Dan Rather: Lies Beget Tragedy

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://steady.substack.com/p/lies-beget-tragedy

It is impossible to predict the future, but I can say one thing with utter certainty. Many Americans who are alive today — people who are breathing, laughing, loving — will die in the months ahead from a horrific disease for which there now is remarkably effective protection. In other words, their deaths are, right now, largely preventable. This roll call of the deceased will likely total in the thousands upon thousands, to say nothing of the countless more who will suffer needlessly, perhaps for years to come

Many of these people who will soon be gasping for air in intensive care units are currently boasting of their health, mocking COVID fears as overblown, and flaunting their refusal to get the vaccine. Their proud hubris will not make their deaths less tragic. Families will be torn apart, communities broken, pain and suffering will ripple across generations. Knowing this awaiting tragedy breaks my heart. We can already see it coming.

I find myself thinking often about those who will soon turn from health, to illness, and for some, sadly death. We cannot assign names or faces yet to these looming fates. We do not know who will be struck. Like armies massing for battle we can look around and know many who are among us today will not survive this moment. But unlike war where death strikes with cruel randomness, we can already see that this battle for the health of our country is proceeding like public health professionals had feared. And it all comes back to that vaccine.

The national inoculation rate, while pretty impressive, is stalling. And it masks incredible variation, not only at the state level, but county by county. There are many reasons for vaccine hesitancy. Young adults, who even in normal times tend to feel invincible, have gotten the wrong message that COVID isn’t dangerous for them. And they can be a reservoir for it spreading to others. Marginalized communities, who don’t have access to reliable health care and are fearful of a legacy of medical exploitation, also have lower rates. But a particularly fraught vaccine crisis is breaking along our political divide. Supporters of the former president tend to dismiss both the seriousness of the pandemic and the utility of the vaccine.

*snip*