Anti-Vaxx ‘Jonestown’ Scenarios Loom in San Diego and Washington
What started out as attention seeking by extremists has evolved into a genuine threat to the safety of Americans, who, by an ever-increasing supermajority, are getting vaccinated.
Even as high profile opponents of public health measures to combat the pandemic succumb to the disease, the political noise continues to ramp up. It’s not difficult to come to the conclusion that there are even darker motives besides gaining political power behind all this noise. The level of hypocrisy involved is nothing short of amazing.
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Locally, officials have faced an onslaught of abuse and threats as anti-vaxxers plot to disrupt government functions to make their point. Rampant speculation about a crime wave has been their weapon of choice.
Nationally, Politico reports this morning on Republicans in Congress plotting to shut down the entire government by refusing to vote for a continuing resolution on funding in an effort to defund the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate on the private sector.
After months of complaining about excessive payments to unemployed workers, Republican governments in at least four states — Florida, Iowa, Kansas and Tennessee — have recently extended benefits to workers who are fired or quit over their employers’ vaccine requirements.
Yet another tenet of fiscal conservatism has been abandoned in the name of partisan rancor.
As Philip Bump at the Washington Post observed:
Views of the pandemic response on the right are leveraging the same impulses that first brought Trump to power. Trump pledged to stick it to the elites and to reject social prohibitions such as “political correctness.”
Now, vaccine opponents on the right are sticking it to elites like Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s top infectious-disease expert, and President Biden by thumbing their noses at vaccines and mask-wearing while they embrace a do-what-I-want ethos. Vaccine opposition is the new Trumpism.
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Fast Fact--The coronavirus has infected over 48.55 million people and has now killed over 780,200 people in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
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The San Diego City Council voted 8-1 on Monday for an emergency mandate requiring city workers (and eventually contractors) to be fully-vaccinated against the coronavirus. Data presented before the vote showed 80.6% of city workers are already fully-vaccinated.
Anti-vaxx advocates were widely quoted in the media as saying city services might be impacted by large numbers of employees leaving their jobs. Front and center were law enforcement types suggesting public safety could be imperiled.
Mayor Todd Gloria responded by pointing out that city services have already been impacted by cases of COVID-19. City officials told reporters they are preparing for all contingencies, including for overtime pay and to staff up quickly if they lose employees.
County Supervisor Jim Desmond weighed in with a press release asserting the City Council had “crushed the livelihoods of brave San Diegans.”
He had no words for the more than 1,300 city workers who have been sidelined by the coronavirus. Lost work time due to sick days from COVID-19 totaled more than $3.64 million from Oct. 1, 2020 to Sept. 30.
Fortunately, the City Council meeting was held virtually, eliminating the potential for spectacle that’s made San Diego fodder for late night comedians.
From NBC 7:
Nearly 200 people wrote in and dozens called in, the vast majority of whom opposed the vaccine mandate. Many used inflammatory language, comparing the mandate to Jim Crow laws and the Holocaust.
"When I hear people referencing the civil rights movement, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. without the experience, that is concerning for me," said Councilwoman Monica Montgomery Steppe. "I don't equate that to this decision today.
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People living outside the anti-vaxxer bubble are continually vexed over the lack of critical thinking necessary to buy into the nihilist narrative being injected into the discourse on what would seem to be a no brainer. But if you take a look at who’s really dying, maybe it’s not so irrational.
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There is definitely a gap in the space between media advocates for anti-vaxx positions and their own personal conduct. The pundicts at Fox News exist under a strict set of rules requiring testing and vaccinations. Even further-to-the-right NewsMax is implementing a conditional (testing or jabs) program.
Rep. Marjorie Talor Greene (R-GA), who is running up tens of thousands of dollars in fines for refusing to wear a mask on the House floor, has been regularly photographed in public wearing a mask.
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Although it’s well-known that elderly people were at the highest risk for COVID-19 related fatalities, the disease is disproportionately impacting those who are less educated, lower income, and immigrants.
Voice of San Diego has engaged in some mighty interesting research into the demographics of the 4,045 San Diegans who died during the first year of the pandemic.
A comparison of death rates and median household income shows a significant correlation. For every $6,600 increase in income, the risk of death in San Diego County went down by 10 percent.
San Diego County residents who identify as White-only accounted for 33 percent of deaths during the first year of the pandemic, while accounting for 43 percent of residents. Latinos represent roughly 34 percent of county residents, but 47 percent of deaths in the first year of the pandemic.
Only 17 percent of people who died in San Diego County had a bachelor’s degree or higher. But 40 percent of people 25 and older have that same level of education countywide, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Another 31 percent of victims didn’t have a high school diploma, which is also significantly out of line with countywide figures.
There are several reasons to suspect immigrants should not have been such a large portion of the death toll. San Diego County is made up of just 23 percent immigrants, but immigrants represented more than half of all deaths. And according to the “healthy immigrant effect,” immigrants to the United States are supposed to be healthier than the native population – meaning they should have been less likely to die from COVID.
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The true motivations of the disruptors are easy to discern when you understand nobody's complaining about their arguments about individual freedom and choice being eviscerated by conservative lawyers arguing before the Supreme Court as they seek to overturn Roe. V, Wade.
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