Time for Democrats to re-think COVID.
COVID isn't like smallpox. It's like tobacco.
Democrats have an idea stuck in their heads. They think COVID is a public health issue. It was. Now it isn't. It is a personal health issue.
Mandates. Let it go.
There is a charming Disney song to help Democrats get through the necessary mental transition. Possibly Boomer-aged readers have missed the movie Frozen. Here are some lyrics and a four minute non-political video.
Let it go, let it go
Turn away and slam the door
I don't care what they're going to say
Let the storm rage on
The cold never bothered me anyway
 |
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0MK7qz13bU |
This will be hard for Democrats, but their political survival requires they catch up with the public mood. The COVID-conscientious are exhausted. The COVID-resisters have dug in.
Two years ago no one knew how serious COVID was. Was this a new Ebola? A new HIV? Or a false alarm? Democrats got a powerful signal from then-president Trump. He minimized. He opposed testing that might reveal higher case numbers. Democratic thought leaders are inclined to like and trust people in their peer group of well-educated bureaucrats and managers--people like Dr. Anthony Fauci. Fauci looks credible: A well-intended, public-spirited, hugely-credentialed man. He is an "ask what you can do for your country" hero of the type Boomers respect. He was saying watch out, be careful. That seemed prudent and compassionate to Democrats. Trump was saying no big deal. The battle lines were drawn.
Heads up to Democrats: A great many people have decided Dr. Fauci is dangerous and evil. They think he is dead wrong and a tyrant. They think he is motivated by money, getting fabulously rich by poisoning Americans. Other people think all that is maybe-true and are just suspicious. They hear things. Is this ridiculous paranoia? Not to them.
Another heads up: GOP voters are exposed to a relentless message of vaccine and mask opposition from Fox and talk radio and other conservative media. TV and radio hosts put a tone of dismissive skepticism into any suggestion that COVID protocols are of value. The Fox News's website gives a flavor. Here are two stories from this morning:
Democrats should let COVID mandates go. It is past time to leave Republicans alone. They have defined vaccinations and masks as an issue of freedom, not health. Democrats need to catch up with the science. In this omicron stage, vaccinations don't do an effective job of stopping COVID spread. Anyone can get it, vaccinated or not; anyone can spread it, vaccinated or not. Vaccinations protect oneself from getting seriously ill. COVID vaccination isn't about public health anymore. It is about personal health.
So it is about mostly about freedom. Republicans are right, now at least. It is the freedom to do something self-destructive that might fill up hospitals and shorten your life, but, still, freedom.
Democrats need to re-think COVID. Now vaccination-refusal is like smoking at home. Republicans will die unnecessarily. So will smokers.
Possibly gentle encouragement from people credible in medically underserved communities--Blacks, Hispanics, the poor--will increase vaccinations there. Democrats have a moral obligation to try. Vaccine mandates and encouragement from President Biden and Dr. Fauci cause Republicans to rebel. It backfires. It kills Republicans. Stop.
I went shopping at Costco yesterday. I wore an N95 mask. There were abundant maskless shoppers. Mask-ing to protect others is useless. The train left the station. Protection comes from vaccination and boost. Omicron is endemic. Ready or not, the war on COVID is over. Let's declare victory.
End COVID mandates. Let smokers smoke. Some will die. Let it go.
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15 comments:
Maybe...No way to know if this is true. One hopes we can relax a bit.
At the moment it appears that the virus is mutating to less lethal strains. I haven't seen any explanations as to how and why, other than it's good luck. Virologists and epidemiologists warn that it's too soon to assume the danger has passed.
At the moment cases locally have receded to August '21 levels, but we are still at 16% positive testing.
There's a ways to go.
Politically, I don't see a downside to Democrats continuing to treat the epidemic with caution. Republicans will attack no matter what they do, politicizing what should be a straightforward public health and safety issue.
It is important not to go from one extreme to the other. Fake News & conservative talk radio are not the standard for reasonable and intelligent discourse.
We were going in the right direction before omicron and the holidays. As we continue to recover from the surge, what matters is local infection rates, local hospitalizations and local death rates. State governments and the Federal government still have a role to help contain outbreaks.
Please stop politicizing public health. The amount of ignorance and disrespect about health matters is distressing. Excessive individualism, arrogance and the lack of knowledge and cooperation are hazardous to our health.
Peter,
If people want to avoid risking a miserable death or living with ‘long COVID,’ they should heed the advice of experts from credible sources. What you describe doing is pretty much what Dr. Fauci currently recommends: https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20220209/us-exiting-full-blown-pandemic-phase-covid-fauci
On the other hand, we need to focus on what’s in the public interest rather than what’s politically expedient. I’d be surprised if anything Democrats do would make the party more appealing to the sort of people who think Dr. Fauci is evil. Anyway, who needs them? That’s the same deranged thinking that has reduced the GOP to the Insurrection Party. Steering clear of idiots is one of the precautions for avoiding COVID.
There is evolutionary pressure for a virus to evolve to be less deadly. A virus that immediately kills its host has no chance to spread. The evolutionarily ideal is: maximum infectiousness, minimum lethality. The common cold represents the standard of evolutionary excellence.
It doesn’t always work out that way (e.g. Ebola) but it certainly can.
How does the war on Covid end. No victory parade, no hero awards only the silence of those no longer here. That is victory for the fighters of omicron spread, the healthcare workers and public servants charged with blunting the assault saved many in unseen little battles in the ICU. In this guns AND butter war on Covid rides hypocrisy. The protester lauds those repulsed by masks and jabs. All the while SARS-CoV-2 flys around the world, riding passenger jets and cruise ships changing it's clothes, it's spikes, as the resistance in each locale demands. Covid is now endemic. We must learn to live with it. It never was political but became a banner, flying high, for a few to question change and order. Was it evil or simply a reaction to unknown fear? No need to answer that question. At this point, over reaction will cause more damage than good. FOX and company have simply added on-going restrictions to their quiver of culture war weapons. As Peter warns don't take them more effective by continuing to harp on health precautions. We know it's a dangerous world out there, it always has been.
The notion that viruses evolve to become less deadly is a comforting conceit, but it has no basis in science.
Yep. More BS
No, that's not true.
Evolution doesn't take place because of pressure.
No major COVID strains killed people on contact. From an evolutionary standpoint, a virus succeeds if it's transmissible before symptoms appear, which has been the case.
Also, deaths are not the only measure of toll. Cases alone have disrupted the economy and killed other people. In fact, the CDC today announced more than 1 million excess deaths during the pandemic, including COVID and delays in treating other health issues.
But since you brought up evolution, did you know that mask- and vaccine-refusal have lengthened the pandemic, caused more cases and deaths, and caused more restrictions on all of us?
If a virus cannot spread it cannot mutate/evolve. It becomes unviable.
So my mask and vaccination help Americans, your refusal to follow simple public health measures hurts Americans.
I sure hope Bill, Rosemary and Garth stop talking about science.
Lets not forget republicans have opposed seat belts, air bags, food labeling requirements and even the Surgeon General's warning on cigarette packages.
So if you want a political party that looks out for corporations while screwing you over, vote republican or libertarian. Both parties are fine with anarchy.
Let's not forget republicans have opposed seat belts, air bags, food labeling requirements and even the Surgeon General's warning on cigarette packages.
So if you want a political party that looks out for corporations while screwing you over, vote republican or libertarian. Both parties are fine with anarchy.
Unfortunately in this case I would tend to agree with most of what Peter Sage has laid out. It IS time to declare victory, knowing that yes there will be collateral damage in the form of many needless deaths among those who choose not to vaccinate for whatever reason.
To the extent that Democrats want to not get absolutely destroyed in the midterms, the scientific efficacy of mandates notwithstanding, it is imperative to declare victory now to keep this from becoming an even more salient point from which anti-science Republicans can score political points with their Trump-cult base.
I've thought for awhile now that a great "compromise" would be to fully end all mandates in return for a ban on unvaccinated folks receiving medical care at a hospital when they get seriously sick. Might be cold-hearted, but would be a great way to shield the front line medical workers from the insanity of having to waste their time treating people whose problems could have been avoided with a literally painless shot.
Just my 2 cents...
Rare—
Rest assured that Joe Biden will indeed conjure the functional equivalent of a “Mission Accomplished!” pandemic sign over his head at the upcoming State of the Union address. Yes the, coff coff, science has changed. The political science, that is. The attempted pivot from and retrofit of Democratic COVID policies will not help him in November. Too many children have been irreparably harmed for no good reason.
Low Dudgeon-
You seem to be unaware that yes, the (coff coff) science has changed because the situation has and so has our understanding of this novel disease. But that’s OK, we know how difficult it is for conservatives to deal with change. In fact, most Republicans can’t even accept that the president has changed.
Mc: Are Rosebud and Barff still polluting Fogue Valley airwaves ?
Speaking strictly for my own situation, I’ll not be eating INSIDE restaurants, flying, busing, or training, nor sitting in crowded indoor spaces.
According to a recent cdc projection, we still have well over 2000 active cases of Covid in JOCO. This number is shrinking, fairly rapidly If the prognostication holds true (as in, no new variants), it’s projected JOCO will have less than ten active cases by early June. At that time, I’d feel a lot better about declaring victory (in JOCO,maybe USA, but lack data on most other countries)
Crossing fingers, not tossing my masks quite yet.
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