by Ernie McCray
So, only 60% of us Americans are vaccinated to protect ourselves and everybody else from the ravages of Covid-19?
That’s a sad scene.
Know what I mean?
That’s telling a killer virus to just do its thing.
And Covid, bound by rules set down by Mother Nature (remember her?) has no choice but to run free – which it is doing incredibly, spreading like a wind fueled prairie brush fire, giving into Mother Nature’s propensity, every now and then, for thinning human populations.
And to think that there are about 2.5 billion people who don’t even have access to vaccinations.
And I can’t help but wonder how the problem can be fixed as there’s not a lot to work with.
I mean you’ve got two groups right away who can’t be swayed to get a couple of shots for the wellbeing of humanity: those diehard “anti-vaxxers” you see on TV, caught up in lies like marks, like suckers taken in by hustlers selling snake oil – and, of course, the MAGA folks foolishly fighting for their “civil right” to die tragically.
So, who do we have left to help knock a disease to its knees?
Well, there are folks around who really don’t think Covid is all that bad and there are those who simply fear that the vaccination will harm them some day in some way, wondering if getting vaccinated will, say, affect their children who are yet to be born or if it might trigger health issues they already have like diabetes or being prone to having blood clots and what not.
Some African Americans are stymied with memories of how Black people have historically been misused in medical research like the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study designed to find out what untreated syphilis can do to human beings.
And I get it. But I wish people would, rather than indulge in their fears of the unknown, take their chances with what’s known about the Covid-19 vaccines.
I’d like to see them gamble on how the doses have greatly lessened the virus’ ability to kill or leave our loved ones and friends subject to severe gastrointestinal symptoms or to extreme fatigue and shortness of breath or to feeling frighteningly fuzzy and sleepless and feverish and anxious and depressed.
I want them to think of how it’s very unlikely that a reaction to the vaccination could be more detrimental or equal to medical issues such as these that can last for months or for the rest of someone’s lifetime.
A huge part of the problem, though, in erasing Covid-19 from our lives, is we Americans seem to want to hearken to our country’s swaggy-like rugged individualism traditions.
But this isn’t about being “totally self-reliant” and “independent” or any other such sentiments.
What’s in front of us calls on us to rise beyond ourselves and think about everybody else on the planet as we’re more dependent on each other than at any time in our lives.
We’re in, if you will, a Three Musketeers, “One for all, all for one” kind of situation.
And we can’t succeed without many more of us getting a vaccination.
Seems like such a simple solution. Doesn’t it?
Damn I hope these people get with it.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
true dat
i hope so too but we shall see if MAGA minions accept reality.
Ernie, Up here in Washington State a new mask mandate from Gov Inslee goes into effect on Monday. Feds never should have changed that as I’ve never stopped wearing one in public. As of last week this mountain county has a 30% vaccination rate that isn’t growing even with the front page headline in Chewelah’s weekly paper saying: ‘COVID activity exploding in the region.’
Which was a pretty daring statement for a paper that doesn’t want to piss the majority RED voters off…
Unfortunately these people are obviously not going to get it as I’m nearly the only person wearing a mask in town when I’m out and about. At Safeway and the Post Office only employees are still wearing them; not at the pizza & brew pub, gas stations, restaurants etc. Wide open for a massive infection rate with cases tripling in the last two weeks with 75% being Delta and rest Gamma or Alpha variants, hospitals over-full and turning away people scheduled for surgeries including down in Spokane’s big ones, and the ‘it’s all a hoax’ marches on in too many empty minds… This really isn’t good.
Best to you, wear a mask and be dang careful down there.
sealintheSelkirks
Me too!
Study says better masks are needed:
Study supports widespread use of better masks to curb COVID-19 indoors
Most common masks, due to fit, filter only about 10 per cent of exhaled aerosol droplets
https://uwaterloo.ca/news/media/study-supports-widespread-use-better-masks-curb-covid-19
A new study is highlighting a need for widespread use of better face masks and the importance of good ventilation to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 indoors.
More from this Canadian University:
University of Waterloo information on COVID-19
Last updated: August 16, 2021
Latest updates
August 16: Mandatory vaccination and attestation
Further context and details on our approach to prioritizing the health and safety of our campus community and our commitment to ensuring that as many of our community as possible are fully vaccinated.
Read the full memo from the president and vice-chancellor and vice-president, academic and provost
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At least Canada schools aren’t messing with this virus because they want their ‘freedom’ to get people sick…
sealintheSelkirks
How does one convince beloved family just how deadly Covid-19 can be. Why is it so many youth swear to absorb what they believe from one or other;those so-called great leaders or those who “Know It Alls”; likely, innocents, pruning themselves toward a possible closeness to death?
To date, my two living grown-ups (son Jim Van Guilder died several years ago) do not believe they might leave the rest of our older family, sooner than they think.
I mourn ahead of time for my family; all in preparation for a possible, & horrible likely outcome.
Okay, this is insane behavior even for Biden. But then he’s always been in the pocket of the wealthy corporations. Is he TRYING to lose the next election? Florida Gov DeSatan is just salivating over this I’m sure as he is obviously starting to take the place of TFG… Didn’t he ‘graduate’ from Yale with a History degree? 1920s history seems to have been his specialty…German history that is!
Over a trillion dollars, an insane $1,000,000,00+ spent on war toys if you include everything that is excluded from the budget (like nuclear weapons) that does nothing more than enrich corporate weapons makers, and now Covid shots that WE PAID FOR with billions in tax dollars in research, is now going to be given to Big Pharma execs so they can charge whatever their greedy little dead stone heart desire?
No more shots anybody can afford. No old farts as Medicare does NOT cover them except in ‘national emergencies.’ Does anyone really think these billionaires (at least 6 CEOs crossed that mark with Covid tax dollars) are going to…what? LOWER the prices for booster shots? And you can bet that, with all the variants still popping up, there’s bound to be one or two that will slaughter us ignorant primates. Covid is NOT done with us. Obviously.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/08/19/terrible-idea-biden-preparing-shift-costs-covid-treatments-vaccines-patients
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So struggling families, poor people, retired people barely getting by on SS & Medicare, those that won’t be able to ‘afford’ those $500 boosters for new variants, you can all just…die I guess. We’re heading for 2 million dead from this Pandemic but war profits is the only thing that really gets funded.
Anybody know how much ‘campaign’ cash (you know, bribe money?) has been shuffled into the DNC by Big Pharma lately?
Biden Don’t Run! We need somebody who actually isn’t owned by corporations but I guess that’s a real stretch to even contemplate, eh?
sealintheSelkirks
Couple of the latest Covid reports, and jokes:
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COVID Is Still Rampant, But Big Pharma Will Soon Charge for Shots and Treatments
https://truthout.org/articles/covid-is-still-rampant-but-big-pharma-will-soon-charge-for-shots-and-treatments/
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Here is some humor (sort of):
+ How Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, caught COVID at a college reunion: “I felt I looked so out of place with a mask on. I literally took my mask off for about 45 minutes, mingling with them and their family.”
+ The US represents 4% of the world’s population, 25% of global Covid deaths, 23% of Covid cases and 35% of all Monkeypox cases.
+ Jacob Silverman: “Someday we’re going to look back on this whole Covid disaster and laugh because we’ll all have 40% of our original brain matter and can barely process reality.”
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Now for more bad news that goes well with the 2nd ‘+’ above because just how many cases is the US going to be dealing with once they start paying attention? Since we’re #1 in worldwide cases with…4% of the world population…WTF, people?
Experts warn Australia is on a collision course for an explosion in long-COVID cases | 7NEWS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKTiNqUpYmA
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That’s all for now.
sealintheSelkirks
So now Biden has publicly ‘declared’ the Covid Pandemic over. But hundreds of people are dying daily, officially 40,000 this summer in three months (June 1st to Sept 1). That is the entire population of this mountain county, every man woman and child dead in 3 months. One has to put that in terms of a perspective we can understand.
And tens of thousands are still being hospitalized every day. Remember those million dollar hospital bills in our ridiculously expensive for-profit healthy care ‘system?’ Still happening it seems…
Biden Rebuked for Claiming ‘Pandemic Is Over’ as Hundreds Die of Covid Each Day in US
“What’s ending here is political commitment and funding, not cases or deaths,” said one medical anthropologist.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/09/19/biden-rebuked-claiming-pandemic-over-hundreds-die-covid-each-day-us
How’s this work again? Politicians can claim anything even with zero educational background or knowledge in what they are talking about and whatever they say becomes reality? Sounds like Trump… what I say goes!
All I have to offer in response to that is Wow.
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As for the lingering after-effects of this now-over Pandemic, it looks more and more as if there is going to be a hell of a lot of people not just in Australia (that previous post’s article link) but here in this country. It will likely number in the millions eventually. I know people who still aren’t back to normal in Year 3 that caught it in Year 1 or 2…along with getting an email a couple of weeks ago from a long-time snowboarder younger friend down in Eugene that said he’s just getting over it. He also said he’s NEVER been that sick before and he’s in his late 30s….
One of Long COVID’s Worst Symptoms Is Also Its Most Misunderstood
Brain fog isn’t like a hangover or depression. It’s a disorder of executive function that makes basic cognitive tasks absurdly hard.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/09/long-covid-brain-fog-symptom-executive-function
Can we say ‘diminished capacity’ for a hell of a lot of people? Not just ‘brain fog’ but breathing problems and heart and other organ injuries…oh my. With the continued dismantling of the people safety nets, will they just be kicked to the curb like so many other groups of fellow humans? Seems likely.
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But maybe Biden will declare this over, too. Amazing what power is inherent in politics that is bought & paid for by billionaires who own corporations that completely fund and therefore orchestrate our elections by directing their employees to do what they want. Until reality hits maybe… Are we anywhere near ready for the next break-through disease? Not likely.
4 ways the world messed up its pandemic response — and 3 fixes to do better next time
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/09/14/1123016479/global-pandemic-response-lessons-lancet-commission
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I’ve noticed that on the OB Hotel surf cam that pretty much nobody is wearing masks in the crowds swirling around on the wall and beach. Same in these mountains when I go to town. I guess the old saying that ‘if you ignore it, it will go away’ really works, eh?
sealintheSelkirks
Thanks, Seal, for keeping on this. I, too, was stunned to see Biden declare on ’60 Minutes’ that “COVID is over.” On voting rights, reproductive freedom, economic justice, insurrection, and now public health, his response is to slow-walk half measures down the long end of a short pier.
Viruses don’t follow the news. I fear for our future.
Appreciate the comment as sometimes I wonder if anybody is paying attention! I’m really worried that it’s going to mutate into a much more virulent strain again along the lines of what Delta did. As for the other worrisome problems you listed, I could add to that list… Big sigh.
And here is today’s bad news that I popped into this morning; a link to latest listed numbers worldwide and state by state:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/21/2124354/-Covid-19-circles-of-Hell-September-Update
Covid certainly isn’t done with us.
sealintheSelkirks