I subscribe to what Pres. Reagan said. The gov't is the problem, not the solution. And while I think the GOP will screw up things too, the insane CRT, crime/defunding the police and COVID policy has gone into the punitive portion. I want an ABSOLUTE shellacking in the midterms. Not because I think GOP will be better (they will to a degree then screw it up) but because I want the Dem's PUNISHED. I'm not a vindictive person, but for this? I'm pegging at 11 on the vindictive scale. I want them clobbered so badly that they have no choice but to come back to reality. Do I think that'll happen? No, they'll just say the messaging was messed up. They'll double down and pretend Biden is mentally fit to serve another term. I also want to CLOBBER the univ's far far left agenda. But one thing at a time.
Couldn’t agree more. This is exactly why sane liberals cannot continue to vote for democrats who have lost all common sense. The majority of conservatives are not the “far right racist deplorables” that the main stream media makes them out to be. I’m simply a realist who has seen over and over again that positive change is much more likely to come from individuals and communities than from government bureaucrats. And I will continue to vote for whoever advocates for individual freedom, equality of opportunity, smaller government and personal responsibility. At this moment that looks like the antithesis of what the dems stand for.
The Dems are going to get clobbered on a lot more than just their Covid policies. For the life of me Dr Prasad, you are so intelligent, I just do not understand how you believe progressive liberal policies work on anything-economy, education, immigration, premier health care provision, etc etc etc. I know you are not political and this substack is not political, but would love to hear a debate between you and another conservative intelligent doctor on the idea of universal healthcare. Only because I know you would come with facts, not emotion and fantasy land solutions. Perhaps on a VPZD show??
A good rant. About the only thing more egregious than a wishy-washy White House "czar" like Jha (rhymes with "blah") is to have powerful cable news shows that regularly bring on (for example) some self-promoting egocentric neurosurgeon to give advice, OVER AND OVER, about infectious disease prevention and/or treatment and gives half-assed incorrect interpretations of statistical data.
God help us, I think you may have it correct about these flubs by the Dems. The right wing could indeed prevail in November. Get ready to hear the obnoxious, rude Jim Jordan a lot more. With regard to the chances that Sleepy Joe Biden's side will survive the November elections coming soon, I keep hearing in my head the faint echo of that memorable quip from the movie "Mercury Rising" when the autistic child, shown sobbing as Bruce Willis (FBI agent) is asking about his dreams, answers "I see dead people".
“I urge Dems who want to keep the White House in 2024 to fire all their COVID advisors and hire unapologetic centrists on COVID. If they don’t, they will stand no chance.“
Fortunately, the dems most likely won’t listen to you. The last thing we need is for them to keep the White House in ‘24!!
In long term care, the constant testing persists. It’s like a witch hunt, in a way, because all employees are guilty until proven innocent (but only for that day, because you’ll be tested again in 3 more days).
Then, once you’re deemed “positive” by the facility-administered rapid test, you’re stuck at home for 5 days, eating up all the PTO you earned since the last time you were covid positive. Paid time off?? Those days are over for health care workers because we will be positive and out for 5 days, one or twice per year at least. The whole system is spiraling down the toilet.
Thank you for your ethics, integrity, courage, and hard work, Dr Prasad. You have kept the COVID dialogue sane for the past 2 years. A subscription to your writings is a tremendously worthwhile investment and well deserved by you. We live in a world now where almost all anchors to recognizable reality/sanity are being uprooted. We've lost faith in almost all of our institutions and rightly so.
I was 2/3rds of the way through my nursing program and was not permitted to finish because, for good reason (though one should not have to have a reason at all), I would not take this particular vaccine despite being completely vaccinated with all the rest my nursing program required. I was given a medical exemption from my healthcare provider but this was not accepted. The hospital I was assigned to for my proposed clinical rotations made it clear in writing to all of us that though they needed to at least feign to be amenable to religious and medical exemption, there would be zero tolerance for such and that every semester you'd need to reapply for exemption if somehow by some miracle, you were ever given one in the first place. Everyone in my clinical group, even my two dearest friends with the most staunch opposition, acquiesced and received the vaccine when they swore up and down that they never would. They then regretted doing so, both young and healthy, but had to justify it somehow to make the allowance of the crushing of their integrity and autonomy somehow palatable. One of these students had menstrual abnormalities after vaccination which concerned her. The other had his mother die of Covid despite Covid vaccination which also gave him pause, yet still he got the vaccine and then felt manipulated. It's a psychological mind bending situation to try to make sense of. What has been to done to healthcare personnel is unconscionable.
Since my ejection, as a 4.0 student praised in writing for leadership, from the program (that I paid dearly for -- no reimbursement for tuition), I have reached out to many schools, the IL governor's office, the IL dept of health, the CMS who dictates these policies. I continue to hit a brick wall in terms of getting any help in finishing my nursing program even though I would be hired as a nurse in the facility I currently work in as a CNA -- a private, non-profit healthcare facility where COVID vaccination is not a condition of employment despite the fact that our facility takes COVID and all over infectious disease measures as seriously as any other facility.
In other words, these policies are actively discouraging enrollment and completion of nursing students with no concern over the shortage and burnout of healthcare personnel.
Polling is going to miss all of this because they don't even want to admit the policies are unpopular. It'll be left a mystery which I guess they'll just put it in the catch-all bucket of 'unreachable deplorables' and their 'misinformation'. I was a Bernie guy so no routing for this to happen.
Might wanna consider replacing the name “Trump” with “Fauci” in that first paragraph.
Bureaucratic lifers like Fauci & Collins loaded up that bus, drove it & still have a lead foot on the gas of Covid policy.
Gracious and honest of you to give DeSantis his due. Just don’t fall into the “first blame Trump” trap. It’s childish and tiresome. You’re smarter than that.
Dr Prasad, what are your thoughts on the CDC adding the COVID-19 vaccine to the childhood recommended vaccines list?
There are progressive states who extended mandates and school closures based on CDC recommendations, instead of facts and data. There is cause for concern that this will put the COVID-19 vaccine back on the table as a mandate for school admission in the same states.
Ironically, this was quietly passed this week just as LA and Washington DC school districts are considering delaying their vaccine mandate for ages 12+ due to the low acceptance from their own districts.
I subscribe to what Pres. Reagan said. The gov't is the problem, not the solution. And while I think the GOP will screw up things too, the insane CRT, crime/defunding the police and COVID policy has gone into the punitive portion. I want an ABSOLUTE shellacking in the midterms. Not because I think GOP will be better (they will to a degree then screw it up) but because I want the Dem's PUNISHED. I'm not a vindictive person, but for this? I'm pegging at 11 on the vindictive scale. I want them clobbered so badly that they have no choice but to come back to reality. Do I think that'll happen? No, they'll just say the messaging was messed up. They'll double down and pretend Biden is mentally fit to serve another term. I also want to CLOBBER the univ's far far left agenda. But one thing at a time.
"Democrats were crazy to fire a nurse who got covid and recovered from it and refused vaccination. ... and second, what an ungrateful thing to do."
I couldn't agree more. And this wound will take a lot to heal. Backstabbing our first responders is a chilling, cruel move by the government.
I think this betrayal of the public will be felt for decades.
Couldn’t agree more. This is exactly why sane liberals cannot continue to vote for democrats who have lost all common sense. The majority of conservatives are not the “far right racist deplorables” that the main stream media makes them out to be. I’m simply a realist who has seen over and over again that positive change is much more likely to come from individuals and communities than from government bureaucrats. And I will continue to vote for whoever advocates for individual freedom, equality of opportunity, smaller government and personal responsibility. At this moment that looks like the antithesis of what the dems stand for.
The Dems are going to get clobbered on a lot more than just their Covid policies. For the life of me Dr Prasad, you are so intelligent, I just do not understand how you believe progressive liberal policies work on anything-economy, education, immigration, premier health care provision, etc etc etc. I know you are not political and this substack is not political, but would love to hear a debate between you and another conservative intelligent doctor on the idea of universal healthcare. Only because I know you would come with facts, not emotion and fantasy land solutions. Perhaps on a VPZD show??
Your substack articles are consistently balms to my gaslighted wounds of the last two years.
Democrats need to become a lot more centrist on many issues including COVID. Loa
Never should have been political
A good rant. About the only thing more egregious than a wishy-washy White House "czar" like Jha (rhymes with "blah") is to have powerful cable news shows that regularly bring on (for example) some self-promoting egocentric neurosurgeon to give advice, OVER AND OVER, about infectious disease prevention and/or treatment and gives half-assed incorrect interpretations of statistical data.
God help us, I think you may have it correct about these flubs by the Dems. The right wing could indeed prevail in November. Get ready to hear the obnoxious, rude Jim Jordan a lot more. With regard to the chances that Sleepy Joe Biden's side will survive the November elections coming soon, I keep hearing in my head the faint echo of that memorable quip from the movie "Mercury Rising" when the autistic child, shown sobbing as Bruce Willis (FBI agent) is asking about his dreams, answers "I see dead people".
“I urge Dems who want to keep the White House in 2024 to fire all their COVID advisors and hire unapologetic centrists on COVID. If they don’t, they will stand no chance.“
Fortunately, the dems most likely won’t listen to you. The last thing we need is for them to keep the White House in ‘24!!
In long term care, the constant testing persists. It’s like a witch hunt, in a way, because all employees are guilty until proven innocent (but only for that day, because you’ll be tested again in 3 more days).
Then, once you’re deemed “positive” by the facility-administered rapid test, you’re stuck at home for 5 days, eating up all the PTO you earned since the last time you were covid positive. Paid time off?? Those days are over for health care workers because we will be positive and out for 5 days, one or twice per year at least. The whole system is spiraling down the toilet.
Thank you for your ethics, integrity, courage, and hard work, Dr Prasad. You have kept the COVID dialogue sane for the past 2 years. A subscription to your writings is a tremendously worthwhile investment and well deserved by you. We live in a world now where almost all anchors to recognizable reality/sanity are being uprooted. We've lost faith in almost all of our institutions and rightly so.
I was 2/3rds of the way through my nursing program and was not permitted to finish because, for good reason (though one should not have to have a reason at all), I would not take this particular vaccine despite being completely vaccinated with all the rest my nursing program required. I was given a medical exemption from my healthcare provider but this was not accepted. The hospital I was assigned to for my proposed clinical rotations made it clear in writing to all of us that though they needed to at least feign to be amenable to religious and medical exemption, there would be zero tolerance for such and that every semester you'd need to reapply for exemption if somehow by some miracle, you were ever given one in the first place. Everyone in my clinical group, even my two dearest friends with the most staunch opposition, acquiesced and received the vaccine when they swore up and down that they never would. They then regretted doing so, both young and healthy, but had to justify it somehow to make the allowance of the crushing of their integrity and autonomy somehow palatable. One of these students had menstrual abnormalities after vaccination which concerned her. The other had his mother die of Covid despite Covid vaccination which also gave him pause, yet still he got the vaccine and then felt manipulated. It's a psychological mind bending situation to try to make sense of. What has been to done to healthcare personnel is unconscionable.
Since my ejection, as a 4.0 student praised in writing for leadership, from the program (that I paid dearly for -- no reimbursement for tuition), I have reached out to many schools, the IL governor's office, the IL dept of health, the CMS who dictates these policies. I continue to hit a brick wall in terms of getting any help in finishing my nursing program even though I would be hired as a nurse in the facility I currently work in as a CNA -- a private, non-profit healthcare facility where COVID vaccination is not a condition of employment despite the fact that our facility takes COVID and all over infectious disease measures as seriously as any other facility.
In other words, these policies are actively discouraging enrollment and completion of nursing students with no concern over the shortage and burnout of healthcare personnel.
Polling is going to miss all of this because they don't even want to admit the policies are unpopular. It'll be left a mystery which I guess they'll just put it in the catch-all bucket of 'unreachable deplorables' and their 'misinformation'. I was a Bernie guy so no routing for this to happen.
Might wanna consider replacing the name “Trump” with “Fauci” in that first paragraph.
Bureaucratic lifers like Fauci & Collins loaded up that bus, drove it & still have a lead foot on the gas of Covid policy.
Gracious and honest of you to give DeSantis his due. Just don’t fall into the “first blame Trump” trap. It’s childish and tiresome. You’re smarter than that.
🎯
Dr Prasad, what are your thoughts on the CDC adding the COVID-19 vaccine to the childhood recommended vaccines list?
There are progressive states who extended mandates and school closures based on CDC recommendations, instead of facts and data. There is cause for concern that this will put the COVID-19 vaccine back on the table as a mandate for school admission in the same states.
Ironically, this was quietly passed this week just as LA and Washington DC school districts are considering delaying their vaccine mandate for ages 12+ due to the low acceptance from their own districts.