After repeatedly claiming that the Biden government will “follow the science” on Covid, it now seems to no longer rely on the least effortless methods and better publicity, which is to put all bets on vaccines.

These titles illustrate the problem. The first one is the headline of the Wall Street Journal; the second one is from the Financial Times:

It is difficult to know where to start. First of all, as we have repeatedly pointed out, the authorities have severely oversold vaccines, treating them as preventing infection, rather than hospitalization and death. Please note that the latter is important not only for the individual but also at the social level to prevent implosion in the hospital. But after the CDC denied the possibility of breakthrough cases and refused to track them after its “mission completion” in May, we are now at the point where the press is writing about breakthrough hospitalizations.

Therefore, “enhancing the battle with Omicron” is crazy on two levels. First of all, “confrontation” means “confrontation spread” for most people, but they don’t under Delta. Of course, the premise is that the current vaccine is effective against Omicron. We said at the beginning of our article about Omicron that experts very much agree that it has multiple signs that it can substantially or even completely evade current vaccines and immunity from infections. There has been anecdotal confirmation. The first three cases in Israel were all citizens who were vaccinated. The 13 members of the Portuguese football team Belenenses recently tested positive for Omicron after returning from South Africa. All team members are vaccinated.

Please note that it is not clear whether Omicron will replace or coexist with Delta, and how fast Omicron will be established and spread. Therefore, it makes sense to urge the public to vaccinate and boost vaccines, because the United States seems to be entering a wave of winter deltas, at least in the north of the country.

However, despite the lack of sufficient reason and evidence to the contrary, the news over the weekend is still optimistic about the effect of the current vaccine on Omicron.I ran this embarrassing clip yesterday. It is worth using it again to further identify the hafnium served by Gottlieb and Pfizer:

Gottlieb continued his cheerleading team on CNBC Monday morning:

The vaccine industry has a considerable degree of confidence [with] At least three doses. .. Patients will be fairly well protected against this mutation

Most importantly, on Monday, Biden himself stepped up again and tried to act as if he was standing in front of Omicron. At that time, he refused to take a really important action, namely to crack down on entry from overseas. , This can be achieved by prohibiting flying or compulsory isolation (the United States prohibits entry from eight African countries, but we know that Omicron is now in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Portugal, Hong Kong…). But because the United States refused to implement strict quarantine early in this crisis, we are not yet ready for equipment.

This is Right at the top of Biden’s remarks, Just one minute later, after paying tribute to Thanksgiving, South African officials and the World Health Organization, just one minute:

But although we have travel restrictions may slow down Omnicron [sic], It cannot stop it. But this is what it does. It gives us time. This gives us time to take more action, speed up action, and make sure people understand that you must be vaccinated. You must get shot. You must get boosters.

No surprises, unfortunately. Biden went on to argue, “First of all, this mutation is a cause of concern, not a cause of panic…” Panic is an appropriate protective response when faced with potentially very bad results. If you have better information, you can recalibrate at any time. But the speeches are all about vaccinations, vaccinations, vaccinations, strengthening, vaccinating children, vaccinating the world, and there is a statement about masking, and another statement that although not everything about Omicron is still Without being understood, “I believe that vaccines will continue to provide a certain degree of protection for serious diseases.” How good.

Fauci also said that morning that the blockade is not within the scope of discussion. This is an amazing statement because it is a state-level decision, not a federal decision. A reporter noticed this and questioned Biden. Biden said:

Well, because if people are vaccinated and wear masks, there is no need to lock down.

It seems that his team has not received a memo that Omicron initially estimated to be as infectious as 500% as Delta. If it turns out to be the case, cloth and surgical masks will not cut it even if it is worn correctly, which is often not observed.

Contrast this pleasant conversation with a realistic dose The CEO of Moderna said in an interview with the Financial TimesRemember that corporate speeches, especially when telling customers what they don’t want to hear, must be measured:

Stéphane Bancel said that the large number of Omicron mutations in the spike protein used by the virus to infect human cells and the rapid spread of this variant in South Africa indicate that the current vaccine crop may need to be modified next year.

“There is no world, I think, where [the effectiveness] It is the same level. .. We and [the] delta [variant],” Bansell told the Financial Times in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

He added: “I think this will be a substantial drop. I just don’t know how much because we need to wait for the data. But all the scientists who have talked to me… It’s like,’This is not going to be a good thing.’ “

Bancel poured more cold water on the idea that the new vaccine can be developed and distributed at the previous warp speed. Bancel is also worried about the possibility of producing vaccines for Delta and Omicron, which means that production cannot be fully converted to the production of Omicron vaccines. Recall that Pfizer promised to develop a new vaccine within 100 days if needed. From the Financial Times again:

Bancel said that data showing how existing vaccines combat Omicron variants and whether it causes serious illness should be available within two weeks.

But he said that the large-scale production of Omicron-specific vaccines will take several months, and that there may be reasons to provide more effective boosters for the elderly or people with compromised immune systems during this period.

“[Moderna] Pfizer will not get 1 billion doses next week. Mathematics is not good. But can we take out a billion doses before summer? Of course,” said Bansell, who predicts that Moderna can produce a total of 2 billion to 3 billion doses in 2022.

But he said that while other variants are still in circulation, it is risky to transfer Moderna’s entire production capacity to a jab against Omicron.

GM pointed out:

Moderna did a lot of bad things in patents, insider trading, etc. during the pandemic.

But scientifically speaking, they have always been the most honest participants in the vaccine field—much more honest than Pfizer and most governments. The CEO of Pfizer was talking about how to provide reasonable protection yesterday.

At the same time, Moderna is the first to warn that vaccines will soon expire, and there are data, months before they actually expire.

Back to the Biden front. The President’s vaccine authorization suffered another setback on Monday, as 10 states won preliminary injunctions by threatening to cut federal funds and sued to block the injection requirements of hospital health workers. From the mountain:

The Missouri federal judge’s ruling is applicable to the prosecution and blocking of health care employees in the 10 states that the government stipulated on November 5th. These states are Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

The U.S. District Judge appointed by Trump, Matthew Schkepp, seems to be persuaded by the arguments of the states that the authorization will result in a shortage of personnel.

“This scale is obviously beneficial to medical institutions operating with some unvaccinated employees, staff, trainees, students, volunteers, and contractors, rather than requiring medical institutions to choose between two unpopular choices. Choice-provide substandard care or not provide health care,” Schelp wrote in a 32-page order

In September, the New York Times reported The compliance rate of large chain hospitals is 97% to 99%. However, a newly released CDC report, but it is undeniable that, until September 15th, It is said that only 70% of hospital staff have been vaccinated.
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Some hospitals report that one of the reasons for the high vaccination rate is the issuance of exemptions such as candy. As a senior member of a hospital recently wrote:

I have 4 employees receiving medical exemption in the office today. One is 2 months pregnant-the other 3 are COVID-positive people.

We no longer have employees-even losing an employee will be a disaster.

I have now arranged to be with 4 other such people tomorrow-the email about being fired on December 1 was sent out today.

I went to the chief of staff today and told him that I would fill out these forms for each of these young people.

He told me-we are following the DUKE model-it has spread throughout the hospital management community-let them fill in any exemptions-religious or medical-they are automatically accepted-this is how these hospitals report close to 100% compliance Way. “If they think we have the ability to fire someone, they are too stupid.” Everyone in Washington knows that this is also happening.

This is clearly being done all over the country.

Vaccine or testing tasks for companies with 100 or more employees (some people have promoted it to a vaccine-only policy due to administrative convenience or management preferences) have also been put aside. It is true that some companies are true believers; one reader said that his employer requires all workers and contractors to be vaccinated, even those who work from home.But those who are less enthusiastic or desperate to retain workers are increasingly entering a mode of inaction After the Federal Court issued a temporary stay in response to the OSHA emergency rules. From Alex Berenson (Yes, I know he may cause controversy in science, but this is not a scientific problem):

I have heard from several people that they either submitted an exemption request but received no response, or provided useful advice on how to obtain approval. Others simply ignored the employer’s deadline without being punished.

Since dissatisfaction with authorization is high and rising, the job market is tight, and the Supreme Court is likely to overturn the Biden rule before it goes into effect, the fact that employers are slow to implement it shouldn’t surprise anyone. The chaos of boosters only makes things worse. The company certainly does not want to fight with employees every six months.

Keep in mind that the United States is a country where employment is at will, so companies can still implement OSHA-type requirements on their own. Yes, Berenson’s report is anecdotal, but other sources have similar stories, and other employers’ claims are strict.

Finally, the Wall Street Journal confirmed in a breaking news what we also warned about in the preliminary report last Friday, which mentioned Thomas Peakcock’s discussion of Omicron on his GitHub and even named it B. Before 1.1.529: It looks like it will evade monoclonal antibody treatment. From the magazine:

The company said on Tuesday that preliminary tests have shown that the Covid-19 antibody drug mixture from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. is ineffective against Omicron, indicating that some products in a class of important therapies may need to be modified if the new strain spreads widely.

External scientists said that a separate test of another authorized Covid-19 antibody drug cocktail from Eli Lilly showed that it was not as effective for Omicron. Eli Lilly said it is testing new variants of its antibody therapy and will not speculate what the results will be.

So while it’s much more pleasant to have some pleasant news on Covid, as a grumpy person I know often said, “If you want a good ending, watch one Disney movies.”