In a normal year, you wouldn’t be able to keep me from tonight’s Joe Bonamassa concert at the Cheyenne Civic Center. How often does one of the leading blues-rock guitarists in the world play the capital city?
Of course, it’s hardly a normal year. COVID-19 is on the rise again in Wyoming and the U.S. thanks to the Delta variant. And even though I’m vaccinated, crowding into an indoor venue with a lot of maskless, unvaccinated music fans seems foolhardy.
I jumped at the first chance I had to get the vaccine in Cheyenne in February. I expected most people would too, given that more than 400,000 Americans had already died of COVID-19.
Instead, vaccines became politicized, badges of red vs. blue brand loyalty. As a result, the Equality State ranks 48th in the nation with only 36% of the population fully vaccinated as of Aug. 5, and untold numbers of our neighbors have been unnecessarily sickened — political casualties in an otherwise winnable war.
Initially, I felt highly protected by the vaccine. Now, thanks to the Delta variant and my community’s willingness to serve as a reservoir for it, I’m back to wearing my mask.
The Delta variant, now the dominant strain in Wyoming, has changed everything. The fully vaccinated can still get coronavirus and also transmit the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vaccination is, however, still highly protective against serious illness or hospitalization.
“We are deeply concerned. The Delta variant has really changed the COVID fight we have on our hands,” Dr. Alexia Harrist, Wyoming state health officer and epidemiologist, said in a press release last week. “Unfortunately, Wyoming’s low vaccination rate makes our state more vulnerable to this highly contagious variant.”
The Wyoming Department of Health strongly advises residents to be vaccinated. It noted that between May 1 and July 28, about 95% of the more than 5,000 people with a lab-confirmed or probable case of COVID-19 were not fully vaccinated.
Given all the evidence supporting vaccination, I wondered if some of my vaccine-resistant family members or friends may have changed their minds. I had one taker of my request to talk about the issue on the record.
Barb Cummins of Cheyenne has been a friend for more than 30 years. When the vaccine became available she was reluctant to get the shot, and I have been worried about her health ever since. Fortunately Cummins has not gotten ill, and she credits always wearing a mask and not venturing much into public indoor areas.
She remains firm in her decision to not be vaccinated. “I don’t feel it was properly tested, because they were in such a rush,” Cummins said. “I know it’s not protecting as well as it should or people think, because I know people who have been vaccinated who either immediately or shortly after got sick.”
Cummins believes the federal and state governments are pushing the vaccines too hard. “They’re really taking advantage of the situation, and they’re using it to further their cause,” she said. “They want to see how many people they can get to go along and be sheep.”
She sees government mandates to get the vaccine likely in the future. But Cummins thinks there would be widespread opposition to such a mandate in Wyoming. I agree.
A quick scan of the Facebook fury that follows any WyoFile pandemic coverage gives a clear sense of the venom, misinformation and scapegoating that’s dominating the online discussion.
Posters recently called Dr. Alexia Harrist, Wyoming’s public health officer, a liar and accused her and Gov. Mark Gordon of being criminals for recommending vaccines and masks, for example. Not exactly helpful or high-minded civic discourse.
What really riles me, though, is when anyone tries to pin the blame for COVID transmissions on the poor or immigrants. It’s a decidedly false, cheap shot taken by way too many politicians on the extreme right, usually with a feigned look of disdain.
And as Arthur Caplan of New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine told PolitiFact, “The notion of immigrants bringing disease has been alleged about Gypsies, Jews, Italians, Irish and Blacks. As we know from Ebola, SARS and influenza, infections get here all the time. The issue is what do we do to stop their spread.”
That should definitely be the focus in Wyoming. I’m particularly worried about the tens of thousands of people who recently attended Cheyenne Frontier Days. I decided to stay away this year.
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I hope it wasn’t a super-spreader event, but I don’t think we’ll know for a while. Prior to the rodeo and other related events, Cheyenne Regional Medical Center’s COVID ward was full.
Though he lives in Casper, Natrona County Health Officer Mark Dowell told Cap City News before Frontier Days that he was concerned about its impact even though it’s largely held outdoors.
“But there’s a lot of indoor stuff, and there are so many people close to each other and not masking,” he said. “There may be a significant uptick in cases across the region, or there may not be. We just don’t know.”
I cringe whenever I see TV coverage of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota, which is expected to draw 700,000 people over its 10 days. Spotting a mask or face covering in a crowd is the 2021 equivalent of playing “Where’s Waldo?”
San Diego State University researchers estimated more than 260,000 COVID cases throughout the country could be linked to last year’s bike rally. With its proximity to Wyoming, many motorcyclists obviously rode through the state and will again this year.
Sturgis spokesperson Christina Steele told the Washington Post that “people here don’t want to talk about COVID. They want to have a good time.”
So do I. But while I know events like the Bonamassa concert would be fun, it’s not worth the risk of getting sick and possibly spreading the disease to others, especially friends, family and co-workers.
I think Dowell’s advice is spot on: “This virus could be in the rearview mirror if the country would vaccinate. We could put this all behind us and move on.”
Nobody has said it better,Bill. Like the Californian who is cancelling his hunting trip to Wyoming, we, too, cancelled a trip through Wyoming, and Utah because we don’t want to spend our money in states that are furthering the pandemic by resisting vaccination with elected officials weighing in on their side. I don’t think those like, “Bob” who mount absurd arguments against a life-saving vaccine can begin to imagine the fury they create in the rest of us. who at least have an option to stay away. People here are saying “Let them die! ” I think that’s a little too mean but feel the anger, too.
I am fully vaccinated and now I feel free! I did have some tiredness the next 2 days following, totally worth it.
Oh my, it is raining in western Wyoming, happy days. So, much has happened since I last posted on this subject. Hey Bob, lighten up! Remember when your mother asked to take your shoes off before coming in on a muddy day? Tyranny, oppression or common sense and civility? Learn anything? Remember your head bouncing off the bar in Rozet? No? Thought so. Highly contagious are just two words. Last week I was infected by the Delta variant. I had Covid in February 2020, 5 weeks of progressive deterioration. This time contacted on a fire assignment in the local area. I walked through the rich vapor of an asymptomatic fully vaxed younger person. I am high risk(68) and was getting trashed by running 5 tanks through my saw and cutting fire line. I masked up while flying out in a helicopter with an Idaho crew who had a Covid case on their crew and multiple exposure. Requiring unvaccinated children to wear masks is prudent and compassionate. Ever notice how traffic speeds are greatly reduced near schools? Do you get angry at 8 AM and 3:30? So, a fully vaccinated old man gets Covid twice but second time a new variant. Delta is bad news, it went from runny nose ,slight cough in 24hrs to full blown uncontrollable fever.. ice packs , cold showers and a feeling no one should have ,impending doom. I made it through the night contacted everyone I had worked with and we tested and I sought medical advice. Fever broke and was gone by Sunday, quarantine over by this Friday. The vaccine works.This article was about the politicalization of Covid response. Simple, 630K have passed in our country and that was mostly from Alpha . I have had both., and you don’t want this one vaxed or not. Have you seen pictures from India 2 months ago? Bodies stacked like cord wood? Remember the horror in Peru where entire families were found dead in their homes. It is time that you relearn a vocabulary that includes compassion, thoughtfulness and what being a good neighbor really is. Just say’n not knowing. The people you parrot are wrong, in many many ways. Some multimillionaire spewing wild armpit sweating hate dialogue on TV or the Internet wants your money. Did you buy the hat, the flag, the video? Should have bought N-95 masks. Please slow down in school zones, and most importantly stand outside today and let the rain get you wet. Today is a great day. And like the Honey Badger, Delta don’t care, but you should. I warned you! I wrote a will Friday morning and stacked financial paperwork on my bed. Think of that and not political terms used for descriptions of Authoritarian regimes. Many are going to suffer and die because of misinformation, oh yeah Bob wipe your feet today you’re gonna track mud in?
Nobody has said it better,Bill
Good comment. I’m glad you’re on the mend. Stay safe and be well.
Hi everyone. Please note that smallpox and polio have been eradicated and tuberculosis greatly reduced as a result of vaccinations. Might be a lesson here troops.
We are witnessing a rollout of fascism in the name of safety. A virus with a 99.9% survival rate is not a crisis. It’s a flu. Vaccines that don’t prevent infection or transmission are causing the variants. Government that dictates who can go where and how you must behave is tyranny. Hitler and Stalin put the community above the individual. You can argue that ideology until you are blue in the face. It does not change what it is or make it any more appealing.
Bob:
I’m surprised by the restraint you’ve shown. It’s only taken 4-5 posts to get to the predictable “Hitler did this thing, so any other government that does it is also as bad as Hitler”. By taking something to the extreme, you make it seem ridiculous. It’s a tedious tactic, and one that most thinking individuals can see right through.
By your logic, the following laws must also make government tyrannical, by dictating who can go where and how we must behave, and by putting the community above the individual:
–you must drive in the right lane, and not exceed the speed limit
–you cannot walk around in public naked
–you cannot own an M1 Abrams battle tank to drive around town
–you cannot beat children
–you cannot shoplift
–you must wear a helmet when driving a motorcycle
–you cannot smoke cigarettes on a passenger plane
–you can neither sell nor consume crack cocaine
–etc
Note that each of the above mentioned things restricts personal freedom. Each also puts ‘the community’ above the individual.
Bob, I hope you’re as outspoken about, say, child labor laws as you are about vaccines. After all, child labor is illegal in the U.S. and in communist China (since China makes child labor illegal, making child labor legal must be good right?), it restricts one’s personal freedoms as a business owner (and we know that *any* restriction of personal freedoms is bad right?), and it puts the community above the individual (who is the big, bad government to tell *me* that I can’t employ 8-year olds at my construction business–smells like socialism to me).
In closing, Bob, this will be my last post. It’s clear that neither of us were ever going to convince the other to budge. However, this exchange has been beneficial in helping me to understand just how miserably the public education system has failed some people. Thank you for that, and peace.
Hi Kel,
I will agree with you on two points.
We cannot change eachother and public education definitely sucks.
But conflating privlige with a human right is a red herring on it’s face. Driving is a privilege.
Not having Dr Mengele or Dr Fauci, or a CIA affiliated Democrat named Jim Jones for that matter, stick a needle in my arm is a human right.
Big difference.
Leftists love to conflate things and pour on the logical fallacies. Fine. It works in your echo chamber.
But it is just annoying to the rest of us.
I point out the obvious connection to past despots, as the CDC is openly planning internment camps for those older and immunocompromised folks who they’d like to “shield” from the rest of us. It seems Cuomo isn’t the only one who thinks grandma has outlived her usefulness.
I do wish you many healthy days ahead.
Andy: “I heard that vaccine had a chip in it.”
Amanda: “Sure hope it’s a memory chip, cuz’ at my age, I could use it!”
We are a community. Communities survive when individuals act for the greater good within that community. Communities rely upon cooperation and that cooperation creates a powerful integrity. A ‘goodness’ if you will, of caring about and for the whole rather than just the self. It is a human thing.
This virus isn’t a republican or democrat or Trump or Biden or right or left virus, it’s just a virus that doesn’t care WHAT you believe or read on this or that website. It doesn’t care where you live in the world. It has no politics. Its only goal is to find hosts, take over that host so it can replicate, find ways to expose other hosts to infect, and if necessary for its existence, mutate. It’s a virus thing.
Please don’t make your decision based on politics or websites. Please, make your decision based your doctor’s advice and on what is best for your health, as well as what is best for the world as this is, after all, a world-wide pandemic.
People refusing to get vaccinated are selfish and foolish. All of this could be put behind us with a simple shot. Instead things are getting worse, and possibly more virulent variants will evolve. Common on people, get vaccinated so we can get back to normal sooner rather than much later!
Sad ….
The amount of vitriol the Fauci trusting folks have for those who have done their research and chosen not to follow the herd.
Believe as you wish. Get the shots.
Get the booster. Fine.
This is not 1930s Germany. We will not follow orders. We will not accept a jar of marmalade and a loaf of bread and get in the cattle car.
You obey all you want. The bill of rights is non negotiable. We will be here, alive and well, when you are struggling with disorders and wasting away in hospice.
No point in trying to reason with you.
Except that you’re not reasoning, Bob. You’re simply repeating assertions. I provided you with several websites containing data (from those liberal bastions of mainstream media–Reuters, the CDC, and others). You haven’t responded with the same, and have simply doubled down.
I can keep posting on this forum that the tooth fairy is real all I want, but that doesn’t make it true.
Your rationale consists of this: I’m being told to do it, so I won’t do it. That’s not an argument. It’s a lot of things, but it isn’t an argument. It has the internal logic of a 5-year old’s thinking.
Sometimes–not always, but sometimes–being told what to do just happens to align with one’s best interests.
For example, *Do* get vaccinated for measles and mumps. *Don’t* smoke meth. *Do* drive on the right side of the road. *Don’t* throw your trash out the window. *Do* brush your teeth. *Don’t* run through red lights at an intersection. *Do* be a good citizen*. *Don’t* smoke cigarettes in restaurants. *Do* eat healthy foods. Etc.
Granted, some of these things are laws, and some are simply recommendations. And a few are even driven by the need for control. This doesn’t *necessarily* make them bad. Giving up some freedoms comes with living in a society.
I’m not sure of it, but I’d be willing to bet that you’re conservative politically, and that you’ve raged against misspending of your tax dollars in the past.
I would totally support your decision not to get vaccinated (no one can tell you what to do, right Bob?), were it not for the fact that my taxes will pay for any hospital bills that you, or any other vaccinated person, incurs. It’s possible–likely even–that if you get COVID, you won’t be hospitalized. But the risk that you’re hospitalized with COVID as an unvaccinated person is much higher than if you were vaccinated, and everyone else is expected to pay for your defiance.
Where are ‘vaccines’ mentioned in the Bill of Rights?
The experimental shots are covered under the Nuremberg Code.
Anyone attempting to force them on you is committing a crime against humanity.
That’s not correct…..again.
covid vaccines have gone through clinical trials and were authorized for emergency use. this is an example of anti-vaccine fear mongering and false information.
https://www.reuters.com/article/reuters-factcheck-vaccination/fact-check-staff-administering-covid-19-vaccines-are-not-war-criminals-idUSKBN2A42H5
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/06/nuremberg-code-addresses-experimentation-not-vaccines/
https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/the-nuremberg-code-specifically-addresses-experimentation-covid-19-vaccines-arent-experimental-and-therefore-dont-violate-the-code-candace-owens/
Authorized for Emergency Use is not the same as approved.
The clinical trials were abandoned on Pfizer and Moderna as soon as the AEU was signed.
The control group was vaccinated to end the trial and prevent long term comparison of outcomes.
There is no long term trial on humans required for FDA approval..
There is no long term animal trial data required for FDA approval.
All previous mrna vaccine animal trials were horrific in their effects on the test subjects. Cats and ferrets died en masse. The whole concept was abandoned.
It was decided that it should never be used on humans.
Enter Bill Gates, whose family brought you Planned Parenthood as part of the Eugenics movement. Suddenly the idea comes alive again. Along with a battery of other dangerous vaccine products mrna is suddenly a household word.
For the first time in history, American lifespans are shrinking.
Birthrates are crashing. Autism and Dementia are exploding.
Child mortality is up. Sperm counts are down.
They are now running experiments with these mrna shots on children who are winding up with heart problems that will never end. Blood clots are a common side effect as well, and will never end.
The CDC is now telling pregnant women to ignore all medical history and get vaccinated. Disgusting.
These facts are for the uninformed who have the wisdom to consider the truth and the consequences of being part of the experiment. Do your own research. See what doctors who have treated patients are saying.
Get that second opinion. Your life depends on it.
You might want to do better research on the non-scientific report that 260,000 cases of Covid were derived from Sturgis in 2020. The non-peer reviewed report generated by economics professors has been questioned by numerous reputable (non-media) source including John Hopkins. A little unbiased research can go a long ways to decipher fact from fiction.
And of course there were no spikes in cases after the BLM riots in various areas of the country, no studies, no economics professors from San Diego tackling those “super spreader” events. In reality the spike in Covid cases came from many sources – kids back in school, the onset of winter driving people inside, etc, etc, etc.
Baseball is back, no comments about super-spreader baseball games. Lollapalooza in Chicago – you had more risk of getting shot than getting Covid. Even the sophisticated that attended the Obama birthday bash were immune from Covid. Only those in Sturgis can create a superspreader event?
Yes, Political Polarization is literally killing us from both sides of the fence – including Mr. Drake’s ongoing left wing socialist diatribe.
Dear Rob,
That’s some impressive what-aboutism, and I applaud you for finding a way to incorporate the obligatory jab at Obama.
Please read the sentence that follows the one you reference in the article. The author is making the point that it’s the crowded situation combined with a lack of masks that is particularly risky as a super-spreader event.
That stated, is it possible that the Sturgis rally, BLM protests, and Lollapallooza could *all* be super-spreader events? My hunch is “yes”. More than one thing can be true at the same time.
Not really “aboutism,” but let’s have an honest conversation. You can’t pick and choose how you attack the pandemic. I really do not care if it’s the multi-millionaire Community Organizer and his sophisticated friends having a birthday bash, bikers in Sturgis, music lovers in Chicago or riots across the country – be honest, use accurate information, not some debunked group of professors doing an economics report. If Kerry Drake really wanted to make an argument that politics is the problem – and frankly that is basic issue we now face with Covid – he would have written an unbiased article, not another way left slant.
Then we agree, Rob.
That stated, and while Mr. Drake may be progressive/liberal/democrat, I’m not detecting much of that at all in his article. He mentions two potential super-spreader events–Frontier Days and Sturgis–presumably simply because both are occurring in (or close to) Wyoming.
Since you want to have an honest conservation, please help me understand:
Where’s the liberal bias ‘in Mr. Drake’s article?
To that ‘debunked economic report’ do you refer, and how do you know it was debunked?
Thanks,
Kel
Kel, You’re never going to persuade this guy. He’s only digging in his heels. The only thing that will persuade him is getting a bad case of Covid . That’s when, I’m reading, the antiVaxers start asking if it’s too late to get the shot. And it is.
Another good view Kerry
I am simply confounded about the amount of misinformation that is out there. You view is on target
I just have this to say. It is good that people investigate things on their own, but sticking completely to conspiracy platforms or any other platforms in not a great idea.
I saw a comedian the other day. He stated that if you hear something 3 times you start believing it.
Social media and other media hit people constantly . So people start believing what ever they read or hear
I am amazed that the Governor of Florida is putting forth comments criticizing the vaccine
Wait for it!!!!!!
Pictures exist and he verified that he was vaccinated. ??
He got his shot in april
Florida has more cases of covid than they ever had
I got vaccinated two days after the vaccine came available.
John Abas
If you, your friends, families and neighbors are dead set against the vaccines for political reasons, that COVID is a big myth, I would like to suggest that it was Trump who began Operation Warp Speed that developed these vaccines – so how and why can COVID be considered a myth? If he believed it was a big enough deal to start this immense process, why are so many Trump supporters unwilling to carry through and get a shot? The drive to create these vaccines came from a Republican president… why would he have developed a plan to keep you safe if he didn’t believe in it himself?
Thank you, Joy.
Trump did press to create vaccines. But he trusted people he should not have trusted. They told him that dangerous mrna genetic tampering was safe. It isn’t.
No doctor or scientist has isolated a single sample of the Covid 19 virus. Not one. Odd.
How can you create a test procedure for something you’ve never seen? You can’t.
How can you create a vaccine if you have no sample of the virus?
You can’t.
So you manipulate a test that looks for any particles and create a list of particles it should be looking for…even if those particles exist everywhere in nature. Then you create a cocktail that attacks proteins that should be on the virus, but also occur throughout the body…especially in the cardiovascular system….hence the blood clots.
It’s a big mess. Many people will get sick from the vaccines and the related mutations. The authorities want to scapegoat the unvaccinated and create division for their own benefit. The economy is on the brink. Things will get bad. They need a scapegoat. Open your eyes.
The vaccine does nothing to your DNA or your genes. Your DNA is contained in the cell nucleus. The mRNA vaccine does nothing to interact with the cell nucleus.
More disinformation and fear mongering. Quit repeating false information and acting like a victim.
https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20210719/covid-19-vaccines-not-gene-therapy
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/facts.html?s_cid=10506:can%20the%20covid%20vaccine%20change%20your%20dna:sem.ga:p:RG:GM:gen:PTN:FY21
kooky
Bob is spouting complete nonsense here, as we long ago isolated and did full genetic sequencing of COVID-19. We have such good information on the details, that we can see exactly what part of the virus mutated giving us the Alpha and Delta variants.
Here’s a good starting article: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/virus-mutations-reveal-how-covid-19-really-spread1/
My last comment on this article has not been posted. So I’ll be more clinical this time.
Thousands of covid positive “refugees” are crossing the border every week. They are not being treated or deported. They are being bussed into cities and towns and being dropped off to mingle with the indigenous population. This is not an accident. 1500 were dropped off in one Texas city in one week.
The VAERS report on the CDC website shows that the “vaccines” are not safe.
At least 10,000 Americans are no longer with us since this experiment began. Many thousands more have various complications.
The CDC has admitted that the vaccinated are catching the virus and spreading it,and since the vaccines attack but don’t kill it. mutations of it are a natural byproduct of this process.
Many of the un vaccinated have had the original virus and developed natural immunity.
There are inexpensive treatments that have a high rate of success. A healthy body is capable of fighting off this flu up to 99% of the time with vitamins and sunlight.
That is the science. Get a grip people.
Your numbers are inflated. The VAERS database is used to log EVERY side effect that is encountered. It may or may not be associated with the vaccine at all. The data is recorded and compiled in one central location. This is the same argument that Dr. Fauci had with rand Paul.
What isn’t recorded on the VAERS site is the side effects that “recovered” people experience. Those who need double lung transplants are documented as “recovered” but are far from healthy once their covid is gone.
So you’re not concerned with the 600k+ deaths that have already been attributed to covid? You’re only concerned with a possible 10k deaths that may or may not be due to the vaccine? That doesn’t make sense.
If this were true, TX, NM, and AZ would have the highest incidence of COVID, and the highest % of their populations testing positive for COVID.
But it’s not true.
https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=highest+incidence+of+covid+in+the+u.s.+by+state
What is true is that COVID incidence is highest where vaccination rates are lowest, which is related to politics.
https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=highest+incidence+of+covid+in+us+by+politics
There is no doubt that getting vaccinated carries some risk. There is also no doubt that not getting vaccinated carries more risk.
But my strong hunch is that folks remain unvaccinated not because they’ve done painstaking research through the CDC, and carefully weighed the pros and cons of vaccination.
Instead, I reckon that much–not all, much–of the opposition to getting vaccinated is due to pure defiance (i.e., “Joe Biden can’t tell me what to do”, “Dr. Fauci can’t tell me what to do”, etc), like a petulant 13-year old being.
Given this level of defiant idiocy (or idiotic defiance), it would be interesting if Biden and Fauci just started telling people *not* to get vaccinated. I wonder what the folks who believe COVID is a farce would do.
Here’s true “defiant idiocy”……The same people who would “never take a vaccine recommended by President Trump” (like Kamala Harris), but now mandate the very same vaccines (developed by “Operation Warp Speed”) for everyone. Go figure!
They say:
“Wyoming is a small town
with long streets,”
where, we must now admit
neighbors really don’t care
about science, rationality or
one another.
COVID infected our bodies—
and laid waste our myth.
Thanks for a great article. The politicalization and polarization by anti maskers and anti vaxers makes them a dying breed with the new variants. Pray for rain and common sense!
I passed on Cheyenne Days. Went to Sacramento CA PBR where indoor masks are county mandatory. Still, nobody except Asians and me wore masks. Arena gave away free masks and tried to enforce usage but were ignored. Want to plan fall hunting and fishing trips to WY, but may go elsewhere.
good
Great observation, as usual Kerry. It’s disappointing that because so many people have opposed the vaccine, that now the more potent Delta variant is even causing breakthrough cases for previously vaccinated people. This gives anti vaccination critics more false argument to claim that vaccinations are no good. When, in fact, had everyone seized the opportunity to get vaccinated and destroy this virus and the pandemic before it could evolve, we could be free of this controversy and living the life we all want. Makes me want to use the adage “we just cannot fix stupid”. But really, it’s because of blatant conspiracies and misleading information that influences gullible people. Basically, we need more factual reporting like WyoFile and more open minded people to read.
Thank you, Kerry, for the attention to Cheyenne Frontier Days (and other elements in this well written piece). Laramie County was reporting high numbers of cases before the 125th CFD event, and health care folks are quietly talking about significant upticks in the number of folks seeking tests in the days following. Yet there seems to be precious little press coverage of possible impacts to our population. As you noted, perhaps we’ll have to wait on official numbers.
I agree with your thoughts and concerns. How sad these people such as your friend Barb don’t believe that scientists have been aware of COVID strains and were on it for years before it reared it’s ugly head. The fact that they were able to come up with vaccines to stop or lessen COVID is in my mind, a miracle and something we all should applaud and take advantage of !! We Americans are lucky to have available COVID vaccines . Am hoping child vaccines will be approved sooner then later. How fortunate we all are to live in these modern times.
The political games have divided this country. So unfortunate that the past president was such a twit. He could have been a hero…..instead he is a zero. He really screwed the American citizens.
You say political polarization is killing us while ruling out illegal immigration as a contributor to an increase in cases. If you don’t want political polarization, don’t blame one side for the spread while ruling out illegal immigration, something your side supports.
Immigration is not the driving force in the rise of the delta and lambda variants. It’s unvaccinated chrump worshipers.
Apples and oranges
But it is a factor. You can’t have it both ways.
Illegal immigration is contributing to the delta variant in wyoming?
Or is it the smooth brained chrump gang that is affecting us here?
Don’t think to hard, it’s a pretty easy scenario to give an answer to.
The contribution of immigrants to COVID probably isn’t zero, but it definitely isn’t as high as the unvaccinated. If it were, we could explain the incidence of COVID base purely on geography–which states shared a border with Mexico.
But instead, much of the incidence of COVID can be explained by population density x vaccination rates.
Of course both are factors, but this doesn’t imply both are equally strong factors. You’re trying to make two things equivalent that aren’t.
True, gnats and whales are both animals. But one is clearly a fair bit larger than the other.
Where’s the data to support this?