Yesterday, the Hillsborough County School District (Tampa and ‘burbs) made masks mandatory for teachers and staff in defiance of Governor RegeneRon* DeSantis’s edict that schools can’t enforce mask mandates and defunding threats. Hillsborough County schools opened a week ago Tuesday, and there are already more than 8,000 kids and staff in quarantine, so they had to do something.
Alachua County (Gainesville) and Broward (Ft. Lauderdale, etc.) already had mandates in place. Miami-Dade and Palm Beach County also joined the party, so the biggest districts in the state are telling Ron to stuff it, applying their long experience with schoolyard bullies. The Biden admin has their backs: [EdWeek]
The Biden administration stands ready to investigate civil rights complaints from families concerned that restrictions on masking in schools violate their children’s rights to a free and appropriate public education, U.S. Education Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said Wednesday.
The statement came the same day as a memorandum from President Joe Biden that directs the U.S. Department of Education to “use all available tools to ensure that governors and other officials are providing a safe return to in-person learning for the nation’s children.”
“This isn’t about politics,” Biden said in a White House address Wednesday afternoon. “It’s about keeping our children safe. It’s about taking on the virus together, united. I’ve made it clear that I will stand with those who are trying to do the right thing.”
Biden also reprised the White House line debuted a few weeks back when DeSantis, Abbott & Co. first began huffing and puffing about mask mandates: If you’re not going to help us fight the virus, at least get out of the way. Every Democrat who gets within six feet of a microphone should hammer that message.
One of our perennial challenges as the one party that’s interested in governance in a two-party system is that it’s easier to tear shit down than build things. As we’re seeing from coverage of the situation in Afghanistan, it’s also easier to shit all over someone else’s actions than offer better alternatives, and with the Beltway media stuck on stupid, that’s a built-in advantage for Republicans.
But let us also keep in mind that the easier task, i.e., tearing shit down, can apply to Republicans like DeSantis and Abbott, who are taking deeply unpopular, politically motivated actions in the middle of a public health crisis. We should tear those motherfuckers down for it, every single day.
Open thread.
*DeSantis’s Twitter feed is one long, tedious monoclonal antibodies informercial, and it turns out his top donor has a big stake in Regeneron Pharmaceutical, Inc. Shocked, shocked, etc.
p.a.
https://twitter.com/bjoewolf/status/1428383551729307657?s=20
ETA: JFC. Hang that fucking governor from the nearest tree.
ETA: Banana Republicans? Under their ‘leadership’ banana republic will be an upgrade.
SiubhanDuinne
Glad to know that so many local/county jurisdictions are giving DeSantis serious pushback. Gives me a bit of hope.
burnspbesq
Suit filed against Abbott in Federal court, alleging Americans with Disabilities Act violations.
UncleEbeneezer
@burnspbesq: Surprised this hasn’t happened yet. That was the first thing I thought of when I heard of these bans on mask mandates.
burnspbesq
Neither Texas nor Florida allow for the Guvernator to be recalled, more’s the pity.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
I’d love it if Florida dumped his sorry ass next year, but I’m not betting on it. I mean, actively working to kill one’s own constituents would seem to be a questionable campaign strategy, but then this is Florida, so who the fuck knows?
burnspbesq
@UncleEbeneezer:
It will be interesting to see if plaintiffs can get a TRO, and whether the Fifth Circuit will vacate it. This could make it to the Supremes in 30 days or less—and because it’s purely statutory, no court has any reason to reconsider Jacobson v. Massachusetts. Pretty smart.
RaflW
I think a lot of GOP politicians are misreading the room. The majority of the 70% of us who are vax’d are pissed at this bullshit that is slowing or even reversing the turn towards normal.
The much-ballyhooed soccer moms out there are going to notice 8,000 people in a school district sent home to quarantine. The preening GOP governors who are authoring these outbreaks absolutely must be tarred and feathered for it. Relentlessly.
burnspbesq
The problem with getting rid of Abbott is that any replacement is likely to be worse.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@burnspbesq: Texas, from W on, seems to work on the principle of “Let’s find the dumbest Republican in the state and make him governor.” Florida has picked up on this as well. It may be a GQP trend.
JoyceH
In Texas, the ability of local school districts to set dress codes is enshrined in state law, so some school districts have started putting masks in the dress code. I think that’s clever.
Mike in NC
No politician from Texas should ever be allowed to get closer than 500 miles from the White House. They seem to be uniquely predisposed to getting the country stuck in pointless overseas quagmires.
piratedan
@burnspbesq:
you play the hands you’re dealt, true?
I would rather see him replaced if there’s a means and a method to do so that is legitimate. If the next guy does the same shit, well then now we already have a precedent..
I would rather make them defend this shit and get called on it and suffer consequences and if they keep doing the same shit, then they get the same outcomes… just sitting back and stating that they are all bad doesn’t help, what helps is calling them to account.
burnspbesq
@JoyceH:
Having no legal leg to stand on has never stopped Paxton from initiating litigation.
raven
@Mike in NC: fuck lbj
Almost Retired
@burnspbesq: On behalf of every Democrat in California, “be careful what you wish for….”
SFAW
I don’t think DeathSantis is stupid — just evil. [Betty, please feel free to tell me I’m wrong.] He sees the Traitor Trump Train as being his key to advance to higher orifice.
burnspbesq
Abbott is making a principled stand, but his principles suck.
Expecting Texans to exercise personal responsibility is the triumph of hope over experience.
Hope is not a strategy.
danielx
@Mike in NC:
They seem to be uniquely predisposed to getting the country stuck in pointless
overseas quagmiresdickwaving exercises.Fixed.
JoyceH
@burnspbesq:
That guy has been under indictment since *2015* – how can he still be in power and doing things?
burnspbesq
@Almost Retired:
I was there when Gray Davis got recalled. I know it’s a double-edged sword.
Spanky
@raven: YELLOW CARD: LBJ was not actually named in that comment.
burnspbesq
@JoyceH:
They’ve been fighting over venue the entire time. I think the issue as been to the Court of Criminal Appeals at least twice.
danielx
@JoyceH:
It’s Texas, Jake….
Check some of the chronicles of Molly Ivins – Texans not being particularly upset over political corruption is pretty much the norm, especially if the pol in question owns the libs on a regular basis.
different-church-lady
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): It’s Florida; everyone’s gone there to die already.
Delk
Meanwhile, Sen Wicker of Mississippi is hospitalized. Presley Stutts, the South Carolina tea party honcho died of Covid, and the husband of Missouri state rep Walsh has also died.
different-church-lady
@Spanky: “Fuck LBJ” is the “Yankees Suck” of Left Blogistan.
Geminid
@piratedan: Abbott will be accountable in next year’s Governor’s race. I’m not counting the eventual Democratic nominee out. The same goes for DeSantis in Florida.
raven
@Spanky: like I care
JoyceH
There’s a guy in a truck outside the Library of Congress threatening to blow up ‘two city blocks’. Just FYI.
MazeDancer
In another fight we have the deranged in action.
This video from the terrorist outside the Library of Congress makes no sense.
It is well shot, well-framed, well-lit. Good sound quality. Feels cinematic. The guy’s cadence, timing, delivery, even the words he is saying feel like dialogue. Feels like John Malkovich, not a nutsy terrorist.
How does he cut away to the bomb and come back up to his perfect framing?
Someone shot this for him, then posted to FB. https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/status/1428392832377708549?s=21
waratah
I am glad that Texas and Florida are finally standing up to their governors, but depressed they waited until children started dying before doing so.
Spanky
@MazeDancer: Well, the WaPo has stories about Afghans defying the Taliban and about black athletes above the “Developing” story. I suppose it won’t lead until it bleeds.
H.E.Wolf
ETA: deleted intemperate comment.
Roger Moore
@RaflW:
It’s not that they’re misreading the room; it’s that they’re reading a different room. They’re most worried about the next primary, not the next general election, and that means trying to appeal to the craziest elements within the party. In the case of DeSantis, at least, it’s also about trying to position himself for a presidential run in 2024. Also apparently about creating a market for Regeneron’s MAB treatment.
trollhattan
Reminds me of how the feds got states to raise their drinking age to 21: withhold highway funds until they complied. Uncle Sam > cousin Ron.
Benw
I’m hopeful that when she officially takes over as governor, Hochul will mandate masking/vaxxing in schools for all NY. That’s definitely what our district is hoping for, to cover their butts from the dumbass anti-maskers.
Keith P.
@RaflW: And the really baffling part (for me at least) is why they are so passionate about *masks*. Vaccinations I can kind of get, since it typically involves being injected with a new type of vaccine. But they’re talking down masks like it causes kids to cut their arms and gasp for air, and they don’t even want anyone *else* to wear them, either. That’s the hill to die on?!??!
dm
How about the phrase “virus-Quislings like Abbott and DeSantis”?
“Virus fifth-columnists” might work, too.
JoyceH
@Keith P.:
It’s because Trump was against masks. Simple as that.
waratah
Oh my, Chuck Todd with General Petraeus right now. This is too much.
trollhattan
@MazeDancer:
“Mah truuk is jess laak a Beirut waarhouse. Big and dangerous, y’all.”
trollhattan
@waratah: Petraeus has been through the reputation and dignity restoration cycle? Great to know. He and Ken Starr have probably been comparing notes.
Betty Cracker
@MazeDancer: Surprise, surprise — the ranter who may or may not have a bomb is a Trump-humper and is demanding to speak to Biden.
smith
@Keith P.: It’s because you can tell at a glance if someone is masked, and therefore which tribe they belong to. You can’t tell if they’re vaxxed, so there’s lots of wiggle room to lie.
burnspbesq
@dm:
How many people know who Quisling was?
dm
@Keith P.: I can kind-of understand this happening in Florida and Texas (and much of the miserably hot and humid South and summertime Midwest).
Wearing a mask outside of air-conditioned spaces in that weather is pretty uncomfortable.
To what point? If you think it’s like using a chain-link fence to protect against mosquitos, it can seem pretty silly. Someone has to explain to you, or you have to realize that these mosquitoes (viruses) can’t fly, they have to ride on basketballs (exhaled water drops).
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Roger Moore
@Keith P.:
I think they personally dislike masks and find them uncomfortable, so they’re fighting against masks in general. The reason they’re trying to stop other people from wearing masks is that they’ve started to buy their own bullshit about how terrible masks are. Once you start claiming masks don’t work, prevent you from breathing right, and that make you stupid (I don’t think that’s where the stupid is coming from, guys!) the only logical conclusion is that nobody should be wearing them.
Betty Cracker
@SFAW: I agree. DeSantis is a power-mad sociopath but not thunderingly stupid like Trump. He probably hates Trump’s guts.
trollhattan
Stick, meet carrot.
“We won’t punish you for keeping your kids healthy, we’ll reward you for putting them at risk. Deal?”
dm
@burnspbesq: Yeah, that’s a problem with “fifth columnist”, too. No one knows what it means anymore.
Shocking thing I learned today: there’s sea-shell museum in Florida which polled its visitors and learned that 90% of the respondents did not realize that sea shells were the product of living things instead of being odd rocks.
I should remember PT Barnum’s dictum about going bankrupt underestimating the intelligence of the public.
Kent
There are two rooms. The GOP primary electorate is one room they are reading and it is currently infected by MAGA crazies who run the show in the GOP.
The general election electorate is a completely different room in which shrieking MAGAts are a shrinking minority.
If I had to guess, I would suspect cretins like Abbott and DeSantis are reading the first room and making the calculation that they can overcome their unpopularity in the second room by a combination of money and voter suppression. I don’t for a minute assume that they are just stupid.
JPL
@MazeDancer: IMO I assume the FBI and/or local police are paying a visit to those he had close contact with. Since he’s white, he’ll have a mental illness.
Cameron
@trollhattan: An outstanding use of the taxpayer’s money.
Roger Moore
@JoyceH:
I think there’s more to it than that. There were other things Trump did that didn’t get the same kind of buy-in. I think Trump’s attitude on masks struck a chord because they already disliked masks. And I understand it. Masks are annoying in a bunch of little ways. I would happily give them up if it were safe to do so. The difference is I’m willing to suffer some personal inconvenience for the good of the people around me. People who aren’t will avoid masks whenever they can.
TaMara (HFG)
@MazeDancer: I’m going to take your word for it…I cannot watch. Can’t bring myself to do it….
MazeDancer
@Betty Cracker: No surprise.
But still want to know who shot the vids. And coached his performance.
They want to stir up supporters to come join him.
...now I try to be amused
May I suggest: “DeSantis and Abbott are objectively pro-Covid.”
Kathleen
Does anyone else feel that we’re in the midst of a well coordinated and financed psy ops? I don’t think it’s coincidental that a choreographed bomb threat and media propaganda campaign against Biden are happening simultaneously.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Roger Moore: I think in the recent Leonnig/ Rucker book, trump went on in his post-presidency interview at Mar-A-Lago, he’s still going on about how “many people” told him that the mask made him look weak. I think it was one of those moments where trump and his base were already on the same frequency (as opposed to “Drain the Swamp” and “Build the Wall”, which he thought was stupid still it started getting him hoots and applause at his rallies)
Kent
I had to google it to find the answer and was somewhat surprised to find out how recent it is. It kind of sounds like a term you would find in Shakespeare or something. Like Iago or Shylock.
different-church-lady
@Kathleen: Deep breaths here: “Mad Bombers for Trump” is not the way you take sympathy from Biden.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Ex-Navy Seal who claims to be the guy who shot Bin Laden. Three hours ago. Interesting timing…
Quiltingfool
This Regeneron treatment – is it being paid for with tax money, like the vaccines? Is it free? I thought it was paid by insurance, if you have it.
jonas
That is just a beltway media chef’s kiss.
different-church-lady
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Always helps to remember that Trump is a follower, not a creator. He takes what he sees bubbling up in insane corners of social media, then re-packages an amplified version, because he knows the feedback loop will give him a healthy hit of the approval drug he craves. It’s like wolves howling — once one starts they all join in.
Geminid
@…now I try to be amused: Too abstract. How about, “Abbott and DeSantis are killing our kids!.”
James E Powell
@RaflW:
In California, 67% have received at least one dose.
Newsome recall is 48.8 to 47.6% – That means that people who have been vaxxed want a governor who is against vaccines, masks, etc. Something isn’t right.
Martin
Culver City will now require all students 12 and up to be Covid vaccinated. Ratchet continues to turn.
different-church-lady
@JoyceH: In other words, “August in the USA.”
Martin
@Quiltingfool: Feds are paying for the treatment to expand its use.
Martin
@MazeDancer: May I introduce you to YouTube and Twitch and TikTok where millions of people now have that skillset.
Martin
Bomb guy surrendered.
Chief Oshkosh
@burnspbesq: Any principled argument breaks down when he mandates from the state level that local mandates are not allowed.
Roger Moore
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It’s clear that dislike of masks is not something new. There were anti-mask protests during the Spanish Flu epidemic. Some people just really dislike masks, and like most things, they’ll find rationalizations for their preferences.
hueyplong
@Roger Moore: Occam would like a word.
Betty
Here’s a bit of insanity. Dominica, a country of about 70,000 with just over 20,000 vaccinated, has seen Covid, probably Delta, race through here in the last two week. The latest figures are about a thousand cases in a span of two weeks. AND, Celebrity Cruises is bringing in 1,500 people despite our being in lockdown and identified as high risk!
Betty
@different-church-lady: Excellent analogy.
Another Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: DC has been through things like this in the past. I assume they’ve reviewed the history with Norman Mayer and similar things.
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
different-church-lady
@Roger Moore: I dislike masks. I dislike them more intensely than ever. They’re completely dislikeable. If it weren’t for their ability to drastically reduce my likelihood of hospitalization and death I’d hate them entirely.
Redshift
@Chief Oshkosh: Conservative “principled” arguments about where power should reside (“states rights!”, “local control is best”) always, when push comes to shove, end up at “whatever level of government that will do what I want, federal, state, or local, is the one that should have power.”
Which is to say, not principled at all, just another bad faith argument.
Kay
I’m pleased with Biden’s approach to education generally. He seems to really understand the federal role versus the state and local role. Not “local control” in the gross Right wing way where they mean “no civil rights enforcement” but in the proper way, where school districts can handle decisions that should be handled at that level and then states, and so forth.
He gave the state-level wingers a chance to do the right thing and they blew it.
He’s also not gimmicky. He has no super-duper innovative quick tricks to make “excellent schools”, thank fucking God.
Betty Cracker
@Betty: That’s nuts. Stay safe!
zhena gogolia
@burnspbesq:
I don’t know, I never quizzled. (Line from Judy Canova movie.)
Quiltingfool
@Martin: Thanks! I guess I could have looked it up, but I figured someone here would know, and you did!
Patricia Kayden
The media is b.s.
Redshift
One of the maddening things about TFG’s opposition to masks is that it’s almost certainly driven by wanting to show his ugly mug and not smear the spray-tan, combined with his psychotic family upbringing, where admitting you were sick was considered a sign of personal weakness.
JPL
@Martin: JFC OMG
The capital police chief just said that Mr. Rosenberry just had some family issues. His mother recently passed away.
The guy is a domestic terrorist and why call him Mr anything
Another Scott
@Martin: Good. Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
zhena gogolia
@Martin:
Oh, good.
zhena gogolia
@Betty:
Totally insane.
Ksmiami
@trollhattan: drone bomb him now
Fester Addams
I wondered about that too. Looks like my insurance company, Carefirst, has been covering COVID-19 treatments like Monocolonal Antibody Infusion and waiving all “member cost sharing (copays, coinsurance and deductibles).”
But that waiver ends September 1st., which seems like kind of big deal if you’ve got a high deductible policy or are paying a percentage as coinsurance.
WaterGirl
@Betty: Crazy town.
Roger Moore
@burnspbesq:
Me! Me! He was the chief Nazi collaborator in Norway. I even know his first name was Vidkun. I also know that “Fifth Column” is a Spanish Civil War reference, that a city was supposed to be menaced by four attacking columns of troops and a sinister fifth column of betrayers within.
Uncle Cosmo
Um, you want H. L. Mencken, The Sage of Baltimore:
Barnum’s the one who said there’s a sucker born every minute.
(You’re very welcome!)
Major Major Major Major
Can somebody explain the legal argument for how this is a civil rights violation?
Old School
@Martin:
Did it work? Is Trump president again?
trollhattan
@Roger Moore:
Quisling had an island cabin built that he was never able to occupy. It remains today and can be rented as a vacation spot.
Kay
@Patricia Kayden:
Yeah, I noticed. I’m glad someone is trying though. I still can’t believe Joe Biden singlehandedly destroyed out glorious success in Afghanistan in 72 hours. No one else should believe it either. It’s a lie.
CaseyL
Strange thought:
At least once a century, humanity does its best to kill itself off. Possibly following a shared, unconscious instinct to keep the population down.
Plagues and diseases used to do the heavy lifting. Then war. Both were really good at reducing the numbers of humans. Now we have modern medicine to fight the diseases; and political apparatus to reduce, if not the numbers, then the severity of war.
So maybe now the diseases get more sophisticated. Like, say, Covid. Mutating like mad in the unvaccinated.
Maybe the anti-vaxxers are Nature’s way of overcoming modern medicine. Maybe they’re more in touch with the species-wide instinct to reduce the human population. Maybe they have a brain condition similar to that caused by taxoplasmosis in mice and rats which causes them run straight toward a predator.
A very strange thought, but we’re living through a time where rational thought doesn’t come close to explaining the crazy shit happening.
JoyceH
@different-church-lady:
I dislike them too, but I’m coming around. Last week I had a cleaner come by and look over the house and work out a schedule and payment etc. We were both masked even though we’re both vaccinated. She was supposed to come today and clean the bathrooms, but I got a text from her cancelling – because she’s lost her sense of taste. Man, I’m glad we were masked, though I felt silly at the time.
arrieve
@Roger Moore: I’ve been thinking that more and more, that a lot of this started just as dislike of masks, maybe feeling anxious about not being able to breathe with this big piece of cloth or plastic or whatever across your nose and mouth, and then the rationalizations to justify avoidance come later.
That’s not all of it of course — In our Bizarro world, this has been exploited and turned into something insanely tribal. But, as you note, there were anti-mask leagues during the 1918 pandemic as well, that maybe started for similar reasons. After all, nobody LIKES wearing a mask, especially in the summer. I’ve had flutters of anxiety when I’m breathing hard carrying packages up the stairs and it feels like I’m not getting enough oxygen. I can see how that would feed into phobias if you’re already anxious (and who isn’t, these days?)
Similar to a lot of the anti-vax stuff beginning as a fear of needles.
Uncle Cosmo
Heinlein’s novel Sixth Column (magazine serial 1941, book 1949), whose title plays on the Spanish Civil War reference (fifth column “betrayers within,” sixth column a resistance/rebirth movement within) was retitled The Day After Tomorrow for a paperback reissue circa 1970. (I have a copy misplaced somewhere or I’d look up the exact year.) Which provides some idea how swiftly the term “fifth column” sank into obscurity.
FelonyGovt
@James E Powell: Don’t know about those numbers on the recall. Anecdotally, my low-information in-laws, who generally only vote in Presidential or other well-publicized, major elections, have already voted “no” on the recall. I think people are pissed about it, may not be as vocal as the recall proponents, but hopefully will vote.
@Roger Moore: I think seeing people with masks infuriates them because it shows them that other people have come to a different conclusion than them. It’s like seeing people wearing a Biden-Harris shirt to Sturgis.
trollhattan
Biden’s becoming the sugar daddy welfare promoter Republicans love to hate. Go Joe, their hate is delicious!
“If you pay them to be disabled than they’ll remain disabled.”
–The Republican Economics Bible
MomSense
@p.a.:
I agree. Gov. DeathSentence should hang for this.
sab
@different-church-lady: Agreed. I often say what’s the big deal against masks, but then my glasses fog up on a humid day or a cold day, and then I remember. But I am still wearing the wretched masks.
My hand surgeon wore a mask. My heart surgeon wore a mask. My husband’s back surgeon wore a mask. His neurosurgeon wore a mask. So I don’t believe masks impair oxygen intake or cause brain damege.
Roger Moore
@FelonyGovt:
There’s probably something to that. I’ve said before that a lot of right wingers lack the courage of their convictions, and they see any disagreement, even one as minor as behaving different from them, as a challenge to their beliefs. They want to force everyone to be like them because they read being different as a criticism of their decisions.
...now I try to be amused
@Roger Moore:
If you sincerely believe Covid is not a real threat and/or masks do no good (as they’ve been indoctrinated by right-wing media to believe) then it’s like Security Theater or any other annoying unnecessary thing The Man compels you to do. Add to that the fact that it’s people they despise telling them to do it.
I’m most angry at the cynical bastards who know Covid is serious and masks work but tell the rubes the opposite to score political points. They’re evil. (I think Trump is one of the rubes here.)
Kay
@Major Major Major Major:
If the school is open and a family or child wants their child to attend in person but is being denied that because they fear covid infection that student is not being treated the same as a family who are anti mask.
They have disparate impact. There’s already lots of information that disabled students (they have their own federal education law that is a strong civil rights law) were harmed most by the loss of in person instruction and that Black and Latino families are both the most reluctant to risk infection and harmed the most by remote instruction.
They could probably extent it to closures, but for that they’ll need a comparison- they need schools that required masks and were able to stay open and schools that were barred from requiring them that closed. They’ll need a connection between masks and closures, or quarantines- a quarantine is just an individual level closure.
topclimber
@Geminid: Agreed.
bluehill
@Fester Addams:
@Quiltingfool: The irony is, IIRC, regeneron hasn’t been granted full approval by FDA. It’s use is allowed under an emergency use authorization provision, just like – guess what – the vaccines they refuse to take.
If Bill Gates was really smart, which he is, he would put the microchips into regeneron shots.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@…now I try to be amused:
My job we have to wear a lot of stuff for static and even bunny suits for the clean room. It is constant fight with Middle Management to get them wear this when they get near the product because, and this is a direct quote “I don’t believe in static”. So there is a whole group of people who view their social status on being exempt from normal work gear and safety equipment. If they wear a mask, they are no better than the plebs that work for them.
Remember that bit when Trump visited the 3M Mask Factory and someone started blaring “Live and Let Die”, I am sure that factory set that policy to humiliate middle managers who refused to mask up on the production floor.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
My wife is in primary care (adolescent health specialist). We’re entering the “get the physical required for a student to return to school” phase of the year. She has parents saying they want a waiver so their kid doesn’t have to go to school in person because they don’t want their kid to get the vaccine. This is in the DC area. I really don’t understand the “I’m terrified of the virus but won’t get the vaccine” set. They’re out there though. Maybe not in large numbers but they’re out there.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@bluehill: Yeah, but Bill Gates is another Harvard dropout.
glc
@burnspbesq: Probably quite a few more than know who Boycott was. For now.
Central Planning
@bluehill: Is Regeneron approved for something else, and COVID is an off-label use? At least that way they could say it has at least been approved.
Matt McIrvin
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I remember the time that Mike Pence toured a NASA facility and put his hand on a space probe right next to the DO NOT TOUCH sign. It felt like a weird power move.
Kay
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
That’s what killed me about the “mask controversy”. The kids themselves were so easy about it. This is a 65% Trump county so they’re hearing all kinds of bullshit at home and STILL they just rolled with it. They can’t wear shorts that are shorter than THIS and they have to wear a mask.
This is an adult problem. We’re the problem.
topclimber
@Geminid: How about Team Covid?
Redshift
@sab: Do you have a KN95? I found that the cloth and surgical masks fog up my glasses, but the KN95s (and N95s) don’t. The metal nose piece keeps the air from coming out the top edge.
Roger Moore
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
I can understand it, even if I think it’s stupid. They understand the virus is real, but they’re also afraid the vaccine will harm their little snowflake. They’ve probably heard and believed a lot of the disinformation about the vaccine changing people’s DNA and similar nonsense.
jonas
@Keith P.: Wearing a mask shows that you care about protecting your family and your community during a pubic health crisis and giving a shit about anyone but yourself is strictly verboten for Republicans.
They’re just toddlers with oppositional defiance disorder.
Central Planning
@Redshift: My wife bought these metal strips to stick to the cloth masks she has made. They seem to do well stopping the glasses getting fogged problem.
We don’t (yet) know what will happen to the strips when we wash the masks.
Redshift
@Kay: Maddow had video of a guy openly saying that his kid loves wearing a mask because he can pretend he’s a ninja, so he has to convince him it’s a bad thing. They know masks aren’t doing kids any harm, it’s just another bad-faith argument. They know ORANGE MAN SAY MASK BAD won’t get them anywhere so they lie about caring about children.
Roger Moore
@Central Planning:
Nope. Regeneron is an anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody treatment. It has no purpose but fighting COVID.
Kay
@Redshift:
I’d love to know what the mask kind of …triggers in them. I keep thinking about that video in Target early in the pandemic where the lady went crazy and was stripping masks from the display and throwing them on the floor. Ok, obviously disturbed, but they’re screaming and crying at these school board meetings. It is so clearly bigger than the mask. I don’t know, obviously, but I think I would ask myself “why am I so insanely unhinged about this?” It’s like every dumb movie you’ve ever seen – “Kay, this is not about a mask” – the kindly, wise person says to me and then I ponder what’s really going on :)
Roger Moore
@Kay:
I noticed at least one school district in Texas is trying to get around Abbot’s anti-mask rule by declaring masks are part of the school uniform. Apparently Texas law explicitly allows schools to designate a uniform, which should give them legal cover.
Immanentize
@Roger Moore: ok, MAYBE, PERHAPS!
But do you know the airspeed of a sparrow in flight?
StringOnAStick
The mask resistance is bizarre. When I was a dental hygiene student, wearing masks was a sign of our understanding of health issues and a symbol of professionalism.
Today’s grocery run has 90-95% of people wearing masks inside, as the Governor ordered starting last Friday. I heard her press conference live where she mandated masks for all schools in Oregon, and that all school personal must be vaccinated by a day in October (I forget which one) or 6 weeks after full FDA vaccine approval, whichever comes first. Then the state health director spoke, and we here are in deeper shit than we’ve been at any time previously with hospitals already near a state of collapse. Gov Brown has called up all available National Guard, 1,500, to assist the front office medical staff, and distributed 24 specialist EMT’s to the areas of greatest need. When they listed how many to each county, it has 5 of the deep red ones and one (mine) with a very blue city but definitely wing nut adjacent. Portland has much higher vaccination rates so this is mostly a rural, redneck outbreak and it’s hitting very hard and fast. Of course there will be huge screaming about the school mask mandate, I should be able to hear it the next time I go outside. Gov Kate Brown is a brave woman.
Immanentize
@Major Major Major Major:
Yes, I can.
Depending on what the frak you are referring to.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
I don’t think you can neglect the possibility that a lot of this is play acting. It sure looked like some of the people who had public meltdowns about masks had mentally rehearsed what they were going to say and do when they got fed up about masks and were acting out what they had planned. And I don’t know if it’s everywhere, but there’s at least some evidence that people are being paid for some of the protests. I really think the complaints about gun massacre survivors being crisis actors was more projection.
Roger Moore
@Immanentize:
Is that an African swallow or a European swallow?
Ruckus
@Boris Rasputin (the evil twin):
Seems to be a rather large field to choose from.
Ruckus
@Mike in NC:
They weren’t around for that Alamo deal and they want to get in on the action.
Immanentize
@Roger Moore: I love this move of adding masks to the dress code. I think it started because a mother wrote that if students could fill out a form and opt out of mask wearing, then she wanted to opt out of the dress code for her daughter which promoted misogyny and sexism.
Use what you can to save lives, I say.
sab
Damn. Nursing home just called, and dad’s floor got a positive Covid ( didn’t say if staff or resident) so they are in lockdown for two weeks.
Immanentize
@Roger Moore: Oh shit!!!!
bluehill
@Central Planning:
That’s a good question. Definitely not a biotech expert, but as far as I can tell the two antibodies in their COVID “cocktail” have not been approved. These were developed specifically to treat COVID. Regeneron has other antibodies with full approval to treat other diseases.
I also read that Regeneron developed their COVID treatment using Regeneron’s VelocImmune technology, which “utilizes a proprietary genetically engineered mouse platform endowed with a genetically humanized immune system to produce optimized fully human antibodies.” I guess mouse DNA isn’t as bad as a microchip.
Roger Moore
@StringOnAStick:
Some of this is the result of extreme polarization. Gov Brown isn’t worried about offending voters, because the people who were going to vote for her already will approve, and the people who disapprove were never going to vote for her anyway.
cckids
I have come to enjoy them when I’m working at the grocery store. Never before have I been able to mouth “You bastard” , or “fuck off” to customers who have richly earned it.
I may wear one there forever.
Immanentize
@sab: So sorry. This aspect of the pandemic really must stop.
Kay
@Roger Moore:
The students here seemed to (sensibly) treat it like a dress code. I don’t think any of them gave it any more thought than that. “Oh, they’re making us wear or not wear something again as they have been doing since kindergarten”.
Don’t overthink it.
It’s kind of crazy when you think about it in the context of “conservatism”. So school rules are optional? That seems like a slipperly slope. WTF with these people. Can they remain consistent for 5 consecutive minutes?
Immanentize
@Ruckus: Well, techncally, none of the Alamo whites were around after the Alamo deal either.
WaterGirl
@sab: Dammit!
Roger Moore
@bluehill:
Yeah, the days of raising an antibody in mouse and having to humanize it by swapping the CDRs onto a human framework are past. Now they can raise human antibodies directly, which saves a lot of time and effort. The antibody engineers I work with have mostly moved on to antibody fragments or fusion proteins.
Scout211
@Central Planning:
Last year when masks were nowhere to be found, I made about 75 masks for many members of my extended family. I started sewing in the aluminum nose bridges (like you mentioned) but we found that they easily broke in the wash.
After that, I started using this type of nose bridge to sew into the masks and those are still working fine. They are basically a twist tie but larger and stronger. I don’t remember which seller I purchased them from but there are many options on Amazon now.
sab
@Immanentize: Yes. A friend of mine had to take time off work to go protest the suspension of her kid for wearing the wrong color scarf on school picture day. The idiot assistant principal had decided it was a gang color.
We are in Ohio not Texas so dress code isn’t local by state law, but yes, let’s let them enforce useful requirements. since they are happy to enforce all sorts of other requirements.
burnspbesq
@glc:
Geoffrey Boycott, English cricketer.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
They’re telling on themselves again. They’re showing that “conservatism” has always been about power and privilege, and all the principles they talk about are just window dressing. There is no stated principle they won’t cast aside if it stands in the way of their real goals.
sab
@Scout211: I think all my leaf and lawn bags come with a bunch of those that I just stuff into a drawer. I’ll try them.
StringOnAStick
@Roger Moore: There’s more than a couple of big, dirty diesel pickem up trucks around here with “Fuck Kate Brown” window decals, usually quite large. I often see them with a young kid in the cab, or even with some Christian sticker of some sort, and that was before the Nov, 2020 election. The tRumpy county school board meetings have been utter shitshows around here for the last month, all over requiring masks. Also, I think Kate Brown is term limited and won’t be running again for Gov; she’s been doing the right thing about Covid all along, and the wing nuts hate her maybe more than they hated Hillary; there’s definitely some misogyny involved.
Roger Moore
@Scout211:
Some of the better mask designs have a little tunnel going over the bridge of the nose that lets you swap the nose wire in and out. You can take it out for the wash or put in a new one if it breaks.
Ruckus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It seems the decision 45-50 yrs ago that we didn’t need any mental health professionals was a tad bit wrong.
Central Planning
@Scout211: My wife probably made that many too.
She was making double-layered masks with an opening at the bottom to stick in something like a HEPA filter if you wanted. Nobody did that. I did take some foam weather sealing tape and put a 1/2″ wide strip inside the top on each side of the mask where the nose goes. That worked great – it stopped glasses from fogging and it was also more form-fitting than the metal strip.
She wasn’t a fan, so that enhancement didn’t make it into production.
Edited for clarity and grammar.
StringOnAStick
@sab: The metal strips that are in paper, grind your own coffee bags work great and they are flat.
Geminid
@Immanentize: Slower than a falcon, faster than a butterfly?
Redshift
@Roger Moore: There are definitely right-wing groups funding and organizing the “grassroots” CRT protests. Stands to reason the same would be true of mask protests, but I don’t have any details handy.
bluehill
@Roger Moore:
Science, go figure. The advances are incredible. I looked at some companies using CRISPR technology. Can’t begin to comprehend how they are able to cut and paste genes, but impressed that they can (don’t want to think about the knock-on effects).
Immanentize
@Geminid: Uhhh,
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee?
Just brainstorming here….
Redshift
Speaking of fights we can win, Terry McAuliffe, who can be annoying but is no fool, is making vaccine requirements for school personnel a prominent part of his campaign for VA governor. This leaves the big-money Republican playing at being a Trumpist in a bind, because he doesn’t want to alienate either the suburban voters or the rural/small town voters since he needs both to win. He’s going with “people should get vaccinated but mandates are bad,” which isn’t going to excite anyone, though it’s probably his least bad option.
Citizen Alan
@Roger Moore:
I wouldn’t mind masks at all if I didn’t wear glasses. The only problem I have with being masked up is when my glasses fog up in humid conditions. Otherwise, if I had to choose between wearing a mask all day and wearing a necktie, I would go with the former.
cckids
@Kay: I always want to (and sometimes do) say “Why do you care?” when queried about why I’m still wearing a mask. I’m not trying to be confrontational, just . . . how can it possibly bug you so much? I don’t ask them why they are wearing the weird leggings or t-shirt , because I don’t care enough to ask. It’s their business.
People apparently need some actual problems in their lives.
Citizen Alan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t believe that, at least not entirely. I honestly think that Shitgibbon didn’t want to wear a mask because he knew it would mess up his makeup.
Immanentize
@Citizen Alan: Fogging? Liver spots? Itching?
Try :FOG AWAY!
Actually works.
Geminid
@Redshift: Someone out in LA was matching anti-vax/anti-mask protesters with their actor profiles on various theatrical hiring sites. There were quite a few. Somebody here linked to the investigator’s twitter feed one morning a week or so ago.
Apparantly some rich conservative “activists” are hiring gig workers. Other protesters may be enthusiasts with otherwise empty lives.
Suzanne
@Roger Moore: I think anti-maskers hate seeing others wear masks because they are used to seeing themselves (and their tastes, preferences, social mores) reflected into society. Seeing masks is a visual reminder that that is increasingly not so, that society (businesses, government, other institutions) does not exist for their benefit.
I personally don’t really masking, with the exception of the gym. Then it fucking sucks. I was masking while working out for a couple of weeks, but it is wretched.
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
I think that you might have left out that the people wearing and demanding masks are not conservatives and therefore masks are bad.
Conservatives never use logic to understand or explain anything, because if they did they would have to immediately fight against themselves. And that’s because logic is beyond their abilities and political acumen. As in so far beyond them that it’s always over the horizon. Conservatism as practiced is about money and retaining the status quo of who has the money, nothing more. Using logic about who is dying or who is living, masks, spending money for masks or vaccines is beyond them unless it is them dying, except at that point not even logic gets credit because that would mean they were wrong. It’s why you can see them with Covid, still saying it’s bullshit, within 2-4 days of them dying. Their expectation is that their selfishness will protect them, even with the evidence all around them.
Kay
@sab:
Public schools can require a whole uniform in Ohio. If they do they have to offer a subsidy for lower income parents but they can do it. There’s like …debates over it but no screaming and crying. Because those are actually about the uniform and these are about something much bigger than masks.
The Pale Scot
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
And Pence being handy in the NASA facility.
“Do Not Touch” is just a suggestion, right?
gvg
The problem with glasses fogging up, is that it means the mask isn’t sealing tight enough to really work. It’s a warning sign. I have been pretty worried about most of the versions I have tried. They clearly leak, don’t fit tight enough etc. I finally got some real 3M N95’s and they were too big for my face. So I tried some KN95’s which were better, but yesterday work started giving out “soft pouch” N95’s which are the best I have tried yet. close fit no fog so far huge air space…but I look like I am wearing a giant ducks beak. Oh well.
sab
@Kay: OT back in the early 1980s when I was trying to be a lawyer in Michigan, the Grand Rapids public schools did not provide books. The kids had to buy or rent them. I was gobsmacked. Even Florida schools provided books, even to their black students. But not Grand Rapids.
Elizabelle
Richmond Times Dispatch, just now:
That last sentence is the kicker.
J R in WV
I’m not fond of masks, especially now that it’s in the 90s every day, and really high humidity also, to boot. On the other hand, I remember how horrible I felt when I had the flu a few years ago. Even tho I got a flu shot (for free!) at work every fall. We both came down with it after flying home from Salt Lake after a vacation.
That Monday we went to our family doctor, and got a script for tamiflu, which helped it not get worse. While that was filled I bought a cart full of soup and sandwich material, because I knew I wasn’t going to be chief chef for a week or two.
Where I’m going with this: We didn’t get so much as a sniffle last winter, much less the flu. So I’m thinking I’m going to be wearing a mask when I’m out in the general infested population in the future. Not only do I NOT want SARS2-Covid19… I also don’t want the flu.
And if people think that’s stupid, I’m OK with that… they’ll get the flu, and we won’t. Fuck those people who get the flu.
I think the anti-mask delusion is genetics at work writ large. If you’re too stupid to save your life, your kid’s life, the species is way better off with those genes eliminated from the species.
I also love the Herman Cain Award, brilliant idea, whoever thought that up.
ETA: When a governor makes elementary precautions illegal during a pandemic, and the infection rate and death rate changes for the worse… that motherfucker needs to be indicted for at least that many counts of voluntary manslaughter. Spend the rest of his life fighting those criminal court cases. while in jail. Way too dangerous to be out free in the general population!!!
JoyceH
@gvg: I tried the N95s, but found them hard to breathe in, and also inconvenient with that sort of hard dome shape. I prefer the KN95s – they don’t fog glasses and move in and out so you can tell they’re snug, and when you’re not using them they fold flat for purse storage.
Kay
@sab:
You know this I’m sure but Grand Rapids is conservative. We go thru there a lot and when my youngest was little he wanted to move there. No idea why – we’d drive thru and he’d say “this is where we should live”.
It’s okay I guess, Grand Rapids, but I can’t imagine what was so attractive to a 4 year old.
glc
@burnspbesq: I guess you’re making my point.
Try Poubelle next.
Ruckus
@gvg:
Have written here before that I buy masks online from a company called Well Before. I just checked the site and some things are out of stock but they both manufacture and sell other companies products and have always been good with keeping up with demand, which they say is higher than ever. Prices are good, delivery when in stock has been great
I wear/wore their N95 mask with behind the head straps at work and their 3 ply disposable with behind the head straps everywhere else. Having used masks for things like working with beryllium copper, or other materials that one does not want to breathe any particles of I can say that these are pretty good. The N95 masks are federally approved, I actually checked the federal web site.
sab
@Kay: It was so very very conservative, but I did like it. Nice river with many bridges. Old town still intact, complete with cobblestone alleys. Famous citywide American Pie Lipdub. Many very cool people (doesn’t emptywheel live there?) , but also has the DeVos and VanAndel families nearby and they control the politics.
MomSense
@gvg:
I wear a paper mask under my cloth mask. Both have a metal strip to tighten over the bridge of my nose and my glasses don’t fog up.
CaseyL
@Kay: Four year olds – little kids in general – can be weird. He might just have seen a house, or a tree, or a dog, that he really liked.
Scout211
@gvg:
These 3m Aura N95 NIOSH maskswe have found to be comfortable and have a longer nose bridge that you can mold to your nose ( with a foam liner that is pretty good for keeping your glasses from fogging up). They are foldable and individually packaged so you can transport them easily in your purse or pocket. The only drawback that I find is the headband. It is hard to manage to get around my head. I like the earloops of the KN95s better. But the 3M aura is more comfortable and seems to be higher quality.
There is such poor air quality now with all the fires that we have to wear the particulate masks now on our walks.
Major Major Major Major
@Immanentize:
The… obvious topic of the post?
Major Major Major Major
@Kay: thanks.
It just sort of feels like a civil rights suit is the wrong tool? Unless that’s an umbrella term that includes ADA complaints and stuff. A family’s personal fear of a health outcome… when the regulation applies to every school in the state… doesn’t seem like the strongest case, is all. IANAL obviously
Chris Johnson
@Keith P.:
They are going on about masks because they are wittingly or unwittingly soldiers for Russia, fighting to get Americans killed en masse.
It might require some mind-twistiness but Republicans are predisposed to that. It tracks back to Russia wanting, very badly, to see America overrun by Covid. The rest is manipulation and rationalization.
rikyrah
@Benw:
So relieved that my Governor already put his foot down about schools and masks
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
He IS starting to look a little like Brad Dourif. [LOTR ref, in case it wasn’t clear]
SFAW
@dm:
Seven or eight years ago, I went to a high school science-fair-like-thing. Whilst talking to one of the students, I (jokingly) said something like “What are you, a commie?” The student had no idea what the word meant.
SFAW
@burnspbesq:
Fourth Bruce: New Bruce will be teaching political science – Machiavelli, Bentham, Locke, Hobbes, Sutcliffe, Bradman, Lindwall, Miller, Hassett, and Benet.
Second Bruce: Those are cricketers, Bruce!
Fourth Bruce: Oh, spit!
Third Bruce: Howls of derisive laughter, Bruce!
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@burnspbesq: but how can gov. wheels be biased against the diabled? he’s paralyzed!
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@RaflW: the gqp need not worry about that, as the volvo driving soccer moms are at the mercy of the nascar dads (who are armed to the teeth in preparation for the boogaloo).
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@different-church-lady: the decision was fine.
the fauxgressives are prolly just upset king james campaigned for hillary.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Betty Cracker: crisis actor!
antifa mole posing as a magat to make the american restoration look bad
Chris T.
Probably won’t help, but point out the true fact that the Regeneron infusion needles are big enough to get a microchip through, while the vaccination needles aren’t, and then claim it’s Ron DeSantis that’s trying to get people microchipped.