Rochelle Walensky the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday called racism a “serious threat” to public health that has contributed to disproportionate death rates among people of color.
I don’t disagree, but stupidity is also a serious threat to public health.
A direct result of the GQP legislature and SC voiding the Governor’s mask mandate. Direct result and done out of spite against the Governor.
This is not going to make the Proud Boys happy. It’s probably about time some national treasure in DC is made seriously lacking in security manpower and planning.
The United States has earned the Darwin Award for their response to COVID-19.
Toute nation a le gouvernement qu’elle mérite.
We are now at 20% adult vaccination under Biden. Word is, it’ll be many more months before the rest of the world catches up.
This is what we have to be most afraid of. Hasn’t happened yet, but the forecast is there:
1 in 4 Americans Don’t Want A Vaccine, Putting Herd Immunity At Risk : Shots - Health News : NPR
We’re better off with that 25% dying. Might give us a fighting chance to endure as a republic.
We’re also seeing more state level bills that seem designed to hamstring leaders during future pandemics. The OK Legislature has a bill passed in the House and sent to the Senate that would place the Oklahoma and Tulsa County Health Departments under the control of the state health department. It’s largely intended to prevent the cities from having different health regulations (that is to say, effective ones) than the rest of the state. I recall seeing one state legislature that discussed prohibiting future mask mandates. I’m not sure what the result was. The whole idea of limiting the ability of future officials from acting on the science of the time is horrifying.
Wisconsin’s situation sounds frightening, and also seems all too predictable. I assume that the legislature is counting on urban populations taking the brunt of this surge.
Here’s the thing about our situation in Wisconsin.
Earlier this week, the State determined that the highest rate of infection was in my county here in western Wisconsin. Our demographic is overwhelmingly white. We are considered suburban Twin Cities, we are so much closer to Minne and St Paul than we are to Madison. We don’t even get Wisconsin news on our cable systems - the closest city with a station is Eau Claire and that’s a bit more than an hour away.
So I disagree with the premise of urban populations taking the brunt. If anything, in our case, all of our vaccine has gone to the bigger cities - Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, and even Eau Claire. Our local vaccination facilities are frequently cancelling appointments for lack of vaccine.
The problem here is one of real stupidity. Seriously.
Racism is a public health threat.
Ignorance and fear breed racism. We need to eliminate ignorance and fear.
American society and mores breed ignorance and fear. We need to take corrective action on American society and mores.
Lack of understanding of ourselves and of others bred American society and mores. There is nothing we can do about the past, but we can educate ourselves and others about ourselves and others from here on out.
We can’t understand and educate others before we understand and educate ourselves.
We can’t educate ourselves before we understand ourselves.
We can’t understand ourselves unless we observe ourselves.
It’s time we observed ourselves.
Let’s go.
Can’t fix that.
Quoting Ron White. I like it!!!
I remember reading a story about a doctor who prescribed “food” (on a Rx pad) to a child who was malnourished and I though to myself “well, yeah. That makes sence.”
This is no different. If folks are dying we need to understand why. Violent acts need to be seen as a symptom of a larger systemic aliment and is a public health issue.
And if Team Biden could say so, they would!
Anyhoo, I like this “new” (administration-wide) take on the effects of racism. It’s enough to make more than a few Republicans blow their gaskets. (I know I’ll pay the price later.)
All I know is, I just got a text from my Target store: newly reported case of CV by a team member - first time I’ve seen this message since January 4th. (I initially thought it was in Feb).
Seriously disappointing.
We’re now running a message to the store every half hour that customers must wear masks and if they don’t, they should go to self-checkout to protect the team members.
They aren’t going to self-checkout and more are not wearing masks, but at least it’s more than the store has done to date.
I take it there’s no safe way to keep people from even entering the store if they aren’t wearing a mask.
Sure there is, but management doesn’t want to disrupt the customer’s shopping experience.
Plus the fact, the people at front of store are generally either senior citizens or high school/college kids. We make the effort to offer paper masks to patrons that come in without, but they are allowed to refuse it and continue their shopping experience.
Don’t get me started on this. I asked this question on my first day, and this was the answer I’ve gotten. I was shocked that they started the recorded message every half hour on Monday. Where it’s been for the last six months is another question I’m not getting an answer to.
I assume that the legislature is counting on urban populations taking the brunt of this surge.
…stupid would be the kindest view of them.
Willfully sociopathic racist predators might be more accurate if they are understanding the science. What these half-wit epidemiological saboteurs are doing by dropping precautions and sustaining the viruses ability to continue to propagate (in mildly more challenging circumstances) … well, they are essentially “cultivating” super strains … it is like a real-time model of Darwinistic evolution.
It is like having a bacterial infection … but only taking the antibiotics long enough to make the symptoms decline … but not long enough to erradicate the infection … over and over … and eventually the bacteria mutates / builds tolerance… and you are screwed because the original antibiotics no longer work on the stronger infection.
The individuals who embrace the avoidance of precautions & vaccines & essentially sustaining the virus are, knowingly or not, engaging in almost genocidal behavior.
We have vaccine pods that have appointments unfilled not due to lack of vaccine, but due to lack of people signing up. We also have a sign-up system that is accessible only through the internet, which limits older people and people without access to or comfort with the internet. It’s hard to say how much is due to vaccine hesitancy and how much is due to lack of tech access. There are also issues of geographical access, both urban and rural.
it’s hard to say how much of our issue is a stubborn refusal to take the vaccine and how much is lack of understanding of how to access it.
As racist wingnut heads explode…
Trying to find the story I thought I saw this morning, where Mississippi has excess vaccine because of lack of folks signing up to get it done.