American corporate media love catchphrases that they all repeat in unison, across network and cable television and through social media. One recent example is “viral blizzard” referring to the omicron variant of COVID. A search of Google News for “viral blizzard” demonstrates how in the past several days, myriad media outlets used the term in scaremongering headlines.
Another similar phrase made the rounds this past summer, “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” attributed to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. At the time, it was believed that only the unvaccinated were transmitting, catching, and getting sick from COVID.
The same CDC Director Dr. Walensky two weeks later acknowledged, “vaccinated people infected with Delta can transmit the virus.” This lead to the July 27 CDC recommendation, “that everyone wear a mask in indoor public settings in areas of substantial and high transmission, regardless of vaccination status.” So much for it being a pandemic of the unvaccinated.
This is the time when I must add this standard and necessary disclaimer that I am not anti-vaccine, having been personally vaccinated. Nor am I offering medical advice, only an analysis of this newsworthy issue with questions about ever-changing recommendations and certainties from the political and medical establishments.
I am not the only one questioning this catchphrase. A German doctor wrote a letter to the prestigious medical journal The Lancet one month ago entitled, “COVID-19: stigmatizing the unvaccinated is not justified.” He raised the following points,
There is increasing evidence that vaccinated individuals continue to have a relevant role in transmission.
People who are vaccinated have a lower risk of severe disease but are still a relevant part of the pandemic. It is therefore wrong and dangerous to speak of a pandemic of the unvaccinated.
I call on high-level officials and scientists to stop the inappropriate stigmatization of unvaccinated people, who include our patients, colleagues, and other fellow citizens, and to put extra effort into bringing society together.
This is sage advice which hopefully doesn’t lead to the German medical authorities threatening or revoking this doctor’s medical license.
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In the early days of the vaccines, many of us, myself included, had high hopes that COVID would be a distant memory by now. We took President Joe Biden at his word last April when he promised the nation, “Getting together with friends, going to the park for a picnic without needing to mask up, we’re back to that place now as long as you get vaccinated.”
Instead, we see New York, among the most vaccinated states with 95 percent of adults receiving at least one dose and 84 percent of adults fully vaccinated, locking down yet again, Broadway shows canceled and restaurants closed. We also see this surprising statistic this week for such a vaccinated state, “For a fourth day in a row, the state has broken its record for highest single-day case count since the beginning of the pandemic.”
It is so bad in mostly vaccinated New York that the governor is pushing a bill that would, according to RedState, “grant the far-left governor of New York — or any government official or entity — the unilateral authority to detain anyone ‘indefinitely’ even suspected of posing a significant threat to public health.” Does this mean anyone who dares question Dr. Anthony Fauci or Gov. Kathy Hochul is now a “threat to public health” and can be disappeared like the Jan. 6 protesters?
In the past few days, we have seen reports of prominent “triple vaccinated” individuals getting COVID. Notice how we have gone from “fully” vaccinated to “triple” vaccinated, at least until a second booster is needed, as in Israel, perhaps this new group called the “quad” vaccinated. We can save “penta” vaccinated for next summer.
