Jen Sorensen for March 20, 2024

People have a tendency to enlarge their existing beliefs.

Is this why Trump hated dealing with Covid – Declining value of commercial real estate?

Jen Sorensen, again you have put into words (and pictures) the disconnect I often feel with so many Americans. You are an incredibly talented editorialist. Thank you.

I’d run over his feet in my wheelchair and tell him it’s God’s will. I’d mask, of course. Who knows what he has? (I’ve not had COVID-19 yet, and don’t want it. I did get my DTaP last week. No pertussis here.)

A dear friend of mine died of long COVID complications. Sigh.

Unfortunately this would be the fate of the U.S. if Insurrectionist$464M were elected and another pandemic occurred.

People are still dying and winding up in hospital.

Americans have a powerful penchant for learning the wrong lessons. Examples abound.

You know those folks – you know who they are – who like to wax fuzzily about how good things used to be, about how there used to be REAL patriots in this country who would sacrifice and unite to defeat a common foe, such as Nazi Germany in WWII. It sure was quite ironic watching these same folks during the pandemic. Right, none of these folks saw masks and vaccines as vehicles to help keep their fellow citizens from being harmed. No, in their tiny hearts and petty minds, these were devices utilized by an overreaching federal government to oppress the people. And once the orange guy’s wind sock picked up the direction the political winds were blowing, there suddenly was no pandemic and therefore no need for him to do anything to mitigate the resulting illness and death, except to share the misinformation that his followers were soaking up on social media. Who can ever forget THAT press conference?! Once, the leader of the most powerful country in the world really did suggest that a laser beam directed up and into one’s hindquarters was an effective way of stopping a viral pathogen. And this grifting snake oil salesman still mesmerizes about one third of the country. That said, as Jen illustrates very well here, he was able to convince a portion of America likely larger than a third that the best thing to do to counter a world pandemic is, well, nothing.

When I hear people say, “Are you better off now than four years ago?” I reply, “Four years ago, we were wiping our butts with coffee filters and using refrigerator trucks as morgues!”

Trump said that no one could have foreseen the Covid Pandemic. Well somebody did.

The Obama administration established the White House’s National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense after the Ebola epidemic of 2014. They set up 40 clinics in hot spots all over the world, whose job was to monitor the local situation and immediately send for adequate help to contain any threat. One of those clinics was in the Chinese province where Covid originated.

To research this for validity look for “Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents.”

The Trump White House dissolved the office, as part of the budget cuts when he cut taxes. It’s impossible to assess the full impact of this 2018 decision, but it is clear that eliminating the office contributed to the federal government’s sluggish domestic response. What’s especially concerning about the absence of this office today is that it was originally set up because a previous epidemic made the need for it quite clear. When asked about the slow roll-out of coronavirus tests in the U.S. on March 13, President Trump responded, “I don’t take responsibility at all.” Trump is not just responsible for it. He owns it. The Trump Plague is not just his responsibility. It and all the problems it caused are his fault.

So glad we all learned something!

To trust the established, irrefutable science?

No, to trust whatever convenient interpretation of it we feel like!

A “meeting of the minds” continues to require functioning minds…

One man’s meat… It’s amazing how some people can be convinced that people who are exploiting them are admirable.

An amazing demonstration of how different people see things differently – the “republican” here, is agonizing over how “things” have been affected while the “democrat” is worried how “people” were “harmed”…

It should be noted here that Donnie John was not touched by the pandemic, other than having to be transported to Walter Reed by helicopter and given the world’s greatest (and most expensive) treatment when HE contracted Covid…

He was in no danger of dying and he used his “wonderful” recovery to show his adoring followers that covid-19 was no big deal…

Always easier to fool people than to convince them they’ve been fooled.

Thank you, Jen. You have answered the question “Are you better off tha you were four years ago?”

Hopefully during the next pandemic we will only need to battle a deadly disease, and NOT RAMPANT STUPIDITY.

The masks and shutdowns WORKED

Well said, Jen ❤️

Well, Sweden stayed open and had some of the lowest cases. Despite the high elderly population, Florida actually did quite well despite being open.

Combine this with the distinction between death from Covid or death with Covid and none of the numbers can really be trusted.

Diminishing, if not gone, sense of humanity.