By Paul Wallis
Published August 8, 2021
The EU has now passed the US in terms of the percentage of population that have been fully vaccinated. — Photo: © AFP
US infection rates are now as bad as the worst of the second wave of COVID. As of 6 August, Johns Hopkins reported infections of 100K in that one day. The question is why. The answer isn’t so clear.
Millions of Americans, more or less 50% of the population, haven’t been vaccinated.
Reasons for not getting vaccinated vary:
Side effects – The mixed messages regarding side effects are definitely NOT an asset.
Political reasons – These vary from QAnon “plandemic” stuff to Trump-based propaganda or variations thereof. For some reason, politics is a reason to die of a disease. Go figure.
Disinformation – Anti-vaxxers, many widely reported to be getting vaccinated themselves, are still at work against the COVID vaccines.
The short, repulsive history of failing to understand COVID
At first Trump said COVID was a hoax. Then it was a Chinese conspiracy. Then came a range of bizarre things like a malaria drug which was tested in Germany Trump was taking, and was found in March 2020 to be useless. Then it was “try disinfectant”. Then the CDC was to blame. Then Fauci. Around election time, the Democrats.
During this fecal flower arrangement of abysmal US policy misses, not a lot was done. Data was sent direct to the White House, and nothing was done with it that ever got mentioned publicly.
That was then, this is now – The two Americas, again
It’s now August 2021. Trump is gone, arguably more gone than ever. Yet the mythology lives on in Florida, where Governor Santis is getting a lot of flak as the state acquires the unenviable distinction of massive rates of infection. The state recorded 50,997 cases in three days last week. 10,000 were hospitalized in that same period.
The Red State Theory of 2020, that COVID is a red state problem, is now even more widespread. Politics, not medicine or common sense are seen as drivers of failure. The virus started off worst in the big cities, which are mainly Democrat. The situation is now reversed. That’s more than a minor issue, because the rural areas don’t have the sort of services required to manage the pandemic.
Trump said, in a sort of ultimate monument to his own ignorance, that rates of infection went up because there was more testing being done. That’s not how it works. Infections increase simply because there are more infections. This level of idiocy, however, is still viable political currency in the red states.
The result of the total mismanagement of the pandemic by the Trump “administration” is that COVID is well on the way to being endemic to the US, if not already endemic. That means the virus is now a permanent risk to US citizens. Outbreaks could be commonplace.
It’s only “now” in the progressive regions. It’s still “then” in the red states and the mercenary senile minds of Trump and the GOP, as usual. It’s still a political partisan issue. It’s still political capital to be anti-vax for conservatives. That’s why the virus is out of control.
Until the vaccinations become the majority of people, that’s the only way it can be.
A few fun observations:
616,718 Americans have now died of COVID. That’s 12 Vietnam Wars and about 1.5 World War 2s, in terms of deaths.
Not one single word of sympathy has been uttered by Trump or his supporters since the pandemic began.
Approximately 10% (rough figure) of people who get COVID get “long COVID”, a debilitating condition of varying levels of severity.
About 150 million Americans are at immediate risk of getting COVID.
Happy, jerks?
Post script:
Several complaints were received from readers regarding the original article, in which I cited 200K as the number of infections. Johns Hopkins figures currently show a very different story at around 100K. I hyperlinked the JH figures specifically to illustrate the figure. I either misread the numbers (I did check them because they looked- and look- so bad) or misinterpreted the graph.
Apologies for any and all inaccuracies, which are entirely my responsibility.
That said – Anyone happy about 100K, the accepted figure? How is that good? Is that out of control or not?
Further complaints were received regarding other content in this Op-Ed, notably misinformation. Kindly see this article by AFP regarding misinformation spread by Trump and my DJ article on the subject of advocating the use of disinfectants.
Shar
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