#270 What Have We Learned from the Pandemic?

The coronavirus will increase your risk of death at any age by about 30%. So, in other words, you're unlikely to die if you're a young person when you get coronavirus ... But your low probability will be upped by about 30% should you get infected with coronavirus. And that is a nasty thing to happen.

I'm quite confident about this—that the immunity conferred by two doses of a mRNA vaccine is superior to the immunity conferred by having survived a natural infection.

That's how you can think about the vaccine. It's like an airbag. If you're exposed to the virus, if you're infected with the virus, it will reduce your chance of serious illness by 95%. Not 100%; you still could die, even if you're vaccinated. But it is a really strong line of defense. It's like a seatbelt or an airbag.

If you're hospitalized with coronavirus—if you're 20 or 40 or 60 or 80—your risk of death is higher than if you had a heart attack. In other words, whatever age you are being hospitalized for coronavirus is significantly more deadly than being hospitalized for a heart attack.

Unless you're a hermit that lives on a mountaintop or unless you're exceedingly lucky, everybody on the planet will either be infected by the virus or will be vaccinated. Those are your choices. If you're infected with the virus, you face a 1 out of 100 risk of death from the virus. If you are given the vaccine, you face a 1-in-a-million or less chance of death from the vaccine. This is a no-brainer as far as I'm concerned about which of those two choices to make.

We've done so many trials of ivermectin now. Yes, there's some that hint that it may have some effect.... but not at the doses we would give people ... The body of the evidence shows that Ivermectin is not useful.

In order to acquire the natural immunity, let's not forget, you have to survive; you have to run the risk of death. And this is, in my opinion, just stupid ... Even if you believe that the natural immunity is superior to the vaccine immunity, it is not wise to seek to acquire it by natural infection because you have to survive. You run the risk of death in order to be in that state.

Tens of millions of people, at least, believe that our entire response to COVID, basically everything we've done for the last 18 months or so, has had the ulterior purpose of increasing social control.

On the boosters, I think if you've had two shots, you should get a booster. I got my booster. I think that's quite sensible. There's evidence that it will be helpful, including against Omicron.

Everyone's... eventually going to be exposed to COVID-19. You personally have a choice about whether you should be exposed having been vaccinated or not vaccinated. And we know that you're running a 10x or more greater risk of death or serious complication if you're unvaccinated. And yet, many people are making this choice.

Nearly 1 million will probably die from [COVID-19] in the end ... When the dust settles, the excess deaths will be a million of our fellow citizens will have died.