Sunday, March 20, 2022

August 1, 2021: You'd Have to Practice to Sound that Dumb - the Right-Wing Plan to Deal with COVID-19

 

August 1, 2021: If you haven’t noticed, Loser Don and his band of loony loyalists have crafted a genius plan to derail the U.S. economy (again) and make President Biden look bad. First step: Refuse to get vaccinated. Second step: Get sick. Third: Get hospitalized. Fourth: Start dying. 

It’s not a very smart plan. But it’s working, as far as the dying goes.

 

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“More than 99% of all Covid-19 deaths in June were among unvaccinated people.” 

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of CDC

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This genius plan was crafted by many hands, with leading voices on the right enlisted to issue chilling warnings. According to the Ohio lady, if you got vaccinated, you’d end up magnetized. If you sat down at your office desk paper clips would stick to your head. Alex Jones told listeners if they got shots, they’d be dead within the year. Because the vaccines contained HIV! Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene scared Trump fans, telling them Biden was like a Nazi dictator who wanted to force them to get life-saving shots, just like no Nazi dictator ever. Then she insisted that if you passed rules to keep unvaccinated people away from the rest of us, who don’t want to get sick, or pass sickness along, this was Jim Crow “segregation.” 

It was exactly like the good old days, when African Americans couldn’t vote and could be lynched for trying. 

Rep. Madison Cawthorn joined the fray, telling everyone that if Biden sent health teams to their doors and asked, “Would you like to be vaccinated?” they were actually coming to take the Bibles! 

Trump fans weren’t about to let that happen. So they locked their doors, loaded their AR-15s, and peaked out the curtains.

 

June was bad enough for the unvaccinated. Thousands died needlessly because the plan was stupid. Still, cases were declining. The economy was rebounding. Bibles were still safe. Then a new, more easily transmissible, more dangerous Delta variant began spreading. The people who understood the plan – but didn’t grasp how stupid the plan was – were ready to implement it in full force. 

If doctors told them to get vaccinated, they wouldn’t. 

They would listen to Tucker Carlson when he complained about how you should call the cops on parents who still had children wearing masks outdoors. And the plan began to take hold. CDC continued charting daily cases and daily deaths and the numbers, which had been trending downward, began to reverse.

 

On July 1, 233 Americans died from COVID-19. But the Bibles were safe. Not a single report of a confiscated Bible was heard. You could still read your favorite proverbs on July 2, because another 241 Americans died, protecting us all from imaginary Nazis by not getting vaccinated. 

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had already warned that in June more than 99% of all deaths from Covid-19 were among the unvaccinated. 

Ha! There was no way you could trick people who were in on the right-wing plan. Dr. Walensky was just another medical expert, part of the “deep state.” Trump fans no longer trusted science. No way were they getting magnetized and ending up stuck to lamp posts when they walked down the street. Reports came in slowly over the Fourth of July weekend; but 133 unmagnetized patriots gave their lives on July 3. Another 95 joined them in heaven on July 4. 

No way were the people in on the plan going to get vaccinated and die within a year. They would die on July 5, (98 dead), and July 6 (169 dead), instead, and the plan would gather steam.



Sorry - but the people who believed in the plan were pretty dumb.


 

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“This is the pandemic of the unvaccinated.” 

On July 7, Maryland’s Gov. Larry Hogan announced that 130 people in his state had died from COVID in June. An impressive 100% were unvaccinated. The people who backed the plan, the way four-year-old children insist they woke up and saw the Tooth Fairy, hinted that Hogan was a RINO. Then they noticed that the story was aired by CNN, which made it “Fake News.” That day 259 Americans who were not fooled by “Fake News” proved it by dying. 

You couldn’t fool the folks who loved Trump (who for some reason had been vaccinated long ago, as had his wife). Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida pushed the plan by telling Floridians they were safe from additional mask mandates, which would be passed over his dead body. Or theirs. In Brevard County, hospitals began to fill with the unvaccinated. Again. One of Florida’s largest healthcare providers began setting up treatment tents outside its hospitals, fearing they’d need more beds for the latest wave of the seriously sick. 

On July 8, 189 died.

 

The next day 222 died, and the next 116, and the next after that, 103. It was a slow day for the plan; but then the plan really kicked in. On July 12, 173 Americans died. But not one had had a computer chip implanted in an arm, as other right-wing advocates of the plan had warned. No way would those who understood the plan let Biden surveil their every move, by shooting chips through a needle into their blood stream. On July 13, 337 chip-less Americans died. 

On July 14 another 288 lost their lives. 

On July 15 the toll was 239. 

On July 16: 253.

 

By July 17, it was clear, the plan was kicking in strong. In Texas, state officials announced that 2,653 Texans were hospitalized with COVID-19, 134 more than the day before. And on that day 122 Americans, including a few Texans, gave up the ghost, leaving proud family members behind. Their loved ones had died to protect the right to hack up phlegm on anyone they liked. 

July 18 was a terrible day for the plan – with the CDC reporting only 85 dead. 

But the plan was working in subtler ways. On June 19, the average daily number of new cases in this country had fallen to 11,500. President Biden was looking good. Still, if enough people would adhere to the plan, the number of cases would balloon. And Biden would look bad! 

By July 19, we were averaging more than 36,000 cases per day and another 184 persons died.

 

Meanwhile, two medical experts compared vaccination rates for Missouri (population 6.2 million) and Massachusetts (6.9 million). Missouri, with 40% of the population vaccinated, was racking up 2,000 to 3,000 new infections per day. Massachusetts, with 63% vaccinated, was seeing 200 to 300. In other words, the plan was working brilliantly in a red state, but in blue Massachusetts people refused to be patriots and get sick and die. On July 20, 1,357 Missourians were hospitalized with COVID-19. You figure their families were proud to stand up for the freedom, not take shots, and pay massive hospital bills instead. In Massachusetts only 106 coronavirus patients filled hospital beds. On July 20, the plan helped speed another 273 Americans to heaven. 

On July 21, Sen. Rand Paul spent his time during a Senate committee hearing attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci, who said masks and vaccines were good. Sen. Paul tried to pin the blame for the spread of coronavirus on him. The senator, of course, was one of the first advocates of the plan, refusing in the spring of 2020 to mask up in the Senate gym, even after he had been tested for coronavirus – and turned out to be positive. Now, here he was again, blasting Dr. Fauci. And on that day 407 Americans gave their lives in an effort to prove Sen. Paul was right. 

That Dr. Fauci, who had insisted we all get vaccinated, was at fault if we didn’t get vaccinated and died.

 

That day, Connecticut health experts sent a message that seemed clear. “This is no longer a pandemic of the people, this is the pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Dr. Ulysses Wu, an infectious disease specialist at Hartford HealthCare, said. “It is that clear of a distinction.” 

Dr. David Banach, an epidemiologist at UConn Health, told reporters that he was not aware of any vaccinated patients his hospital had treated for weeks. Connecticut officials could report, the last time they checked, that on May 7 there had been only 242 confirmed “breakthrough” infections out of 1.4 million Connecticut residents who had had the shots.  

Still, you could not fool fans of the plan! It was just as Tucker Carlson had said on one of his many shows, pushing the stupid plan. The vaccines don’t really work. Those 242 people still got sick! 

On July 22, another 413 Americans died.

 

On July 23, Rick Dennison, a coach for the Minnesota Vikings – a man with a plan of his own – refused to get vaccinated as NFL protocols required. 

He got fired, as a result, and on that day 282 Americans died from a disease which was spreading because of people like Coach Rick.

 

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“The absolute common denominator amongst those patients.” 

In Missouri, you could sense frustration in the words of emergency physician Dr. Howard Jarvis, who warned that the Covid-19 patients he was seeing were younger than ever. “If they’re sick enough to be admitted to the hospital, they are unvaccinated,” he told CNN. “That is the absolute common denominator amongst those patients.” 

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University, tried putting the matter in the simplest possible terms. If people didn’t want to wear masks, but wanted to avoid getting infected, they needed to get vaccinated. “We can’t have it both ways. We can’t be both unmasked and non-socially distant and unvaccinated. That won’t work.”

 

Tucker Carlson now insisted that a government push for mask-wearing and vaccinations was all about “social control,” part of a sinister plot to snuff out our liberties. By July 23 we were averaging nearly 48,000 new cases per day. 

Lara Trump showed up on Fox News and spewed support for the plan like infected persons spew germs. She told Sean Hannity that all the mask-wearing-social-distancing-schools-closing baloney had “never been about following the science, it’s never been about following the facts and the truth.” 

Nope. “It’s been about control from day one.” 

So the dying continued because that was the real bottom line of this idiotic plan. On July 24, 169 died. On July 25, 142, and on July 26, 286. By July 27, we were averaging 62,000 new cases a day. 

Then again, the Vikings announced, without much fanfare, that Coach Dennison was not going to lose his job. He may have agreed to be vaccinated. He may have had some medical exemption. Anyway, he was back at work. That same day, we learned another 421 Americans had lost their jobs, if they had any, and their lives, as COVID-19 swept them away.

 

On July 28, Orange County Chief Executive Officer Jerry L. Demings, in Florida, home to Disney World, warned that his county was in “crisis mode.” New cases of the Delta variant were surging. Hospitals were again full. “We are seeing nearly 1,000 new cases in Orange County daily. Those are the numbers we saw at the highest peak last year,” he said during a press conference. The numbers, he added, were “extraordinary,” and not in a good way.

Then he called on everyone who was hearing his voice to get vaccinated and made his reasoning clear. Speaking to the general public, and any tourists headed for Florida, as well, he said, 

Many of you cannot afford to get sick. Many of you do not want to get sick. You do not want to infect your family members, just like me. So, the time really is now – like no other time in our community – for you to step up to the plate and get vaccinated. We, as a community, need to work together to slow the spread.

 

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Spreading like chickenpox and measles. 

In Texas, another medical expert decided it was time to speak up. Texas Governor Greg Abbott had made it clear, he hated the idea of new mask mandates and federal vaccination teams traipsing around his state, like he would if you threw tarantulas in his bed. 

The Delta variant, Jim Versalovic, Pathologist-in-Chief and Interim Pediatrician-in-Chief at Texas Children’s Hospital, told the Houston Press, is much worse for children. “Currently, roughly 10 percent of those children who test positive do require hospitalization and roughly one-third of those may require critical care.” Some of those children ended up on ventilators, he added, saying, “We have seen severe cases of COVID pneumonia and acute respiratory distress in children.” 

That same day, Texas health officials announced more than 10,000 new infections across the state.

 

Meanwhile, two U.S. Navy sailors died from coronavirus infection. This time, the victims were Master-at-Arms First Class Allen Hillman, 47, of Boise, and Capt. Corby Ropp, 48, of Camp Lejeune. 

Ropp was a Navy doctor. 

There was renewed turmoil in the U.S. House of Representatives when Speaker Nancy Pelosi reinstated the mask-mandate for members on the floor. This was more than Rep. Lauren Boebert could stand. She pranced through the door, was handed a mask by a House staffer, and threw it in the staffer’s face. 

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy did his bit to stir up support for the knucklehead plan. He insisted Democrats and health officials had “broken the nation’s trust,” after saying some days ago that we could go without masks if we were fully vaccinated – ending a mandate Republicans opposed from Day 1. Whereas his side had said for over a year, that this virus was no worse than the flu, and it was going away, and if not, we should guzzle some bleach. Now, with the Delta variant spreading with unexpected speed, and posing a grave danger, the CDC had wisely changed course. Republicans, of course, have followed the same plan, straight and true. 

Pretend the pandemic isn’t so bad.

 

Speaker Pelosi added a little fun to the mix, calling McCarthy – who once said Trump bore responsibility for the January 6 riot, and then changed course and said, no, Trump was the best president ever – a “moron.” 

CDC posted new cases and new deaths numbers for July 28: more than 84,600 cases; and another 362 dead. 

On Thursday, July 29, the nation logged another 79,700 cases and another 370 coronavirus patients were pronounced dead. 

On July 30, we topped 101,000 new cases, and 451 people died. 

Even worse, on July 30, CDC warned that the new Delta variant makes people sicker, kills them more often, and spreads, possibly, with the ease and rapidity of chickenpox and measles, but to more deadly effect.

 

This, of course, is just the worst mutation of the original virus; and the more people who refuse to get vaccinated, and the more people who get infected, the more chances we have of new mutations. 

All we really need for the plan to be a rip-roaring right-wing success is for a variant to develop that starts killing children. 

Finally, on July 31, another 300 Americans, infected by a disease that the right-wingers long denied was even a threat, passed on. 

That brought the toll for July to 

7,424 dead.

 

That’s equivalent to the death toll during the Battle of Gettysburg if you’d like a bit of perspective.

 

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You’d have to practice to sound that dumb. 

EXPECT AGAIN to learn that something like 99% of those who died in July were people who had not been vaccinated, infected by other persons who had not been vaccinated, often by family and friends that loved them. 

Perhaps the dumbest possible comment you could make in support of this right-wing plan came from Newsmax host Rob Schmitt. In a clip from one of his shows he admits he’s “not a doctor.” But he thinks a lot about nature. Like birds and bees, and stuff. He thinks about the way everything works, “and I feel like a vaccination, in a weird way, is just generally going against nature.”

 

If there’s some disease out there, he suggests, well “there’s an ebb and flow to life,” and if something is out there and wipes out a bunch of people…well, that’s just the way evolution goes!

 

Really. You couldn’t sound dumber if you were auditioning for a sequel to Dumb and Dumber.

 

You’d have to practice to sound that dumb.

 

You’d need lessons.

 

Schmitt’s comments were so dumb, Newsmax had no choice but to issue a disclaimer. “Medical professionals who have appeared on Newsmax have strongly encouraged Americans to get the vaccine,” a spokesperson said. “From time to time, a guest or host may not be as supportive of these efforts. However, they do not reflect the position of Newsmax.” 

 

So, there it is. On one side you have doctors and evidence. On the other you have Tucker, and Lara, and Schmitt.

 

The right-wing side also has Trump – the perpetually clueless ex-president – who said this virus was just a flu.

 

Plus, the Demon Sperm Lady.

 

Plus, the Magnet Lady.

 

Plus, Diamond and Silk.

 

CDC says the death toll now stands at 613,113.

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