Greetings from Boston, Mass. We decided to stay an extra day after my son's football game on Saturday and avoid flying out on Sunday to avoid the Thanksgiving rush of travelers. Some observations about Covid in Mass. as I sit here in the airport waiting for my plane to board:

1. Mask wearing in Boston, both indoors and outdoors, is a very high percentage. I will admit to wearing one outside on Saturday to keep my face warm, but I did not wear one on Boston College's campus (very pretty campus by the way) or at the football game on Saturday.
2. Masks are must be worn on all public transportation and in train stations. We traveled the city on the subway all weekend, so I had to wear a mask a large percentage of the time. Interestingly, some college aged girls got on our train to BC on Saturday morning and two did not have on masks. The subway driver STOPPED the train and demanded the girls put on masks before the trip would continue.
3. Of course in Uber's and airports, masks must also be warn and in the airports, both going and coming, I have seen 100% compliance and no unruly passengers.
4. For the Wake/BC game on Saturday, we had to present proof of vaccination or a negative test in the past 72 hours (what a waste of time that is) to enter the stadium. We had to go to special tents and present our vaccination cards and were given a wrist ban that showed we passed the screening. We had to do the same thing at Syracuse earlier this year, but that is an indoor stadium. BC plays outdoors and the wind was blowing the entire game. I would estimate my risk of Covid while outside in the wind at something approaching zero - regardless of vaccination status.
5. On the local news this morning, they said Mass. is implementing a statewide ban on elective surgeries and it starts in the next day. I understand NYC has just done something similar. Why? Apparently, hospital cases are increasing and they are afraid of the new South African variant.
6. On the CBS morning news yesterday, The Elf (Lord Fauci to everyone else) said you can not criticize him, since he is science and to criticize him is to criticize science. Apparently, The Elf has forgotten all he has learned about the scientific method and scientific inquiry. If The Elf is Science and you can not criticize him, Science as we know it is dead.
7. On the South African variant, reports I have read for the past couple of days out of South Africa indicate cases are mild and most cases are among the unvaccinated. Armed with this information, the mainstream media have chosen to whip up fear in people again, all in the name of clicks and viewer eyeballs. As I posted the other day - please avoid listening to the talking heads and "experts" in the mainstream media who only want to peddle in fear. They are not your friends and they do NOT have your best interests at heart.
8. I saw a report this morning that the new South African variant has been detected in Australia. Let that sink in for a minute. A country that has been locked down for almost 20 months, has people confined to their house most of the time, and are arresting people who violate the rules is unable to stop a new variant from entering their population.
9. We really need to get the Novavax vaccine approved. In a world where our two best vaccines rely on immunity driven by a spike protein mRNA strand to be effective, we need another choice. As I previously indicated, I am waiting on this vaccine from my booster, since I want more of a broad-spectrum approach to my vaccines. It does not target the more easily mutating spike protein mRNA. Instead, it is developed to target the viruses cellular bodies genetic make-up. As I mentioned earlier, it appears to be 90% effective against all known variants.

I will leave you with this little statistic this morning on the over-reaction taking place in the Northeast of the US.

Gov Cuomo demanded NYC hospitals halt elective surgeries to preserve beds in Dec of 2020 when the hospitalization rate was about 230 per day, before the vax & widespread treatments

Gov Hochul halted elective surgeries while our hospitalization rate is now at abt 30 per day. Why?

— Joe Borelli (@JoeBorelliNYC) November 28, 2021

I know you are avoiding making the obvious statement about our corrupt national media. They only call out comments and positions from the opposing political team. I guess the only way to end their reign of terror is to ignore them. I have been doing precisely that since Obama started his 2nd term.

When you’re on Fox vs when you’re on CNN pic.twitter.com/miHJTbEMzY

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 29, 2021

This is so sad. We are all being played…

WPNfamily said:

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When you’re on Fox vs when you’re on CNN pic.twitter.com/miHJTbEMzY

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 29, 2021

This is so sad. We are all being played…

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Looks like that was from the same day as she is wearing the same shirt. You all may despise Majorie Taylor Green; but, she appears to be someone that is consistent with the message! At this point, we need more MTG's than this lady from S.C.!!!

That right there is why I hate all Republican and Democrat politicians. An absolute joke the lot of them are.

wilmwolf80 said:

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It's weird to me that we live in a time when every single thing anyone says is preserved forever and ever, yet we seem to have less accountability than ever before. At the very least, the people in charge should be forced to acknowledge that they have flip flopped on an issue and explain why. Of course, we know the why is mostly because a position was politically convenient at the time, but they should at least be held accountable to acknowledge that.

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Because we live in a time where information is instantaneous, people don't care to look back as something new is about to happen!

Accountability is NOT a word used and/or believed in Government!!! How can it be? 28T in debt and 10T on the Federal Reserves balance sheet!

PackFansXL said:

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I know you are avoiding making the obvious statement about our corrupt national media. They only call out comments and positions from the opposing political team. I guess the only way to end their reign of terror is to ignore them. I have been doing precisely that since Obama started his 2nd term.

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Well, in the case of statements by the president, he won't actually take questions from the media, so there's really no way they can call him out on it. But for everyone else, yes, it would be nice if there was someone willing to ask the tough questions no matter what team the person in question was on.

Daviewolf83 said:

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Mormad said:

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I thought our useless President determined during the campaign that travel bans implemented by Trump were "racist."

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Apparently, they are only "racist" if the other guy is doing it. The WHO has denounced Biden's travel ban and as we know, they are quite ineffective. By the time you identify a variant, it is likely too late.

I love the picture of Biden on Nantucket this weekend, in a store with a mask sign on the door and he is not wearing a mask. He would make up the less then 1% of people I saw this weekend in a store in Boston that would not be wearing a mask. Everyone here is wearing a mask indoors - except in restaurants.

Rules for thee and not for me.

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And yet, all that mask conformity can't seem to stop influenza from rampaging on BC's campus.

wilmwolf80 said:

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PackFansXL said:

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I know you are avoiding making the obvious statement about our corrupt national media. They only call out comments and positions from the opposing political team. I guess the only way to end their reign of terror is to ignore them. I have been doing precisely that since Obama started his 2nd term.

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Well, in the case of statements by the president, he won't actually take questions from the media, so there's really no way they can call him out on it. But for everyone else, yes, it would be nice if there was someone willing to ask the tough questions no matter what team the person in question was on.

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I disagree with the bolded part. Editorials on perceptions of dishonesty and poor decision making are often crammed down reader's and watcher's throats by the media when the politician has the "wrong" ideology. They always spin a narrative that they hammer home 24/7 to support the approved ideology. Truth be damned. I place a large chunk of the blame for our polarized politics on biased media.

CDC now saying all people 18 and over ought to get a booster shot in advance of Omicron. All medical opinions I've heard on radio and TV are supporting this. The good news, maybe, is that I heard a recent report stating that Omicron may not be worse than existing variants in terms of physical effects. But there is uncertainty about strain specifics at this point.

dogplasma said:

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CDC now saying all people 18 and over ought to get a booster shot in advance of Omicron. All medical opinions I've heard on radio and TV are supporting this. The good news, maybe, is that I heard a recent report stating that Omicron may not be worse than existing variants in terms of physical effects. But there is uncertainty about strain specifics at this point.

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Why should all adults get boosters? There is certainly a ton of people that disagree. You should probably expand your search because I can assure you all medical opinions do not agree.

'We don't know anything about the new variant.'

'We are immediately starting work on an omicron specific mRNA vax bc we don't know'

'We definitely know a healthy 18-year-old boy who got two doses of moderna should get the third dose of the original vax w/o safety data' 🤦

🤦 https://t.co/tJ6ZRpmzhp

— Vinay Prasad, MD MPH 🎙️📷 (@VPrasadMDMPH) November 29, 2021

I read that tweet in its entirety. The CDC should be required to back up their recommendations to the public with solid reasoning for those recommendations. It is not enough to just say "trust us" even ten years ago when the public was unaware of the politicization of the CDC, and it certainly isn't now.

dogplasma said:

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CDC now saying all people 18 and over ought to get a booster shot in advance of Omicron. All medical opinions I've heard on radio and TV are supporting this. The good news, maybe, is that I heard a recent report stating that Omicron may not be worse than existing variants in terms of physical effects. But there is uncertainty about strain specifics at this point.

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If they want me to get boosted, they better approve the Novavax vaccine with the same speed as the previous vaccines. I am not getting the mRNA vaccines, since I believe they are not as good as Novavax. Novavax has the potential to be more successful against variants long-term than the mRNA vaccines.

wilmwolf80 said:

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If the symptoms are as stated for this variant, I wonder why people are getting tested? If I took a covid test every time I was tired and had muscle aches, I would take one every day. I get that people want to know for their safety and the safety of others, it's just interesting to me how they are discovering they have it if the symptoms are so mild.

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I had a cold or allergies a week ago. Felt fine, except for a drippy nose and watery eyes for six days. No reason at all to get tested for what was either a very mild cold or allergies. I have allergies every year at this time, so I saw zero reason to get tested.

Preach.

Wayland said:

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"All cases for which there is information available on severity were either asymptomatic or had mild symptoms. So far, no severe cases or deaths have been reported among these cases." #Omicron https://t.co/wibgcYxxev

— Anthony LaMesa (@ajlamesa) November 30, 2021

Quote:

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Cases have been reported in nine countries and territories outside of the EU/EEA (Australia, Botswana, Canada, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Israel, Japan, South Africa, Switzerland and the United Kingdom).

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Cases are already everywhere... Asia, Europe, Africa, NA, AUSTRALIA.

Stop the useless travel bans and panic.

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This is what we want from a virus. It evolves to become more transmittable and much less severe. As I have said before, it is in virus's best interest to not be so severe that the host is incapacitated or dies. If it is less severe, it has a greater chance of long-term success.

I agree on travel bans. They are used by politicians and health policy advisors, so they appear to be "doing something", but their "doing something" is basically ineffective.

As I posted yesterday, Australia is an interesting case. Severely locked down country. Arresting people who violate the Covid rules. Limited travel to the country and only with negative tests. They have reported the new variant. As the Borg say - "Resistance is futile."

There was no search - just what I heard reported the other day via radio and TV. I don't doubt you've found other opinions out there on the internet. But this is what some prominent medical people and the CDC are saying. Not wishing to get into a pointless booster debate - just sharing news and maybe stirring the Covid thread pot a little.

It isn't due to Omicron, but this morning Michigan, Vermont and New Hampshire are all at the highest levels of confirmed hospitalizations they've been at any point in the pandemic. New York is the highest they've been since April.

— Kyle Lamb (@kylamb8) November 30, 2021

dogplasma said:

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There was no search - just what I heard reported the other day via radio and TV. I don't doubt you've found other opinions out there on the internet. But this is what some prominent medical people and the CDC are saying. Not wishing to get into a pointless booster debate - just sharing news and maybe stirring the Covid thread pot a little.

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Ahhh ok. The propaganda that all adults should get a booster for the new variant is nonsense. Unfortunate the damage the cdc and prominent medical people have done to their reputation throughout this pandemic. They depend on the covid religious to heed their warnings and shout down those whose eyes are opened.

Is this true?

Moderna and Johnson and Johnson haven't been FDA approved. That and liability are why Pfizer won't produce the FDA approved vaccine and only produces the Emergency Vaccine. Once they supply an FDA approved product as a Covid19 vaccine, then we must stop using Moderna and Johnson and Johnson under the emergency use authorization. It is illegal to prescribe a product for Emergency Use if there is an FDA approved drug available. The truth is that Biden wanted so bad to sell the "safe and effective" line that they rushed FDA approval specifically for the purpose of Biden being to justify his mandates with an FDA approved vaccine, even though the approved Comirnaty vaccine is not in production.

Breaking News: Dr. Mandy Cohen, DHHS secretary and NC's guide during the COVID-19 pandemic, stepping down at year's end https://t.co/vb64iVpEfo

— WRAL NEWS in NC (@WRAL) November 30, 2021

More from one of my favorite people to follow on Twitter regarding the Omicron variant. Please try to avoid the scary headlines meant to draw your attention and sell ads.

Some things to please keep in mind today:
•There is NO data available yet regarding vaccine efficacy and Omicron. What you are hearing is speculation right now. That’s it.
•Breakthrough infections DO NOT mean vaccines “don’t work.”
•DO NOT wait for variant specific boosters-

— Chise 🧬🧫🦠💉🔜 MFF (@sailorrooscout) November 30, 2021