[ExI] conspiracy theories, was: RE: Satoshi

[Keith Henson]

On Tue, Aug 11, 2026 at 3:28 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
>
> *From:* John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, 11 August, 2026 12:42 PM
> *To:* spike at rainier66.com
> *Cc:* ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> *Subject:* Re: [ExI] conspiracy theories, was: RE: Satoshi
>
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> *We were told the vaccine was safe and effective.*
>

It is/was. The people who got the vaccine were substantially less likely to
die if they got COVID-19. The vaccine was disappointing, not because of the
vaccine, but because of human immune systems and the virus. It could have
turned out like measles where getting either the disease or the vaccine
made you immune for life. Didn't work out that way, the immunity faded
fairly quickly like cold viruses but it still made a difference even after
that. Re saft, no vaccine is entirely without risk. Smallpox vaccine
(cowpox) kills about one in a million. At one point in the last 30 years
the US was considering vaciating everyone for smallpox. They didn't partly
because of this problem though a pilot program vaccinated a modest number
of medical people.

Another big factor was the virus evolved to evade immunity. That is a saga
in itself. They think one of the versions evolved in South Africa in
someone who had a persistent co-infection of COVID and HIV. Turned out to
be way more infectious, but much less lethal than the first version. We
were lucky it didn't become more lethal.

It is possible you need to read up on the subject. I was first exposed to
this subject in the 4th grade. The school library had a copy of _Microbe
Hunters_. Way old, but still a good background.

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> *>…And he mentioned this at a time when hundreds of Americans were dying
> from Covid EVERY DAY and 20 times that number we're getting very sick from
> it. And there's nothing theoretical about it, it's a fact that a pregnant
> woman getting Covid increases her risk of having a miscarriage.*
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> *John K Clark*
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> *Ja, and that argument presumes the vaccine was effective in stopping the
> virus.  I see little evidence it did much.  Maybe a little, short term
> benefit.*
>

Spike, that's utter nonsense. I followed the pandemic in real time. It made
a huge difference in mortality rates, like reducing your chances of dying
by a factor of perhaps ten to be vaccinated.

*What I think really happened there is Dr. Fauci was blinded by the
> possibility that modern medicine was finally getting an effective weapon
> against viruses.  We figured out how to extract mRNA from a virus,*
>
* we could concentrate it, perhaps injecting it into healthy people would
> alert the immune system to recognize and fight the virus sooner.  The
> theory seems sound enough.  But it didn’t work as well as I would have
> thought.*
>
>
That's how all vaccines work, though it is not concentrated, sometimes
diluted, sometimes killed, sometimes weakened. The original polio vaccine
was killed, the later one was weakened. Read Microbe Hunters for how they
made a rabies vaccine/treatment.

I happen to be an engineer, but I have had an interest in biology for
decades and understand this stuff fairly well. One of the things they
figured out in the aftermath was the value of dexamethasone in acute Covid
cases.
Keith

> *spike*
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