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The ‘Independent Spirit’
It seems Dr. Fauci has a problem with our citizens and their “independent spirit.”
Early this year, our “independent spirit” told us to buckle down for the good of the country—and we did. But after months of continuous or reimposed lockdowns and mask mandates, “independent spirit” citizens have had enough. Not all, but a rapidly growing number. But we have independent spirits in the first place because we have a strong sense of individuality.
I remember the bumper stickers that said, “Question Authority.” It’s ironic that the people who came up with the expression now demand you accept their dictates without question. Dr. Fauci, I did not question your authority at first, even when you said in January you didn’t think the coronavirus was going to be a problem. Hey, everyone can make a mistake. Why can’t you theorize you’re making a mistake now?
Published in Healthcare
Let me tell you something Dr. Fauci. You aren’t promised tomorrow. Statistically, you are more likely to die in a car crash than “the rona”. You can get cancer and die before next Christmas. Have a massive heart attack or stroke and die before next Christmas. So you can take your advice and shove it where the sun don’t shine.
The sentiments behind this particular quote makes me crazy:
I was recently following a twitter feed of a reporter in Canada who was reporting on a restaurant that defied order and stayed open. She constantly referred to the patrons as “virus deniers”. And I recently got into a FB argument with a Canadian along the same lines. If you don’t believe in lockdowns and you only wear a mask when necessary (as opposed to enthusiastically, with religious fervor) you’re considered to be a virus denier.
As opposed to just someone who doesn’t want to sacrifice actually living their life for a virus with 99% + survivability.
“I remember the bumper stickers that said, “Question Authority”. It’s ironic that the people who came up with the expression now demand you accept their dictates without question.”
That is a great point. I imagine most of those people are now shrieking Karens.
And by the way. doc- you’re not the boss of me!
Not that long ago it was “Question O-thority” regarding Obama. Now maybe it should be “Question F-thority?”
Or maybe something more… pithy… that would get censored anyway so why bother typing it?
No, Dr. Fauci, this is not on the American people. This is on your bureaucracy and its lack of leadership.
Americans will sacrifice and follow rigorous regulations, even the most independent of people. You just need to be honest, persuade them of the necessity, and serve as a good example. In short, you need to be a leader, or a loyal advisor to a leader, and people will follow you.
I’ve won over most laboratories and PIs without having threaten and coerce. Earn their trust, and they will move mountains. The American spirit and initiative will work around obstacles if you inspire and convince us. The ventilator shortage did not occur because of ingenuity – the very independence you despise.
I wish Dr. “Death” Fauci would be sent to Wuhan to run that laboratory for Franken-virii in person. Enjoy the country where people are welded into their apartments. Buh-bye.
The good Dr can see himself out. I’ll keep my independent spirit and take my chances with a virus that’s got a 99+% survival rate.
“The Science” is the Authority. Eejits.
Yes, and pair this post with @iwe “If only wee enabled “Right to Try.” See also @LoisLane Let’s Move: Take Control of Our Own Health Conditions. Note also that Tony Fauci has engaged in serial medical malpractice from March onward, as he has consistently falsely asserted that he speaks with the whole of medical authority. He is, in fact, utterly incompetent beyond his narrow area of specialty and professionally, possibly legally, obligated to consult with real experts across the whole of medicine affected by his proposed, entirely experimental course of treatment:
Oh, and Fauci has been especially deadly to the poorest Americans, disproportionately African American with the genetic card deck made worse by lock downs of schools and playgrounds in dangerous neighborhoods where a walk around the block is not a safe option.
Questions Fauxthority.
I might go with Fauci-thority. Lots of people think “Faux” refers to Fox News.
Doesn’t anyone remember when the Surgeon General was castigated for pointing out that “communities” with tendencies to those conditions should look to their own health and change what they could to lessen the possible COVID impact? Our black Surgeon General was banned from the COVID stage. And he’s a smart guy who has actually practiced medicine in the last 40 years.
America has been called ‘The land where no man has to bow.’ There have always been people who didn’t like it that way, and right now, they believe that they are in the ascendancy.
See my related post Living in the Hate of the Common People.
They really do hate us, don’t they?
I didn’t remember, though I wish he’d stood his ground. Someone else pointed out he talked about this earlier. I think it’s a good conversation to have.
I definitely think the poorest Americans will carry this burden the most, whatever the intentions.
Nice play on words there!
Locally, there was a very brief time in April where people were fed up with the masks, and many people took their masks off in the grocery store with no one stopping them. Had we been just a bit bolder then we could have thrown off this idiotic and unamerican behavior. But after three or four days, the store cracked down on the mask rules and I’ve not seen a single person rebel since.
My 13 year old daughter scolds me for not wearing a mask at the grocery store parking lot while walking to the front door. But she’s rarely left the house in a year, so her view of the world has become quite skewed.
Edit: Travis County, population 1.2M, still has only 516 corona deaths in almost a year. It’s more than time to end this.
I’ve been watching the first 40 minutes of this video podcast with Michael Mina. I’ll continue tomorrow. It’s not fast paced, but Mina has been given a chance to explain aspects of rapid antigen testing that I hadn’t known about.
https://youtu.be/L-RuvUkcyJI
A couple people on Twitter are taking Mina and the interviewer to task for not wearing a mask, even though both participants have been testing themselves repeatedly. They say it’s the optics that are important. I pointed out that if you’re doing it for optical purposes, a substantial body of people are not going to trust you when you try to get them to wear masks. I see there is at least one person following the conversation who groks it.
Optics are for politicians, not human beings.
I will say that there is some rebel spirit still left in Austin, though I had to relocate because it definitely could not be found in condo living where people expect you to wear masks in empty hallways.
What am I talking about?
On the 4th of July when the trail was closed–along with all the parks downtown with the parking spaces at Zilker blocked off–I went for a walk with my son. There were park ranger people stationed at all the easy access entrances to the trail. They told us to turn back when we tried to start walking across that bridge that kids are always jumping off, (despite the sign on the bridge that says “no jumping off bridge.”) I mumbled something about the trail leading home–which it kinda did because the trail is a giant circle–and we walked by them.
While a younger one looked pretty exasperated, another sat down in his lawn chair still holding his “Trail Closed” sign and didn’t even try to keep talking to us. No one threw themselves in front of us to stop us from moving, and once we were on the path, we found all sorts of other people who were like us, as they were also breaking the city council’s orders to not go outside or walk or exercise or be happy or something on Independence Day. It boosted my spirits, man. Let me tell you.
Of course, I should have gone out to the suburbs that evening. Austin canceled all fireworks (and joy), but my parents told me about all the people who gathered in cul-de-sacs and let off roman candles right by their house. They said it was a pretty amazing street party atmosphere. I’d define that as “resistance.”
As for your daughter… I think it’s criminal how fear is being planted in the young. I wrote about how I’ve seen some of that manifest in my new neck of the woods. If you read the comments on that old Halloween post, some parents feel that the kid’s reaction here isn’t typical, but I think your daughter shows that there is something that is, as you say, “skewing” their perception.
More people have died in my new county since that post, but we are still under 250. While all those deaths matter, 149 were in the 75+ age group, another 60 in the 65-74 age group.
13 year old kids should not be afraid of Covid.
Dr. Fauci has no authority. His function is to provide policy guidance. Government accepts that guidance to the extent it desires. Then government explains the policy to the people. When speaking or questioned, Dr. Fauci explains the reasoning behind his guidance, which he should do to provide the people information with which to assess government policy.
I take it you disagree with Dr. Fauci.
But . . . but . . . but . . . he’s an expert . . .
I’d weld my doors but the wood would catch on fire . . .
Poverty has a huge impact on health, so restrictions that impoverish more people make no sense . . .
Kinda like “gun-free” zones . . .
Exactly. Decision makers should take many factors into consideration when taking action, so to follow the advice of one individual regardless of other inputs probably gives that individual a sense of power – power he is sure to abuse . . .
Getting back to Twitter this morning, I see that the main critic of Dr. Mina in this thread is also angry at him because he allowed himself to be interviewed by a person who has had hardly any BIPOC on his program. (I’m so unwoke that I had to look up BIPOC.) “Do you believe that science and technology is for men only?”
So Dr. Mina has been spending all year trying to get the word out about how the pandemic could be stopped in this country in one month if we just made the rapid antigen tests available to everyone to use on their own, without medical or government supervision. He has written scholarly papers about it and articles in the popular press, has been widely interviewed, and occasionally runs into people who get the point. The idea is getting a lot more traction lately, though it has taken a tragically long time. But because he allowed himself to be interviewed by an unwoke podcaster, he is to be written off.
Dr. Mina has blocked this person.
As you say, the larger fault lies not with Fauci (he has no actual authority in the matter), but with those who use his advice as an excuse for assuming power far beyond their own authority — see Governor Whitmer.