This is a case update. I’ll also discuss a new video from Project Veritas featuring interviews from employees of Pfizer.

The Delta wave continues to wane in the US, with cases overall continuing to go down sharply.  This is great news, but I have to caution that last year’s Fall/Winter wave started in October, so there is a chance we will see a new wave starting in the Northern states.  In fact, cases are starting to increase right now in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Maine, while they are going down in the Southern states.

Cases are also going down in California and San Diego, although there was a spike in cases last week.  Since both regions saw the same spike, it suggests that the event causing the spike may have taken place in Southern California, but this is only speculation.

Pfizer employees discuss immunity:  I always hate making politically charged posts, but this is another occasion when I must.  Project Veritas posted another video just yesterday.  In it, 3 scientists at Pfizer discuss the v@¢¢!nes, saying among other things that natural immunity is actually better protection against the virus than v@¢¢!ne mediated immunity. This is in agreement with the data from Israel published as a pre-print a few weeks ago.

As I’ve stated many times, for at risk people, a v@¢¢!ne is very likely to be of benefit. I have recommended that at risk people get v@¢¢!nated. If you’ve already had COVID, 1 dose of v@¢¢!ne is likely to provide extra benefit.  However, if you’ve had COVID, your natural immunity is likely to provide better protection than “full v@¢¢ination”.

They also make the claim that v@¢¢!nation benefit drops over time because the antibodies gained from v@¢¢!nation drop off over time.  I would also point out that another cause may be that new variants may diverge from the original Wuhan strain enough to makes v@¢¢!nes less effective, but this point is not addressed in this video.

One person even states “I mean, I still feel like I work for an evil corporation.” I want to make a comment about this.  It’s easy for us to blame big corporations for some of the decisions they make, since most of us aren’t in that position. I worked for Quest Diagnostics, a large medical testing company.  The vast majority of the people who worked there believed in the mission of providing high quality information to our client doctors and patients.  However, as with any large organization, there were those who were focused on profit, at times over the interests of the clients.  Most often this came in the form of passing over projects that would help patients, but would not bring in a lot of income. They would argue something like “We aren’t a charity.  We need to bring in money to survive as a business.”  This is of course partially true.  Director Spike Lee once commented in an interview that the most interesting conflicts are those in which both sides are correct.

Of course, a company or an individual can cross a line after which their actions become unambiguously wrong.  This often happens because they’ve made well intentioned compromises until they have lost their moral sensitivity. But I want you to remember something important.  The Presidents and CEO of companies work most directly for the board of directors. The board of directors works most directly for the shareholders. In our modern investment environment, which includes mutual funds, many of the shareholders don’t even know they are part owners of a company!  As far as they know, they just own a mutual fund.  As far as their mutual fund goes, they only care if it’s making them money, since they don’t know what companies they hold, or what their business practices are!  So the CEOs are ultimately working for people for whom profit is the only concern.  Folks, those people are you and me!

Yes, companies that behave unethically should be held accountable.  If Pfizer has misled the public, then they should be held accountable.  But we can’t forget that anyone who holds a mutual fund that includes Pfizer has a voice in this as well.  I will tell you that I am talking to myself as well.  I currently have no idea what companies are in the mutual funds that I own. We should all take the time an find out what companies we hold the most stock in, and consider finding out what they are doing.  You can then contact your mutual fund company and make suggestions about what they can communicate to these companies, or consider selling funds with stocks you don’t like. The small choices we make every day do have an impact.

V@¢¢!ne mandates:  V@¢¢!nes will certainly benefit at-risk individuals.  In addition, it is clear that countries with large v@¢¢!nation programs have had lower fatality rates during the Delta wave than other countries.  However, I am not v@¢¢inated, and am firmly against v@¢¢!ne mandates.  It is especially counter productive for hospitals and other organizations to be letting go of highly trained people who have chosen not to be v@¢¢!nated. I hope this new information will bring some balance to the current discussion.

Don’t fear, but be smart,
Erik