Just don't get why acquired immunity doesn't get a play. Damn, the Native Americans almost got wiped out by the coronavirus (common cold) from the first Europeans setting foot here. Surely the young and healthy acquired an immunity and unfortunately the risk groups took a hit. So vax is beneficial to those risk groups. Healthy with acquired immunity from exposure are in good shape and if they want the vax go for it. Acquired immunity should be on equal footing, don't accuse us all of being anti-vax. In this case most of us, especially in NYC, were exposed during the onset. Especially the "essential workers" - now fire them? Please those castigating these workers are either ill-informed or naive, take your pick. Our immune system is pretty damn good!
Matt, Very, very well done. Live and let live (or maybe "Live and Let Die" unless that's a copyright violation). Sorry, maybe that's harsh.
A point you touched on briefly with your mention of the differing advice you got from two doctors is the constantly changing "wisdom" from the CDC and Fauci. While some of this is understandable (we're all trying to figure this out), some of it does feel like there is some ulterior motive that I and others don't understand and makes people suspicious. There have been dozens of studies/papers supporting natural immunity as being as good or better than the vaccine. No rational person would suggest you should deliberately get Covid but why have the CDC and Fauci ignored natural immunity in their recommendations on vaccination? The CDC finally just published a study showing natural immunity was more effective than the vaccine at preventing an infection from Delta. https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/01/19/cdc-prior-covid-infection-offered-more-protection-against-delta-than-vaccines---but-both-together-did-best/?sh=2ac249193d04 This is logical since the vaccine was based on Alpha. The strength of natural immunity has been known for over a year by virtue of studies in other countries but ignored here. Why? People have been fired from jobs who already had Covid because of the CDC and Fauci's refusal to acknowledge natural immunity. This is the kind of thing that throws gas on the vaccine hesitancy fire.
There also have been studies for over a year showing that N95 masks are the only masks that are highly effective at stopping the spread of Covid. Why was that ignored for so long and NOW is finally admitted? If the CDC and Fauci had communicated in a forthright and honest way from the beginning, I think the vaccine resistors would have been much more likely to come around. Fauci’s credibility dropped dramatically in my mind when, after saying people shouldn’t go to church, shouldn’t go to indoor or outdoor sporting events and naming many other specific activities people shouldn’t do, he refused to say that people jamming into the streets at a demonstration was a bad idea. It was obvious at that point that he was politicized.
Fauci’s attempts to marginalize the epidemiologists from Stanford, Oxford and Harvard as “fringe epidemiologists” because they dared to suggest that lock downs caused more harm than good is outrageous. See the Great Barrington Declaration which is now, over a year later, gaining more acceptance. His work to convince his associates to stamp out any suggestion of a Wuhan Lab Leak in the letter they published in the Lancet in early 2020 has now been exposed. How could it possibly have been known in early 2020 that it was impossible for Covid to have come from a lab? And NOW we are finally looking into this as a possibility. His lies about NIH funding of gain of function research that has now been exposed, changing the definition of gain of function research to try to cover this up as well as changing the definition of vaccine itself so the Covid shot could be called a vaccine all add to the ability of the vaccine hesitant to feel justified in their position.
I’m vaccinated and boosted. I believe in them but something is wrong with the CDC, Fauci and even the FDA in their processes and communication and, I believe, motives. Either they are supremely incompetent or they are crooked or maybe both. Rather than have open conversations with experienced, informed persons that may have different opinions, Fauci has attacked or bullied others in his field to make sure his is the only opinion that appears credible. And he's had lots of help from the media who have taken the position that any views not in alignment with Fauci and the CDC are misinformation no matter how expert the opposing opinion may be. (See Dr. Robert Malone being recently banned from Twitter. I have no idea whether he is right or wrong but he is certainly qualified to speak on the subject of vaccines and MRNA.) It is extraordinarily dangerous for the scientific community not to have open debate and dialogue on these important matters. People are not stupid. They see this happening and it adds to their suspicions about the information they are receiving. As a result, anti-vaxers have ample ammunition for believing they are right which is sad since they may pay with their life for their views.
Thank you. This is the greatest and most fulfilling job career I have ever had the pleasure of doing. Just a short list
Paramedic
USCG
Defense Contractor
ATT Wireless #1 Sales Nationally
FEMA ATT Contractor
White House ATT.Contractor
Sprint Wireless #1 Sales Nationally
KBR Private Military Contractor Iraq (too old to reenlist)
I have been blessed by those opportunities and the Mentors that provided me with the best they had to offer. That being said
Currently at the VA I work 80 to 85 hours a week. I make just over 13.00 an hour and 20.00 on OT. My shift(s) run on a double at 1130 PM until 330 PM the next day.
Simple: Would not change it for a winning Mega Millions Lotto ticket. I lied. I would continue to do this for free and donate my paychecks to several Vets orgs.
you ask why?if the covidiots are filling up hospitals ,whom bears the burden?its not just the covidiots,its all of society,the same society that as a free nation says you may not drink and drive,for the chance you may kill,harm ,some one else..the list is all most endless on what the government,society asks of you to protect others,think of the 2nd amendment, and your right to not own a fully automatic weapon.
Look folks As a front liner and as I type this sit bedside with a dying Vet due to C19 complications. He will die God willing with me holding his hand without his wife children or grandchildren able to say good bye. Without seeing him since this SHIT hit the fan. I have and continue to follow protocol from masks to full contamination suit for 16 hours 5 to 6 days a week. I am as is every single Veteran resident triple vaccinated yet I still pack these residents into body bags Please let that sink in. Most have/had other medical issues Type 2 D, HBP, High Cholesterol Heart and or Lung issues and other immune lowering issues. I ask you on both sides that know someone on the other side that has one of the above. Me....I have all of the above yet everyday I willingly expose myself to one of the most deadly pandemics in the history of man. Who doesn't have at least one? You are asking where is all of this going? With everything I know and have been told by truly experts "Bill to be 100% honest vaccines and masks and distancing do not absolutely prevent anything. They only reduce the chances and effects."
Oh BTW after nearly 2 years doing this I got Omicron. Absolutely reduced effects and symptoms with no fever and reduced recovery. Yet I still believe we as individuals have the right to make decisions about our lives. I still believe the unvaxxed have a right to be unvaxxed. I believe the same goes for maaks and distancing. What I do not believe us we have right not to respect the decisions we make that may infect and potentially kill.
My Vets, most have experienced the worst humans can do to humans. They came home and moved on only to end up here with me holding their hand as they take their final breath as I ask God to have mercy on their soul. All because someone vaxxed or unvaxxed made a decision to not take proper precautions. Confused? So am I.
You do realize many of us unvaxxed (which apparently makes us anti-vaxxers despite the fact we've had all other vaccinations) already had Covid. Y'all are finally waking up to the fact that having Covid is equal to (or better than) being triple jabbed. I had Covid in Oct 2020 and have not had delta, Omicron or any other variant.
I’m with you on the need to get beyond the vax/unvaxx divide with one caveat – The un-vaxxed should have to suffer the financial repercussions of their choice. Insurance companies should be able to absolve themselves of the treatment costs for the unvaccinated. If this was done six months after the vaccine was available, the hospitals would not be nearly as full right now. The only way to get through to some is through their wallet. I don’t care if you are vaccinated or not (your gamble), but I don’t want to be on the hook for the insurance hike that will surely result from this chaos.
There are no easy solutions for getting thru to those who don’t want to listen. We cannot deny care. Vaccine passports are ridiculous. But making antivaxxers pay for their own choices is entirely reasonable. It’s the least they can do for filling hospitals, taxing health care workers, that should be treating cancer and heart attacks.
I love the quote from H.L. Mencken and I especially appreciate your point about convenient (or inconvenient) science.
I've never heard of anyone being invited to, or hosting, a "fetus shower". That's a baby in there.
And the fact that NPR now refers to "pregnant people" rather than pregnant women doesn't change the fact that neither you nor I ever had to deal with becoming pregnant. Even if we decided to "switch teams in the middle of the game" (a la Bruce Jenner), it would still be an impossibility.....Right? Please tell me I'm right.
The best argument for enforcing mask bans in restaurants and on lanes is that it at least partially protects the workers. I have friends in the restaurant industry who can't keep their places open (or are only opening 3 days a week) because of staffing issues. Staff get sick or test positive. They don't have health insurance and don't get paid time off.
I find the attitude of some anti-vaxxers infuriating. They don't want to get vaxxed, don't want to wear masks and yet are the first to complain when their local store isn't fully staffed. My wife does HR for a major retailer and they struggle on a daily basis to have enough healthy staff to man the cash registers. They often end up using the people who should be restocking the shelves . Which leads to complaints about a lack of merchandise.
If this pandemic has show me one thing, it's that there are a lot of Americans who never give the slightest thought to the people who keep this country's infrastructure running smoothly.
Near the end of his piece today Matt spoke of compassion and humility. Over at The B recently, JVL wrote of kindness and empathy. Good and noble things, all. Both these pieces flow in the vein of how people on the vaxxed side of the Covid divide should deal with and feel toward those on the other. I'm gonna' take the lazy guy's way out and just retread a comment I left somewhere a few days ago concerning this.
Took me quite a while to get to the point I could even consider those words in relation to how I feel about or behave toward people whom I've considered, for lack of a better word, my enemies. There was no huge moral awakening involved in realizing my lack of those qualities regarding these folks when they became ill and perhaps died was wrong. It simply took the realization that I was myself practicing that which I detested most in the objects of my self-righteous scorn. I didn't give a shit about them, just like they obviously didn't give a shit about me. And I don't give a shit about what anyone says to the contrary, that is wrong on a lot of different levels.
But I won't get into why that is wrong beyond why that is wrong for me personally. Everybody has their own ideas about this, and I'm not going to try to convert anyone here. Anyone decides maybe my words have a little merit, that's great. No? NBD. I wouldn't argue with you. This is a very personal thing for all of us.
I am a Lukewarm Christian, a member of that denomination that doesn't sit in church pews and isn't 100% sure about 100% of everything that's labeled "Christian". Still, what faith I do have demands better of me than total indifference to the suffering of others, even if I believe those others' travails are much of their own making. My faith demands that I at least occasionally recall the fact that "God loves a sinner" and that my life isn't of more value in His eyes because I see myself as doing the right thing and the other guy as doing the wrong thing. It demands that I consider the possibility that I could occasionally be wrong myself, hard as that may be for me to believe.
So, I try to remember this when I learn of some anti-vaxer partisan hack who's ended up biting the dust. Or some nefarious misinformation merchant. Or some guy "who should have just known better, for cripes sake!" Now, I don't feel sorry for them. Wouldn't do 'em any good if I did. But I no longer exult in their having "gotten what's comin' to 'em", because we're all gonna' get what's commin' to us in the end, one way or another. And I do at least consider that those they left behind are feeling real pain, whether "justifiably" or not, since I'm not really qualified to decide what's justifiable in the way of the pain that others feel. I've felt that kind of pain myself a few times over the years, and it was real for me regardless of other's views or opinions of me.
I am, as many of us are, totally worn out by all of this. All of it. Covid itself, the politics of it. Everything. And my supply of kindness, empathy and compassion is running low. As to humility, well, I never had much of that to begin with, I guess. At least not enough. But I've put in a replacement order for the first three, along with a side order of the fourth, if any becomes available. If it all gets hung up in a supply chain disruption somewhere, I'll just have to ration whatever I've got left, I suppose. And there's always plan B if I run completely out. I'll just fake it. Like wearing a mask, it's not that hard to do. And if that's hypocritical, at least it's better than becoming a much, much bigger asshat than the asshats that have so long been the target of my animus for being "people who should know better". Because I realize I do, in fact, know better myself.
To hear fetal viability and the reality of biological gender offered as examples of the willful suspension of disbelief by our otherwise science enthusiastic brethren delights me. To quote S.D. O'Connor in '85 re Roe "bad law, but I must support it" she noted that viability due to it's changing nature was not a good standard. This is from memory, I may have botched it.
I don't judge unvaxed fellow citizens. I think they probably fall into the category of certitude identified by Mencken and progress is hardly their agenda. Indeed, retreat to superstition and neurotic fear is the status in which they wish to dwell.
In Sebastian Junger's most recent book, 'Freedom,' he articulated a view that is not acknowledged by those who eschew vaccinations. His premise is freedom is absolutely your right. You may remove yourself from the restrictions that chaff and be completely unrestricted. The Apache tribe eluded the restrictions of the US Cavalry for 30 years in the mountains of Arizona. Completely free. So, go. Be free. You are released.
But if you choose to live in community and enjoy all the benefits that are accorded to you therewith, you may be asked to accede to community requirements that provide for the health and well-being of all members of the community, including those who may be more vulnerable than you.
So, not to put too fine a point on it . . . Wise up. You are being duped and led to your own demise. We can't save you. Only you can save yourself . . . And the weaker members of the tribe, and the economy.
Close of rant. We now return to your originally scheduled program.
I am triple vaxed. But as you correctly noted, I can get and spread the Vid. I’d like to avoid that, so I wear a mask in certain circumstances for myself..a me me me thing. I also wear a mask if I’m around children under 5 or an elderly relative or my friend working through a cancer diagnosis. I guess I am bit jaded at this point, but I don’t believe that many in the anti mandate movement will don a mask under any circumstances unless forced, and it’s less douchy to object to a mandate than to hold up a sign objecting to acting like a considerate adult.
Just don't get why acquired immunity doesn't get a play. Damn, the Native Americans almost got wiped out by the coronavirus (common cold) from the first Europeans setting foot here. Surely the young and healthy acquired an immunity and unfortunately the risk groups took a hit. So vax is beneficial to those risk groups. Healthy with acquired immunity from exposure are in good shape and if they want the vax go for it. Acquired immunity should be on equal footing, don't accuse us all of being anti-vax. In this case most of us, especially in NYC, were exposed during the onset. Especially the "essential workers" - now fire them? Please those castigating these workers are either ill-informed or naive, take your pick. Our immune system is pretty damn good!
Matt, Very, very well done. Live and let live (or maybe "Live and Let Die" unless that's a copyright violation). Sorry, maybe that's harsh.
A point you touched on briefly with your mention of the differing advice you got from two doctors is the constantly changing "wisdom" from the CDC and Fauci. While some of this is understandable (we're all trying to figure this out), some of it does feel like there is some ulterior motive that I and others don't understand and makes people suspicious. There have been dozens of studies/papers supporting natural immunity as being as good or better than the vaccine. No rational person would suggest you should deliberately get Covid but why have the CDC and Fauci ignored natural immunity in their recommendations on vaccination? The CDC finally just published a study showing natural immunity was more effective than the vaccine at preventing an infection from Delta. https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/01/19/cdc-prior-covid-infection-offered-more-protection-against-delta-than-vaccines---but-both-together-did-best/?sh=2ac249193d04 This is logical since the vaccine was based on Alpha. The strength of natural immunity has been known for over a year by virtue of studies in other countries but ignored here. Why? People have been fired from jobs who already had Covid because of the CDC and Fauci's refusal to acknowledge natural immunity. This is the kind of thing that throws gas on the vaccine hesitancy fire.
There also have been studies for over a year showing that N95 masks are the only masks that are highly effective at stopping the spread of Covid. Why was that ignored for so long and NOW is finally admitted? If the CDC and Fauci had communicated in a forthright and honest way from the beginning, I think the vaccine resistors would have been much more likely to come around. Fauci’s credibility dropped dramatically in my mind when, after saying people shouldn’t go to church, shouldn’t go to indoor or outdoor sporting events and naming many other specific activities people shouldn’t do, he refused to say that people jamming into the streets at a demonstration was a bad idea. It was obvious at that point that he was politicized.
Fauci’s attempts to marginalize the epidemiologists from Stanford, Oxford and Harvard as “fringe epidemiologists” because they dared to suggest that lock downs caused more harm than good is outrageous. See the Great Barrington Declaration which is now, over a year later, gaining more acceptance. His work to convince his associates to stamp out any suggestion of a Wuhan Lab Leak in the letter they published in the Lancet in early 2020 has now been exposed. How could it possibly have been known in early 2020 that it was impossible for Covid to have come from a lab? And NOW we are finally looking into this as a possibility. His lies about NIH funding of gain of function research that has now been exposed, changing the definition of gain of function research to try to cover this up as well as changing the definition of vaccine itself so the Covid shot could be called a vaccine all add to the ability of the vaccine hesitant to feel justified in their position.
I’m vaccinated and boosted. I believe in them but something is wrong with the CDC, Fauci and even the FDA in their processes and communication and, I believe, motives. Either they are supremely incompetent or they are crooked or maybe both. Rather than have open conversations with experienced, informed persons that may have different opinions, Fauci has attacked or bullied others in his field to make sure his is the only opinion that appears credible. And he's had lots of help from the media who have taken the position that any views not in alignment with Fauci and the CDC are misinformation no matter how expert the opposing opinion may be. (See Dr. Robert Malone being recently banned from Twitter. I have no idea whether he is right or wrong but he is certainly qualified to speak on the subject of vaccines and MRNA.) It is extraordinarily dangerous for the scientific community not to have open debate and dialogue on these important matters. People are not stupid. They see this happening and it adds to their suspicions about the information they are receiving. As a result, anti-vaxers have ample ammunition for believing they are right which is sad since they may pay with their life for their views.
Thank you. This is the greatest and most fulfilling job career I have ever had the pleasure of doing. Just a short list
Paramedic
USCG
Defense Contractor
ATT Wireless #1 Sales Nationally
FEMA ATT Contractor
White House ATT.Contractor
Sprint Wireless #1 Sales Nationally
KBR Private Military Contractor Iraq (too old to reenlist)
I have been blessed by those opportunities and the Mentors that provided me with the best they had to offer. That being said
Currently at the VA I work 80 to 85 hours a week. I make just over 13.00 an hour and 20.00 on OT. My shift(s) run on a double at 1130 PM until 330 PM the next day.
Simple: Would not change it for a winning Mega Millions Lotto ticket. I lied. I would continue to do this for free and donate my paychecks to several Vets orgs.
you ask why?if the covidiots are filling up hospitals ,whom bears the burden?its not just the covidiots,its all of society,the same society that as a free nation says you may not drink and drive,for the chance you may kill,harm ,some one else..the list is all most endless on what the government,society asks of you to protect others,think of the 2nd amendment, and your right to not own a fully automatic weapon.
Look folks As a front liner and as I type this sit bedside with a dying Vet due to C19 complications. He will die God willing with me holding his hand without his wife children or grandchildren able to say good bye. Without seeing him since this SHIT hit the fan. I have and continue to follow protocol from masks to full contamination suit for 16 hours 5 to 6 days a week. I am as is every single Veteran resident triple vaccinated yet I still pack these residents into body bags Please let that sink in. Most have/had other medical issues Type 2 D, HBP, High Cholesterol Heart and or Lung issues and other immune lowering issues. I ask you on both sides that know someone on the other side that has one of the above. Me....I have all of the above yet everyday I willingly expose myself to one of the most deadly pandemics in the history of man. Who doesn't have at least one? You are asking where is all of this going? With everything I know and have been told by truly experts "Bill to be 100% honest vaccines and masks and distancing do not absolutely prevent anything. They only reduce the chances and effects."
Oh BTW after nearly 2 years doing this I got Omicron. Absolutely reduced effects and symptoms with no fever and reduced recovery. Yet I still believe we as individuals have the right to make decisions about our lives. I still believe the unvaxxed have a right to be unvaxxed. I believe the same goes for maaks and distancing. What I do not believe us we have right not to respect the decisions we make that may infect and potentially kill.
My Vets, most have experienced the worst humans can do to humans. They came home and moved on only to end up here with me holding their hand as they take their final breath as I ask God to have mercy on their soul. All because someone vaxxed or unvaxxed made a decision to not take proper precautions. Confused? So am I.
You do realize many of us unvaxxed (which apparently makes us anti-vaxxers despite the fact we've had all other vaccinations) already had Covid. Y'all are finally waking up to the fact that having Covid is equal to (or better than) being triple jabbed. I had Covid in Oct 2020 and have not had delta, Omicron or any other variant.
🖖🏻
Taking on a tough topic with humor and humility. Thanks for another great read, Matt.
Faxed & boostered, the way of the iron sharpening iron🗡
I’m with you on the need to get beyond the vax/unvaxx divide with one caveat – The un-vaxxed should have to suffer the financial repercussions of their choice. Insurance companies should be able to absolve themselves of the treatment costs for the unvaccinated. If this was done six months after the vaccine was available, the hospitals would not be nearly as full right now. The only way to get through to some is through their wallet. I don’t care if you are vaccinated or not (your gamble), but I don’t want to be on the hook for the insurance hike that will surely result from this chaos.
There are no easy solutions for getting thru to those who don’t want to listen. We cannot deny care. Vaccine passports are ridiculous. But making antivaxxers pay for their own choices is entirely reasonable. It’s the least they can do for filling hospitals, taxing health care workers, that should be treating cancer and heart attacks.
Another great one, Matt.
I love the quote from H.L. Mencken and I especially appreciate your point about convenient (or inconvenient) science.
I've never heard of anyone being invited to, or hosting, a "fetus shower". That's a baby in there.
And the fact that NPR now refers to "pregnant people" rather than pregnant women doesn't change the fact that neither you nor I ever had to deal with becoming pregnant. Even if we decided to "switch teams in the middle of the game" (a la Bruce Jenner), it would still be an impossibility.....Right? Please tell me I'm right.
The best argument for enforcing mask bans in restaurants and on lanes is that it at least partially protects the workers. I have friends in the restaurant industry who can't keep their places open (or are only opening 3 days a week) because of staffing issues. Staff get sick or test positive. They don't have health insurance and don't get paid time off.
I find the attitude of some anti-vaxxers infuriating. They don't want to get vaxxed, don't want to wear masks and yet are the first to complain when their local store isn't fully staffed. My wife does HR for a major retailer and they struggle on a daily basis to have enough healthy staff to man the cash registers. They often end up using the people who should be restocking the shelves . Which leads to complaints about a lack of merchandise.
If this pandemic has show me one thing, it's that there are a lot of Americans who never give the slightest thought to the people who keep this country's infrastructure running smoothly.
Near the end of his piece today Matt spoke of compassion and humility. Over at The B recently, JVL wrote of kindness and empathy. Good and noble things, all. Both these pieces flow in the vein of how people on the vaxxed side of the Covid divide should deal with and feel toward those on the other. I'm gonna' take the lazy guy's way out and just retread a comment I left somewhere a few days ago concerning this.
Took me quite a while to get to the point I could even consider those words in relation to how I feel about or behave toward people whom I've considered, for lack of a better word, my enemies. There was no huge moral awakening involved in realizing my lack of those qualities regarding these folks when they became ill and perhaps died was wrong. It simply took the realization that I was myself practicing that which I detested most in the objects of my self-righteous scorn. I didn't give a shit about them, just like they obviously didn't give a shit about me. And I don't give a shit about what anyone says to the contrary, that is wrong on a lot of different levels.
But I won't get into why that is wrong beyond why that is wrong for me personally. Everybody has their own ideas about this, and I'm not going to try to convert anyone here. Anyone decides maybe my words have a little merit, that's great. No? NBD. I wouldn't argue with you. This is a very personal thing for all of us.
I am a Lukewarm Christian, a member of that denomination that doesn't sit in church pews and isn't 100% sure about 100% of everything that's labeled "Christian". Still, what faith I do have demands better of me than total indifference to the suffering of others, even if I believe those others' travails are much of their own making. My faith demands that I at least occasionally recall the fact that "God loves a sinner" and that my life isn't of more value in His eyes because I see myself as doing the right thing and the other guy as doing the wrong thing. It demands that I consider the possibility that I could occasionally be wrong myself, hard as that may be for me to believe.
So, I try to remember this when I learn of some anti-vaxer partisan hack who's ended up biting the dust. Or some nefarious misinformation merchant. Or some guy "who should have just known better, for cripes sake!" Now, I don't feel sorry for them. Wouldn't do 'em any good if I did. But I no longer exult in their having "gotten what's comin' to 'em", because we're all gonna' get what's commin' to us in the end, one way or another. And I do at least consider that those they left behind are feeling real pain, whether "justifiably" or not, since I'm not really qualified to decide what's justifiable in the way of the pain that others feel. I've felt that kind of pain myself a few times over the years, and it was real for me regardless of other's views or opinions of me.
I am, as many of us are, totally worn out by all of this. All of it. Covid itself, the politics of it. Everything. And my supply of kindness, empathy and compassion is running low. As to humility, well, I never had much of that to begin with, I guess. At least not enough. But I've put in a replacement order for the first three, along with a side order of the fourth, if any becomes available. If it all gets hung up in a supply chain disruption somewhere, I'll just have to ration whatever I've got left, I suppose. And there's always plan B if I run completely out. I'll just fake it. Like wearing a mask, it's not that hard to do. And if that's hypocritical, at least it's better than becoming a much, much bigger asshat than the asshats that have so long been the target of my animus for being "people who should know better". Because I realize I do, in fact, know better myself.
To hear fetal viability and the reality of biological gender offered as examples of the willful suspension of disbelief by our otherwise science enthusiastic brethren delights me. To quote S.D. O'Connor in '85 re Roe "bad law, but I must support it" she noted that viability due to it's changing nature was not a good standard. This is from memory, I may have botched it.
I don't judge unvaxed fellow citizens. I think they probably fall into the category of certitude identified by Mencken and progress is hardly their agenda. Indeed, retreat to superstition and neurotic fear is the status in which they wish to dwell.
In Sebastian Junger's most recent book, 'Freedom,' he articulated a view that is not acknowledged by those who eschew vaccinations. His premise is freedom is absolutely your right. You may remove yourself from the restrictions that chaff and be completely unrestricted. The Apache tribe eluded the restrictions of the US Cavalry for 30 years in the mountains of Arizona. Completely free. So, go. Be free. You are released.
But if you choose to live in community and enjoy all the benefits that are accorded to you therewith, you may be asked to accede to community requirements that provide for the health and well-being of all members of the community, including those who may be more vulnerable than you.
So, not to put too fine a point on it . . . Wise up. You are being duped and led to your own demise. We can't save you. Only you can save yourself . . . And the weaker members of the tribe, and the economy.
Close of rant. We now return to your originally scheduled program.
I am triple vaxed. But as you correctly noted, I can get and spread the Vid. I’d like to avoid that, so I wear a mask in certain circumstances for myself..a me me me thing. I also wear a mask if I’m around children under 5 or an elderly relative or my friend working through a cancer diagnosis. I guess I am bit jaded at this point, but I don’t believe that many in the anti mandate movement will don a mask under any circumstances unless forced, and it’s less douchy to object to a mandate than to hold up a sign objecting to acting like a considerate adult.