Posted on 05/09/2021 9:05:01 PM PDT by DoodleBob
It appears we face two large crises in the United States. We actually are facing only one.
The first is the public health crisis. As more of us get our coronavirus vaccinations, it is becoming increasingly apparent that tens of millions of people are refusing to get a shot. So although COVID cases will likely drop significantly, we may not reach the vaccination level necessary for herd immunity—and therefore COVID could dangerously linger in some form for years to come.
The second crisis is the anti-democratic movement. We’ve been dealing with this for years, but it reached a dangerous new peak this year. Tens of millions of people believe lies about the 2020 election and continue to support the former president who instigated the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
These are not two separate problems.
In each case, public persuasion, using vetted facts, seems to be having very little effect. The public health challenge of the next few months can’t be disentangled from the political problem of the next few years.
In a speech Tuesday, President Joe Biden set forth the administration’s newest vaccination goal: 70 percent of the U.S. adult population with at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine by July 4. It is Biden’s most ambitious public health goal yet. It is laudable and should be doable. Almost 110 million Americans have been fully vaccinated, and nearly 150 million Americans (56 percent of the adults in the country) have had at least one shot.
If it were just a matter of administering the necessary shots to reach Biden’s goal in the next two months, that wouldn’t be a problem. We have the vaccine stocks and the capacity in place to get 90 percent of Americans vaccinated in that timeframe. But there are many Americans who would rather die than get a vaccine—and they may just die or kill others in the process. In a Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll, 13 percent of Americans say they will “definitely not” get a vaccine, while another 6 percent say they will only get a vaccine “if required,” and an additional 15 percent intend to “wait and see.”
Those three categories of vaccine hesitancy include more than 40 percent of Republicans. Some 20 percent of Republicans put themselves in the “definitely not” category. Some of these anti-vaxxers are saying they won’t get the vaccine but will forge vaccination cards, or are clucking online about how Dr. Anthony Fauci is a “quack.”
Some of those who have adopted a “wait and see” attitude say they are worried about the efficacy of the vaccines against a growing number of coronavirus variants popping up. In a White House briefing yesterday, I asked Fauci about this. “The vaccines that induce antibodies, the ones we use in this country, are really quite effective” in protecting against the “British” variant, Fauci told me. Against most other variants, the degree of protection varies, but the vaccines do tend to protect against the worst outcomes. The jury is still out, he said, on the effectiveness of U.S. vaccines on the new variant out of India. Either way, there is little doubt you’re better getting vaccinated than not—especially since getting vaccinated is one sure way to make sure fewer variants emerge.
“We’re going to keep at it,” President Biden said in his remarks on Tuesday. “And I think at the end of the day, most people will be convinced by the fact that their failure to get the vaccine may cause other people to get sick and maybe die.”
Biden sounds confident, and remains publicly convinced 70 percent of adults will get dosed with at least one shot by Independence Day. But, unlike the anti-vaxxers, he doesn’t deny reality: “We know we’re going to get to a place where the doubters exist or the people who just are—I don’t want to say ‘lazy’” to be vaccinated, he explained.
As the Kaiser poll makes clear, we are getting close to hitting that wall. Just as a matter of math, our best bet at reaching the president’s goal of 70 percent is to move people out of the “wait and see” hesitancy category. But there are many Americans who do not believe the vaccines work. They remain suspicious of the government providing the vaccines, or don’t believe they will help out their fellow human beings if they get vaccinated, or don’t care enough for their fellow human beings to do so.
That brings us back to the problem of the anti-democratic movement. More than 70 million people voted for former President Donald Trump in the last election—and a majority of them continue to believe Trump won the election—the “Big Lie” behind the January 6 insurrection.
The former president won’t even call himself “former.” He continues to refer to himself as just “the president.”
The Republicans in the House of Representatives are trying to throw Liz Cheney out of the GOP leadership because she won’t lie about Trump. This follows months of censures—not to mention booing and heckling—from state parties directed at Republicans who dared to criticize Trump after January 6.
Meanwhile, on the basis of the GOP’s lies about the election, Republican-controlled state legislatures are pursuing dozens of bills to restrict voting. Combined with gerrymandering, these laws could cement GOP control of Congress for years to come.
The GOP’s political lies are reinforced by conservative media on TV, radio, and online—the same media outlets reinforcing Republicans’ rejection of reality about public health.
You may know someone who refuses to be vaccinated, like my next-door neighbor. “You can’t make me get vaccinated,” he told me yesterday.
Or like one of my favorite in-laws, who constantly asks me “Why would I listen to Fauci?” A resident of rural mid-Missouri, he refuses to wear a mask and won’t social distance, so his wife does the shopping and runs other errands while he remains on a farm—unwittingly socially distant from anyone else.
To lower the hurdles to vaccination, the Biden administration has set up a new system to let Americans know of nearby vaccination sites. Simply text your zip code to 438829 and you’ll get a reply listing the 3 nearest locations of the 75,000 U.S. vaccination sites. But for most of the people who are still hesitant, ease of access isn’t what’s stopping them. “Why the hell would I want my government spying on me? What do I need to give them my zip code for?” my in-law asked me when I mentioned the new system. “Well, they already have it,” I explained. “How else would you get your mail?”
Some of the millions of Americans who won’t get vaccinated are among the millions who still support Donald Trump. The struggle is to get those people vaccinated, but that requires getting people educated. So, the Biden goal to get 70 percent of U.S. adults vaccinated against COVID is in large part the same struggle to get the U.S. vaccinated against Trump and Trumpism.
It is a struggle of fact vs. fiction, truth vs. lies, and democracy vs. the insurrectionists led by Donald Trump.
We cannot falter. We cannot rest.
Get vaccinated. Get educated.
That seems very applicable here.
Yet another steaming pile.
Stalinazi pablum and gaslighting galore.
Vaccine Passports Prolong Lockdowns
What looks like an easing of restrictions is actually a coercive scheme.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/vaccine-passports-prolong-lockdowns-11617726629
The anti-vaxxers on one side of town, libelous liberals on the other, and the vast majority of us right in the middle. ;D
I won’t assume a “role” assigned by dramatic liberals or morons.
The Biden regime is ruminating about how to convince white Trump voters to get the jab.
We cannot falter. We cannot rest. Get vaccinated. Get educated.
...is reminiscent of this...
"Brain" Kareem misspelled "Resident"...
What? Trump is the most pro-vaccine person inthe world.
Axe Doc Jill...
<< Tens of millions of people believe lies about the 2020 election and continue to support the former president who instigated the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. >>
1) The election was stolen, and that’ll be proven if fair audits are allowed in the swing states. And that’s precisely what the Left is afraid of.
2) Trump didn’t instigate any insurrection.
3) There was no insurrection.
4) Conversations with leftists who live in fake universes are impossible.
Biteme supports “a waiver on patents for medicine used to vaccinate.”
What a great position, idiot. If the Chinese decide to unleash another bio-weapon, you can count on these companies to be busy washing their hair or something other than lining up to volunteer to compete. You’ll be left with erasers.inc and other stalwarts for your vaccine.
So, he’s saying the vaccines don’t work....but everyone should get them?
Vaccines are poisons according this prophecy.
The timing of this virus and certain members of the medical community crossing the spectrum into extremes, attempting to put the United States on lock down and destroy its economic infrastructure in an attempt to hijack the election, a virus released that made a strong economy crippled attempting to cripple and tie down the freedoms of the United States of America to force their hands at the ballot box to vote for a puppet says the Lord.
Diplomatic operations were not so diplomatic. A deceptive covering in order for the most corrupt ,the upper echelon of the medical community, members of the CIA, the music industry, supposed philanthropists, lovers of self, across the spectrum. Documents are going to emerge that are going to expose a very troubling and wicked web... says the Lord thy God this day. They want to puppet the world and now THEIR strings shall be cut, their tentacles shall be severed by the Holy Fire of God.
Their toxic tonic of healing “potions” that actually do the opposite and induce sickness more trauma, induce more sickness, induce FEAR and CONFUSION.
Yes, MY children FEAR and CONFUSION are at the center of their plan, for if they can manipulate public opinion through this they can far easier get you and take WILLINGLY what they administer and what they administer is POISON My children!!!!!
Now is the time! Now is the hour where some will fall to their own poisons, they will take their own poisons, getting a dose of their own medicine, says the Lord thy God this day, getting a dose of their own infecting plan says the Lord thy God this day.
4/17/2021
https://amandagrace4him.blogspot.com/2020/04/word-of-lord-april-4-17-2020.html
I followed President Trump’s lead and got vaccinated. I know that I am safe. Sadly, some of the anti-vaxxers will get sick. But I am safe. My family is safe. Those who don’t get vaccinated will help cull the herd. Then finally, we’ll be back to normal.
“we may not reach the vaccination level necessary for herd immunity“
Here again we have stories pushing the idea that herd immunity can only be reached through vaccinations.
Nonsense.
Ping.
Vaccines are the safest solution to our conundrum. Before the elections, it were the Democrats who were anti-vaxxers, including our vice-resident.
I kind of liked the anti-vaxxers, for selfish reasons, so I will get the shot sooner.
There was a problem, to get the shot was quite hard, the appointment system was horrible!
But that is now all history. Getting shot is pretty easy, you do not even need an appointment.
I know people, who tried to get appointments and after all the frustration, they gave up. To them - Try again, now it is no problem.
The scary stories circulating around - somebody died after getting the shot. I am not sure if they are fake news or not, but even if there are. I knew healthy girl in late teens. One day, she went to sleep and never waked. Nothing wrong with here. That was a long time ago.
Now, if the same happened, after Shot. It would be trumpeted around. Among such a number of people vaccinated, the odds are that few will die, regardless, if they got the shot or not.
My whole family got the shots. We are all here, no problems.
But I know several persons, who got the virus and are NOT well, even after months of treatments.
I know anti-vaxx family. They Never got any vaccine in their life. Then one got Covid. Guess what, they are ALL vaccinated now!
For Covid only.
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