'Freedom,' Florida and the Delta Variant Disaster

[Zorro]

Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, isn’t stupid. He is, however, ambitious and supremely cynical. So when he says things that sound stupid it’s worth asking why. And his recent statements on Covid-19 help us understand why so many Americans are still dying or getting severely ill from the disease.

The background here is Florida’s unfolding public health catastrophe.

We now have highly effective vaccines freely available to every American who is at least 12 years old. There has been a lot of hype about “breakthrough” infections associated with the Delta variant, but they remain rare, and serious illness among the vaccinated is rarer still. There is no good reason we should still be suffering severely from this pandemic.

But Florida is in the grip of a Covid surge worse than it experienced before the vaccines. More than 10,000 Floridians are hospitalized, around 10 times the number in New York, which has about as many residents; an average of 58 Florida residents are dying each day, compared with six in New York. And the Florida hospital system is under extreme stress.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/02/opinion/Covid-Florida-vaccines.html

[Ocelot II]

1. A very insightful observation: to the RWingers, "freedom" really means privilege.

They want to be free to exercise every bit of their white male conservative "Christian" privilege to be able to do whatever they damn please, and stick it to the libs while they're doing it.

[Chainfire]

2. The only thing that matters to DeSantis is to support his right wing credentials.

He doesn't give a damn how many have to die if it increases his chance of becoming President. The far right base needs more and more craziness to keep its members fired up and DeSantis is willing to provide it.

[appalachiablue]

3. I remember a better America & world- Pre- Reagan.

aka 'PR.' We have to rid the clones and anti democracy factions.