Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
A Triptych on Fasting, Latter-day Saints, Muslims, Anti-COVID Vaccinations, Dan Vogel, and the Book of Abraham

A Triptych on Fasting, Latter-day Saints, Muslims, Anti-COVID Vaccinations, Dan Vogel, and the Book of Abraham

Last updated on: April 14, 2021 at 10:16 pm by Dan Peterson

A Triptych on Fasting, Latter-day Saints, Muslims, Anti-COVID Vaccinations, Dan Vogel, and the Book of Abraham 2021-04-14T22:16:16-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A reader named Doug Ealy just called this to my attention. I was very pleased to see it and I hope that Elder Christofferson won’t mind my sharing it further. It’s not connected with the material below, but I thought it worthy of note.

***

First, I want to pass along these items from Sam LeFevre, a reader of this blog and, if I’m not mistaken, the director of the Bureau of Epidemiology in the Utah Department of Health. I share them with his kind permission, and with the understanding that they represent his opinions and do not speak for the State of Utah, because I think that what they have to say is urgently important:

There is a formula that is used by epidemiologists to determine what level of herd immunity is needed to control the virus. The formula is 1 – (1/R0). R0 (R naught) is the wild reproductive factor of the virus (where “reproductive” refers to the ability to generate cases of infection and disease, not viral progeny). For COVID the wild R0 is thought to be between 2.4 and 3.1, with a pooled analysis saying it was about 2.7. This suggests that we need about 63% of the population to either have effective natural immunity (I’ve recently described what “effective” means elsewhere) or acquired (vaccine induced) immunity. That level of herd immunity needs to be uniform across the whole population.

If the level of immunity is not uniform (say 80% in Salt Lake City, and 40% in Provo), wherever there are pockets where the virus is able to continue to propagate, the likelihood of the emergence of a variant that can escape immunity increases. RNA viruses mutate fast. We already have the emergence of foreign variants that can partially escape immunity. The latest is the double mutation variant from India (B.1.617) and the even more troublesome French variant (“le variant Breton”).

My fear is that those who resist vaccine put the whole state population at risk of going through this whole ordeal again. And I don’t think I can survive another year like the last (I’m tired of the hate mail).

Anyway, some might find this interesting: Five reasons why COVID herd immunity is probably impossible, Nature, March 18, 2021..

Heading off the accusations: I am sharing this not to incite fear (although I’ve admitted I have some). I am hoping to just provide some educational information and perhaps some incentive.

Disclaimer: These thoughts are my personal opinions. Hopefully somewhat informed opinions that others might find profitable. I do not represent or speak for any state government agency or policy-making body.

More about R0 and Rt. Rt is the current reproductive number. It is most useful in forecasting models, but has an additional interpretation. If Rt is greater than 1.0 the epidemic is growing and out of control. If Rt is less than 1.0 the epidemic is declining and in control. The lower the Rt, the better the control.

The whole idea behind the non-pharmaceutical interventions (or NPI = mask wearing, social distancing, gathering restrictions, etc.) was to “flatten the curve” OR reduce the Rt, until a pharmaceutical intervention (anti-viral drugs, vaccine, monoclonal antibodies) could be developed.

If one is interested, one can find a reasonable estimate of the current Rt for Utah here (click on the map): National and Subnational estimates for the United States of America.

Check this again in about 14 and 28 days to see what the ending of the mask mandate did.

***

I haven’t been doing as well at sharing these valuable materials from Jeff Lindsay as I should have been:

“Just Started Dan Vogel’s New Book: Already Chagrined by the Treatment of Champollion”

“Many Hits But Plenty of Misses in Vogel’s Book: Part 2 of My Review of Book of Abraham Apologetics”

“Missing Some of the Most Important Questions, Documents, and Evidences: Part 3 of My Review of Dan Vogel’s Book”

“A Highlight from Dan Vogel’s Book: A Clever Explanation for the Most Obvious Evidence of Scribes Using an Existing Translation in Making the Book of Abraham Manuscripts”

“Geocentric Astronomy in the Book of Abraham? Dan Vogel’s Refutation of LDS Scholars”

“Trying to Take the Shine off Shinehah: Vogel’s Response to a Commonly Cited Evidence for Book of Abraham Authenticity”

Also these:

“The Valediction of Moses: A 2,700-Year-Old Biblical Document Long Said to Be a Forgery Gains New Respect”

“New Scholarship on the Influence of the Small Plates on Mormon’s Writings”

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Previous Post

April 12, 2021

"Edfu and Exodus"

Next Post

April 14, 2021 "The Man Who Knew Infinity" (Part One)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: Paul instructs the Philippians to do everything without grumbling or arguing.

Select your answer to see how you score.

FALSE TRUE