Last year was a year like no other in my lifetime; perhaps in no one’s lifetime since the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. I lost my maternal grandmother in that one, so I’ve heard a lot about it. It infected 500 million in the world, about one third of the world’s population at that time. Death counts for that flu vary from between 17 million and 50 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.

That was over a hundred years ago and modern medicine has come a long way since then. Today, we have antibiotics to treat the pneumonia that so often complicates influenza. We have much finer critical care units with sophisticated equipment and better trained doctors and nurses. This puts us in much better shape to handle a pandemic, but misinformation has often stymied attempts to control the spread of the virus and led to unprecedented economic harm.

Dr. Scott W. Atlas, of the Hoover Institute at Stanford, served from August through November as a special adviser to the Corona Task Force of President Trump. He says, “the politicization of the pandemic has made things worse by adding misinformation and vitriol to the mix. With vaccines finally being administered, we should be entering a joyous phase. Instead we endure still more inflammatory rhetoric and media distortion.”

Atlas says Americans need to understand three realities:

• First – All 50 states independently directed and implemented their own pandemic policies. In every case, governors and local officials were responsible for on-the- ground choices – every business limit, school closing, shelter-in-place order and mask requirement. No policy on any of these issues was set by the federal government, except those involving federal property and employees.

• Second – Nearly all states used the same draconian policies that people now insist on hardening, even though the number of positive cases increased while people’s movements were constrained, business activities were strictly limited, and schools were closed. Governors in all but a few states – Florida and South Dakota are notable exceptions – imposed curfews, quarantines, directives on group gatherings, and mask mandates.

Gallup and YouGov data show that 80 – 90% of Americans have been wearing masks since early August. Lockdown policies had horrendous impacts on local economies, families and children, and the virus spread anyway. Those who promote more lockdowns are ignoring these results.

• Third – The federal government’s role in the pandemic has been grossly mischaracterized by the media and their Democratic allies. That distortion has obscured several significant successes, while undermining the confidence of ordinary Americans. Federal financial support and directives enabled the development of a massive, state-of-the -art testing capacity and produced billions of dollars of personal protective equipment. Federal agencies met all requests for supplemental medical personnel and hospital-bed capacity.

The federal government also expedited development and delivery of lifesaving drugs, such as novel antibody treatments that reduce hospitalizations of high-risk elderly by more than 70%. According to HHS, more than 200,000 doses of these monoclonal-antibody drugs have been delivered to hospitals in all 50 states. Under Operation Warp Speed, the federal government took nearly all the risk away from private pharmaceutical companies and delivered highly effective vaccines, hitting all promised timelines.

President-elect Biden has warned that more lockdowns may be necessary. Bill Gates has called for lockdowns for another six months. Dr. Anthony Fauci has suggested lockdowns may be needed until more people are vaccinated. Yet empirical data from the U.S., Europe, and Japan show that lockdowns don’t eliminate the virus and don’t stop the virus from spreading. They do, however, create extremely harmful health and social problems beyond a dramatic drop in learning, including a tripling of reported depression, skyrocketing suicidal ideation, unreported child abuse, skipped visits for cancer and other medical care.

Stanford’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya says, “For younger people, the lockdowns are so harmful, so deadly, there’s really no good justification, especially when considering their extremely low risk from Covid-19.” (see Covid Update Simplifies Strategy).

Dr. Atlas says, “States and cities that keep their economies locked down after highly vulnerable populations have been vaccinated will be doubling down on failed policies that are destroying families and sacrificing children, particularly among the working class and poor.”

The real culprit in this pandemic of misinformation is the media. Atlas says, “The media has done its best to misinform the public with political attacks about who is to blame for this pain and misery even as it diminishes the great achievement of the new vaccines. The decline of objectivity in journalism has been evident for years. Now we see that even respected scientific journals, which are supposed to vet and publish the best objective research, have been contaminated by politics. Social media has become the arbiter of allowable discussion, while universities intimidate and suppress the free exchange of ideas necessary to uncover scientific truths.”

I couldn’t have said it better, myself. This same conclusion was reached by Dr. Marc Siegel in his recently published book Covid: The Politics of Fear and the Power of Science. For more on this see my recent post The Political Discreditation of Hydroxychloroquine.

With all the good news about vaccines now available for the Covid-19 virus, what will we worry about next? The answer is “How long will the vaccine immunity last?”

There is good news on that question from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A new study shows Covid-19 patients who recovered from the disease still show robust immunity from the coronavirus eight months after infection. The authors of the study believe immunity to the virus probably will last for many years.

Neel V. Patel, writing in MIT Technology Review, says this should alleviate fears that the Covid-19 vaccine would require repeated booster shots to protect against the disease and finally get the pandemic under control.

“There was a lot of concern originally that this virus might not induce much memory,” says Shane Crotty, a researcher at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in California and a coauthor of the new paper. “Instead, the immune memory looks quite good.” 

The study, published January 6 in Science, contrasts with earlier findings that suggested Covid-19 immunity could be short-lived. Many feared this would put millions who’ve already recovered from the virus still at risk. But the new study suggests reinfection should only be a problem for a very small percentage of people who’ve developed immunity – whether through an initial infection or by vaccination. The few individuals who fail to develop long-lasting immunity will be protected by the development of herd immunity in the larger population.

The study took blood samples from 185 men and women who had recovered from Covid-19. Each person provided at least one blood sample between six days and eight months after their initial symptoms, and 43 of the samples were taken after six months. They also measured the levels of several immunological agents that work together to prevent reinfection: antibodies, B Cells, and T Cells.

The researchers found that antibodies in the body declined moderately after eight months, although levels varied wildly between individuals. But T-Cell numbers declined only modestly, and B-Cell numbers held steady and sometimes inexplicably grew. That means that despite decreases in free-flowing antibodies, the components that can restart antibody production and coordinate an attack against the coronavirus stick around at pretty high levels. The same mechanism that leads to immune memory after infection also forms the basis for immunity after vaccination, so the same trends ought to hold for vaccinated people as well.

There is additional encouragement found in the study of people who have recovered from SARS, a close cousin of the virus that causes Covid-19. A study published in August showed that T-Cells specific to SARS can remain in the blood for at least 17 years, bolstering hopes that Covid-19 immunity could last for decades.

While this is only one study with a limited number of patients, it gives us all much encouragement that immunity from this Covid virus will last, possibly for years. This is great news and should be additional motivation for everyone to get vaccinated

It’s that time of the year when people make New Year’s Resolutions they probably won’t keep. I’ve been guilty of that myself many times, but one time I actually kept my resolution.

In 1998 I made a resolution to read at least two books a month. I’ve kept that resolution for the last 23 years. In that time, I’ve read 966 books. A few of those I read more than once, but that’s still a lot of new reading! I figure that’s time better spent than watching television, especially the news these days.

Here is my top ten books for 2020 in no particular order:

1. Forged in Crisis – Nancy Koehn – This book profiles the lives of five masters of crisis, leaders when leadership was needed most. The five individuals are Ernest Shackleton, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Rachel Carson. If some of these names are unfamiliar, it’s time you got to know them better.
2. Blackett’s War – Stephen Bodiansky – A great read about the submarine warfare during World War II under the leadership of British physicist, Patrick Blackett. He made have had more to do with winning the war than you know.
3. The Nine – Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court – Jeffrey Toobin – A study of the Supreme Court over many years, with revealing insights to the men and women of the highest court in our land. Well worth your time.
4. Googled – Ken Auletta ­- A fascinating read about the formation and growth of one of the largest companies in the world, which is having an increasing influence on our world today. Everyone should know about the inner workings of this information behemoth.
5. Band of Brothers – Stephen Ambrose – I took this book off my shelf and read it again because it is a fascinating account of the men of the 101^st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army that parachuted into Normandy on D-Day, beginning the battle that would eventually lead to the Allied victory over Nazi Germany. The fact that my father was one of those paratroopers is irrelevant to those who want a good read.
6. Hillbilly Elegy – J. D. Vance – This insider account of the life of hillbillies in West Virginia is a terrific read because it gives great insights into a culture most of us will never understand. Vance is remarkable for his ability to rise above his circumstances and achieve success despite the handicaps of this backward society. His life is a testimony to what we can all achieve when we don’t make excuses for our situation, but instead strive to do better.
7. Miracles – Eric Metaxas – Don’t believe in miracles? You’d better read this great review of miracles, past and present. Some day you may experience one, yourself!
8. COVID: The Politics of Fear and the Power of Science – Marc Siegel – This book is remarkable simply because Dr. Siegel managed to get it published! I tried writing about the Covid pandemic and found my work censored by Amazon. Dr. Siegel gives an accurate account of the corona virus pandemic and the political misinformation that contributed to much confusion. Read it while it’s still available!
9. The War on Cops – Heather MacDonald – The truth behind the many falsehoods being promoted by the media concerning police and racial tensions. She has the data that shatters the narrative that is promoted by Black Lives Matter and others who want to keep tensions high in our inner cities.
10. A Practical Guide to Culture – Stonestreet & Kunkle – If you’re over 40, like me, you need this book to understand what’s happening in the younger generations.

You’ve probably noticed there are no fiction books listed. I love fiction books, especially thrillers, because they take my mind off the real world for at least a few hours. Here are a few good fiction books I’ve read in the last year; some new and some old:

1. The Night Fire – Michael Connelly
2. The New Girl – Daniel Silva
3. The Warsaw Protocol – Steve Berry
4. The Guardians – John Grisham
5. The Forgotten – David Baldacci
6. School Days – Robert Parker
7. Beyond Recognition – Riley Pearson
8. Fair Warning – Michael Connelly
9. The Deserter – Nelson DeMille
10. Rainbow Six – Tom Clancy

All of these authors can be relied on for good stories, told by the best of the best fiction writers. That’s it for this past year. Hope you enjoy these and let me know your favorites, too!

P. S. – You might try reading my new book, Changing Healthcare, which can be found by clicking on the link in the sidebar to your left!