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"it is what it is"
2020-Aug-06, Thursday 04:22 pmIt has been exactly 6 months today since the first death in the USA on February 6th from COVID-19, so it's a good milestone for a review.
There are still a lot of people throwing tantrums about restrictions due to health policy. It's curious, though, how anti-science propaganda about COVID-19 turns out exactly like you'd expect from a novel virus when it has an R0 value of at least 2.5.
Nevertheless, some people persist in their oppositional performance art. In Minnesota, Republicans are trying to say that a Democrat governor can't require face masks throughout the state during a health crisis. In South Dakota, a tourism souvenir wholesaler is suing a city to prevent it from blocking 250K visitors for the Sturgis rally.
Jared Kushner was supposed to lead the USA response to this pandemic. Instead, he may have suppressed a federal government response, because at the time it was Democrat areas that were most affected. "Flattening the curve" through state and local efforts was supposed to buy us time to prepare, but this Republican administration clearly squandered that opportunity. Now we're due for round 2, on top of flu season rapidly approaching.
Remember, with an R0 value of 2.5 and no precautions whatsoever, early projections estimated 2.2 million dead Americans. You can thank rational people everywhere for keeping the majority of us from that unnecessary fate so far, reaching only 7% of that worst-case scenario in the first 6 months of this ongoing pandemic. Keep wearing a mask, but it's no guarantee. Keep washing your hands! Keep distancing. We're waiting for an effective vaccine.
There are still a lot of people throwing tantrums about restrictions due to health policy. It's curious, though, how anti-science propaganda about COVID-19 turns out exactly like you'd expect from a novel virus when it has an R0 value of at least 2.5.
| Somebody died... | ... after encouraging disregard of evidence. |
| Herman Cain died from COVID-19 complications a few weeks after attending the GOP rally with Trump and refusing to wear face masks. His original rallying cry was deleted from Twitter, but the archived version is still available. | "Masks will not be mandatory for the event, which will be attended by President Trump. PEOPLE ARE FED UP!" - @TheHermanCain, 2020 July 01 2:44PM |
| Bill Montgomery died from COVID-19 complications. He co-founded conservative Turning Points USA which posted a tweet mocking "leftist"s for wearing face masks. Of course, that message was deleted from Twitter too. | "LOL! #BigGovSucks": |
| Gerald Glen died from COVID-19 complications. He held services at his church despite warnings. He vowed... | "...to keep preaching “unless I’m in jail or the hospital... I firmly believe that God is larger than this dreaded virus. You can quote me on that"." - https://nypost.com/2020/04/13/virginia-pastor-who-held-packed-church-service-dies-of-coronavirus/ |
Nevertheless, some people persist in their oppositional performance art. In Minnesota, Republicans are trying to say that a Democrat governor can't require face masks throughout the state during a health crisis. In South Dakota, a tourism souvenir wholesaler is suing a city to prevent it from blocking 250K visitors for the Sturgis rally.
Jared Kushner was supposed to lead the USA response to this pandemic. Instead, he may have suppressed a federal government response, because at the time it was Democrat areas that were most affected. "Flattening the curve" through state and local efforts was supposed to buy us time to prepare, but this Republican administration clearly squandered that opportunity. Now we're due for round 2, on top of flu season rapidly approaching.
Remember, with an R0 value of 2.5 and no precautions whatsoever, early projections estimated 2.2 million dead Americans. You can thank rational people everywhere for keeping the majority of us from that unnecessary fate so far, reaching only 7% of that worst-case scenario in the first 6 months of this ongoing pandemic. Keep wearing a mask, but it's no guarantee. Keep washing your hands! Keep distancing. We're waiting for an effective vaccine.