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It’s unclear what exactly he means, but it’s hard to see any ray that couldn’t just as well be used offensively. More interesting would be a personal or maybe community protective force field.

I trust this isn't a serious proposal. Doing that would guarantee the corruption of Christianity.

There's no question that in the Spring of 2020, the coasts were badly hit. It's pretty clear that was where the virus entered. Take a look at The Changing Geography of COVID-19 in the U.S. for the fall.

I think it was probably OK for Texas to drop restrictions when it did. Its rate was already low enough, probably because it's a warm state. The concern was primarily variants. It looks like they haven't had as serious an effect as they might have. Texas was lucky. NJ plans to end the...

What worries me about the future is that vaccination rates may not be high enough to prevent a resurgence in the Fall.

The problem is that Republican states tend to be in the south. We know that covid decreased during the summer. They also tend to have lower population densities. There have been attempts to do comparisons with proper matching. See the paper I cited above. See also States with Republican...

I've read a lot. The situation is ambiguous. First, some of the doubts come from studies showing that masks are leaky, not that they are useless. Second, there are virtually no controlled experiments. As far as I can tell, some spread is droplet. But I think it's more convincing to look at...

There is some evidence that masks have an actual effect for Covid. It’s not large, but during much of the period Rt was near 1, so even a small effect was significant. there was a paper not long ago that looked at the implications of a worst case aerosol model where it was distributed...

Here’s a discussion of some differences in response between vaccination and infection. Striking difference identified between mRNA vaccination vs. SARS-CoV-2 infection immune responses. There are vaccines that do better than having the disease, e.g. HPV. It might also depend upon how severe the...

There are three reasons for younger people to get vaccinated. First, to prevent it spreading to older people, for whom vaccines are not 100% effective. Second, because hospitalizations in regions that haven't controlled it are starting to include younger people, even if death is less common...

initially there was limited information. There was some reason to be concerned about surfaces. As it became clear that that was not important the CDC said so. As usual, a bit late. I haven’t seen grocery stores cleaning carts for quite some time.

I think that's paranoia. It's more about an agency that is being very careful about what the evidence shows. It is really, really common for bureaucracies to be risk-averse. No need to assume Machiavellian politics. In fact you could argue that we want the CDC to be careful about evidence, and...

The simple answer would be that only recently have there been enough vaccinated people to make it worth separate guidance. But I think it goes beyond that. The CDC tends to wait for evidence before creating guidance. That led to a delay in recommending masks, and also in changing guidance for...

Have you been watching the change in guidance? Most outdoor activities don't require a mask, nor do smallish gatherings among vaccinated people. NYC is going to have normal density in baseball stadiums in sections for vaccinated people. Further changes will be happening.

Not 2% of the population. 2% of those who get the disease. Currently projections are 1 mllion deaths in the US. That's like 1/3 % of the whole population.

Not mainly. But of the Christian groups, evangelicals are certainly the least likely. Here's the best data I've seen: Survey: 'Faith-Based Approaches' Key to Combating COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy It's not a surprise. Evangelicals are the group least willing to believe consensus science on other...

No. We have a pretty good idea where it came from. No paganism involved.

Note what Jerome doesn't say. He doesn't say that he has a tradition passed on from the Apostles. He says Joseph can't have had sex because it would have defiled Mary, the temple of God: "Helvidius, I say, would have us believe that Joseph, though well acquainted with such surprising wonders...

There was at least a bit of debate. Here is Jerome's response to Helvidius' claim that marriage and virginity are equal, and that Mary and Joseph had a normal marriage: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm At least by that point in time the issue does actually seem to be the claimed...

To my knowledge, it's late 2nd Cent. Wikipedia, and other things I've seen in the past, says the first written source is the Protoevangelium of James, though of course it was likely present in oral tradition before that. It's always seemed to be part of the general tendency of early Christianity...