Polls show that only a small fraction of the American public — about 17% — support these protests; even a plurality of Republicans (47% to 36%) aren’t in sympathy with the protesters. And among the general public, far more Americans worry about lifting restrictions too soon than not soon enough (71% to 27%). (Read story here.)
The frustration of people locked out of their jobs is understandable, especially given the delays in distributing relief payments and the breakdown of many states’ unemployment insurance systems. But if this is what’s driving the “reopen” protests, why do the polls show strong public support for restrictions?
Instead, the protests seem driven by ideology, and that’s reflected in the protesters’ behavior (no distancing, no masks) and signs. To do what they’re doing, you have to disbelieve science, ignore doctors and health experts, and defy common sense.
After all, what kind of person opposes a vaccine for a virus that has killed over 50,000 Americans in a few weeks? Who in their right mind would refuse to be protected from a deadly disease? Not a normal person, for sure.
In America, people have a constitutional right to be stupid, but they don’t have a right to put others at risk, or expect the public to pay their medical bills resulting from reckless behavior.
And how many protestors have gotten sick or died from Corvid? Science demands those facts. Political science demands those facts.
If you are in a room where everyone has been infected and recovered you don’t need to worry about the virus. If you are in a room and no one has had it and currently has it you need not worry about the virus. Odd we are not concerned in a similar way about the flu.
Pretty quickly those polls showing support will change as people cannot pay their bills, go hungry and a few start to pick up the pitchforks for the politicians who shut down the economy.
If you are under 60 it is unlikely you will become a statistic as far as going to the hospital or dying from te disease/ In fact it can be argued the more young people who have the disease the better, it achieves herd immunity quickly and protects older people and is completely rational and does not defy common sense.
1n 1968 and 1969 the United
States was hit by the Hong Kong flu and 100,000 Americans died. There were 52,000 and 53,000 automobile deaths in the US those two years and many of the deaths of an unpopular war in ‘Vietnam occurred. et the country did not close down. The war in Vietnam was not stopped. It was some times before Ralph Nadar’s confrontation with automobile manufacturers would begin to bring down automobile deaths.
Using the current logic those Americans were just stupid and put others at risk. The 2 million Vietnamese civilians who did and the 1.5 million north Vietnamese soldiers and Viet Kong arguable did not like us putting their lives at risk perhaps thinking we had not the right and thought our behavior at the time reckless. Yet we did not wreck our economy over the Hong Kong flu at the time. Guess we could do cost analysis back in the day.
This article is about the message on the protester’s sign: Reject science, smart advice, and vaccines. That’s just plain stupid and dangerous. By the way, I think it’s proper to call reckless behavior that endangers others “selfish.”
“If you are in a room where everyone has been infected and recovered you don’t need to worry about the virus. … If you are under 60 it is unlikely you will become a statistic as far as going to the hospital or dying from te disease/”
This is political propaganda, and it’s dangerously untrue. Don’t bet your life on this commenter’s advice! He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. It’s not a given that once you’ve had a virus, you can’t get it again; immune responses vary depending on the virus, and there’s evidence that people can get Covid-19 twice. Therefore it’s not safe to assume that someone who’s had it can’t infect others. It’s an indisputable fact that young people are dying from this disease. Covid-19 appears to be more dangerous for people over 60, but it’s dangerous for everyone, and the death rate is many times that for ordinary flu across all age groups. Medical expertise, not partisan talking points without factual basis, should guide our societal and individual response to this deadly outbreak. Otherwise, we are going to lose many lives unnecessarily.