Why I’m for Covid vaccines, but against vaccine mandates – Dr. Peter Attia
1–10 of 21 posts
Re: Why I’m for Covid vaccines, but against vaccine mandates – Dr. Peter Attia
#2Sloppily argued. He debates straw men for most of the article before finally getting to the actual reason for vaccine mandates.
"What about mandating vaccines to prevent hospitals from being overrun with COVID cases?"
At this point, he inexplicably argues against vaccine mandates for health workers instead of answering the question. If you can make Covid less likely to result in hospitalization than the flu, as he readily admits the vaccine does, you can make Covid not cause hospitals to be overrun. Then you can open society completely and get all the resulting benefits. The other option is to wait for people to get natural immunity, which will take longer (on top of resulting in more deaths) because letting people get natural immunity at the same time will result in hospitals being overrun, which is what we're trying to avoid. The final option is to wait for Paxlovid availability, which avoids the hospital overrun but still has the disadvantage of needing to wait longer before you can completely open up.
Re: Why I’m for Covid vaccines, but against vaccine mandates – Dr. Peter Attia
#3Sloppily argued. He debates straw men for most of the article before finally getting to the actual reason for vaccine mandates. "What about mandating vaccines to prevent hospitals from being overrun with COVID cases?" At this point, he inexplicably argues against vaccine mandates for health workers instead of answering the question. If you can make Covid less likely to result in hospitalization than the flu, as he re…
I think you are missing the argument.
The point they made was that hospitals would/should have been able to handle the case burden without mandates.
They further argue that hospital mandates have resulted in reduced capacity, due to staffing issues. They claim that hospitals should have accepted prior infection for workers as a valid exemption, and thereby avoided firings and resignations.
Re: Why I’m for Covid vaccines, but against vaccine mandates – Dr. Peter Attia
#4Sloppily argued. He debates straw men for most of the article before finally getting to the actual reason for vaccine mandates. "What about mandating vaccines to prevent hospitals from being overrun with COVID cases?" At this point, he inexplicably argues against vaccine mandates for health workers instead of answering the question. If you can make Covid less likely to result in hospitalization than the flu, as he re…
I think you are missing the argument. The point they made was that hospitals would/should have been able to handle the case burden without mandates. They further argue that hospital mandates have resulted in reduced capacity, due to staffing issues. They claim that hospitals should have accepted prior infection for workers as a valid exemption, and thereby avoided firings and resignations.
He said they should be able to with access to Paxlovid and Molnupiravir, which aren't yet available in sufficient quantity.
> They claim that hospitals should have accepted prior infection for workers as a valid exemption, and thereby avoided firings and resignations.
This is an argument for a modified hospital worker mandate, not an argument against vaccine mandates.
Additionally, the author confuses himself further by listing a patient unable to get care because his doctor refused to see an unvaccinated patient as a harm from mandates. Removing mandates which aren't yet in place does not change who that doctor would see. On the contrary, a mandate would have solved that issue because it would mean that patient would be vaccinated.
Re: Why I’m for Covid vaccines, but against vaccine mandates – Dr. Peter Attia
#5Sloppily argued. He debates straw men for most of the article before finally getting to the actual reason for vaccine mandates. "What about mandating vaccines to prevent hospitals from being overrun with COVID cases?" At this point, he inexplicably argues against vaccine mandates for health workers instead of answering the question. If you can make Covid less likely to result in hospitalization than the flu, as he re…
78% of the people hospitalized with Covid have been obese[1]. Almost half had diabetes. Mandates ignore this, and are therefore not logical. At no point in the pandemic has government included in their messaging the need to lose weight and exercise. It's always an argument of top down control.
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/08/covid-cdc-study-finds-roughl...
Re: Why I’m for Covid vaccines, but against vaccine mandates – Dr. Peter Attia
#6Sloppily argued. He debates straw men for most of the article before finally getting to the actual reason for vaccine mandates. "What about mandating vaccines to prevent hospitals from being overrun with COVID cases?" At this point, he inexplicably argues against vaccine mandates for health workers instead of answering the question. If you can make Covid less likely to result in hospitalization than the flu, as he re…
78% of the people hospitalized with Covid have been obese[1]. Almost half had diabetes. Mandates ignore this, and are therefore not logical. At no point in the pandemic has government included in their messaging the need to lose weight and exercise. It's always an argument of top down control. [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/08/covid-cdc-study-finds-roughl...
The government has always messaged that people should lose weight and exercise, even before the pandemic. It hasn't worked. If you rely on that policy, it will take far longer for society to fully open.
Policies to increase vaccination rates have worked spectacularly. That's why governments use them.
Re: Why I’m for Covid vaccines, but against vaccine mandates – Dr. Peter Attia
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
78% of the people hospitalized with Covid have been obese[1]. Almost half had diabetes. Mandates ignore this, and are therefore not logical. At no point in the pandemic has government included in their messaging the need to lose weight and exercise. It's always an argument of top down control. [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/08/covid-cdc-study-finds-roughl...
The government has always messaged that people should lose weight and exercise, even before the pandemic. It hasn't worked. If you rely on that policy, it will take far longer for society to fully open. Policies to increase vaccination rates have worked spectacularly. That's why governments use them.
>The government has always messaged that people should lose weight and exercise, even before the pandemic.
Before the pandemic, yes. I've heard no messaging about this as it relates to Covid though. In fact, when I saw these stats I didn't believe them since I assumed the CDC would have made a bigger point about the correlation between obesity and diabetes to Covid severity.
Re: Why I’m for Covid vaccines, but against vaccine mandates – Dr. Peter Attia
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
The government has always messaged that people should lose weight and exercise, even before the pandemic. It hasn't worked. If you rely on that policy, it will take far longer for society to fully open. Policies to increase vaccination rates have worked spectacularly. That's why governments use them.
>The government has always messaged that people should lose weight and exercise, even before the pandemic. Before the pandemic, yes. I've heard no messaging about this as it relates to Covid though. In fact, when I saw these stats I didn't believe them since I assumed the CDC would have made a bigger point about the correlation between obesity and diabetes to Covid severity.
Again, what good would that do? Obesity increases mortality across the board, this is widely messaged, and this continues to be widely messaged. Would increasing the messaging around obesity affecting Covid mortality specifically cause any significant difference in hospitalization? I highly doubt it. The same people who don't like the government suggesting that they should get vaccinated would eat fried butter balls in protest, and everybody else would continue as before.
Vaccination policies (including mandates), on the other hand, are proven to work and have immediate effect. They are the most logical choice.
Re: Why I’m for Covid vaccines, but against vaccine mandates – Dr. Peter Attia
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The government has always messaged that people should lose weight and exercise, even before the pandemic. Before the pandemic, yes. I've heard no messaging about this as it relates to Covid though. In fact, when I saw these stats I didn't believe them since I assumed the CDC would have made a bigger point about the correlation between obesity and diabetes to Covid severity.
Again, what good would that do? Obesity increases mortality across the board, this is widely messaged, and this continues to be widely messaged. Would increasing the messaging around obesity affecting Covid mortality specifically cause any significant difference in hospitalization? I highly doubt it. The same people who don't like the government suggesting that they should get vaccinated would eat fried butter balls…
>Would increasing the messaging around obesity affecting Covid mortality specifically cause any significant difference in hospitalization?
Based on the data, yes.
So what would the argument against it be?
Re: Why I’m for Covid vaccines, but against vaccine mandates – Dr. Peter Attia
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Again, what good would that do? Obesity increases mortality across the board, this is widely messaged, and this continues to be widely messaged. Would increasing the messaging around obesity affecting Covid mortality specifically cause any significant difference in hospitalization? I highly doubt it. The same people who don't like the government suggesting that they should get vaccinated would eat fried butter balls…
>Would increasing the messaging around obesity affecting Covid mortality specifically cause any significant difference in hospitalization? Based on the data, yes. So what would the argument against it be?
> Based on the data, yes.
Once again, what data shows that such messaging would work? I have repeatedly stated that this messaging is highly unlikely to be effective and have given straightforward arguments for why I believe so.