Aseem Malhotra’s word isn’t something anyone can depend on.
If MAHAniacs actually go through with this, MAGA will lose all but the most demented cultist vote among the over-65s and anyone with a serious health condition at special risk from Covid.
You are optimistic about the state of people’s faith in institutions and science as well as the degree to which they care about this one thing.
Doctors (or corporations passing as doctors in order to make $$$) recommend all sorts of things for health. Eat this. Don’t eat that. Do this. Don’t do that. Take this drug. Don’t take that. The communication and marketing channels have us primed to be skeptical of medical authorities. Kennedy is in this role in the first place because Republicans have already decided that doctors are not to be trusted. You think the people who voted for Trump and by extension Kennedy to do what they’ve been doing to American science and medicine think that Republicans are wrong about vaccines? Republicans believe vaccines kill people. Including COVID vaccine.
This is exactly what they asked for. Banning COVID vaccine will not diminish Republican faith in their leaders. It’s what they wanted their leaders to do.
I think this is very true. From reading the few right-wing types who remain in my Facebook feed, I’ve come to realize that most MAGAs’ remembrance of the pandemic is “That evil Dr. Fauci and the Democrats forced us all into lockdown so that they could destroy the booming economy, impose tyrannical mask mandates, and force us all to take killer vaccines, all for a disease that turned out to be nothing more than a mild cold.”
I can’t help but think of MAGA crowds booing Trump as he bragged about how quickly he got Covid vaccines to the public (which I still think is the only truly good thing he ever did as POTUS). They despised vaccines so much it broke their leader’s spell over them. They really, really care about this issue, the ignorant fucking troglodytes.
There is no bottom to their ignorant arrogance
I guess we have a way to go to that level of insanity.
The premier of Alberta is a covid /vaccine skeptic. She is pretty much MAGA north. She just announced that most of us will have to pay for our covid shots, though apparently our neighbours in BC will allow us yo get vaccinated to there. Not a ban at least.
Enjoy your visit to Calgary, there is lots to see around here. Although you can catch the aurora now and then if you are out late at night, it is still a big city with a lot of light polution. Your best luck is somewhere 100km from the city.
This isn’t the language used by a skeptic (actual skeptics weigh evidence in questioning a policy or scientific finding), but is characteristic of rantings of an antivaxer.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/danielle-smith-adolf-hitler-netflix-rachel-notley-1.6836160
Their are no real vaccine skeptics. There are lots of ignorant fools and opportunists but nobody that is capable of honest research can remain a skeptic about vaccines.
It was possible to be skeptical about deployment of a new vaccine technology (employing mRNA) and thus at least initially resistant to getting vaccinated.
When it comes to spreading repeatedly debunked misinformation about Covid vaccines and making Nazi analogies, the person(s) involved have gone way beyond skepticism and into antivaccine fanaticism.
Monarez, who was confirmed by the Senate just last month, appeared to have afoul of Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, after she declined to support sweeping changes to US vaccine policies, according to reporting from the Washington Post and the New York Times.
On Wednesday evening, her lawyers Mark Zaid and Abbe David Lowell told the Associated Press she had neither resigned nor been told she was fired.
“First it was independent advisory committees and career experts. Then it was the dismissal of seasoned scientists. Now, Secretary Kennedy and HHS have set their sights on weaponizing public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk,” her lawyers, Mark Zaid and Abbe David Lowell, said in a statement. “When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted.”
“Dr Monarez has neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she has been fired, and as a person of integrity and devoted to science, she will not resign,” her lawyers added.
I did not comment on the other post because this is a bit ongoing, the kicker is that Dr Monares was nominated by Trump.
A long-time federal government scientist, Dr Monarez was nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the CDC and was confirmed in a Senate vote along party lines in July.
Her nomination followed Trump withdrawing his first pick, former Republican Congressman Dave Weldon, who had come under fire for his views on vaccines and autism.
On Wednesday, Dr Monarez’s lawyers issued a statement saying that she had chosen “protecting the public over serving a political agenda”.
One very annoying thing is that I have seen many headlines from news media just reporting about her firing, but then the body of the report does mention the ongoing refusal by the Dr. to leave.
Lately, Trump is trying to avoid the bad looks from his last administration, when many members did quit in disgust or where dismissed under protest. He was dealing with the issue of controversial members by giving them a different assignment.
I guess the few honest ones do not get an ambasadorship.
The tradition is that there has to be a minimum donation.
And now Florida’s surgeon general—with the governor’s support—has announced their plans to end all state vaccine mandates, including for polio. 
Gift link (but may require registration):
For that extra special souvenir from Disney World!
On the other hand (shouldn’t be paywalled) …
California, Oregon and Washington are joining forces to insulate vaccine guidance and other public health recommendations from political interference, a direct response to turmoil at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under President Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Govs. Gavin Newsom of California, Tina Kotek of Oregon and Bob Ferguson of Washington announced Wednesday the creation of the West Coast Health Alliance, a pact that aims to keep their states’ health policies unified and grounded in scientific expertise. The move comes as the nation’s top public health agency is being reshaped by Kennedy and his vaccine-skeptic allies, with key leadership fired and the agency in turmoil.
“President Trump’s mass firing of CDC doctors and scientists — and his blatant politicization of the agency — is a direct assault on the health and safety of the American people,” the three governors said in a joint statement. “The CDC has become a political tool that increasingly peddles ideology instead of science, ideology that will lead to severe health consequences. California, Oregon, and Washington will not allow the people of our states to be put at risk.”
In June, the three states issued a joint statement condemning Kennedy’s decision to remove all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Among the replacements named by Kennedy are appointees who spread vaccine misinformation and relayed conspiracy theories during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Associated Press.
The next part, a comment on the firings from Dances-with-Worms, nearly made me choke:
Kennedy said the change would improve public trust by ensuring members of the committee didn’t have “any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda.”
Riiiiiight.
Even though this isn’t the first such alliance, I can’t help but wonder if the Orange Peril will paint it as an insurrection — WORSE THAN THE CIVIL WAR (WHICH WASN’T AT ALL ABOUT SLAVERY)!!! — and try to justify imposing martial law. Wouldn’t surprise me one iota.
Can you get a Mickey Mouse Iron Lung there with Mickey Mouse ears on it??
If it’s the first step toward him kicking us out of the Union, I’m all for it. We’ll even take British Columbia if they want.
This is step one. If it’s not required then next insurance can refuse to pay for it.
Newsom and his alliance for science (hey I like that!) should withhold state-collected money from DC and use it to form their own science -based West Coast CDC. Hire all the employees fired by old Brain Wormy.
Reminiscent of prior Disneyland souvenirs.
People are even being vaccine-hesitant for their pets.