The pandemic has broken down along partisan lines. In the post vaccine world, COVID is disproportionately harming Republican areas with the death rate in red states three times that of blue states. Two years of resisting any sort of mitigation efforts while casting doubt about the danger of the disease has taken a toll. The conservative media led its audience to be skeptical of the vaccines and Republican leaders like Florida Governor Ron DiSantis gave credence to the misinformation and disinformation being spread by the outlets.
That said, COVID is not going to go away. We will likely see spikes again as people move inside during the winter. Cases, though, should not be the driver of government interventions. Instead, the threat to hospitals should be what triggers regulations and mandates. Most vaccinated people can now survive the virus without intense medical intervention. As long as COVID is not overwhelming medical systems, governments should back off of mandates and regulations.
It’s time to recalibrate our approach to dealing with the virus. We now have interventions that can reduced its spread and its severity. People either take it seriously or they don’t. They know how to protect themselves and their loved ones, so we should leave it up to individuals, organizations, and businesses. Keep them informed about the progress and spread of the virus and don’t declare victory. It’s not something to beat, it’s something to control. The only thing that’s going to convince skeptics is the toll of the disease on their lives and communities.
We need to look at the impact of the virus from a local standpoint, not a state one. North Carolina is the size of many countries and the impact of the virus differs greatly geographically. In places like Orange County, the spread is largely contained. In other counties, the virus is still raging. Orange County took the virus seriously from the beginning. People living there will continue to take a cautious approach to dealing with it regardless of what the government says.
In contrast, places like Cleveland County have taken a different approach. When Cleveland County resident and House Speaker Tim Moore made news by showing up maskless in a Raleigh pharmacy, conservatives on social media called him a hero. His county has a death rate three times that of Orange County. No amount of state government regulation is going to change the perception in Cleveland County that the virus does not need serious intervention. If they want to take a cavalier approach to COVID, let them. If agonizing deaths alone on a ventilator aren’t enough to make people realize the threat of the disease, nothing will.
We’re going to have to learn to live with the disease and, thankfully, we now have interventions that can reduce its impact. I don’t think government mandates convince many people of its seriousness. Instead, they create heroes of those who snub them. People and businesses have the information they need. If they choose to believe conservative media outlets, let them pay the price. If they care more about their loved ones and their communities, let them be rewarded with lower infection and death rates.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
Just because you are uninjected (its not a vaccine) does not mean you are a vector for infection for anyone else. This is a very odd way of looking at things
2 Getting “the jab”(tm.) Does nothing since you can still be infected and still infect others. true pointless.
We are now having a pandemic of the jabbed up north. which is not supposed to happen.
Fauci (the jab demi-god) has said that the jab now does not assure that you will not be hospitalized or die from The Shanghai shivers/wuhan flu/rice rabies/china flu.
So all in all the entire debate over to jab or not and worry about those who are or aren’t and everything else involved
IS POINTLESS.
Wear the mask (or not) It does not matter
Get jabbed (or not) it does not matter
Get a booster (it does not matter)
Everyone should just go back to living your life as you wish and MYOB in regards to everyone else. because what they so has no bearing on you at all.
The only problem now is that now all of the people who got stuck with the experimental jab are now seeming stuck on the ever shifting rules of what is “fully vaccinated”
Enjoy the ride. because who knows when that will end.
Its like the movie war games. The best way to wing the game is to not play at all.
Good luck
You just want to turn North Carolina blue.
If the stupidity of anti-vaxxers touched only them, then I’d probably agree with you, Tom.
But as Peter Harkins points out, their stupidity costs us money the way keeping a helmet-less brain-injured motorcyclist alive for years does.
Even more seriously, I don’t want these people putting my family and friends in danger when we come in contact with them in stores, public events and travel. After all, being vaccinated doesn’t provide 100% protection and I certainly don’t want unvaccinated people around our granddaughter, who is too young to be vaccinated.
For an old biker like myself, who wore a helmet long before the state made it mandatory, I could not agree with you more. How can you restore unity with an element in our society that promotes ante democratic and self-destructive goals for no logical reason? Vaccinations has nothing to do with turning everything blue, it is all about common sense and keeping folks alive.
A most sensible approach and one that would probably gain wide support. I could do so completely. At this point in time any who wanted to be educated on the science, will have already been and those who wanted to be vaccinated have had ample opportunities to have done so. Others, who remain resistant for whatever reason (or non) should be left to the consequences of their actions.
A virus isn’t like seatbelts. Even if it could be contained in areas of unvaccinated people (it can’t) it’s an immoral position to consign these people to sickness and death. It’s hard to see these misinformed deniers as victims, but they are.
Ouch, Thomas, I won’t get into the “humanity” approach, too emotional,
But help me understand the economics. Who pays the ICU cosst (or just inpatient care for that matter) for folks without insurance? Or with insurance, what does the thick of head Fox watchers do to others’ rates? Just askin’ 😉
CLatner has a point.
People raised hell about seatbelt “mandates” when they were passed in 1985, too–but eventually they were accepted and the next generation doesn’t even remember not having them. and that’s somethig you have to do every time you get in a car–vaccines are one shot w possible boosters.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see who are left to vote in the elections of 2022
Of course we should drop the mandate. Many of us who believe in vaccines (I have been vaccinated and had the booster), don’t believe in forcing others to take it. With the huge lack of workers in the US now, a vaccine mandate in January risks an even bigger supply chain collapse – something that also has serious heath consequences.
But your “partisan” outcomes opinion is quite a bit off. You point out DeSantis and Florida for example. Florida actually has a lower death rate per 100,000 than both New York and New Jersey, 2 of the most restrictive and most “mandated” states. What makes that stand out even more is Florida’s population is 20% age 65 and older while NY, & NJ are both only 16%. This is overwhelmingly a serious disease for the elderly, and Florida has one of the highest number of elderly people in the country. Which supports my belief that cloth masks are mostly useless unless someone is currently spewing mucus.
Fewer covid cases and deaths may be due to Florida officials cooking the books. There is a common denominator that exists in the three states you mention. They are major ports of entry. All indicators point to this disease coming from outside. How could a State like Florida not have a high rate of infection? The facts are Florida hospitals were inundated with new covid cases forcing them to seek ventilators and related medical aid from outside the state. Something is missing in your conclusion.
I don’t totally agree. I think vaccine mandates are necessary since so many folks have lost their minds and think their right to do whatever they want is more sacred than protecting their neighbors. Back to the golden rule- love your neighbor as yourself. If it was the case that there was very little transmission between infected and non-infected people then I would agree with you to let them suffer the consequences of their stubborness.
1.) I agree with this completely.
2.) I appreciate this tacit acknowledgement that mandates, restrictions, and lockdowns are hurting Democrats politically.
CLOVE, WHAT LOCK DOWNS? Businesses in North Carolina are not locked down. Schools are up and running, movie theaters, malls are doing great. Perhaps, (if you play your cards right) you may be able to get a job as Santa this year or at least one of his elves!