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OPINION: NATION IGNORES SCIENCE - Sticks With Loud Voiced Politicians, Conspiracy Theories - West Virginia Last In Country In Vaccinations, Leading Nation In Spreading COVID-19 |
| (09/15/2021) |
| West Virginia last in country in vaccinations, leading nation in spreading COVID-19. OPINION Bob Weaver In my lifetime some of the world's most dreadful diseases have been eliminated, some of which killed or affected children and adults of my acquaintance. Historically, West Virginians have accepted mandatory vaccines required for school aged children. Vaccines have essentially eliminated diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella and hepatitis B, unless properly medically exempted, among many other killers like smallpox, typhoid, TB, anthrax, and cholera. On February 5th of 1777, President George Washington committed to the unpopular policy of the mass inoculation of troops suffering from smallpox and varicella. Historically, in rural Calhoun, whole families have been wiped out by scurrilous diseases. Now comes COVID-19 resistance, very little of it based on science. The fight against COVID-19, since its beginning, has been a hodge-podge of political management, left to states, counties and cities to determine protocols. Most, not all, politicians weigh their daily statements, uttering those that will get them re-elected. A number of states have even passed laws against masking, and in West Virginia, such decisions have been left to 55 county school systems, some not supporting vaccinations or masking. The politicization of the virus has left deep divisions promoted by political web sites (I've had at least 100 sent to me), which claim to be "news" that every citizen needs to know. The spreading of such information on social media platforms entrenches the spiel, with a pop-culture audience enthralled with enough conspiracy theories to sink a battleship. Unless there is a ground-breaking change, the likelihood of COVID-19 lingering with our families, communities, schools and businesses, is a real possibility. Certainly it is easy to slice and dice our bulbous governments, and easily maintain they deserve our wrath. In world history, governments come and go, mostly linked to money, power and religion, with the United States of America appearing to be edging toward a brink, certainly with ill-begotten reactions against the storming of the US capitol on January 6, 2021. America has become a pop-culture nation, imbued by the power of conspicuous consumption, entertaining themselves to death, much like that which led to the fall of the Roman Empire. We hope such dire projections are wrong. |
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