By Samuel Strait, Reporter at Large – October 31, 2021 Most of people reading the title of this piece will assume it is about California's insistence on vaccinating all school age children by July 1, 2022 in order to attend public school. Actually the scope is much broader. As scientific evidence continues to pile up, it is becoming more clear by the day that vaccination will not eradicate the SARS-2-COV virus completely. Just like Influenza, it is a virus that must be attended to as each person sees fit. It has become evident that the world will not end from exposure to it. It is also evident that vaccines will not eradicate it. Several recent studies conducted in the United Kingdom have concluded that the efficacy of vaccines is relatively short lived, perhaps as few as three months before there is the risk of both transmitting the virus and becoming infected by it. Continual boosters do not appear to produce long term protection and negative long term effects are still unknown. The good news is that only a small percentage of the population will be troubled by the virus at any given time and very few will suffer any serious or long term effects from having contracted the virus. Those with serious health conditions should be especially vigilant as with any respiratory virus. None of this news is exactly new news. Recent pronouncement over the effectiveness of California's mask mandates and vaccination rates as best in the nation, are false. California holds the less than enviable record of recording the most Covid cases and deaths by a substantial margin. It is only by virtue of mathematical slight of hand that California's virtue signalers use cases per 100,000 that California manages to come in slightly above average. Worldwide, researchers have known for sometime that masking and distancing are essentially a wash with mask less, friend hugging and the unvaccinated. Granted vaccination provided an easier time having contracted the virus, and led to less severe of the over all experience, the transmission rate to others was indistinguishable between vaccinated and their unvaccinated counterparts. In fact, one of the two studies concluded that vaccinated individuals were much more likely to transmit the virus over the unvaccinated, even if the viral loading was identical. While most media, the medical establishment, and government dictators will be loathed to admit it, for the most part this should have been protect the vulnerable and get on with life. The damage caused by the response over the last two years is incalculable and recovery will be arduous. The numbers reported over the course of this experience should be viewed through the lens of skepticism. There will be many more bits and pieces to this experience that will not cover those responsible for the hysteria with glory. One only hopes that the response and vaccines will not reveal catastrophe in years ahead.