Be Warned: This post is about politics and the pandemic

I'd like to talk about stuff that I don't like to talk about anymore.  It's not good for my blood pressure and my general outlook but nonetheless it's good to vent every once in a while.  The world's kind of a steaming mess of unforeseen consequences and sadly predictable reactionary behaviour at the moment.  Of course I'm talking about the Covid-19 global pandemic and all the political and sociological sausage making that is taking place as a result.

There is, however slim and not so bright, a bit of a silver lining to all of this.  Not everywhere is as bad as the United States in this regard.  There are lunatics everywhere of course.  The stark difference is that in the United States the lunatics run things.  Lunatics get elected to very powerful positions and implement incredibly damaging public policy.  Think Florida and DeSantis.  Think Trump during the last presidential administration.  Think of an entire political establishment embracing or, at the very least, holding their collective noses as a psychopathic narcissist holds court via Twitter and shits himself on the public stage week in and week out.  When he loses the election, a full seventy percent of Republicans still think the election was rigged.  This translates into tens of millions of voting citizens believing a demonstrable lie.  That does not bode well at all for future elections.  

One of the most disturbing offshoots of this is how politics has affected vaccination rates during the pandemic.  NOT getting the vaccine corresponds to how people feel politically.  It is a badge of honour to oppose "tyranny" and "mandates" and all other sorts of nonsense that is divorced from sensible public health policy.  Public health should not be political.  Yet, here we are.  Where my brother and mother live, in the US state of Georgia, the double vaccination rate is less than fifty percent.  LESS THAN FIFTY PERCENT!  It's free and it's been available for over six months.  People are still catching, spreading, getting sick from and dying from this virus.  That doesn't matter as long as you are sticking it to the libs. 

I'd encourage you to read The New Zealand View of Freedumb.  It's funny and accurate and also paints a more refreshing view of anti-vax loons and their associates in the cavalcade of stupid that is the modern political climate.  But, importantly, it shows them as they SHOULD be seen:  marginalised crackpots.  They are loud, persistent and "committed" but they hold little to no political sway in New Zealand.  New Zealand was late to the vaccination party but the rates of vaccination here are higher than most anywhere in the United States.  In New Zealand, the rates of vaccination are ninety percent for first dose and eighty-one percent fully vaccinated.  This is for the eligible population so the overall rate is lower but when kids are okayed, the numbers should level out into the eightieth and ninetieth percentiles.  The linkage between politics and public health has not taken hold nearly as much.  Let's hope it stays that way.  I'll post pretty pictures in my next post.  I promise.