LETTER: Victor Joecks, Joe Biden and COVID

In his Friday column, the Review-Journal’s Victor Joecks takes President Joe Biden to task for the statement, “You’re not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations.” Note that Mr. Biden made this claim in July 2021. Mr. Joecks crows that he was clearly wrong, because he is vaxxed and now has a mild case of COVID a year later.

Let’s go back to July 2021. The delta variant was becoming dominant and had some immune escape. But the vaccines were still about 90 percent effective against delta. And this “new” variant had moderate transmissibility. Then, in December 2021, omicron variants began to take over, with far greater transmissibility and less-intense disease. The original vaccines are now more like 50 percent effective against the newest omicron subvariants. The ballgame has changed a lot in a year.

Now recall Mr. Joecks’ comment from a March 2021 column: “The coronavirus crisis is over … there is overwhelming evidence that the vaccines work well.” Mr. Joecks, with his scientific training, failed to predict the effects of the variants — delta was not yet a big worry. Imagine poor Mr. Biden, who had mere legal training.

Science is hard, but most members of the public want absolutely risk-free solutions. That’s not the way it works. Any time you get in your car to drive across town, you may get hit by a reckless driver. The best you can do is reduce the odds.

Let’s be clear: I’m not making a political comment.