Mark Karlin: What Was the CDC Thinking? As if Anti-Vaxxers Would Voluntarily Wear Masks to Protect Others.
For the past two weeks, one in five COVID infections have occurred in Florida alone.(The Focal Project)
July 23, 2021
MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH
Here we are with a primarily Red State surge of COVID, 95% or more among the unvaccinated. This is occurring in the summer season, when last year the rates dipped down. Some Red State governors with low vaccination rates and high current infection, hospitalization and death rates are taking a 180 degree turn and now encouraging vaccinations. That includes vaccination obstructer GOP Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, whose state now ties for the lowest vaccination rate in the nation, and Florida Governor Ron “Trump Mini-Me” DeSantis whose state is highest in the nation in new infections. In fact, according to CNN: "For the second week in a row, one in five of all cases are occurring in Florida alone.”
So Ivey, DeSantis and many other GOP officials who have downplayed the vaccine and the need for vaccination are now panicking for two reasons: 1) at least 95 out of 100 COVID deaths now are largely Republican voters who won’t be around for the next elections; and 2) polling must be indicating that Republican politicians are facing a voter backlash because friends and relatives are dying due to Trump’s legacy that the remaining unvaccinated was defying the “liberal science-believing government state.”
That brings us back to the CDC decision not long ago to no longer recommend requiring masking in enclosed public spaces. What were they thinking?
There are many reasons that bewitched Americans oppose COVID vaccinations, including:
Trump casting doubt on the number of COVID deaths and not promoting the vaccination, claiming that COVID is not as serious as the “deep state” is making it out to be. These anti-vaxxers are partisan spreaders.
The libertarians, like Rand Paul, who believe the government has no role in an individual choice, even if that choice brings illness and deaths to other Americans.
The longstanding anti-vaxxer movement.
The hyper-masculine opponents of admitting male vulnerability.
The conspiracists, who also include one or more categories of the above.
Trump is responsible for manslaughter in his other-worldly and politically opportunistic unleashing of the Coronavirus at a time that it could have been controlled. Now, it is mostly his dead-end followers who are hitting the super-transmissible Delta variant head-on. This not only unnecessarily infects other unvaccinated — and causes mild or symptomatic breakthrough infections in those who are vaccinated — it also creates a fertile environment in which a more dangerous variant might occur.
Like Trump, the unvaccinated should be held criminally responsible for directly or indirectly causing the deaths of fellow Americans. Of course, the likelihood that this will happen is nil, because it would be hard to prove cases in court, and the Biden administration doesn’t want to prosecute Trump, let alone the unvaccinated, for negligent manslaughter.
But back to the CDC for the moment. Who in the brain trust there thought that the cough-spewing, pistol-packing, hateful, selfish unvaccinated would honor wearing a mask in public places? It’s not, as they say, in their nature.
Instituting an honor system for mask-wearing in enclosed settings was naive at best. There was no way the Trump cult was going to wear masks, when defiance unto death is their trademark.
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