Tweet [1]
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo explains that covid boosters aren’t for everyone [2]. Two slices:
How safe are the Covid-19 vaccines? Under my leadership, the Florida Department of Health analyzed [3]overall mortality and cardiac-related mortality risk associated with Covid-19 vaccination. We found an 84% increase in the relative incidence of cardiac-related death among men 18 to 39 within 28 days following mRNA vaccination.
The left has smeared these results as “anti-science,” as Holden Thorpe, the editor of Science, recently stated in an editorial. But time and again, the unorthodox science related to Covid-19 becomes the mainstream. Scientists have been attacked for questioning the efficacy of lockdowns, for urging schools to reopen, for challenging the effectiveness of mask mandates, and for opposing vaccine mandates and passports. The scientists asking these questions had the data on their side, but critics bowed to fear and political ideology.
It’s happening again. The increased risk of cardiovascular events following the Covid-19 vaccine isn’t news; it has been known for over a year. Research has identified cardiovascular risks in the general population, and especially among young males following Covid-19 mRNA vaccination….
…..
Backed by the data, I stand by my recommendation against Covid-19 mRNA vaccination for young men. At this point in the pandemic, it is unlikely that the benefits outweigh these risks. The public can be assured that I will continue to lead with data, and I will place their interests ahead of political pressure and fear-based ideologies.
Why else did face masks become so controversial? Given the scant evidence supporting widespread use of nonmedical-grade masks, many conservatives perceived masking as another instance of liberals imposing scientifically baseless rituals on nonadherent Americans. The same is now true with vaccinating children.
Most conservatives don’t oppose vaccines per se. But never before has the CDC recommended, or the FDA authorized, a vaccine for children based on such thin evidence of benefits and lack of clarity on potential risks.
It’s generally accepted that kids are at much lower risk for severe Covid than adults. One study, released earlier this month, estimated that only 3 of every million kids who have been [5] infected with Covid have died from it. Children also are much less likely to get severely sick with Covid than with some other bugs.
Also critical of government covid-vaccination policy is Dr. Joel Zinberg [6]. Two slices:
The public-health bureaucracy is adopting yet another excessive vaccination policy. On Oct. 12 the Food and Drug Administration authorized [7] bivalent Covid-19 boosters from Pfizer [8] and Moderna [9] for use in children as young as 5 and 6, respectively. The same day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended [10] the vaccines for children 5 to 11. Neither shot is likely to find many takers, but that won’t stop the Biden administration from wasting billions of dollars buying them.
Since Covid shots first became available, the federal government has purchased and distributed them instead of relying on the market to match supply with demand. The result has been colossal waste. Between December 2020 and mid-May 2022, the U.S. wasted 82.1 million doses. Some expired on pharmacy shelves before they could be used; others were discarded after remaining unclaimed in opened multidose vials.
…..
Americans’ demand for vaccines is lower than the government’s arbitrary target—and for good reason. It’s time for the government to release its monopoly on the purchase and distribution of vaccines and let the private market do what it does best: aligning supply with the American people’s demand for goods they will actually use.
The Wall Street Journal‘s Editorial Board reports on “the school lockdown catastrophe.” [11] A slice:
The pandemic lockdowns were a policy blunder for the ages, and the economic, social and health consequences are still playing out. But the worst catastrophe was visited on America’s children, as Monday’s release of the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress shows.
Investors are not fans of Xi Jinping’s deranged pursuit of zero covid [13].
Dan Klein and Mike Munger respond to Scott Yenor [14].
Arnold Kling makes the case for breaking the U.S. into smaller jurisdictions [15]. A slice:
The ability to run chronic deficits creates a bias toward larger government. Even if we believe in Keynesian economics, we could devise a scheme in which the size of deficits is determined automatically rather than through discretion. A fiscal rule could force the government to run surpluses as the economy approaches full employment. There was once a time when progressive economists called for such a rule.
Here’s David Friedman on special pleading [16]. (HT David Henderson [17])