Peter Lederman in Second Bout With COVID-19

@lewm 
Thanks for the explanation - as you are aware there is much speculation and misfinformation. I at least try to sort out the wheat from the chaff.
We are fortunate here in New Zealand we have not had a significant outbreak yet - more a fluke than good management though - our borders are porous and have process gaps.

@lewm 
@mijostynhat 

What are your thoughts on the gain of function research conducted at the Wuhan lab, partially subsidized by the NIH ( Fauci ).
In particular if this virus is man made, then I would as a layman assume that we dont know how it is going to mutate, that it may not behave like a naturally occurring virus and bascially we cant predict anything.

What are your thoughts.

So having followed this thread, I am confused.

According to the latest CDC/US Government stats the lowest number of vaccinations by  ethnic group is african americans - only 23% have been vaccinated.

According to some here ( and the spokesman for the administration  - Dr Fauci ) the problem with vaccine resistance relates primarily to red states and right wing conspiracy theorists.

Could someone explain why there are so many african american right wing conspiracists. And how is it possible that up to 75% of african americans actually live in red states - I thought the bulk of them live in blue state cities. Am I missing something.

@jeff1225 

Fauci is not a "spokesperson" and never was, he is a scientist and administrator @dover Did you know that Fauci has been advising presidents since Reagan, but you never heard of him before. That's because presidents took his advise and solved problems. It was Trump that thrust him into the public's view as part of his vaudeville act he called a press conference.  

The current president, after he was elected, announced that Dr Fauci would lead the new administrations Covid response. I take Biden at his word which means that Fauci effectively is a "spokesperson" for the current administration, albeit he no doubt has his own personal and professional viewpoints as well.

It was Trump that thrust him into the public's view as part of his vaudeville act he called a press conference.  

I wouldn't call Fauci a vaudeville act, but Fauci has done more U-turns than a New York taxi driver. Fauci advised the former President up until early March 2020, that Covid would not be a problem in the US - Fauci was wrong. Furthermore, since the election, Fauci has claimed on CNN that he knew the seriousness of Covid in January 2020 - that is a reinvention of reality when you compare his public statements in that interview with his statements made February/March 2020.
Fauci, was against the use of masks, now Fauci's for it. There are many other examplles.
This is not fake news, Fauci's U turns and misleading information, in my view, is part of the problem with "trust" issues that the American public have with media, tech oligopolies, politicians & as a consequence medical experts.

I note that the UK policy with regards to vaccinating children is that only at risk children should be vaccinated. The reason they give is that there is insufficient testing at this stage.
The American view is that children should all be vaccinated - universities and some school in the US are mandating it.
Does this mean the tech companies should now remove the UK from their platforms for "misinformation".

The whole thing is a farce - from all sides. Reason, logic and science are big losers in this pandemic.

@lewm 
No we dont have a Covid problem in New Zealand thus far. There are no lockdowns, no mandatory masks, no mandatory vaccination. We currently have rugby games with full stadiums.
The only thing we have is tight border controls, quarantines and effective contact tracing and isolation mechanisms when someone slips through from overseas with Covid. 

Early on our border testing procedures had more holes than swiss cheese - they were only testing folk arriving in New Zealand with symptoms, no testing of asymptomatic folk. for example on one day I checked in early 2020, 108 people arrived, 33 tested, 8 had Covid. The other 75 asymptomatic folk were not tested at all. The statistical odds that none of the 75 untested had Covid would be very low in my view.
This swiss cheese view was supported by the former Dean of the Otago Medical School here in New Zealand, but ignored by our Prime Minister until the holes became apparent, and testing policy "updated".

@jeff1225 

Of course Fauci and the scientific community changed their guidance over time, they knew nothing about the virus.

Given Fauci's expertise in Corona virus, gain of function research, and is generally considered a medical expert in that field, that statement is indeed a novel ( book of fiction ). It is Alice in Wonderland.

Fauci shold have known the possible consequences of a Corona type virus even before the outbreak.

At least Trump got the US border partially shut down despite opposition  and got a vaccine through in 9 months - something Fauci claimed was not possible.
The decision by the Trump administration to place vaccine orders in advance of FDA approvals, procure the requisite raw materials through the US Army logistics team and commence production prior to trial completion, to ensure vaccines were in stock by the time the FDA approved them has saved millions of lives around the world and in the US.

@antinn 

Why weren't they followed verbatim?

In America, in times of a national crisis/emergency, like it or not, regardless of advisers, the responsibility falls squarely on the shoulders of the POTUS/Commander-In-Chief; such is the old adage "The buck stops here".  

Technically thats correct in so far as the CDC falls under the jurisdiction of the Executive Branch of Government. However there are two other branches of governance in the US that materially affect the pandemic response - Congress writes the law and authorises funding for the executive branch, and the Judiciary whom interpret the law crafted by congress with the overarching requirement of protecting the constitution.

And then of course there is the "4th branch" the media, who are supposed to hold whomever is in power to account, and have special rights under the constituion, I believe, have so politicised the pandemic 
that over 80% of the population have no trust in the media.

I dont think any administration has covered pandemics fully, when Obama left office the cupboards were empty in terms of medical supplies - ventilators etc.

And finally POTUS can ony make decisions based on information available and the advice they are given. If Fauci saw no threat to the US as late as March 2020, and he was part of the advisory team, then how can you expect POTUS to have seen the threat in January 2020.

The medical experts explain Fauci's wildly shifting positions as "evolving" due to new information. Why cannot POTUS be afforded the same grace.

@lewm 
Thanks for the update on testing. I'm sure you are right, but the friustration on my part was that our procedures were not updated until after June 2020, long after it became apparent that asymptomatic could be transmitting. And in a world where the pandemic was clearly more serious than any before, why not overtest if you can practically do it - and we could have, preventing a couple of community outbreaks that we did have, that were ultimately contained through effective contact tracing and quarantining. We were lucky.