We are heading into our nineteenth month of fighting this deadly Covid virus. There have been 682,341 Americans who have died from this so far. Over 42 million of us have contracted it in various levels of danger and fury. It is one of the worst killing machines in world history. Yet the right wing, and GOP, continue to deny it is a problem, and in fact are working hard to make sure we never get rid of it.
Their latest lip flapping and arm waving is over President Biden's executive order. It basically boils down to this:
· Federal employees, federal contractors and health-care workers at facilities that receive federal funding must show proof of vaccination, with no testing option.
· 80 million U.S. workers will have a choice between providing proof of vaccination or submitting to weekly Covid testing.
He also suggested that school age children get vaccinated before going back to school.
You would have thought he ordered the unvaccinated to be hunted down and shot by the reaction of conservative media, the anti vax clowns, and parents in those states that want to see their children dead.
Really, all he has ordered is that if your business takes federal money you need to be vaccinated, if not then you need to be tested weekly. Why is this such a big deal? Many other presidents, including Republicans, have used this argument before, this is not unusual. Get over it already people.
I believe it was in Alabama where this past week a young student was telling a story to the school board about his grandmother that died from Covid and why he wanted them to make vaccines mandatory. The adults in the room, hundreds of them, actually stood and booed this teenager. They called him names and forced him to sit down. Ahh, parental love.
Alabama is such a hot bed for the anti vaccine movement that even when their imperial leader, the former president, spoke at a rally and suggested they get the vaccine, they booed him too. This past week, a beloved Alabama shop owner, and auction legend, had a cardiac event. His local hospital had no room because of all the Covid patients taking up space in the ICU, so they spent some time calling 43 other hospitals until they found room for him 250 miles away in Mississippi. By the time he got there it was too late and he died.
Another victim who could have lived had the morons taking up space in the ICU just got vaccinated. They should have tossed out one of those idiots to make room for him since they don't care about living anyway.
As for this ridiculous foot stomping about getting children vaccinated, I really don't understand that part of it al all. 49 of the 50 states have some vaccine mandate already in place for school age children.
In Alabama the law says:
The State of Alabama does not recognize philosophical, moral, or ethical exemption from vaccination. A medical exemption may be issued by a physician or an Alabama Certificate of Religious Exemption may be obtained from the local county health department. Attendees of day care and Head Start must be age-appropriately vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus, PCV, pertussis, measles, mumps, rubella, Haemophilus influenzae type b, polio, and chickenpox.
In Arizona where they have just filed a lawsuit against this mandate the law says:
Children in kindergarten through 12th grades are required to have vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), polio, measles, mumps, rubella (German measles), hepatitis B, and varicella (chickenpox). Adolescents who are at least 11 years old are required to have the above vaccines and two additional vaccines: a booster dose against tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis from the Tdap vaccine, and a quadrivalent meningococcal vaccine (MenACWY or MCV4) that protects against a bacterium called Neisseria meningitidis that can cause meningitis, gangrene, and rapid death.
In Mississippi the law says:
Children entering a Mississippi school (from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade) for the first time are required to have had the following vaccinations.
Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis (DTaP)
Polio (IPV)
Hepatitis B
Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR)
Chickenpox (Varicella)
And in South Dakota where the governor is dead set against this mandate their law states:
South Dakota Codified Law 13-28-7.1 (Rev. 2016) requires that any pupil entering school or an early childhood program in this state shall, prior to admission, be required to present to school authorities certification from a licensed physician that the child has received, or is in the process of receiving, adequate immunization against poliomyelitis, diphtheria, pertussis, rubeola (measles), rubella, mumps, tetanus, meningitis and varicella (chickenpox), according to the recommendations of the State Department of Health.
I could list all the other states too, but you get my point. They already have mandates for vaccines in place to attend school. Why are they so stinking upset with the Covid mandate from President Biden? Oh, yeah, he beat Trump, and they don't think it was legitimate, so they refuse to do anything he wants.
Apparently they will send their children to their graves shouting "the election was stolen and we want to see our kids dead." Seriously, anybody that thinks this is the right position on this issue, has lost their minds and should immediately seek professional help.
The argument I get back from those that believe there should not be a vaccine mandate, or mask mandate, is this stupidity. "Why are the same people who are screaming that abortion is the right of the woman to control her body the same ones who are demanding that I get a shot and not control my body?"
Well Sparky, there is a bit of a difference, and since you are too closed minded to see it for yourself, let me help you understand the difference.
If a woman decides she wants to abort her pregnancy, you, and others, won't become pregnant. If you decide not to get vaccinated everyone that you come near will be in danger of getting this virus and possibly dying. Can you see that now?
Personally, I'm all in favor of letting you die, in fact I would insist that you do if you refuse to get vaccinated, but you won't stay in your house, and away from others, so I need to help you understand that you need to do this for you, your family, and everyone else instead.
This is one of those stances that we used to call, being contrarian. You have decided to be against this just to be against this and for no logical reason. We've all done this before ourselves.
Then we turned 8.