Three Quotes Worth Reading
 |
| Gerson |
Knowing that
some of you won’t do that, here are two salient quotes from the column, which
points out that Trump’s G.O.P. support remains strong.
“In some ways, the GOP’s rank and file still holds the proxy for
America. The votes of Trump-alienated Republicans
will eventually be required to deny him the 2024 G.O.P. presidential nomination
or to seriously damage his reelection effort.
It is
Republican tolerance for the intolerable that threatens American democracy.”
And further
on in his column, Gerson quotes Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) who in turn
quoted Benjamin Franklin as saying “I have
observed that wrong is always growing more wrong until there is no bearing it
anymore. And that right, however
opposed, comes right at last.”
(Permit me to add that what Franklin observed can take a very, very long time to happen. For it to occur sooner, there must be a massive Democratic turnout in 2022, despite Republican efforts to restrict voting opportunities. This is made more difficult because Republicans in Congress are now proudly telling their constituents about the benefits Congress in now providing for them through the 'For the People' Act and at the same time, keeping quiet about the fact that every one of them voted against them! But voters dumb enough to elect Republicans in the first place seem susceptible to such deceit. That is the problem.)
|
Democracy Miscarries in Enid, Oklahoma
A New York Times piece published Dec. 26 carried the headline “First They Fought Over Masks, Then Over the Soul of a City.” It dealt with what is tearing America apart, using the example what happened in Enid, Oklahoma, as an example. You can read the article at https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/26/us/oklahoma-masks.html OR BY CLICKING HERE.
|
This is the
way they, and millions of Americans, seem to look not only at masking but also
at every other change which has taken place in our country over the past
century and earlier. The pandemic only served
as a focus for their fervor and brought it to a head. It didn’t take long for Enid’s anti-masking vendetta
to spread to other areas such as same sex-marriage, what books were read in the
public schools and a resentment of the supposed equality which came to the
nation after the Civil War. Unsurprisingly, the antii-maskers were subsequently elected to a majority on the city's council.
That is not
the way America works. That is why the Constitution forbids the establishment
of a church in our nation and allows for change to occur through its Amendment
process. Those who are against change
seem to forget than failure to change, when necessary, can be a greater failure
than what they see as undesirable change.
But when the citizenry is incapable of separating the fervor which only
religious beliefs can muster from their approach to social and political change
as manifested in issues such as abortion and the teaching of American history
in public schools, we are in trouble.
Benjamin
Franklin’s quote directly above, hits the nail on the head, but by the time
right dominates over wrong, there may not be a United States any longer, merely
a disunited bunch of States. And to the threat to democracy posed by Republican
tolerance for the intolerable, pointed out by Michael Gerson (also reproduced
above), I wonder if we should be adding the fervent quasi-religious support
these zealots bring to non-theological matters such as masking.
The Headlines in
Today’s (Dec. 28) Palm Beach Post, Say it All.
“COVID Skyrockets over Holiday – Palm Beach County Saw Almost 12,000 New
Cases, Positivity Close to 21%, Test Lines Grow.”
Well, if 21% of the tests are positive, with even those without symptoms being counted among the new cases, that explains the big increase. More testing ends up with more cases being reported.
Nevertheless, a five-day quarantine (sufficient according to the CDC’s latest announcement) for all of them is suggested, along with masking and stricter social distancing. In my opinion, that 21% number applies to the untested population as well, so my advice in the last posting of this blog (“The best way for those without symptoms to deal with the spreading variants of the coronavirus is to behave as if they had tested positive for them even though they weren’t tested!) still holds true.
Looking at the other side of the coin, could it be that many of those without symptoms who are being tested are doing so to confirm that they are NOT infected, giving them some license to revert to pre-pandemic behavior, which could get them infected! Would it be better for them to remain untested and behaving as if they were indeed infected?
Nevertheless, testing seems to be the key to curbing the spread of
infection. Quoting from the Post’s article (by Jane Musgrave with contributions
by Kimberly Miller):
“The demand for testing has increased,
in part, because infections caused by the Omicron variant closely mirror
symptoms of the common cold, *Bush said.
That is making even more people worry they may have contracted the
deadly coronavirus that has already killed more than 813,000 people nationwide,
including 62,389 in Florida. Few people
are now reporting loss of smell and taste, one of the hallmarks of the earlier
variants, such as delta, Bush said. Instead, people are experiencing runny
noses, sore throats, headaches and coughs – all symptoms of he common cold, he
said.
Those with symptoms who are
unwilling to wait in line or are unable to find a home testing kit should
assume e they have COVID-19 and quarantine for at least ten days, *Bush said.
(This blog recommended that, acting as if they were
‘positive,’ two days ago, before the CDC’s reduction of the suggested
quarantine to five days. The article went on to suggest that those who actually
test positive should get monoclonal antibody treatment, but then added that two
readily available approved therapies, including that antibody treatment, are
not effective against the Omicron variant.
In fact, for that reason, some hospitals in the area have even stopped
administering it. There still is a lot
of confusion regarding Covid19, even among professionals.)
*Dr.
Larry Bush, an infectious disease specialist and a former president of the Palm
Beach County Medical Society.
Who's to Blame?
When I exchange
Emails with an unvaccinated, unmasked neighbor, he frequently brings up
evidence “proving” that the pandemic is a hoax, that the vaccine manufacturers
are dishonest, that the vaccines themselves are dangerous, and so forth. This purported
evidence includes opinions of faculty members at Harvard, Stanford and even at
the University of Florida’s medical school. These “experts” are outliers,
exceptions to the vast preponderance of the medical and scientific community
and sometimes tied to libertarian political movements. An MD or PhD after their
names doesn’t make what they say the truth.
But many people believe them. Even some physicians.
Some attack vaccination because of the ability of the latest variants of Covid19 to bypass vaccinations to some extent. They claim this proves their point, even though infections of the vaccinated are milder than those infecting the unvaccinated.
Many of these “scientists”
gathered in 2020 in Barrington, Massachusetts, to produce the Barrington
Declaration, expounding their ideas. Most scientific and medical organizations,
including the World Health Organization, roundly denounced the Declaration’s
views as fallacious and in fact, dangerous.
But that doesn’t stop all too many Americans from believing them.
 |
| Magellan's Voyage of Discovery |
For a long time
after Magellan circumnavigated the earth, many still believed the earth was
flat. There are even a few, very few,
even today who believe that it is. Similarly,
it cannot be denied that there is a body of research, condemned by most
scientists, which is taken as the real truth by those who doubt the realities
of the Covid19 pandemic and who do not trust the remedies science and medicine
have developed to battle it. Occasionally when one is dying, he or she, or their
families, experience a last-minute change of mind regarding vaccination and ask for it, too late.
That is why the Covid19 pandemic will be around for a long time, going into “overtime,” continuing to spread, and producing variants complicating the work of those developing vaccines. Chiefly, it will be the fault of those who are unvaccinated, or who do not believe the pandemic exists, or if they do, believe in remedies which real scientists have found to be worthless such as Ivermectin, a 'de-wormer' used on horses and cattle.
The contagion they will spread will be enough
to keep Covid19 around a long time and will result in many hundreds of
thousands of unnecessary deaths in the United States. Most of them will be among the unvaccinated,
a large percentage of whom might turn out to be Republicans. (The percentage of
those not vaccinated is much higher in States that voted for the former
president in 2020 than it is in States that voted for President Biden.) I am not so cruel as to point out the
political implications of this.
JL
* * * * *
No comments:
Post a Comment