Because I Say So

The fascists tell us what to think.  They expect us to follow arbitrary commands based on the strength of their word alone.

Case in point.  NPR recently published an article supporting the “Pandemic of the Unvaccinated” narrative.  The article claims there were nearly 319,000 excess deaths caused by the failure to universally vaccinate all adult Americans.  Why should we believe this?  “Because I say so.”

This chart from the article summarizes the report:

The lines charting actual and estimated deaths diverge in August 2021.   Actual deaths have steep slopes in October 2021 and January 2022, corresponding to the waves of delta and omicron variants.  The modeled deaths for the universal vaccination scenario show barely a bump during these times, implying that vaccination would have prevented delta and omicron fatalities.  Why should we believe this claim?  “Because I say so.”

The cumulative death data from COVID-19, reported by the CDC, shows that every state experienced a surge in death corresponding to delta and omicron, just at different times.  States with high vaccination rates had these waves; states with low vaccination rates had these waves.  Instead of vaccination rates, population density correlates better with COVID deaths.  New York City, a highly vaccinated area, has the highest cumulative COVID death rate, nearly 500 per 100,000 population.  Why believe that universal vaccination would have prevented deaths?  “Because I say so.”

The CDC Heat Map plots case rates and vaccination rates.  If vaccination prevents COVID, then the map should be colored red (high cases in areas of low vaccination) and green (low cases in areas of high vaccination).  Instead, there is lots of purple—high numbers of COVID cases in highly vaccinated regions of the country.  If COVID cases are highest in the most vaccinated regions of the country, why should we believe that universal vaccination would have saved lives?  “Because I say so.”

The NPR article goes on to perpetuate a pejorative stereotype.  Vaccination rates are lower in red states—read “Trump voters”—implying that Trump voters are just not intelligent enough get vaccinated.  The article suggests that people from blue states are more trusting of government, as if that is desirable.  It goes on to blame Republican-led states because they “underused other pandemic-fighting tools, such as mask and social distancing requirements,” ignoring that these pandemic-fighting tools were first implemented by the Trump administration.  Furthermore, today’s CDC COVID Data tracker shows COVID-19 Community levels are highest in the Northeast—blue states.  So why should we believe this red state/blue state narrative?  “Because I say so.”

The article commends Massachusetts, a highly vaccinated blue state, for its low rate of vaccine-preventable deaths.  However, the CDC’s data tracker shows an interesting and unexplained anomaly.  Miraculously, on March 14 nearly 4,000 fewer individuals had died from COVID in Massachusetts than were reported the day before.

On March 13, the Massachusetts death rate was higher than Florida.  On March 14, the Massachusetts death rate was lower than Florida.  Why the forensic audit and recount of the Massachusetts data, the result of which smoothed out a surge in the state’s reported COVID deaths?  Maybe the facts did not fit the narrative.  But we should believe the narrative anyway, “Because I say so.”

Who are you and where did you publish your data?

Researchers at Brown and Microsoft AI Health provided this data analysis, but not in a peer reviewed medical journal.  Instead, the data was “shared exclusively with NPR.”

Let me get this straight.  An ivy-league university, a big tech company, and a left leaning news organization are telling us, “Get your vaccination, get your booster, because I say so.”

Not good enough for me.  How about you?