Lawmakers have already lambasted Pfizer for the steep increase. In a letter sent last month to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) called the price hike âpure and deadly greedâ and accused the company of âunseemly profiteering.â
I would like to understand the conditions under which profiteering would be seen as seemly.
Itâs almost seems like the relentless pursuit of profit doesnât produce the best outcomes.
I thought thatâs what capitalism was all about?
New Covid hospital admissions are now at the fourth-highest rate of the pandemic, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Covid hospitalizations declined somewhat after the summer wave, but never dropped to the low levels seen after previous spikes, persisting through the fall and rising again with the winter holidays.
âHospitals are at maximum capacity,â said Brendan Williams, president and CEO of the New Hampshire Health Care Association, of his regionâs current rates. âIâm not sure what the trajectory of this thingâs going to be, but I am worried.â
The majority of Covid hospitalizations are among those 65 and older, although the share for children under four roughly doubled in 2022.
In the past week, Covid deaths rose by 44%, from 2,705 in the week ending 4 January to 3,907 in the week ending 11 January.
This is one of the greatest surges of Covid cases in the entire pandemic, according to wastewater analyses of the virus. Itâs much lower than the peak in January 2022, but similar to the summer 2022 surge, which was the second biggest.
Did this happen after the Oscars, as well, I wonder?
They wonât be held until March 12th:
Why does it seem like that slap wasnât that long ago, lol? Shows you how much I pay attention to awards shows!
Wasnât there some sort of awards near the end of last yearâŚ? My, have I been dim lately, lol.
Someoneâs going to the âspecial hellâ.
AlsoâŚ
Once screened, Andersen would direct a seeker to make a $50 âdonationâ per appointment per person via Venmo or PayPal, with the money going to an unnamed âcharitable organization.â Federal prosecutors noted that the charity was linked to an organization to which Moore belonged, which sought âto âliberateâ the medical profession from government and industry conflicts of interest.â
Thereâs something painfully ironic about committing fraud to get money for a group that claims to be concerned about conflicts of interest.
WHO officials on Friday said that the US has not shared reports or data from federal agencies that have assessed how the COVID-19 pandemic began. That includes the latest report by the Department of Energy, which determined with âlow confidenceâ that the pandemic likely began due to a laboratory accident.
Meanwhile, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), who has argued in favor of the âlab leakâ hypothesis, told The Washington Post the assessment âgives us momentum to expose the true origins of COVID. ⌠As a physician myself, a biochemistry major, I think that thereâs just no way this virus could have come from nature. Itâs just too perfect.â
From wikipedia:
Marshall was born in El Dorado, Kansas.[4] He attended Butler Community College[5] before attending Kansas State University, where he received a bachelorâs degree in biochemistry and was a member of Beta Theta Pi.[6][7] He received his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Kansas. He completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, Florida.[8]
Yup, that seems like totally the right combination of credentials to be able to make authoritative opinions about the origin of a pandemic and the perfectness of a virus.
On a totally unrelated note: Does anyone else interpret someone mentioning their major in college when sharing their opinion as a reason to view their claims with greater scrutiny?
Hmm. It appears that I am making a form of ad hominem by pointing at his credentials as a reason for doubting his claims. Fair enough. Letâs see if I can analyze his arguments on their own merits.
Hereâs the full quote from the Washington Post:
âIt gives us momentum to expose the true origins of covid,â said Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), who supported Senate probes into Fauci and argued in favor of the leak theory, citing the virusâs infectiousness and ability to evade human immune systems. âAs a physician myself, a biochemistry major, I think that thereâs just no way this virus could have come from nature. Itâs just too perfect.â
I would counter the first argument by pointing out that a âlow confidenceâ report from the DOE does not provide much evidence in support of the âlab leakâ theory, by definition. If his implication is that it provides evidence that the âtrue originsâ do not lie in a âlab leakâ, then I think there could be an argument made there, but I do not believe he is making that claim.
His second claim, that the virus could not have come from nature, seems to be supported by the following three pieces of information:
- He (is) a physician.
- He (is) a biochemistry major.
- It (the virus) is just too perfect.
My counterargument to the first point is that although he was trained as a physician and during an earlier time period practiced as one, he is currently a Senator. At best this is an appeal to authority, but more likely an appeal to false authority. There is nothing inherent in being a physician that automatically makes oneâs claims about any topic more reasonable. Itâs possible that the knowledge and skills gained while training to be a physician would give him greater ability to form arguments based on medically relevant evidence. None of that is presented alongside his claim, unfortunately.
To his second point, I would make much the same argument, merely replacing the word âphysicianâ with âbiochemistry majorâ.
As for his last point about the relative perfection of the virus. If I am generous in my reading, I could interpret perfect as referring to the virusâ infectiousness and ability to evade the human immune system. Without more information, I canât reasonably asses whether or not COVID-19 is particularly extreme in either of these categories relative to other viruses involved in global pandemics. If we were to compare based on death toll, the 1918 flu pandemic killed more people in less time than COVID-19. I would even go so far as to say that infectiousness and ability to evade the human immune system are the prerequisites for a pathogen to reach pandemic status. So if the evidence to back up the argument that the COVID-19 virus must be created in a lab instead of in the wild is that it is pandemic worthy, then I think itâs a pretty weak argument at best.
In other words, heâs probably full of shit, but at least I tried to show my work.
The meat of the article is about how the WHO is frustrated at the lack of transparency and sharing information by both China and the US, while being accused by the US of not being transparent themselves, which all feels a bit:
The bill specifically bars requirements for people to receive COVID-19 vaccines. But it doesnât stop there. It also bars any requirements for people to receive âa dose of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA),â thus barring requirements for any future mRNA-based vaccines, should they be needed in upcoming pandemics or outbreaks. It also bars requirements for âany treatment or procedure intended or designed to edit or alter human deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or the human genome,â and âany mechanical or electronic deviceâ that would be placed âunder the skin.â
I wonder if they also think it should be against the law to transmogrify lead into gold? Did they set a number of legal hunting permits for unicorns and minotaurs?
And, wouldnât this outlaw pacemakers? Cause that seems bad.
and âany mechanical or electronic deviceâ that would be placed âunder the skin.â
I think it bans ârequirementsâ for those. Which still seems overly broad, butâŚ
Well, Food Mommy is more popular in MiseryâŚ