While Pfizer wants a third vaccine shot ok’d by the FDA, the left is praising their mRNA tech. The right highlights Democrats’ desire to scan your text messages for “misinformation.”
Summary
The World Health Organization’s “chief scientist” cautioned against “mixing and matching” COVID-19 vaccine doses, saying there’s no research on its effectiveness or data on its health impact.
- Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to issue a warning about the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine’s rare link to Guillain-Barré syndrome.
- Pfizer is pushing for federal regulators to authorize a third, booster shot of their vaccine, while Biden administration officials are skeptical, saying the biggest issue is those who have not yet received any vaccine shot.
- European nations may turn visitors away despite having been fully vaccinated because the EU has not approved the vaccine a visitor received in their home country.
- The Biden administration is ramping up the rhetoric to match those of the anti-vax commentators in right-leaning media, with Dr. Anthony Fauci directly addressing Fox News.
- CBS News reported on the FDA’s expected warning over the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, saying the rare condition associated with it only occurred in 100 people (out of 12.9 million doses administered, a .000775% rate) and appears to have mostly affected men over the age of 50.
- The Atlantic’s Sarah Zhang praised the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines, saying the bets on “the newest and most unproven” system of vaccines ended up paying off hugely, especially given the rare complications associated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
- CNN’s medical analysts sounded the alarm on vaccination rates, reporting that only a handful of states are responsible for most of the new cases, that those states have less than 50% vaccination rates among adults, and that 99% of the COVID-19 deaths in June are from those who have not been vaccinated.
- The Federalist wrote about the seeming contradiction between former Planned Parenthood director Leana Wen’sinsistence on making it very difficult for Americans to opt out of a coronavirus vaccine and her previous stance regarding abortion of “My Body, My Choice.”
- OANN reported on Pfizer’s (and to a lesser extent Moderna’s) push for booster shots, saying the vaccine is “a lucrative business model” for the companies who may see profits shrink “if the virus went away.”
- The Daily Caller reported on Democratic National Committee’s efforts to have Big Tech and telecommunications companies monitor and censor text messages for alleged “misinformation.”
Author’s Take
The vaccines work. It’s that simple. The FDA is in perpetual CYA mode, as government bureaucracies always are, over the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. We’re talking about less than one-one-thousandth of a percent of people receiving the shot having the aforementioned reaction.
Is it any surprise that Pfizer and Moderna, who have made billions off the government’s mass purchase of their product, are lobbying for the authorization of booster shots? When they see free government money, they’re not going to turn it down, regardless of how necessary a third shot may or may not be. Their insistence on a never-ending series of shots will continue to feed into vaccine skepticism.
The warnings and admonitions from government bureaucrats like Fauci are too heavy-handed. Overall, daily and weekly COVID-19 numbers are approaching “seasonal flu” numbers. We can’t keep moving the goalposts. “Zero cases” is never going to happen, we have to learn to “live with it” to a certain extent. We don’t mandate flu shots, whose effectiveness is HALF what the mRNA vaccines are, and the drastic decline in cases with only half the American adult population vaccinated suggests we don’t need to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine.
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© Dallas Gerber, 2021
