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First, the restaurant was a mask-free area.
It is now a vaccination-free zone, according to the sign in the window.
My first thought while reading the latest news on Basilico’s Pasta e Vino restaurant in Huntington Beach was that the joint should be shut down by health officials, and owner Tony Roman should be fined. There shouldn’t be a problem paying it, because as the Orange County Register reported, the restaurant received $ 57,738 in government paycheck protection funds while defying security guidelines.
But on second thought, maybe Roman is on to something.
Some people, let’s face it, may never be persuaded to get their Fauci Ouchies, even with an alarming increase in COVID-19 cases due to the highly contagious Delta variant. They don’t trust science or government, or they don’t like being told what to do. So why not let them eat in their own restaurants and keep the risk of infections to themselves?
Instead of alphabetical notes, like we have in Los Angeles restaurant windows for health and safety assessments, let’s have big signs in each window, V for vaccinated and U for unvaccinated. If you want to eat at a V restaurant, you have to prove that you have the hits. And we could do the same with other companies, air transport and cruise ships.
Not that we should completely abandon those who, for the moment, say no to the jab. As the Times reported, California saw a 5% increase in vaccinations in the third week of June, so there is hope.
Two weeks ago, when I wrote that 99% of new infections were in unvaccinated people and said we can quickly limit the spread with more cooperation, I received rejection from hundreds of readers. But I’m happy to take another shot.
A reader told me he was vaccinated but his younger family members are hesitant, and he asked me what I think he should tell them.
I would tell them that they are cut off from the desire to be so selfish. If they get sick and pass it on to him, he could get sick and even die, so why not err on the side of caution? The new variant is so highly contagious that even people who have been vaccinated can get “breakthrough” infections, which is one of the reasons we are all encouraged to wear masks again, even if we are immune.
Many readers have told me that they are hesitant to get the vaccine because a government-run site, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), has reported over 12,000 deaths and several thousand side effects caused by the vaccines. vaccines.
This is not true.
Anyone can report information to the site, including non-medical professionals, so this is a problem. And the site specifies that the figures do not establish cause and effect:
“VAERS reports alone cannot be used to determine whether a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event or disease. Reports may contain incomplete, inaccurate, incidental or unverifiable information. Much of the reporting to VAERS is voluntary, which means it is subject to bias. “
I asked UCLA epidemiologist Timothy Brewer about it, and here’s what he had to say:
“If you’re going to vaccinate 160 million people, which we did, there are quite a few who would die by the time they got their vaccine. But that doesn’t mean the vaccine has something to do with death. “
I’ve heard from readers who think the VAERS figures are alarming, but at the same time they don’t trust government accounting on how many people have tested positive for COVID-19 or have died from it. . These figures, they insist, are exaggerated. Go figure it out.
If anything, Dr Brewer said, the death toll may have been underestimated.
“The Institute of Health Metrics estimates the mortality associated with COVID-19 may be more than double the reported number, not inflated as suggested,” Brewer said. “It is common for public health agencies to revise statistics over time. “
Brewer also refuted an argument I’ve heard time and time again from readers – that we just don’t know whether COVID vaccines are safe in the short or long term.
“There are now a number of population-based studies of different COVID-19 vaccines that have been published. These studies involve tens to hundreds of thousands of people and include information about vaccine effectiveness… and vaccine safety, ”Brewer said. “The vaccines remain both safe and effective, even against the Delta and Alpha strains, the two most widely circulating strains in the United States today.”
One reader wrote to me to say that I should be ashamed of fueling “disgusting media and government hysteria” and creating unnecessary panic.
“COVID-19 is the flu and millions of people have had it and have recovered well,” the writer said. “Mass vaccination risks harming thousands more.”
The brewer’s response?
“The writer is correct that the COVID-19 case fatality rate hovers around 1% to 2%. However, the CDC estimates that the fatality rate from the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus, our last influenza pandemic, was about 0.02%, or about 100 times lower. SARS-CoV-2 is not like our typical flu. “
None of those who have argued that vaccines can kill seemed to recognize the likelihood that they have saved lives.
“A Yale School of Public Health modeling study estimates that COVID-19 vaccines have prevented 279,000 deaths and 1.25 million hospitalizations in the United States alone,” Brewer said. “Recognizing the limitations of modeling studies, it’s always safe to say that COVID-19 vaccines have been a huge success in saving lives and preventing serious illness at home and abroad. “
Until more people believe this, we could take the example of Tony Roman and draw a line between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated.
But rather than being so cynical, I don’t give up hope that rational thinking will eventually prevail, and here’s why:
Years ago, writing about climate change, I was relentlessly pushed back by deniers who refuted the overwhelming scientific evidence.
Today, with catastrophic drought, extreme heat, and flooding around the world, I rarely hear from skeptics. If they are wise, there may be hope for anti-vaccines.
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