Dan Rather: Lies Beget Tragedy

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://steady.substack.com/p/lies-beget-tragedy

It is impossible to predict the future, but I can say one thing with utter certainty. Many Americans who are alive today — people who are breathing, laughing, loving — will die in the months ahead from a horrific disease for which there now is remarkably effective protection. In other words, their deaths are, right now, largely preventable. This roll call of the deceased will likely total in the thousands upon thousands, to say nothing of the countless more who will suffer needlessly, perhaps for years to come

Many of these people who will soon be gasping for air in intensive care units are currently boasting of their health, mocking COVID fears as overblown, and flaunting their refusal to get the vaccine. Their proud hubris will not make their deaths less tragic. Families will be torn apart, communities broken, pain and suffering will ripple across generations. Knowing this awaiting tragedy breaks my heart. We can already see it coming.

I find myself thinking often about those who will soon turn from health, to illness, and for some, sadly death. We cannot assign names or faces yet to these looming fates. We do not know who will be struck. Like armies massing for battle we can look around and know many who are among us today will not survive this moment. But unlike war where death strikes with cruel randomness, we can already see that this battle for the health of our country is proceeding like public health professionals had feared. And it all comes back to that vaccine.

The national inoculation rate, while pretty impressive, is stalling. And it masks incredible variation, not only at the state level, but county by county. There are many reasons for vaccine hesitancy. Young adults, who even in normal times tend to feel invincible, have gotten the wrong message that COVID isn’t dangerous for them. And they can be a reservoir for it spreading to others. Marginalized communities, who don’t have access to reliable health care and are fearful of a legacy of medical exploitation, also have lower rates. But a particularly fraught vaccine crisis is breaking along our political divide. Supporters of the former president tend to dismiss both the seriousness of the pandemic and the utility of the vaccine.

*snip*

[cilla4progress]

1. Is this what Darwin

was talking about?

[gratuitous]

2. And you just know that a couple of years from now

In a couple of years, if not sooner, the story will be that nobody warned them or their dearly departed loved ones about this terrible virus, and those dastardly Democrats withheld the vaccine.

[Walleye]

3. We are raising a very irresponsible inconsiderate generation

[Chainfire]

4. There have always been people that are too damn dumb to save themselves from preventable illness.

I have no sympathy for them and will not morn their passing.

I do, however, resent having to pay for their medical costs. The same people who will not vaccinate against the disease are the same people who will not have health insurance. If an unvaccinated adult contracts Covid, they need to stay at home and treat it like the common cold that they claim it is. "Take two aspirin and call me when you are dead."

[Stuart G]

5. ...For a long time...it was the same people who would not put on their ..."seat belts" in cars..

...Then after many years of this stupidity...states passed laws that it was the "law", you had to put on your seatbelt...

Along with other safety measures after these laws were passed the numbers of deaths in cars went from
55, 000 in 1979...to 36,000 last year......Deaths went down 40 percent, while the number of cars in the
U.S.A. more than doubled ....

...".Too dumb to save themselves from preventable illness"....is totally correct...

Much too stupid to know that they are very very...."STUPID"!!!!

Make it the law to protect all people...watch the deaths go down...not a little, but a whole lot...

[Stuart G]

6. ....iT IS THAT GROUP OF PEOPLE SAYING, .... "NO ONE IS GOING TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO"

sure....the same people that died not wearing seatbelts...back when it was not the law, but the seatbelts
were there to be worn.........here is the odd point:

..........When word got out that people who wore them were involved in accidents and did not get major
injuries...well things changed....Now air bags are required in cars...I wonder how many lives they
saved?

Yes, they are required...and they are there in your car, and you don't know it..........
..If you get into a front end crash, they will inflate to save your
life..It think President Carter earmarked them for a future requirement...(not sure) ...

The airbags are in all cars now....I also think there are side impact air bags...That is another reason why
deaths have gone down.........air bags and side impact airbags....required in cars....

....It was Democrats that proposed and implemented these rules..