Before the Memory Hole Swallows the 2-Minutes Hates of January.
Edmund R. Folsom, March 26, 2022.
A mere 3 months ago, people were thrown out of their jobs under color of law for refusing to accept COVID-19 “jabs.” They were demonized and conflated with white supremacists (examples here, here, and here, extending a smear campaign that began in 2020 against those who opposed “stay at home” orders). A mere 3 months ago, all of officialdom was in full-court-press mode, promoting the Big Lies that the COVID-19 pandemic is a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” and that liberty and bodily integrity-based concerns over vaccination mandates are nothing other than demands for “the freedom to kill you with my COVID.”
Now that we know COVID-19 vaccines do not actually prevent people from getting or transmitting COVID-19 (despite President Biden’s contrary claim here), and now that we know that vaccine effectiveness drops so rapidly that 4 shots within roughly 12 months are necessary to periodically return effectiveness from close-to-nothing to closer to peak, and now that the Omicron variant wave has passed in the U.S. and topics other than COVID-19 have moved to center stage, officialdom has moved on. Officialdom no longer bothers to whip up an ongoing series of 2-minutes-hates against the unvaccinated.
But the exercise created precedent. Those who could not possibly have believed in what they were selling conditioned the masses to fear and despise their fellow citizens, to mock and deride concerns about individual liberty and unwanted bodily intrusions, to advocate that the demonized OTHER be refused medical treatment, and to openly cheer the deaths of the non-compliant. Instead of being a source of embarrassment, these positions were worn proudly by the conditioned masses, as signs of personal virtue.
It was all a bit ugly for a crowd that primarily fobs off its shtick under the banner of unity, caring and compassion — best to tamp down all that raw nastiness and pretend it didn’t happen until the next 2-minutes hate campaign becomes useful. Time to (figuratively speaking) put it all down the memory hole, to erase all mention of war with Eurasia; to abruptly begin carrying on as if we have always been at war with Eastasia.
Well, before the memory hole swallows this particular hate campaign, I’m keeping a bit of it here, for posterity.
And there is, of course, nothing to see in the fact that 15 of Maine’s 15 recorded deaths with COVID-19 last week involved “breakthrough” COVID-19 infections, or in the fact that 30 of Maine’s 45 new hospitalizations with COVID-19 involved “breakthrough” cases last week (67%), or that between February 28 and March 25, a total of 8,510 new COVID-19 cases and 7,116 “breakthrough” cases were recorded, which “breakthrough” number is 83.6% of the 8,510 overall newly recorded cases during the period, in a population in which fewer than that — 73.95% — are fully vaccinated. What could there possibly be to see in it? Which must be why our vigilant press lacks even the curiosity to mention it, let alone to inquire as to its significance. Just move along… nothing to see here.
That the unvaccinated never were responsible for a “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” that they never did present a unique death threat to the vaccinated — that these things are true is a minor detail. The 2-minutes hate eschews truth. A campaign of two-minutes hates has been shown to work, right here, right now. It advances the political interests of its manipulators. We now know how easily it is achieved through contemporary communication channels.
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. Follow the science.
Fume on, spout off, deniers. But be sure to “circle back” when your arc of history has more fully unfurled the clampdown.
Update April 1, 2022: It’s pretty clear that Maine’s CDC has been combing over old COVID-19 cases and deaths lately, reclassifying a bunch of them as “breakthrough” cases among the fully vaccinated. The breakthrough numbers they have reported over the past several weeks make no sense otherwise. For instance, during the week ending April 1, Maine’s CDC reports 14 new breakthrough deaths but an increase of only 8 new deaths with COVID-19 overall since the date in January of 2021 when the first person in Maine was fully vaccinated (breakthroughs up, from 501 to 515, total deaths up from 1,420 to 1,428). In other words, if the breakthrough numbers did not include recategorized old cases, this would mean newly recorded breakthrough deaths were 175% of total newly recorded COVID-19 deaths last week.
Recorded breakthrough cases increased 1,558 last week (up from 74,518 to 76,076) while total newly recorded COVID-19 cases were up only 1,394 (from 199,341 to 200,735). If not for recategorized old cases, this would mean breakthroughs were 111.76% of total new cases last week.
Newly recorded breakthrough hospitalizations with COVID-19 last week were 67.56% of total new hospitalizations (25 of 37).
Since the date in January 2021 when the first person in Maine was fully vaccinated, recorded breakthrough cases among the fully vaccinated are now 37.89% of all recorded COVID-19 cases (76,076 of 200,735). Breakthrough deaths are now 36% of all recorded deaths with COVID-19 (515 of 1,428). These percentages continue to increase weekly, likely reflecting the very small window of time that each round of vaccination lasts, before a booster is required to return protection to peak for another small sliver of time.
Update April 11, 2022: Newly recorded COVID-19 cases are up by 1,703 (from 200,735 to 202,438) since April 1, while newly recorded “breakthrough” cases are up 1,715 (from 76,076 to 77,791) for the period. Breakthroughs exceeded 100% of newly recorded cases again this past week.
Since February 28, newly recorded “breakthrough cases” have been 89.5% of all newly recorded COVID-19 cases (10,389 of 11,607); newly recorded “breakthrough” hospitalizations have been 63.8% of all newly recorded hospitalizations (171 of 268); and newly recorded “breakthrough” deaths have been 75.8% of all newly recorded deaths with COVID-19 (107 of 141). Maine’s COVID-19 vaccination dashboard reports that 76.61% of the population has received a final vaccine dose.
