Since the Sturgis motorcycle rally, in which thousands of maskless people could be seen proudly crowded together like sardines, The New York Times COVID-19 tracker indicated that new cases have jumped an average of nearly 700 percent per day since the day it began and now in the latest daily average in the past week. Gov. Kristi Noem, who attended the rally and insists there is no “science” to prove that the rally is at least partially responsible for the current surge in the state, had this to say about how she will “deal” with it, in a state that has stalled at 60 percent in vaccination rates: “If Joe Biden illegally mandates vaccines, I will take very action available under the law to protect South Dakotans from the federal government.” Yes, but who is going to protect South Dakotans from Noem? This all so stupid, this anti-vaccination attitude. Why people fear something that is basically an in-and-out procedure that 99 percent of people feel nothing more than maybe a day of soreness in the shoulder that means nothing more than the thing is working is beyond nonsensical.
Alabama’s ancient governor, Kay Ivey, was forced to end her “end of the state of emergency” declaration after five weeks as state emergency rooms neared 100 percent occupancy. Her latest declaration was long on confusing verbiage that basically just allowed for the cutting of red tape to deal the current surge in the state. But she also insisted that she would not allow statewide mask mandates, crowd limits, business closures “or the like.” Like other Republican governors who are taking similar actions, like Mississippi’s Tate Reeves, Ivey is taking chances with people’s lives, not telling them what they need to do, and simply to deal with the “problem” after the fact and hope things don’t turn out too badly when it comes time for the history books to record how they dealt with a deadly pandemic.
In Missouri, Gov. Mike Parson ended the state of emergency just as state is seeing record high cases in intensive care. Current positive tests are nearly four times what they were three months ago. Like Ivey, Parson kept in place some measures to respond to an uptick in cases, but otherwise people could conduct their business “as usual.” Missouri’s Republican attorney general and U.S. Senate candidate, Eric Schmitt, has declare mask mandates for school children illegal if children are “uncomfortable,” “unhappy” or “irritable” wearing them. This is of course insane; how other regulations and laws do people have to obey to make themselves and others safe, even it makes them “uncomfortable, unhappy or irritable”?
Meanwhile in Texas during the first two weeks of the school year, more than 40,000 children have tested positive for COVID-19. In this image from the Texas Tribune we see only a few children wearing masks; at one table on the left, it appears that none of the six white girls are wearing one:
Forty-five Texas school districts have shut down in-class learning. So what is the governor and the attorney general saying? They of course insist upon no mask mandates or business closures or crowd limits. With at least 69 school districts and 10 counties defying Abbot and Paxton’s orders disallowing mask mandates, they have made the usual threats of lawsuits against recalcitrant school districts, but with one caveat: Paxton has “suggested” that the state can only enforce its rules through local district attorneys, and if they don’t bring lawsuits against school districts, then the rules cannot be enforced. Of course the far-right is unhappy about this, and the State Supreme Court barred Bexar County public schools from enforcing a mask mandate. However, local DA Joe Gonzalez said he will not bring a case against any school that ignores the ruling.
Of course there is Florida’s Ron DeSantis, who has undercut his “early treatment” campaign with monoclonal antibodies with his refusal to take the virus surge seriously. If he doesn’t take it seriously, why should anyone else? Florida has seen over 10,000 new deaths from COVID during the current surge, and his only response to it is that it is a “seasonal” problem—you know, like common colds or allergies. It is just a “natural” occurrence, so why make a big deal about it? You know, just “deal” with it. The problem of course is what the definition of “seasonal” is. If we count the first “surge” occurring in the spring of 2020, that means we have had four surges in six seasons. That means a “surge” every one-and-half “seasons.” In reality, COVID-19 has not been “seasonal,” but more a reaction to failure to abide by mandates, or simply not taking the minimum precautionary measures necessary to stay safe.
In Tennessee, there have been reports of delayed input of COVID data that may or may not have been intentional, and this was former head of the state’s nursing home administrator, Rick Lucas, in his state of condition a few weeks ago, courtesy the Tennessean:
Naturally, with ICU beds filling up again, and tens of thousands of school children becoming infected, the Republican governor, Bill Lee, has been noncommittal about state action. Instead he is “recommending” vaccinations and face masks, but in a deeply red state with only a few blue urban centers, “recommendations” are not to be taken too seriously; it is just an “out” for the governor to assuage any personal “guilt” he may be happening to be feeling.
The same for Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, who claims to regret signing a bill banning mask mandates as the state has run out of ICU beds. But his hardcore Republican constituency continues to oppose vaccinations; Hutchinson, like other Republican governors with a “conscience,” has realize too late that failure to lead by example has a cost, and the failure to allow medical experts and not partisan politicians the floor has only allowed the propagation of conspiracies theories and other forms of myth and propaganda.
Denial of the seriousness of the virus isn’t just relegated to the U.S. The number of deaths from COVID continues to be a controversial matter in India, where independent media reports have revealed that hospitals deliberately undercount deaths from the virus by as much as 9 times the actual number by not counting those by patients who were admitted to the hospital positive with the virus, but allegedly tested “negative” at the time of death. It’s relatively low testing rate per million also calls into question its numbers. African and Muslim countries have the lowest testing rates, so their numbers are not likely reliable. We can roll our eyes at China’s “official” figures, which can’t be given much credence by the fact that it’s testing rate is barely one-in-ten of the population—while Denmark averages 14 tests per person.
Republicans have painted themselves in a corner they simply can’t escape from. Ohio’s Gov. Mike DeWine has discovered that he has only limited authority in the face of a far-right legislature, which recently over-rode his veto of a bill limiting his power to enforce pandemic restrictions. His current primary challenger is a Trumpist fanatic who claims that DeWine is “out-of-step” with current Republican ideology—which is like the ISIS-K claiming that the Taliban is “out-of-step” with Islamic jihadism.
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