Biden Not Doing Well With Regard To COVID

[mark46]

Let's be really clear. I'm looking at results. Portugal and 39 other countries found ways to get their citizens vaccinated more than the US. Clearly, there are many strategies. Are you thinking the US system of government is so ineffective that we are to be satisfied with result worse than 40 other countries?

Yes, I'm frustrated. It is absolutely outrageous for the US to have unvaccinated health workers, first responders, military and school teachers.

Mandates needed to wait until full approval? Is that what other countries did? There is nothing that prevented the US government from doing what some companies did. Many required vaccines. Otherwise the employee would be given assignments on a different floor from the vaccinated. And just BTW, employers are well within the law to require vaccines, with or without full approval. There could have been N95 mask requirement for federal workers, contractors and the military. Lots, lots more could have been done.

But, we are where we are, throwing our hands up and saying that the US is simply incapable of dealing with a virus as well as Portugal and the 39 others.

I am baffled by your post, particularly the lead line of your conclusions "Biden isn't doing enough to get citizens vaccinated." because it ignores almost entirely the so-called mandate that has received enormous attention in the RW/Conservative/GOP media, social, and political circles for the last few weeks. (Including a number of posts already on this thread.) Only the last line I quoted shows any awareness of this plan.

Let me start with the OSHA thing. The president issued an order to OSHA to create a rule. It is then up to OSHA to create the rule under the laws and procedures for the agency. Other than keep an eye on it so that OSHA remains on task, there is nothing the White House can do, no extra resources they can add.

The second thing is that we shouldn't have expected any federal mandates until after there was a fully approved vaccine. (And there weren't) Until then they made the vaccines widely available; (to which you seem to agree) tried persuasion of a general sort; tried outreach to recalcitrant groups (including conservatives); and implemented programs to improve access for groups that had reduced access (mobile clinics, extended hours clinics, community pop-up clinics, etc.)

Once full approval was granted, the DOD ordered all active duty personnel to get vaccinated the next day. I wish they'd followed up with in a wee and applied that mandate to all federal employees and then a week later all federal contractors, and a week later all personnel at Medicaid/Medicare funded clinics. This would have brought us to roughly when the president made his announcement for all of those plus the OSHA large workplace requirements.

They seem to be contemplating a vaccine requirement for commercial air travel, I wish they'd do that. (It might be working it's way through the FAA procedures.)

I suspect there are a few more latent powers to require vaccinations. One that comes to mind would be the staff of schools receiving certain federal funds. This might also apply to university staff and perhaps recipients of federal financial aid.

Frankly none of these are impacted by attempts by the White House to pass certain non-COVID legislation, pursue other policy goals, or nominate people to federal offices and judgeships. The president has a lot of aids.

 

[A_Thinker]

This isn’t that. It’s not working the same way, at all. It’s actually not working, and is not doing anything with any certainty they said it would. There is a nursing home near me on total lockdown.

Right ... and we just visited a nursing home resident yesterday ....

 

[anna ~ grace]

Most vaccines in children aren't single dose.

Try again ...

They still work. And even the single dose ones generally work. They generally work for life, and if enough folks in a population get it, the disease is toast in that population. We know this. Again, remember the cow pox example.

100 people are vaccinated against cow pox. Later, these same people have cow pox. Something didn’t work out right. This is what we are seeing with these vaccines, and it is not what we typically see with vaccinations against polio, mmr, chickenpox, smallpox, or anything else.

Think about it. Comparing this to vaccinating against cowpox, smallpox, or polio, therefore, is an inaccurate comparison.

 

[A_Thinker]

Yes, I'm frustrated. It is absolutely outrageous for the US to have unvaccinated health workers, first responders, military and school teachers.

That's being addressed as of now ...

 

[A_Thinker]

Mandates needed to wait until full approval?

There are reasons why we wait on the FDA ...

 

[mark46]

If Republican states aren't vaccinating, social distancing and wearing a mask. Why should Biden take the heat? Shouldn't their leaders and news medias , that are lying to them take the heat?

Should Biden take the approach that the feds are doing all that they should, and that the rest is up to the states, local governments and individuals?

At very least he protect health workers. As was the case with segregation decades ago, the feds shouldn't be sending Medicare money to any medical facility or office that fails to mandate vaccinations.

 

[Hans Blaster]

I think he’d be shooting himself in the foot to enforce stronger mandates. Already, people are balking and cheesed off at being forced to be vaccinated against something they may have already caught with a 98-99% survivability rate, just to keep their jobs and put food on the table.

Anna Grace -

You've complained before about having only a flimsy mask and a bottle of hand sanitizer to protect you through the previous peaks in the pandemic from the unwashed masses of grocery shoppers, yet you repeatedly argue (with dubious arguments) against the things that would provide you the best protection against them:

1. Being vaccinated yourself
2. Having as many vaccinated in your community

What gives?

 

[mark46]

There are reasons why we wait on the FDA ...

Does the UK not have an FDA?

 

[TLK Valentine]

If Republican states aren't vaccinating, social distancing and wearing a mask. Why should Biden take the heat? Shouldn't their leaders and news medias , that are lying to them take the heat?

Because when they say they want "FREEDOM," them mean "freedom" from responsibility.

What's the point of being a follower without someone to blame when it all goes sideways?

 

[mark46]

That's being addressed as of now ...

very, very slowly
Much more could have been done in March and April.

 

[A_Thinker]

They still work. And even the single dose ones generally work. They generally work for life, and if enough folks in a population get it, the disease is toast in that population. We know this. Again, remember the cow pox example.

100 people are vaccinated against cow pox. Later, these same people have cow pox. Something didn’t work out right. This is what we are seeing with these vaccines, and it is not what we typically see with vaccinations against polio, mmr, chickenpox, smallpox, or anything else.

Think about it. Comparing this to vaccinating against cowpox, smallpox, or polio, therefore, is an inaccurate comparison.

It took thousands of years to beat smallpox ... and decades to beat polio ...

 

[mark46]

It took thousands of years to beat smallpox ... and decades to beat polio ...

Washington mandated smallpox vaccines long before we "beat" smallpox.

 

[anna ~ grace]

Anna Grace -

You've complained before about having only a flimsy mask and a bottle of hand sanitizer to protect you through the previous peaks in the pandemic from the unwashed masses of grocery shoppers, yet you repeatedly argue (with dubious arguments) against the things that would provide you the best protection against them:

1. Being vaccinated yourself
2. Having as many vaccinated in your community

What gives?

That’s a good question, and my point about having a mask and hand sanitizer is not to complain, as much as it is to point out that for months, that was enough. No one sent us home, got us ppe, or quarantined us for weeks or months. We carried on. Many of us contracted the virus, and some were seriously ill. We carried on, and kept stocking, and kept working in the freezers.

Was this really that big a deal? Did it really warrant shut downs and mandates? Because none of us, aged 17-74 got the memo, you know? We just kept working. Because, of course, people need food. So, if we were so essential that we could work in and within a pandemic, get sick, and recover, and come back to work pre-vaccines and with minimal protection, could you understand how at least some of us are a little skeptical of the sudden necessity of measures we worked without?

 

[A_Thinker]

very, very slowly
Much more could have been done in March and April.

If we'd known Delta was coming, likely more would have been ...

 

[A_Thinker]

Washington mandated smallpox vaccines long before we "beat" smallpox.

Smallpox is a different disease (30% mortality) ...

 

[cow451]

1) Trump is gone.

2) The vaccine has been available for Biden's entire term.

3) The US is 41st in having its citizens fully vaccinated.

4) Over 95% of COVID deaths are among the unvaccinated.

5) Hospitals are under emergency situations in many states, denying treatment to many non-COVID patients.

6) 25% of the country refuses to be vaccinated, and the citizens in the states with low vaccination rates continue to die in large numbers, and to occupy almost all the ICU beds.

CONCLUSION
Biden isn't doing enough to get citizens vaccinated. Other leaders and countries failed last year, some as badly as we did. HOWEVER, their vaccination rates are now much higher than ours. Leaders all over the world have figured this out. Biden and the US are failing badly.

A) Masks are a short term minor help. The issue is vaccinations.

B) Biden has a choice. He can replicate Reagan's attitude toward AIDs; after all it is primarily Republicans and their children who are dying. Or, he can bite the bullet and take the political consequences for enforcing much stronger policies nationwide, As Obama did with the passage of Obamacare.

C) Biden apparently has a higher priority for his $6T or so of his social agenda (the stimulus, the physical infrastructure bill, and the $3.5T omnibus bill).
EXAMPLE: OSHA is yet to issue its COVID rule.

======================
IN MY OPINION, THE PRIORITIES SHOULD BE
1) Keeping the government running and the debt ceiling approved
2) COVID
3) Voting rights
4) The bipartisan infrastructure bill (highway funds will end on September 30.
5) The $1T-$6T Sanders set of priorities.

Foolish people declining vaccinations, majority of whom are not supporters, are Biden’s fault?????

 

[mark46]

If we'd known Delta was coming, likely more would have been ...

When did we know about the variant?

You suggest that we would have done less than we have done, if the variant hadn't happened. We would have simply accepted a vaccination rate under 50%?

By what miracle did Biden think that the entire world would be rid of COVID before there was a variant. Even without, the disease would have spread in waves, as the world continued to be infected.

 

[anna ~ grace]

It took thousands of years to beat smallpox ... and decades to beat polio ...

After the vaccine was discovered and administered in a modern medical context, beating smallpox took less than 200 years, globally.

Vaccination against polio picked up steam in the 1930’s. That’s about ninety years. Mass vaccinations started in the 1950’s. That’s seventy years. So, you’re right on the second one.

 

[cow451]

It's not really about an anti-science attitude, but the place that libertarian and individualistic ideals have in the American imagination. Many Americans really resent being told what to do, especially if it's "for their own good".

Thanks for defining “foolish” for us.

 

[cow451]

Most vaccines in children aren't single dose.

Try again ...

I had to have a booster mmr at age 60.