Texas Follow-Up
Last April, Texas Governor Abbott lifted the mask mandate and opened everything back up. What changed? Apparently nothing. No affect on employment, no affect on retail foot traffic, and virus counts stayed the same.
Conclusions: Policy didn’t seem to matter, because the effect was the same in both conservative and liberal areas. Individual behavior made a bigger difference than mandates. People had made up their minds, and continued making their own decisions. Then there is the intersection between weather and the virus. It was early spring, so there were diminished consequences. People were outside. The other possibility is that Texas already had many vaccinated, and many had gotten sick, so this affected the ability for the virus to spread. Also, there were enough of those choosing to wear a mask until the CDC said it was safe not to that could have contributed to this.
Where Are We?
Did the numbers go up? No, they have significantly decreased or at a minimum, flattened. Also, how is the school reopening going … any increases in cases? Schools have largely reopened with protocols. Nothing too significant is occurring. Are the cases still going down, or are their spikes anywhere? No spikes, cases going down. Who is now eligible for a shot? As of mid-May, children aged 12-15 are eligible for the Pfizer vaccine. Are adults in Washington going to all get vaccinated or be eligible by the end of May as Biden said in March? All states met Biden’s expansion deadline by April 19, 2021.
Science is not a dogma, but a process.
The Difficulty of Antivaxxers
The most common argument against the vaccines is “my immune system is good enough for me.” A counter-argument to this is “that’s right, and with the vaccines we are better off and better at protecting others.”
The United States suffers from a deficit of imagining the lives of other people. The pro-vaccinated people don’t take much time to calmly hear out the logic of those refusing a shot. The No-vaxxers might reconsider their view if they grasped the far range and consequences of their private vaccination decisions. Instead of shaming and hectoring, our focus should be on broadening the circle of care.

Maybe more will change their minds if it’s made easier to get the vaccine and harder not to.
Be an Alt-middle thinker. Talk about thinking, think about thinking. Be willing to talk and be open to altering viewpoints based on new information. Conspiracy theorists don’t listen to or discuss opposing views.
Science is not a dogma, but a process. Discuss pros and cons, discuss everything. Science is about debate. Science proves itself wrong through debate. Be open and question.
There is discussion regarding whether or not vaccines should be mandated, once they are FDA approved. Perhaps in some circumstances where people could be at risk (such as travel in and out of the US). Coercion isn’t good.
Vaccination Rates Continue to Drop
Some people have strong feelings about those that are choosing not to get vaccinated: “The same people who defied mask orders are now refusing vaccines. These miscreants and freeloaders are keeping the rest of us from resuming normal life. Some of the holdouts believe the virus is no big deal but others have made a different calculation. They don’t need to get vaccinated because others will. How selfish.”
The goal is to move toward a near zero transmission rate and our progress continues by leaps and bounds. hopefully vaccine resistance will decline as people see that the shots are safe and effective.
May 10: FDA approves Pfizer vaccine for ages 12 to 15
Yay! This means everyone in our family can get vaccinated now, including our youngest granddaughter Ashlyn, who just turned 12.
Vaccination Incentives in Ohio
They are offering a chance to people registering for their first shot to get in a drawing to win $1 million. Funding is coming out of the stimulus money the state received. Young people choosing to be vaccinated have an opportunity to win a full college tuition, books, and lodging at a State university. I wonder how many will be incentivized to get the shot due to this strategy.
Some are predicting that the pandemic could get worse before it gets better. They cite India’s situation and spreads in other areas that can allow mutants to develop. I don’t think we will be traveling abroad anytime soon.
Ditch the Masks!
Effective May 15, new guidance by CDC states that fully vaccinated people can largely ditch masks indoors. (ABC news)
The message was strange. Basically they said that if you’ve been vaccinated, you don’t need to wear a mask indoors or outdoors, in most circumstances. Businesses are left to decide. How do you tell who is vaccinated and who is lying? A reasonable response could be, “because we don’t know who is vaccinated and who is not, we are going to keep the mask mandate until we reach a ____ threshhold.” Lynn and I have seen no change yet in the indoor mask mandates. And we are OK with that. The numbers are still not where they need to be here in Whatcom County.
The vaccinated can stop wearing masks outdoors in crowds and in most indoor settings. They still need to wear them in crowded indoor settings such as in buses, planes, hospitals, prisons, etc. A partial goal for this guidance was to highlight the benefits of getting the shot. This change in the mask mandate is due to millions of people getting vaccinated, and based on the latest science regarding how well the shots are working. It also states that those who are not fully vaccinated should continue to wear masks indoors. (Oh my, how will THAT be monitored and will the masked be shamed?) There was a need to do more to model the benefits of vaccination. We have millions of fully vaccinated people, we should start acting like it. And that’s a good motivation to get the unvaccinated to want to get vaccinated.
And … how about a culture of public investment in each other’s health?
What about mutations and the fact that some people that get infections in spite of having the shots?
The goal is always to increase the number of people that get vaccinated. That means the infections will drop and it’ll be harder for the virus to mutate. People with weak immune systems should still talk to their doctors before making a decision regarding when to wear a mask. It’s rare that people that have been vaccinated get COVID 19, but when it happens, the cases tend to be milder, shorter in duration, and it’s harder for the virus to spread to others.
Risk versus benefit. The only people that will really be at risk from someone that’s unvaccinated and not wearing a mask will be others that aren’t vaccinated and not wearing a mask. Therefore I’m not worried about whether the honor system will be a factor in this. Seems like common sense.
But what about these other countries that have such high rates of infection? Couldn’t that have happened to the United States?
Not really, because the populations are very dense, they currently have a very low rate of vaccinations, and there were very large gatherings highly attended that precipitated the spikes.
Private Narratives and Conversations with Those Close to Me
We have all developed our narrative on how we see COVID 19, how and why we make our decisions, and what actions we are willing to take. There are subtle differences in what some family members and those I frequently see have chosen to believe. I have thought about how and where some of the narratives were developed. I now think that many, over the last 15 months, listened to some, didn’t listen to others, and did their own investigating (either by listening to the research done by others); choosing certain sources; paying attention to Mainstream media, OpEds, Social Media (or not); and considering personal ideology as part of their thinking. This served as the foundation for their personal narrative. Basically, we all went out there and designed our own. This is because of the disjointed messages that we received, and the fact that we didn’t have a true, trustworthy, and centralized resource for everyone to go to for the best and most recent information and guidelines. And there was no central strategy.
This makes it much harder to navigate COVID 19 and what we should be doing (or not doing) in the coming months.
Revisiting Vaccine Hesitancy
And so … attempting to convince others that are declining to receive the vaccine to change their minds is probably a losing battle. So, if I am presented with information that (to me) seems false or misleading, I (1) ask for the source and (2) recommend that they talk to their personal physician (or mention that Lynn and I did this as part of our decision-making process). If they decline to give me a source, are vague, or give me a link to a resource known for conspiracy theories (such as Dr. Tenpenny) then I quietly don’t include that in my narrative, and move on.
When I am tempted to lash out … I remember Proverbs 15:4 – The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.
COVID 19 is an Indoor, Aerosol-Driven Virus
There is a lot of reflection now as to where we were a year ago compared to now. Interesting points were made in a podcast that I listened to on May 20 (Masks Off! Party Time? The Weeds, May 18, 2021). Rather than provide guidelines, the CDC and central authorities should have delivered the science. Such as what became scientific fact months ago: COVID 19 is an indoor, aerosol-driven virus. Followed by something like “take this into consideration when making the best decisions for yourself and for others.” I have thought about this a lot. It sure would have made things easier and less complicated, instead of arguing over mandates and whether people should be doing this or that, etc. Focusing on these two facts (indoor, aerosol) when making decisions would have minimized all of the other noise, arguing, and anger that has occurred over the past months.
Meanwhile, Let the Family Gatherings Continue
CDC Under Fire
The CDC is being criticized for the way that they handled the change in the mask mandate (around Mid-May), as may think it’s confusing. The CDC says you can now visit unvaccinated members of a single household who are at low risk of any serious complications, without having to wear masks or practice social distancing. You can visit with more than one unvaccinated household, but just one at a time. Caveat: You still need to take precautions (masks, social distancing) if someone in that unvaccinated household is at high risk for severe illness. As we get close to the end of May, vaccinated people are basically able to “go back” to their lives, and the unvaccinated are advised to continue to wear masks (although it’s not being enforced). Lynn and I have decided to ditch our masks when we can, and still be cautious if we are invited to a large indoor gathering, or if a business is still mandating masks. The unvaccinated will only be a risk to others not vaccinated.
The big question is, since the mask mandates have been lifted, how can one tell Who is Vaccinated who is unvaccinated? I don’t trust people. I think the unvaccinated will just go back to business as usual along with the people that feel safe now that they’re vaccinated. Time will tail I suppose..
The Premonition by Michael Lewis
Bushes insistence on a plan and funding for a pandemic and how that developed.
The Government was paying too much attention to threats posed by people, and not enough attention to threats posed by nature.
Wuhan investigation:
Premonition book pages 213-216
How my thinking has evolved over time. Looking for any information to prove what I know is wrong, rather than validating what I think is right. This allows my mind to always be open to change as new information is available.
Tactics to “Get” People to Vaccinate
As of the end of the month, some pretty drastic money incentives were thrown out there by states, in an effort to deal with vaccine hesitancy. They include $100 savings bonds, free drinks, free marijuana, cash payments, entry in a lottery to win million-dollar payouts, the chance to win free college tuition, books, and boarding, and other hard-cash incentives. In late May, California announced it will award $1.5 million each to 10 residents in latest state vaccine incentive program. Thirty people will also have the chance to win $50,000 each.
I wonder just how ethical this is. I read that some states are using their pandemic relief money to fund these endeavors. So let’s reward people that choose not to make a decision to benefit the public good? No one that I have talked to thinks that this is a good idea. It sounds manipulative to me.
No, HIPAA laws don’t apply to certain situations. Employers CAN require you to provide Proof of Vaccination. You can be required to provide proof for other reasons. They just can’t ask you specific questions about your health. For anyone wanting to “get into the weeds,” go to the Government Health Information Privacy Act page.
When Do We Start Giving to Others?
Donating surplus to poor nations through COVAX and doing what we can to help other countries is needed to get through the pandemic. I see things moving in that direction, the closer we get to having the majority of our population either vaccinated, or immune due to being sick from COVID 19.
Wuhan is Back in the News
Social Media is where people that don’t read go to argue with those that did the writing.
As of the end of May, it was revealed that intelligence had been obtained that a lab leak may have occurred in Wuhan, and that this could have caused the outbreak. President Biden ordered a closer review of COVID origins when it was learned that three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick enough in November 2019 that they sought hospital care (although they may have had another strain of flu). China continues to push back, calling this all a conspiracy. U.S. Intelligence is divided on whether the virus came from a Chinese lab or from animal-to-human contact.
There is a lot of arguing going on within tribal groups driven by groupthink. One position is that we knew this was going on at the beginning, but because Trump believed this and talked about it, people rejected it. Another position is that the injection of the racial component (discrimination against China and its citizens and Asians in general) tainted the allegations and meant that this possibility should be rejected. BUT …. there is truth in both of these statements …. driven by our present tribal and ideologically-driven way of thinking, encouraged by the mainstream and social media. I believe that Trump contributed to the tribal groupthink by the optics that he used … “China Virus” “It came from China” (probably true then, but used as part of his political agenda). Possible racial bias was interjected into any discussions regarding China, silencing many which interfered with constructive discussion. Too many people that don’t read argue with those that did the writing (reading, research, watching videos, etc). Tough to argue with people that don’t know anything. What should be happening is that people should look up and/or read about information, objectively arise at their own viewpoint, and then present it to others with points to support their hypothesis/views … better than the other person presented their argument. Open, thoughtful discussion. But, that isn’t happening right now.
I’m glad Biden has the guts to support this further investigation and is ignoring the current tribal groupthink political bias and what was going on ‘way back in March 2020 in the interest of public health and the truth.
We will see how this continues to develop.
Go to: COVID 19 – June 2021
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