Amazing Congressional Revelations
About COVID-19 and Flat Earth
The latest blockbuster news is the burgeoning call among Republican lawmakers and right wing media for Americans to get vaccinated against COVID-19, something akin to a fructifying number of Republicans and right wingers, actually that’s redundant, announcing the startling news that the world is not flat. Well not exactly burgeoning but expanding or maybe that’s too strong and how about reality is trickling or dribbling through the ranks of the GOP and their handmaidens.
Honestly, to give credit to those who have changed their tunes from their former positions that the vaccine program was either a hoax or dangerous, is like applauding Michael Cohen for coming clean about his former boss, the former president and would-be fascist. Maybe, one day, the Republican fallacy-pushers may even admit that the attacks at the Capitol were more than a typical classroom field trip or that the ex-president saw people hugging and kissing the police during the mayhem. Hey maybe the Republicans will even admit that a president who makes sexual innuendos and puts down people with disabilities is probably out of line. I know, that would be asking for way too much so let’s be happy that the Republicans admit that having vaccinations is better than not having them in the fight against COVID-19.
Sean Hannity of Fox is known for his longstanding and vibrant support for science (not) and for his unwavering, sycophantic support of the ex-president (yes), who said the pandemic would magically go away and told people they didn’t need to get the vaccinations. Now, Hannity is saying, “it absolutely makes sense for many Americans to get vaccinated. I believe in science. I believe in the science of vaccination.”
This from the guy who preached to viewers in the early stages of the pandemic that it was only as bad as the flu and that the Democrats were spreading lies about the dangers of COVID-19 as part of a plan to attack trump. I guess people are allowed to change their minds but there is such as thing as a credibility gap.
Another legislator who has landed back on earth is Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., the third most powerful Republican in the House. She said her constituents need to get vaccinated now. This from a lawmaker who previously said that the trump White House had been very pro-active in battling the pandemic, and apparently she was probably not referring to trump’s May 2018 decision to disband the White House pandemic response team. Or trump’s salient observation on Jan. 22, 2020, that “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”
Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, the former White House doctor, said he is “not an anti-vaxxer” and that the Republican Doctors Caucus, of which Jackson is a member “in general is supportive of the vaccine and trying to promote the vaccine.”
That’s rich, considering that two weeks ago, on July 9, that Jackson said that the vaccine “is still an experimental vaccine being used under emergency use authorization.”
Jackson continued to fulminate on July 9 that “the federal government does not have the right to tell Americans they have to get this vaccine and it is none of their business who has had it and who hasn’t had it. It’s another government overreach that fits right in the narrative that the Democrats do everything else with the Socialist Marxist Communist way they want to control your lives. I’m absolutely opposed to that.”
Doesn’t sound like a full-throated support for vaccinations but everybody has a right to change their tune, even politicians, which is something they do about as frequently as I change my socks, depending on the direction of the wind, which could easily be mistaken for flatulence.
Hold tight, because even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., warned that Americans must get vaccinated or the pandemic will come roaring back and could force the country could go backwards. July 6
Interesting, on July 6, the self-proclaimed “Grim Reaper,” actually applauded President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan, forgetting to note that earlier, McConnell led the all-Republican total opposition to the plan in the Senate. How many sides of the mouth can one person have before the people can really see? The answer my friend is one of the great mysteries of American politics.
Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., the second most powerful Republican in the House, made a big deal about getting his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine over the weekend. Maybe he was listening to all the anti-vaxxer conspiracy baloney or maybe he was living on the moon for the past six months. Any way you shake it, by not getting vaccinated earlier, he was risking spreading the COVID-19 or the Delta variant.
Of course, not everyone in Congress has found the vaccination God. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., everybody’s favorite wing nut, was suspended from Twitter on Monday for posting the lie that the the coronavirus is “not dangerous for non-obese people and those under 65.”
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., still proudly notes that he has not gotten vaccinated and as recently as June 28, he used incorrect figures to bolster his bogus argument that vaccines may not be completely safe.