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If West Virginia and San Francisco had a love child.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

The current Supreme Court is a rogue court. Very dangerous.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Second rate reporter says what?

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

No Justins, No Peace

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / Pandemic Politics

Pandemic Politics

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Those two words should never be in the same phrase, but here we are. And soon, we may find out if the Omicron variant scrambles current pandemic politics. It’s too soon to tell, but new evidence coming out of South Africa seems to suggest that the latest variant is better at evading immunity acquired from previous infections, and that may have political implications. Via CNN:

Researchers in South Africa reported Thursday they have found some evidence that people who had been infected once with coronavirus were more likely to be reinfected with the Omicron variant than with the Beta or Delta variants.

Josh Marshall discusses the potential implications in a subscriber-only article at TPM, but my takeaway is that things could get interesting fast in the U.S. if it turns out that vaccination provides substantially better immunity against Omicron that natural immunity from prior infections. That seems to be a distinct possibility since there’s evidence vaccines provide better protection against prior variants than previous infection alone, which is why people who’ve recovered from COVID should still get vaccinated.

Wingnuts who have used opposition to Biden admin vaccination mandates to appeal to the Trump cult pretend the antibodies produced by an infection are the equivalent of a vaccine. It’s a point Florida Governor Ron DeSantis brings up repeatedly. (He is also asking the legislature for money to assemble as state militia that reports to him, and his administration just got busted again for manipulating CDC data and lying to the public about transmission rates in the state, but I digress…)

The point is, we may be at an inflection point where people who are unvaccinated are exposed to an even more highly transmissible strain than the previous waves with even less protection if they’ve recovered. It’s too early to tell. But at some point, please dog before the Omega variant, the cynical fuckers like DeSantis and Abbott who brought us to this dangerous place need to be held accountable for their recklessness. They’re the Crumbley parents of governors.

Reader Interactions

48Comments

  1. 1.

    Kent

    I noticed that the Republican jihadists in the Senate got cold feet and decided not to try and shut the government down over opposition to vaccination mandates today. I think that is an under-reported development. Normally Ted Cruz and his ilk are going to wank away at any opportunity. But it feels like a sea change is happening behind the scenes and at least some of them are getting a little bit frightened by their egregious bomb throwing and coddling of the worst MAGA filth.

    Of course that doesn’t apply to any other issue. But I think they are starting run a little scared on Covid

    DeSantis is on a whole different planet.  But when he makes Ted Cruz look like the sane and responsible one you sense something is happening.

  2. 2.

    Sloegin

    The GOP is so all-in on being the new Murder Incorporated, they’ve lost all bearings on what might and might not be ‘out of bounds’ with Covid.  These days they don’t learn anything until they lose one of their own, and even then, some of them will still double-down.  I won’t hold my breath waiting for them to find Jesus on this issue.

  4. 4.

    schrodingers_cat

    And yet the press never holds them to account. The only governors who have paid a political price for COVID have been Democrats. Why does the press provide cover to the party of white men? Even when they kill their own constituents.

  7. 7.

    Kent

    I’m just saying that a couple of days ago we were hearing from the usual sources that Ted Cruz and his merry band of jihadists were planning to use the budget extension vote to make a stand on vaccine mandates and shut down the government until Biden’s mandates for large employers was stripped out of the bill.  Just like he did a couple years ago over Obamacare.

    Then we hear they basically just passed it without comment this morning and scuttled out of town. Since when does Ted Cruz run from a microphone? It seems like something happened behind the scenes that we are yet unaware of.

  8. 8.

    Matt McIrvin

    Right now the pandemic map doesn’t make things look good for the good guys, since it’s mostly the worst states that are doing all right (since everyone there already got Delta, and Omicron hasn’t really taken a bite yet).

    And the Omicron cases that get the most attention in the media are breakthrough cases in vaccinated and sometimes even boosted people–that these people are not actually getting all that sick makes less of an impression. As I mentioned before, I’ve seen some idiots trying to claim that vaccination makes you suspectible to Omicron, mostly on Twitter.

    There are conflicting reports about severity. Omicron doesn’t seem to have quite the same set of symptoms as Delta or the others, so I’d expect a certain amount of “just a flu” dismissal and people believing that deliberately getting Omicron will somehow protect them.

  9. 9.

    Starfish

    I was hoping that Omicron would be super transmissible and also milder. Someone was pointing out that there is more hospitalization in the kids under five who are still too young to get vaccinated.

  10. 10.

    germy

    How many more local right wing radio shock jocks can we spare?  They’ve been dropping like flies.

  11. 11.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Starfish: The thing is, if it’s good at escaping immunity from Delta infection, the reverse is probably also true–getting infected with it won’t protect you from Delta particularly well.

  12. 12.

    Geminid

    @Kent: Mitch McConnell may be an ashole, but he’s a careful asshole. And he’s not intimidated by the cranks in his caucus like Kevin McCarthy is.

  15. 15.

    Mike in NC

    The always paranoid Agent Orange decided the coronavirus was something made up by the Red Chinese and the Dummycrats just to make him look bad. Hence half the Republican Party feels the need to bow down to the imbecile.

  17. 17.

    Roger Moore

    @Geminid:

    Mitch McConnell may be an ashole, but he’s a careful asshole. And he he’s not intimidated by the cranks in his caucus like Kevin McCarthy is.

    McConnell is a leader; McCarthy is a follower.  McConnell can keep his people in line, which makes them very effective at stalling and blocking everything the Democrats are trying to do.  McCarthy can’t keep the crazies under control, so the inmates are running the asylum.  I honestly don’t know which is worse.

  19. 19.

    rose weiss

    At my volunteer job (community radio station) we have a rule that only vaccinated people are allowed in our studio. Naturally there have been some objections from people who claim they don’t need a shot because they had covid last year. Thankfully our board of directors doesn’t buy it. Get a shot or don’t darken our door!

  21. 21.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @Kent: There might be more than a few big-money guys who aren’t completely crazy that gave them a call and told them to knock this shit off. Another lockdown would be bad for business. Never mind thats saving people’s lives bullshit, this is going to cost me money.

  23. 23.

    Sebastian

    You say this like it’s a bad thing. With statewide elections being decided by 20k or 50k votes I have no problem with morons dying in large numbers.

    Everything Trump Touches Dies.

  24. 24.

    Comrade Colette

    I just got boosted and am waiting out my 15 minutes. LOTS of little kids here (city-run site in the Mission district of SF). One little boy just went skipping up to his arriving friends crowing “I already got it!”  Warms my shriveled, cold heart.

    Also, fuck DeathSanta.

  25. 25.

    rose weiss

     
    @NotMax: LOL I read about that scam on the GOS yesterday. Hilarious if it weren’t so sad that some people are willing to fall got absolutely anything.​
    ​
    ​

  26. 26.

    Weekend Editor

    Last October, the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) released some studies showing immunity from vaccination was about 5x better than immunity from previous infection, as measured by hospitalization rates.

    And last summer, there was an Israeli study looking at antibody levels  in vaccinees vs recoverees, and the vaccinated levels were higher over all age groups.

    No idea yet on how Omicron will fare vs vaxed or vaxed+boosted people.

  28. 28.

    Fair Economist

    @germy: DeSantis has killed more Floridians than every hurricane there in all history combined. Since when does he care about Floridians’ safety in anything?

  29. 29.

    CraigM

    What I’ve heard from South Africa is that children and infants are getting slammed by omicron, it may be that they are not the usual severe cases so they may be looking harder at them and thus disproportionately finding omicron there, and they may be finding omicron in vaxed people because breakthrough cases are intrinsically interesting and more closely examined. But it is clearly extremely contagious, prior illness with other variants doesn’t appear to be protective, and it might have a  more uniform age-lethality profile similar to the flu instead of the other COVID strains which largely spared children and people in their most productive years.

    If I had been basing my  future on COVID being at worst a disease that solves our social security insolvency problem, I’d be shitting bricks right now. Kids dying isn’t a good look.

  30. 30.

    The Moar You Know

    if it turns out that vaccination provides substantially better immunity against Omicron that natural immunity from prior infections.

    Already known that this is the case.  Has been for months.  True for all types of COVID.

    Those who don’t give a shit haven’t been swayed by that argument.

  34. 34.

    Another Scott

    @Kent: Their latest genius plan was to not shut down the government today, but to get their votes on their reactionary, “Democrat punishing” amendments to the Senate version of the NDAA.

    But Genius Lil Marco scuttled that.

    RollCall:

    With his colleagues ready to proceed, Florida Republican Marco Rubio scuttled floor consideration of the Senate’s version of the annual defense policy bill this week, costing his own party a chance to get Democrats on the record on key priorities.

    The bill’s managers had struck a deal to hold 24 amendment votes, on topics ranging from vaccine mandates to a proposed requirement that women register for the draft.

    But because Rubio refused to budge on his demand for a vote on his proposal to bar importation of Chinese goods made by the slave labor of Uyghurs and others, it now appears negotiators will forge a compromise version of the National Defense Authorization Act and present it for votes in the House and Senate.

    […]

    In addition to forcing a legislative workaround, Rubio’s intransigence has likely cost several of his GOP colleagues roll call votes on their amendments. Roll call votes, especially on high-profile issues, are not just a way of tallying whether an amendment is adopted, but can serve as an important messaging vehicle as senators’ positions are put on the record individually.

    Sometimes, the political messaging is the point.

    For example, Oklahoma Republican James Lankford had received a pledge from Schumer to hold a vote on his amendment to require completion of all portions of the border wall started during the Trump administration that were halted once President Joe Biden took office.

    Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and a handful of other Republicans, were slated to get a vote on their amendment to block the Defense Department from dishonorably discharging any servicemember who refused to obey the Pentagon’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate.

    Another amendment, spearheaded by Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, would impose sanctions against executives of the Russian company building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, as well as its financers, denying them entry to the United States and blocking use of their funds in the United States. Risch argues that Russia is using access to its natural gas to coerce its European neighbors.

    Biden has already waived these sanctions, so Democrats would face the prospect of opposing the leader of their party or appearing weak on Russia.

    And Josh Hawley, R-Mo., thought he’d secured a vote for his amendment to strip from the bill a provision requiring women to register for the Selective Service, a priority of social conservatives.

    It won’t be just Republicans who will miss out on offering amendments.

    For example, Vermont independent Bernie Sanders expected a vote on his amendment to strip out a $25 billion increase to the Defense Department’s topline. This amendment was likely to fail, since the increase already has the support of every member of the Armed Services Committee except for Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren. Nonetheless, it is important to progressives to make clear their opposition to the size of the Pentagon’s budget.

    All told, two dozen amendments — not all of them controversial — won’t receive votes if the Senate gives up on passing its own version of the NDAA.

    […]

    The GQP hasn’t given up on trying these things, they’ve just been incompetent in doing so this week. They’ll keep trying.

    Grrr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  35. 35.

    misterpuff

    @germy:

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to reestablish a World War II-era civilian military force that he, not the Pentagon, would control.

    DeSantis pitched the idea Thursday as a way to further support the Florida National Guard during emergencies, like hurricanes.

    “Hurricanes”

    Doesn’t such a paramilitary force already exist: The Florida State Police?
    Or is that institution not tightly enough bound to the Guvner?

  36. 36.

    gwangung

    I DESPISE the term “natural immunity” as used by vax idiots.

    It’s STILL an acquired immunity; you have to get it by getting sick.

    And as we see…it’s an acquired immunity that simply isn’t as good as vaccinations.

  37. 37.

    Woodrow/asim

    @schrodingers_cat: Why does the press provide cover to the party of white men? Even when they kill their own constituents.

    Please forgive if I’m being pedantic/not recognizing a rhetorical. That said, you answered your question right there.

    America’s Free Press was built for Upper-class White Men to talk to each other, just as our Voting system was (mostly) started for that same group (who, after all, could afford to take time off in mostly-rural early America to go to the local gov’t seat to do said voting…)

    It took a long, long time for that to change in any measurable way. It’s still the case that the vast majority of Journalists are White Men, and ones who are attentive to the desperation many employed by mass media feel in today’s society. That’s on top of the system for rising in Journalism requiring, in many cases, to do unpaid labor that screams “upper class”.

    This, alone, helps drive poor outcomes, I fear.

    But there’s history here, too. Just today, Michael Harriot was reminding that many Postbellum Black Newspapers are only known by name; events like the Tulsa and Wilmington, NC Race Massacres took especial care to remove all evidence of those newspapers:

     

    Sometimes, during the furor over CRT & Black history, I’ll remember how often I’ve tried to find a Black newspaper’s archive and discovered it was “destroyed by a mob” & “no surviving copies exist”

    And I say ask to myself:“Oh, that’s why.”

    Just sometimes, though.

    https://twitter.com/michaelharriot/status/1466899407052365828

    And it’s not just Black folx, although we likely have the most obvious evidence of these efforts. Here’s a story of a 1920s book banning; the journalist involved wrote about her life as a brutally oppressed woman, and The Powers That Be didn’t care for that tale to be spread around.

    And, sadly, all-too-similar efforts are in plan today, from Race issues to a silence on the impact of banning Abortion, to the pain of living in an America far too callous to Trans issues. Again and again, the marginalized are ignored, save when they can be judged to make good copy without turning over too much of polite society.

    All this is impacted by the fact that the majority of journalism pulls from one group in America, and has for a very, very long time.

  38. 38.

    Roger Moore

    @gwangung:

    Immunologists would never talk about “natural” immunity.  They do talk about innate vs. acquired immunity, but infection and vaccination both give you acquired immunity.  (Innate immunity is from things like macrophages and neutrophils, which recognize some kinds of pathogens because of they use molecules our cells don’t.)

    That said, I think the talk about “natural” immunity tells you what is going on in the anti-vaxxers’ heads.  They reject vaccination because they see it as being unnatural.  They want their bodies to encounter things naturally rather than artificially.  Somehow they don’t seem to care that there are plenty of natural but very nasty things in the world, like smallpox.

  39. 39.

    Another Scott

    Relatedly, some hard numbers on how audiences have shrunk for the MSM.

    The 2021 News-Traffic Slowdown, continued. Data per ComScore (h/t: @InsightsTodd): pic.twitter.com/NxP4vXJwN3

    — Paul Farhi (@farhip) November 15, 2021

    It’s easy to infer that the hyperbolic coverage of Biden is a consequence of trying to get those numbers up.

    (via eclecticbrotha)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  40. 40.

    trollhattan

    Virologist I heard interviewed this morning discussed Omicron as while yet another variable, unlike previous ones has reset most of the receptors used by those prior versions and so, immune systems of those infected previously will not recognize it. It basically “got lucky” in the evolutionary lottery.

    They’re still studying how effective vaccines are but observe most Omicron patients are unvaccinated. Also skewing younger than with other versions.Yay?​​

  43. 43.

    burnspbesq

    @Rob:

    As a Texan, not so much. If Abbott makes like the Crumbleys and goes on the lam, that leaves Dan Patrick in charge.

  44. 44.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, …

    The problem I have w/reporting on the alleged emails between Tucker Carlson and Hunter Biden is:

    It assumes the Definitely Real Hunter Biden Laptop is in fact real, and, uh, I have a lot of questions about that.

    I mean, a LOT of questions.

    — The Q Origins Project (@QOrigins) December 3, 2021

    Skepticism is usually warranted. Especially about inter-GQP politics.

    (via LOLGOP)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  45. 45.

    evodevo

    @gwangung: Yeah…”natural” would be immunity due to a genetic variation in your ACE receptors that didn’t allow the virus to dock and enter a cell.  but that is actual biology, which seems to be incomprehensible to MAGAts ….

  46. 46.

    Matt McIrvin

    @The Moar You Know: There were one or two high-profile papers published in legit journals that said the opposite, and every antivaxxer in the universe seized on them to such a degree that many people seem to have honestly never heard of scientific evidence that immunity from vaccination is better, they’ve only heard the reverse. When people tell them they’re genuinely confused.

  47. 47.

    Matt McIrvin

    @trollhattan: There were some extremely, extremely preliminary (small-N, so remain skeptical) results out of Israel suggesting that the Pfizer vaccine is only slightly less effective against Omicron than against Delta. Particularly if you’re boosted.

    It sounds confusing: how can a virus that can largely escape immunity due to infection with prior variants still be susceptible to immunity from a vaccine developed for original COVID? (I’ve seen antivaxxers scoffing at the obvious illogicality of that.) But it seems that just delivering huge amounts of the spike protein can produce broader-based, polyclonal resistance than infecting someone with the whole virus. The sheer size of the immune response probably helps.

  48. 48.

    Jim Appleton

    @Roger Moore:   it’s not that rational.

    They reject through conditioning.

    You can’t even suggest they do something for their own survival, without withering scorn.

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