538: Biden's own fault he got Covid, has been too lax about pandemic

[MiddleRoad]

I think the article is entirely correct, although I think they have a different way of viewing their own facts than I do. Trump got the virus so severely that he almost died, while Biden basically has a cold. That speaks more to the continued effectiveness of vaccines, including against BA.5, than anything else.

Not worth the potential for heart attacks/myocarditis/blood clots. Pass.

[Hammy]

I think the article is entirely correct, although I think they have a different way of viewing their own facts than I do. Trump got the virus so severely that he almost died, while Biden basically has a cold. That speaks more to the continued effectiveness of vaccines, including against BA.5, than anything else.

Not worth the potential for heart attacks/myocarditis/blood clots. Pass.

Meanwhile the risk of those are exponentially higher from covid itself.

[MiddleRoad]

I think the article is entirely correct, although I think they have a different way of viewing their own facts than I do. Trump got the virus so severely that he almost died, while Biden basically has a cold. That speaks more to the continued effectiveness of vaccines, including against BA.5, than anything else.

Not worth the potential for heart attacks/myocarditis/blood clots. Pass.

Meanwhile the risk of those are exponentially higher from covid itself.

I had it during one of the stronger variants in the winter of 2020/2021, self treated with Tylenol, water and vitamin C, and I’m fine. Everyone I know who got jabbed ended up in the hospital with severe symptoms when they got Covid. Also can attest to a coworker of mine who nearly died from what seemed to be an anaphylactic type response to the first Jab (per her description of symptoms). Not everyone has presidential level health care. So, mask in public if I don’t feel well.

[Progressive Pessimist]

If anything, maybe this will cause the approval bump that he's needed so bad. It's more than clear by now that after the omicron surge, Americans are done worrying about COVID, whether justified or not, it's just not worth going through the culture wars caused by the pandemic anymore.

[politicallefty]

I'm not "pro-pandemic." I want this pandemic to be over, but wishing it doesn't make it so. Quite frankly, I'm appalled that this D-majority site is so anti-mask. It's not a big inconvenience.

I share this sentiment. Anti-lockdown turned into anti-mask (and for a subset, anti-vaccine). I'm 100% against lockdowns so long as hospitalizations and deaths are under a certain level. If we reached a point where hospitals are completely swamped and overwhelmed and deaths are 4k+/day, we would need to consider more drastic action. Fortunately, the vaccines are preventing that from occurring, despite the attempts by the anti-vaxxers to create a more virulent strain.

Even this far into the pandemic, I still don't understand the anti-mask sentiment. There is something in between always masking up and the people that apparently think they should burn their masks. It's called masking sometimes. If cases are way up, we mask up. When cases are way down, we can feel free to take them off. I really don't see the issue here. I'm not even calling for mandates, just recommendations (although most government mandates over the private sector on this aspect have essentially functioned as recommendations, so maybe it should be a mandate functioning as a recommendation).

[Kamala's side hoe]

I'm not "pro-pandemic." I want this pandemic to be over, but wishing it doesn't make it so. Quite frankly, I'm appalled that this D-majority site is so anti-mask. It's not a big inconvenience.

If most people were more willing to mask up we might not have as many stupid variants popping up on a near-monthly basis. But the reality is we were all going to get infected with a COVID-19 variant at some point. And Harry made a good point on non-immunocompromised unvaxxed people (bless their hearts) also being less likely to mask up in crowded spaces.

[MiddleRoad]

I'm not "pro-pandemic." I want this pandemic to be over, but wishing it doesn't make it so. Quite frankly, I'm appalled that this D-majority site is so anti-mask. It's not a big inconvenience.

If most people were more willing to mask up we might not have as many stupid variants popping up on a near-monthly basis. But the reality is we were all going to get infected with a COVID-19 variant at some point. And Harry made a good point on non-immunocompromised unvaxxed people (bless their hearts) also being less likely to mask up in crowded spaces.

Don’t really know if Harry’s point is more than anecdote since it’s not really supported by statistics. As an unvaxxed person, I mask up if I’m not feeling well (or just stay home). My vaxxed peers do not mask at all. You can still catch and spread the virus even with the vaccine, so, this moral superiority of being vaccinated holds little water.

[emailking]

You can still catch and spread the virus even with the vaccine, so, this moral superiority of being vaccinated holds little water.

You don't catch and spread it as easily though.

[7,052,770]

I'm not "pro-pandemic." I want this pandemic to be over, but wishing it doesn't make it so. Quite frankly, I'm appalled that this D-majority site is so anti-mask. It's not a big inconvenience.

If most people were more willing to mask up we might not have as many stupid variants popping up on a near-monthly basis. But the reality is we were all going to get infected with a COVID-19 variant at some point. And Harry made a good point on non-immunocompromised unvaxxed people (bless their hearts) also being less likely to mask up in crowded spaces.

Don’t really know if Harry’s point is more than anecdote since it’s not really supported by statistics. As an unvaxxed person, I mask up if I’m not feeling well (or just stay home). My vaxxed peers do not mask at all. You can still catch and spread the virus even with the vaccine, so, this moral superiority of being vaccinated holds little water.

"You can still get a girl pregnant or catch an STD if you use a condom, so this moral superiority of wearing one holds little water."

[GeneralMacArthur]

The failure of COVID discourse right now is people's inability to distinguish between the different variants of COVID.

People are looking at restrictions for the original COVID-19 and saying "damn we've just given up on restrictions" even though the disease we're dealing with no, Omicron (or BA.5), is completely different.  This is what Nate Bronze is going for with "Biden has been too lax about the pandemic" -- taking advantage of our memories of lockdowns and mandates, even though those were for a completely different disease from what we're dealing with now.  This is also what some bad-faith commentators do on Twitter where they say like "there are twice as many cases today as there were a year ago but all the mask mandates disappeared" even though a year ago was Delta and this year is BA.5.

People also do the thing where they look at what we're doing today for Omicron/BA.5 and say "lol guess we didn't need those restrictions after all" or "politicians dropped the restrictions once they became inconvenient for them", etc. again ignoring that the restrictions for original COVID-19 and the lack of restrictions is in the context of Omicron/BA.5.

It's just the usual taking advantage of people being dumb and not willing to think about something for more than five seconds.  And it always seems to go in the Republicans' favor -- or at least against the Democrats.

[lakeview]

I'm not "pro-pandemic." I want this pandemic to be over, but wishing it doesn't make it so. Quite frankly, I'm appalled that this D-majority site is so anti-mask. It's not a big inconvenience.

I share this sentiment. Anti-lockdown turned into anti-mask (and for a subset, anti-vaccine). I'm 100% against lockdowns so long as hospitalizations and deaths are under a certain level. If we reached a point where hospitals are completely swamped and overwhelmed and deaths are 4k+/day, we would need to consider more drastic action. Fortunately, the vaccines are preventing that from occurring, despite the attempts by the anti-vaxxers to create a more virulent strain.

Even this far into the pandemic, I still don't understand the anti-mask sentiment. There is something in between always masking up and the people that apparently think they should burn their masks. It's called masking sometimes. If cases are way up, we mask up. When cases are way down, we can feel free to take them off. I really don't see the issue here. I'm not even calling for mandates, just recommendations (although most government mandates over the private sector on this aspect have essentially functioned as recommendations, so maybe it should be a mandate functioning as a recommendation).

Part of the issue is "cases" ebb and flow with absolutely no regard to whether anyone is "masking up," so it's like watching people do a rain dance and being absolutely convinced it will bring rain. Another part of the issue is that "cases" aren't even all people who are actually sick -- hell, I'd argue the majority of "cases" at this point are people who wouldn't have been considered sick by pre-2020 standards (just some sniffles or whatever).

So, to sum up, you have people: 1) obsessing over an irrelevant metric, and 2) operating under the delusion that the ritual of mass mask wearing is affecting this metric in a positive way, when it isn't.

It is mass psychosis, and if you're wearing a mask "just because of an uptick in cases" or "just out of an abundance of caution" or whatever namby-pamby justification you've copy-pasted from MSNBC or the Washington Post to rationalize this ridiculous behavior, you are feeding that mass psychosis.

That's the issue.

[politicallefty]

I'm not "pro-pandemic." I want this pandemic to be over, but wishing it doesn't make it so. Quite frankly, I'm appalled that this D-majority site is so anti-mask. It's not a big inconvenience.

I share this sentiment. Anti-lockdown turned into anti-mask (and for a subset, anti-vaccine). I'm 100% against lockdowns so long as hospitalizations and deaths are under a certain level. If we reached a point where hospitals are completely swamped and overwhelmed and deaths are 4k+/day, we would need to consider more drastic action. Fortunately, the vaccines are preventing that from occurring, despite the attempts by the anti-vaxxers to create a more virulent strain.

Even this far into the pandemic, I still don't understand the anti-mask sentiment. There is something in between always masking up and the people that apparently think they should burn their masks. It's called masking sometimes. If cases are way up, we mask up. When cases are way down, we can feel free to take them off. I really don't see the issue here. I'm not even calling for mandates, just recommendations (although most government mandates over the private sector on this aspect have essentially functioned as recommendations, so maybe it should be a mandate functioning as a recommendation).

Part of the issue is "cases" ebb and flow with absolutely no regard to whether anyone is "masking up," so it's like watching people do a rain dance and being absolutely convinced it will bring rain. Another part of the issue is that "cases" aren't even all people who are actually sick -- hell, I'd argue the majority of "cases" at this point are people who wouldn't have been considered sick by pre-2020 standards (just some sniffles or whatever).

So, to sum up, you have people: 1) obsessing over an irrelevant metric, and 2) operating under the delusion that the ritual of mass mask wearing is affecting this metric in a positive way, when it isn't.

It is mass psychosis, and if you're wearing a mask "just because of an uptick in cases" or "just out of an abundance of caution" or whatever namby-pamby justification you've copy-pasted from MSNBC or the Washington Post to rationalize this ridiculous behavior, you are feeding that mass psychosis.

That's the issue.

Ah, I see. MSNBC and/or WaPo said it might be a good idea, so it must be wrong. There's apparently no logical reason to reduce airborne transmission of an airborne pathogen. I assume you'll be taking your weekly/monthly/(or whatever) regimen of ivermectin and snake oil soon?

[jamestroll]

Never being infected with Covid is as easy as 1, 2, 3.

1) Never leave your bed room the remainder of your life.

2) Get all your groceries and basic needs via DOORDASH.

3) Be independently wealthy, retired, or have a job that requires you to never leave bed room.

[RINO Tom]

Everyone will get a variant of COVID for years to come … people delusional enough to not accept this reality and properly move on should have WAY less of a platform than this crackpot.

[lakeview]

I'm not "pro-pandemic." I want this pandemic to be over, but wishing it doesn't make it so. Quite frankly, I'm appalled that this D-majority site is so anti-mask. It's not a big inconvenience.

I share this sentiment. Anti-lockdown turned into anti-mask (and for a subset, anti-vaccine). I'm 100% against lockdowns so long as hospitalizations and deaths are under a certain level. If we reached a point where hospitals are completely swamped and overwhelmed and deaths are 4k+/day, we would need to consider more drastic action. Fortunately, the vaccines are preventing that from occurring, despite the attempts by the anti-vaxxers to create a more virulent strain.

Even this far into the pandemic, I still don't understand the anti-mask sentiment. There is something in between always masking up and the people that apparently think they should burn their masks. It's called masking sometimes. If cases are way up, we mask up. When cases are way down, we can feel free to take them off. I really don't see the issue here. I'm not even calling for mandates, just recommendations (although most government mandates over the private sector on this aspect have essentially functioned as recommendations, so maybe it should be a mandate functioning as a recommendation).

Part of the issue is "cases" ebb and flow with absolutely no regard to whether anyone is "masking up," so it's like watching people do a rain dance and being absolutely convinced it will bring rain. Another part of the issue is that "cases" aren't even all people who are actually sick -- hell, I'd argue the majority of "cases" at this point are people who wouldn't have been considered sick by pre-2020 standards (just some sniffles or whatever).

So, to sum up, you have people: 1) obsessing over an irrelevant metric, and 2) operating under the delusion that the ritual of mass mask wearing is affecting this metric in a positive way, when it isn't.

It is mass psychosis, and if you're wearing a mask "just because of an uptick in cases" or "just out of an abundance of caution" or whatever namby-pamby justification you've copy-pasted from MSNBC or the Washington Post to rationalize this ridiculous behavior, you are feeding that mass psychosis.

That's the issue.

Ah, I see. MSNBC and/or WaPo said it might be a good idea, so it must be wrong. There's apparently no logical reason to reduce airborne transmission of an airborne pathogen. I assume you'll be taking your weekly/monthly/(or whatever) regimen of ivermectin and snake oil soon?

Nope, you don't see. Based on your retort, you're the embodiment of this mass psychosis I'm talking about.

[Aurelius]

But while President Biden has approached the pandemic in a very different way than President Trump, he, too, has made a series of choices that set the stage for his own infection. If the overarching theme of Trump’s approach to COVID was to shut his eyes and hope the pandemic couldn’t see him if he couldn’t see it, the overarching theme of Biden’s approach has been to frame a collective disaster as just another matter of personal responsibility.

The administration thought it had a silver bullet, going so far as to declare that July 4, 2021, would be a celebration of freedom from COVID. They were so certain that individual vaccinations would be enough that they rolled back federal mask mandates in May 2021 under the assumption that if you did the right thing and got vaccinated, then you’d be fine. Even as delta, omicron, and multiple omicronlets proved this theory wrong, Biden’s policy has continued to focus mainly on getting more Americans vaccinated and boosted. Other policy options that could prevent spread — ventilation requirements, reliable data collection on case numbers, masking during periods of high transmission, getting vaccines to other countries where the virus still spreads unchecked — have largely been left to wither.

How is this reasonable? It's just more zero covid fanatic nonsense. Imagine still arguing for mask mandates at this point. And I'm not even going to get into the multiple paragraphs arguing that Biden "deserved" to get covid or suggesting that he and Trump were equally bad on covid.

Funny you say this, because there are still mask mandates at national parks and other federal buildings. As far as I know there's no real political pressure to end these. Don't expect it to end any time soon, especially since the trigger metrics are based entirely on cases.

Los Angeles County has a lower positivity rate than Fairfax County, VA. Guess which one is on the verge of a MASK mandate?

When I went to Arches National Park a few weeks back I tried to enter the visitor center and they would not let me in without a MASK.  But I did see a group of people with California plates wear CLOTH masks OUTSIDE. Talk about useless.

I've been to a bunch of national parks lately and most of them are requiring muzzles. I just don't put one on (and when they hand one to me, I put it under my chin) and no one seems to care. The requirements come from the feds and I get the sense a lot of local park staff have no interest in enforcing it.

[DrScholl]

I'm confused. Last year Biden was too serious about COVID and a lot of people thought you could make the virus go away just baby pretending it didn't exist, but now he hasn't taken it serious enough. Which is it?

[Aurelius]

I'm confused. Last year Biden was too serious about COVID and a lot of people thought you could make the virus go away just baby pretending it didn't exist, but now he hasn't taken it serious enough. Which is it?

It's different people saying different things you absolute blockhead.