County Supervisor Jim Desmond Needs to Go, and Here’s Why
The Covidiot crowd showed up big time for yesterday’s San Diego County Board of Supervisors meeting. While they were yelling about ‘Medical Freedom’ during the public comment portion of the meeting, advocates for sane public health practices launched an effort to defeat the politician most responsible for encouraging and enabling local anti-maskers/vaxxers.
First there was a gathering outside the County Administration building timed to make sure that KUSI had footage for the day of the rejectionists trying to sound reasonable. Amy Reichert from Reopen San Diego, who’s been on KUSI often enough to qualify for the Carl DeMaio award for good attendance, said they were just against mandatory rules about vaccinations or face masks.
Hundreds of businesses have already signed a Business Equality Pledge and posted a Proclamation pledging not to discriminate. Citizens are also signing a petition to refuse to comply with these arbitrary and unconstitutional requirements.
The niceties ended once public testimony began before the Board of Supervisors.
A sampling of some of the not-so-nuts stuff, which KUSI gave plenty of exposure via social media:
“Measles, HIV, and Covid have not been scientifically proven to exist.”
“Vaccine mandates are medical fascism”
“A lot of people die every day. There is no emergency.”
Fact Check: COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in 2020, ... was 828.7 deaths per 100,000 population, an increase of 15.9% from 715.2 in 2019.
“Nathan Fletcher is no different than Hitler...” and lots of references to Nazi Germany.
And then there was this…
https://twitter.com/PhillipMolnar/status/1427756793145356291?s=20
If you need some motivation to vote NO on the recall, today should have done it for you at the supes meeting. Those folk will feel empowered by the likes of Larry Elder, should he be elected.
Finally, right on cue, County Supervisor Jim Desmond shared this social media clip of a sadly misinformed youth speaking to the Board.
https://twitter.com/jim_desmond/status/1427732428064391170?s=20
RE: Her last statement about kids not being susceptible (I just can’t let it go unchallenged), via Reuters:
The number of children hospitalized with COVID-19 in the United States hit a record high of just over 1,900 on Saturday, as hospitals across the South were stretched to capacity fighting outbreaks caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant.
The Delta variant, which is rapidly spreading among mostly the unvaccinated portion of the U.S. population, has caused hospitalizations to spike in recent weeks, driving up the number of confirmed and suspected pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations to 1,902 on Saturday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
https://twitter.com/KieseLaymon/status/1427764419434618889?s=20
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Coincidentally (or not), a local coalition of unions, Democrats, environmentalists and local residents gathered yesterday to announce a campaign to unseat Republican County Supervisor Jim Desmond in next year's November election.
Desmond has been the lead apologist for the local anti-mask/vaxxer movement.
Controversial statements by D5’s Supervisor were displayed on large posters at the event, including his false claim that ‘Children aren’t affected by COVID’ and his now infamous assertion that there had been only ‘six pure, solely coronavirus deaths’ even after 192 San Diegans had died of COVID.
County public health nurse Augustin Rucobo took to the podium to make the case against Desmond:
“Instead of helping nurses and doctors stop the spread of COVID, Jim Desmond spread disinformation and distrust. While frontline workers stepped up to confront a dangerous virus, our very own County Supervisor put us in even more danger by denying science and mocking public health protections. The only thing more harmful to San Diego’s health than COVID is Jim Desmond remaining on the County Board of Supervisors.”
Sensing an opportunity, the local Democratic Party has made unseating Desmond a priority for 2022. District Five’s voters went for Joe Biden over Donald Trump by 11 points, and the party has overtaken the GOP in voter registrations.
Will Rodriguez-Kennedy, Chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party:
“Jim Desmond is dangerous to San Diegans. He denied COVID— costing our neighbors their lives to align himself with Trump’s agenda. That’s why it’s time for him to go.”
Crystal Irving, President of SEIU 221, the union representing County of San Diego employees, including public health workers and registered nurses, blasted Desmond’s record:
“Republican Jim Desmond fought to overturn public health orders and stop frontline healthcare workers from getting hazard pay for their sacrifices during COVID. When we needed our County Supervisors focused on protecting public health in San Diego, Jim Desmond was on Fox News peddling conspiracy theories and trying to raise campaign cash from the right-wing. We need a County Supervisor who shares our values and fights for us, not a vaccine and mask skeptic who puts us all at risk.”
While Desmond’s opponents have yet to coalesce behind a challenger, it should be noted that this sort of opposition/education campaign was effective in unseating incumbent Kristen Gaspar in District 3 in 2020.
The campaign has launched a website – DangerousDesmond.com – calling out the Republican Supervisor’s record of spreading coronavirus misinformation, saying public health precautions are ‘hysteria’ and his alignment with Donald Trump on a variety of issues, including opposing protections for immigrant families and working against climate action.
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Here’s your “Medical Freedom:”
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1427727450759385091?s=20
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Finally, let’s dispense with the supposition presented by Republivaxxers that people are buying this cynical ploy designed to foment a public district of government.
Via Kerry Ekleveld:
The new Axios-Ipsos poll released Tuesday reaffirmed what other polls have found: The bulk of Americans support science-based mask mandates in order to protect themselves and their loved ones from contracting COVID-19 and further spreading it among the U.S. population.
In terms of mask mandates in schools, fully 69% of respondents support their local districts requiring universal in-school masking among students, teachers, and administrators. The partisan breakdown was 92% support among Democrats, 67% support among independents, and 44% support among Republicans. Less than one-third of respondents, 30%, opposed in-school mask mandates.
A similar partisan dynamic played out on the question of state and local governments requiring masking in public areas, which drew 64% support overall. The vast majority of Democrats (88%) supported such mandates while less than half of Republicans (40%) favored them.
But perhaps the most interesting stat politically is the fact that just one-third of Americans support state laws blocking local officials from requiring masks, such as those enacted by GOP Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas. Overall, 66% oppose laws that tie the hands of local officials, and fully 77% oppose defunding local governments and school districts that institute mask mandates, as DeSantis has threatened to do.
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https://twitter.com/Impolitics/status/1427782312712830977?s=20
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