CONTENT ADVISORY: This thread is not about Beaver football.

So... Judge got the Johnson and Jonson delivers to the Johnson?

All these companies are looking at boosters to deal with continuing changes in the viruses and such.  Some will probably be ready for distribution and injection by the end of this year.

If folks are afraid of the side effects, they just need to look at the side effects of Remdesivir, which is the anti-viral drug used to help treat Covid. Also under emergency use authorization from the FDA. Yuck.

If you are sick enough to get Remdesivir then you are probably not in a condition to worry about the side effects. So the real reason to be afraid of it is you are a very sick person. The side effect profile is misleading like many meds. There is no or very little data comparing increase over placebo, just data of what was observed as possible side effects. We have not found a significant side effect from this med in a single patient we have treated at the hospital I work at. 

Quite often in a med that has weak endpoint supportive data, like Remdesivir, the side effects are likewise minimal. Thus, stated side effects are only found due to labs and extensive research, not typical things you would report.

People aren't afraid of the side-effects. They are afraid that they are being lied to.

And don't for a moment think that it's because of Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump, or various internet trolls. It's because the "experts" have made statement after statement, cited statistic after statistic, and way too many of those statements and statistics have turned out to be garbage. Sometimes their foolishness is transparent (Does anyone in the g**d***ed world really believe that this virus didn't come from the lab in Wuhan?) Sometimes it's cloaked in over-the-top emotional appeals. Sometimes it's patently, purely political. And sometimes it's walked back the very same day.

And every time the experts speak as though they have perfect knowledge - bad statistics reported with absurd precision, garbage models cited as though they are more important than actual results. They invoke the name of "science" to justify decisions that are obviously arbitrary.

So why is anyone surprised that a substantial portion of the population no longer trusts the "experts"? The average Joe doesn't have the time or knowledge base to evaluate all the claims, for and against the vaccine. So he looks around to find sources that he feels he can trust. He filters out the hypocrites, the politicians, the overwrought, the manipulative, and the repeatedly wrong - that is, most of the media and politicians.

Maybe if Joe DiMaggio was still around, people would turn their eyes to him.

Blame the media, mostly. According to international surveys, the American media has been the most sensationalistic (and pessimistic) in the world. Blame also the politicians - especially those that turned the pandemic into a partisan election issue. Blame the governors and mayors who banned travel in their state and then promptly took a vacation, got their hair done after shutting down the hairdressers, or enjoyed a banquet after closing the restaurants down.

It didn't have to be this way.

Imagine if, from day one, this whole crisis had been put in proper perspective . . . simply another flu in a long series of pandemic flus - like the Asian Flu and the Hong Kong Flu, a recurring phenomenon like we've seen before and we'll see again. Imagine if, instead of apocalyptic claims and ridiculous modeling numbers, the experts dispassionately noted the differences between this flu and its predecessors - not in stupidly overprecise statistics, but in terms that are scientifically defensible and relatable to human beings. Simple facts, like that this flu spreads more easily than those earlier flus, is much less deadly for the young, more deadly for the obese and old. People would have found those ideas credible, and if the public policies matched these statements (I'm looking at you, Governor Cuomo, and all the nursing home patients your policies killed), the public trust in government and the "experts" might still be intact.

It's too late now. Getting the last 40% or so of the population to vaccinate is not going to be easy. But don't blame the American people - they aren't the ones that threw away their credibility in the search of ratings, power, and fame.

While we are riffing on meds…

I cant stand ads on TV for prescription drugs. I saw one last night for a lung cancer drug. If you have lung cancer are you really shopping around for meds? Hey Doc, I saw that ad on tv for Whosingwhatsit. How about hooking me up with some of that?

Or one of my favorite lines from drug ads: Don’t take Xedtruti if you are allergic to Xedtruti. Oh really?

And then the long list of potential side effects. Every dam one causes diarrhea. Thanks for that while I’m eating dinner. 🤢

Also, who makes up these names?