Coronavirus week 89 - Robert Malone and Omicron

Both Atlantic and Orac tackle Robert W. Malone's quackery in detail. The Atlantic piece nails part of his silliness besides being butt-hurt over not being called "the inventor of mRNA vaccines." He got COVID in early 2020 and developed long-haul COVID. He took a Moderna shot hoping it would alleviate his symptoms, Atlantic explains. Uhh, that's not how vaccines work, and that's why MDs without a PhD aren't really scientists. I've tackled him before in another roundup.

The latest Atlantic piece from Ed Yang claims some of the Omicron best-case scenarios are partially off the table. We'll see. Sarah Zhang, also there, largely agrees. Zhang engages in basic exponential reasoning about its greater transmission rate, while ignoring that it will hit a wall of already infected and-or vaccinated people soon enough. Yasmin Tayag, who I've called out on these pages before, for thinking that most people are rational actors, then for attacking vax mandates even though people aren't rational actors, also gets on the alarmist train, but not quite so severely.

Dave Leonhardt, who two months ago said it was time to start transitioning back to normal, now talks about Omicron threatening Red America.

The Trib takes the first look at Omicron in Texas.

Now that the Sixth Circuit has upheld Biden's large-biz vax mandate (which is NOT that, though everybody calls it that; it's a vax-or-test mandate) the plaintiff-losers want emergency SCOTUS help.