The Supreme Court's scientific failings

They must be CNN viewers

The Supreme Court today heard oral arguments about the OSHA vaccine mandate (for businesses with 100 or more people).

The case should have been entirely about the legal arguments, precedents, and ramifications… but the level of scientific misinformation shown by the justices is mindboggling.

Some examples:

100,000 children in critical care and on ventilators (Sotomayor)

Actual number today (per HHS/CDC) is 3,342 (there have only been 81,923 hospital admissions of 0-17 year olds since August 1st of 2020!).

Vaccine mandate would prevent 100% of US cases (Breyer)

Vaccines are incredibly ‘leaky’. Current data from the UK suggest that Omicron is causing negative efficacy in EVERY age group and vaccine status (except recently boosted 70-79; and even that barely breaks even).

COVID deaths are at an all-time high (Sotomayor)

Current deaths are ~1,200 per day; compared to the high from last winter of ~3,400 per day.

It’s “beyond settled” that vaccines and masks are best way to stop the spread (Kagan)

Again, the vaccinated are between 2-6 times more likely to catch Omicron. And masks are hardly ‘settled science’ (unless she means the 100 years of research before COVID that shows they don’t work).

COVID vaccines stop transmission (Kagan)

See previous.

Hospitals are nearing capacity (Sotomayor)

Hospitals normally run as full as possible (to make money). They are overrun nearly every year by spikes in flu patients. In general, they are less full than in a big flu year; currently at ~80% full overall.

Omicron is deadlier than Delta (Sotomayor)

Data from the UK (and South Africa and Germany and Denmark and Israel and the US) show Omicron fatality rate is much, much lower than Delta.

Hospitals are full of unvaccinated people (Breyer)

In Ontario, Canada over 70% of COVID patients are vaccinated

Even with the bizarre, biased way the US counts ‘vaccinated’ and ‘unvaccinated’ cases, current numbers put the percentage of unvaccinated cases at around 40%

Flu kills hundreds of thousands of people every year (Gorsuch)

The most recent ‘big’ flu season (2017-18) killed an estimated 61,000 people in the US. However, he didn’t specifically say in the USA…. worldwide, the WHO put that number at over 650,000 per year. Maybe that is what he was thinking????

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Hopefully, they know the law better than they know the science!

(and, hopefully, these inaccuracies will either be corrected or will not influence their decision.)