COVID-19 Mandates Trigger Republican Death Cultists
Just a month ago the country seemed to be exiting the pandemic; yesterday (July 26) the US had the highest number of new cases (35,816) of COVID-19 on the planet. Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the CDC, is now predicting that number will be four to six times higher in the weeks to come.
We --all of us--are in trouble. A combination of misinformation and conspiracy theories have convinced many Americans that getting vaccinated is unwise or socially unacceptable.
You'd think after six months Republicans would have figured out that killing off their voters might be a dead end. That is, unless you really don't care about voting and are really seeking just to end the rule of law.
This country has not achieved the level of public vaccination to provide "herd immunity" to the virus—that is, a level of vaccination high enough that transmission of the virus through communities largely ceases due to a lack of infection targets.
The return to unmasked "normal" has had dire consequences for Americans who are still unvaccinated. Among the vaccinated, pandemic infections remain low. Among the unvaccinated, including children too young for the vaccine, the new "delta" variant is spreading through unmasked communities like wildfire.
From CNN:
Director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania, Dr. Paul Offit, said vaccination rates have hit a wall and that could have serious consequences.
"Now we are at a point where there is a solid 25 or 30 percent of the population that's saying they don't want to get vaccinated, that they are okay with allowing this virus to continue to spread, continue to do harm and, worst of all, continue to possibly create variants that are going to be resistant to vaccine-induced immunity," he said.
And vaccinated people will likely pay a price for those choices, CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen said. Even though vaccines offer strong protection against the virus, being surrounded by unvaccinated people could lead to infection spillover, and vaccinated people could get sick or pass on the infection to their loved ones, she said.
"By people saying 'I'm not going to get vaccinated,' they're actually choosing to endanger everybody else, and they are prolonging the pandemic," Wen said.
Following a meeting of federal officials from around the country, the Centers for Disease Control has walked back earlier guidance saying people vaccinated for the coronavirus about wearing masks indoors in certain areas of the country.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced California’s attempt to address the crisis, saying "We went from 0.7%, the lowest positivity rate in America, just a handful of weeks ago, now to 5.3% positivity." State employees will be required to either show proof of vaccination or be tested weekly for COVID-19 infection.
A quick trip over to KUSI.com (the leading purveyor of misinformation and coronavirus skeptics) shows the station giving gubernatorial candidate John H. Cox airtime to spread contradictory messages. The interview closed with a comment from Cox about “taking away people’s freedoms.”
Here Faulc's latest ad campaign. Wonder if he'll pull these ads now.
Medical groups representing millions of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health care workers on Monday urged a vaccine requirement for all U.S. health officials:
“We call for all health care and long-term care employers to require their employees to be vaccinated against Covid-19,” the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association and 55 other groups wrote in a joint statement. “The health and safety of U.S. workers, families, communities, and the nation depends on it.”
The renewed concern about increasing infections hasn’t slowed Republican lawmakers efforts to undermine public health measures.
From the Washington Post: (Emphasis mine)
At least 15 state legislatures have passed or are considering measures to limit the legal authority of public health agencies, according to the Network for Public Health Law, which partnered with the National Association of County and City Health Officials to document the legislative counterpunches. Lawmakers in at least 46 states have introduced hundreds of bills relating to legislative oversight of gubernatorial or executive actions during coronavirus or other emergencies, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The measures, as described by the Network for Public Health Law, include a North Dakota law that prohibits a mask mandate, even during an outbreak of tuberculosis, and a new Montana law that prohibits the use of quarantine to separate people who have probably been infected or exposed but are not yet sick. Many bills are modeled on legislation originally crafted by conservative think tanks and activist groups, according to state lawmakers who introduced them.
Among them is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which has touted its model legislation aimed at reining in emergency powers so it is more “narrowly tailored to serve a compelling public health or safety purpose.”
Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton yesterday accused “public health bureaucrats” of considering only “what they think is in the best interest of public health” in making public health decisions & not taking into account the opinions of elected officials like him. Gosh, I wonder where Cotton got his medical training? I don’t think it’s part of the Harvard Law School curriculum.
At KARK TV, here’s what’s being reported:
As hospitals around the state report operating at full capacity, new data from the Arkansas Department of Health shows the state just had its deadliest day since March in terms of COVID-19.
The ADH report shows 23 deaths in the last 24 hours, the highest death count from the virus since March 12 when 27 new deaths were reported.
A group of pro-Trump “doctors” have filed suit against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention demanding an injunction to halt all COVID-19 vaccines in the United States.
As “evidence” they’ve submitted page upon page of misinformation, outright falsehoods, and conspiracy theories.
“America’s Frontline Doctors” is led by Dr. Simone Gold and Dr. Stella Immanuel, known for promoting hydroxychloroquine; the anti-malaria drug that does not treat COVID-19 according to several clinical trials,
All this obstruction and denial is endangering the lives of countless Americans. It’s going to be hard enough to get through without the nihilism of the right.
If every unvaccinated eligible person were to get their first dose today, it would take at least 8 weeks for the country to reach 83-85% *fully* vaccinated (the remaining 15-17% of persons are too young or too sick to get vaccinated)
I don’t think government mandated shutdowns are likely to be re-imposed, mostly because the snowflakes who think their freedom is being trampled will continue to take actions endangering the rest of us.
Businesses and institutions are starting to do their own mask and vaccination mandates, and it’s been made clear that legal attempts to challenge those actions will fail. Sporadic protests by anti-masks/vaxxers will fall by the wayside once enough entities join in these public health measures.
None-the-less, the current outbreaks are going to have an economic impact. In Vietnam, Bangladesh, and other countries where production is outsourced to are seeing factory shutdowns. The Washington Post ran an article saying that supply chain disruptions will leave US retailers with empty shelves.
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