Right Wing Radio Hosts Dropping Like Flies From COVID
County Supes Considering Resolution Declaring Misinformation to Be a Public Health Crisis
America’s minor market talk show hosts must have missed the memo telling them to take the jab before they began boosting the freedom parade. The gang over at Fox News knows about it; even as they go on the air to boost sheep dip and malaria mojo, Hannity and all the rest are vaccinated because it’s company policy.
Fox News Media chief executive Suzanne Scott issued a memo several weeks ago saying the company has "asked all employees — whether on site as part of our essential workforce or working remotely — to upload their vaccination status" into an internal database.
Tucker Carlson has repeatedly responded to reporters asking his vaccination status by saying the question is akin to asking about their sex life. Sean Hannity hides behind "doctor-patient confidentiality."
Meanwhile, in the minor leagues of martyrdom:
Dick Farrel, a long time conservative radio and Newsmax host based in Palm Beach County, Florida, who was skeptical of the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic and refused to get vaccinated, has died of COVID-19.
Jimmy DeYoung, of the Christian radio show “Prophecy Today” died of Covid August 15. He ran an interview in February promoting the conspiracy theories about the Pfizer vaccine making women sterile and world governments using the virus and vaccine to centralize power.
Nashville’s Phil Valentine, who downplayed the efficacy of vaccines and recorded a parody song mocking them, had a change of heart on the way out the door of life.
Marc Bernier, who suggested the government was ”acting like Nazi’s“ by urging people to get vaccinated, died last week after a three week hosptal stay.
None of these folks had to die; they made bad choices and suffered the consequences. Their passing left a hole in the hearts of their friends and families.
These propagandists and the ones above them are among what Rebecca Solnit calls the spiritual heirs of
“the army besieging the city of Caffa on the Black Sea in 1346, which, according to a contemporaneous account, catapulted plague-infected corpses over the city walls. This is sometimes said to be how the Black Death came to Europe, where it would kill tens of millions of people – a third of the European population – over the next 15 years...”
The New York Times says the country has reached 100,000 average daily Covid hospitalizations for the first time since last winter’s surge.
This month, one in five American I.C.U.s had reached or exceeded 95 percent of beds full. Alabama was one of the first states to run out, and the crisis is concentrated in the South, with small pockets of high occupancy elsewhere in the country. As cases and hospitalizations surged, the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville on Thursday requested assistance from the National Guard.
“I’ve never seen anything quite like it,” said Dr. Shannon Byrd, a pulmonologist in Knoxville, who described local hospitals filled to capacity, noting that the vast majority of I.C.U. patients in the region were unvaccinated. “It’s bringing whole families down and tearing families apart. They’re dying in droves and leaving surviving loved ones with a lot of funerals to go to.”
This weekend GOP gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder (also a talk show host), tweeted an announcement for the September 8 State Capitol rally by "A Voice for Choice," which is the same group that unsuccessfully protested pediatrician Senator Richard Pan's bills SB 276 and SB 277 that tightened up exemptions for mandatory vaccination of schoolchildren.
Yeah, so it’s political. I’m interrupting this essay to remind readers to vote NO on the recall.
Enabling the gospel of COVID conspiracies to our area is ReOpen San Diego, who unfortunately got front page coverage in the Union Tribune over the weekend. They’re the “reasonable” faces for the wingnuttery that got last week’s Board of Supervisors meeting national coverage on Stephen Colbert.
Using words like “tyranny” and “censored,” and commonly comparing public health measures with the holocast, they have turned a blind eye to the consequences of their actions, whether it’s being shut out of social media sites for spreading lies or their role in increasing the odds for the rest of us getting sick.
Sure, they have a right to their opinions, but their freedoms should end upon encroaching in the public’s space. Don’t want to wear a mask? Stay home. Why should the rest of us be endangered?
Unfortunately, this is an argument we can’t have, because once logic runs out the lies begin.
And, guess what? Building on the national ridicule received after last week's crazy clown show at the County Board of Supervisors, they’re coming back this week.
Based on what I’ve seen from other vaxxer actions around the country over the last few days, there is a high probability of violence. Given that so much of the rhetoric coming from the hangers on of ReOpen San Diego is violent, it’s almost inevitable.
***
This week Nathan Fletcher, Chair of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, will introduce a resolution to Declare Health Misinformation a Public Health Crisis, along with recommendations to actively combat health misinformation.
“Health misinformation about COVID-19 is causing people to die and contributing significantly to our struggles with the DELTA variant. The reality that disinformation is leading people to use a medicine for horses, instead of the safe and FDA-approved vaccine is unbelievable. I feel bad for those who fall victim to misinformation. It’s ridiculous the amount of misinformation that is out there, and I want San Diego County to help stop it from spreading,” said Chair Fletcher. “I fully support the first amendment, and people’s right to say and believe what they want, but we also have the right and responsibility to call out things that are objectively false. The pervasiveness of health misinformation was on full display at our Board of Supervisors meeting a couple of weeks ago, and we have an obligation to make sure we are defending the science and pushing back on the non-science.”
Fletcher is calling for:
Approval of a resolution titled “Resolution of the Board of Supervisors of the County of San Diego Declaring Health Misinformation a Public Health Crisis.”
Directing the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) to implement the following strategies cited by the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy in his advisory:
Devote resources to identify and label health misinformation and disseminate timely health information to counter misinformation that is impeding our ability to keep our community safe,
Modernize public health communications with investments to better understand gaps in health information, and questions and concerns of the community, especially in hard-to-reach communities. Develop targeted community engagement strategies, including partnerships with trusted messengers,
Expand our research efforts to better define and understand the sources of health misinformation, document and trace its costs and negative impacts, and develop strategies to address and counter it across mediums and diverse communities,
Invest in resilience against health misinformation including digital resources and training for health practitioners and health workers. Explore educational programs to help our communities distinguish evidence-based information from opinion and personal stories,
Partner with federal, state, territorial, tribal, private, nonprofit, research, and other local entities to identify best practices to stop the spread of health misinformation and develop and implement coordinated recommendations,
Identify resource gaps to combating health misinformation and working with state and federal partners to meet ongoing needs, and
Work with the medical community and local partners to develop a website that will serve as a central resource for combating health misinformation in our community.
This resolution is making headlines on Faux News:
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The good news on this front is that FDA approval has opened the gates to vaccine mandates by employers and institutions.
The bad news is that businesses and schools are again being shuttered thanks to the irresponsible actions of a few. The case rate for not fully vaccinated residents in San Diego County is 7 times higher than fully vaccinated residents.
If you want to ReOpen San Diego, stop with the excuses, get the jab and wear a mask.
As Juliette Kayyem says in the Atlantic, Vaccine Refusers Don’t Get to Dictate Terms Anymore:
More than 70 percent of eligible Americans have now received at least one dose. Since January, public-health researchers, news reporters, and pollsters have all tried to unearth the reasons that a significant fraction of American adults have not yet gotten a shot. Some are broadly misinformed; others are afraid of needles or potential side effects; still others are deeply suspicious of the medical system; some have had COVID-19 already and believe that the level of natural immunity they have developed is enough. Some refusers say they definitely won’t get vaccinated; others say they haven’t yet gotten to it. But the specific feelings and concerns of vaccine refusers should be largely irrelevant to vaccinated people who are eager to move on with their lives. Americans are entitled to make their own decisions, but their employers, health insurers, and fellow citizens are not required to accommodate them.
The vaccinated have for too long carried the burden of the pandemic. In theory, unvaccinated people should be taking greater precautions. A recent poll conducted for the Associated Press found that vaccinated adults have been more likely than unvaccinated ones to wear masks in public settings, refrain from unnecessary travel, and avoid large group settings.
https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1431951202405830663?s=20
https://twitter.com/TeacherArthurG/status/1432055752370409474?s=20
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