Quandary After Quandary


The other day someone mentioned to me that she knew someone who liked to chew ice. I then remarked that chewing ice was a pica, which is an appetite or craving for substances that are not fit to eat. In addition I commented that chewing ice was associated with iron deficiency anemia. 

She then asked if the chewing-ice-pica caused the iron deficiency or if the iron deficiency caused the ice chewing. I had to admit that I didn’t know the answer to that quandary. However, that quandary of what causes what reminded me of a Daniel Horowitz’s article that I had just read about the surge of Covid in Europe, Great Britain, and Ireland.

From that article:

cases are surging in many European countries, and U.K. seniors are now experiencing record numbers. ‘Covid infections surge to record high for over-70s in UK’ was the title of a Financial Times article from 3/21. But how can there be record infections precisely after nearly every senior was vaccinated and 90% were boosted, even though many already have had prior infection? Or are the record infections because of the shots, not despite them, and does this mean that they are preventing people from achieving immunity?”

A quandary!

From that same Horowitz article:

“Ireland is one of the most vaccinated countries in the European Union, yet hospitalizations are rising. There are now more people in Irish hospitals than at any point in 12 months. Nearly 95% of all adults are fully vaccinated, and nearly 100% of seniors are vaccinated and boosted.”

Another quandary!

“Furthermore, Scotland, which has the highest vaccination rate of anywhere in the U.K. and is the only region with mask mandates, seems to be worse off than ever before. ‘Scotland recorded its highest infection rates of the pandemic so far, with one in every 14 people infected with the virus in the week to mid-March, up from one in 18 a week earlier,’ reported the Financial Times.”

“According to the latest U.K. health surveillance report, roughly 95% of those over 70 are double-vaccinated and about 90%-93% of the age cohorts over 70 are boosted. Just 1.6% of the senior cases between weeks 7 and 10 of this year were among the unvaccinated, which is below the 5% share of the population pie they compose. The triple-boosted are 90% of the cases.

“Although the shots do offer some protection for some people against critical illness for a certain period of time, numerous data points have shown that the protection not only wanes but goes negative. The U.K. data now shows that the double-vaccinated have negative protection and the triple-vaxxed are headed in that direction.”

A series of quandaries!

“Remember how early on, it looked like the boosters accorded broad protection against death, even though cases skyrocketed among them? Well, now, 77% of all deaths among those over 70 are triple-jabbed! That is still somewhat below their share of the population, but not by much, and the gap is closing with every subsequent weekly report.

When it comes to case rates, the U.K. is now reporting that in some age cohorts, the triple-jabbed are more than four times as likely to test positive, which would net an efficacy rate of -300%!

Quandary after quandary … unless, as was queried … Could it be that the recent surge of infections across the pond is because of, and not in spite of the shots and boosters?

And does what is happening in Great Britain portend what will happen here in the U.S. with the more transmissible subvariant of the Omicron strain of the novel coronavirus, BA.2, now accounting for just over a third of daily reported COVID-19 cases in the United States (more than 50% in New England) according to government data released on 3/22/22?

Could it be that all of the vaccine mandates will turn out to be another Biden-esque gaffe?

We’ll see!

3/28/22

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