https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/what-is-delta-variant-coronavirus-with-k417n-mutation-2021-06-23/
The Coronavirus is surging again, people are dying, the virus is spreading. But …
The strident and nearly rock solid resistance to getting vaccinated shown by Reactionary Conservatives is suddenly starting to break. Mitch McConnell wonders aloud why anyone would not want to get vaccinated. Even Sean Hannity, Trump’s #1 fan boy and hack, has started talking about how the Covid-19 vaccine can help people (although he retreated on this a bit - he doesn’t want to sound like a liberal, after all).
Even a small number of Reactionary Conservative governors - Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas and Kay Baily of Alabama - are expressing some support for vaccinations.
Perhaps this means that Reactionary Republicans are not altogether committed to “owning the libs” if it means they will actually die. Maybe, because the infection rates have started to rise again, Reactionary Conservatives are beginning to understand that they really get the disease and die - especially if they continue to act like immature teenagers and refuse the vaccination just to prove that, “You’re not the boss of me, and I don’t have to do what you say!!”
In order to help Reactionary Conservatives continue to understand and accept the need for vaccinations let’s share some basic truths about the Coronavirus.
-The Coronavirus always wants to get you so you have to get it first. And make sure it stays - “got”.
The Coronavirus is just one type of virus. It is a tiny, extremely simple, mobile organism that is basically parasitic. Essentially, all it does is infect a host, highjack its reproductive stuff and replicate. Infect, reproduce, infect. Rinse and repeat.
Much like other fast reproducing organisms that don’t live long, it reproduces quickly. As a result, as with other viruses, such as the flu viruses, it also mutates - that is it constantly and continuously experiences minor changes in its genetic material evert time it reproduces.
Mutations in a virus occurs when the genes go about lining up to make a new viruses. This is when there are “coding errors”. That is, when genes (the ACGT genes we studied in high school) are lining up they sometimes just match up differently or wrongly - that is, experience a mutation. The “coding errors” happen naturally and all the time. But other things, like radiation, of course, can cause mutations as well.
Evolution teaches us that the organisms that adapt best to their environments are the ones that will continue to live and reproduce. And that they will reproduce in ways that will make them better suited to their environments.
If the virus encounters a good host (i.e., a healthy human being with no immunity) it can easily infect that host and will therefore continue to reproduce in the same way as before. There will always be some variations in its genetic make up, but they will be minor. Until there is a radical change in the environment in which the virus lives, or until there is some agent that makes a big change in the genes, the virus continues as it has.
When you vaccinate people they produce antibodies against the virus. This kills off enough of the virus by depriving it of food and reproductive ability to prevent you from becoming sick. If enough people are vaccinated then it kills off so much of the virus it disappears. Even if some people are not vaccinated it doesn’t matter, there are just too few viruses and too few hosts to sustain the virus population. This is when you have herd immunity.
The trick to beating a virus is to kill as much of it as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. Evolution teaches us that because things change to adapt to their environments, the longer the virus is around, the more time it has to adapt new ways to survive. As long as the virus is alive, through mutations of one kind or another, it will evolve some way some how into being something that can stay alive by escaping the thing that kills it.
Remember, when things reproduce quickly they mutate quickly. As long as there is a lot of Coronavirus around there will be mutations among some of them that, given enough time and opportunities to mutate and adapt, will make them resistant to a vaccine. Or, it will give them some other characteristic that will make them successful in terms of staying alive, like being highly transmissible and having a great ability to infect people.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid19-mutations-strains-variants
The Delta variant (a variant is a large number of specific mutations) has already done this. We have allowed the Coronavirus a long enough time to live so that some of it has evolved to become more easily transmissible, and therefore more infectious. If we don’t suppress this thing sufficiently sooner or later the virus may develop enough mutations so that it will naturally evolve to a point where it can’t be killed by the antibodies produced by the vaccine.
Evolving to adapt to a new environment is how all organisms survive. This is why we need new flu vaccines every year - because the flu virus mutates and evolves to beat the current vaccine, thus necessitating a new vaccine that it is not prepared for. This is why there are so many kinds of bacteria that used to be easy to kill with just a single dose of penicillin but can hardly be killed off at all anymore - they have evolved to develop resistance to the drugs we used in the past so we are now down to just a few, really harsh and potent ones, to kill off these “superbugs”.
It is all a race against time: can we kill off enough of the virus by vaccinating people (and depriving the virus of the hosts that it needs) before the virus evolves into something we can’t kill. Speed and thoroughness are the keys.
The continued stupidity and unwillingness of Reactionary Conservatives to get vaccinated is allowing the Coronavirus a golden opportunity to mutate enough so that it creates just the right combination of characteristics to beat the vaccine. If we hurry, and vaccinate enough of the population, we can chock off the supply of infectible people before the virus can figure out how to cope.
Like I said, get it first, then make sure it stays got.
-You have to get rid of the virus everywhere, or it will exist somewhere before it then will exist everywhere.
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-coronavirus-cases-world-map/
Scientists have successfully fought viruses to complete or near complete extinction, like polio and smallpox. And this was done by waging war on the viruses everywhere they were found. It is the reason why the United States supports Pakistan in its efforts to fight polio. Snuff it out over there so it never has a chance to grow and infect someone who might bring it here.
The Delta variant, which is much more transmissible than the original Coronavirus, is a mutation that developed in India, and made its way to the United States. Viruses travel easily and quickly in these days of jet travel.
If we want to be rid of the Coronavirus here, we have got to get rid of it everywhere. First, we must get vaccinations here to the point where we have herd immunity.
While we are fighting the virus here we should also be fighting it in as many other countries around the world as we can. And it shouldn’t matter what kind of country it is: democratic, authoritarian, Communist, Muslim, etc. The virus is the number one threat (Covid-19 has killed of more than 600,000 Americans - a greater number than all the Fascists and Communists put together) so we must do everything we can to kill it off completely.
Key to the absolute destruction of the Coronavirus, in all its variant forms, is the continual development and distribution of vaccines. Even if we have to fully or partially subsidize the vaccines it is worth it. We can relax a little and save some bucks after the virus is dead.
-Prosperity comes when we get the virus, and keep it got!
The Coronavirus has been economically devastating to the United States. And to the world. And, until most of the world is free of the grip of the Coronavirus, then we, here, in the United States will continue to suffer economically. Because we are economically tied to the rest of the world.
The economy of America has evolved (that word again!) to the point where we are dependent upon many different countries and their industries to support us by doing things that we can’t or don’t want to do ourselves. It makes no sense to manufacture cheap, low-value added things like T shirts, blouses, simple electronics and toys here in America when there are cheap exports from Asia. We can import oil from foreign counties like Canada cheaply and safely. We can design advanced microchips here but we import them from foundries in Taiwan or Korea. And we love importing reasonably priced, high quality cars and electronics from Japan. This is all part of the “supply chain” of parts and products that we have built up over the years.
The blunt truth is that America can never really return to “normal” unless the rest of the world does. This is why it is so important to fight the Coronavirus everywhere in the world. Too much of America’s prosperity depends upon some other country. Unless we try to design, manufacture, mine, refine, assemble, insure, transport and build everything, and do it better and cheaper than anyone else, we need to import. And we can’t do that if people in other countries are sick and dying from the Coronavirus.
-Everybody has to do something to get the Coronavirus - everybody!
Since the virus first hit the United States, Reactionary Conservatives have failed repeatedly and miserably to halt its spread. They have lied, misled, been secretive when they should have candid, bungled basic operations to stop the virus and opposed measures that are proven effective in preventing deaths and put the the pursuit of monetary gain above public health.
Donald Trump initiated this stream of lies and mismanagement when he first claimed that the Coronavirus was just a “hoax” - fake news! He then told the country that we “had it under control”. After that he proclaimed that the virus was no worse than the flu, and that it would disappear in the summer, when it was hot. Once it was clear that the virus was real, and dangerous, he had to invent ways to make it seem that we could vanish the virus easily - by treating it with hydroxychloroquine, or Convalescent Plasma!
On top of lying, there was his incompetence. Even when there was a vaccine (for which he took much credit) we now know there was never any national plan to distribute it and get into arms. Trump and the Reactionary Republicans basically just left everything to the governor of each state. Predictably, this led to an uncoordinated and terribly uneven distribution and stockpiling of the vaccine. Then, even after he got sick with the virus, and even after he (secretly) got vaccinated himself, he would not openly acknowledge his vaccination nor publicly encourage other people to get the shot.
The problem that America has with the people who remain opposed to getting vaccinated is that if there are enough of them they will thwart our efforts to kill off enough of the virus in enough places to suppress it.
Stupid Reactionary Conservatives either don’t understand what viruses are or don’t care - and don’t care for some juvenile, asinine political reason. But, of course, the virus doesn’t care about their politics. And if it could feel, it would be very happy that Reactionary Conservatives don’t want to do what is necessary to defeat it.
If you happen to find a vaccine resister, or someone who is merely hesitant about getting the shot and still has an open mind, please feel free to relate any of the above to him or her. That person may well come back to thank you.
Vote for progressives - we are the people who understand biology and public health, and we are the ones who will get rid of this virus.
In the meantime, take care of yourselves!