It was just about a year ago when we realized we were screwed.
Most Americans (but not our President) began to get that dreaded feeling deep down inside that the alleged “Democratic Hoax” (the novel coronavirus pandemic) was going to mess us up real bad if we didn’t follow some common sense public health measures.
Wearing a facemask in public, to slow the spread of the airborne disease, was common practice in the Orient, where the pandemic had originated and where strict public health measures had limited the spread to a great degree. It was a simple, proven-to-be-effective measure, one that every citizen could employ to do his or her part.
However, in America, the “greatest Nation on earth”, the bastion of “exceptionalism”, the home of John Wayne, for God’s Sake…the idea of wearing a simple cloth mask over one’s pie hole was…a preposterous idea. It was Communistic, un-manly, antisocial, un-Christian, and unthinkable to many upstanding card-carrying American patriots. That we, the leaders of the Free World, should copy the (successful) measures employed in China, Japan, Singapore, Korea, Australia, and some Third World countries was..beyond the pale.
“We would rather eat green flies!”, said our conservative hardliners. “No way we’re putting on those masks! We’d look like a bunch of Liberal pussies!”, they said. It’s nothing but the friggin’ flu, and it will be gone by Summer, they claimed, echoing their proudly-maskless President.
A not-so-funny thing happened, though, while these Americans pounded their chests and dithered about taking the Covid-19 scourge seriously: a half-million people died.
Amidst this carnage, there were still large swaths of American society who refused to wear a mask to help limit the spread of the virus. It has been a tough thing to witness, people flaunting their ignorance and independence while assisting the microscopic villain in doing his dirty work. The most insidious action, though, has come from elected politicians, supposedly mature individuals, who have encouraged such behavior and have undermined the work of public health officials to keep a lid on the plague.
That behavior is tough to swallow.
Thank goodness that most Americans have joined the fight and have acquiesced to mask-wearing. In most places, people are wearing masks now…even after they have received the Covid-19 immunization. That shows concern for others and demonstrates that they are team players. I am so proud of them.
There are now vaccines available to stop the spread of this disease and, wouldn’t you know it, a lot of the same people who were too proud to wear a mask are also adamant that they won’t take the vaccine, either. Several recent polls indicate that voters who supported Donald Trump in the 2020 Presidential election are much less likely to get vaccinated than those who opposed him. A CBS poll and an NPR/PBS poll found that between 33 and 47 percent of Republicans said that they will refrain from the vaccination effort. That is twice to three times the reluctance shown by Democrats.
What gives? Is it possible that these hardheads believe that, by sheer partisan political will, they can defeat biology? That will be the day. Does this mean that we might see another wave of Covid-19 infections? Oh, my God, that would be a tragedy.
It is a peculiar circumstance that we, as a society, face right now: the means to achieve herd immunity against Covid-19 but the lack of aggregate common sense to avail ourselves of the solution. There are nations on earth, mostly Third World, which cannot obtain the vaccine and would love to do so. America will soon have enough supply to vaccinate every man, woman, and child by Summer…and will not do so.
Disadvantaged people throughout the world must think Americans are crazy fools.
The protective face mask is a metaphor for the trust of facts over belief. Those who proudly and defiantly refuse to wear a face mask in public stamp themselves as lemmings being led about by a Pied Piper, oblivious to reality. Some of these morons have even resorted to violence (assault, battery, and manslaughter) to protect their “right” to be independent assholes. They must be so proud of themselves.
If we ever emerge from this pandemic, it will be no thanks to these simpletons who, for some bizarre reason, think that they are true patriots.
