You May Be Done With COVID-19...But COVID-19 Isn't Done With Us
Wishing a pandemic away isn't going to make it disappear
[A] video showed up on my timeline of a middle-aged white woman in a grocery store following another woman and her daughter around, intentionally coughing on them, smirking and spewing sarcastic nonsense about “having allergies” and attempting to deliver some bizarre gotcha anti-mask rebuke.
Her act of assault was pathetic and sad—and I wish I could say it was the worst thing on my newsfeed in that moment.
Directly underneath that, was video of hundreds of anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers protesting in front of a hospital in Texas (whose state has 100,000 new COVID cases a day) while inside, more people were taking their last, labored, lonely breaths.
For me, the lasting legacy of the Trump years is the reality that Mango Mussolini gave already angry and bitter White Americans permission to be their worst selves. And they took that license and ran with it. Not that many of them needed convincing; many were already virulent racists and haters of all things not White, Conservative, Christian, and heterosexual. So they hardly needed to be pushed to show their true colors. They’d spent their lives living near the edge; all Donald Trump did was nudge them over it.
What they saw in Trump was someone who, for all his myriad flaws, hated the same people they did…and that was what endeared him to them. They observed the same idiocy and lunacy the rest of us saw, but the fact that he clearly and obviously hated the same people they did was all that mattered. It’s been all that’s EVER mattered to them.
On January 6th, we saw the power that Trump wields over his followers, who, but for their incompetence, ineptitude, and disorganization, might have actually been able to overthrow the federal government successfully. For the first time in our nation’s history, we saw the Confederate flag paraded through the halls of Congress. We saw a putative and rather naive attempt at a coup d’ etat take place on Capitol Hill that day.
Thousands of people honestly believed they were doing what needed to be done to “save” America. They rejected the reality that Joe Biden had defeated Trump in a legitimate and honest Presidential election. They KNEW in the depths of their souls that the election had been riddled with fraud and that Trump had actually won in a landslide.
“STOP THE STEAL!!,” the Trumpers screamed…even though there was absolutely no evidence to back up their claim. Moreover, dozens of courts nationwide had quashed cases claiming widespread fraud. So there was no “steal.”
No, these “patriots” were so angry, so filled with hate, that they couldn’t stomach the idea that “Sleepy Joe” Biden won the Presidency. Surely it had to have been fraudulent; there was no other explanation.
Even with Trump no longer in power, his impact on his followers lingers. He managed to thoroughly politicize the COVID-19 pandemic, which has survived his defeat and grown even more virulent. Combined with the weaponizing power of social media, disinformation, lies, and propaganda regarding COVID-19 and the vaccines have taken root and forced out the truth. As a result, ostensibly intelligent people have “done their research,” meaning they’ve read articles they’ve found on social media and made decisions made on unscientific bullshit.
It’s why millions of Americans are taking Ivermectin, a sheep de-wormer, to protect themselves from COVID-19. That there’s no scientific proof that Ivermectin works for this purpose is beside the point for these patriots. They’ve “done their research.” And they’d rather take an unproven livestock medication you have to purchase at a farm supply store than a vaccine that has been scientifically proven to be safe, reliable, and effective.
Yeah, what does science know??
Unfortunately, this is a case that proves a lie can circle the globe twice in the time it takes truth to get its sorry ass out of bed. Those with their own self-interested agenda- politicians looking to build their brand as a maverick, anti-establishment rebel not afraid to stand up and speak “truth” to power- have produced lies, propaganda, and dezinformatziya. That lives are in the balance is of no apparent concern to these monsters.
Too many Republican politicians (themselves vaccinated) are speaking out against vaccines. They declaim at considerable length about how vaccines and/or vaccine mandates infringe on the rights of freedom-loving Americans. Then, they’ll make false statements- like claiming that vaccines change a person’s DNA or RNA. That this is patently and maliciously false almost goes without saying. It’s dangerous and may very well end up killing people gullible enough to buy what these zealots are selling.
Again, this is of no real concern to those only interested in their own self-interest.
In short, there are far too many people on the Far-Right who don’t care about anyone or anything but their narrow agenda and their political prospects. They don’t care that innocent people may die along the way. They don’t care that one in four ICUs in American hospitals are currently at 95% capacity or above.
They. Don’t. Care.
The problem with that attitude is that COVID-19 cares even less. It doesn’t care about your mother or grandmother or wife or child. It doesn’t care if you believe in science. It doesn’t care if you believe in the vaccines. It doesn’t care about anything.
COVID-19 will continue doing what it does until those who refuse to get vaccinated pull their anteriors from their posteriors and decide to do the right thing.
This isn’t about “MUH RIGHTS!!” It’s not about “freedom” or “liberty.” It’s not about “My body, my choice.” No, it’s about a virus that will keep doing what it does- replicating in unvaccinated human hosts- until enough humans are vaccinated to deny the virus new hosts. At this point, it will begin to die out.
Unfortunately, we’re currently beset by a two-pronged epidemic: COVID-19 and stupidity/arrogance/selfishness, with each one feeding off the other. Until something happens to disrupt that dynamic, it appears that little will change.
Sadly for America, if there are three things we’re not suffering from a lack of these days, it’s stupidity, arrogance, selfishness. Oh, and let’s not forget hatred. Lord knows we’ve got no shortage of that in post-Trump America.
You may think that “Real America” is done with COVID-19. But, you may rest assured that COVID-19 ISN’T finished with “Real America.”
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