If you want to get vaccinated, walk into any drug store or supermarket and get your jab. I encourage you. If you don’t, prepare to be the scapegoat those who do judge are looking for.
"Statistically speaking, unless one of the new variants becomes more deadly than the ones circulating out there, young healthy people aren’t taking enormous risks given their propensity to do things like drive after drinking, or engage in other risky behavior. But the measure of 'beating COVID-19' has long ceased from keeping hospitals from becoming overwhelmed, to ensuring nobody will ever get sick from COVID-19, even those with the most infinitesimal risk."
This formulation completely ignores the issue of mutation. Some people like myself who want more people to get the shot are more worried about minimizing the pool of susceptible victims where the virus can multiply and mutate than the health of someone who is hesitant or resistant to the vaccine. Personally, I like the latitude that my vaccination has opened up to pursue activities in 2021, and I'll be more annoyed if a mutation emerges that could have been preventable.
That said, given how poorly more populated countries like India are faring, me worrying about some anti-vaxxer in Tennessee becoming Patient Zero for a variant that gets around my immunity, given the hundreds of millions in India who would gladly take the shot but are unable to, might be me worried more about a lightning strike than a more routine way of meeting my end.
Given that the consensus is that everyone who wants to get vaxxed has likely done so, perhaps it's time to lift whatever emergency waivers have been put into place to make the vaccine affordable/free, lift any restrictions on insurance companies charging more to unvaxxed customers, allowing airlines to refuse service to unvaxxed flyers (without a valid medical reason), etc. so that the costs of choosing to remain unvaccinated can be properly assessed and the rest of us can get on with our lives without worrying about paying for the economic externalities imposed by people who refuse to do the common-sense thing. We save a stockpile for children and teens to be able to get their shots, and send what we have left to places that need it, at least to have some diplomatic victories to show that not all Americans are idiots and are willing to help the world get back on its feet, despite the fools in places like the Tennessee legislature that think they can roll back the clock on sane public health.[1]
"If you want to get vaccinated, walk into any drug store or supermarket and get your jab. I encourage you to do it, because it’s far less risky than getting COVID-19, of any variant. If you don’t, I won’t judge, but you’ll be called stupid by those who do. They have a casting call for scapegoats and you are perfect for the role."
I think that after a certain point of reaching out in good faith, the vax-skeptic folks are going reap what they sow. Whether it is higher health insurance premiums, or businesses refusing to let the purposely unvaxxed shop there, airlines refusing to board them, or just being shunned by others, they will be held accountable in some form, shape, or way. It doesn't have to be this way, but the ball is on their court now.
Way cool, growing up in Minnesota, i loved watching Fran scramble; but loved even more watching Joe Kapp put his head down and bowl over people. Thanks for those memories Steve; then it it mostly went south from there.
Let's start with the mixed messaging. I would guess i am an average reader/watcher of the news. Yup, those rotten biased guys you all love to hate. That said, there were issues that evolved as they got their head around Covid19, but that's to be expected. I watched the evolution and two things stood out; take the recommended precautions and if and when the vaccine became available, get it.
Sorry, that's it. Hardly anything sinister there. In fact, if there was any real mixed messaging it came during the trump era where every day of his daily briefing/updates he simply proved how little he knew. Then it got worse because he turned to Scott Atlas who told us we should just die in droves and eventually those left would be just fine. Now that's dumb.
This perpetual war of blame has been trump's lone ace in the hole. I find it truly laughable to try and target the media and Biden for trying to convince people vaccinations work. Are you kidding me? Hopefully you aren't suggesting vaccinations don't work Steve because if you are, that would be dumb.
Here's an interesting cut from an ABC affiliate: "A stark case in point: During June, every person who died of COVID-19 in Maryland was unvaccinated, according to a spokesperson for the governor's office. There were 130 people who died of COVID-19 in Maryland in June, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
You know how many like stories there are about this? Hundreds if not thousands, they appear every day. It's the reality of where we are and yet people want to believe the moron anti-vaxer's citing their stupid claims with no foundation or basis, but hell they get clicks and clicks get them followers and paid more. Now, that's dumb.
And to be clear, a boatload of people voted for trump. They did. But a bigger boatload voted for Biden. They did, that's just the facts. Shouldn't be disputable by now, but we see and read it every day from those wanting to keep the donations flowing in and be in trumps good graces. Now, that's dumb.
Finally, i'll throw you a bone. The democrats from Texas who piled into a private plane (nope wasn't a commercial flight as some reported), to escape a vote and didn't wear masks, and now have Covid...now that was really, really dumb.
See brother, dumb actions or beliefs are certainly not just performed by those on the right. Any of us are able to do dumb things. When they/we do, they should be called out for them.
"If the government’s messaging—going back to the Trump administration, and forward to now with President Biden—had been more consistent and, well, honest, I believe more people would choose to get vaccinated. Erick Erickson took us through a litany of blunders and flip-flops by our government and the media dealing with COVID-19, masks, and vaccines."
I think that is a fair point. While I don't excuse the actions of those spreading anti-vax rhetoric, I think the not so stellar messaging on the part of the government didn't help either.
"Meanwhile, worldwide, the U.S. isn’t doing so badly compared to, say, France, where the extremists of the far-left and the far-right joined by the hundreds of thousands Saturday to march against the French government’s vaccination policy. Worldwide, vaccines have not been shared with nations that need it most, by nations who have stockpiled far more than they need. The U.S. has enough doses to jab everyone nearly five times; the U.K. over eight; the rest of the E.U. has enough for nearly seven jabs; and Canada takes the cake at 10.5 future doses per inhabitant.
Either these nations think they’re going to need a lot of boosters, or they’ve got an embarrassment of excess. That doesn’t help Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Indonesia (the 5th, 8th, and 4th most populated nations on earth, totaling 659 million souls), not to mention India’s 1.3 billion, in a nation that’s procured about a billion future doses. Collectively, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia have 1.4 billion doses for 1.6 billion people. Twenty percent of the world don’t have enough vaccine for a single dose, nevermind the second dose."
Given that in our age, we are economically and socially interconnected globally, the goal of achieving some sort of herd immunity also depends on the the people living in highly populated countries do matter. It's amazes me how densely populated some of these countries are. For example, Bangladesh is roughly(give or take) the geographical size of the US state of Georgia. But it has approx 160 million people, compared to Georgia's 10.7 million. For all the inconveniences we had with social distancing, I can only imagine how much more challenging it was in these densely populated countries. It is in our interests to make sure the people in these countries get vaccinated.
"A good part of the reason is the smug way the media and Biden bubble call Trump voters stupid, over and over again.
Granted, if you believe this poll, there’s a lot of really impossible ideas floating around that unvaccinated Republicans take as true. Hitting people over the head and calling them stupid isn’t the way to solve the problem."
I have to admit that I'm guilty of having done that as well for the past few years, for many other issues besides Covid. Some people really could've chosen to be better informed and not allow themselves to be set up to being misled by anti-vaxxers. Due diligence is necessary to educating oneself on Covid-19 itself as well as the vaccines. Some of the falsehoods spread by the anti-vaxxers are so laughably easy to disprove, that sometimes it is hard not to referring to some of them as stupid. That being said, I think the acrimonious and hyper-partisan social environment we are in, has led to a lot of name calling and just straight out mean spiritedness from across the political spectrum. It's been going on for years, and has gradually escalated to the political environment we are in now. The natural reaction is to develop a defense mechanism when someone you disagree with politically makes a bad faith assumption about your views, and vice versa. And I think that at this point, such name calling only results in many MAGA Vax skeptics to dig in their heels even further. Through my own interactions over the past few years with these people, I can attest to that being counterproductive. It is important that we maintain a bridge of communication with these folks, and for them to know that we are approaching them out of a good faith concern for them. And while there are a few people that are beyond any hope of reaching out to them, I still think there are many people are open minded to where they will listen. But we have to approach them in the right manner.
"Statistically speaking, unless one of the new variants becomes more deadly than the ones circulating out there, young healthy people aren’t taking enormous risks given their propensity to do things like drive after drinking, or engage in other risky behavior. But the measure of 'beating COVID-19' has long ceased from keeping hospitals from becoming overwhelmed, to ensuring nobody will ever get sick from COVID-19, even those with the most infinitesimal risk."
This formulation completely ignores the issue of mutation. Some people like myself who want more people to get the shot are more worried about minimizing the pool of susceptible victims where the virus can multiply and mutate than the health of someone who is hesitant or resistant to the vaccine. Personally, I like the latitude that my vaccination has opened up to pursue activities in 2021, and I'll be more annoyed if a mutation emerges that could have been preventable.
That said, given how poorly more populated countries like India are faring, me worrying about some anti-vaxxer in Tennessee becoming Patient Zero for a variant that gets around my immunity, given the hundreds of millions in India who would gladly take the shot but are unable to, might be me worried more about a lightning strike than a more routine way of meeting my end.
Given that the consensus is that everyone who wants to get vaxxed has likely done so, perhaps it's time to lift whatever emergency waivers have been put into place to make the vaccine affordable/free, lift any restrictions on insurance companies charging more to unvaxxed customers, allowing airlines to refuse service to unvaxxed flyers (without a valid medical reason), etc. so that the costs of choosing to remain unvaccinated can be properly assessed and the rest of us can get on with our lives without worrying about paying for the economic externalities imposed by people who refuse to do the common-sense thing. We save a stockpile for children and teens to be able to get their shots, and send what we have left to places that need it, at least to have some diplomatic victories to show that not all Americans are idiots and are willing to help the world get back on its feet, despite the fools in places like the Tennessee legislature that think they can roll back the clock on sane public health.[1]
[1] https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/health/2021/07/13/tennessee-halts-all-vaccine-outreach-minors-not-just-covid-19/7928701002/
"If you want to get vaccinated, walk into any drug store or supermarket and get your jab. I encourage you to do it, because it’s far less risky than getting COVID-19, of any variant. If you don’t, I won’t judge, but you’ll be called stupid by those who do. They have a casting call for scapegoats and you are perfect for the role."
I think that after a certain point of reaching out in good faith, the vax-skeptic folks are going reap what they sow. Whether it is higher health insurance premiums, or businesses refusing to let the purposely unvaxxed shop there, airlines refusing to board them, or just being shunned by others, they will be held accountable in some form, shape, or way. It doesn't have to be this way, but the ball is on their court now.
Way cool, growing up in Minnesota, i loved watching Fran scramble; but loved even more watching Joe Kapp put his head down and bowl over people. Thanks for those memories Steve; then it it mostly went south from there.
Let's start with the mixed messaging. I would guess i am an average reader/watcher of the news. Yup, those rotten biased guys you all love to hate. That said, there were issues that evolved as they got their head around Covid19, but that's to be expected. I watched the evolution and two things stood out; take the recommended precautions and if and when the vaccine became available, get it.
Sorry, that's it. Hardly anything sinister there. In fact, if there was any real mixed messaging it came during the trump era where every day of his daily briefing/updates he simply proved how little he knew. Then it got worse because he turned to Scott Atlas who told us we should just die in droves and eventually those left would be just fine. Now that's dumb.
This perpetual war of blame has been trump's lone ace in the hole. I find it truly laughable to try and target the media and Biden for trying to convince people vaccinations work. Are you kidding me? Hopefully you aren't suggesting vaccinations don't work Steve because if you are, that would be dumb.
Here's an interesting cut from an ABC affiliate: "A stark case in point: During June, every person who died of COVID-19 in Maryland was unvaccinated, according to a spokesperson for the governor's office. There were 130 people who died of COVID-19 in Maryland in June, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
You know how many like stories there are about this? Hundreds if not thousands, they appear every day. It's the reality of where we are and yet people want to believe the moron anti-vaxer's citing their stupid claims with no foundation or basis, but hell they get clicks and clicks get them followers and paid more. Now, that's dumb.
And to be clear, a boatload of people voted for trump. They did. But a bigger boatload voted for Biden. They did, that's just the facts. Shouldn't be disputable by now, but we see and read it every day from those wanting to keep the donations flowing in and be in trumps good graces. Now, that's dumb.
Finally, i'll throw you a bone. The democrats from Texas who piled into a private plane (nope wasn't a commercial flight as some reported), to escape a vote and didn't wear masks, and now have Covid...now that was really, really dumb.
See brother, dumb actions or beliefs are certainly not just performed by those on the right. Any of us are able to do dumb things. When they/we do, they should be called out for them.
"If the government’s messaging—going back to the Trump administration, and forward to now with President Biden—had been more consistent and, well, honest, I believe more people would choose to get vaccinated. Erick Erickson took us through a litany of blunders and flip-flops by our government and the media dealing with COVID-19, masks, and vaccines."
I think that is a fair point. While I don't excuse the actions of those spreading anti-vax rhetoric, I think the not so stellar messaging on the part of the government didn't help either.
"Meanwhile, worldwide, the U.S. isn’t doing so badly compared to, say, France, where the extremists of the far-left and the far-right joined by the hundreds of thousands Saturday to march against the French government’s vaccination policy. Worldwide, vaccines have not been shared with nations that need it most, by nations who have stockpiled far more than they need. The U.S. has enough doses to jab everyone nearly five times; the U.K. over eight; the rest of the E.U. has enough for nearly seven jabs; and Canada takes the cake at 10.5 future doses per inhabitant.
Either these nations think they’re going to need a lot of boosters, or they’ve got an embarrassment of excess. That doesn’t help Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Indonesia (the 5th, 8th, and 4th most populated nations on earth, totaling 659 million souls), not to mention India’s 1.3 billion, in a nation that’s procured about a billion future doses. Collectively, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia have 1.4 billion doses for 1.6 billion people. Twenty percent of the world don’t have enough vaccine for a single dose, nevermind the second dose."
Given that in our age, we are economically and socially interconnected globally, the goal of achieving some sort of herd immunity also depends on the the people living in highly populated countries do matter. It's amazes me how densely populated some of these countries are. For example, Bangladesh is roughly(give or take) the geographical size of the US state of Georgia. But it has approx 160 million people, compared to Georgia's 10.7 million. For all the inconveniences we had with social distancing, I can only imagine how much more challenging it was in these densely populated countries. It is in our interests to make sure the people in these countries get vaccinated.
"A good part of the reason is the smug way the media and Biden bubble call Trump voters stupid, over and over again.
Granted, if you believe this poll, there’s a lot of really impossible ideas floating around that unvaccinated Republicans take as true. Hitting people over the head and calling them stupid isn’t the way to solve the problem."
I have to admit that I'm guilty of having done that as well for the past few years, for many other issues besides Covid. Some people really could've chosen to be better informed and not allow themselves to be set up to being misled by anti-vaxxers. Due diligence is necessary to educating oneself on Covid-19 itself as well as the vaccines. Some of the falsehoods spread by the anti-vaxxers are so laughably easy to disprove, that sometimes it is hard not to referring to some of them as stupid. That being said, I think the acrimonious and hyper-partisan social environment we are in, has led to a lot of name calling and just straight out mean spiritedness from across the political spectrum. It's been going on for years, and has gradually escalated to the political environment we are in now. The natural reaction is to develop a defense mechanism when someone you disagree with politically makes a bad faith assumption about your views, and vice versa. And I think that at this point, such name calling only results in many MAGA Vax skeptics to dig in their heels even further. Through my own interactions over the past few years with these people, I can attest to that being counterproductive. It is important that we maintain a bridge of communication with these folks, and for them to know that we are approaching them out of a good faith concern for them. And while there are a few people that are beyond any hope of reaching out to them, I still think there are many people are open minded to where they will listen. But we have to approach them in the right manner.