COVID Update July 22: The “anti” culture in America is a long run hazard to public health & a near term hazard to yours.

We need to address it & turn it around. 1/

Liberty & freedom are unquestionably some of the virtues of the US way of life.

Questioning authority and the establishment is part & parcel of our founding. 2/

But so is depriving people of freedom. And today certain freedoms inhibit others from living their own lives.

And discounts other virtues. Respect. Safety. Dignity. Justice. Community. Science. 3/

Anti-vaccination & anti-masking are extreme symptoms of some sort of connection to these ideals.

So is and anti-testing, anti-science.

And these freedoms are anti-child & anti-senior. 4/

When dozens & hundreds die in some countries during a pandemic and dozens & hundreds OF THOUSANDS die in the US it is because we don’t give enough weight to those second virtues.

Are we willing to pay a 1000x tax on human life for our freedom? 5/

Are we?

When it comes to gun safety at schools, churches, night clubs, & concerts, we have made the decision that the lives of our kids must come secondary must come second to our freedoms. 6/

This makes the dictate that the president is putting forward on schools make sense.

Send them back— every school in the country— without the capacity to test or control cases. 7/

The teachers are worried? Well, all the better. Another successful attack on the establishment.

And if kids, families & teachers get hospitalized, there is a perfect answer. Federalism. Blame it on the governors. Even though it’s a central dictate. 8/

The anti-vaccine crowd puts the challenge of arresting a pandemic at real risk. Should 30-40% of the population decide against taking a vaccine, sicker & at risk populations will be worrying about COVID as it comes around for the rest of their lives. 9/

I got to grow up safe from polio.

For kids born now, some ppl won’t protect them from COVID: a disease that makes clots. Deprives the body of oxygen. Causes organ damage.

Not because we won’t have the science but because people won’t use it. 10/

As hard as it is to understand & appreciate why people knowingly endanger other people, “anti-mask” joins “anti-vax” as part of the US stand against progress & even our long term viability. 11/

In the case of masks, we’re rejecting not just science but low-tech common sense solutions that keep people safe. Most hospitals report essential workers are the people dying. Anti-maskers are the COVID version of secondhand smoke.

And for what? 12/

Anti-vax and anti-mask has now also become anti-test.

I’m not sure being anti-diagnostic test was a freedom I knew I had. If I knew, I must have undervalued it significantly. 13/

It was cool when I learned I could be anti-anything I wanted. But then I became a grown up & realized why look like an asshole.

People should be free to endanger themselves. But helmet laws are so you don’t in danger others as well. Seat belt laws. Smoking laws.14/

Clean water & air represent progress, not a violation. But they required regulation.

De-regulation is often used as a virture stemming from freedom. But restricting freedoms is the sign of a mature society. 15/

Trump proudly & with great fanfare deregulated nursing homes in 2017. We gained the freedom to let infections circulate among people who many low grade infections kill.

We create regulations because greedy, selfish & careless people have shown us we need them. 16/

Do I want to limit your freedoms?

Absolutely. 17/

We need a new compact around freedoms. If you’re free not to vaccinate yourself or wear a mask, then stadiums, office buildings & public places should be free to keep you out. Freedom.

18/

Freedom has a cost & we should expect people to pay it. Norms like masks become norms out of habit & reenforcement. And regulation.

People stopped smoking in bars after significant angst. It was a regulation. Now it’s also a norm. 19/

Masks & vaccines do the same thing, they smother the virus & protect other people. Smother it enough & the cost of freedom is only temporary.

As science changes & as conditions change, regulations can loosen or tighten. 20/

Being anti-science & anti-expert is not a bucolic every man egalitarian vision. It’s actually a nightmare of selfishness.21/

If scientists turn out to be wrong in a particular area, while the no-nothing crowd says I told you so, the rest of us should applaud. It’s called progress. 22/

People who want to live without laws & regulations are also welcome to live without society’s contributions to them: roads, sewage, broadband. 23/

For a country that deprived so many of freedom for centuries, we actually ride a pretty high horse on this topic.

And still today, we cry for freedom for ourselves but aim to close the door on this country’s newest entrants. 24/

People dying in large numbers today are people picking our crops & bagging our groceries.

Protecting people from a virus & managing future public health crises absolutely pits your rights against doing the right thing. 25/

When people read of our demise in the museum of humans, I picture a meteor or maybe a more powerful robot.

But if the answer is that “this was the group that didn’t wear cotton on their face when they could have,” it will be a humiliating last chapter. /end

This should come at the end at the end of every thread. Worth listening to it all.

https://twitter.com/lemonadamedia/status/1286000848645038080?s=21 https://twitter.com/lemonadamedia/status/1286000848645038080