700,000: The Pandemic of Choices

 

Breaking News: Over 700,000 Americans have died of Covid-19. This pandemic is the deadliest in U.S. history, overtaking the toll from the influenza pandemic of 1918 and 1919. Every age group under 55 saw its highest death toll of the pandemic this August. https://t.co/mNP4pysUKq pic.twitter.com/X9FhcZFtey

— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 1, 2021

It didn't have to be this way. For crying out loud, it didn't have to be this way even before vaccinations were even available--we could have have done a true shutdown and imposed mask mandates in a way that would make masking up seem like no real big thing if Delta flared up here and there. We could have had this thing more in check.

But not getting it in check is clearly a choice, in some ways that have been campaigned for.  Anti-vaxxers want to scoff about "Big Pharma", but there is big money for some reason behind the anti-mask revolt happening in school districts, and people are profiting off of the various snake oil substitutes being touted as alternatives to getting vaxxed. It's a choice 

Anti-vax and ivermectin are pimped by Guo Wengui, a Steve Bannon associate. Anti-vax and anti-mask stuff is promoted anywhere stupid Q memes are sold, because of course it is. Lin Wood tried to stage an anti-hospital intervention for one anti-vax person (now deceased for reasons obvious to people with any kind of sense) but then again he also thinks the 9/11 planes were CGI. Sidney Powell and Mike Flynn were early-adopters of the "segregation" meme that the unvaccinated would be persecuted. (Of course the simple fix is--get vaccinated! Shit. If we're all doing it, is it really unsafe? It isn't like people are being asked to change their religion, political party, or any other thing--just get a shot like one did for measles, mumps and rubella, and all.)

But people have persisted in the idea that not being a "sheeple" and not letting oneself be "tainted" with the vaccine actually makes them special. They are "Purebloods".  As to which--oh Christ on a cracker, can you all just read other books? And also, how did they not notice this was Rowling's analog for Nazis? Like, it's kids' books so she didn't even make it that subtle! And even while being so very special about keeping their blood pure and avoiding the Mark of the Beast,* some even have the utter audacity to compare themselves to Jews wearing the yellow star during the period up to and during the Holocaust.

(And looking at you Q people, who believe every dumb blood libel, Elders of Zion, actually played out anti-semitic meme on the planet, and blame George Soros for a bad day at the beach, are you even fucking kidding me with this mess?)

Anti-vaxxers are not facing a Shoah. They are facing possible job insecurity and some entertainment restrictions until their silly asses get over themselves and realize other people also matter. They also should want to get vaxxed not just so that they are healthy and don't die or have long Covid, but so their babies aren't orphaned.  And their families aren't bankrupted with medical debt. 

These people are listening to paid shills and politically-connected bullshit artists who want to sabotage this country's comeback from COVID-19 because they are mad at the 2020 election results, because they want to disrupt shit, because they are not actually really great patriots, and because they are making money off of it. 

So when I see medical professionals being threatened, so much so that they are thinking of leaving the profession or needing security. I am beyond furious. It shouldn't be that way. We are all, together, facing an issue of life or death, and there is a strong contingent that seems to be siding with death. For reasons so, so spurious and unworthy and also once again affirming my notion that "Where we go one, we go all" sounds like the rallying cry of lemmings racing to the cliff. 

*I note evangelicals are prone to this "Mark of the Beast" idea and the Q libels, which says something ugly about how they educate their kids, and borrows from the idea of Christians having to witness in a wicked world like Christians thrown to lions by the Romans. There's no lions, though. No one cares about your Bible verses, Keightlynn. We just want you to raise little Cody, Jerusha, Abigayle, Bobby Ray and Jonas in good health. Get over yourself.