When it comes to the surging Omicron variant of COVID, just about all I’m hearing is advice about holiday planning. Should one attend a holiday party? Travel? Meet friends at a restaurant?
Much of the answer boils down to how to calculate one’s tolerance for risk when so little is known about Omicron except that it spreads easily. Experts are throwing around a lot of numbers. Columnists are sharing their own personal calculations.
I understand. We’re all a bit spooked and don’t know exactly what to do. Calculations offer a degree of reassuring certitude.
But why does America need to turn this latest COVID surge — as we do so much else — into a question of individual risk, personal calculation, and self-concerned choice? Personal responsibility is important, of course. But I worry that this hubbub over individual risk assessment is distracting us from what we need to do now as a society to be readier for Omicron than we were for Delta or for the first COVID surge.
It also plays directly into the hands of anti-vaxxers who want to believe COVID is only about personal choice. On Friday's Fox Business, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was asked if he was getting the booster. DeSantis smirked, shook his head no, and then went into a long harangue about why people should make vaccine decisions “for themselves.”
This past weekend, at Turning Point USA, the MAGA college Republican spin-off (whose founder died from COVID-19 last summer), Sarah Palin said it would be “over my dead body” that she got vaccinated (no pun intended). And Tucker Carlson (perhaps the most harmful person in America these days) railed against those who are urging vaccination, saying they just want to “punish people.” Carlson then praised the “naturally immune” who “earned it.”
It’s too easy for the rest of us to respond to this rubbish by telling ourselves that anti-vaxxers will pay the price because they’re putting themselves at much higher risk of being hospitalized and even dying. But this kind of thinking reflects the same dangerous fallacy — that each of us must make such life-or-death decisions for themselves.
On Friday, Jeff Zients, the White House COVID coordinator, inadvertently promoted this fallacy by telling reporters that while the administration will work to minimize Omicron disruption for the vaccinated, the unvaccinated should expect “a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families....”
In reality, all of us are in this together. And so far, all of us together are failing. America's rate of deaths from COVID is the highest of all advanced nations. Fewer than 62 percent of us are fully vaccinated — the lowest of all advanced nations.
Those who continue to refuse to get vaccinated are endangering the rest of us — and not just because they’re increasing the risk of a “breakthrough” infection in those of us who have been fully vaccinated. As Omicron surges, the unvaccinated are likely to overwhelm hospitals throughout the land, making it harder for our entire health system to respond to all health needs and emergencies.
The unvaccinated are also incubators for the next variant.
Anti-vaxxers aside, the emphasis on individual risk is allowing us to forget the social needs that became exposed when the pandemic first hit in early 2020 — most of which are still unmet.
We’re still doing almost no contact tracing compared to other advanced nations. Rapid COVID tests are still difficult to find, and too expensive. (The free tests that the Biden administration is touting won’t be available until next month.) N95 masks are still in short supply. There’s still little or no coordination among different levels of government. Biden’s order that large businesses require employees to be vaccinated remains stuck in the federal courts. Hospitals in many places still don’t have enough Intensive Care Units. We could once again face a shortage of ventilators.
In addition, too many workplaces are still unsafe. They’re still not required to test employees and report all COVID infections. They still don’t have to provide personal protective equipment. Workers still can’t stay home for fear getting the Omicron variant at work because we still don’t have a national system of paid leave (thanks to Joe Manchin and senate Republicans). They can’t quit their jobs because extended unemployment insurance has run out.
I’m unable to advise you about whether you should attend that holiday party or cancel your travel plans. But I can assure you that what we’re facing is not just a matter of personal choice or individual risk tolerance. We’re facing another test of America’s capacity to respond to a public-health crisis. And the safety of every one of us depends on the nation doing better this time than we did before.
What do you think?
The politicization of a global pandemic in this day and age has further weakened our country.
In comparison, I recently flew Air Canada to Toronto, I had to be vaccinated, show proof and have a negative test 72 hours before my flight. My Canadian friends canceled all family parties in response to government guidelines, which was very upsetting for them, but it’s what you do for the common good, why is this so hard to comprehend?.
Way too much disinformation had been spread early on. Antivaxers don't bother to immerse themselves in the real facts. To this day disinformation is immensely widespread.
You are absolutely right. This is NOT HARD to comprehend. It’s almost like your dealing with spoiled children who want there way. The only difference is that your dealing with adults WHO SHOULD KNOW BETTER.
“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
(John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961)
Observing pandemic safety protocols is >not< about protecting me from you. It's about protecting us all from >each other.<
Thanks for reminding us of JFK's words, DZK, which seem so relevant today at the same time they seem sadly antiquated.
Dr. Reich, I think there is a psychological connection between the belief that Trump's reelection was "stolen" and the refusal to get vaccinated. One is the trigger for the other. Please read my comment above and let me know what you think.
I remember when Covid first hit and people were reluctant to mask up, some organizers put posters up all around the Capital area with a picture of Ruth Bader Ginsberg wearing a mask and the words: Do It For RBG! Who do the antivaxers love enough to motivate them to protect? DJT? Q-Anon? "Do It For Q!"
Yet they'll be among the first to wave flags and claim to be patriots. I wonder what they think they're doing for their country - per Mr Kennedy's stirring patriotic challenge.
They THINK they're trying to RESTORE the country to its "Rightful Leader"(dictator), whose reelection was STOLEN from him by various demonic, supernatural, foreign and domestic "dark forces", who (when they are not busy conspiring against True Patriots) kidnap babies and small children to make pornography and/or cannibalize. They THINK they must resist tooth and nail absolutely everything the Biden administration attempts to accomplish, no matter HOW MUCH IT BENEFITS THEM, because it is ALL "Fruit of the Poison Tree".
And they talk about 'sheep' and 'snowflakes'.?
And "woke!" Don't forget "woke!"
In the old days we talked about being conscious.
And here I always though we used to talk about gettin' high! LOL! ];-)>
I remember a quite senior woman neighbor who thought it very funny when she heard me discuss a person's consciousness, that I admired him because he was conscious. It blew her mind, the concept. I explained it to her as being hip and aware. She had a good laugh about it when she thought about it. awake.
Y'mean they can't distinguish between what it is to do >for< and >to< the country?
BAHWAHAHA!
What on earth?
That is me laughing at their deliberate stupidity.
gotit!
Dr. Reich provides us with an observant and insightful account of the effect of individualism on an infectious disease of pandemic proportions. But that same lens of individualism applies to other dimensions of the common good as well: extremes of wealth, inaction in the face of climate change, us-them divisiveness, healing race-based wounds, environmental damage of all kinds, shared truth, a functional government, and the list goes on. Many "goods" are "common". Lessons learned here do apply elsewhere as well. He did write the book: The Common Good.
Amen.
I feel personally safe. My family members are all vaccinated and either have the booster or are in the process of getting it. But I wear a mask in public spaces for 3 reasons: 1. to protect others from myself because I don't know for sure my status every minute of every day. Why take a chance on making someone sick just because they are too dumb to trust the science? 2. This mask wearing is, like it or not, political symbolism so I wear the mask, and carry one even when not actively wearing it, just to make the point that it is just a minor inconvenience and/or a little uncomfortable sometimes. 3. To hasten the time when we will all be able to put the pandemic behind us or at least reduce the inconvenience of dealing with it. I understand from experts that if everyone WOULD get vaccinated EVERYONE could be a little safer in most social settings although we will forever need to be concerned about those among us who have special risks.
I like your point about mask-wearing as positive political symbolism about our interdependence. All we hear about is its negative political symbolism for those who reject an incursion on their so-called liberty.
I go back many, many moons when Polio was around. No one questioned getting a polio, measles, mumps or chicken pox vaccine. The large-scale use of the polio vaccine began in February 1954, when it was administered to American schoolchildren. What happened to America the past 67 years? Just curious to know others thoughts.
I remember the "sugar cube". My parents took me and my brothers to get the polio vaccine as soon as it was available. Anyone who questioned getting vaccinated against polio was a "kook". People believed in the competency of government and public health officials and trusted their judgement. The government was considered to be on the side of the people. Today, government is considered by many to be corrupt, incompetent, and on the side of special interests. The trust is gone!
Well...the previous guy's government _was_ corrupt and incompetent. The sad irony of truth being suspect when lies become the norm.
Also ironic -- some people that believe that government is corrupt and incompetent are strong supporters of Trump!
What's up with that!
They voted for Trump in 2016 because he was going to "drain the swamp". They have not yet figured it out.
I guess we haven't been exposed to enough swamps so we'd recognize one when we see it. I do think that Ross Perot would have cleaned out the barn though. ;-)
Drain the swamp? T***p created a new variant of that ideology...he is the swamp master with open pockets
My parents enrolled me in the Polio vaccine trials at my school in San Lorenzo, California, and I had a sequence of 4 shots of the Salk Vaccine that turned out to be the placebo and I had to get another 4 of the real thing a year later. Now the new one is taken orally. Vaccines = a better chance of a long and healthy life. I guess Republicans are not good at math. I wonder how many will still be alive by the 2022 midterms. Maybe the Democrats will have a chance of a greater majority in congress in 2023.
Tim. You hit the nail on the head!
Well the behavior of congress over the years has shown it to be corrupt and on the side of special interests, all paid for by lots and lots of money....
I too got a sugar cube and was happy to do so...after seeing those kids in the soup cans (iron lungs)
Almost HALF of the voting population voted for Trump last year. A good portion of them are anti-vax and can't be reasoned with. I'm done confining what's left of my golden years for their benefit. Vax'ed and boosted here. The best to you all.
What are you saying, Don? That you’re going to do whatever you want now? I’d love to feel that way but I just can’t. I sure am tired of not being able to go out and do things though.
America has become too caught up with "what's in it for me" and the vast majority of the people think of themselves first, and not what is the common good for us all. Individualism, and not collectivism, rules the day and that is what makes covid continue to be a problem - especially here where we have the vaccine, but people won't take it.
Perhaps we should amend the 1st amendment to state that the FEDERAL government shall reserve the right to make necessary medical decisions for the people in the event of pandemics or other national medical crises
Or, when the anti-vaccine person goes to the hospital, stick him/her in the emphysema ward. I have heard that some antivaxers declare they have the right to make their own decisions
Yet many of them agree with the anti-abortion laws stripping the women of their freedom to choose. At any rate, freedom of speech seems to be referenced as their basis of logic as well asany Republicans. I got my shots and it had NO effect on my ability to speak. The antivaxers contract COVID-19 and they run to the hospital in a panic. They magically turn from Christian Scientists to some desperate for a cure.
I'm sorry but public health trumps thos selfish freedom of speech claim.
Today's NYT Opinion piece by two physicians says negative incentives work very well - as in Get vaccinated or get fired. They observe that 100% of United Airlines employees got vaccinated.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/21/opinion/vaccine-hesitancy-covid-omicron.html?campaign_id=39&emc=edit_ty_20211221&instance_id=48352&nl=opinion-today®i_id=21979427&segment_id=77554&te=1&user_id=fc5a5feccefed441688c186866dcef86.
If you couldn’t fly if you’re not vaccinated would be a big one too!
Eventually, Tucker Carlson will get covid. Maybe that will change things. Meanwhile, we see the deadly effects of mass stupidity continue. It isn't due to a lack of national policy - it's, at least to me, a portion of the population whose anger at the world they live in has become so irrational that they have abandoned all reason. Like a child breaking her toys because they can't have all the ice cream, the Republicans are expressing their frustration over Trump's "stolen election" by refusing to come to the aid of their country.
I think Tucker will get fired soon. Some of the decent FOX hosts, like Chris Wallace and Bret Briar, are leaving or distancing themselves from him. I watch him every once in a while. He seems to be getting more extreme each time I watch.
One can only hope, but the problem is another will step into his shoes and may be even worse or more inflammatory. It's the bank rollers of fox, newsmax, OAN and others that need to be dealt with...
I’m hoping the Omicron variant will be a less lethal variant and that the vaccinated population will weather through it. For those who can get vaccinated and choose not to, they should not be unconditionally privileged to use our health care system. More legislation should be proposed (and hopefully implemented) like the one in Illinois that put the responsibility of the unvaccinated to pay their own medical bills if they become hospitalized with COVID-19. What is the role of the insurance industry in handling all the financial risk imposed by the anti-vax stance nowadays? They have been too quiet since the pandemic started. What happened to the campaign of promoting personal responsibility, like putting on your seat belt and don’t drink and drive?
I find it interesting that anti-vaxxers complain of the uncertainty of how a vaccine might affect them in the future - without thinking about the potential future side effects of these "milder" cases of omicron, or the probability that new strains will keep coming if we don't stop Covid now with vaccines.
Have you ever heard of the "Darwin Awards"? It is what you get if you help your species becomes extinct by dying while being stupid. Have you heard of the "Trump Award"? It is what you get when you help your party become extinct by dying of covid-19 because you were stupid enough not to get the vaccine.
Every privilege there comes a responsibility. But we seem to have forgotten that the privilege of individualism comes with the responsibility of social conscience. It is the difference between "Every man for himself" and "We're all in this together."
You make a fundamental and hugely important point, one I haven't heard elsewhere. The implications go well beyond a pandemic. Is the United States any kind of community, or are we just separate little groups at odds with each other? We fall into a trap of defining everything as either self or other, leading to an ever growing category of "other". Is this our country's basic mental health problem? I wish that you, Robert Reich, could have these opinions published in the NYT or Washington Post.
The administration needs to be more forcefully vocal. The message while factual doesn’t catch those who need to hear it. Those people are driven by EMOTION hence the message needs to be emotional in nature. Show imagery of people in ICU’s like the old ‘frying egg’ “This is your brain on drugs” ads which I STILL remember from when I was a kid. That simple emotion stimulating image and messages STILL sticks with me. They need to re-tune their messages.
David, I remember that "frying egg" message too! The anti-vaxx sentiment is so bad where I live that I have to keep my fully vaccinated status a SECRET to avoid conflicts with friends and family. The HVAC person at my house last week stated that he wasn't going to put any "poison" into his arm! He resented my request to wear a mask while indoors. What message would change his mind?
In that case a "no mask, no entry" policy with any business you want to deal with in your own home. If he wants the business, tell him to get the prick and stop being a prick. Nothing motivates people like money (or the loss of it). For others who are on-the-fence, posting a tasteful as possible (difficult) video clips of people suffering in ICU's saying "I wish I got the shot" could go a long way, esp if it's done in a emotionally catching and memorable way, think of those SPCA ad's showing cats and dogs in terrible circumstances with their dollar-a-day pitch to help save and get them into homes. Those have a very strong emotional message and evidently they work because I keep seeing them and advertising is expensive.
Factual messages work for rational fact minded individuals (who largely trend democratic) AND who have already got their shots, it's time to target the less rational emotionally driven types (who largely trend republican) with emotional messages that they link with.
Are these people who think vaccines are poison seeing vaccinated people die in droves? Who is ending up in the hospital? It’s people like THEM. Honestly, how can they be so willfully blind in the face of overwhelming evidence?
Yes, we have a responsibility as a society member to protect everyone. But since the unvaxxed aren't doing that (and never will) we still need to fall back on what we can risk as individuals. I'm a senior with an underlying condition (I think): fibromyalgia. And, once again New York is being slammed. So I'm considering "hunkering down" again. I want to live until I'm "older than dirt"!
I recently convinced a friend who wasn't going to get the booster, to get it. In the long run, friendship was more important than what she heard on FoxNews. But that's where my influence stops. I've basically eliminated all the unvaxxed from my circle of friends.
I think one of the kindest gifts we can give this holiday season would be to convince an anti-vaxxer that they should be fully inoculated. It would be a gift not just to that unvaccinated person but to all of us.
"Tough Love" is when you ground your teenager for violating the rules. Time for some "Tough love" on the anti-Vaccine crowd.
Good for you Nancy. To paraphrase the parable, '.. it made a difference to that one.'. May we all hope for that level of friendship and understanding in our lives.
I don't see us doing any better unless something drastic happens. It would have to be something on a scale of Pearl Harbor. Only at the start of the pandemic, when our most senior citizens were dying in nursing homes, was there any attempt to work together as a nation to help them. Unless our youngest start falling victim to this disease, or suffering from devastating long-term complications, it's just going to be more of the same. Sorry for being so pessimistic, but this is what I've seen happening so far. When the pandemic started, my federal agency had us working from home in early March to keep us safe as they had already had plans prepared for working in a pandemic. Once we found out more about how Covid spread, it literally blew my mind that our response to it became so political. Not even in my worst nightmare had I imagined that we would respond so poorly as a nation. It's shameful and embarrassing.
There were many Nazi sympathizers before Pearl Harbor, many prominent citizens, but after Dec 1941 they shut up and put their shoulders into the war effort.
Many did not change their minds, really, but just lay low and slowly rebuilt their loser, self destructive, corrosive, moronic cult worship program quietly, over the decades.
In many ways, we have already suffered the wake up attack. 3 times, by my count.
Our country is under renewed intensified attack — by a virus. Some reputable experts estimate 1 million are dead or will be soon, just like WWII.
1 million! More than 50 million positive tests!
As you say, what does it take? — b.rad
Also, as I started working from home, I was thinking that within 2-3 months tops we would have contained the virus and I would be back at work. What a mess we've created by not working together.
Omicron, Delta, the whole covid-19 pandemic. I am retired.. have visited 49 states.. Hawaii is the last one.. but have and will not fly until this pandemic thing is under control. So my holiday will be alone.. why risk getting a terrible virus? I think my mental condition will be just fine... happy hoilidays.. get vaccinated..
'You can bring a horse to water, but you can't make it drink'. Anti vaxxers risk becoming a beast of burden to the medical system. also they can break their loved one's hearts. Stubbornness can kill.
Biden’s refusal to accept or endorse the need for a reform of the healthcare system along the lines of Bernie Sanders proposals is at the root of the problem. We have no public health care system. Everything has been privatized and profitized. The regulatory function of the federal government has been politicized. Just one example: Omicron’s big breakthrough appears to be its ability to spread by aerosol transmission. The masks everyone is wearing unless they’re N95 do not give much protection against breathing on aerosol based virus. The government has had two years to establish mask standards and hasn’t done a thing. Rapid PCR testing was available within months of the first outbreak yet no plan was set up for public testing clinics instead we send tests out to distant private labs. The White House will not even mass produce and distribute rapid antigen tests as is done in other countries but wants you to go through the insurance billing system process.
Each new variant produces a new wave of infection. Natural selection is favoring the variants that can spread more rapidly. We are cooking up a variant that will kill more than 2% of the infected.
If that happens the corruption and incompetence of our politicians will bring the wrath of the people down on whomever is in power.
wearing a mask is a challenge for me. i have COPD and anything that obstructs my air flow is a hazard for my personal freedom...but I wear it and have worn it and have been vaccinated and boosted and am seriously angry when this BS about personal freedom is bandied about but those who have no problem infringing on my personal whatever
question: do the fascists on fox tell their audiences that they are fully vaccinated...which they are or so I understand or do they simply promulgate 'personal rights' as they argue against any mitigation during this pandemic...masks, vaccines, etc.
I don’t like to be a negative thinker, and normally I am not. Unfortunately, America appears more and more as one of the MOST IGNORANT NATIONS in our world today.
We have access to all the vaccines created. Most times, we can choose what we get.
I’m not going to attack anyone for their political beliefs. But, If your a person who is all for the ideas of the Republican Party when it comes to spreading the message of not getting a vaccine to protect yourself, have you noticed that several have gotten the vaccines themselves? Of course they don’t publicize the action, but they are now protected. While others who don’t inform themselves are filling up hospitals, or infecting others around them. Some act as if, someone took their favorite toy away, and won’t give it back.
THIS SITUATION WAS CONSTRUCTED TO BE POLITICAL, UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF OR LACK OF LEADERSHIP BY TRUMP’S ADMINISTRATION. There is nothing about a public health matter that’s political!
Being adults with brains, we SHOULD know the difference. People in other countries wish they had the access we have to the life saving vaccines. Yet some people in our country act flippantly about what we have to help us fight against Covid19 and SO FAR, all the variants.
If people don’t WISE UP QUICK, the current behaviors could lead to a variant that our vaccines can’t protect us from.
THIS SCARES THE CRAP OUT OF ME! Does it scare anyone else???
I've long thought that for the sake of "getting through" to people suffering from toxic individualism, we need to frame the social responsibility part as "collective freedom". As in, freedom to go to a big rock concert without fear of getting shot. Sadly, for those too far down the rabbit hole, it won't work. Since Tucker has helped them overcome any fear of the virus, "freedom to walk into a restaurant or go to work without fear of getting infected" won't work anymore. It's too late for this type of messaging. I'd bet a few bucks that De Santis is boosted, and when he shook his head no, it was a strategic political move. He didn't SAY no--he would probably say he shook his head in disagreement with the whole concept of interfering with individual choice. The whole concept of collective anything (except when in need of Federal assistance) has been largely destroyed by the right wing. There's no more "we", only "me" on Fox.
While Tucker C. is full vaccinated due to the demands of his "employer", he is careless and giddy about the deaths of others.
Perhaps we need a law protecting us from elected officials who fight mitigation efforts against infectious diseases. It could be similar to Obstruction of Justice, but instead Obstruction of Social Medical Mandates. The unlighted intersection of politics and public health is a deathtrap and needs a "Nader fix". If enough countries joined us in this we could change earth's tragic course.
I think I'd broaden this to 'Obstruction of The Common Good'. I'd make Manchin and Sinema charter members, along with DeSantis and Abbott. We'd need to establish a fair way to determine whether something is for the common good though.
If only. I think herding cats is probably easier, but so much less satisfying.
I teach online classes, and one included a Canadian woman from Ottawa. Talk turned to Omicron yesterday, and how we, south of her border, are failing. She was astounded. How could the pandemic be political? How could people be refusing vaccines and wearing masks? How is it that our death tolls are undercounts because many insist Covid be left off the death certificates? What is WRONG with us? Indeed. It reminded me that pandemics don't stay put. What we do here affects and infects Canada, Mexico and the world.
I stand on the shoulders of John Stuart Mills who in "On Liberty" centuries ago instructed moral citizens to follow the science (get vaccinated) & follow the guidelines out of love & respect for others & the common good.
I never came out of isolation because I have additional health problems that make it very difficult. I have forgotten how to socialize. Even having my adult children visit me is exhausting. Conversation is hard work! And I think I have developed agoraphobia! I'm noticing that I only go out to check the mail after dark when my neighbors are in for the night. So, I'm not worried about 'canceling' plans.... I'm worried that I won't make any ever again.
By the way, my kids and my granddaughter are stopping by on Christmas Day to exchange gifts and toast the Spirit of Christmas. I will be masked as I couldn't get a booster before January 12th. My birthday on New Years Eve will be spent quietly, home alone - the way I prefer since becoming a widow. My cat and a good book are the best company. Happy Holidays to you all! 🥳🎄🎅🕎
Best to meet them outside on your front lawn or in your back yard in the open air and if they ask why, tell them you want to see them again next year because if you let them inside, they may see you again at your funeral by Valentine's Day. This is a good time to invest in outdoor heating around your back yard for Christmas and future family get together events until you feel it is safe to be indoors again. If it is really too cold to be outside at Christmas, then invite them to your Australian "Christmas in July" party where everyone can have more fun outside and be thankful you are still with them.
Paula. Sending you hugs from our home to your home. Things will be getting better by Spring 2022. Hang in there.
I hope you're right. I have a sinking feeling that I may be about to witness the fall of Democracy in our country, and if I am right, then the combination of that along with my personal health problems will mean that I only have 5 to 7 years left to finish my bucket list.
Hang in there! You are not alone in being isolated. Hopefully better days are coming.
We stand, as pretty much always, a nation of contradictions. We say we are a democracy, but visibly feed the plutocracy. We laud community spirit and social responsibility, but do nothing to dampen ersatz individuality. We echo universal suffrage and boldly back door run away gerrymandering. We acclaim a referenced nation state, but thoroughly depict a state nation. And with all this massive massive roller coaster, we dare talk about doing a good job with Covid??!! As the bloopers section of NFL portrays…Come On Man!!!!
That's right, Curt. We are certainly a nation of contractions. More specifically, there is a gap between our ideals (and who we imagine ourselves to be) and the reality that most Americans live.
I see much of my work as helping people reckon with that cognitive dissonance and come to terms with the facts on the ground. We can't fix our problems as a society until people understand this fundamental tension between our expectations and reality.
I never considered the decision to get vaccinated a matter of personal autonomy. Rather as a member of a democratic society, I considered it an obligation under the social contract - for the well being of the community. Unfortunately, this notion of the social contract has been lost in our fantasy of rugged individualism, in our fixation on (and misinterpretation of) individual rights, and what appears to me a godawful negligence in our educational system. Given the absolute dysfunction and evil intent of portions of our political participants (Trump & his Republican minions), I fear not only for the health of our body politic but for its democracy as well.
We could gain considerable ground on vaccination rate if the airlines would require proof of vaccination before boarding an air plane on domestic flights, as they do, i understand on int'l ones.
This "individualism" meme benefits the wealthy and powerful. So long as we see ourselves as individual competing one against the other, the interests of the wealthy few will be served rather than our own. In spite of their awesome wealth those at the tippy top are few in numbers, so you wold think a democratically elected government would favor our interests over theirs. Yet we continue to vote for elected officials who favor the interests of the wealthy and powerful over our own. Divide and conquer.
Manchin makes more from donations than he does from his senate salary. Last figure 1.5 million. Some leaders are more influenced by their wallet than the people thy represent.
The first news flash I saw this AM was how the stock market is/and will react to Omicron variant. Not favorably I imagine. I wonder how differently the market would react if 90%+ of us followed medical guidelines? So, how much of the market's reaction is due to our handling of the virus as a whole and perhaps we need to do an analysis. If later today we hear repubs squawking about the damage to the market being done by Joe Biden, we can loudly protest and show why exactly it is happening.
Good point, Leslie. They’re the ones damaging their beloved economy. You’ve really got to wonder about people working against their own interests.
I'm feeling very frustrated that so much of the US public still doesn't seem to know what "infectious" means-- or think that their Sturdy Libertarian Principles can deny it footing.
I love White House Covid coordinator Jeff Zientz' advice "expect a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families....” That's telling it like it is. Go, Zientz! Um, and you're a little tone deaf, eh? In general, when in the White House, we don't create openings for the opposition. But it aint America doing this Omigod Omicron crap it's the Main. Stream. Media. Because if it bleeds it leads.
On one of the FOX shows last night, they were laughing about someone (CNN?) referring to a "viral blizzard" striking our country this winter. What in Hades is so funny about this pandemic!?
Tim, nobody here can speak for Fox employees, of course. As an observer of evil, what do you think they think is so risible about a viral blizzard?
Martha, I believe that FOX News is an entertainment channel masquerading as a news channel. The main purpose of their news reporting is to support the entertainment portion of each show, not to inform the viewer (Bret Baier's show is an exception). My guess is that the Fox employees realize that this entertainment "humor" produces high ratings, resulting in promotions and multi-million dollar contracts. What makes me wonder is do they really think this stuff is funny? Do they behave like this at home with their family?
They are a news channel masquerading as an entertainment channel. That's how they avoid the Federal gov't. coming down on them. When their back is up against the wall, they plead innocent, by claiming they're an entertainment channel.
I would say rather that they are a propaganda channel.
Tim, to me it's like this. Just my opinion. Sadists got that way because they were bent and twisted from childhood and their sociopathic behavior is rewarded.
Agree that we need a societal response, and we need people in positions of government authority to make that case. However, absent that, we are left to our own devices. A recent WalletHub report ranked Indiana, where I live, the least safe state in the country with regard to Covid-19, fifty-first out of of the fifty states plus the District of Columbia. We have high test positivity rate, high community transmission rate, high hospitalization rate, high death rate, and not coincidentally, one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country. Some Indiana counties have a vaccination rate in the 20% range. I can see that Indiana residents are not taking the virus seriously, acting as if it doesn't exist, proclaiming their "personal freedom."
Despite this, our governor is enthusiastically participating in lawsuits to prevent President Biden's vaccine mandates, while making lackluster comments every so often that people should get vaccinated. And the top priority of our legislature when it returns in January is to limit the ability of employers, including healthcare providers, to mandate vaccines and testing to keep their workplaces safe. In hearings, doctors pleaded with them not to take this action. I wrote a letter to my state representative opposing the legislation and suggesting ways the state could increase the vaccination rate without mandates, but I feel frustrated.
Given the foregoing, I have to resort to assessing and acting on my own personal risk. I have no other choice.
I note the 62% US vaccinated statistic you quote, but it's nowhere near that in many less developed nations. It's just that when I hear people say something along the lines that "no-one is safe unless we're all safe", to me that means across the world and not just within national borders. And I'm afraid that must mean more developed to less developed world support and funding as advocated by Gordon Brown and Jeremy Farrar (Welcome Trust Chairman) from the UK, and I believe I'm right in saying from your own Anthony Fauci too. (Needless to say, I don't support the UK's current equivocation over it's 0.7% of gross national income aid target).
Patriotism used to mean making personal sacrifices for the good of the country. Trump Republicans believe that refusing to wear a mask, refusing to practice social distancing and refusing to get vaccinated are brave acts of freedom, and that makes them patriots.
We are too far into dealing with the COVID issues to say anything that will help our situation. The people who choose to ignore science are already beyond helping. The people who choose to refuse to get vaccinated and wear masks to protect themselves and all other people who they come into contact with are also beyond helping. There is a certain sector of human beings who simply do not care about the risks of ignoring COVID and how to deal with it in a safe way. Those of us who do care and are taking all precautions seriously can only continue to do that and hope for the best. The one thing I have learned about people in general is that it is almost impossible to help people who don't want to be helped at any level. Some people are already hateful in their hearts and actually seem to wallow in other people suffering. We have been watching Trump closely for almost five years now and how he seems to wallow in other people's missery. That kind of thinking is imbedded in a lot of how people think and how they care about other people in general. There is no fix that I know of to get rid of those kind of people. Until we have a fix for those people, nothing will change to help our issues with COVID spreading over and over again.
Bravo! We all survive, or perish, on Planet Earth. There is "No Plan B!" Thanks for your great analysis.
Just a note on another subject.
It took Manchin long enough to kill the BBB bill. I clearly anticipated his refusal to support the bill the first time he raised his concerns about it.
Since it is expected the Republicans will vote in solidarity, the bill.is DOA
(The ocean will swallow up most of the beaches in 15-20 years) 40 years from now, all coastal cities will be under water or seriously threatened by extensive flooding. When the BBB bill is killed, perhaps the opportunity to address climate change also will die. The BBB bill climate change expense may well be ten times more expensive in the future if we don't address it now
In the final analysis, the immortal words of stand-up comedian Ron White come to mind: "There jes' ain't no cure fer >stupid!<"
I cancelled my trip from Boston to family in Colorado because: I am 76 years old; more people in my age group get sick and die than in other age groups. 2. I don't want to contract the virus, even asymptomatically and infect my family and their friends. 3. I don't want to get the virus from, (for some ungodly, unknown reason), my UNVACCINATED 11 and 9 year old grandsons, or their parents. 4. It is as Tina, below, says "an obligation under the social contract -for the well-being of the community". I urge you to do the same.
My son, living in Northern California, has had all his parties outside in his backyard with propane heaters and spacing between tables and his son does a DJ Music show and my son does the BBQ. He orders out port-a-potties, he sets beside the house for the men, and the ladies use the downstairs bathroom in the house next to the back door. Lots of good food brought out from the kitchen by his wife and daughters, wearing masks, to the guests and everyone has a great time. Fortunately, the weather has been great, up until now, with the lack of rain, but, this Christmas and New Year's Eve, it is going to be rainy and cold so there will not be any parties until the weather is nice enough to be outside with the heaters turned on.
Proving you can have fun and stay safe is what all the Wineries also do here in Northern California by having everything done outside and servers all wearing masks. We have learned to live with the threat of Covid-19 by getting vaccinated and wearing our masks and doing things outside.
I live in a rural county with 35% vaccinated. No masks either. A level of deception, entrenched beliefs and from my perspective a disconnect. I go very few places, haven’t eaten in a restaurant since February 2020. Sometimes I think about the past and miss the sense of freedom of movement in doing something as simple as errands. A larger issue of ignorance of science and an anti- science sentiment is, where I live, a starting point for this general outlook. That I find truly frightening.
I was just supposing if we had a cyber-attack that took out the hydroelectric power production in Northern California, would we have a national response or would we just leave it up to California to deal with it? So why is this pandemic different? Why do we leave it up to the states, counties or cities to deal with it? It's just plain crazy that the federal government is not in charge here! What ever happened to common sense in government (and our courts for that matter)?
Don' know if it's beginnin' t' look a lot like Xmas, but from the mainstream, it's beginin' t' look a lot like this covid s##t's a pilin' up 'n' jus' a fixin' for a good ol' pitchin'. Poor ol' fan ain't got >no ah-dea< what the hell's about to hit it!
Don't ask me why I'm doin' dialect here. I have no idea!
There is fear-mongering from above, and then there are the 'concerned citizens' who leave leaflets pushing our Constitutional right to throw 'No I won't!' tantrums. I just saw a few on a table outside my coffee cafe across the street.
For me, the most aggravating consequence in the pandemic comment lore is the sudden number of Constitutional experts, convinced that the Founding Fathers foresaw events like this, then proceeded to write in non-compliance instructions as 'freedoms'. The only such are enumerated in the First Amendment. The '..speech' and 'redress of grievances' I understand; I can't find the right to be petulant ..
Well said.
All I can say is "thank heaven for someone who is as up to the task as Robert Reich is"!
1
Our country is under attack by a virus.
There are simple names for anyone who does not do everything they can to defend their country, beginning with coward.
Afraid of a new vaccine? Would you be afraid to put on a uniform and get thrown from one danger zone to another? Would you be unhappy and resentful and burdened with rationing and crap emergency jobs and careers postponed or upended and curfews and separation from loved ones?
Of course.
But that is what has to be done, when your country is under attack, so that is what patriots do.
thanks, Professor — b.rad
Good morning Comrade and thank you for more brilliant ideas and concepts to chew on!
I think the sad truth is that we can only really rely on personal responsibility right now because all of our social systems are so critically broken. The horrific lack of personal responsibility of select people with power and platforms is the problem. They are the root of why people are being actively manipulated into self-harm and social damage under the illusion of informed choice. But I think the personal responsibility of those working on the front lines of science and medicine—and those of us who support their efforts—is commendable.
This pandemic is forcing everyone to make immediate and unavoidable life and death decisions—a terrifying reality that we are not used to. Not only that, but this gives us all a brand new type of personal power—our choices now have tangible consequences on others that we get to determine. As unsettling as that sounds, I believe our ego’s vulnerabilities are exactly what is being targeted. And the existing epistemic battle of what comprises truth and reality in our political sphere lays the perfect groundwork for this kind of precise manipulation.
We are making these critical personal decisions while simultaneously being gravely misinformed about them, all while watching our leaders make choices that hurt us during this unprecedented time.
PS- I say comrade with all respect and mean it as a sincere compliment… I just get tired of how formal titles often reflect the status of one’s privileges more than intellect/ability.
Agreed. How can we solve this problem?
OMIGOSH! I can't even IMAGINE what our antivaxers would be like if they had to PAY for the vaccines! Hell hath no fury!!! We'd see people foaming at the mouth and then we would have a rabies scare on top of the Covid scare!
Leynia, I agree. Sadly, the cynic in me often sees us as a disintegrating country. The lack of reason, consideration, critical thinking and caring for others is just jaw-dropping to me. Long ago we reacted to, but accepted, seatbelt laws.... I don't recall that being anywhere near as contentious as covid vaccines. And polio vaccine? There was no question.
Thankfully we can all put our heads together here. I much appreciate all of your insights and opinions.
Happy Holidays to all.