I have repeatedly mentioned I am no fan of Dr. Fauci. I find him annoying. He has a lot of baggage and frankly its time at age 80 to retire. He has validated his creds and he is respected but of all the spokesmodels one could have to educate, inform and discuss Covid, this is the best we got? I call him the Christy Tiegen of the med world. God he needs to zip it.. and frankly does she.
As we have now a third vaccine added to the list the reality that we are coming closer to reducing the spread or to use the catch phrase – flattening the curve. Despite that there are two new variants that are “more contagious” in and of itself vague as what does that mean exactly, have seen numbers of positive cases declining. Death count is now at 500K unless Cuomo is counting so that could be less or more dependent upon the real numbers that were never tallied early on in the pandemic as they were never tested nor confirmed as POS. And we will never know the true number of Covid POS cases as many have never been tested nor confirmed either by choice or because it was again in the early days and the lack of tests and the stringent protocol criteria did not allow them to get tested and as a result they recovered or again died without true accounting of cause of death.
What is still transpiring is the endless misinformation and inaccuracies with regards to Covid and the vaccines. And what that means after one is vaccinated and how they are to proceed until we reach an appropriate level to determine herd immunity. And if Fauci is still the town crier I suspect a great deal of off switches will be used as to the right he will never be anyone worth listening to.
I read this in the Tennessean as a reflection of a year gone by and lack of listening that went down when it came to Covid response in the region. The area is ripe with religion, we know that many of the insurrectionists came from that area, fueled with lies and a lack of respect for science and fact that comes from any source other than behind a pulpit or screen. Lies are best swallowed with some sweet tea and biscuits the better to choke them down and they love their sweet tea. It is also explains the numerous health issues faced by that population so Covid and pre-existing conditions are why that region took a big death toll. That may be the morbidity issue we are trying to understand why faces of color seemed to have higher fatalities, poverty, poor health and lack of access of preventative medical care are massive public health issues in non-pandemic times.
Then let’s face the ugly truth about education, it sucks overall but in the South it is a hot mess of Covid fever. These are people whose academic level of success is largely confined to K-12 and even that is hit and miss. The largest sector of education is secular and that too means a selective approach to matters concerning Science, especially those matters surrounding Biology. It is the sex part kids that set them off. Literacy and ability to read at or above grade level is middling and few do read. There is the landscape itself with concentrated cities that are hardly world class surrounded by largely rural areas with little access to health care, education, let alone bandwidth. The social and physical isolation was long in existence before Covid and the tribalism alone contributes to further segregate people.
The rest of the country in largely rural economies also suffer from this and the Dakotas are certainly another example with a crazy Governor who is determined to be like Trump down to the deaths and destruction of communities rather than admit science may be right and while there were wrong steps made it can be righted. Nope, shame is a factor here that leads people to refuse to apologize and right wrongs. I am no less guilty.
Denial is another. The hoarding of cold and flu medicines did contribute to many who were POS spreading the virus as again getting tested for simply having a fever but no cough, having the shits. Not knowing anyone who had COVID or been in contact with one who had was impossible in the beginning and still is as there is little to no contact tracing and it turn more lies and misinformation. So why any reason, sole reason to be tested should have been enough but that like the vaccines there is never enough so we lie. And we deny and we go on as if we are fine.
Dr. William Schaffner, a prominent infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University who’d watched all year as ill-advised gatherings spread the virus over and over.
Throughout the pandemic, Schaffner gave thousands of interviews to hundreds of news publications, offering expertise that was calm, polite and peppered with the folksy charm. But by December, faced with the same questions about yet another preventable surge, he’d finally grown exhausted of repeating himself.
“We paid a price after Memorial Day. We paid a price after July 4. The same thing happened, more or less, after Thanksgiving,” Schaffner said. “I don’t know how many lessons we need. How many times do we have to do this experiment to convince ourselves of the result?”
Denial and anger seems to be perfectly demonstrated by our Congressional reps. Irony or tragedy, a North Dakota man was elected to his State’s Congress post-humously. And since that two more have died. What more do you need to know with regards to Covid? That it is a virus, it is contagious and it can be deadly. Congress had to learn the hard way being trapped in a room with deniers (not just of the election) and in turn the CPAC convention this weekend will I sure rival any prior super spreader event.
Covid has reminded more and more of AIDS with each passing day. Shame, guilt, retributions and repercussions. The shame and frustration and of course the anger about condoms is the same expressed about masks. I am exhausted from hearing the endless excuses, stories and pleas to encourage safety and health. I have been down this road before and yet we are much like the Doctor in Nashville said, just not able to learn and alter our behavior. Why is that so hard? I assume being an asshole is simply easier.
This article from The Washington Post talks about a small town in Illinois, and its awareness that Covid was not just a big city disease is just one of many as Covid ran amok across the country. The article in the Tennessean ends with this note: And the second year of coronavirus in the American South began the same as the first – with a party. (This was over the cherished hysteria over College Basketball another Southern ritual) But like anywhere in America it is not just the South that feels the need to spread cheer and with it disease.
Off the Rack Publishing 