Thomas Mills | Democrats are out of sync with the country on COVID response

Back in the early 1990s, my ex-wife was studying public health and I was working as a carpenter. I came home with some injury and called it an accident. She told me that her professor said that there are no such things as accidents, because every event has a cause and injury or harm is preventable. I didn’t agree with that concept then and I don’t now, but I do believe that’s the mentality that has taken hold among part of the progressive movement and driving much of the Democratic response to COVID.

Democrats are quickly becoming out of sync with the majority of the country in their approach to dealing with the pandemic. They fear the virus more than both Republicans and independents and support stronger mitigation measures like mask and vaccine mandates. Most significantly, almost two-thirds of Democrats support transitioning to online school even though children face a greater risk from closed schools than COVID. If they’re successful in this push, Democrats should expect to lose the 2022 election in another historic landslide effort.

As David Leonhardt of the New York Times points out, “Closed schools almost certainly do more damage to children and vaccinated adults than Omicron does.” The activists who preach “believe the science” should start following their own advice. The risk to children is tiny even if they contract COVID. Kids are far more likely to die in car accidents than the virus.

Joe Biden took office promising a return to normal. He hasn’t delivered despite the overwhelming success of the vaccines. The risk is now to people who are unvaccinated and people with additional health risks. I consistently see figures that say more than 80% of those hospitalized are unvaccinated. Most people who are vaxxed and boosted have very little threat of getting dangerously ill. We should be moving beyond lockdowns and remote education and mask mandates, but instead, we’re still arguing about masking two- and three-year-olds.

The government has done all the muscling it can do to force people to get vaccinated. It’s now up to individuals and private entities. If businesses want to demand proof of vaccinations, that’s fine. If companies want to demand their employees be vaccinated, that’s up to them. If insurance companies want to charge higher premiums for those who are unvaccinated, they should be able to do so. If people are too dumb to protect themselves and their families, well, they have to suffer the consequences.

The government’s response should shift to our over-stressed medical system. We need to figure out how to relieve burned out personnel stressed by people too ignorant or selfish to get vaccinated. And we need to be able to shift resources to places that need the support due to surges of the virus. We should not be putting restrictions on the day to day lives of children and the vaccinated.

Ironically, the people most concerned about the virus are the ones most protected and least likely to be affected. For months the rate of infection, hospitalization, and death is highest in Republican counties where disinformation is rampant and ignorance is a virtue. No amount of government pressure is going to convince those people to take precautions or take the virus seriously. Public health folks may know that the virus can be prevented, but that doesn’t mean they can prevent it. It’s up to individuals to make the right choices. Reward the ones who do.