President Biden thread

1 hour ago, Beerman said:

Given your isolated environment,  and your preferred liberal propagandist media choices,  I could see how you might think it's so cut and dry.

Here are a few real-life unvaccinated from my real-world experience. 

1) woman friend, white, mid thirties, masters degree,, has had covid with minor symptoms, is healthy, low-risk, believes has natural immunity. Was a Obama campaign volunteer and drove 15 hours to see his inauguration.

2) uncle 60ish, and three cousins in 20's and early 30's. All athletic,  healthy.  Two have had covid with very minor symptoms. Uncle voted for Trump. Unsure of the younger ones.

3) nurse practioner, coworker in vaccine clinics since March. Black, 60ish. Slightly overweight. Just received 1rst shot last week.

4) black woman in poor neighborhood,  two young children, accused me of trying to kill a mother of young kids when I offered her a vaccine

All are "stupid" in your estimation?

 

I would argue "ignoramus" is more technically accurate.  "Oblivious" would also be accurate, "ill-informed" as well.

7 hours ago, chare said:

Completely agree.  Unfortunately Mr. Trump wasn't the first to do this, nor do I think he'll be the last.

He's actually the first US President to never concede an election that he lost.

6 hours ago, Beerman said:

All are "stupid" in your estimation?

I know a few people like that as well.  We all can come up with examples like that.  But it is also relatively easy to find people of the same description that died from covid and regret.  So there is that.

The "stupid" ones get all the headlines because they don't trust the science and believe conspiracy theories, but I wonder if the one's that trust their bodies not to get too sick and just want to take their chances but are reasonably intelligent people are in the majority or not.

https://www.vox.com/2021/6/2/22463223/covid-19-vaccine-hesitancy-reasons-why

7 hours ago, Beerman said:

There has been a lot  "stupid " coming from the policy makers during all this.

I was reminded of that tonight.  Due to a renewed mask mandate,  my wife and I politely complied to put on masks to walk, literally 15 feet, to a table where we were able to remove our masks for the next 75 minutes while we chatted and dined. And, then were reminded to mask up again before we left.  smh 

I might agree with you if it were a time when cases were low.  I haven't worn a mask in months as our percent of positivity was 2%.  Now I expect like South Florida we'll rise to about 30%.

But it's the same in planes, you wear a mask and then everyone at once takes them off to eat.  Guess that's one reason so many airline employees are getting sick.  But we do the best we can I suppose. 

We don't have mask mandates here.

I've gone back to wearing a mask at the gym and grocery stores, and in fact wearing an N95 as experts are asking.   I'm also avoiding crowded indoor places.  I haven't been to a restaurant the last week as cases here in Florida have increased 300% but if and when I do I'll wear a mask in where it might be likely I'm close to people, and take if off to eat, and only will go to a place that isn't crowded and tables are separated or outside.   Seems like a reasonable thing to do to me.   I am concerned about my yoga class which I do maskless but are small enough that we can be spaced six feet apart.  

In a few weeks when cases drop again as a thrice vaccinated healthy person I'll ditch the mask again unless a business asks me.  My barber never dropped his mask requirement.  

8 hours ago, Beerman said:

" I cannot believe this is where we are almost two years into the pandemic. Everybody saw it coming. We knew we needed more tests. I think the administration had dropped the ball on this. They focused a lot on vaccines, which is terrific. Vaccines are a really, really important part of this, but did not pay enough attention to testing. And I think it has been really costly in this holiday season.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/top-medical-expert-rips-bidens-handling-of-pandemic-on-cnn-I-cannot-believe-this-is-where-we-are?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=benshapiro

At least they put in the part that vaccinated people should be treated differently than unvaccinated people an idea I'm sure isn't popular with their readers.  

I do think it's a fair criticism that we were caught with out pants down and were too complacent with regards with testing availability.  I know that Monday in Miami they handed out 138,000 tests and there are long lines at  testing centers.  In Orlando most drug stores have no appointments for testing and are completely booked, so at public sites people are waiting hours there as well.  Where I live the newspaper said Monday the wait was 90 minutes.  None of this really means that people who want to get tested can't.  I think asymptomatic people that went to holiday gatherings, flew on planes,  are adding to the post-Christmas demand.   But I understand there are parts of the country where they run out of tests.   

The idea that "everyone saw this coming" might not be fair, as it happened too fast and furious.   

 There isn't even a curve in the number of cases, it's vertical.  Here in Florida we went from about 2,000 cases a day to setting record highs again of over 30,000 a day, in a matter of days.  I don't think it's going to get better because are having a Christmas boom.  I went to the beach yesterday and the hotels had no vacancies, and probably restaurants and bars were crowded.  But I'm hopeful that like when Delta slammed us this Summer it will drop just as dramatically.  South Africa is already seeing a big drop.  

Biden's plan included increasing testing and sending out 500 million home kits, but I suppose playing the blame game is fair, as it didn't happen fast enough and it's too late.  

7 hours ago, Beerman said:

Given your isolated environment,  and your preferred liberal propagandist media choices,  I could see how you might think it's so cut and dry.

Here are a few real-life unvaccinated from my real-world experience. 

1) woman friend, white, mid thirties, masters degree,, has had covid with minor symptoms, is healthy, low-risk, believes has natural immunity. Was a Obama campaign volunteer and drove 15 hours to see his inauguration.

2) uncle 60ish, and three cousins in 20's and early 30's. All athletic,  healthy.  Two have had covid with very minor symptoms. Uncle voted for Trump. Unsure of the younger ones.

3) nurse practioner, coworker in vaccine clinics since March. Black, 60ish. Slightly overweight. Just received 1rst shot last week.

4) black woman in poor neighborhood,  two young children, accused me of trying to kill a mother of young kids when I offered her a vaccine

All are "stupid" in your estimation?

 

You should ask the person who described them that way...I just pointed out the obvious meaning that was conveyed to the members pretending not to understand. The meaning wasn't mysterious. 

11 hours ago, chare said:

Completely agree.  Unfortunately Mr. Trump wasn't the first to do this, nor do I think he'll be the last.

Baloney. 

Trump is a dangerous outlier. If he's not the last to behave as he did it will be the end of our republic. We must stop trying to make his corruption and incompetence appear normal. 

15 minutes ago, Beerman said:

The point was, there are many reasons for the unvaccinated other than political affiliation and getting public health guidance from "social media and radio rhetoric " as another poster suggested. A vast majority of them, I would not call "stupid" or even "ignoramus".

That's your right to call them whatever you want or nothing at all.  It isn't smart to avoid vaccination because of deliberate misinformation, no matter where the unvaccinated find it. Just like it wasn't smart for the previous president to lie to the public repeatedly about the pandemic while politicizing the mitigation strategies.