Apologies - the original version of this (which you will have received by email) had a couple of slips. I got carried away with the spot/no spot diagram and the original didn't make sense. The article has now been updated so if you click the link to see it on the website (rather than going off the email version) you should see the updated version.
I'm just now coming off of disability following a major surgery. My previous occupation is no longer possible, not that I'm complaining; I'm still alive. However, we're it not for savings and the fact that I own my home I'd never have survived financially on my disability income.
As I reenter the workforce I cannot imagine how those with dependants, rent/mortgage, and auto-loans survive the massive inflation costs. Average cost of living increase caused by inflation is currently around $5,500. That's 10% to 20% of the pre-#WuhanFlu #pre-Biden budget of millions here in the States.
The depression of those who lost their jobs for refusing the Goo must be unbearable.
Being un-Gooed myself I'm anxious over my prospects as I try to begin what hopefully will be my last career.
At the moment I'm just about doing OK - similar position to you but without the extra hurdles of any disability. I left my academic position in Jan 2021 with enough savings to buy myself a small place to live and some left over to keep me going for a while. The 'some left over' is now starting to dwindle at an alarming rate haha
I feel sorry for those less fortunate than me. Some people have seen crazy, crazy price hikes in their energy bills and other costs - they have gone from being in a financially secure position to a precarious position almost overnight. Those people who were only just managing *before* the price hikes must be really hurting right now.
In the UK we wasted, and I do mean wasted, some £400 billion pounds on trying to control a virus with measures we all *told* them wouldn't work. And here we are - the piper always gets paid.
Here in the US we have wasted, and I mean wasted $5 trillion try to control a Chinese lab virus, shutting down the economy, and bankrupting up to 500,000 small business, and forcing a worse than useless Goo into 3/4 of the population.
Mass formation psychosis has driven the world crazy.
What a pity that Sir Terry had to leave early. This pandemic circus would have provided a wonderful template for another discworld novel.
In a book on Risk Model Validation I co-authored I quoted from Unseen Academicals: "He waited patiently until the uproar had died away. It was amazing, he thought, how people would argue against figures on no better basis than 'they must be wrong'."
As Sir Terry himself said, the condition that took him away was an "embuggeration". I wish he'd been able to comment with his usual insight and humour on the last couple of years. Two years that have been more surreal and bizarre than anything in Discworld - but sadly not as funny.
I understand your worries, Professor Rigger. I worry about the same things, will the money I have get me through, and how long. Then I worry about still having money in the bank when they switch in the digital currency and how much they'll steal that way. Then I worry about how will I feed my precious dogs, if I can't afford to feed myself, or even find food for us to eat. --- It's a world of worries, all brought down upon us by governments who already have all the money, but wanting to take the rest. If you find the answers, please LMK what they might be, so I can move in that direction. God bless and keep you.
It is a testament to the power of propaganda and the human capacity to deny poor decisions that turns shit to gold. So much for following the science because the science shows that the "vax' at the very best has best has been a monumental failure at preventing . And still they push the shit. The MSM still calls it gold because it is to them --nice big advertising $$$$$. Politicos won't admit being wrong in pushing the stuff. Many individuals are like politicos.
Yup. It's astonishing to me how so many are still clinging on to the 'narrative'.
Lockdowns didn't work. Masks didn't work. Asymptomatic transmission is not a significant thing. Fomite transmission - practically non-existent. Plastic screens - an absurdity beyond compare. And now the vaccines - clearly they haven't worked and look to be making things worse.
All of this is as plain as day - and all the academic wizardry in the world ain't going to change the simple fact that *nothing we did worked*. Except for Pfizer et al - it all worked beautifully for them.
This was my attitude in the face of the hysterical "Pandemic of Unvaccinated" claims. I kept pointing out that the majority of ICU cases and deaths were over 70 years of age - regardless of vax status! The majority of ICU cases an deaths had multiple co-morbidities - regardless of vax status!
Apologies - the original version of this (which you will have received by email) had a couple of slips. I got carried away with the spot/no spot diagram and the original didn't make sense. The article has now been updated so if you click the link to see it on the website (rather than going off the email version) you should see the updated version.
Getting by would be so much easier if the media were so quick to admit their unintentional mistakes.
If the media would admit their intentional lies we might have a utopia.
Good essay. Hang in there, Rudolph Rigger. The lies and gaslighting are meant to demoralize; part of the plan. You are sane and able to spot the lies.
Thanks John - I have only a minor quibble with what you wrote. I'm really not sure I'm sane :-)
I'm just now coming off of disability following a major surgery. My previous occupation is no longer possible, not that I'm complaining; I'm still alive. However, we're it not for savings and the fact that I own my home I'd never have survived financially on my disability income.
As I reenter the workforce I cannot imagine how those with dependants, rent/mortgage, and auto-loans survive the massive inflation costs. Average cost of living increase caused by inflation is currently around $5,500. That's 10% to 20% of the pre-#WuhanFlu #pre-Biden budget of millions here in the States.
The depression of those who lost their jobs for refusing the Goo must be unbearable.
Being un-Gooed myself I'm anxious over my prospects as I try to begin what hopefully will be my last career.
At the moment I'm just about doing OK - similar position to you but without the extra hurdles of any disability. I left my academic position in Jan 2021 with enough savings to buy myself a small place to live and some left over to keep me going for a while. The 'some left over' is now starting to dwindle at an alarming rate haha
I feel sorry for those less fortunate than me. Some people have seen crazy, crazy price hikes in their energy bills and other costs - they have gone from being in a financially secure position to a precarious position almost overnight. Those people who were only just managing *before* the price hikes must be really hurting right now.
In the UK we wasted, and I do mean wasted, some £400 billion pounds on trying to control a virus with measures we all *told* them wouldn't work. And here we are - the piper always gets paid.
Here in the US we have wasted, and I mean wasted $5 trillion try to control a Chinese lab virus, shutting down the economy, and bankrupting up to 500,000 small business, and forcing a worse than useless Goo into 3/4 of the population.
Mass formation psychosis has driven the world crazy.
What a pity that Sir Terry had to leave early. This pandemic circus would have provided a wonderful template for another discworld novel.
In a book on Risk Model Validation I co-authored I quoted from Unseen Academicals: "He waited patiently until the uproar had died away. It was amazing, he thought, how people would argue against figures on no better basis than 'they must be wrong'."
As Sir Terry himself said, the condition that took him away was an "embuggeration". I wish he'd been able to comment with his usual insight and humour on the last couple of years. Two years that have been more surreal and bizarre than anything in Discworld - but sadly not as funny.
I understand your worries, Professor Rigger. I worry about the same things, will the money I have get me through, and how long. Then I worry about still having money in the bank when they switch in the digital currency and how much they'll steal that way. Then I worry about how will I feed my precious dogs, if I can't afford to feed myself, or even find food for us to eat. --- It's a world of worries, all brought down upon us by governments who already have all the money, but wanting to take the rest. If you find the answers, please LMK what they might be, so I can move in that direction. God bless and keep you.
I wish I had the answers Bandit. My supply of answers is going down faster than my supply of money these days!
Keep fighting, Bandit. Resist to the last breath...ideally theirs.
We will win in the end. The road will be rough until then, but this evil will be vanquished. Guaranteed.
It is a testament to the power of propaganda and the human capacity to deny poor decisions that turns shit to gold. So much for following the science because the science shows that the "vax' at the very best has best has been a monumental failure at preventing . And still they push the shit. The MSM still calls it gold because it is to them --nice big advertising $$$$$. Politicos won't admit being wrong in pushing the stuff. Many individuals are like politicos.
It's at the level of parody.
Yup. It's astonishing to me how so many are still clinging on to the 'narrative'.
Lockdowns didn't work. Masks didn't work. Asymptomatic transmission is not a significant thing. Fomite transmission - practically non-existent. Plastic screens - an absurdity beyond compare. And now the vaccines - clearly they haven't worked and look to be making things worse.
All of this is as plain as day - and all the academic wizardry in the world ain't going to change the simple fact that *nothing we did worked*. Except for Pfizer et al - it all worked beautifully for them.
If confounders can make that much difference to the outcome, perhaps the target variable is not really that significant?!
This was my attitude in the face of the hysterical "Pandemic of Unvaccinated" claims. I kept pointing out that the majority of ICU cases and deaths were over 70 years of age - regardless of vax status! The majority of ICU cases an deaths had multiple co-morbidities - regardless of vax status!
So why the constant focus on the vax variable?
Haha
That's a brilliant way of looking at it - love it!
Yes, whatever way you look at it, any potential vaccine protection (if any?) is short lived and has been much overstated.
Is it okay to cross-post(??)
I recommend the charted England data for week 11 at Clayton Cobb's substack:
https://hold2.substack.com/p/england-week-11-covid-update?s=r
He shows the data per age cohort and vaccine status (per dose)
Significantly the charts even include both ONS and NIMS estimates for the unvaccinated population.
Another substack with some consolidated visualisations can be found at Just a Guy's showing weeks2 thru 13 for a sense of the trends over time:
https://justguy.substack.com/p/possibly-the-last-uk-hsa-weekly-update?s=r
Yes - please do cross-post - the more info and links to good work we have, the better!
Thanks for those stacks - I wasn't aware of them
It seems to me that when these "experts" scream about pandemic of the unvaccinated, they don't care to mention any possible confounders.
We had a pandemic of the unvaccinated back in 2020
It's looking like those people, like me, who decided to wait a while and see whether the vaccines were any good (and safe!) did the right thing.
Here's what I wish on all those damnable "experts" who promoted this shit to line their pockets and preserve their careers.
"Lord, confound this surly sister, blight her brow with blotch and blister, cramp her larynx, lung and liver, in her guts a galling give her."
John Millington Synge (which, of course, I read as "syringe")
Amen.