I had a small rant with a coworker this morning, in front of another coworker who identifies as a Democrat. My coworker was asking why many more people were masking up recently. The Democratic coworker asked if he had been watching the news, which piqued my interest (he had not been watching the news by the way).
Since the pandemic began, part of my responsibilities at work has expanded to include keeping up with the litany of changing COVID-19 policies between local, state, and federal governments. In order to help get the proper messaging and policy procedures to the employees at my job, I have had to stay up to date on what either the Biden, or previously, the Trump administration, has had to say regarding the case numbers, death rates, CDC guidelines, demographics, vaccine statuses, variants, and ongoing lockdowns and mandates. While I don’t proclaim myself to be an expert by any means, I do have more information and understanding of the COVID-19 variants than your average American.
What I mean to say here is not medical advice or medical opinion. My recommendation, as always, has been to assess the data coming in, consult with your doctor, and to make reasonable medical decisions for yourself. (Yay disclaimers…)
We are reaching a very potentially dark moment for the country. With the surge in delta variant cases, reaching a rolling average of 70,000 cases per day, the government is pushing harder to get the population vaccinated. In addition, the messaging on vaccines, COVID, and masks are so convoluted that reasonable discussion is almost impossible. Nearly every part of this pandemic has become a tribal identifier, and many assumptions are being made about those who are “unvaccinated.” The rhetoric continues to be at a high temperature, with “the unvaccinated” becoming a catch-all term that includes not only for people who refuse to get vaccinated by choice, people who cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons, and those who have moral or religious reasons. And those who see the vaccine as a panacea are having to admit that even the vaccines aren’t 100% effective (news flash, they never were). But the goal has continued to shift, from preventing the overwhelming of the hospitals, to waiting for the vaccine, to zero COVID.
Australia is calling its military to enforce COVID lockdowns, and I agree with more conservative opinions that the continued use of compulsion and mandates do more damage to the credibility of the vaccines, our national medical institutions, and our media/social media companies than the virus ever could. We have strayed away from following the data, relaying it to the people in a way that the average person would understand, and requiring people to make a reasonable decision, to a narrative driven boy who cried wolf-esque alarmism that threatens to overturn our society and civilization.
At the end of the day, the government, the media, and even your neighbors will look to take care of themselves. Being prepared and being responsible for your own health and well-being, are going to become far more important far sooner than anyone could expect. If lockdowns are once again on the horizon, it becomes imperative for us to find the means by which to survive them. Programs, though available, are woefully slow in being dispersed. The government is not efficient at quickly responding to any crisis. Why then, should we depend on them?
A Place 4Politics 