Commentary

Bowen: Move on from failed vax, mask policy

I appreciate Dr. Levine’s honest answer at the Governor’s press conference this week when asked why our state’s Covid-19 rates are so high given that Vermont has the country’s highest vaccination rate. 

One reason he stated is that we have “low natural immunity.” Are any reporters asking the follow up questions here? How could this be? 

Our vaccination rate is the highest in the country! We were one of the “best” restricted states in the country during 2020-21! Proudly we wear masks while sneering at the scarlet letter of those who go bare-faced in the grocery store and we gossip about Floridians and Texans as if they are the prodigal children of our country for their low vaccination rates and anti-mask stances. How dare they endanger the rest of us? Biden’s “patience is wearing thin” for all those non-vaxxers. 

In Vermont, we have missed weddings, funerals, graduations, Thanksgiving and many joyful gatherings for the common good (but we did gather to protest). Yet, we now have THE HIGHEST COVID-19 CASE RATE IN THE COUNTRY. Yes, the all-caps are my yelling words. We masked! We hid in our homes! My friends could not access non-Covid-19 healthcare they needed! I amassed copious amounts of toilet paper! I cancelled Thanksgiving! We vaccinated and we shunned other-thinkers. 

Have you watched football games in Florida and Texas? 80,000 people gathering and no masks. No proof of vaccines. Yet, at the Flynn Theater here in Burlington, Vermont, at a show for a few hundred people we are masking and forcing proof of vaccine, which might be only be 50-75% effective as immunity wanes, or proof of a test showing that 3 days ago the patron did not have Covid-19. Not. Logical. 

Yet the public here seems to be thrilled that they are with like-minded people who are “safe” because they got the jab and have a colorful mask. We have our badge of honor on a piece of paper that shows we have apparently waned immunity (according to the CDC). 

Are we better off than Texas and Florida based on state Covid-19 rates? No. Texas and Florida schools have no masks. Vermont kids do. Still, lower rates! Texans and Floridians have been living life, attending weddings and schools and getting exposed to COVID and getting “natural immunity” while we were hiding and creating a culture of fear and division for the haves and have-nots of the vaccine. 

My solution is that we continue to encourage vaccines and masks, but stop mandating and worrying about those who do not, and get back to living and fostering our “natural immunity.” Stay home if you feel sick. Wasn’t that always the consensus? It is time to humble ourselves, to have grace for others who think differently than we do and move forward. 

The author is a Charlotte resident with a Master’s degree in Public Health. 

26 replies »

  1. https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/worldwide-vaccine-failure?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxNTY0NDcxOCwicG9zdF9pZCI6NDM5NTAxNzUsIl8iOiJ3T2JweiIsImlhdCI6MTYzNjczMzUzMCwiZXhwIjoxNjM2NzM3MTMwLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMzYzMDgwIiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.iGTHHiWVnpM2Vxfu8103AG7L-974JEWQOG1Y0VMzwS0

    Indeed. While the ever so righteous vaxed and masked of VT have been depriving themselves(and now the rest of us) of so much, people in other places are, oh the horror, living their lives. Whenever will we learn?

  2. Only stubbornness and ignorance, not medical efficacy, remain the reasons for continuing mandates. If the LEFT knows one thing, it’s how to fail continuously while claiming it succeeds.

    Then again, they call natural born men “women” now too, and have the ladies room sexual assaults, scholarships and sold out school boards to prove it, so…

  3. You asked some very good questions. Virologists have stated that a state that vaccinated everyone and isolated everyone and makes everyone wear masks will cause exactly what is occuring in Vermont. If we had only vaccinated, isolated and protected the vulnerable, we would have natural heard immunity, with minimal COVID, like Florida. It is now known that these vaccines are ineffective, do not stop transmission or people from getting COVID. Excessive mask wearing weakens your immune system and reduces oxygen levels in your lungs, which puts you at a greater risk of getting COVID-19.

    The next issue is the reliability of the PCR test, which has a very high false positive rate.

    • They are worse than ineffective they specifically create the problem scene with the vaccine. A scientific error worse than thalidomide drbob

      • I completely agree with you. I decided to respond in a conservative way, as to not scare away the article’s writer.

  4. The truth is we been lied to from the start. Nothing they say is trustworthy. Go and live your life as you wish. To hell with the government and their dictates.

  5. Dear Bowen,

    You have a Master’s Degree in Public Health and you have rightly analyzed the overall situation in Vermont. However, you fell short in identifying the problems that are causing the current situation in Vermont.

    Why would you continue to recommend getting shots and wearing masks when they clearly are not working? If it’s true that the numbers reflect variants/mutations of Covid, how would getting the shot for the original Covid Virus help in any way?

    Are you open to the thinking and possibility that the shots/boosters are causing our problem? Many health experts believe that the immune systems of shot recipients have been limited by the mRNA Messenger making them open to Covid mutations/variants and carrying them out into the public.

  6. The lies, subjugation, bad science, and cooruption of the Vax companies are catching up to those who blindly believed, including some of my family. The hospital is filled with breakout cases. No one wants to believe they were fooled by Fauci , the State, the Fed. Govt. and other powerful people in science, but you were.Follow the money!! The solution? Get mad! Resist any more mandates! Work side by side with others to make sure kids are saved from this folly. Natural immunity is always better!! Let it not divide us!! That was the plan. Unite Vermont!! Use common sense!!

  7. Learn the truth science as to what’s going on with Covid and the vaccine. You have been lied to by incompetent greedy egotists. Go to my webpage listed below unlearn truth truth

  8. I am encouraged by the kind and reasonable words of the author.
    Not everyone who is not vaccinated is sick, or dumb, or uncaring, or refuses to be tested.
    Not everyone who is vaccinated is safe from possible infection.
    Lets use our common sense, people. Promote early treatments and diagnosis, and end the mandates and firings, so cruel and unnecessary.

  9. FINALLY, a Voice of Reason Shouting Out The TRUTH Against The #SocialShaming Pressures From The #BlueState Sycophants…

    People Like You Should Move To Texas or Florida and LIVE YOUR LIFE Like ALL of US #Patrioritc #Americans Have BEEN Doing For the LAST YEAR; And All You Other #Hypochondriacs Can Stay in Vermont and Commiserate In Your Communal Misery…

  10. Having just left the state of Vermont I can safely say that the majority of Vermonters seem to have drunk the corrupted CDC Kool-Aid early and often over the last two years. For one…as to the mandatory masking business… if one paid heed to scientific studies on the matter rather than listening to bureaucrats issuing non-sensical edicts, masking would not ever have been mandated especially among those not in high risk groups (children and young adults with no co-morbidities). Hell let them help develop herd immunity in our communities! Secondly, that there NOW comes a call for “grace” for those who “think” (differently) seems a little late in coming. During our Vermont visit we were not allowed to dine in certain restaurants since we are not “vaccinated” …a choice we made due to our naturally acquired immunity (yes we had the virus, thankfully only 3 days of achiness). Public health-wise what was there to fear from allowing us a public meal in a cozy Vermont restaurant? Alas, even here in this opinion piece, there is no mention of those folks who’ve had the virus not needing any sort of experimental injection. My advice – pay less attention to corrupt public health officials posing as do-gooders who’ve encouraged more harm than good (social isolation, opting to neglect proper health appointments etc) and open your eyes and ears to those medical professionals who’ve been trying to warn about the proper pathways to navigating this pandemic…you know the one’s the main stream media have repeatedly blocked from speaking out on many critically important topics relating to covid and the official response to it’s presence in our communities. https://rescue.substack.com/p/top-doctors-rise-up-were-going-to?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo0NTE2MTc4OCwicG9zdF9pZCI6NDMzMjY0MjksIl8iOiJFUkdodCIsImlhdCI6MTYzNTk1MjExNiwiZXhwIjoxNjM1OTU1NzE2LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItNDE4Mjc1Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.ZMddjU_xRdMiNTeyhZabqpz9edfQzkwClMUlsCNkGIE

  11. They cannot move on – they are all in on the scam and backed into a corner. They have Fauci and the White House on speed dial feeding them the narrative. They double down as they realize the jig is up and the public is starting to seek alternative resources of information. It’s all about money and control. The virus is not life threatening – it has a patent ID # which means it is not of nature. The experimental conconction of unknown contents is causing more havoc and destruction than the WuFlu. So, what now? Keep playing the game or admit they screwed up royally? They keep playing the game – they have no choice.

  12. Very good article, but I’d recommend that nobody ever get the vaccines again, at least not the mRNA types – Pfizer and Moderna. My 93-year old mother got Bell’s palsy after getting her booster. At least she didn’t get myocarditis like so many young men do.

  13. Would you please top writing articles like this. The traffic around here keeps getting worse.

    –concerned citizen from the Free State of Florida who is tired of people moving here clogging up our streets.

  14. The level of lunacy is so high now that if only one unvaccinated person remained in Vermont, he/she would be blamed for everything by some people (probably the same people who wear masks alone in their cars). As the vaxxed rate goes up, so does the carnage. Solution? Get vaccinated!

    Look–a certain part of the population simply will never get it. We’re dealing with a mass psychosis event and you can’t save everyone. But we do need to keep raising our voices, particularly to those making policy.

  15. Driving thru Stowe, 30F and sleet coming down. See a person in a t shirt with hands stuffed in pockets. But it was all OK–she had on a mask!

  16. With liberal politicians clamoring for a return to the policies that haven’t worked, Ms Bowen’s commentary is timely and gets most of the Vermont Covid conundrum right, but leaves out a big option in her solution. Vermont is where it is at this point by dutifully following CDC dogma and ignoring other treatment options. Surely, what other nations have found effective in treating SARS CoV-2 can and should be available here in Vermont. Waiting for Merck and Pfizer to get their “Covid killer” pills approved under an EUA and distributed, costs lives. At whatever cost they decide to charge puts credence to the profit motive of pharmaceutical companies and government. Crony capitalism is the phrase.
    Maybe what’s required would be- we the people-informing the governor and the Dept. of Health that the drugs- Ivermectin, HCQ, need to be readily available for Vermont’s medical professionals to prescribe, should they deem these drugs viable. Nebraska has started down this road, why not Vermont. We have a problem no amount of vaccine nor booster is going to fix. Like the debate over masks, don’t like the idea, don’t ask for the drugs. No need to mandate either.
    There are currently 81 studies listed on the clinical trials.gov website, in all stages. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?cond=COVID-19&term=ivermectin&cntry=&state=&city=&dist=&Search=Search
    There is information on efficacy in India, Indonesia and elsewhere.
    I can understand why fauci, the CDC and FDA want SARS-CoV-2 to continue, but Scott and Levine? Just can’t figure out what their fear of success is.

    • I assume the reason Scott and Levine refuse to alter their course of action is that they are beholden to the Biden Administration and the accolades bestowed on Vermont by Fauci. After all, our governor does need to keep his position on the Biden Administration’s committee that he was appointed too. I find it odd that leaders in a small state like Vermont should have regular and frequent communications with the Whitehouse. This reality is evidenced my Scott and Levine in multiple public comments.

      • Vermont is certainly beholden to the Federal government to maintain the legislatures spending
        addiction. Scott certainly walks a tightrope to keep the liberal majority somewhat sated in their demands, as he has done thruout the Chinese virus pandemic. It would certainly surprise most if Scott’s intentions were nefarious.
        At the end of the day, Vermont is a failed state, much like California, but without the resources.
        Vermont really is bankrupt, financially and like California soon to be morally.

  17. And meanwhile our MSM here in VT fans the flames of fear, putting out there that perhaps we will soon run out of ICU beds due to Covid! But according to the VT Digger, a total of 9 ICU beds are currently occupied by Covid patients. Now perhaps we do have many ICU beds occupied, but if so, not due to Covid. As there appears to have been a large uptick in strokes, heart attacks, pulmonary embolisms and the like, wonder if anyone would like to connect this to the Covid vax? Sadly, so few are left unvaxed here in the adult population that the control group is minimal. How else to contrast the health impacts in the vaxed population to the unvaxed? Oh that’s right, they don’t want that do they?

    • I had to take my husband to the emergency room last week. To protect the privacy of the individuals being treated, I will not state which emergency room. The facility was almost empty. I was there three hours and only saw two very old seniors needing medical care. Their conditions had nothing to do with COVID-19.

  18. “Humble yourselves”? In leftist Vermont? Ha! Better to let Covid rule than admit our health-politics were wrong.

    • Why would our leftist leaders admit they were wrong, as this would diminish their power. What has been occurring in this country, since the mostly peaceful protests that occured during the summer of love and beyond, were all about accumulating more power. I am shocked that the people in this state still believe that COVID-19 mandates are done to protect public health.

      Here is a great commentary on the playbook that is being executed globally. America is blessed to have the Constitution, which has hindered Biden from imposing nationwide vaccine mandates. Other countries are not so blessed.

      https://youtu.be/fqRqpwuZbtA

  19. Thanks Bowen person! I fail to see the difference between a person vaccinated over six months ago and “unboosted” and a completely unvaxxed person — which ones spreads more? Do we even know? Unless of course the unvaxxed person already had covid, and then we do know the answer — the vaccinated person will spread more.