I think there is a lot of this - but I also believe that some people were genuine in their beliefs, at least at the beginning. Over time, it became obvious that deception and just being loud was enough to split people like ducks into two camps, with ego and greed and a lust for power motivating.
no better eg than Trump suggests 'injection' of disinfectant to beat coronavirus and 'clean' the lungs Accidental Poisonings Increased After President Trump’s Disinfectant Comments The Trump White House Spins His Disinfectant Remarks Some Americans Are Tragically Still Drinking Bleach As A Coronavirus ‘Cure’
You’re either Team Fauci and got a vaccine or you’re taking Ivermectin and talking about your pure untainted blood.
This wasn't handled right for a few reasons. Initially they said that masks were not necessary. Then they decided masks were necessary and then when they discussed which masks were certain to be effective - it made it difficult for medical and triage people to get them and caused hording. This wasn't a mistake, especially early on. They made other mistakes. They did not do a good job of explaining "viral load" and they also were slow in realizing the connection between people in close quarters sharing recirculated oxygen were causing massive viral loads. They also made a mistake putting multiple people with COVID on a single ventilator. I'm not - but my wife is....... and while this was transpiring she figured out things like viral load, etc. To this day she believes that we paid a huge price for the shut down - from the education of kids, to depression, to inflation and instability of trust in institutions. However, she also said that had the government not shut everything down, the death toll would have been massive and we would not only have more lives lost, but other ongoing issues as a result as well. Fighting a pandemic is hard - if you are successful, everyone says you over did it - if you are not successful, everyone complains you did not do enough. There was no way for scientists or doctors to win in that scenario.
The GOP once again sought to have a spotlight shown on their investigation into conspiracy talking points and when the light is shone upon that, the facts are what ends up swinging the brightest and the GOP MAGA folks look foolish. It happened with the investigation and Biden impeachment stuff, and it happened with Fauci. They are eroding their trust. People who had been paying attention already knew they were full of crap. Most people don't pay close attention. They heard the general attacks but certainly weren't going to investigate to see if they were true or not. But once the spotlight gets shone on the situation, they can see and it hurts the GOP talking points and conspiracy theories.
Yea, it's very unfortunate. Take the very controversial gain-of-function research. Politics and social media have warped it so much that it will probably never again be done. How many people know that GoF is much more than what's portrayed? It is also loss-of- function research, it is applicable to modern vaccine, and to anti-viral drugs. But hey, as a society, do-my-own double-blinded study, virus research, treatments, and believing politicians over virologists is a thing.
I get that everyone wants to be a Monday morning QB but the truth is this was pretty new to everyone, did the "experts" get some things wrong, of course. Did there thinking change over time, of course it did but that came with more information. This over-the-top maga based "show" yesterday was a joke and of course mtg was at the forefront of the circus. The maga gop spends every waking hour on the past trying to blame someone or convict someone and they seem to always fail. I guess no one on the maga side wants to create any new laws or help the average Joe 6 pack. There entire being is to ass kiss the cult leader
Literally the mindset of the entire republican party, across the board, in every aspect of life now. Only exception is the undeveloped fetus, and the second that thing actually becomes a human then zero f**ks like everybody else.
How to say that you have no idea what you are talking about, without saying that. For the first four days or so after being infected with covid, you will not have symptoms but will be spreading.
Anthony Fauci’s pardon shames America His Covid cover-up undermined faith in science https://unherd.com/2025/01/the-criminal-pardoning-of-anthony-fauci/ excerpt: Fauci is the veteran infectious diseases expert and physician who was famed for his calming presence and constant urging to follow the science during the pandemic. Put aside, however, his stance on divisive decisions such as mask mandates, public safety rules and vaccinations. Controversial in many nations, they became toxic tribal issues in the US, fuelling the societal fissures that Trump exploited with such intuitive skill on his return path to the White House. Ultimately, though, these were policy decisions taken, rightly or wrongly, during an unprecedented, rapidly evolving health crisis that engulfed the planet. The most noxious stench hanging over Fauci’s head relates to his central role in the clandestine efforts by a cabal of top scientists to stifle debate over the origins of Covid-19 that appeared so mysteriously in Wuhan. This central Chinese city was hundreds of miles from the nearest wild bat colonies carrying the most similar coronaviruses. But suspicions were aroused since it is home to one of China’s two maximum bio-security labs. It had known safety concerns. And, clearly, the initial outbreak was covered up by Beijing’s communist dictatorship, which inflamed the disease’s impact as it spread its deadly tentacles around the world. Fauci spent almost four decades as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s biggest biomedical research agency. Early in the pandemic, it emerged that Wuhan Institute of Virology was funded by this body to carry out high-risk, gain-of-function research into bat diseases. This work, it transpired, was sometimes performed in dangerously low biosecurity conditions. But it emerged Fauci played a pivotal role in pushing the idea that it was conspiratorial nonsense to suggest Covid might have leaked from a laboratory in tandem with his friends Francis Collins, then head of NIH; and Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, another major research funding body. This trio promoted an orthodoxy of natural zoonotic transmission that prevailed until it became impossible to ignore all the circumstantial evidence suggesting a lab leak. They pulled together a group of loyal scientists, some with close links to China or compromised by close ties to Wuhan, who wrote influential papers for prominent journals ridiculously praising Beijing for transparency and dismissing “any type of laboratory-based scenario”. Despite private concerns over “Wild West” biosecurity in Wuhan, and the possibility of lab leakage, this group managed to focus media and political attention onto a Wuhan market selling wild animals, ignoring how this idea had been dismissed by Chinese public health leaders and scientists alike. This scandal — which implies deliberate and self-interested obfuscation over the cause of this century’s biggest public health catastrophe — involved some of the most influential figures in global science. Though all three central players have since left the posts they held at the time, Farrar has moved to the World Health Organisation as chief scientist, despite his central role in trying to clamp down debate on the cause of a pandemic. (This is one more reason why it is tough to shed any tears over Trump’s decision to end US funding to this mismanaged UN organisation given it has kowtowed to China, pumped out misinformation and failed to probe the origins of Covid properly.) more at the link
The problem is the people on the RIGHT are willfully ignorant of how science works. It was a new virus a new threat, scientists had to study it to figure out what to do, which is why their message changed over time, they got EDUCATED. Too bad the right doesn't value intelligence.....you can see that by the idiots posting on this very forum. DD
I may not be the right winger you are looking for. But I lean that way. I got the injection. The main and 2 boosters. Wife the same. I was categorized an essential worker since we had a lot of Chinese students who could not travel. I followed the guidelines maintained distance and all that was recommended. Never got covid. I don't know if I completely trust the medication but I'm still alive with no effects I know of. It was a very unprecedented time and mistakes were made. But it was what it was. My thought process was if I have toilet paper I'm good. As far as the origins that's above my pay grade. Again I'm not as right as most. I will say i discovered liquor delivery so that's a win. One last thing. I do jot think taking the needle made me some sort of lemming. None of us quite knew what to make if all that was going on. Mean more to family alive. Even though my wife always telling me I'm worth more dead. Ya know insurance payout
