Or Cro-Magnon?
Or…
(from the 1970 film “Trog” starring that guy and Joan Crawford as the scientist who wants to study him.)
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Though, on the other hand…
(Genetics: it’s a mixed bag. Or, more literally, a bunch of mixed bags of mostly water…)
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The whole Texas thing is so hard. I think Biden should tie continued federal shipments of vaccines to a mask mandate. If Governors want to go out there and do stupid shit to avoid primaries from the right, they should have to own that. Texas and Mississippi need to be brought to a heel before they bring down the whole virus mitigation effort.
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Reeves said. “I trust you. I trust the people of Mississippi.”
So I guess he will be disbanding the Police departments then?
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What a great idea. Federal response, with TEETH. This situation is worse than WWII, and requires a federal response. We now have over twice the number of deaths. Why won’t people just stop being stupid assholes?
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The problem is, this hurts everyone in those states. And could easily make the mask issue seem even more like a political ideology issue rather than a common sense and science issue.
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They’re already being hurt by removing the mask mandate and allowing businesses to reopen 100%. The choice isn’t “hurt Texans” vs “don’t hurt Texans”. It’s “continues to pour resources into a broken system” vs “send resources where they will be used wisely.” The real problem here is that the more virus circulates, the higher probability that a mutation arises that the vaccine can’t handle. And we don’t have unlimited vaccine. If the vaccine is less likely to be successful in TX because masks and distancing aren’t required, why not direct it to somewhere where it will be successful?
I think we’re already there.
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Which seems like it gives less justification to holding back vaccine from an area where it’s likely to circulate more, no? It’s bad enough they’re creating a better circulation area, slowing down or stopping vaccine deployment in that area would create an even more concentrated breeding ground.
And, are we just going to tell all the people in the state who are being responsible and following the science, “sorry, you’ll just have to stick it out, because the leaders who were elected due to gerrymandering are being idiots”?
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The problem is now that in order to contain the virus in Texas, we need to vaccinate much more there. So that means taking vaccine from other places to give to Texas. That seems unfair to me.
Is that more unfair than saying to someone in Minnesota "sorry, you’ll just have to stick it out, because the leaders in Texas who were elected due to gerrymandering are being idiots and now we need to allocate more vaccine to them”? I mean, I dunno. Maybe it isn’t.
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I don’t think anyone has been suggesting that second part.
I do think there should be consequences, but I think tying it to vaccine distribution is a bad idea both from a political standpoint and from a scientific one.
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Given how variants emerge, hell, yeah. It’s putting the entire population of the world at risk.
Would it be better if the mask mandates remained? Absolutely. But to exacerbate the petri-dish conditions by also denying vaccines is worse. You’re saying, too, that the people who are willing to take precautions don’t deserve a shot at the most effective one.
Public Health can’t be effective on a tit-for-tat basis.
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As someone who lives in Missouri, where the governor is a pro-Trump anti-mask Republican dipshit who refused to issue a mask mandate; where the state representatives are pushing a bill that prevents local health departments from issuing stay-at-home orders longer than 15 days; where the vaccines are not getting to major cities where Blacks and Democrats tend to live… as someone who is in a high-risk group along with his wife, and just took a 5-hour road trip on a workday in order to get vaccinated and will probably have to do it again in a month for the booster:
No. Absolutely do not cut off the vaccine supply to anyone.
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Perhaps the people of Texas could respond by calling their governor and state representatives and DEMAND that masks and social distancing be mandated. That should be part of the deal. “We’ll send vaccines once your governor asks for it, with a guarantee of dropping this anti-masking bullshit. So call your governor today.”
Maybe I’m being unduly harsh. But something’s gotta give in this country, and it shouldn’t be reasonable people.
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There’s a much simpler solution, which falls right in line with the federal government’s right to handle interstate situations. Close the borders with Texas, no interstate travel until they resolve their problem. Conveniently, we have a lot of border patrol people around that area to enforce it.
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Let OK deal with the 100 mile limit? I don’t wish that on anyone.
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They demanded the reading but then didn’t stick around to take in the info…not even trying to hide their ‘ethics’ any more.
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