https://www.forbes.com/sites/debgordon/2021/10/01/no-jab-no-service-doctors-flip-the-script-on-covid-19-vaccine-mandates/?sh=3e3bb38b109f
Welcome back, Progressives. I have been away from the blog posts for awhile - monster tax season and lots of problems.
The last blog post was about the Coronavirus and was posted in July. Since then Covid-19 has continued to spread and deepen (overwhelmingly in the most conservatives states, such as Texas). Conservatives, as usual, continue to show some world-class stupidity and ignorance in understanding and dealing with this disease.
To help all you understand conservative foolishness I have selected two people who have expressed ridiculous judgements about Covid-19 as well as the mandates that are obviously necessary to get people vaccinated. It’s two people, but their blindness and lack of understanding both Covid-19 and the nature of vaccinations are typical of way too many conservatives.
https://www.nydailynews.com/snyde/ny-candance-cameron-bure-kirk-caroling-20201225-mqcrijkpvfehfom53jyxf4vidi-story.html
-Candace Cameron Bure, not malignant, but just dumb about the vaccine and mandates.
Bure is an actress, best know for her role in the series “Full House”. She is also a mother. A couple of weeks ago she took to Instagram to express her skepticism about vaccines (by which she means the Covid-19 vaccine). Of course, in her post, Bure writes that she is not, “anti-v” meaning anti-vaccination.
But, if she is not against vaccination then she must be FOR (her capitalization) something. And what is that?
“This mama is holding the line and standing up for freedom!”
Bure makes it clear that she definitely against mandating Covid-19 vaccination. And all, of course, in the name of freedom.
Like many conservatives Bure refuses to disclose whether or not she herself is vaccinated against the Coronavirus. Of course, if she was, then she would have to believe that it protects both her and her family from infection. This would be embarrassing since it would naturally undercut her opposition to the vaccines and mandates.
But she is standing up for freedom!
This is stupid. Covid-19 has already killed more than 730,000 people in the U.S. Around the world the death count from Covid-19 is about 4.9 million people. The Coronavirus is a highly infectious, lethal killer.
Let’s state this straight and clear: the greatest freedom that a living, breathing human being has is to remain a living, breathing human being. Contrary to what Candace Cameron Bure (and many ignorant conservative governors) believes there is no greater infringement on your life than having it taken from you. Or being made horribly and perhaps permanently sick, or living with the horror of knowing that you infected somebody else who then died. Saving lives (on a mass scale) trumps your tender notions of personal liberties and conveniences!
By the way, do you remember the original snivel that conservatives had to taking the vaccine? It wasn’t authorized by the FDA.
Never mind that the FDA waited until it knew enough about the vaccines to issue an emergency use authorization. Then the snivel was that emergency use was not full (meaning, real) authorization. Now the vaccine has full approval in the U.S. and in many other countries, and has proven to be very effective at preventing infection, hospitalization and death. The result? Conservatives are reduced to whining about the tyranny of make the life-saving vaccination mandatory in order to spread the protection to as many people as possible.
What phonies and liars? So Candace, you (and all the anti-vax conservatives) really can’t tolerate mandates? The vaccine is completely approved, used around the world, prevents infections, hospitalizations and death. But you absolutely refuse to accept that it should be mandated? You hate mandates that much? Well …
You were mandated to have your kids receive numerous vaccinations before they could attend school …
Your parents were mandated to vaccinate you as a kid before you could attend school …
You are mandated to receive vaccinations against various diseases (e.g. Yellow Fever) before traveling to certain countries …
You are mandated to wear a seat belt when you drive a car …
You are mandated to provide an approved child safety seat when transporting a child in a car …
You are mandated to buy insurance (or post a financial equivalent) if you drive a car …
You are “mandated” to serve on jury duty if called and selected …
You are “mandated” to get various licenses and credentials for medical and other professions …
https://www.travelandleisure.com/airlines-airports/why-tray-tables-must-go-up-takeoff-landing
Does Candace Cameron Bure believe that all of those ordinary things that she (and all of us) is mandated to do take away her liberty? Does she “stand up for freedom” by refusing to put her child in a car seat when driving? Did she refuse to comply with the mandate to get her kids vaccination before putting them in school? I really doubt it. And if did refuse to do any of them then there is something wrong with her.
I expect that Bure, like millions of other conservatives, routinely complies with all of the above mandates (and many more) every day - because we all understand that they save lives and help prevent injury.
Here’s the thinking: they say that if you build it, they will come. When it comes to vaccinations I say that if you mandate them (for a good reason and with penalties to back it up) they will get used to it and comply.
Vaccination mandates are actually critical part of the history of the United States. In fact, without mandated vaccination we might not even have become a country.
Of course there was opposition to the vaccination, but we won the war so we I guess we know that the revolutionaries finally came around.
In 1901 there was an outbreak of smallpox in Boston. The public health department instituted a program of vaccination, starting with school children. The programs showed good results but the smallpox epidemic was not brought under control until vaccination of all people was mandated.
Vaccination has proven to be so effective (because it prevents infection rather than trying to treat it) that I doubt that there has ever been a serious, widespread viral outbreak that was suppressed without an effective vaccine - or a vaccine enforced by a mandate.
It was following this very same case in Boston that, in 1905, the Supreme Court ruled 7 -2 in the Jacobson vs Massachusetts case that mandatory vaccinations were legal. The great justice John Marshall Harlan (an early supporter of black rights) expressed the legal reasoning and the logic of the court’s decision very clearly when he wrote, “Real liberty for all could not exist under the operation of a principle which recognizes the right of each individual person to use his own, whether in respect of his person or his property, regardless of the injury that may be done to others”.
In short, you don’t have liberty to do as you please, or not do as you please, if it harms someone else. And it is very easy to kill or sicken someone with Covid-19 as it is highly infectious and very harmful.
One more thing about Candace Cameron Bure’s rather ignorant ideas about health and vaccination.
In the Instagram posts Candace tells us that she is pro-medical freedom, pro-informed consent, pro-immune system, pro-early intervention and pro-sunlight, exercise, real food and vitamins.
Sounds good, doesn’t it? It is obvious that Candace believes these things will all make a person healthy and well, and, by extension, protect them from being infected with Covid-19. This would then completely eliminate the need to get, or mandate people to get, a vaccination.
But simply being healthy does not automatically protect you from something like the Coronavirus. General health is seldom a safeguard against becoming sick with a highly infectious virus. In fact, sometimes being healthy simply turns you into an extra tempting buffet for a certain kind of virus.
Being a healthy adult did not really protect people from serious virial infections in the past. The 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic, for instance, was one of the most lethal viral outbreak in world history. Before it died off it infected an estimated 500 million people around the world, with about 50 million deaths, of which 675,000 occurred in the U.S.
The cruelty of that slaughter was made worse by the lethalness it showed to people who should have been best able to avoid or survive it - the young and healthy.
The CDC, in a review article of the epidemic, wrote, “Mortality was high in people younger than five years old, 20 to 40 years old, and 65 years or older. The high mortality in healthy people, including the 20 to 40 year age group, was a unique feature of this pandemic.
For some reason, which we still do not really understand even today, good health was no deterrent to Spanish Flu infection. In fact, it seemed to make healthy people more susceptible to infection and death by the wily virus.
Remember this tragic fact the next time some idiot conservative talks about the advantages of “natural immunity.”
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/9/29/1137904/-Allen-West-Had-To-Resign-From-Army-To-Avoid-Court-Martial-He-s-Equally-Unfit-to-Serve-in-Congress
-Allen West, both completely malignant and very stupid about vaccination and mandates.
Allen West a retired army colonel (forced to retire due to an act of insubordination) is running against Greg Abbott for governor of Texas.
And, he is in the hospital. Because he has Covid-19.
Like so many other conservatives Allen West is stupid about Covid-19 and vaccinations. Let’s count down the ways he is stupid:
-West should have known to get vaccinated against Covid-19 because he was in the army.
The United States army has had a policy of vaccinating soldiers for about 230 years, going back to the time when George Washington ordered the first mandatory vaccination against smallpox. And whether you are a raw recruit, or a long time veteran, you get lots of shots. Diseases against which soldiers are vaccinated include Polio, Rubella, Typhus, Yellow Fever, Typhoid Fever, Japanese Encephalitis, and Cholera. Basic vaccinations against Measles and Mumps are routinely given to new recruits regardless of past immunization history. Clearly, the army has learned over many years the value of vaccinations - and they make them mandatory.
By the time that West was forced to resign and leave the army he would have had many vaccinations. And he should have gotten the Covid-19 vaccination - but he didn’t!
Remember, West is a Reactionary Conservative Republican, an ardent Donald Trump supporter and is running to be governor of the state of Texas. Since it not conservatively correct to admit the value of the Covid-19 vaccination, and to oppose to the death (yours of someone else’s) any vaccination, he probably just found it politically advantageous to not to skip the vaccination altogether.
Of course, if West had been mandated to get the vaccination, and actually got it, then he would never have ended up in the hospital with pneumonia. But such stupidity is the price you have to pay, and inflict on society, in order to be a governor of Texas I guess.
And speaking of inflicting pain …
https://iblogalot.com/2014/06/02/dr-angela-graham-west-admits-to-racial-profiling-for-money/
-Somebody infected Mrs. Angela Graham-West with Covid-19.
We know that Covid-19 is often passed among family members when one person gets the virus. Since the Wests live and travel together it is likely that she was infected by her own husband.
How likely? While it seems very intuitive, there is an interesting study from China that actually quantifies how likely a man or woman is to by infected with Covid-19 by a spouse. It is very high at 16%. Here is the conclusion of the study, “… One reason for the high rate among adults might lie in the fact that, investigators noted, spouses of infected patients were more prone to secondary attack than other household members. They hypothesized this might be due to spouses spending more time with each other than with other household members.”
What are the chances that Mr. West infected Mrs. Graham-West with Covid-19? Probably pretty good, I would say. But don’t feel too sorry for the Mrs. Graham-West. She was already vaccinated, and had left the hospital even as her idiot husband was having himself pumped with unproven medical treatment (e.g. hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin) and suffering because he couldn’t get enough oxygen into his blood.
-Allen West learned nothing and continues to be malignantly stupid about Covid-19, public health and vaccination.
Even though he stupidly allowed himself to be sickened with Covid-19, and even though he could see how his wife, who is vaccinated, could go home early while he was still suffering, he still opposes mandatory vaccination. He says, it is the individual’s choice.
It’s not! Somebody in Texas exercised his individual choice to not get vaccinated and gave Allen West Covid-19. West exercised his right not to get vaccinated and allowed himself to be sickened (and his wife, too?). And this guy wants to be governor?
But don’t think that Allen West is completely unmindful of the danger of the Covid-19. He’s actually very concerned. In fact, he has already announced that he will suspend all in-person events (in campaigning for governor) until he receives an all-clear indication. He won’t get vaccinated or make them mandatory - but after the fact he will suspend in-person campaigning until he is well. He won’t take a vaccine that will stop the disease, but he will pause his campaign until it is safe to hit the trail again.
Such stupidity as we see among conservatives means that we are never going to solve the problem of Covid-19 until the vaccinations are mandated.
http://blog.eoscu.com/blog/presidential-pathogens-how-george-washington-stopped-an-epidemic
George Washington realized that he could never win the war until he made the smallpox vaccine mandatory. We have already lost more than 730,000 people due Covid-19. With those kinds of casualties, I say we are at war right now. If it was good enough for Washington I say it is good enough for us.
Help cure conservative Republican stupidity and death. Just make the vaccinations mandatory. I promise: it will only hurt for moment.