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No, This Is NOT a Pandemic of the Unvaccinated
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No, This Is NOT a Pandemic of the Unvaccinated

This is a pandemic of failed leadership by America's ruling parties. And the most vulnerable citizens have paid the highest price.

Peter Daou
Feb 5
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Photo by Joseph Prezioso via Getty Images

Donald Trump’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic caused countless preventable deaths, for which he should be held liable. Similarly, Joe Biden should be accountable for the preventable death and suffering during his presidency. Both pandemic presidents have prioritized corporate interests above human lives, placing profit over public safety — with predictable results: “The top 1% gained over $6.5 trillion in corporate equities and mutual fund wealth during the pandemic.”

Both pandemic presidents have blamed the other party for their own mistakes. And both pandemic presidents have relied on lies and spin to appease their supporters and conceal the depth of their failure to protect the public. The NY Times reports that COVID-19 is “killing Americans at far higher rates than people in other wealthy nations.” According to the Times, “Since Dec. 1, the share of Americans who have been killed by the coronavirus is at least 63 percent higher than in any of these other large, wealthy nations.”

Biden came into office on the promise of competence, all but guaranteeing voters he would end the pandemic.

Twitter avatar for @JoeBidenJoe Biden @JoeBiden
We're eight months into this pandemic, and Donald Trump still doesn't have a plan to get this virus under control. I do.

October 16th 2020

11,712 Retweets72,697 Likes

But as we approach a million coronavirus deaths a year into Biden’s presidency, it’s clear that pushing vaccines was his administration’s only mitigation strategy, and that protecting the billionaire class was his top priority.

Twitter avatar for @TheChefsGardensThe fed up Chef @TheChefsGardens
In 2021 @POTUS broke every promise and opted for brutal capitalism instead #COVID19

Michael @OmanReagan

In 2020 @JoeBiden ran on: Widely available free testing Paid sick & care leave for all Policy set by public health, not politicians Assistance for workers & small business Free COVID treatments for all Food relief for all Child care & remote learning ... https://t.co/ZW2qDTsbHI

January 3rd 2022

21 Retweets74 Likes
Twitter avatar for @LauraMiersLaura Miers @LauraMiers
“We enter 2022 witnessing the biggest increase in billionaire wealth since records began. A billionaire was created every 26 hours during this pandemic. The wealth of the world’s 10 richest men alone has doubled, rising at a rate of $15,000 per second.”
The pandemic is birthing billionaires and killing the poorThe past two years have unleashed unprecedented economic violence.aljazeera.com

January 26th 2022

173 Retweets362 Likes

The pandemic has been fertile ground for Republican and Democratic propaganda. The GOP has reinforced Trumpism, doing everything in its power to push conspiracies and stoke hostility and resistance to vaccines, masks, and other mitigation measures. Through Fox News and other rightwing media outlets, Republicans have managed to convince the vast majority of their voters that the coronavirus is barely a cold and that nearly a million deaths are insignificant.

Similarly, Democratic Party leaders like Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden, who are unparalleled masters at theatrics, have manipulated their base with focus-grouped slogans that keep supporters loyal and distracted. Let’s look at two interconnected myths disseminated by Democratic politicians, liberal pundits and corporate media outlets:

  1. This is a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” and anti-vaxxers are responsible for all coronavirus deaths under Biden.

  2. Omicron is “mild,” so uncontrolled spread is acceptable and schools and businesses must stay open.

Falsely claiming Omicron is mild has led to one of the most egregious and reckless public policies in recent memory: forcing workers and children into a gigantic wave of a virus that has serious and unpredictable long-term effects. No words can capture the callousness of U.S. government policy, which amounts to “make them work and go to school, get sick, contract long COVID, and in some cases, die.”

Twitter avatar for @JediofGallifreyGallifreyan Jedi @JediofGallifrey
We're seeing all these convoluted rationalizations for forcing kids back to in person schools at the height of the pandemic thus far because no one will come right out and say "we need labor to keep producing for capital and don't really care who dies about it"

January 7th 2022

769 Retweets3,900 Likes
Twitter avatar for @DrCSWilliamDr. Claudia William MD, MScHAL 🩺💊 @DrCSWilliam
2 months after letting it rip across the globe they finally say it is serious As a frontline worker I'm highly disappointed with all the people who downplayed this especially the public health authorities https://t.co/2HjLCyImCC

CNBC @CNBC

WHO says omicron is life threatening for unvaccinated, elderly and people with underlying conditions https://t.co/0LiL6HR6Hm

January 12th 2022

16 Retweets79 Likes
Twitter avatar for @dgurdasani1Deepti Gurdasani @dgurdasani1
Exactly this. A variant that's overwhelming health systems across the globe and causing thousands of deaths cannot be described as 'mild' in any way.
Covid: Deadly Omicron should not be called mild, warns WHOThe WHO cautions that just like previous variants, Omicron is hospitalising and killing people.bbc.co.uk

January 6th 2022

1,464 Retweets4,032 Likes

Medical experts have warned that it is reckless to downplay the risks of Omicron and other variants, particularly to vulnerable populations. We still do not know how this virus is behaving in the long term.

Twitter avatar for @DrRupaMaryaRupa Marya, MD @DrRupaMarya
Omicron isn’t “mild” just because someone doesn’t need a ventilator or even ICU care.” I’ve met people whose lives are meaningfully compromised by this virus. The burden of disease we will face from this failure of policy is staggering.
Children With Covid Face Increased Risk Of Diabetes, CDC FindsCovid-related pediatric hospitalization rates have reached their highest level since the pandemic began.forbes.com

January 8th 2022

9 Retweets15 Likes
Twitter avatar for @DrSamiSchalkSami Schalk @DrSamiSchalk
When I talk about the pandemic as a #MassDisablingEvent I don’t mean it as a scare tactic. It’s a wake up call. We can start building more accessible, care-centered communities now. We can combat ableism now. We can lay the groundwork for a world that works better for all of us.

January 12th 2022

1,766 Retweets6,374 Likes
Twitter avatar for @HZiauddeenHisham Ziauddeen @HZiauddeen
🧵 COVID-19: The unbearable 'mildness' of Omicron The 'Omicron is mild' narrative was seeded very early and is being heavily pushed at the moment by the usual scientists, journalists & politicians. Students of context should be cautious on these grounds alone. (1/15)

December 24th 2021

4,641 Retweets12,578 Likes

Like the GOP, the Democratic Party’s laissez-faire strategy of uncontrolled spread is nothing short of criminal. The disabled, the immunocompromised, those who lack healthcare, and children who can’t get vaccinated or whose parents won’t vaccinate them are paying the highest price:

Twitter avatar for @mxdevinndevin norko (they/them) @mxdevinn
folks have pushed the narrative of vulnerable people’s lives being disposable for this entire pandemic (& before), and to see @CDCDirector finding our deaths “encouraging” bc they are less valuable to y’all than economical stimulation is so so appalling. #MyDisabledLifeIsWorthy

Matthew Cortland, JD @mattbc

Today, @CDCDirector said: "The overwhelming number of deaths, over 75%, occurred in people who had at least 4 comorbidities. So really these are people who were unwell to begin with and yes, really encouraging news in the context of Omicron." This is eugenicist. https://t.co/zd3iBQTH0J

January 9th 2022

412 Retweets934 Likes
Twitter avatar for @uche_blackstockuché blackstock, md @uche_blackstock
Pay attention to *who* is having the highest incidence of #COVID19 cases at the beginning of this first #Omicron wave. They are mostly Black (NH) and Hispanic, in urban areas, similar to our 1st wave. Think about who our essential and service workers are.
covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tra…
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January 9th 2022

315 Retweets1,121 Likes

During the peak of the Omicron wave (which is still killing tens of thousands of Americans every week), government officials have categorically refused to allow a remote option — just an option — for parents, teachers, school administrators, health care workers, and other school officials.

Claiming kids are unaffected by the virus is an outright lie. December hospitalization rates in New York State increased 1047% for ages 12–18. Alarmingly, 26% of those hospitalized kids were fully vaccinated.

Twitter avatar for @chrischirpProf. Christina Pagel @chrischirp
And these high infections have consequences. Admissions in children stay stubbornly (relatively) high with Omicron - and data suggests Omicron is *not* milder for kids. Plus Long Covid has been going up in kids & school staff. 14/18
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February 4th 2022

302 Retweets716 Likes

Democrats and liberals rationalize this brazen disregard for vulnerable people by blaming everything on Trump and his supporters. While it is true that resistance to vaccines and masks has made things worse, the phrase “pandemic of the unvaccinated” is demonstrably false.

Biden and Democratic leaders have been abject failures at containing the spread of the virus because of their own actions and decisions. As Dr. Steven Thrasher explains:

A mantra of successful health campaigns is “make the healthy choice the easy choice”. But the Biden administration has been intent on making matters that should be easy difficult, prioritizing rules and regulations over results, deferring to private industry in matters of state responsibility, burdening individuals already at their breaking points, adding cumbersome barriers of time and logistics, being too slow, and displaying too much contempt and too little urgency in responding to cries for help.

From day one, the Biden approach has been to encourage vaccines, pursue virtually no other mitigation tactics, and to blame those who won’t get vaccinated for the pandemic. It is cynical and disgusting.

Twitter avatar for @whstancilWill Stancil @whstancil
That’s part of why the breakthrough case data is so important: the idea that COVID only kills the unvaccinated has become a keystone political myth holding up a whole edifice of liberal lies and self-deceptions about COVID, rationalizing failure and inaction.

February 5th 2022

13 Retweets42 Likes
Twitter avatar for @OmanReaganMichael @OmanReagan
One of the most important things media could do right now is explain why ideas like the "pandemic of the unvaccinated" is harmful. The reason is simple: it intentionally shifts thinking from population-level public health effort to individual responsibility and blame.

January 7th 2022

46 Retweets126 Likes
Twitter avatar for @OmanReaganMichael @OmanReagan
However, in order to maintain popularity and approval ratings, the Biden administration has to double-down on this disinformation about the pandemic. To change their policy is to admit their policy isn't working. Which would undermine the "pandemic of the unvaccinated" mythology.

January 5th 2022

120 Retweets827 Likes
Twitter avatar for @AzuaronAzuaron @Azuaron
@HSherr95 @peterdaou 1. Lockdowns 2. Global vaccine patent waivers 3. Universal paid sick leave 4. Send N95s to everyone 5. Send tests to everyone 6. Track and trace 7. Universal health care 8. Unemployment protection 9. Eviction pause I could go on. Biden has not remotely done "all he can do".

January 9th 2022

2 Retweets19 Likes

Moreover, to appease their corporate donors, establishment Democrats played into the myth that the pandemic was going away and could be ignored, which has only encouraged anti-vaxxers:

Twitter avatar for @peterdaouPeter Daou @peterdaou
DEMS: #Omicron is mild, just go to school and work. DEMS: Damn anti-vaxxers! They're minimizing the virus!

January 3rd 2022

275 Retweets1,559 Likes
Twitter avatar for @DrDooleyMDDr. Victoria Dooley @DrDooleyMD
Trump: Stop testing and COVID cases will disappear. Biden: You can get a test if you can find and afford one but we DGAF you’re going right back to work, Jack, and don’t ask us for shit b/c there is no federal solution.

January 13th 2022

613 Retweets3,802 Likes

Just like the GOP, the Democratic Party has downplayed the pandemic, even in the face of the eye-popping Omicron surge. Within weeks of taking office, Biden and other Democratic leaders predicted independence from COVID by July 4th. As I wrote previously:

In a Mission Accomplished moment, Democrats forecast independence from the pandemic by July 4th. A Bloomberg story said “a triumphant President Joe Biden all but announced an end to the pandemic in the U.S.” Joe Manchin predicted, “you're going to see it's getting back to normal.” “Doesn’t the air smell so much sweeter without our masks?” asked Jill Biden.

“Pandemic of the unvaccinated” is propaganda to lull Democrats and liberals by reassuring them that there’s a vast swath of Republicans who are unvaccinated and only those people will feel the effects of the virus. Which is flatly untrue. The NY Times chart below shows that most Americans are vaccinated.

Omicron has raced through unvaccinated and vaccinated populations. And though the vaccinated are far more likely to avoid hospitalization and death, they are not immune to serious illness and long COVID. Not to mention the severe risk to vulnerable populations, which “pandemic of the unvaccinated” purposely overlooks.

Twitter avatar for @sleepisocialistSavvy☭ @sleepisocialist
“But did they have any underlying conditions” is one of the most heartless and ableist things you could ask someone who just lost a loved one to COVID. These are the vulnerable people we are supposed to take collective action to protect. These deaths aren’t somehow “less”

January 9th 2022

1,475 Retweets8,601 Likes
Twitter avatar for @AmitAryaMDDr. Amit Arya @AmitAryaMD
First they say: “Omicron is mild!" Then: "Cases don't matter" "Hospitalized with COVID, not for COVID!" "We have enough ICU beds!" And once the death toll rises: "They had co-morbidities" "They were going to die anyways" This is how they make death by ableism, acceptable.

January 5th 2022

648 Retweets2,069 Likes

No, Omicron is not “mild” and this is not a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.” And just because Trump isn’t writing mean tweets, mass death shouldn’t become acceptable.

Twitter avatar for @nycsouthpawsouthpaw @nycsouthpaw
NYT May 24, 2020: U.S. Deaths Near 100,000, An Incalculable Loss NYT February 5, 2022: 900,000 Dead, but Many Americans Move On
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February 5th 2022

1,697 Retweets3,666 Likes

Trump’s lies cost lives. And Biden’s lies are costing lives.

Enough lies.


UPDATED 2/5/22
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