American Consequences - January 2021

The reason we have millions of new cases per week in the U.S. is because many folks refuse to wear masks, risking infection themselves and vectoring to everyone else. You see, how severe the disease got was part of the trials for each vaccine. In one trial, there was no severe COVID-19 cases in folks who got the vaccine. The other trial saw one severe case. vaccines are 95% effective. Fortunately, that’s only the start of how these two vaccines can help you ward off COVID-19. Meanwhile, in the two control groups who received no vaccine or a placebo, severe disease (requiring hospitalization) happened 8% of the time – in 37 controls, out of the 460 controls who got infected. So that’s one person getting severely sick versus 37 requiring hospitalization. In other words, these two vaccines are 95% effective in preventing illness, but if you do get infected, they are 97.5% likely to prevent severe disease. That’s an additional 40-to-one odds, in your favor. Selfishly, then, you want this vaccine – either one, actually, as their efficacy, their safety, and their design is almost completely the same. Yes, it will hurt your arm that day. But yes, it will save your life. Is that enough incentive?

to wear masks, risking infection themselves and vectoring to everyone else. Masks work. It’s why doctors and nurses wear them. It’s also why 3M and Honeywell have exponentially increased their production of masks, so that we can get protection from infectious COVID-19 particles. But nobody wants to wear masks forever, of course. Instead, we need our immune systems to easily win the fight against COVID-19 if we encounter infectious particles. That’s where the two new vaccines come into play. Both of these vaccines use a “factory order” directed to a human cell’s protein factory to order up copies of the “spike” protein that makes up the crown of the coronavirus. But no other parts are made. So the vaccines do not include live virus or dead virus... They do not include any virus. Nor can they make copies of themselves. And no, they do not join on to human DNA. It’s just a factory order for the spike protein. Now, spike on its own doesn’t do anything. It’s an attachment point, just like a battleship’s anchor. And just like the anchor of a battleship isn’t dangerous on its own, the spike is not a danger. Instead, using spike is a way to teach your immune system the first part of the COVID-19 virus that it might see, as a fore-warning. That’s how every vaccine is designed... They prepare your immune system. Until a few months ago, we had no idea how well this could work. But now we know both

American Consequences

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