New Mexico’s state fair this year was a triumph compared to the previous — when it was staged virtually — but was also emblematic of the latest stage of a pandemic still fomenting division months after the release of vaccines that were supposed to end it. https://t.co/zdoegkwEsQ
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 27, 2021
The tweet, and the full headline, could’ve been improved, but IMO this is an example of Doing Pandemic Reporting Well:
ALBUQUERQUE — Down from the New Mexico State Fair’s glittery midway, and past the stands selling funnel cakes and turkey legs, the barns that are typically packed with animals entered in the state’s premier youth livestock contest were quiet. Resting in pens were a sleepy pig and a few sheep there only for display, not awards.
About 200 miles southeast, hundreds of children instead gathered at a fairground with no rides and few spectators to show more than a thousand cows, pigs, sheep and goats in open-sided barns. It was an alternative livestock show quickly thrown together after families decided to boycott the state fair over a requirement that everyone over age 12 show proof of coronavirus vaccination, test or exemption to enter…
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) announced the mandate for the state fair three weeks before its opening day amid a delta-driven surge in hospitalizations.
Although the reliably blue state has one of the nation’s highest vaccination rates, many of the youths who show livestock at the fair come from rural areas where rates are lower. When the state fair surveyed their families after the mandate was announced, the majority said they would not attend. New Mexico Republicans and the state cattle growers’ association called on the governor to rescind the mandate, saying it gave too little time for the unvaccinated to get shots, and one parent sued. A federal judge rejected the lawsuit.
“Vaccines have been available to New Mexicans at large since at least May,” Tripp Stelnicki, a spokesman for Lujan Grisham, said in an email. “To suppose that there was not ‘enough time’ — when that is not true — is to grant undue deference to those who for months have been refusing safe and effective vaccines and who are consequently prolonging this pandemic and endangering the lives and livelihoods of everyone in our state.”
The mandate, meanwhile, scrambled fair planning, general manager Dan Mourning said. The fair hired a consultant to train screeners to check vaccination cards and enlisted Navy ROTC members to help. It also contacted hundreds of vendors to ensure they were eligible to participate in the fair, with some dropping out at the news of the mandate.
With about a week to go, the fair canceled the livestock show and offered refunds to 425 people, ages 9 to 18, who had signed up to exhibit…
“We’ve had people cuss at us. Tell us to go F-ourselves. That it’s against their rights for us to be doing this,” said screener Sterling Utter, who in previous years had run the fair’s midway. “But I have six kids, all prematurely born, with weak immune systems. I’m for it. I want the safety.”
Inside the fair, a smaller-than-normal crowd rode the carousel, toured art exhibits and listened to live music amid the smoky-sweet aroma of sizzling meat and cotton candy. Several fairgoers said they were comforted knowing others there were vaccinated…
Baca said vaccine resistance was puzzling from a community that raises livestock. “I don’t get it,” said Baca, 36, a mechanic. “Don’t the farmers vaccinate their animals?”
They do, Michael Bennett said the next day, Sept. 16, at the fairgrounds in Roswell, where the New Mexico Youth Livestock Expo had sprung up to take the place of the state fair show. Bennett, a rancher, was there with his 16-year-old daughter, Callie, who was showing a 1,335-pound steer named Jimmy in hopes of winning a belt buckle, a banner and a chance to sell the bovine.
Bennett said he spends as much as $30,000 a year on vaccines for his cattle, giving him special insight into the value of immunization. He said he and his whole family have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, a disease he said he knew was dangerous.
But the fair’s rules on vaccination did not sit well with him. The mandate — coming just weeks before the fair and one of its highlights, the youth livestock circuit — was crushing for unvaccinated kids who spent hours a day for as long as a year raising their animals, he said. Like some others at the expo, Bennett said his family did not want to attend if everyone could not go…
Later, as the beef cattle competition came to an end in the dusty show ring, “The Final Countdown” by Europe played over loudspeakers. The judge, an agriculture professor brought in from Illinois, paused before announcing the winner.
“I don’t know what unfolded in the last few weeks, but I know this wasn’t the original plan,” he said. “You guys are fortunate that there was a group of people that said, ‘No way, we’re not going to throw in the towel. These kids are going to show.’ ”…
In Albuquerque, Mourning did not disagree. He said he felt sorry that kids were caught up in something that has become so political. The fair canceled its livestock show, he said, so they would not be forced to choose between events.
“The young men and women that have worked so hard for that deserve to have their show. They’re pawns in this,” he said, adding: “The state fair is for all New Mexicans. And we hope next year all New Mexicans can come back and enjoy the show.”
Starboard Tack
Mmmmm!!! Funnel cakes!!!
Chetan Murthy
With respect, b/c he got vaxxed: OHO, *now* they see the value of “collective action” ? SMDH
Old Man Shadow
Seems to me that the blame is on the shitty parents out there for not getting their kids vaccinated.
SpaceUnit
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Skepticat
Yes, they’re pawns—of selfish, boneheaded people. And they deserve to escape this virus and live.
UncleEbeneezer
@Chetan Murthy: Right?
Also he understands the importance of his being vaccinated, but also wants no vaccine mandate so that unvaccinated children can be exposed to other unvaccinated people carrying Covid? He doesn’t sound very bright.
Starboard Tack
Three weeks to vaccinate or get tested. Doesn’t sound impossible for hard workers.
planetjanet
The kids are not pawns. If they are eligible to be vaccinated, they should. I highly doubt they would prevent kids who weren’t eligible to attend.
chrome agnomen
do these people have any awareness of the news? what’s going on? as the judge noted, they’ve had months to prepare for this eventuality. IT’S NOT FAIR!!11!!!1 WAAAAAH11!!!1
Old Man Shadow
@planetjanet: I would reckon they got themselves some shitty parents who would refuse to let them get vaccinated because having your kid die of COVID would really own the libs, you know?
Brachiator
@planetjanet:
I read it as “…kids are not prawns.” My bad.
I can’t believe that a farmer who makes sure that animals are vaccinated would be such a dope.
Wapiti
I think that there are plenty like Mr. Bennett, who try to do the right thing, but who have to co-exist with boneheaded neighbors. When there are only a couple thousand people in your county it doesn’t pay to be right, but outside the group.
Chetan Murthy
@Wapiti: Then he coulda kept his fucking yap shut, instead of apologizing for his dumber-than-fucking-fencepost neighbors.
Ksmiami
Honestly, New Mexico has done an awesome job vaccinating ppl and limiting Covid. If a few selfish assholes can’t show off their prized goats who gives a shit…? Seriously
Ken
Or their parents did. Or they bought the show cow two weeks before the fair.
Not that I’m accusing anyone in New Mexico of doing that. It’s based on my own experience with a small county fair (in OzarkHillbilly’s neck of the woods), where such behavior was more-or-less an open secret.
RaflW
Gotta say the ‘pandemic fomenting division’ thing makes me head explode.
The virus is just that, a non-sentient & invisible biological fact. The division being ‘fomented’ is from a ton of very bad faith people & systems. I’ll read the article, but dang. Framing. Gah.
Ten Bears
They only give a shit about kids before they’re born.
Ken
I guess one good thing is that next year no one will be able to use the “not enough warning” excuse.
NotMax
Until those pesky kids and that dang dog showed up.
//
MagdaInBlack
@Ken: My FIL was a HS Ag teacher, as well as 4-H advisor and FFA advisor and livestock judge. He’d have kicked ass had anyone tried that.
But I know its done, I’ve just never seen it.
SiubhanDuinne
@Brachiator:
Only the little ones.
West of the Rockies
I read several bits that, to my eyes, revealed a certain respect and empathy for the unvaccinated (by people who are vaccinated).
I did not see a similar empathy displayed by the unvaccinated towards the vaccinated or those with compromised immune systems.
Instead, they whined and played the victim card.
I am so tired of these maskless Morlocks.
dr. bloor
Sterling Utter might be the best state-fair-associated name I’ve ever heard.
That’s all I got.
MomSense
Locally, the Common Ground Fair was virtual again this year. It is run by the Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association. I was supposed to volunteer, so I was included in a survey they sent asking about vaccination status, willingness to wear masks, etc. Given the number of friends in the organic gardening/farming and patchouli brigade I have had a falling out with over vaccination, I was not surprised.
The background in Maine is that we only passed legislation in 2018 that removed the religious and philosophical exemptions for vaccines in order to enroll in public schools. It took effect this year after a failed attempt to repeal the law via citizen referendum. People moved here because of the lenient vaccine laws. We have coddled these assholes for too long.
Our high COVID cases and dug in population refusing COVID vaccines is the result.
zhena gogolia
Dialogue today with my hairdresser:
She: This pandemic is scary.
Me: Connecticut has one of the highest rates of vaccination, so that’s good.
She: But we have these open borders! Why do we have open borders in the middle of a pandemic?
Me: Well, they can’t very well close the borders between CT and MA.
She: I mean all those Haitians! They’re pouring over the borders! Our borders are wide open!
Me: That’s not true.
She: Well, we just will have to disagree about this.
Yeah. I’m shivering in my boots because I’m going to catch Covid from a Haitian coming over the border.
Neldob
I wish the reporter asked about herd immunity and if some unvaccinated cows would be fine in his herd if there were unvaccinated calves in it. Would he be happy only losing his older cows? Would 5% of his herd sick be a problem?
dr. bloor
@Brachiator:
And they’re delicious in garlic sauce.
Old Dan and Little Ann
@chrome agnomen: Fair is for your prized pig. I don’t know where the hell I first heard this but I’ve been saying it for 20 years to people. Finally a place where it might be appreciated!
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Hahaha.
MomSense
@zhena gogolia:
Every time I hear this kind of stupid, I want to sneak into all of their homes and set their television parental controls so they cannot watch FOX news.
Elizabelle
@zhena gogolia:
Can you hear me laughing all the way from central VA? Well done, zhena, well done.
japa21
@zhena gogolia:
Start RW reply when they know they can’t win with facts.
dr. bloor
@zhena gogolia: Time for a new hairdresser, and make sure she knows why.
I have a niece, now estranged due to raging Trumpism, who was quite certain the mooslim terrorists were going to harm her and her child. She lives in the southern tier of New York.
zhena gogolia
@MomSense: I know! When you hear it, you can just tell exactly where they got it.
debbie
@MomSense:
The only part of the Ohio State Fair held this year was the 4H stuff. No news reports about any fighting, so it must have gone well.
Tony Gerace
Similar thing on a much smaller scale in my family. Wedding on Saturday. Bride and groom required all guests to be vaccinated. Three relatives ( all young men) refused to get vaccinated, so they did not attend. Everyone had a great time without them. If these guys want to be pariahs, that’s fine with me
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
@Elizabelle: I genuinely thought she meant state borders at first.
She said, “Well, no one’s to blame.” I said, “Oh, yes, the former president is to blame.” She changed the subject again.
Just Chuck
@zhena gogolia: If only there were some way she could protect herself from getting infected by those plague-ridden darkies.
“No I won’t agree to disagree. Your willful ignorance is killing children.”
dr. bloor
@Just Chuck:
Of course, you might want to hold off on that particular response until she doesn’t have a pair of scissors inches from your jugular.
Chetan Murthy
@Just Chuck: Well, after I were outta the chair, and gotten the bill, sure. Until then, y’know, never disagree with somebody standing over you with sharp steel implements.
Gin & Tonic
Got my Pfizer booster and my yearly flu shot last night at CVS. Felt like crap all day; normally flu shots are nothing for me, and the first two Pfizers were a piece of cake as well. Oh well, tomorrow I’ll be better.
Just Chuck
@Chetan Murthy: Good point. Can follow it with “I won’t be back. Bless your heart.”
Delk
Could have raked it in at the alternative livestock show with an Ivermectin booth.
zhena gogolia
@Just Chuck: She’s vaccinated and wears a mask, so I try to keep civil. It’s very sad how that horrible “news” channel warps people’s brains.
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic: I got a booster today (yay) and will get flu shot on Saturday. So far nothing.
Benw
Joan Jett about to play! Woo!
Baud
@Benw:
Tell her I love rock and roll too.
Xavier
NM resident here. Local repots were that the Fair was subdued, but no real controversy was reported. Interesting to read a national take…
burnspbesq
@zhena gogolia:
Haitians are welcome. Massholes, not so much.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Benw: @Baud: and that I don’t give a damn about my reputation
LeftCoastYankee
The vaccine being approved for all ages will be a relief, but man the Loud-Stupid crowd will ratchet the silly up to 11….
Dorothy A. Winsor
@MomSense: I wish that was possible.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Nor, apparently, does Ron DeSantis, who is currently picking a fight with Australia
dmsilev
@zhena gogolia:
‘Shape of the Earth: Views differ, we just will have to disagree about this.’
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
He should show up Australia by buying a French sub.
grandmaBear
@zhena gogolia: I had someone earlier this week tell me there were 200,000 Haitians massed at the border and everyone of them had COVID. She was absolutely serious. She had been one of my favorite people in the group, even though I knew she was conservative, but she’s just gone around the bend. Fortunately she’s not an antivaxxer, but can’t really talk to her anymore.
Ken
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Is DeSantis whining about COVID? If so, is he under the impression that Australia’s control protocols are more restrictive than China’s?
Ken
@dmsilev: Or “Size of the tip: Views differ, we’ll just have to disagree.”
Baud
@grandmaBear:
“Oh, good. Your replacement should be here soon.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: the pan bagnat is a helluva sandwich
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ken:
No, but for some reason he thinks saying he believes that will boost his chances in… whenever.
The Aussies have found his Press Sec’s twitter feed
RaflW
“Well, we just will have to disagree about this.”
Indeed, I find it disagreeable that we can no longer just figure out what is true, what is false, and what is an opinion. Harkening back to the thread earlier today, I definitely in part blame a media ecosystem that, to protect their claim to neutrality, means every fact the GOP (and, very occasionally, a Dem) disputes is presented as: World round, world flat, it’s unknowable so you decide.
It’s like a rocketship to a failed state.
Citizen_X
Like the man said, the common clay of the New West.
mrmoshpotato
@Skepticat: No need to drag down boneheads. :)
Roger Moore
@Ken:
I think DeSantis has adopted the view that any restrictions are too many and make you into China. At least that’s how he’s governing.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, …
YouTube deletes RT’s German YouTube channels after COVID misinformation strike
https://p.dw.com/p/40zvW
Good, good.
More, please.
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: What is DeathSantis huffing – his own farts?
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
Those are called baguettes, Baud!
Starboard Tack
@mrmoshpotato: Nuculer? Disell?
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Ron’s sounding as manly as GWB. ??♀️
Dan B
@Tony Gerace: Goodtohear about the wedding. We had a dustup about Labor Day at the ocean with 5 couples. One guy who is very strict about his diet, and everyone else’s, announced he would not wear masks and wanted the doors and windows closed so he would not be cold. I ripped him to shreds for only caring about himself. Whee, being the heavy! // He relented and apologized. Several people were afraid it would make for a weekend on edge because I’d dissed him. Several others told me privately they were glad I did. It would have been tense if nothing had bern said. My partner talked about all the ways he’d open windows and how he’d avoid this guy. Tense?
It was a very relaxing weekend. Sounds like your wedding. People who are fine with being considerate have the most fun.
Cameron
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Florida’ Repub presidential contender displays his foreign policy chops!
Cameron
@mrmoshpotato: Wonder if he ordered it with Moderna or Ivermectin dressing.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
It’s a good point and how did the reporter ever get that passed the editor?
rikyrah
@zhena gogolia:
They vaccinate those coming cross the border.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
And Rocky Road. Delicious stuff.
Barbara
@Dan B: Oh, I don’t think I could be friends with someone who is strict about other people’s diets! WTF!
I was nervous about my nephew’s wedding reception. Finally, someone asked him point blank before the event what the vaccine protocol was, and he said that 98% of guests — including all family members — were vaccinated. I think the only ones who weren’t were the little kids. They must have talked to guests individually and told those who weren’t to stay away. We were so relieved.
raven
@Barbara: The wedding we attended two weeks ago had all vaccinated folks and no kids. It didn’t dawn on us until it was over that there were no munchkins!!!
dexwood
@Xavier: So very late to this, but I agree with you. This is merely a standard WAPO molehill into mountain bullshit take.
phdesmond
@mrmoshpotato:
or pan bagnat.
Another Scott
Rumblings that a Continuing Resolution without the debt ceiling suspension will be passed tomorrow or Thursday. Debt ceiling to be addressed later.
https://rollcall.com/2021/09/28/democrats-mull-options-for-debt-ceiling-as-gop-holds-firm/
Cheers,
Scott.
dnfree
@zhena gogolia: We’re doing it in the opposite order–flu shot today (no reaction so far) and booster in a couple of weeks. I didn’t have the nerve to do both at once. I had a slight reaction to the first Pfizer and a little stronger reaction to the second one, so I didn’t want to try two shots at once.
Tom Levenson
@Baud: Not for lack of incentive. Nutmegerry is pernicious!
sab
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Tjey don’t believe in evolution yet they breed for better livestock. Go figure. I bet Adam and Eve had different cows and sheep than ours.
sab
@sab: Also I bet they had different horses and mules and camels. Donkeys do not change.
Richard
@Ksmiami:
They have done an awesome job. It is sad to miss the fair again for another year, but our survival is most important.
Uncle Cosmo
And Preying DeMantis is such an eejit** he’d probably think that means sending a flunky down to the local Subway to ask for the “feelay mignon” special…
(ETA: Looks like JFL scooped me at #60, dagnabbit.)
** Degrees? N’importe: Eejit is as eejit does.
Ella in New Mexico
Oh, they can all go FUCK themselves.
Thirty percent of our state is unvaccinated and go figure, they vast majority of them live in rural areas that lie butt cheek-to-buttcheek withe the borders of either Texas or Arizona. Still, they drive our Delta transmission and hospitalizations.
And I call BULLSHIT on the guy who claims his whole family is vaccinated but he opted out of the state fair because the vaccine mandate “didn’t sit right” with him. Even if he IS vaccinated, he’s from Red Roswell where MLG is hated more than Nancy Pelosi. He didn’t want to give her a political win: BY GOING TO SHOW PIGS AT THE GODDAMNED STATE FAIR.
That’s how lost Republicans are.
Brantl
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Past the editor.
H-Bob
@SiubhanDuinne: No, they’re shrimps