Posts Made By: Rod Kaufman

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

"This week, just three states Florida, Texas and Missouri, three states with lower vaccination rates accounted for 40 percent of all cases nationwide," Zients said at a White House news conference. "For the second week in a row, one in five of all cases occurring in Florida alone. And within communities, these cases are primarily among unvaccinated people."
And what Does DeSantis say? "Don't Fauci my state"...

Originally Posted by James Brown

I've posted this sort of chart before - this one is current as of right now.  Data from World-o-meter.  I think this is useful review for those like the Biden administration and Rod who simply can't resist (A) Politicizing the damn pandemic, and (B) blaming Republican States for everything.

Look at this table carefully.  By the Deaths/million citizens metric, Texas and Florida (states Rod and Biden like to pick on) are ranked 24th and 25th in the union, middle of the pack.  Certain D bastions like New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts top the list.  Was it their monolithic D politics that caused so much death?  Maybe in the case of New York, but generally no, not in my opinion.  It was other factors.  Timing, population density, public transportation, age and so on.

Anyway, it would be nice if Rod and Biden would stop trying to score cheap political points by mocking us rubes in red states.  Especially given the complexity of the factors at play in each state's pandemic response.  Fat chance....

Jim    

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

I might add that cases being reported from Florida and Idaho and probably other red states as well aren't updated daily as they had been during the first year of the pandemic. The lag time in reporting cases is several days now and that's quite significant as the cases increase on a daily basis but aren't being reported until several days later. In the case of Florida, "It’s estimate for Florida is about 40% higher than the nearly 37,000 deaths reported by the Florida Department of Health" And that was back in May: https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/health-news-florida/2021-05-20/ihme-estimates-51-000-covid-19-deaths-in-florida

Originally Posted by James Lacey

But isn't it true that the current 4th wave is almost entirely a wave of the unvaccinated? And aren't most of the unvaccinated Red Americans? And even more interesting is why is the GOP now flipping on their previous anti-vax stances? Oddly enough, I think it's related to something we talked about recently, and that is political realignment. Now that the 4th wave is affecting their constituents, they suddenly care about getting vaccines into people's arms. Why? Well, I don't believe in conspiracy theories. Still, I know they have political analysts who are always looking at polling data and are always aware of the latest things happening in the groupthink of the electorate. My guess is their analysts have told them they would face a massive political backlash if they don't start back-pedaling and encouraging the vaccine-hesitant to change their minds.

Interestingly, Trump, Kushner, and the GOP thought that using vaccine hesitancy as a wedge issue was politically advantageous when the virus affected mostly blue regions. But now, that political calculus has changed entirely due to the Delta-variant. And if you had only been paying attention to what was going on in India two months ago and listening to the experts, you knew it was coming here; it was inevitable. Every variant of concern has eventually gone worldwide.

I find it odd too that Trump did what was necessary to warp-speed development of the vaccine, which he deserves credit for, but to this day has never publicly advocated for its widespread use. You watch, though. I guarantee you it's only a matter of time before the GOP starts telling us they never were anti-vax.

By the way, I realize I've posted a random pile of thought not completely related to Rod's original post or your response. It's merely interesting to see how the politics of this pandemic are playing out.

Originally Posted by James Lacey

This possibility is what I dread. A breakthrough variant and we have to start all over again.