Ka-ching!
Ultimately
it all costs money. What are the costs of the pandemic? Republican leadership
professes to understand money. Exactly who is paying for the lunacy of the
anti-vaxxers? The easy answer is—society does (we do).
No need
In reference to vaccines I keep reading comments where people say “Do your research!” Admittedly I did a lot of research in the beginning way back when the pandemic first hit.
One of the best responses that I read in regards to the ‘do your research’ comment was and I’m paraphrasing: “Don’t need to!” They pointed out that by now thousands of scientists from a variety of disciplines and a few billion dollars have been spent on doing just that. Research. Not just any scientists either but the tops in their respective fields. Respected, truthful, professional, honest people who care about humanity and saving lives.
That’s good enough for me.
Tune change
Now since
it’s mostly the unvaccinated (predominantly Trump supporters) who are getting Covid-19,
the Republican leadership and right wing media have decided to say that people
should get vaccinated after all. When it was seniors in nursing homes and
minorities being impacted the most they were okay with no masking and getting
everybody back to work. Now it’s their base being hospitalized and dying.
ON THE FLY
We’re watching in real time Republicans rewriting history. The election was rigged. News is fake. The insurrectionists were loving patriots. The pandemic isn’t real. Science is wrong. Masks don’t work. The vaccines are dangerous. Immigrants are evil. Muslims are bad. Rich people are the bulwarks of society. Poor people are lazy. (All 40 million of them.) They (Republicans) are the real victims. Up is down. The sky is not blue.
And on and on.
Every day throughout his entire Presidency Trump played the victim card. His entire Presidency. Now he’s playing the ex-President victim card. He will forever be the perpetual victim. That makes his supporters suffering victims as well. They are in an abusive relationship with Trump and they can’t leave their abuser.
They are drawn to him.
$ And resources
I have watched a couple of videos lately where the hospitalized anti-vaxxers who survived professed that if they had it to do over they still wouldn’t have got the vaccine and still won’t get the vaccine (after all, they survived!). Then there’s also the ‘if it’s my time to die—it’s my time crowd’. ‘It’s all a hoax’ also still has a huge following.
At some point bean counters will figure up the total cost of the pandemic in dollars. There will be an average cost of hospitalizations due to Covid-19. (I’m just talking money here not the human toll. That’s incalculable.) At this point in the United States we’ve had several hundred thousand die needlessly. The ones dying now are the great unvaccinated.
Death before dishonor!
The Antis
The antis (maskers and vaxxers) have cost society billions of dollars. It’s too early to tell if it’s tens of billions or hundreds of billions but I lean towards hundreds of billions. It takes a team of nurses, doctors, support staff and high tech equipment to treat Covid-19 patients in hospitals. That takes a lot of $$$$! Their “personal choice” is costing society in real dollars. Whether it’s insurance, the government, hospitals or individuals the costs are real. Ultimately it’s all the rest of us that pay for it.
The costs will be much higher than they needed to be, thanks to the antis.