Democrats and Republicans can agree on one thing coming out of their respective conventions: Almost no one cares about Covid anymore.
Infections are running rampant after the Democratic confab in Chicago, with staffers on Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, reporters and other convention-goers all stricken — and in at least one case claiming the positive test was “worth it.” Cases also cropped up after the Republican National Convention in July.
“Voters do not like it being brought up at all,” said Celinda Lake, a Democratic strategist and pollster for Biden’s 2020 campaign, who marveled at the near-total absence of masks at a Democratic convention where roughly 20,000 people crammed into Chicago’s United Center for a week. “They want to get over it.”
But “if it continues to worsen,” Bartlett said, “both parties will be forced to address it.”
The rhetorical vacuum around Covid comes even as cases have surged over the summer, hospitalizing thousands and killing nearly 700 people in one week in late July.
Flu and other regular seasonal illnesses also carry the risk of long-term health consequences. People focus on “long covid” because it’s new, but chronic health issues resulting from illnesses to which we are accustomed typically don’t even merit conversation let alone the sort of protocols suggested by some for covid. It used to simply be called “post-infectious syndrome” or “myalgic encephalomyelitis syndrome.”
I guess it’s not surprising that there is an equal and opposite ideology to antivaxxers, but I do find them just about equal in terms of intractibility and unreasonableness. Two extreme and unrealistic views bunkered in silos of their own creation.
What completely braindead comparison. Cold and seasonal illnesses do not have remotely the same rate of severe long term issues as COVID. People also sometime got lasting diseases from stubbed toes, it doesn’t make it comparable to COVID. You don’t have 3-7% incidence rate for colds resulting in symptoms lasting two months and impacting daily life.
The enlightened centrism comparing antivaxxers to actual scientists is just the cherry on top.
K.