COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Matty]

I am 100% pro vax, but can someone explain why so many companies requiring the shot aren't making exceptions for those who can prove they were infected already?

natural antibodies do the same thing as the vaccines.

why aren't companies going with the "proof of vaccine or proof of prior infection" standard?

[GeorgiaModerate]

I am 100% pro vax, but can someone explain why so many companies requiring the shot aren't making exceptions for those who can prove they were infected already?

natural antibodies do the same thing as the vaccines.

why aren't companies going with the "proof of vaccine or proof of prior infection" standard?

As I understand it, the amount of immunity created by natural infection can vary greatly but is generally less than that provided by full vaccination.

[Former Dean Phillips Supporters for Haley (I guess???!?) 👁️]

Is Biden intentionally trying to kill off Republican voters?

No.  Biden is giving the best advice he can for all Americans.  If one segment of the population chooses to disregard that advice then it's their problem, not his.

But Biden KNOWS that if he simply "gives the best advice he can for all Americans," that in fact Republicans WILL disregard it. Which allegedly he doesn't want them to do.

If he actually doesn't want them to disregard that advice, then it stands to reason that he should give them the OPPOSITE advice. Perhaps Biden should try changing his rhetoric, and say that his plan has been going great to get Democrats to get vaccinated while Republicans don't, and that he wants to kill off unvaxxed Republicans in this way. If he says that, then unvaxxed Republicans will gain a new motivation to avoid dying and to get vaccinated in order to thwart Biden's scheme. So Biden should be out there encouraging Republicans to not get vaccinated, while encouraging Democrats to get vaccinated. That will result in more Republican vaccinations than the current messaging.

It's not just one group. It's republicans/libertarians for sure, but also hispanics and blacks.

White Dems have the highest vaccination rates (along with Asians), while Republicans have the lowest. Blacks and Hispanics are somewhere in between. I have not seen any data on Black and Hispanic vaccination rates broken down by partisanship, but I suspect if you broke it down that you would find that Blacks and Hispanics who are educated and/or Dems have markedly higher vaccination rates than non-college Republican whites. Independent and Republican Black/Hispanics are likely dragging down the overall Black/Hispanic vaccination rates, similarly to how Republican White voters are dragging down the overall White vaccination rate. The only reason why the overall White vaccination rate is as high as it is is the stellar out-performance by White Dem vaccinates.

[Former Dean Phillips Supporters for Haley (I guess???!?) 👁️]

Is there any data on what % of new COVID cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are breakthrough cases?

The only data I could find was from Virginia.

Unfortunately, the CDC stopped collecting data on breakthrough cases back several months ago when they (along with Biden) were in full "mission accomplished" mode. And they haven't resumed it either, even now that it is very clear that they should.

Thus, we lack good clear information about what is going on in the US. The best sources of information on the US is probably the recent Mayo Clinic study. That only applies to what they are seeing in their particular hospitals, but it is presumably fairly similar in other hospitals in the US in other hospital systems.

Other than that, the only thing that can be done is to look at other countries such as the UK and Israel which have functional public health systems and are actually collecting data to try and understand what is going on.

The USA lacks any sort of functional coherent public health system, just like the USA did back in the 1918 Pandemic. And from the looks of it, we will also lack a coherent public health system in the next Pandemic as well, and therefore will be doomed to a piss-poor response to future pandemics as well. For that, you can thank Federalism.

[Hammy]

Is Biden intentionally trying to kill off Republican voters?

By this point, Biden should know that if he tells Republicans to get vaccinated, then that will make them LESS likely to get vaccinated, because Republicans will always simply reflexively oppose anything that any Democrat says, without any sort of thought or reflection.

Nothing will get these people vaccinated. If Biden tried using reverse psychology for example, how do you target that to one audience? It would just make everyone less likely to vaccinate, and give the GOP a huge "look we were right" talking point.

An enforced mandate is literally the only solution--nothing Biden says or doesn't say, or does or doesn't do, is going to make these people voluntarily get a vaccine--the only thing that seems to be changing minds so far is being irreversibly on the verge of death once they get covid.

I am 100% pro vax, but can someone explain why so many companies requiring the shot aren't making exceptions for those who can prove they were infected already?

natural antibodies do the same thing as the vaccines.

why aren't companies going with the "proof of vaccine or proof of prior infection" standard?

This is correct, if the vaccines were using live or dead virus--and this is largely how flu vaccines work, and is good especially for older people who need the immunity but can't risk what comes with actually getting sick as the flu seasons generally last only a few months.

The mRNA vaccines on the other hand provide stronger immunity by attacking the spike proteins (essentially cutting off it's arms in a sense) before the virus can attach itself, so the immune response is stronger and longer lasting than infection.

No.  Biden is giving the best advice he can for all Americans.  If one segment of the population chooses to disregard that advice then it's their problem, not his.

It's not just one group. It's republicans/libertarians for sure, but also hispanics and blacks.

I can't speak for Hispanic rates (as data is hard to find) but the overall percentage of blacks who are vaccinated doesn't appear to be much lower (about 5% or so) compared to whites nationwide. But given the white rates vary dramatically depending on politics, you're seeing large majority white areas (Southern states for example) that are around 20% or so of the white population vaccinated--something that there is no equivalent for with the black population.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Louisiana State University to require fans at football games to show proof of vaccination or recent negative test:

LSU will require anyone attending Tiger Stadium who is 12 years of age or older to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within the last 72 hours, the school announced on Tuesday.
...
Those younger than 12 will not have to show proof of a negative PCR test. However, masks will be required for children between 5 and 11 years old and encouraged for those younger than 5.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/32077089/proof-vaccination-negative-covid-19-pcr-test-required-enter-tiger-stadium

[soundchaser]

I'm amazed at how little my state is f**king around with anti-vax nonsense. (Although "or a recent negative test" is not great, it's better than nothing?)

[Former Dean Phillips Supporters for Haley (I guess???!?) 👁️]

As it turns out, CDC has just come out with a brand new study on breakthrough infections in the USA. Like with the Mayo Clinic study, the data is pretty limited and not comprehensive, but when you are making no attempt to systematically collect data, you gotta take what you can get. Anyway, they found 91% vaccine efficacy against infection prior to the dominance of the Delta variant, which has dropped subsequently to 66% vaccine efficacy (but with a wide confidence interval between 26%-84% since the data is so pathetically limited).

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7034e4.htm?s_cid=mm7034e4_w

During Delta variant–predominant weeks at study sites, 488 unvaccinated participants contributed a median of 43 days (IQR = 37–69 days; total = 24,871 days) with 19 SARS-CoV-2 infections (94.7% symptomatic); 2,352 fully vaccinated participants contributed a median of 49 days (IQR = 35–56 days; total = 119,218 days) with 24 SARS-CoV-2 infections (75.0% symptomatic). Adjusted VE during this Delta predominant period was 66% (95% CI = 26%–84%) compared with 91% (95% CI = 81%–96%) during the months preceding Delta predominance.

In general this seems in line with what earlier data was indicating from Israel, Mayo Clinic, etc.

[Dr. MB]

https://katu.com/news/local/oregon-governor-issues-outdoor-mask-mandate-due-to-surge-in-covid-19-cases

F**K YOU KATE BROWN

What kind of absolute idiot thought this was good public policy? I’m not wearing masks outside I don’t give a f**k what people think. Nobody wants this.

[Dan the Roman]

Yeah, if you've been spending more of your time on criticizing FL than NY, NJ and MI, you're a hack.

It was similar last year.

FL got hit hard during Summer - DeathSantis.
MI, IL and CA got hit, perhaps, even harder during Fall/Winter - radio silence.

Real test will be whether CA/NE get hit this winter.
Whether Florida gets hit again next summer.

If North East mostly escapes and this happens again next summer, I suspect that is the scenario where DeSantis is in trouble for reelection. He can survive this if it is in fact the final wave. But if herd immunity is achieved through natural immunity which fades after 9 months, and everyone gets reinfected again next summer and you have 100+ deaths a day going into 2022 elections then there is a huge problem.

That said DeSantis created a lot of his own PR problems here. Had he stopped at opposing lockdowns, blocking enforcement of those, and then let local school boards hang themselves on unpopular mask mandates while also avoiding a clash with Disney/Cruise lines he would be at 60%+. He went in 125% on a winning strategy and ended up taking the fall for things which were entirely foreseeable*

* the blocking of daily data releases on June 4th was an astronomical blunder for all the reasons you note. He proclaimed that Covid was over and therefore there was no need to even monitor it weeks before he should have known a wave was coming and when one was already building in Missouri. Furthermore, he handed control over the narrative, and Florida's daily numbers to the Biden CDC.

DeSantis has played Covid horribly since about May of 2021. Whether that makes him responsible for many if any deaths is more debatable. But virtually all the political damage he is suffering is self-inflicted by really stupid decisions anyone with a room temperature IQ could see would play out the way they did.

Addendum to that. Urban legends about Vaccines causing autism meant a generation of parents whose kids developed symptoms of autism and had a vaccine blamed vaccines for it. Because they like blaming things. Long Covid has horribly defined symptoms which basically include any symptoms of Autism, ADHD, or even being teenager, namely moodyness, low energy, sleeping in, lack of motivation. DeSantis may not have given a single kid long covid. But there are going to be tens of thousands of mothers of whom thousands will be willing to go on TV and in effect say DeSantis crippled my child and gave them ADHD.

There is no requirement for any evidence masks work. All that will be needed is the kid showing any symptoms whatsoever, and for the kid to have tested positive for covid and DeSantis personally will have crippled their kid.

I do think that they will mostly escape it. Simply, because they will be hit later, when more people get vaccinated.

As I said the states, I mentioned, got hit harder then FL in terms of death per capita, despite DeSantis "stupid" policies and Democratic great [anti-]science policies.

The only thing that really matters is the vaccination rate (among older pop). Let's take a look at top 5 states by death per capita.

The Top 5 state by death per capita (all time) are

(D) NJ 301 per 100,000
(D) NY 276
(R) MS 269
(D) MA 264
(D) RI 260

Florida has 197, slightly over US average of 189 per 100,000. Despite much  older population

Vaccination rate

...........65+ at least 1.... 65+, fully.....All, fully
(D) NJ ....92%................85%................60%
(D) NY ...89%................82%................59%
(R) MS ...81%................74%................37%
(D) MA ...98%................88%................65%
(D) RI ....97%................93%................64%

(R) FL 94%....................82%.................52%


So MA and especially RI are clearly better, though not THAT much. NJ and NY are just slightly better, but they almost 50% more overall death per capita.


Did DeSantis "play" it badly? Well, yeah. He was taken totally aback by Delta. Still, most damage came because of biased media. Did (D) Edwards get similar coverage despite Louisiana having even worse #'s right now (though FL will get worse soon enough) and even worse vaccination rate?

Spoiler alert! Click Show to show the content.

Show

By the way, Biden didn't "play" it well, either. https://apnorc.org/projects/fewer-approve-of-bidens-handling-of-the-pandemic/

I think DeSantis's policy last summer and fall was by and large vindicated. In fact, had he followed it this summer, ie. said yes we are going to get hit what we need is

1. People to make smart choices
2. State to enable those choices by providing maximum possible information(ie. opposite of what he did with ending daily updates) and urging masking/vaccines while stating categorically that coercion does not work and lockdowns do not work

I think he would have been hailed as a hero by all except the really extreme karens. Ie. He would have been seen as aggressively pushing personal responsibility, and providing a model of a government which enabled decision making.

DeSantis' errors political are self-inflicted. Despite the alarmism here, they have killed far fewer people than Cuomo's and I suspect less than the J/J screwup. But, they indicate a distinct lack of political foresight and judgement which is why I feel they say a lot about his prospects as a future presidential  candidate. Another wave was clearly coming and from about May onwards DeSantis did pretty much every single thing wrong politically. And he has given cover to other people whose mistakes likely killed a lot more people, or are even more scientifically illiterate(hello Kate Brown).

DeSantis' actual handling of Covid19 is not the disaster liberals like to portray it as.

His political handling of it, far from indicating he is some sort of messiah, as some Republicans seem to have wished him to be, on the other hand, has shown he is a one trick pony.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Louisiana State University to require fans at football games to show proof of vaccination or recent negative test:

LSU will require anyone attending Tiger Stadium who is 12 years of age or older to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within the last 72 hours, the school announced on Tuesday.
...
Those younger than 12 will not have to show proof of a negative PCR test. However, masks will be required for children between 5 and 11 years old and encouraged for those younger than 5.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/32077089/proof-vaccination-negative-covid-19-pcr-test-required-enter-tiger-stadium

And here's the counterpoint, which it greatly pains me to post:

https://twitter.com/bluestein/status/1430238454617722883

[Horus]

Louisiana State University to require fans at football games to show proof of vaccination or recent negative test:

LSU will require anyone attending Tiger Stadium who is 12 years of age or older to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within the last 72 hours, the school announced on Tuesday.
...
Those younger than 12 will not have to show proof of a negative PCR test. However, masks will be required for children between 5 and 11 years old and encouraged for those younger than 5.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/32077089/proof-vaccination-negative-covid-19-pcr-test-required-enter-tiger-stadium

And here's the counterpoint, which it greatly pains me to post:

https://twitter.com/bluestein/status/1430238454617722883

There should definitely be proof of vaccination but other than that this is the correct policy for outdoor events.

[DINGO Joe]

I'm amazed at how little my state is f**king around with anti-vax nonsense. (Although "or a recent negative test" is not great, it's better than nothing?)

I've seen virtually zero mask resistance in Orleans/Jefferson which happens to be the most vaccinated part of the state.

[Joe Republic]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/map-track-summer-2020-coronavirus-hotspots-united-states-n1231332




COVID sturgis… sorry, surges in one state in particular.

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

Yeah, if you've been spending more of your time on criticizing FL than NY, NJ and MI, you're a hack.

It was similar last year.

FL got hit hard during Summer - DeathSantis.
MI, IL and CA got hit, perhaps, even harder during Fall/Winter - radio silence.

Real test will be whether CA/NE get hit this winter.
Whether Florida gets hit again next summer.

If North East mostly escapes and this happens again next summer, I suspect that is the scenario where DeSantis is in trouble for reelection. He can survive this if it is in fact the final wave. But if herd immunity is achieved through natural immunity which fades after 9 months, and everyone gets reinfected again next summer and you have 100+ deaths a day going into 2022 elections then there is a huge problem.

That said DeSantis created a lot of his own PR problems here. Had he stopped at opposing lockdowns, blocking enforcement of those, and then let local school boards hang themselves on unpopular mask mandates while also avoiding a clash with Disney/Cruise lines he would be at 60%+. He went in 125% on a winning strategy and ended up taking the fall for things which were entirely foreseeable*

* the blocking of daily data releases on June 4th was an astronomical blunder for all the reasons you note. He proclaimed that Covid was over and therefore there was no need to even monitor it weeks before he should have known a wave was coming and when one was already building in Missouri. Furthermore, he handed control over the narrative, and Florida's daily numbers to the Biden CDC.

DeSantis has played Covid horribly since about May of 2021. Whether that makes him responsible for many if any deaths is more debatable. But virtually all the political damage he is suffering is self-inflicted by really stupid decisions anyone with a room temperature IQ could see would play out the way they did.

Addendum to that. Urban legends about Vaccines causing autism meant a generation of parents whose kids developed symptoms of autism and had a vaccine blamed vaccines for it. Because they like blaming things. Long Covid has horribly defined symptoms which basically include any symptoms of Autism, ADHD, or even being teenager, namely moodyness, low energy, sleeping in, lack of motivation. DeSantis may not have given a single kid long covid. But there are going to be tens of thousands of mothers of whom thousands will be willing to go on TV and in effect say DeSantis crippled my child and gave them ADHD.

There is no requirement for any evidence masks work. All that will be needed is the kid showing any symptoms whatsoever, and for the kid to have tested positive for covid and DeSantis personally will have crippled their kid.

I do think that they will mostly escape it. Simply, because they will be hit later, when more people get vaccinated.

As I said the states, I mentioned, got hit harder then FL in terms of death per capita, despite DeSantis "stupid" policies and Democratic great [anti-]science policies.

The only thing that really matters is the vaccination rate (among older pop). Let's take a look at top 5 states by death per capita.

The Top 5 state by death per capita (all time) are

(D) NJ 301 per 100,000
(D) NY 276
(R) MS 269
(D) MA 264
(D) RI 260

Florida has 197, slightly over US average of 189 per 100,000. Despite much  older population

Vaccination rate

...........65+ at least 1.... 65+, fully.....All, fully
(D) NJ ....92%................85%................60%
(D) NY ...89%................82%................59%
(R) MS ...81%................74%................37%
(D) MA ...98%................88%................65%
(D) RI ....97%................93%................64%

(R) FL 94%....................82%.................52%


So MA and especially RI are clearly better, though not THAT much. NJ and NY are just slightly better, but they almost 50% more overall death per capita.


Did DeSantis "play" it badly? Well, yeah. He was taken totally aback by Delta. Still, most damage came because of biased media. Did (D) Edwards get similar coverage despite Louisiana having even worse #'s right now (though FL will get worse soon enough) and even worse vaccination rate?

Spoiler alert! Click Show to show the content.

Show

By the way, Biden didn't "play" it well, either. https://apnorc.org/projects/fewer-approve-of-bidens-handling-of-the-pandemic/

I think DeSantis's policy last summer and fall was by and large vindicated. In fact, had he followed it this summer, ie. said yes we are going to get hit what we need is

1. People to make smart choices
2. State to enable those choices by providing maximum possible information(ie. opposite of what he did with ending daily updates) and urging masking/vaccines while stating categorically that coercion does not work and lockdowns do not work

I think he would have been hailed as a hero by all except the really extreme karens. Ie. He would have been seen as aggressively pushing personal responsibility, and providing a model of a government which enabled decision making.

DeSantis' errors political are self-inflicted. Despite the alarmism here, they have killed far fewer people than Cuomo's and I suspect less than the J/J screwup. But, they indicate a distinct lack of political foresight and judgement which is why I feel they say a lot about his prospects as a future presidential  candidate. Another wave was clearly coming and from about May onwards DeSantis did pretty much every single thing wrong politically. And he has given cover to other people whose mistakes likely killed a lot more people, or are even more scientifically illiterate(hello Kate Brown).

DeSantis' actual handling of Covid19 is not the disaster liberals like to portray it as.

His political handling of it, far from indicating he is some sort of messiah, as some Republicans seem to have wished him to be, on the other hand, has shown he is a one trick pony.

Yeah, I mostly agree. He gambled on that it's over regardless and lost badly. I think, too, he'd be too toxic in 2024, because of this. But it's 2 years away.

[It’s so Joever]

“Covid death rates are higher in New York and New Jersey 100% because of the stupid libruhls. If everyone was a blue avatar nobody would have died. Definitely had nothing to do with the fact that they were hit in a time when we literally didn’t know how to even treat the virus and many hospitals didn’t even adopt the basic practice of proning.”

This is the message of the so called moderates of the modern day GOP organization. Take RINO Tom, the above is his radica message, attempting to create an alternate fact society so he can benefit politically. He may claim to not like Trump and to put America over partisan lines, but these supposed moderates seek only to destroy the American nation, just like the Trumpers.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I'm amazed at how little my state is f**king around with anti-vax nonsense. (Although "or a recent negative test" is not great, it's better than nothing?)

Keep in mind what party your Governor belongs to.

“Covid death rates are higher in New York and New Jersey 100% because of the stupid libruhls. If everyone was a blue avatar nobody would have died. Definitely had nothing to do with the fact that they were hit in a time when we literally didn’t know how to even treat the virus and many hospitals didn’t even adopt the basic practice of proning.”

This is the message of the so called moderates of the modern day GOP organization. Take RINO Tom, the above is his radica message, attempting to create an alternate fact society so he can benefit politically. He may claim to not like Trump and to put America over partisan lines, but these supposed moderates seek only to destroy the American nation, just like the Trumpers.

They may not like Trump, but they hate us even more, and that is core to the DNA of most who identify as Republicans.

I wonder though what happens if/when a Republican state does exceed us in deaths per capita? What's the new deflection and excuse going to be?

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Is there any data on what % of new COVID cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are breakthrough cases?

The only data I could find was from Virginia.

Unfortunately, the CDC stopped collecting data on breakthrough cases back several months ago when they (along with Biden) were in full "mission accomplished" mode. And they haven't resumed it either, even now that it is very clear that they should.

Thus, we lack good clear information about what is going on in the US. The best sources of information on the US is probably the recent Mayo Clinic study. That only applies to what they are seeing in their particular hospitals, but it is presumably fairly similar in other hospitals in the US in other hospital systems.

That is not entirely accurate. Found after less than a minute googling:

State health departments voluntarily report vaccine breakthrough cases to CDC.  As of May 1, 2021, CDC transitioned from publicly reporting the passive surveillance of all vaccine breakthrough cases on the website to focus on hospitalized or fatal vaccine breakthrough cases due to any cause. This shift helped maximize the quality of the data collected on cases of greatest clinical and public health importance. Some health departments continue to report all vaccine breakthrough cases to the national database and continue to submit specimens to CDC for sequencing.  Previous data on all vaccine breakthrough cases reported to CDC from January–April 2021 are available.

Ultimately, CDC will use the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) to identify vaccine breakthrough cases. Once CDC has confirmed that a state can report vaccination history data to NNDSS, CDC will identify vaccine breakthrough cases through that system. At that time, the state health departments can stop reporting cases directly into the REDCap database. After this change, CDC will upload the available data reported to NNDSS into REDCap database for further review and confirmation by the state health department.

Hospitalized or fatal COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough cases reported to CDC as of August 16, 2021

As of August 16, 2021, more than 168 million people in the United States had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

During the same time, CDC received reports from 49 U.S. states and territories of 9,716 patients with COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infection who were hospitalized or died.
Total number of vaccine breakthrough infections reported to CDC
   Deaths [Total=1,829]    Hospitalized, non-fatal [Total=7,887]

[Hammy]

During the same time, CDC received reports from 49 U.S. states and territories of 9,716 patients with COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infection who were hospitalized or died.
Total number of vaccine breakthrough infections reported to CDC
   Deaths [Total=1,829]    Hospitalized, non-fatal [Total=7,887]

Worth noting to prevent people from misrepresenting this, around 20% of the breakthrough cases that resulted in hospitalization/death were people who were hospitalized/died for reasons unrelated to covid, but happened to test positive while there.

[DaleCooper]

I think Democrats need to authorize a new stimulus check that only goes to people who have gotten the vaccine, and those without the vaccine can receive the deposit after getting vaccinated. That's the only way to increase the vaccinated population. Any other games with mask mandates, etc., are just wasting time.

[ProudModerate2]

I think Democrats need to authorize a new stimulus check that only goes to people who have gotten the vaccine, and those without the vaccine can receive the deposit after getting vaccinated. That's the only way to increase the vaccinated population. Any other games with mask mandates, etc., are just wasting time.

You know what ... this sounds like an excellent idea.
A check/deposit for $1000 to $1500 will surely motivate many, many people.

[CEO Mindset]

I think Democrats need to authorize a new stimulus check that only goes to people who have gotten the vaccine, and those without the vaccine can receive the deposit after getting vaccinated. That's the only way to increase the vaccinated population. Any other games with mask mandates, etc., are just wasting time.

or you could just you know have people going to door to where the unvaccinated live and forcing them to get shots... if it's really THAT much of an important thing wouldn't you be advocating for that?

i'd respect that position MUCH more than i do people calling for vaccine passports tbh

[ProudModerate2]

CNN's Donie O'Sullivan speaks to Trump supporters at a rally in Alabama about their decision to not get the Covid-19 vaccine.

Click here to watch ... https://us.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/08/24/donie-osullivan-trump-supporters-ac360-biz-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/coronavirus/

I don't know if a want to laugh or cry or scream-out in anger.
Listening to these people, you would think they just arrived from Mars or something.
One of them, even says he has stocked-up on hydroxychloroquine ... wasn't that like last year's BS miracle?

[DaleCooper]

I think Democrats need to authorize a new stimulus check that only goes to people who have gotten the vaccine, and those without the vaccine can receive the deposit after getting vaccinated. That's the only way to increase the vaccinated population. Any other games with mask mandates, etc., are just wasting time.

or you could just you know have people going to door to where the unvaccinated live and forcing them to get shots... if it's really THAT much of an important thing wouldn't you be advocating for that?

i'd respect that position MUCH more than i do people calling for vaccine passports tbh

I'm not an authoritarian.

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

I wonder though what happens if/when a Republican state does exceed us in deaths per capita? What's the new deflection and excuse going to be?

Shows how you, guys, are used to biased coverage. Republicans have to come up with "deflections" and "excuses" despite having less deaths per capita. Incredible. If top 3 worst states were governed by Republicans, they'd be f**cked by media 24/7/365.