By Samuel Strait, Reporter at Large – September 17, 2021 When Covid-19, better known as SARS-CoV-2, first came on the scene in January of 2020 in the United States it rapidly evolved into a game of reporting numbers, so many confirmed cases, so many hospitalized, so many on ventilators, and finally so many deaths. As headlines in the media hysterically shrieked it is the end of human civilization, governments far and wide rolled into action, lockdowns, masks, social distancing, washing hands and surfaces with no discernible change in the dynamic. Then the prospect of an early development of the "magic Bullet", Covid vaccines to be ready for use by as early as December of 2020. In New York City on December 14th the first Pfizer vaccine inoculation was administered and the world was suddenly a better place, or so we thought, in fact had been promised. Nine months later, we know a whole lot more about SARS-CoV-2 and the many vaccines that are now being administered. First, the Pandemic by the numbers. In the period from the first recorded infection from Covid-19 in the United States until the first vaccination on December 14th there were just over fifteen million confirmed cases and slightly less than three hundred thousand deaths, at least that was what we were being told. Of course for those that were paying attention, the CDC announced in mid December that only about 6% of the 300,000 deaths were from Covid alone or only about 18,000 deaths that could be directly attributed to a Covid infection alone. The remaining 280,000 deaths were all associated with up to six comorbidities. Once U.S. citizens began to receive the vaccines, December 14th, until mid September the number of Covid-19 confirmed cases has exceeded 42 million in the US alone, with a bit over 677,000 reported deaths, or a bit over 40,000 using the CDC factor of six percent. In a month less than a full year without anyone being vaccinated, the United States experienced just over 15 million confirmed Covid cases and a bit less than 300,000 deaths. In the nine months since the vaccine began to be administered to the US population, we have experienced 27 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 and nearly 400,000 deaths, or a bit over 40,000 using the CDC factor again. When looking at the raw numbers, it would appear that using the vaccines is taking us in the wrong direction. Nearly double the number of deaths and nearly one and a half time the number of infections over a shorter period of time by a couple of months. Shifting gears a bit, the numbers surrounding vaccine administration appear to be a bit hazy. Over the Spring of 2020, our feckless leader in the White House, promised 70% vaccination rate by June, then July. You will have to forgive him for his uncertainty, it happens a lot for him. In July, the reported numbers of fully vaccinated US citizens was pegged at 67%, close but not 70%. Turned out it was closer to 63% with the remaining only having received one dose. By September of 2021 the fully vaccinated had increased to 180 million with another 30 million with the single dose. This translates into just over 53% of the total population being fully vaccinated and a bit over 63% including those with only a single dose. Still not bad, but not 67%. Here is where it gets interesting. What is often left out of the numbers is that they refer to people who can be vaccinated. The US has a population of just over 49 million children ages 0 to 12 years of age which are not authorized to receive the vaccine. Another, roughly 36 million people are pregnant, are allergic to vaccines, or some other condition that prevents them from being vaccinated, 83 million in all. If any of these CDC numbers are true, that would leave a bit more than 35 million people who can be vaccinated but chose not to be. In other words, by September 15th, 2021, about 10 percent total of the population was unvaccinated by choice, down from 10.5 percent on July 1,2021, during which time the US was experiencing a large surge of Delta Variant cases. Seems the media insistence that only the unvaccinated were being affected by the new variant was precisely targeted, or maybe not….. One final note on the Covid front. In July of 2021 the CDC on a recommendation from the FDA, informed laboratories reading RT-PCR tests, were to discontinue use of the test and shift to other types of testing for Covid-19 by December 31, 2021. A vast majority of testing through out the world was done using this particular test. No word from the FDA as to why this has occurred. Speculation has it that the test either give to many false positives, or that it cannot distinguish between Covid-19 and many other common viruses. Food for thought.