What is "Heard Immunity"?

[Taem]

[...]

But that does not take away that the first few months the observed mortality rate was easily higher than 3%. It has come down with more accurate testing (testing all who might have it, rather than just those with symptoms), earlier detection and improved treatment (oxygen but no ventilator).

[...]

I want to say that I really appreciate what you wrote here (edit: not just on the part I quote, but the paragraphs above and below). It was witty, yet clear, concise, and factual. I do not have any rebuttal because I already said that based on own anecdotal observations of our employees, the death rate was around 1%, which jives with the US statistics. What I will say is that of the people who got diagnosed with COVID (not just "think" they had it, but actual confirmed diagnosis), all of them recovered without any issues and only one had long term problems with a golf-ball sized blood clot in her right lung, which dropped to a ping-pong size after three-months, but the doctors told her it might never go away. She was a rarity among all the people I know who had been diagnosed with COVID.

As for ships, sailors on some ships were given N95 masks and PPE, and almost everyone on a USN ship is under 40. Deaths are the domain mainly for the over-55. Nevertheless,there have been three fatalities in the USN ship outbreaks.

So, why so focused on the changing rate? Do you feel people are lying to you? Mistakes have been made, and some 2020 government officials spent a large amount of time wishing the problem away, but knowledge has been increasing and the "guidance" is more often "we know" lately rather than "we think". As long as they give the reasons and/or science at each step, it's all good. Doe's it matter whether the rate is 3% or 1.4%, we've had 600,000 people die in the U.S. (I don't mean to exclude the rest of the world here.)

Much evil is done through the act of good intentions. I never said anyone was intentionally lying to anyone, but I am neither blind to the atrocities that sticking to one narrative can cause without being open minded. My cautionary forewarning is just that, stating we need to keep our eyes focused on those who might take advantage of these new liberties to restrict our freedoms and not get so caught up in taking a side.

Slipperly slope about rights is laughable because there is so so so much resistance to directives. Texas gov has now banned mask mandates. I'd worry much more about slippery slope into nationalist fascism (Jan. 6th being the wake-up) than a government that cares about everyone's health.

[...]

From my observation as a restaurant operator in California, I can definitively state that governmental oversight played a significant role in the closing of several well known and established prominent businesses in Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara counties resulting in the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. Yes, this created a vacuum and those of us lucky enough to have survived this hardship have seen a boon in activity since COVID restrictions have been lifted... but at the expense of hundreds/thousands of other businesses! That does not necessarily feel good to be walking over the bones of those you respected, especially when the CDC backpedals and say, "hey guys, we f-d up and it's actually OK to operate business outside because the rate of infection outside is near zero. We're so sorry we fucked you all by making you close down except for to-go's due to our ignorance that cost hundreds of thousands of people their jobs and closed famous restaurants. Actually, we're not sorry at all and don't really care." Yeah, I guess I'm a little jaded! Nearly a third of California's restaurants permanently closed as pandemic set in. I guess you don't live in my world, so get off your f'ng soapbox already... Or here's one from the nation, One in three U.S. workers changed or lost jobs in last year. This is what I'm talking about... There is no slippery slope here, this is reality, and it's fucking with peoples livelihoods here due to poor oversight! This is bad bureaucracy at it's finest, a prime example of how COVID restrictions can ruin peoples lives and how absolute power corrupts absolutely (I'm looking at you mf-er Gavin Newsom, giving a huge chunk of that PPP loan money to your personal businesses, crook)!

"To get vaccinated if they want to fly, enter a government building, or go to school?" Yes, yes, and yes. I work in a government building; get the damn vaccine. Schools already require vaccinations. OMG, they started years ago!!!

Move government "oversight", more corruption. That is what I see... The potential for abuse is ripe and the groundwork already laid out. On one extreme side, there are discrimination suits all the time for situations just like this - to be excluded for reason x-y-z; I see it fairly often in my line of work. On the other extreme side, this opens the possibility for a requirement for vaccine a-b-c before entering such-and-such a place in the name of protecting everyone. I do not get the influenza shot annually because each time I get it, the shot makes me so much sicker than the damn virus itself; one time I literally thought I was going to die (no joke) and asked my ex to draft up a will I spoke to her because I didn't have the energy to move. This requirement for COVID vaccines is a springboard to requiring vaccines for other viruses as well. That seems pretty obvious to me. I'd think you would be able to see the same thing...

"Never before in the history of this great country in the United States has the well and unaffected been forced to quarantine! This infringes upon so many of our rights, and is edging closer to a nation without freedoms," --- I never studied history very closely but I remember that George Washington went to Philadelphia and could not enter it because of yellow fever ((?)did I get it right?) People practiced social distancing by moving out into the country until it passed over. If someone sick came toward you, shoot him and run! Yellow fever is very very contagious and is a horrible way to die. Nevertheless, as pointed out in a recent post by LavCat, the U.S. has always had these abilities, to maintain the health of the populace. We just have not had to use them very often. Back in the 80's, the members of the Public Health Service were technically a military organization complete with ranks and uniforms -- this was set up for when a plague struck the U.S. and the PHS would be issuing orders. (I think at some point they stopped that, though.)

I do like what you and LavCat have brought up, and it does offer a different point of view re plagues and pandemics and how they have historically been handled in the US. In the case of Typhoid Mary, it makes sense that for the betterment of the community, Mary had to have legal action brought upon her due to her willful disregard for others. But those death rates... 25 infected and 2 dead in just one restaurant she cooked in! COVID has nothing over her, lol!

As a society, we now know what diseases are and how they spread. Is the onus not on the individual to keep themself safe as opposed to the world from keeping that individual from getting sick? This isn't the 1800's, and the CDC stated recently that COVID was less than 1% transmissible outdoors so, why put the onus on everyone else, especially if those people have gotten vaccinated already? By your logic, we should all be wearing masks year round in every possible situation because there are lots of transmissible diseases that put at-risk people in danger. You make a very poor straw-man argument versus overturning our personal liberties. And for the record, I still wear my mask in public here in California because we have a restriction until June 15th and I strongly believe in doing our part for our community and that means being part of your community, but I disagree with the methodology. Regardless of my disagreement, that does not mean I will not abide by the rules; I am a law abiding citizen and a part of my community, but I do have an opinion. Just because I did not agree with the COVID restrictions forcing our restaurants to do to-go's only, and yet I followed the restrictions. You fail to see what is being lost here in the name of protectionism, and your lack of ability to even comprehend what I've been alluding to shows you have already chosen a side and cannot logically discuss this. You are part of the problem. There has to be a line in the sand on how far our governments can go, how many lives can be destroyed in the name of good, and at what point the individual becomes responsible for themself instead of the world!