As we now know, mRNA Cvid vaccines don’t prevent transmission. Vaccinated people can both spread and get Covid. At a recent E.U. Covid hearing, a Phizer representative admitted the company never tested their vaccine for transmission prevention. Call me naive, but I thought the vaccine, when approved, protected against both.

There was no basis for this delusion. Why was there all the talk about vaccine passports and gatherings of any size demanding proof of vaccination? Mandates became widespread. Remember Pres. Biden’s “Pandemic of the Unvaccinated?” If the vaccines fail to block transmission, How could we be so misled?

Our experience with smallpox and other vaccines is they protect us against getting and spreading disease. It’s why I went to great lengths to get poked ASAP. After all, people over 65 made up three-quarters of Covid deaths. My wife and I being in our 80s are prime targets. When it proved impossible to make an appointment online, I called our County supervisor’s office. Realizing our plight, they found us spots clear across the Valley of the Sun. We were thrilled. We would be safe, and others safe around us.

While some people noticed a lack of test results on vaccine effectiveness against transmission, the government and media establishment labeled them “vaccine skeptics.” Evens though we observed “breakthrough ” infections and spread among the vaccinated, the push to vaccinate everyone, including children, became almost universal.

Vaccines have proven their value, lessening the severity of Covid infections. People such as myself, over 65 and otherwise compromised, have significantly benefited. However, younger, healthier people rarely have severe conditions, so the benefits are less apparent or non-existent. 

Given the lack of transmission protection and questionable value to the young and healthy, the rationale for vaccine mandates is suspect. Those in groups finding little benefit from the shots have to be aware of possible side effects of a new drug outweighing any benefit. 

There were other ramifications. If vaccinated people still get Covid and spread it, we need treatments, especially for the vulnerable. Backup therapies are less critical if you thought vaccines blocked infection and transmission. 

The perceived Covid vaccine abilities dictated the proper approach. Florida Governor DeSantis’s reading of the data led him to conclude vaccine mandates would do more harm than good. On the other hand, the most effective Covid therapy early on was monoclonal antibody infusions. Because administrating the treatment is similar to those of cancer centers, they were little used. In light of Florida’s older demographic, the Governor blanketed the state with infusion centers.

Contrast Florida’s proactive approach to therapies with the Biden administration’s slow rollout of Plaxlovid. This drug is needed to replace the infusions as they lost effectiveness against new Covid variants. The pills, of course, were easier to use but needed to be taken in the first 5days of infection. I and others in our age group kept track of any lifesaving pills available anywhere in the Phoenix area. Sometimes there just weren’t any.

Who got it right ultimately depends on the results. People can look at the same data differently, or they may not look at all the data. Most of the media and the Government medical establishment claimed the Sunshine State had it wrong, but its reading of the situation led to better outcomes. 

Getting data and methodology out of the FDA and the CDC isn’t easy. Often it requires a lawsuit. I was basing my positive attitude toward Covid passports and some mandates on the declarations of many in power positions. The media led to questioning the Florida tact. But I should’ve seen the data. It turns out there was none on transmission. 

In light of this, Florida’s hard work to get things right is even more impressive.

The Covid situation brings to mind another place I initially deferred to people “in the know.” Readers of this Blog will remember I entertained the idea the Trump-Russian collusion story contained some truth. After all, Arizona’s sainted Senator John McCain delivered the Steele Dossier to the FBI. Adam Schiff, the head of the House intelligence committee, claimed he had seen the evidence. How could it not have substance? Of course, we now know there was nothing to it—just people hating Trump.

I always thought of myself as a skeptic. It appears not always enough of one when I see the harm done to people losing their jobs over worthless Covid mandates or the bogus Russian collusion cloud over most of the Trump administration. We’ll never know how this distorted the Trump era.

Better data leads to better decisions. Restricting our ability to receive it is just plain wrong. Being able to bring forth our questions based on data shouldn’t be blocked by governments and their business allies. We need information, but who knows what the correct data is? How often are objections smothered and suppressed and then found to be right? Only by putting all of it out there can we judge, so let’s get everybody out of the suppression business. 

As for myself, I pledge to be even more of a skeptic.