Supreme Imbecility on CMS Vax Mandate

 

Government statistics show that 90.5% of US citizens from age 65 to 74 have been fully vaccinated, and 100% have received at least one shot. For citizens 74 and above, 99.05% have had at least one shot and 84% are fully vaccinated. So, if those who have had one shot get the second shot within the month, then by mid-February close to 100% of Medicare beneficiaries will have been fully vaccinated. Yet the Supreme Court agrees that CMS should mandate vaccines for employees of institutions that receive Medicare funds,  at the penalty of losing their jobs, in order to protect the Medicare beneficiaries admitted to those facilities. If all of the Medicare beneficiaries are vaccinated, how is this not a complete admission that the vaccines don’t work?

Clearly, the vaccines do not prevent infection with or transmission of COVID. So, vaccinating employees of these institutions will not protect the Medicare beneficiaries admitted to those facilities. Some evidence (like the huge spike in COVID infections on Gibralter as soon as the population had been fully vaccinated, whereas before vaccination, COVID cases were very few on the island) suggests that vaccination enhances the risk of infection and transmission.

So the Supreme Court has given its imprimatur to a (unconstitutional) mandate that does not and cannot work to achieve the stated goal of the mandate (stop the spread of COVID and protect those covered by CMS). Indeed that mandate may not be just neutral, but actively harmful and induce the very problem the mandate is meant to prevent.

This of course overturns Jacobson v. Massachusetts, which required that the mandated vaccines actually work to prevent contracting and spreading the contagion. So, one can conclude that such a requirement for efficacy of a mandated measure for public health purposes no longer holds. Any old thing can be mandated, whether effective or not, whether related to the problem to be addressed or not, whether there is a problem or not (not to mention that Jacobson v. Massachusetts concerned state, not federal, authority).

I conclude (I suspect Ricochetti, and everyone else, will disagree) that there no longer exists in federal law any constraint whatsoever on federal mandates for public health and safety purposes when the federal government provides money to those mandated. In upholding the CMS mandate (or at least ending the stays on that policy … indicating that the Court thinks there is a good likelihood that CMS will prevail. as they say, ‘on the merits’) the Supreme Court has left the realm of reality. We are now in unchartered waters.

Will CMS mandate that facilities that receive CMS funds give the flu shot to all of their employees, with a penalty of loss of job for noncompliance? Will they mandate pneumonia vaccines, shingles vaccines, meningitis vaccines? Hospitals already require annual TB testing for employees, and Hep B vaccination. And Universal Precautions. What else might they mandate for these facilities?  Continuous glucose monitoring for employees with diabetes, to assure that personnel do not compromise patient safety by suffering hypoglycemic episodes? Annual cardiac caths, or imaging stress tests, to assure that employees do not have a risk for acute myocardial infarction that might compromise patient safety? Periodic carotid ultrasounds? Or daily home sleep monitoring for all employees to assure that they get seven to nine hours of sleep so they are not sleep-deprived and at risk for making medication errors on the wards or procedural errors in the operating room? Breathalyzer tests for all employees several times a day to assure no alcohol consumption before or during work hours that might compromise performance? Maybe no tryptophan in any foods in the cafeteria to assure no excess drowsiness after lunch?

The benefit, if any, of the vaccines is to provide a measure of personal protection from severe illness, hospitalization, or death from COVID. So if CMS were actually concerned about the health and safety of their beneficiaries, they would mandate the vaccine FOR THE BENEFICIARIES, not the hospital employees who take of them (who may be younger and at very low risk for severe disease or death, pregnancy, already immune from prior infection). But that horse is out of the barn, given that an extremely high percentage of beneficiaries have been vaccinated.

If Medicare beneficiaries were vaccine-hesitant (and they don’t seem to be at all), one might envision being treated to a reprise of Dan Rostenkowski being chased down the street and beaten by little old ladies with their umbrellas for messing with their Medicare benefits. Third-rail issues, as they say. But does firing those health care workers who refuse vaccination, worsening the existing shortage of such workers, and likely thereby worsening the care Medicare beneficiaries receive, or even limiting their access to care, solve the problem of safety and health that CMS thinks that it is addressing? Of course not. Yet, this is what the Supreme Court is allowing.

When Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr, opined that “…three generations of imbeciles are enough” he unfortunately was not referring to Supreme Court Justices. We will have those with us forever.

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  1. Headedwest Coolidge
    Headedwest
    @Headedwest

    MarciN (View Comment):

    I think Moderna and Pfizer wanted a magic bullet vaccine. I think the developers were hoping to have one when they were done. That’s the other side of this labeling issue. In their minds, that’s what they were working to achieve. They were not able to do that, but that’s how the project was framed in their minds.

    Again, I think that is completely forgivable.

    Not by me.

     

    • #31
  2. Nanocelt TheContrarian Member
    Nanocelt TheContrarian
    @NanoceltTheContrarian

    MarciN (View Comment):

    I think Moderna and Pfizer wanted a magic bullet vaccine. I think the developers were hoping to have one when they were done. That’s the other side of this labeling issue. In their minds, that’s what they were working to achieve. They were not able to do that, but that’s how the project was framed in their minds.

    Again, I think that is completely forgivable.

     

    The vaccine makers were primed with mRNA technology just waiting for something like COVID to come along to enhance their bottom lines. In fact they were sure something like COVID WOULD come along. They also knew this was a “cold” virus. As such, they knew, from prior experiments on animals, that vaccines for these viruses could well produce a hyperimmune response that could severely injure or kill the vaccines when exposed to the virus. Further, that those cold viruses mutate rapidly and no vaccine was going to have durable effects, that Pharma could ride forever on the new variants, and push vaccines ad libitum. The vaccine makers knew such a virus was immanent, because such outbreaks with SARS viruses had happened before, DUE TO LAB LEAKS OF PATHOGENS FROM CHINESE RESEARCH LABS.   They also knew very well of the gain of function research going on at the Wuhan lab, and that the lab was sure to release a (engineered) coronavirus. Bill Gates had headed exercises among governments and health officials world wide to prepare precisely for such an outbreak. Only they expected it in 2025 rather than 2020. They gamed out scenarios that included problems with the vaccines (hence there was an effort to make sure there was poor tracking of adverse events related to the vaccine). They anticipated vaccine hesitancy, and made plans for vaccine mandates, for social distancing, lockdowns, mask mandates, and etc. They planned to over ride civil rights and establish dictatorial measures, to contain the masses, if not utterly control the world population. Part of their game plan was the culling of the human population, which, by consensus of the elites, was and is considered too large. This was coordinated internationally  mostly by Bill Gates, Fauci, and those in the US government (such as Kadlec) who have a “biosecurity” perspective, and are pushing bioweapons development via claims of biosecurity and defense. So this was all well understood in advance. IN effect, we have all been played, by Fauci, by Gates, by our government, by our intelligence agencies, NIH, HHS, CDC, WHO, and etc, and etc.. And the Pharma companies have made out like ultimate bandits to the tune of to hundreds of billions of dollars, as have people like Fauci and Gates and their acolytes and minions.

    For reference, see Robert F.. Kennedy, Jr’s book, The Real Dr. Fauci.  While he makes some outrageous assertions in that book, he documents his perspective pretty well. And  is quite credible. I recommend it. 

    And masks don’t work either. Nor does social distancing. Nor lockdowns. 

    • #32
  3. Nanocelt TheContrarian Member
    Nanocelt TheContrarian
    @NanoceltTheContrarian

    Richard Easton (View Comment):

    Nanocelt TheContrarian (View Comment):

    Richard Easton (View Comment):

    I realize this is not your main point, but I doubt that 100% of Americans age 65-74 have had at least one shot. What’s your source for this?

    Current government data. Although different data sets vary. At Data.CDC.gov, the percent of 65 to 74 age that have been received 1 shot is listed as 95% rather than 100%. Other values at that site are the same as quoted. These cohorts are, quite reasonably, the most vaccinated cohorts. If the vaccines worked, they would be the most protected. These are the cohorts that have the most to gain and the least to lose. Although I will concede two thing to the Supreme Court: the vaccines are likely the least effective in these cohorts, due to the number of comorbidities as one gets older. Second, the vaccines really don’t work. In my view, they are marginally useful in accomplishing the stated goal of CMS to protect beneficiaries admitted to healthcare facilities. Still in all, I have a very low opinion of the Supreme Court Justices who voted to allow the CMS mandate to proceed. I think it is highly counterproductive. But then like Dennis Miller, that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.

    I’m in your 65-74 group and am not vaccinated. African Americans in general are skeptical of the jab. If memory serves, about 40% of them have had it in NYC (all ages). They comprise at least 10% of the 65-74 population. I wonder if anyone has audited the CDC numbers. Given its dreadful record in the pandemic, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was fudging the numbers.

    IN my experience, my African American patients are not vaccine hesitant at all. My non African American patients seem more vaccine resistant, but in the 65 and up cohort, both African American and non African American patients seem aggressively interested in vaccination, and virtually all of them have been. But, that is a very small sample size. And, as you say, the CDC is no longer reliable at all. So that does undermine my points. 

    If you do get COVID, have some ivermectin handy (I use 200 mcg per kg, given in 2 doses over 3 days). And get the GSK monoclonal antibody if you can. I am also in the 65-74 age group, have been vaccinated (Moderna, in Jan and Feb 2021), and just got over COVID ( I assume the Omicron variant, as I had what I thought was a mild cold). I took ivermectin, zithromax, and 10 mg of Prednisone for 5 days, (I think I overtreated myself–I have a quack for a physician and a fool for a patient) and was good to go.  I couldn’t get the monoclonal antibodies. The NIH had just announced a moratorium on the use of the Lily and Regeneron monoclonals, and GSK wasn’t available in my area. 

    • #33
  4. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Nanocelt TheContrarian (View Comment):

    MarciN (View Comment):

    Again, I think that is completely forgivable.

     

    The vaccine makers were primed with mRNA technology just waiting for something like COVID to come along to enhance their bottom lines. In fact they were sure something like COVID WOULD come along. They also knew this was a “cold” virus. As such, they knew, from prior experiments on animals, that vaccines for these viruses could well produce a hyperimmune response that could severely injure or kill the vaccines when exposed to the virus. Further, that those cold viruses mutate rapidly and no vaccine was going to have durable effects, that Pharma could ride forever on the new variants, and push vaccines ad libitum. The vaccine makers knew such a virus was immanent, because such outbreaks with SARS viruses had happened before, DUE TO LAB LEAKS OF PATHOGENS FROM CHINESE RESEARCH LABS. They also knew very well of the gain of function research going on at the Wuhan lab, and that the lab was sure to release a (engineered) coronavirus. Bill Gates had headed exercises among governments and health officials world wide to prepare precisely for such an outbreak. Only they expected it in 2025 rather than 2020. They gamed out scenarios that included problems with the vaccines (hence there was an effort to make sure there was poor tracking of adverse events related to the vaccine). They anticipated vaccine hesitancy, and made plans for vaccine mandates, for social distancing, lockdowns, mask mandates, and etc. They planned to over ride civil rights and establish dictatorial measures, to contain the masses, if not utterly control the world population. Part of their game plan was the culling of the human population, which, by consensus of the elites, was and is considered too large. This was coordinated internationally mostly by Bill Gates, Fauci, and those in the US government (such as Kadlec) who have a “biosecurity” perspective, and are pushing bioweapons development via claims of biosecurity and defense. So this was all well understood in advance. IN effect, we have all been played, by Fauci, by Gates, by our government, by our intelligence agencies, NIH, HHS, CDC, WHO, and etc, and etc.. And the Pharma companies have made out like ultimate bandits to the tune of to hundreds of billions of dollars, as have people like Fauci and Gates and their acolytes and minions.

    For reference, see Robert F.. Kennedy, Jr’s book, The Real Dr. Fauci. While he makes some outrageous assertions in that book, he documents his perspective pretty well. And is quite credible. I recommend it.

    And masks don’t work either. Nor does social distancing. Nor lockdowns.

    I haven’t read Kennedy’s book but this is exactly what I understood from reading articles, and from the writings and videoed interviews of the pro-covid leaders.  This is all a world-changing scam, and the people who think this is just an incompetent response to an accidental pandemic are being misled.

    • #34
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