I got the shot, reluctantly, months ago when I was eligible. Not only for safety, but for freedom of access. It was easy to see where the world was going, and once vaxxed I could ditch my mask and travel unfettered. Maybe.
I do believe the shot is a miracle of our times. The stats of fewer hospitalizations by a factor of 10 are undeniable. If the virus was killing kids instead of old folks like me I would wrestle gorillas to make the recalcitrant get the shot, mandate or no.
There is an anti-vax crowd (notwithstanding pre-COVID) that is sometimes swimming in a cesspool of fetid crap, but I do understand the reluctance of healthy people to get the shot, at least the ones available today, and that hesitation and lack of confidence rests at the feet of politicians and their media enablers. They caused this angst and it is ripping families apart.
Anecdotal evidence is invariably emotional and I am not immune. I am very close to several people who have had COVID, without benefit of a shot, and they survived, some with Tylenol and rest and a couple with Ivermectin and monclo-wtf that is both popular and generally effective.
And a dear close friend of mine died two weeks ago, from onset to passing just over three weeks. He was healthy and an anti-vaxxer. I am still in shock and angry and disgusted. He did not have to die. The overwhelmingly conflicting information and contradictions were exacerbated by politicians and media sluts begging for airtime.
My friend’s death lies at the feet of these politicians and media harpies on one hand and dark web nonsense on the other.
Last year Trump botched the communication component of the virus, handing his many opponents the issue on a platter. He made it all about him personally, and unfortunately Biden rode the anti-Trump COVID message to the White House, masked, from his basement, under siege by geese.
Biden and Harris and their minions campaigned against Trump’s effectiveness and stated frequently they would not get Trump’s vaccination. Then they won the election and had to backpedal. They campaigned on masks being patriotic and to avoid crowds, except when holding political marches or rioting at night or committing arson on churches and federal buildings or tearing down statues.
Blue vs. Red, baby. Democrats can’t get COVID when in the employ of a good cause, right? And Biden actually thinks no one remembers that craziness last year.
The shot itself, instead of being lauded by Trump or Biden, then or since, has become the ultimate political football and it should not be.
People should choose for themselves. The mandates are absurd, likely unconstitutional, immoral, and just plain wrong. Executive fiat may rule instead of constituent persuasion.
Biden believes in mandating masks and shots for companies with over 100 employees. Pretty arbitrary, but there you have it. The administration has no means to enforce that and some companies, large ones, have picked up that mantle and cloaked themselves out of fear of political conflict, and perhaps a way to cull the field of employees.
One big company comes to mind, and UPS’ hypocrisy stinks to high heaven. (Full disclosure: I worked there for 33 years and am retired and I root for its financial solvency.) UPS has mandated that non-union office personnel must get the shot. But not the Teamsters, which represents more than half of its employees. I guess if you belong to a union you can’t get COVID.
The frontline package handlers and drivers of that once great company have worked heroically (like HC workers, retail employees, police, fire, and EMT’s) since the beginning of this nightmare and those folks are exempt. UPS cannot afford for the rank and file to leave as it’s a tough job and keeping reliable employees is a day-to-day effort. Hypocritical? You bet. Look on Capitol Hill, too. Plenty of exemptions from the federal employee mandate, folks.
I have the acquaintance of an active-duty Army non-commissioned officer of over twelve years regular service and eight, yes, eight, deployments. The soldier is a bona-fide hero, due for re-enlistment, who also had COVID months ago.
This week he was threatened with both a permanent letter of reprimand, non-judicial punishment, and that if he refused the shot (as has been ordered by the administration) he would be discharged immediately under general “other than honorable” conditions. Multiply that times a million. The US Armed Forces is using a draconian method to keep key personnel in line to keep us safe. That is the state of our current political hack military leadership.
That soldier probably has more anti-bodies in his veins than the shot could ever provide, and he’s healthy as a horse, but instead of moving slowly with these types of cases they are forcing him to get the shot or suffer career ending consequences. And it ain’t following science here, it isn’t even considering it. This is all political.
There are people I love who are intelligent, open-minded, and healthy to a fault who have legitimate reservations about this shot but see their jobs on the line and a serious restriction for travel on the horizon. Their lives and relationships are miserably strained by arbitrary political mandates.
Cuomo and Newsome and others had mandates and weird restrictions that were force fed to the unwashed masses and not personally adhered to and they have and will suffer grave political consequences forever, God willing. The democrats have overplayed a weak hand and Biden will go down in presidential history as an addled monster.
A recent survey I viewed this week on-line (sorry I cannot retrieve it now or its source) about mandatory vaxxing skewed along predictable party lines. Democrats were 70% for mandates, Republicans were 70% agin it. The most compelling stat was that reserved for medical personnel: doctors, nurses, PA’s and attendants. This group was 50/50 for the mandatory shot, and this group of unselfish heroes have seen it all up close and personal.
Fifty-fifty. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for the shot itself, let alone mandating it.
Trump was tough to stomach when he ad-libbed, but this creep Biden owns COVID now and has taken stupid to a whole new level. His patronizing snark is nauseating.
Who does he think he’s protecting? The pharma industry?
If someone gets the shot that person, like me, should be okay. If someone does not get the shot, it is their responsibility. I must respect the choice even if I do not agree with the decision. Many questions continue to be avoided by both Biden’s team and the media: How do you protect the vaxxed with even more restrictions if the whole point of getting the shot is to live life as normal as possible? How does getting the unvaxxed a shot help the already vaxxed? I thought I was good to go. How can the gubmint shove a mandate down America’s throat without a law? And if it ever becomes law, how do they propose to enforce it?
Concentration camps?
When does the hyper-partisanship end? Perhaps never. We cannot un-ring the bell of contradiction and misinformation of the past year. This gets worse before it gets better… not the virus, which we have many tools to mitigate. The politicization of public health discourse will continue to swirl down the toilet of bad information.