing the spread.

Hey, it worked with Titanic and we all knew how that ended!

So the first autopsy said he died of a drug overdose. The second that it was asphyxiation. I wonder if there will be a third autopsy showing it was suicide?

I suspect that they omitted saying that most mouthwashes would kill Covid-19. I think that by the time you have it in your mouth, it's way too late to stop an infection.

I think one of things that has been observed about Delta is that it tends to sort of tear through a population and then begins to slow. It simply can't really spread at the rate that it does without decimating a population.

I've seen too many years of major scandals just ending up nowhere. Anybody remember the Blue Diamond case? Then there was the shooting in a night club that nobody seemed to see. The list is a long one, so there will be a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth and then it will start going around in a circle until people just stop paying attention. I really hope I am wrong, but corruption seems to be able to outsmart even social media.

Some of the phases of the trials can, and did take place at the same time. The safety issue of mRNA had already been proven. mRNA technology has been around since the 1990's and some years back it was being explored for use in vaccines for Zika, Ebola and HIV. Those trials showed that the technology was safe. That was a big hurdle to overcome in granting Emergency Use Authorization. The Pfizer has now received full approval. Moderna will most likely follow shortly.

Well not according to this study. The drop was from 90% to 66%. https://www.statnews.com/2021/08/24/as-delta-spread-covid-19-vaccine-effectiveness-against-infection-fell-from-90-to-66-in-one-key-study/

It's astonishing that a country is willing to use their citizens as human guinea pigs in an effort to save money. The vaccine manufacturers put the product through extensive trials and one of those trials is to find out what dosage is required to produced the desired immune response. As it is they are now giving 3 shots (two of Sinovac and one of mRNA) where two shots of a good vaccine would have been sufficient. So, now, they may give 10 million people a shot under the skin only to have to give 10 million more later. And meanwhile the pandemic rages and the deaths continue. I sometimes wonder just what these people are smoking.

Most vaccines begin to lose their efficacy at some point. Pfizer was widely administered earlier than Moderna. So the question is how long are they effective for before we see waning efficacy?

I don't think there are any actual studies, at least not yet. What we have is mostly observational data. In Indonesia, it would indicate that there are serious breakthrough infections and deaths in fully vaccinated people. In Indonesia and in Israel what is lacking is more concrete understanding of who is getting sick, how sick are they getting and who is dying. The difference is that in Indonesia I suspect those in the medical field are in a younger category, i.e. working age people. In Israel, we don't have any data to show if they are elderly, have underlying conditions, are immunocomprised, etc. What we do know is that Delta is much more infectious and vaccines are not as effective right now as we had once assumed. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/hundreds-indonesian-doctors-contract-covid-19-despite-vaccination-dozens-2021-06-17/

No, I don't think the time has come to head to the nearest cliff and leap. The time has come to use all the strategies available to slow the spread of the disease. In time, they will be able to get people vaccinated. Slowing the spread is important because further variants may be more dangerous and we run the risk that one will arrive that the vaccine has no effect on.

I haven't seen any statistics that show Sinovac is that effective against Delta. I think the statistics from Indonesian Health Care Workers would indicate it was not.

From your link: However, the two-dose vaccine still works very well in preventing people from getting seriously sick, demonstrating 88% effectiveness against hospitalization and 91% effectiveness against severe illness, according to the Israeli data published Thursday It has always been known that the vaccines cannot prevent breakthrough cases. The US is largely a pandemic of the unvaccinated.