Covid Friday: Good News From UAW, More On Variants And 'Vaxxes'

Nov 26, 2021

The UAW story came out yesterday, about a week after a major shipbuilding yard caved to the union, which was pressured by the workers. The legal aspect of the shipyard story was that, while the shipyard is unquestionably a government contractor, the company has a contract with the unionized workers. The lawyers must have that "workarounds” lacking any rational basis probably won’t pass muster with the courts, in view of the Contract Clause of the Constitution.

I was waiting for more commentary and details on the UAW news. Guess what? No more seems to be forthcoming. However, from what we can tell this is a significant development and, as sundance says, a victory for workers—forcing both companies and unions to address the interests of workers rather than politicians:

Big Three U.S. Automakers Agree to Not Mandate Vaccines for UAW Union Members

The Big 3 and the UAW issued a joint statement. The main takeaway—beyond the boilerplate encouraging injections and masks—is that vax status is voluntary. Further, the statement recognizes that workers have personal reasons for refusing to be injected with experimental meds, including—but not limited, by the terms of the statement, to—health issues or religious beliefs.

Personal, health, religious reasons may prevent workers for getting shot up.

You can read the whole statement here, but that’s the long and the short of it. While the MSM isn’t inclined to cover these stories, other unions and unionized workers around the country will undoubtedly be taking note—as will companies that want to stay open. The courts, too, will be taking note.

Now, above I referred to the need for a rational basis for mandates established by government entities, and especially for those that would alter existing contracts. Karl Denninger draws attention to a Dutch study that calls vaccine mandates directly into question:

Increased risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2 Beta, Gamma, and Delta variant compared to Alpha variant in vaccinated individuals

Increased risk compared not only to the risk from Alpha, but also compared to those with natural immunity. In other words, natural immunity is broad based and applies to all variants, but vax protection, not so much:

Abstract
The extent to which severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants of concern (VOC) break through infection- or vaccine-induced immunity is not well understood.
Here, we analyze 28,578 sequenced SARS-CoV-2 samples from individuals with known immune status obtained through national community testing in the Netherlands from March to August 2021.
We find evidence for an increased risk of infection by the Beta (B.1.351), Gamma (P.1), or Delta (B.1.617.2) variants compared to the Alpha (B.1.1.7) variant after vaccination. No clear differences were found between vaccines. However, the effect was larger in the first 14-59 days after complete vaccination compared to 60 days and longer. [BUT]

Note, no mention is made of the waning of any vax protection, which is largely complete after 6 months. That suggests that the time span for any protective activity of the ‘vaccines’ is very limited. Moreover, it strongly suggests that getting boosted will leave an individual vulnerable to the new Nu variant.

In contrast to vaccine-induced immunity, no increased risk for reinfection with Beta, Gamma or Delta variants relative to Alpha variant was found in individuals with infection-induced immunity.

Now, the New (G)Nu.

As usual, you need to read between the lines a bit to get past the hair’s on fire rhetoric. Here’s what my understanding. The New (G)Nu, like the Dread Delta, is more contagious— but less deadly—than Covid Classic—it’s the normal evolutionary pattern for respiratory viruses. The experimental injections will provide little if any protection—as before.

Here are some excerpts:

EU Declares "Nu" A "Variant Of Concern", WHO Calls Emergency Meeting
The new strain doesn't have an official name yet, but scientists first confirmed the apparently fast-spreading variant in South Africa. They say it is highly contagious, and shows signs that it might be able to easily overpower vaccines.

Pfizer CEO Warns New Vaccine To Combat Heavily-Mutated Coronavirus Could Take 100 Days
… it could take Pfizer, BioNTech upwards of 100 days to develop a new vaccine to combat Nu.
… the next few weeks of testing would be essential to determine whether Nu is more aggressive than Delta.

“Aggressive”, because that’s scarier than the more clinical “contagious”.

Now, an edited summary of what’s maybe known, via Zerohedge—who got it from CitiBank. However, I’ll point out what’s definitely known, and has been for a long time: Vaxxing into the face of an epidemic disease insures the rapid development of new variants. It’s happening just as known experts predicted. Also, the so-called vaxxes don’t protect against the virus as such, but only against the Spike Protein—but at great cost and danger to those injected.

A Scared Nu World: Here's What We Know About The New COVID Strain

Background
Regarded as the most heavily mutated variant of the Coronavirus, thus far, as it has 32 mutations in the spike protein and 50 overall. More specifically, scientists have highlighted that there are 10 mutations vs 2 in the Delta variant regarding the receptor binding domain, which is the portion of the virus that makes initial contact with cells.
That said, as we cautioned last night, a significant number of mutations may not necessarily be a ‘negative’ as it is dependent on how these mutations function, which scientists are yet to establish. Then again, since it is the job of science to fearmonger so that Pfizer can buy an even bigger yacht, assume it will be "very very horrifying" until proven innocuous.
Is it more deadly
It is currently too early to determine if the new variant has higher mortality than previous variants. Reported cases only started rising in South Africa on 19 November, so any impact on hospitalizations and COVID-related deaths will not have yet emerged.

However, the known pattern of viral evolution is easily summarized: More transmissible, less deadly.

Testing and Detectability
Tulio de Oliveria, the Director of the Centre for Epidemic Response & innovation (CERI), South Africa, has written that the variant can be detected by a normal PCR test and as such it will be "easy for the world to track it". It wasn't immediately clear if this is one of those "excess false positive PCR tests" but it's safe to assume for now that it is.
How widespread is it

Transmission
Oliveria, explains that the new variant is spreading very quickly, in under two-weeks it is now dominating all infections in South Africa following the Delta waves domination – writing that it the variant is “now at 75% of last genomes and soon to reach 100%”.
Additionally, the virus contains mutations that have been seen in other variants and appear to make transmission easier.

This is classic epidemiology. New vaccine-induced variants take over the disease landscape and earlier variants fade. The focus of the mutations in the new variants is to make the variant more transmissible, rather than more deadly, because transmissibility is the key to viral evolutionary success.

Vaccines
It is too early to accurately determine the vaccine response to the new variant. However, the significant number of variants increase the likelihood that current vaccines, which were designed with the original COVID-19 strain in mind, may be less effective.

Duh! Which is why it’s foolish to vax into the face of an epidemic disease.

New Vaccine Would be Available in 100 days

Which means that the new variant will be everywhere by then. The notion that scientists can win a game of whack-a-mole against a highly transmissible respiratory virus is simply absurd.