As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.
As the COVID Delta variant is surging -- "the pandemic of the unvaccinated" -- we're mostly concentrating on that topic this morning.
Infidel 753 argues that the United States, with its surplus of vaccines thanks to an unwilling, mostly right- wing population, should increase its focus on expanding vaccination distribution in other parts of the world:
The objection is sometimes made that allowing covid-19 to fester endemically in a large sub-population will facilitate the continuing appearance of new variants, perhaps eventually one which would be resistant to the existing vaccines and thus threaten the vaccinated population.
Here's the critical thing to remember about that point, though. To the extent that this is a possibility, it makes no difference whether the unvaccinated people you're talking about are inside the United States or outside it. The delta variant originated in India and spread very rapidly all over the world, just as the original covid-19 itself originated in China and did the same. This will be the case with future variants as well. National borders have proven pretty much irrelevant to the spread of this disease. If you are a vaccinated American worried about unvaccinated populations fostering the rise of a new variant which could defeat the vaccines, then an unvaccinated individual in Bengal or Ethiopia presents exactly the same risk to you as an unvaccinated individual in Florida or Missouri does.
David Atkins writes about the premature decision by some media (Politico, back in March) to declare Floriduh Gov. Ron "One Glove" DeSantis victorious over COVID and why, now that Floriduh accounts for 1 in 5 new COVID infections, they need to stop getting suckered:
I’ve argued here before that failures of framing in the traditional media are now far less important than the disinformation being peddled on social media. The fact that the top posts on Facebook are consistently from right-wing disinformation channels matters a great deal more to public policy than whether Politico says something dumb and irresponsible. Biden reiterated the point yesterday, much to the amusing consternation of the rightwing disinformation racket itself and its enablers at Facebook.
But traditional media does still set narratives among more informed members of the electorate. How many times do reporters need to be played for fools by too-good-to-be-true rightwing narratives before a greater degree of skepticism starts to set in?
We'll remain skeptical, but hopeful, that anything will be any different in the future.
Will Bunch says there's a Democratic way and a Republican way to do vaccines, and he identifies a major fault line:
There is, we are finding out rather painfully, a Democratic and a Republican way to do vaccines. Just travel to a place like Mountain Home, Arkansas — in a state where Trump got 62% of the vote last year — where the largest medical center is jammed with coronavirus patients, in a county where more than two-thirds of residents aren’t vaccinated and interest in the jab is low. (”It was just terrible,” a 68-year-old widow with chronic pulmonary disease told the New York Times of her COVID-19 ordeal — before adding she still won’t get vaccinated.)
In neighboring Tennessee, the top immunization official was fired last week under pressure from Republican lawmakers because she aggressively promoted vaccines for teens. “I am afraid for my state,” Dr. Michelle Fiscus said in a statement after she was sacked. Health officials in the GOP-dominated state immediately justified her fears by buckling under political pressure and stopping all vaccine outreach to teenagers — not just on COVID-19, but also for flu, measles, mumps, rubella, and human papillomavirus, or HPV, among others. [snip]
The masses are receptive to misinformation because America is increasingly divided not by its traditional fault lines, but by one huge determining factor: whether or not you attended college. As the U.S. increasingly cleaves into a Democratic Party composed heavily of college grads in cosmopolitan cities and suburbs, and a GOP foaming with anti-elite resentments, Republicans increasingly lack faith in our universities (their confidence dropping sharply from 56% to 39% just between 2015 and 2018) and their science departments. As more and more scientists denounced the right’s hero, Donald Trump, the gulf grew even wider. [snip]
Now we are witnessing firsthand the consequences of a society that’s chosen to willfully ignore its leading climatologists and infectious-disease experts. The increasing reports from overcrowded ICUs in low-vaccine hotspots like the Ozarks of Missouri and Arkansas about people fighting — needlessly — for their lives on ventilators are heartbreaking. And news of growing wildfires and drought in the parched, overheated American West is just terrifying, a reminder of our failure to curb greenhouse-gas pollution fast enough.
When 3 in 10 Republicans believe the Federal Government is microchipping us through COVID vaccines, that's the fault line in stark relief.
As the Republican fraudit continues its increasingly bizarre path in Arizona, the Associated Press did a little checking and found what has been true from the beginning:
Arizona county election officials have identified fewer than 200 cases of potential voter fraud out of more than 3 million ballots cast in last year’s presidential election, further discrediting former President Donald Trump’s claims of a stolen election as his allies continue a disputed ballot review in the state’s most populous county.
An Associated Press investigation found 182 cases where problems were clear enough that officials referred them to investigators for further review. So far, only four cases have led to charges, including those identified in a separate state investigation. No one has been convicted. No person’s vote was counted twice.
While it’s possible more cases could emerge, the numbers illustrate the implausibility of Trump’s claims that fraud and irregularities in Arizona cost him the state’s electorate votes. In final, certified and audited results, Biden won 10,400 more votes than Trump out of 3.4 million cast.
AP’s findings align with previous studies showing voter fraud is rare. Numerous safeguards are built into the system to not only prevent fraud from happening but to detect it when it does.
Finally, please consider a visit over to the aforementioned Infidel 753's link round- up for a great collection of links to interesting posts from around the Internet. There's none better in our opinion.
