When the manufacturer of a car claimed that it could run 18km on 1 litre of petrol the buyer could say, wow, damn fantastic claim, but never believe that it could be achieved on the road when the car is used normally. The 18km per litre may be achieveable under very special conditions, and driven specifically just for that purpose. It may not have been achieved at all but just a sales claim for all you know.
Such claims are very common even in medicine or health supplements. The producers of the products would make all the claims they wanted, often never to be met by the users. The users are also realistic, not to expect too much, as long as it works somewhat, has some positive effects.
My car initially gave me 14.1km per litre and now hovering about 13.5km. I never expect to get 18km and would be very happy to get anything more than 14km per litre of petrol.
The Great White Hopes of Covid19 are two vaccines, one by Pfizer and one by Moderna. Pfizer initially claimed that it was 90% effective. Moderna claimed to be 95% effective. Now Pfizer is reported to have changed its claim to be also 95% effective in producing antibodies against Covid19 when vaccinated.
As these are manufacturers' claims, let's take it with a pinch of salt and wish them well. If they are really as good as they claimed to be, it would be good for everyone and we can say goodbye to Covid19 and the discomfort of so many restraints in our daily life.
What is unusual or expected is that these two vaccines are the Great White Hopes, to be out earlier than other countries, especially to beat Chinese vaccines in approval for public use. For being the Great White Hopes, they must be good, no need to question or challenge their claims. So far no one is posing any question or doubt about the claims and the efficacy of the two vaccines. Fauci also accepted the claims at face value, no need to verify like Gov Cuomo wanted to do. This is how the white men have been telling the world about their products for donkey years as the best. They only tell the truth, just like men landing on the moon until 5 years ago when they knew that they could not do it and decided to close down the moon landing programme in NASA, to produce rockets to put man on the moon. Now they are so pleased and excited that Elon Musk, a private entrepreneur, could save them the embarrassment of having to pay for a ride to the International Space Station on board Russian built rockets because they don't have the technology to do so.
The Americans have made great strides, backward, in their space programme, from claiming that going to the moon, landing on the moon, were cake walks, to paying a private rocket taxi just to get to the ISS. Ok, I digress. The two Great White Hopes are all they are banking on to save themselves, saving a lot of embarrassment, and a lucky few coloured people that are able to pay for them and are on their good books. In their state of desperation and delirium, they chose to believe and accept all the claims of the two vaccines, totally, completely, as the elixirs they have been waiting for, just like remdesivir, hydrochloroqine and disinfectants that were once their Great White Hopes. Not a single white man or scientist has raised a word of doubt or caution about the claims of the 2 Great White Hopes.
They have totally ignored and written off the vaccines that the Chinese and other non white countries are developing and well ahead of them in the final third stage of public trials and going on smoothly without major hiccups. It is silence all the way. In a way it is good that the two Great White Hopes appeared at this time to take their attention off and heat away from the Chinese vaccines. Otherwise they would be smearing and ridiculing the Chinese vaccines in every word they spout to discredit them. They may even sabotaged their trials and testings. They have been casting aspersion and doubts everyday since the Chinese started to test their vaccines and nothing good has been said. That is only to be expected. How can the Chinese do better than the great white men? The low number of infections in China must be fake. How could there be barely 85,000 cases in China? The 11m and shooting to the sky numbers in the US must be real, no under reporting, no under testing, no bluff.
It is good to question and have doubts and a bit of reservations about a new vaccine that has yet to be approved for use for the public. Science is built on this foundation. It is another thing to blindly believe in what the manufacturers claimed wholesale and taking them as the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and willing not only to pay millions or billions for them, but to throw caution to the winds, and rushing to approve and apply them with no hesitation and apprehension. The price is death if the claims turn out bad.
All Great White Hopes are always well received by the white believers like believing in their white God, must be good, until they fell flat one after another. Thanks to Muhammed Ali, Mike Tyson and many other great black fighters that stubbornly would not allow a Great White Hope to stand up tall and the Hope turning into reality.
Maybe these 2 Great White Hopes are different and will be the real things, or at least one of them will be. Even if they would not be 95% effective as claimed, 80% would be good, even 70% or 50% would be good enough a reason to celebrate. At least there is a Great White Hope standing and money to be made.
Chinese vaccines, a no no, a non starter to the whites. Never trust the Chinese! OK, OK, just stick to your Great White Hopes. Please don't come back. Please don't call Xi.
PS. The latest report, the Sinopharm vaccine has been tested on 60,000 volunteers and the result, 100% success. And the vaccine can be stored at temp between 2C to 8C, temperature in a home fridge. How's that for a start? Bear in mind that the Chinese vaccines were tested and put on trials in Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia and several other countries, some with very strong anti China elements waiting to discredit the Chinese. These countries also have vested interest to want to make sure the tests and trials are done correctly, no rigging, no faking, no fixing as they are using them on their own population.
The tests and trials of Sinopharm vaccine were done by third parties and under careful scrutiny and came out with flying colours. Who did the trials for Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines?