Last Updated: 8:34 p.m.
“The biggest thing this illustrates is how utterly predictable all this is,” says Dr. Stephen Bickel, the Flagler Health Department’s medical director, as he sums up what is shaping up to be the fourth Covid wave of the pandemic, now sweeping over Flagler and Florida, as it does over other regions where vaccination rates are lower than they could be.
There were 88 new confirmed covid-positive cases in the week ending July 9 in Flagler, the highest total since the first week of May, when case loads were falling. Since the end of March, case loads had fallen for nine of 11 weeks. Since mid-June, case loads have risen for three straight weeks, and are expected to rise again this week, including outbreaks at Flagler Fish Company in Flagler Beach (which posted a big, red “Help Wanted” and “hiring immediately” sign for cooks and dishwashers this afternoon on its Facebook page), at Palm Coast Lanes, the bowling alley, and at Rymfire Elementary’s summer program. All this despite a significantly lower amount of covid testing.
Flagler’s 14-day infection rate places it 36th highest out of Florida’s 67 counties as of today, though the county has not registered a death in those 14 days even as hospitalizations have risen 17 percent.
Case loads are rising sharply across Florida, reaching a seven-day average of over 5,000 per day today. Hospitalizations are also up locally, in Central Florida and the rest of the state (there are some 20 hospitals and emergency rooms in the seven-county central region), with 12 people hospitalized at AdventHealth Palm Coast, the highest tally since last spring, and 430 people are hospitalized in the network’s Central Florida hospitals, up by 100 over last week–with zero infections of hospitalized people who were fully vaccinated. In other words, every one of the 430 hospitalized patients are either unvaccinated or did not complete their vaccine sequence of two shots.
That tally of 430 people does not include those hospitalized for Covid in the many non-AdventHealth hospitals in the region: writing on his Facebook page this evening, Dr. Stephen Sevingy of Daytona Beach said: “Worked at Halifax today. One of the worst day of ER Covid admits I have seen in the last year and a half. Easily rivaling this January or last April. Please wear your mask and absolutely get vaccinated.” He later added: “In the last two days I have seen 37, 38, 57, 58, 61, 60, and 70y.o.’s with scans classic for Covid pneumonitis.”
Children have not been affected by the rise in hospitalizations, even if they get sick, at least not yet in Florida. That’s not the case in Mississippi, the state with a vaccination rate of 34 percent, where seven children are in intensive care with covid, two of them on ventilators. The children are ages 1 to 17.
“The community’s cases in Florida are up over 200 percent in the last two weeks,” Dr. Vincent Chu AdventHealth executive director of infection prevention and an epidemiologist, said in a briefing this morning. “And what we see in hospitalizations is that it really mirrors what we’re seeing in the community. A certain percentage of those new cases will be hospitalized.” There are reports of fully vaccinated patients that have gotten gotten infected, he said, but “the data is pretty good that it protects against serious infections hospitalizations and deaths.”
Florida has by far the highest number of cases per day, but it ranks third in proportion to its population, with Arkansas and Missouri ahead, and Nevada, Louisiana, Utah, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Arizona in the top 10–all states where vaccination rates are below the national average of 48 percent. Florida is at 47 percent, several states are in the 30s. But Cases are rising across the country, even in high-vaccination states, albeit at much lower acceleration rates in those states, where their baseline had already been significantly lowered (as it had not in Florida).
Meanwhile, vaccination rates in Flagler have slowed “to a crawl,” Bickel said, increasing by a percentage every week or two only. In Flagler, 48 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, including 56 percent of those 18 and older, and 80 percent of those 65 and older.
“The thing about these epidemics, they follow these mathematical formulas,” Bickel said. “You can put in the numbers and crank it out, you know what’s going to happen down the road.” Numerous people who are not at particular risk of death or hospitalization stopped practicing safety norms, but combined with a lack of vaccination, they in essence invited infection. Being younger, they are not at high risk of death or even hospitalization, but some will be hospitalized, and many could feel the effects of “long covid,” the syndrome that the Centers for Disease Control, describes as “a wide range of new, returning, or ongoing health problems people can experience four or more weeks after first being infected with the virus that causes Covid-19. Even people who did not have Covid-19 symptoms in the days or weeks after they were infected can have post-Covid conditions.”
The accelerant in this fourth wave is the Delta variant.
“We have a variant that is probably more than twice as contagious as the original,” Bickel said. “The UK variant, the Alpha, is probably 50 percent more contagious, the Delta is at least 50 more percent contagious compared to the Alpha, so more than double. You can just do the math as to what’s going to happen. We’ve got these people who feel Covid is not just that big a deal. But how big a deal is getting vaccinated? It’s a nothing burger.” Those who oppose vaccination at times make risk-calculations, concluding that they may experience more harm from the vaccine than the risk of getting infected. That approach is factually wrong, given the actual outcomes of covid illnesses as opposed to the overwhelming safety and efficacy of the vaccine. Nevertheless, the false calculus persists.
Dr. Michael Keating, Chief Medical Officer of AdventHealth for children, put it this way: “If you go to the PDR and you look up Tylenol, you wouldn’t give your kid Tylenol because they they list every complication from the medication. What they don’t tell you is the denominator of children that have taken Tylenol and did perfectly fine for it. So in my mind, the risks of the vaccination are far outweighed by the potential problems by getting the Covid itself so I strongly recommend a vaccination for those reasons.”
Bickel places the Delta variant’s prevalence at 50 percent, at least, while Chu said it may be in the 70 to 80 percent range in the United States as a whole.
All this as schools in Flagler prepare to reopen in a few weeks, though it’s not as simple as waiting until the last week to get vaccinated.
“If you were to get a Pfizer vaccine, you’d have to wait two weeks for your second dose,” Keating said. “It’s been shown that you will get some efficiency from the vaccine on the first dose, but to get complete immunity, you’ll probably have to wait another two weeks. So we’re talking about four to five weeks until you’re probably fully protected against the virus. But ‘fully protected’ is kind of a qualified statement because I think there’s a misconception about vaccines.” Keating said that the vaccine “doesn’t make you bulletproof against the Covid viruses, but what it does is it basically puts Kevlar on you so you’re not going to feel the full impact of the virus.” (Vaccine appointments are available to anyone 12 and older at CentraCare.org. AdventHealth is also offering vaccines to all patients in the hospital as part of its efforts to make the vaccine easy and accessible to the community. Elsewhere, see vaccine options here.)
The CDC recommends that in schools, anyone not vaccinated should still wear a mask when interacting with others, such as teachers and older students. “As those who are vaccinated, that’s somewhat of a more loaded question,” Chu said. “The CDC officially in their guidance says it’s optional, but in what we’re seeing with Delta, with the cases rising, with the reports of infections that have occurred in fully vaccinated individuals, it is advisable and I would recommend that we strongly consider wearing a mask, even if you have been fully vaccinated.”
Bickel said this wave is not nearly as damaging as previous waves, especially since most of the elderly, who are most vulnerable, are vaccinated. But the wave is just as unnecessary as previous waves, with each serious sickness preventable.
“If we could get 90 percent vaccination rate there’d just be almost no covid,” Bickel said. “We wouldn’t have to worry about variants, we wouldn’t have to worry about rebounds, reinfections. Because we can’t get there, all these long-term issues are still in play.”
Bickel will be on WNZF’s Free For All Fridays on July 16 at 9 a.m. with AdventHealth’s Wally de Aquino, further discussing the current wave.
David S. says
My opinion is that people have had enough time to obtain information on the Delta variant . A friend who lives in Volusia Co just passed from Covid at the age of 32 she did not believe in vaccine’s. I say you reap what you sew. People are fools they would much rather listen to Fox news and those stupid republicans who could care less. When will people grow up and listen to the medical experts who know best.
Another One Lost says
Your FRIEND just died of covid at the age of 32. She did not believe in vaccines. She reaped what she sewed? It seems that you are implying that she deserved to die because of her hesitancy to take the vaccine. She certainly deserved this fate if she had the audacity to either be a republican or to listen to fox news. That’s a given. My question is, how could you possibly have been friends with such a retched person? Please tell us that you didn’t lower yourself by attending the funeral.
David S. says
She was a friend of a friend and no I did not go to the funeral. her family has to deal with her passing she would be alive today if she would just have listened. I will say it again these foolish people would rather listen to a madman ( Trump ) and glue their brain to fox news. YOU PLAY STUPID GAMES YOU WIN STUPID PRIZES and that just happens to be your life.
Another One Lost says
Your digging yourself deeper. Although I am not a Trump fan, he did get us the vaccine (via warp speed) in record time, took the vaccine and told his supporters that the vaccine was safe and effective. Try again.
tulip says
I’ve often wondered why people refuse to be vaccinated for political reasons. Trump has been vaxxed and given other controversia meds when he was sick with covid. So these people are willing to put their lives in jeopardy for a political fool? Why?
Outsider says
So that’s it! A recent study shows that 58% of fully vaccinated people are white, while only 9% are black. I never realized Fox News was so popular with a group that always votes 90+% Democrat.
https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/latest-data-on-covid-19-vaccinations-race-ethnicity/
Jp says
About 30% of republicans have said they won’t get the vaccine. I’d say that’s pretty partisan.
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/558225-nearly-30-percent-of-republicans-say-they-wont-get-vaccinated-poll
Mark says
The Black Community has been less fortunate when it comes to the vaccine, especially in Florida where they hold vaccine clinics in Richmond white communities that donate republican. Also the can you blame the black community for not trusting the same same government that has sewn mistrust for decades.
Jim Dana says
Unfortunately – this will go on and on and on. We have been vaccinated – both vaccines done in February – we are older – no reactions – and we are so thankful these vaccines were available to us. Need a booster in the future – we will be there. Life is precious. Your choice.
Ken says
There are people who got fully vaccinated and still got Covid so don’t tell me it’s only people who are not vaccinated. You can’t go by what Dr. Fauci and what other people say cause they keeps changing their minds and going back and forth, he doesn’t even know what he’s doing. These medical professionals are only taught one thing and that’s all they know. Vaccines are a money maker, why do you think they are pushing it so much. The government is trying to control people.
FlaglerLive says
Ken is misinformed, and mischaracterizing what the other commenter wrote. No one, including Fauci, has argued that vaccination will immunize you from covid. It will not. But the science overwhelmingly shows and the evidence proves that immunization wards off the severity of covid and all but, with rare exceptions (the vaccines are not perfect, especially J&J), eliminates the chance of being hospitalized or killed by it. The rest of the comment is pure nonsense. Please don;t use this site to spread your disinformation. Thanks.
Another One Lost says
One persons misinformation could very well be another’s true opinion. Whatever happened to honest debate. Both sides now shut the other down by simply labeling what they don’t agree with as either misinformation, mischaracterization or disinformation. Ken is apparently guilty of all three.
FlaglerLive says
Ken’s comment had nothing to do with honest debate. It was a flat-out, factually incorrect misreading of the commenters he was criticizing. We’re all for intellectually honest debate based on evidence. Ken’s isn’t it, nor is your attempt to couch it as such.
Another One Lost says
My fear is that the all encompassing word “disinformation” is beginning to trump free speech. Last time I checked, factually incorrect speech is still protected by the first amendment. Shutting people down and ending the conversation by simply yelling DISINFORMATION! makes me think that the person doing the yelling is not up for the debate. Either that or they are simply intellectually lazy.
P.S. My comment is not in direct response to Flagler Live or it’s editor. Neither could be accused of being lazy (intellectually or otherwise)
Local says
People that are fully vaccinated are getting thos strain also. 8 fully vaccinated people from one company contracted it in vegas….google ig.
Jp says
Very true. My fully vaccinated and pregnant wife got covid when she was overwhelmed with unvaccinated patients. She’s on day two and feeling much better. I guess the vaccine did it’s job.
joe says
“On June 22 Florida Gov DeSantis and our colleague, Laura Ingraham, mocked me on Fox for predicting the return of COVID19 to the Southern US. As of today, Florida has the 2nd highest rate of Covid nationally +257% rise over last 14 days, with Jacksonville area among worst affected.” (Dr. Peter Hotez MD PhD) who is a Vaccine Scientist-Pediatrician-Author-Combating Antiscience, Prof Dean @BCM_TropMed@TexasChildrens,UnivProf@Baylor, Hagler Inst @TAMU
So who to believe? Doctors, Scientists, Infectious Disease experts? Or the guy pushing lies and disinformation?
Trailer Bob says
I am a Republican. I got the vaccine. You are part of the problem with society today…addicted to hating others who don’t look or act or think exactly as you do.
Trailer Bob says
And could you please give us a quote where Fox News tells people not to get vaccinated? Thought not.
FlaglerLive says
Sure. Here’s a complete article: “Despite Outbreaks Among Unvaccinated, Fox News Hosts Smear Shots.”
tulip says
I clicked on your above article and it’s in the NY Times which won’t allow it to be read unless you subscribe. Darn
FlaglerLive says
Here are the first few paragraphs: “Back in December, before the queen of England and the president-elect of the United States had their turns, the media mogul Rupert Murdoch received a dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. Afterward, he urged everyone else to get it, too.
Since then, a different message has been a repeated refrain on the prime-time shows hosted by Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham on Mr. Murdoch’s Fox News Channel — a message at odds with the recommendations of health experts, even as the virus’s Delta variant and other mutations fuel outbreaks in areas where vaccination rates are below the national average.
Mr. Carlson, Ms. Ingraham and guests on their programs have said on the air that the vaccines could be dangerous; that people are justified in refusing them; and that public authorities have overstepped in their attempts to deliver them.
Mr. Carlson and Ms. Ingraham last week criticized a plan by the Biden administration to increase vaccinations by having health care workers and volunteers go door to door to try to persuade the reluctant to get shots.
“Going door-to-door?” Ms. Ingraham said. “This is creepy stuff.”
Mr. Carlson, the highest-rated Fox News host, with an average of 2.9 million viewers, said the Biden plan was an attempt to “force people to take medicine they don’t want or need.” He called the initiative “the greatest scandal in my lifetime, by far.”
tulip says
Thank you
L.D. says
Agreed. At this point, I’m okay with people unvaccinated by choice being a willing part of the herd thinning. What I’m not okay with are these people infecting vulnerable people who CAN’T get vaccinated…like young people with cancer or immune compromised conditions or kids that are too young for the vaccine. Selfish.
Can’t hide from science says
You are absolutely right. When did half the population become so uncaring? There’s a level of psychopathy there. Why don’t the local and state health dept post the number of Covid cases and deaths? Desantis made it illegal to post the numbers daily. Why did he do that? He wants Floridians to think the pandemic is over. Far from it. Why aren’t they at least posting them weekly? Moreover why are the citizens of this county and all counties in this state standing up for transparency? The Governor is not the King of Florida. He needs to be called out for allowing Delta to spread via his politically motivated rules. It is reprehensible.
robjr says
And rather listen to that idiotic babble from trump jr jr with his
Don’t Fauci My Florida’
Gail says
Yes very sad….that is terrifying that over 50% of the people in the restaurants and stores are unvaccinated. I’m going back to my mask.
Just plain stupidity.
Tina Seale says
Maybe people who got vaccinated lost the need to be over hygienic. Ya think? Perhaps they are “wolverine” in their minds..stop excessive hand washing. Invincible, taking masks and hand washing back to the dark ages. Touching everyone and everything freely. For fun..let’s call it the “hippie free Vax”. Why just why does it make ANY logical sense that at one point none of us together were vaccinated but yet slowed the spread. Now it is the fault of unvaccinated for a spread?. Since when in the history of viruses does the carrier get to blame the non? Vaccinated ppl are spreading it. Proof after 4th of July spike. Coming here traveling free, breathing on everything and everyone. The veil..”I’m ok I had the vaccine”. F u you are still touching everything/transferamce, ie coming on a plane breathing air of 200 ppl..airport germs. Nah..no prob right? I’m vaccinated.. touching everything. I’m not sick. Um.. questions? Is having the vaccine like spiderman? You magically get kill fingertip or filters at your mouth n fingertips? No idiot. It doesn’t die..u don’t get sick and go to isolation..you get to not get that alert and spread on spreading. Yes, please stop washing your hands and blame it on a political party. The spread and spike is from vaccinated ppl feeling invisible, safe, and careless
Tim says
When our “experts”in the medical field start showing all potential remedies (which there are several) then I think they will be taken more seriously but instead of doing that, they’re pushing this vaccine as an end all be all solution, and that is the single highest factor causing those who chose not to vaccinate to not trust the so called “experts” they don’t seem to want solutions, they’re more interested in seeing who they can control! Essentially if you’re still worried about dying from Covid, wrap yourself in bubble paper and stay in your house at all times…liberties ALWAYS trump safety, and always will for the US to remain a free country! If you feel you need a vaccine, by all means, get one, but don’t try to spin this into the fault of those who have chosen not to, as the research all shows, you can still get and transmit this virus even if vaccinated!
Mike Cocchiola says
I fear for the kids of COVID-denier parents. They may just get seriously sick, but we don’t know the long-term effects of the delta variant or of milder forms of COVID-19. Parents’ “beliefs” are putting unnecessary risks on their children… and on me and my family!
marlee says
There are two Health facilities on lock down to visitors in Palm Coast.
WEAR a damn mask, people!
Covid is NOT over.
Dale L says
A quote in the story is: “If you were to get a Pfizer vaccine, you’d have to wait two weeks for your second dose,” Keating said. In truth, the 2nd dose of the Pfizer vaccine is to be given at three weeks and full immunity is reached about two weeks after the second dose. I think Keating meant to say: …you’d have to wait until two weeks after your second dose.
The bottom line is that it takes a total of five weeks from the first dose of the Pfizer and six weeks from the first dose of the Moderna vaccines to achieve full immunity. Unvaccinated people need to begin the vaccination process NOW!
There are many unknowns concerning infections with COVID-19. Some viruses, such as the chicken pox virus, remain in a person all their life. In the case of chicken pox, it later can cause shingles. Until more is known about this virus, people who contract COVID-19, even if they have a mild case, are taking at risk of future disease and illness.
Mark says
Everywhere I go ,no one wears a mask or social distances. The people here are a disgrace.
Denali says
I must ask “What the hell is wrong with you people?”. I am just about over the anti-vax folks who say they are young and healthy yet every night on the news we hear about how the infections are rising in this group, thiry-somethings are spending weeks in a hospital, many die. Yep, young and healthy. I am about to agree with the folks who say you reap what you sow, but as my mother once said, I want to shake some sense into you. (Although that approach did not work on me.) Yet I guess there is a third option; don’t get the shots and get sick – if you get sick, stay home – if you recover, fine, if you die that is fine too. Just don’t go to the hospital and expect the doctors and nurses to make you well again – you made a choice, live or die with it. Don’t be a drain on the medical system simply because you made a conscious decision to be a jerk.
Years ago the world faced another infectious disease, where one person could infect an entire city; main and kill thousands before anyone knew what hit them. There was a vaccine for this disease and folks lined up to get it. Our Greatest Generation; our parents, grand- and great grand parents, the ones who survived the Great Depression, won WW II and invented plastic would prove their metal one more time by holding out their arms for the smallpox vaccine. They wore their vaccination scars like military ribbons, proud to have been a part of an effort to eradicate this deadly disease. Their vaccination passport was that little round scar on their upper deltoid, I still have mine, it grows more faint with each passing year but I know it is there and that I was there to help wipe smallpox from the earth. Those of you born after 1972 probably do not have a clue what I am talking about, but be thankful; thankful that we held out our arms to stop smallpox (and end the spread of polio) before you were born.
Now we ask the same of you, hold out your are for a couple of small shots. Help stop this bug in its tracks. Help to save a life. Protect yourself to be able to live a long life and watch your Grandkids go up.
Your Grandkids, children and friends will remember you in one of two ways; as the friendly old guy who always had a nice smile for everyone or the guy who we barely knew because he got COVID and died.
Local says
Vaccines don’t stop viruses in their tracks….vaccinated people are getting it also.
Also it is not ” bug”. Noone takes ignorant people seriously.
Denali says
You are so correct – no one takes ignorant people seriously, that is why the tide is slowly turning against people like you. How can you ignore the fact that 40 people were recently admitted to Tampa General and are now on ventilators. Their ages range from 35 – 54. NONE were vaccinated.
Go ahead, be irresponsible, don’t get the vaccine which may save your life. But please, if you get sick because of your own inaction’s, do not waste valuable medical resources by seeking treatment. For to seek treatment would not only be hypocritical, you would be akin to a thief stealing from those who tried to protect themselves. With your attitude, we should still have doctors touting the benefits of cigarettes.
Julie Smith says
My body
My choice if you want the vaccine get it. If you wanna wear a mask wear one I choose to not get the vaccine and I choose not to wear a mask. If you’ve been vaccinated and you’re wearing a mask you should be safe if that’s what you believe. If that’s not good enough for you then stay home.
Steve says
Go wave your flag to whomever and dont forget to take big deep breaths everywhere you go
David Schaefer says
You are another Trumper Humper . You better pray that you do not come down with it as you will be another person out there who will be crying why didn’t I listen. Also if you are sick don’t come to any hospital and waste their time and money.
Sherry says
Julie. . . not everything is about you. When people don’t get vaccinated they create fertile ground for the virus to mutate and create variants that are likely to be more deadly, more contagious, and less controlled by our current vaccines. Therefore we each have a responsibility to do “the right thing” not only for ourselves, our families, and our loved ones. . . but also for “our fellow citizens”.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/17/unvaccinated-coronavirus-covid-variants-us
Maybe this from Newsweek can explain better:
“You know the expression ‘It’s not helping,'” Nye said. “This idea that everybody has the freedom to do anything, we all know that’s not exactly right. You can’t yell fire in a crowded theater if there’s no fire inside. You can’t drive on both sides of the road—even so, you pay taxes on both sides of the road.”
He continued, “The argument that I’ve made for many years—I’m not the first guy to make this argument—is that if a person doesn’t get vaccinated and he or she gets infected, it’s going to mutate in that person.”
Nye then noted that some people don’t like the term mutate because it’s associated with evolution, so he switched to using variant.
“It will vary in that person and then that could infect me, and that’s not fair, right?” he said. “Everybody on the other side says, ‘It’s not fair to make me wear a mask. It’s not fair to make me get vaccinated.’ Well, it’s not fair to everybody else if you become an incubator for a variant, doggone it.”
Denali says
Sherry – there is only one problem with the information you have presented. It is “logic based”. These folks screaming about their ‘rights’ and ‘freedoms’ do not use logic. they rely 100% on emotions stirred up by all the trumpophiles. They are the people who feed the bears at Yellowstone, touch the wet paint and piss into the wind. Logic has no place in their lives.
Julie Smith says
I have a right To believe what I believe just as you have the right to believe what you believe 😊
Sherry says
Denali. . . unfortunately, you are absolutely correct.
The best we can hope for is that if 100 of us do our best to try and get through to those willing to at least give some consideration to the credible “FACTS” we post and logic we speak, maybe. . . just maybe, 2% will open their minds and move beyond the FOX mindless tripe. If we, together, save just one life it will all be worth the effort.
When I think of all the good work Pierre is doing with Flaglerlive every day, year in and year out, the least I can do is chime in once in a while singing the voice of reason. . . posting “FACTS”. . . hoping to rescue a few from the cult. My love of humanity is shaken, but remains strong.
Sherry says
@ Julie. . . yes, of course, you have the right to believe anything you like as long as you do not endanger others. . . which you are doing by not getting vaccinated. Hopefully, at a minimum, you wear a mask correctly over you mouth and nose when out in public. In any case, it is my belief that it is “you” who should be quarantining at home since you are a hazard to the rest of us. Those of us who believe in and follow scientific facts would like to safely get our lives back to normal. Thanks!
Julie Smith says
Here’s the thing Sherry I don’t believe in the scientific facts to be facts since the CDC waivers back-and-forth I do not believe the vaccine will help me or anyone around me I also do not believe in wearing a mask
I have the right to not do what I do not believe will help me as you have the right to comply if you choose to
I believe those that are fearful should be the ones to confine
themselves
The fact of the matter is if you are wearing a mask and you’ve been vaccinated then you shouldn’t be worried about being around me or anyone else if your scientific facts are true
Ray W. says
Under Julie Smith’s standard, if the fearful should be the ones to confine themselves, then the fearless should be the ones allowed to spread a virus. After all, she does not deny the existence of a virus or that it is spreading throughout the populace. She only questions CDC issued guidelines because they do not remain constant. With such logic, how could things ever go wrong?
A belief has never proved or disproved a fact. And it never will. Whether a car is parked in a driveway is a fact. Whether it should be blue is a belief. If it is red, one’s belief that it should be blue will not change the car’s color from red to blue. That the CDC changes its findings is the normal progress of the scientific method. Form a hypothesis. Test it repeatedly. Issue findings so that others can also test. If others improve the hypothesis, test again repeatedly. Issue new findings so that others can also test. If others improve the hypothesis, test again repeatedly. Issue new findings so that others can also test. If others improve the hypothesis, test again repeatedly. Issue new findings so that others can also test. And on and on. Or just proclaim a personal belief, declare success without proof of success, and ignore what is happening around you.
Einstein spent a lifetime attempting to develop a “unified field theory”, which would have been his algorithm to explain the workings of the universe. He repeatedly expressed his hope that if he were successful, he could have a personal conversation with God. Without a unified field theory, he believed, how can a finite human being ever understand an infinite God? He was not successful. That does not mean we cannot rely on our not yet complete understanding of physics to develop better magnets in an effort to improve the efficiency of electric motors. It only means that we should keep trying to develop a unified field theory and take what we already know to improve our lives and, perhaps one day, someone will fulfill Einstein’s dream of having a having a more complete human capacity to understand God. As always, knowledge is the key. Belief is nothing more than incidental to knowledge.
Julie Smith says
Agree to disagree
White House official and a senior aid both Got the vaccine newsbreak just now they both have Covid That’s all the proof I need y’all have a great day
Ray W. says
You are allowed to wander through life fooling yourself. No vaccine has ever stopped the common cold. Covid, by definition, is the common cold. Covid19 is simply another variant on the common cold. The D variant is not going to be the last variant we see of this particular version of the common cold. The vaccine lessens the impact of the common cold on many people. You lose again, whether you believe it or not.
julie smith says
The fact of the matter is if you are wearing a mask and you’ve been vaccinated then you shouldn’t be worried about being around me or anyone else if your scientific facts are true
Sherry says
Julie, since “NO AMOUNT” of “factual” logic seems to be getting through to you, all I can do at this point is to say a mantra for the recovery of your “thinking” processes, and your separation from the “cult of alternate reality” before you do any more harm.
In the mean time, all those who are eligible in every way to be vaccinated and choose to continue to endanger themselves and the rest of us by not believing scientific fact and not getting vaccinated, “you” are a dangerous “pariah” to our society. For those who still have a conscience, there may be hope for you yet.