{"id":292432,"date":"2021-08-30T16:27:04","date_gmt":"2021-08-30T16:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=f51db5a0870b7eec0e5e397977da8322"},"modified":"2021-08-30T16:27:04","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T16:27:04","slug":"hurricanes-collision-with-covid-illustrates-threat-of-gop-hostility-to-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/08\/30\/hurricanes-collision-with-covid-illustrates-threat-of-gop-hostility-to-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Hurricane\u2019s Collision With COVID Illustrates Threat of GOP Hostility to Science"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Trucks<\/a>

It is an understatement to say there is a lot going on right now. The two biggest stories over the weekend were the winding up of the dangerous airlift out of Afghanistan and the arrival of an epic hurricane hitting the Gulf Coast on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.<\/p>\n

Now is a dangerous time \u2014 but judging from the news coverage, I don’t think we’ve fully grasped just how much danger Americans are actually in.<\/p>\n

In a number of states, this latest COVID-19 surge, driven by the lethal Delta variant, has now surpassed the deadly surge of last winter. In two hard-hit states, the massive hurricane is coinciding with an equally massive surge in hospitalizations, making for an extremely volatile situation.<\/p>\n

According to LAIlluminator<\/em><\/a>, which covers Louisiana state and local government, hospitals have been at capacity for weeks, as have all the other hospitals throughout the region, causing the authorities to make the frightening decision not to evacuate patients. There was nowhere for them to go. Temporary shelters had to be kept at lower numbers because of the COVID risk and nursing homes residents who would normally be transferred to hospitals due to serious medical conditions were told to shelter in place.<\/p>\n

The Illuminator<\/em> reports that while Louisiana has had a rough go with this round of COVID, it was thought to be turning the corner last week. On Friday COVID hospitalization was below 2,700. That is 300 fewer than the week before but the positivity rate is still very high and people not able to follow precautions during the emergency will cause more of the virus to circulate, likely leading to another surge. Nobody knows what will happen to the inevitable victims of injuries and accidents in the aftermath.<\/p>\n

Louisiana’s Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards, reintroduced <\/a>an indoor mask mandate weeks ago and has been exhorting people to get vaccinated but many of his rural constituents have refused to comply. The state has only a 40% vaccination rate<\/a>, much lower than the national average. Like many others, they managed to get most elderly patients the shot, but younger folks just haven’t seen the need. The cultural and political pressure among Republicans in the state to defy the health professionals, and their Democratic governor, is enormous.<\/p>\n

The Mississippi coast took a battering from the hurricane as well, but its COVID surge is far more life-threatening to many more people in the state. The New York Times<\/em> reported <\/a>that Mississippi was “uniquely unprepared” for this latest onslaught of COVID patients:<\/p>\n

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The state has fewer active physicians per capita<\/a> than any other. Five rural hospitals have closed in the past decade, and 35 more are at imminent risk of closing, according to an assessment<\/a> from a nonprofit health care quality agency. There are 2,000 fewer nurses in Mississippi today than there were at the beginning of the year, according to the state hospital association.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Times<\/em> characterizes this as a combination of “poverty and politics” but really, it’s just politics \u2014 that’s what’s at the heart of the poverty and everything else.<\/p>\n

The state is never very generous when it comes to benefits, which they tend to see as going to “the wrong people” (if you know what I mean). But by rejecting the Medicaid expansion that came with the Affordable Care Act, they willfully deprived themselves of the money that would have allowed them to alleviate many of the current deficiencies in their system. And Mississippi’s Republican governor has basically given up, the Mississippi Free Press<\/em> reports:<\/p>\n

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After Mississippi became the world’s No. 1 hotspot for COVID-19<\/a>, Gov. Tate Reeves told attendees at a Republican Party fundraiser in Memphis, Tenn., on Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021, that Mississippians “are a little less scared” of COVID-19 than other Americans because most share Christian beliefs (about 70% of all Americans identify as Christian).<\/a><\/p>\n

“When you believe in eternal life\u2014when you believe that living on this earth is but a blip on the screen, then you don’t have to be so scared of things,” Bill Dries reported the governor saying in the Daily Memphian<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I’m no Biblical scholar but I do seem to recall something about the Lord helping those who help themselves.<\/p>\n

This summer’s Delta surge has hit all the states but has been particularly virulent in the Southern states, the epicenter of anti-vax activity.<\/p>\n

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It’s as if the less vaccinated are “magnetized” to attract Covid-19. https:\/\/t.co\/e2lytPtNy0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Mark (Vaxxed and Masked) Mucci (@MLMucci) August 24, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n