Surely, there is nothing about COVID-19 that should have been political. It is a scourge. It kills Republicans and Democrats.
Medical people knew that eventually a vaccine would be developed, that would, once most people were vaccinated, stop the spread. And we could go back to “normal.” That should be about now. If only.
Instead of being mainly over the pandemic, we are back to numbers seen in the spring –before widespread vaccination was available.
But some people got the idea that there was some “freedom” to go maskless, or refuse the vaccine, or worse, prevent a child from wearing a mask or getting the lifesaving vaccine. Is there a freedom to infect others? Is there a “freedom” to drive drunk?
And why did Republicans lead this foolishness?
Unfortunately, the virus appeared at just the wrong time – before Trump’s planned reelection. He knew it could be a threat to his second coronation.
Remember, Trump had viciously attacked President Barack Obama for the Ebola “crisis.” In 2014, he sent almost 100 tweets denouncing Obama as “stupid” and claiming that he was not taking the crisis seriously. He demanded that Obama resign when an infected doctor returned to the U.S. after treating people in Guinea. Resign. Well, who remembers the Ebola threat much now?
But when coronovirusis came here, different story. It was a “hoax” and “fake news.” Why? Because if it weren’t, then Trump was crafty enough to see that he had no defense in place – all the previous administration’s preparations had been gutted. And he surely suspected that the jugglers and the clowns he had appointed on the basis of loyalty were not up to the task of managing a pandemic.
And we had a diseased mind in charge of this disease. His mind believed the only course was denial. Lie and deny and hope it goes away – and that it wasn’t as bad as the doctors said.
But the disease was worse. Hundreds of thousand of American died who did not have to. Many would have been saved by more stringent – and national – controls.
Now, when we have a vaccine and could be coming out of the Trump-created woods, we seem to be heading back in. For the same reason. Trump and his Republican enablers sold the lie that the pandemic wasn’t real. They sold it too well. Now their followers refuse masks and denigrate the vaccine.
The same states that mandate vaccinations for children against measles, chickenpox, etc., have governors pledging to fight the vaccine mandate “to the gates of Hell.” But only Republicans. And especially those that see themselves as presidential candidates: Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott, and probably many others. Some are delusional about that, but they are practicing being delusional about facts, science and the real world by their antics.
Many Republicans have been either actually or pretend delusional about so many things lately.
So now after the hundreds of thousand of needless deaths spread by Trump’s malfeasance, we have Republican governors fighting mask mandates, fighting vaccine mandates. Despite facts, despite science, but they think, in their personal best interests. To win a Republican primary – a vote of the deluded.
In a sane world, the likes of Abbott and DeSantis would be shamed off the public stage – for encouraging the death of their own people. Yes, that is exactly what they are doing.
Mark P. Painter served as a judge for 30 years. He is the author of six books including “Write Well” and “The Legal Writer.” He is with the Downtown Cincinnati law firm of Helmer Martins and a member of the Enquirer’s Board of Contributors.
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