I know what you’re thinking… (no, it is not that you need to drink whiskey and bark at the moon, close, oh so close). 2 Blogs in 2 days, what got under your skin? Well, the truth is, a lot is under my skin. This past year has been the weirdest one by far, and I lived through the 70s and 80s. Maybe chalk it up to listening to a live stream of Fallout 76’s “Appalachia Radio” on YouTube. In the game, you can “listen” to the radio, and there are radios everywhere in the game are tuned to this. Yeah, it’s geeky, but it keeps me sane.

In a fit of oh well, what the hell, I looked up today’s numbers of vaccinated Americans. It isn’t as wonderful as you would hope. Today has us at 72,630,892 (because the two are just as important as the other 72 million and change). Every two people that get vaccinated are two more people protected. The 72 million and change is just a tad over 21% of the US population. 

While the pace is good, we are nowhere near the coverage; we need to be loosening mask mandates, we need to tighten them. But nursiepoo, we thought as we got vaccinated, we could drop the masks? I wish I could say it’s true, but no. While that concept sounds weird, it will help reduce the spread further and lessen variants’ potential. It’s essential to get a solid start against the virus before we relax too much. 

Why aren’t people being vaccinated faster? The short answer is that it takes time. Each person vaccinated must be observed for a reaction. The observation is a safety issue (observation is done the first time anyone has a new vaccine). It has nothing to do with the feces spewed by the anti-vax, pseudoscience crowd about untested vaccines (more later). The ineptness grossly underestimated the vaccine supply and distribution, simply the former guy and his folks didn’t buy enough. The clinics that are mass vaccinating are running as fast as they can. 

Do I need to need to spell out the ineptness? (I mean, I am that bitch that will, but more rhetorically for a segue. Funny autocorrect tried to give the spelling of the funky scooter thing instead) 

The former guy was the problem, not just by his attitude, but by the people he picked to run key health agencies or, in many cases, got rid of or failed to appoint replacements. Like him or not, he left many of these agencies without the ability to handle even the most basic health issues, let alone a pandemic. What a crazy joke this country has become after four years of having empowered ignorance as a value and degraded dignity and respect for the entire population. The ignorance of this pandemic has cost over 600,000 people their lives. The death toll could have mitigated if the former guy had spent a little more time trying to be president. Suppose he had appointed qualified people to run government agencies, not friends or associates who have no idea or a flawed idea of their agencies’ workings? Would be looking at a different situation?

The Financial Times provided this perspective early in the pandemic. While it seems a bit wordy, it puts the handling of an epidemic in perspective.

Here again, though, Trump’s stamp is clear. It was Trump who chose Robert Redfield to head the CDC in spite of widespread warnings about the former military officer’s controversial record. 

He led the Pentagon’s response to HIV-Aids in the 1980s. It involved isolating suspected soldiers in so-called HIV Hotels (not quite the Ritz, probably more like a bedbug-ridden Trump property (my words)). At that time, his recommendations led to dishonorable discharges for those with the disease. 

This next bit is the heart of the problem.

A devout Catholic, Redfield saw Aids as the product of an immoral society. For many years, he championed a much-hyped remedy that was discredited in tests. That debacle led to his removal from the job in 1994.

Outstanding credentials (sarcasm, shocked yet?) to manage any agency that relies on science. Morality as a measure of who deserves healthcare? We all know how amazingly anti-science the Catholics can be, except when they need it to survive. When I worked in a dialysis unit years ago, I had a Catholic nun tell me that dialysis was artificially extending patients’ lives. That was not anyone’s decision but God’s. Really sister (nuns are called sisters)? You take insulin every day for your long-term type 1 diabetes (that’s the one where you are insulin-dependent because your pancreas doesn’t work). Isn’t that artificially extending your life? Holy shit.

Someone who has magical thinking and a general pseudoscience agenda leading the CDC after his abilities with leading the response to HIV caused him to be fired.

“Redfield is about the worst person you could think of to be heading the CDC at this time,” says Laurie Garrett, a Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist who has reported on epidemics. “He lets his prejudices interfere with the science, which you cannot afford during a pandemic.” 

So degraded dignity and respect again at its finest. It was evident throughout the early pandemic that the former guy only wanted to help those that pledged loyalty to him. Loyalty? Not the king, and if anything, a king would probably take far better care of his subjects. 

Great, so ineptness at the top and with agency heads, and the CDC director has a bias, magical thinking, and pseudoscience in his resume. 

Trump himself was inept. The former guy told us to inject ourselves with bleach (you first dude). He “reccomended” hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin as treatment. Simultaneously, Fauci and Birx stood there in shock (Fauci has Anderson Cooper beat in the ability to roll his eyes). If Trump didn’t like what you had to say or if it was against his beliefs, he minimized you or just fired you. Even worse, he failed to provide federal pandemic aid to states with governors that were not loyal, were democrats, or he just had issues with. Not what was needed. It needs to be a consistent front with consistent players, not an untrained person making decisions without listening to the basic input. 

The pseudoscience took off with all the crazy remedies and the fact that Trump himself is on record not supporting the vast array of vaccines that are out there. Armed with this, the anti-vax crowd is out in freaking force. The scariest part of this that these most dangerous lies are those that use the truth to sell themselves. I read a lot of this crap brought to me is brought in by someone who is trying to “educate” me on the “truth.” 

It is tough not to rip it up in their face for sure. However, the most ignored truths are those couched in academic language and smugness.

I try not to belittle them immediately, but gently educate even though I want to go out back and sic one of those lazy, smoking, flying monkeys on their ass. I read the printouts and explain my opinion. These kinds of folks think peer-review is other people’s beliefs, not the actual science. You must speak from the heart. I have had to say how I believe and cite the science gently. Words matter here; no one likes their beliefs challenged, and we need people to accept facts.

My favorite is the” COVID vaccines are not FDA approved.” 

They are under emergency authorization and have gone through a basic clinical trial. Yes, they do not have full licensure, but it is splitting hairs on definitions. Anti-vaxxers use this technique to make people “think.” That is what these pseudoscience idiots think we should do because they can spout hundreds of useless websites, google searches, conspiracy theories, you name it. It is exhausting and is creating people who are hesitant to get the vaccine because these idiots think their “science” is “helping save lives.” (remember above, this rage does not work, but oh man, do I think it a lot. I am learning the Fauci eyeroll well)

Sure Becky, aren’t you the same person I saw at Burning Man buy acid from a random hippie? The barrage of pseudoscience is exhausting to people who know. It is overwhelming to those who have pandemic fatigue and are trying to decide to move on. My favorite one is Bill Gates implanting a microchip with the vaccines or increased 5G tracking. As a note, I am not getting the best reception yet. Also, Bill Gates has no damn interest in your life, but again, I roll my eyes and move onward.

Yep, degraded dignity and respect, only respect for what you believe, not respect for the facts. I haven’t even touched on the anti-mask crowd. You know them:

‘Merica! No one tells me what to do. First amendment! Fire first, ask questions later. I’ve got the right to defend myself against the masked up libtards! ‘Merica. Where are those emails? Hunter’s computer! Lock her up! ‘Merica! 

You are too familiar with the trope. These are people who were convinced by the former guy’s ineptness, who was more worried about helping himself and his friends and family. Someone kept the pandemic truth away from people and outright lied to those most likely to be affected. He isolated this country from the world and spread misinformation. 

I promised that I wouldn’t be super political on this blog. You know that I am not a fan of the former guy, but I would have been this critical of Hillary, Biden, Obama, Bill Clinton, or anyone who sat in the oval office that handled this pandemic ineptly. Obama dismantled the pandemic response agency only to reinstated it when Ebola struck.

People have been sick, people have died. Yes, every last one meant someone to someone. 

As a fun fact, South Korea has had a total of 110,688 cases and 1775 deaths. This is out of a population of 51.71 million people, many of who live close to each other. New Zealand has 4.9 million people and only 26 deaths. We chose to be selfish and isolate our country; we lost our status as a world leader. 

Sorry I wasn’t a snarky as I could be. This virus has worn us all a little thin. I needed to make an honest commentary on why the pandemic has been a nightmare for anyone.

Be the kind of person your dog and your mom hope you are.