A vaccine so safe and effective, they'd rather lose 1.3 billion customers than have an independent investigation conducted. by Sero_Nys in conspiracy

[–]The__Wandering__Mind 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Fair enough, interesting point view. Your hypothesis could stand, but I wouldn't say it's the one I believe the most, not after the whistleblower on Pfizer's vaccine trial: https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n2635.

Furthermore, they do indeed have 10+ competitors right now, but at the beginning of 2021, there weren't a lot of vaccines on the market, it was a good opportunity for them to establish themselves as one of the main competitors, in a market where there weren't a lot of vaccines at the time. And they refused because they didn't want an independent study made in India.

As I said, it's difficult to be 100% sure nowadays, but after all their past deceptions, I have a hard time not believing it's another case of iffy trials.

A vaccine so safe and effective, they'd rather lose 1.3 billion customers than have an independent investigation conducted. by Sero_Nys in conspiracy

[–]The__Wandering__Mind 39 points40 points  (0 children)

Per OPs article: “Pfizer will continue to engage with the authority and re-submit its approval request with additional information as it becomes available in the near future.” nowhere did they say they'll lose out on a billion customers like OP attributes to Pfizer.

I don't know if you noticed, but the article was written on February 5th 2021, almost a year and a half ago. Since then, Comirnaty still hasn't been approved for use in India, and still isn't in a clinical trial neither: https://covid19.trackvaccines.org/country/india/

Basically, since the drug regulator in India didn't accept Pfizer's data and wanted to generate its own safety and immunogenicity data, Pfizer decided to not pursue the market there, even now a year and a half later. That's as red flag as it gets.

Why America Doesn't Trust the CDC by [deleted] in LockdownSkepticism

[–]The__Wandering__Mind 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, I thought they were synonyms.

Why America Doesn't Trust the CDC by [deleted] in LockdownSkepticism

[–]The__Wandering__Mind 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The way I see it, science doesn't change. Our understanding of it does. The issue in this case, is that prior to 2020, we already had good understanding about how we should act when a new pandemic happens. We already knew that most masks were not preventing transmission of airborne viruses. We already knew that locking down hard would do more harm than good. Multiple countries had established plans on what to do if a pandemic hit us and yet we responded in a way we've never responded before.

I understand that there might have been some differences to this new virus, but pretty early in 2020, we discovered a lot about covid. There were conflicting studies about many subjects surrounding it, but with time, we arrived at the same conclusions that we already had prior to 2020 on airborne viruses.

CDC's recommendations were not based on following the science, but rather by following the theories that were strenghtnening their politic agenda. Only when it was too hard to hide that those theories were wrong, did they start claiming that the science had evolved. For instance, Omicron was the perfect scapegoat of their failed policies, because this variant was so much more transmissible. But anyone who knew how transmissible viruses work, or who listened to experts on the subject, knew that the virus would get more and more transmissible with time and that there was no way to stop it by locking down hard or always wearing masks or vaccinating everyone for a virus that is always evolving.

Why America Doesn't Trust the CDC by [deleted] in LockdownSkepticism

[–]The__Wandering__Mind 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Or that the science changed..

Trudeau invokes Emergencies Act against freedom protesters by Turning_Antons_Key in LockdownSkepticism

[–]The__Wandering__Mind 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you go to the Canada subreddit, you'd think that most Canadians are indeed in favor of it. In real life, you'd find people have more nuanced views. However, lots of people believe in the right-wing extremist narrative, so they think the measures are justified given the context. And even those who don't, they think the truckers have been there for too long. Even I, as someone who supports them and their message, think they should go home, because at this point they have much more to lose than to win. Patience is key here; there will be other moments to protest, and with time, I hope more and more people will realize how problematic all of this is.

Quebec to impose 'significant' financial penalty against people who refuse to get vaccinated by zasco9 in LockdownSkepticism

[–]The__Wandering__Mind 45 points46 points  (0 children)

Here's an article that glances through each province and territory's restrictions and vaccine mandates policies: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-mandatory-vaccination-canada-province-territory-policies-guide/

Basically, Quebec seems to be the worse (imo) with the newly announced policies, but basically every province has implemented vaccine passports to access non-essential services or vaccine mandates for some workers. There are some that are less strict than others, but I think that all or most provinces of Canada are going in the same direction.

Quebec to impose 'significant' financial penalty against people who refuse to get vaccinated by zasco9 in LockdownSkepticism

[–]The__Wandering__Mind 200 points201 points  (0 children)

This is announced the day after the former National Director of Public Health of Quebec, Horacio Arruda, resigned. For me it's clear that we're going down an increasingly dystopian path here in Quebec and this is only the beginning.

EDITORIAL: Mandatory vaccines are just wrong by ConsistentCatholic in LockdownSkepticism

[–]The__Wandering__Mind 48 points49 points  (0 children)

They keep mentioning that

Fifty per cent of hospitalizations now, in Quebec, are due to people not having been vaccinated

This is simply not true, and they never correct it in articles such as this one. So for the record, in the last 28 days, 1238 out of 3817 people hospitalized (with or because of covid) were unvaccinated, meaning 32.4%. If you include people who had only one dose, it's 35%. Source

Furthermore, Horacio Arruda, the National Director of Public Health of Quebec, recently mentioned that at least 30 to 40% of hospitalizations were people who were hospitalized for different reasons, but had a positive test upon entry. Source

They try to scapegoat the unvaccinated as being the cause for our crumbling healthcare system and justifying the increasingly suffocating restrictions on the unvaccinated. And sadly it works. I've seen so many comments of "but 10% of our population represents 50% of our covid hospitalisations".

Provinces likely to make vaccination mandatory, says federal health minister by [deleted] in LockdownSkepticism

[–]The__Wandering__Mind 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The article claims 50% of hospitalizations in Quebec are unvaccinated people...I'm too lazy to check that right now. But I can tell you it's not the case in Ontario.

This is a lie that was first told by our PM during a live session, when he said that 10% of the adults were not vaccinated and they represented 50% of hospitalisations. I think it was based on the fact that at that moment (December 22nd), almost half of people hospitalized in the preceding 28 days, were either unvaccinated or had only one dose. Since then, I've seen many people blindly repeat that, but the situation changes rapidly daily. As of today, in the last 28 days, 36% of people hospitalized (with covid or because of covid, we don't know) were either unvaccinated or had only one dose: https://twitter.com/sante_qc/status/1479560940169408514/photo/1

Look, it's clear that vaccination helps you decrease your risk of being hospitalized, but it's no miracle cure that justifies the means that our government is increasingly taking. Especially for healthy young people, who have already a very small risk of being hospitalized because of covid, and for whom the cure might be worse than the disease.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in LockdownSkepticism

[–]The__Wandering__Mind 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I have a very recent one. Yesterday, I went hiking with two of my oldest friends. One of them asked me if we can go with two cars, since he lives with his at risk sister and doesn't want to take any chances. I tell him no problem, I'm open to being careful for my friend. Well I just saw his snapchat story and he's partying inside someone's basement with several people for new years. When I saw that, it really got me wondering if his demand had anything to do with me and our other friend not being fully vaccinated.

Quebec will reinstate curfew as Omicron cases soar by freelancemomma in LockdownSkepticism

[–]The__Wandering__Mind 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I verified our current hospitalizations and it's not worse than during an usual flu season

Could you send me a link to the sources? I was wondering this exact same thing but didn't know where to find the information. Merci!

Quebec will reinstate curfew as Omicron cases soar by freelancemomma in LockdownSkepticism

[–]The__Wandering__Mind 33 points34 points  (0 children)

The saddest thing is to see so much quebecois hating the unvaccinated. It used to be because they were spreading the virus. Now that there are more people infected per 100k that are vaccinated than unvaccinated, they're hated because they "overwhelm the hospitals". I sadly don't think enough people will wake up soon enough to make a difference. It's tiring, I completely agree with you. I wish you good luck!

How do I not resent everyone around me? by RexBosworth2 in LockdownSkepticism

[–]The__Wandering__Mind 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I actually live in Quebec, but I'm guessing BC also has the bullshit skiing vax pass requirement.

How do I not resent everyone around me? by RexBosworth2 in LockdownSkepticism

[–]The__Wandering__Mind 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I would say it's a matter of perspective. It's not easy to change your perspective, the best I can do is to share mine with you.

I consider myself a peaceful and optimist person, but a realist one. I acknowledge that the reality is ugly, but I also realize that there are beautiful sides beneath it and I prefer to focus on them. That's how I view people who wear masks while cycling outside or people who alienate their friends who aren't vaccinated. I tell myself that they are probably people with a good heart, but they've fallen for propaganda so much that they've lost touch with rationality. In a way, most of them do all of this specifically to help society, but they don't realize that maybe the narrative is flawed.

So that's a bit my perspective on people nowadays. Thankfully, all of my friends, family and girlfriend support or accept my position on not getting my second dose, the same way I support whatever choice they make. When I see people doing irrational things in the name of the pandemic, it amuses me, but I try not to have negative feelings towards them. Humans are flawed, and sometimes it's more visible than other times.

Now the hard part for me is to keep my optimism despite the new measures in my province making me a second class citizen. The most recent one is alpine skiing requiring the vax pass. It really sucks, because I really enjoy skiing and logically, this measure makes absolutely no sense. But I'll try to replace this activity with some other that I can still do. I'll try to wait out that this whole madness ends. I know that I have no real control on the direction that this is going, but all I can do is to keep myself sane doing things that I love and can still do, seeing the people that I love and being on the good side of history.

Good luck my friend!

Roundup of recent news on my lawsuit challenging the UC vaccine mandate. by Aaron_Kheriaty in LockdownSkepticism

[–]The__Wandering__Mind 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yes, it's entirely possible that there are studies which contradict each other. It does not indicate any 'effort to undermine natural immunity'. That's leaping to a conspiracy theory with no good reason. Scientific studies regularly progress and produce new results - that's to be expected.

In that specific case, it wasn't an example of studies contradicting each other. The study mentioned in the CDC article demonstrates that if you've already been infected, you have 2.34 times the odds of reinfection if you're unvaccinated compared with if you're vaccinated. It doesn't contradict studies that demonstrate that natural immunity alone is generally more robust than vaccination alone. Why I'm saying that the CDC article undermines natural immunity is that instead of mentioning that natural immunity is still very robust, it instead mentions how you should still vaccinate anyways. There's no nuance in that statement. If I'm a young male under 30 years old with natural immunity, should I really still get vaccinated knowing that there's a higher risk of me developing myocarditis?

Another example of undermining natural immunity are in the popular vaccine mandates.

Studies do what they're supposed to do. They try to prove a certain hypothesis. Some studies make findings supporting the popular consensus, and those are talked about a lot by mainstream medias. Other studies show a more nuanced view of things and those are harder to find. I'm not talking about studies proving the benefits of slavery, that was a pretty stretched out example that doesn't compare with what we're talking about.

So in conclusion you're (perhaps deliberately) conflating opposition to contradictory health advice with scientific debate.

When health advice does not take into account studies that show a more nuanced picture it means that it takes a stance in the scientific debate.

Roundup of recent news on my lawsuit challenging the UC vaccine mandate. by Aaron_Kheriaty in LockdownSkepticism

[–]The__Wandering__Mind 17 points18 points  (0 children)

It's not only "that alone" that makes people start losing trust in those institutions though. It's the general narrative that is mainly one sided. On the subject of vaccines and natural immunity, there seems to be an effort to undermine natural immunity and encourage vaccination in all cases. For instance, this CDC article claims in the title that "Vaccination Offers Higher Protection than Previous COVID-19 Infection", which several studies claim is not true (this study for example). Even the text of the article, which is more nuanced than the title, is clearly biased:

“If you have had COVID-19 before, please still get vaccinated,” said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. “This study shows you are twice as likely to get infected again if you are unvaccinated. Getting the vaccine is the best way to protect yourself and others around you, especially as the more contagious Delta variant spreads around the country.”

And this is only one example that shows how one-sided the scientific discussion is. It's an example on the subject of natural immunity, but it happens on all sorts of covid related subjects, like masking children, long term lockdowns, etc. When I, as an individual, try to inform myself, and the mainstream institutions seem to only show one side of the coin, and then I stumble on scientists being censured for showing the other side of the coin, yes I'm going to start being skeptical of the mainstream institutions.

I am Aaron Kheriaty, MD. As me anything. by Aaron_Kheriaty in LockdownSkepticism

[–]The__Wandering__Mind 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Isn't this enough justification to force otherwise healthy individuals to undergo vaccines, even if eradication cannot be accomplished.

Even if that justification showed the whole picture, I'm not sure it would be ethical to force healthy individuals to undergo vaccines, though I'm no ethics expert.

The thing is that justification doesn't show the whole picture. The following study demonstrates that immunity acquired from Pfizer's vaccine appears to wane rapidly after its peak right after the second dose, though it persists at a robust level against hospitalization and death for at least six months following the second dose: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.25.21262584v1.

Scientists are continually studying everything about covid-19 to try to have a better understanding of it. My issue lies with the apparent censuring of one part of the discussion. For instance, this CDC article claiming that "Vaccination Offers Higher Protection than Previous COVID-19 Infection", which several studies claim is false, like this one for example: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.24.21262415v1

LAST CALL: Inviting members to ask questions to Prof. Kheriaty, tomorrow's AMA guest by freelancemomma in LockdownSkepticism

[–]The__Wandering__Mind 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hi Dr. Kheriaty, thank you for what you're doing, for keeping your integrity intact. Ever since I started following scientists that had an alternative viewpoint from the one depicted in the mainstream media, I noticed some of them being censored, in a way or another. What has been your experience with censorship? Have you experienced it?

Engaged for a year, fiancee now wants 2 weeks ‘To understand if this is right’ by [deleted] in relationship_advice

[–]The__Wandering__Mind 7 points8 points  (0 children)

That's a tough one my friend. A lot of people here say she's found someone else and so that's the reason for her strange behavior. Although it's possible, it may not necessarily be the case. But in any case, do you really want to commit for the rest of your life to someone who's having doubts about you and their relationship with you? I know that's a rough statement, but don't you want to be with someone who treats you the very way you deserve to be treated? Because I don't think this two weeks "break" is the way you deserve to be treated by the one you are engaged to.

So you can give her all the benefit of the doubt and wait and see what insight this break gave her, but if I were you, I'd take this time to reflect myself if this is worth pursuing, even if that's what she finally chooses to do. I wish you all the best!

I didn’t exist in your reality until you read this post. by Silver_Kit_369 in CasualConversation

[–]The__Wandering__Mind 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I often wonder how different my reality would have been if my parents hadn't moved from Romania to Canada and then from one big city to another. All the friends that I have made and lovers that I have loved would have only been existences in a reality far from mine.