> For example, seatbelt compliance is at 88% in the U.S., but that 12% that doesn’t comply results in 47% of car accident fatalities (17,000) and costs U.S. employers $5 billion a year, and those costs are passed on to us. They made the choice, but we survivors are left to deal with the grief and the price tag.
Uncited. And poorly argued.
> But the real cost is the 700,000 dead, thousands of which could have been saved if they’d followed the CDC protocols and got vaccinated.
This is flat out wrong. There is no evidence that the vaccines saved any lives. In fact, from the very first big data dump in December 2020 (https://twitter.com/breckyunits/status/1348080756921303041) in the only randomized control experiment—the gold standard—the death rate is equal. Also, from the very first big data dump in February 2020, it was clear the threat from Covid-19 was overblown (https://twitter.com/breckyunits/status/1228117546974371840). There is a $1 million debate being had later this year (https://blog.rootclaim.com/rootclaim-accepts-500000-challeng...) as to whether the vaccines killed more people than they saved. I'm not sure how many they killed, but I have high confidence that they saved next to no one, and if I had to bet I'd take the side that it will turn out they killed more than they saved.
The CDC was wrong. Kareem was wrong. Lebron was right. I was right.
> Vaccine deniers and those who want to “honor” them are like drunk drivers
I have a scientific background and numerous published papers. I spent years working in an Epidemiology Department. I was the Senior Software Engineer at Our World in Data who built the Covid Data Explorer used by 100 million people (probably including Kareem). He compares me to a "drunk driver". That's absurd.
He was wrong. He was dead wrong. And he spread fear and hate against those that were right. Including Lebron and Draymond. Draymond sensed the proponents of the vaccine were pushing "too hard". Kareem objects to this. But he was wrong and Draymond's gut was right. Important questions were being not answered by people who had billions to gain from pushing the vaccines. Draymond picked up on this. Kareem missed it. He owes him and Lebron an apology.
It isn't an academic paper. This data is readily available to fact check. The idea that your choices can impose a cost on other people is appropriate for the argument he is making, and the fact that you don't recognize that argument — despite how clearly it is made — reflects poorly on you, not on Kareem.
You misunderstood the report, looking only at deaths before enough people could get infected to cause a significant difference in deaths. That data you pointed to is a table that shows the vaccine is safe. The rest of the report shows the number of severe infections after both groups had a chance to get infected, which showed that the vaccination is effective. Funnily, somebody pointed this out to you years ago, and you still didn't understand it. https://mobile.twitter.com/rchrdbyd/status/13480913552565329...
This was sufficient to start vaccinating people because people were dying and in-person business had ground to a standstill, and after the start of vaccination, the rate of COVID-19 death among the unvaccinated was clearly higher than for vaccinated, no matter which covariates you controlled for.
> I have a scientific background and numerous published papers.
And yet you completely misread a very simple paper that thousands of other scientists did not.
Look, I get it, those like you who are pro-vax earned billions and got away with huge lies.
The vax was a failure. This was a very probable outcome and would have been shown clearly and convincingly had this trial continued, so they stopped it to prevent the truth from being known.
It's as simple as that.
I'm not going to waste my breath debating with folks who have weak ethics. That's what karma is for.
For what it's worth, your first link show's the "same death rate" but there were only 330 covid positives in that dataset.
So the death rate is equal between placebo and vaccine means that the vaccine doesn't kill at any higher rate than placebo.
Given the population in Moderna's trials, how many deaths should one expect in the covid-positive placebo group? 0.2? Either way, it would round down to 0.
I very much agree with you. However, had they actually run a proper long term study as was originally planned (2 years), we would have had conclusive results.
I suspect they knew the results would show clearly and definitely that the vaccine saved no lives, if not worse, and so they dishonorably ended the control group early (and their cronies at the FDA/CDC allowed them to get away with it).
Tens of billions of dollars will get people to do quite unethical things.
That was the stated reason. It was a lie. The math is clear. Risking tens of millions of lives (in long term adverse effects or over estimated efficacy) to save at most a few dozen, with no evidence at all to believe you are saving anyone (death rates were same), does not make any sense.
The real reason was the billions of dollars to be made by covering up the truth.
Indeed, the math is clear. At the time they told the participants if they got the placebo, they already knew that the vaccine prevented severe illness. Since then, all the data confirms that in doing so, it also reduces deaths.
Uncited. And poorly argued.
> But the real cost is the 700,000 dead, thousands of which could have been saved if they’d followed the CDC protocols and got vaccinated.
This is flat out wrong. There is no evidence that the vaccines saved any lives. In fact, from the very first big data dump in December 2020 (https://twitter.com/breckyunits/status/1348080756921303041) in the only randomized control experiment—the gold standard—the death rate is equal. Also, from the very first big data dump in February 2020, it was clear the threat from Covid-19 was overblown (https://twitter.com/breckyunits/status/1228117546974371840). There is a $1 million debate being had later this year (https://blog.rootclaim.com/rootclaim-accepts-500000-challeng...) as to whether the vaccines killed more people than they saved. I'm not sure how many they killed, but I have high confidence that they saved next to no one, and if I had to bet I'd take the side that it will turn out they killed more than they saved.
The CDC was wrong. Kareem was wrong. Lebron was right. I was right.
> Vaccine deniers and those who want to “honor” them are like drunk drivers
I have a scientific background and numerous published papers. I spent years working in an Epidemiology Department. I was the Senior Software Engineer at Our World in Data who built the Covid Data Explorer used by 100 million people (probably including Kareem). He compares me to a "drunk driver". That's absurd.
He was wrong. He was dead wrong. And he spread fear and hate against those that were right. Including Lebron and Draymond. Draymond sensed the proponents of the vaccine were pushing "too hard". Kareem objects to this. But he was wrong and Draymond's gut was right. Important questions were being not answered by people who had billions to gain from pushing the vaccines. Draymond picked up on this. Kareem missed it. He owes him and Lebron an apology.