46 Comments

"Walz then adds: "These kids learned resiliency, these kids learned compassion for one another, these kids learned problem solving -- they had to figure out how to get online and do this.!"

This makes me really really angry. "It's ok. What I did to them just made them stronger." No, they didn't learn resiliency, they didn't learn compassion. They were lonely emotional messes. They learned to fear that they might kill grandma, got tremendous guilt if they got Covid, they gained weight which still hasn't dropped, stopped exercising, dropped a year or two in maturity so that teachers have seen behavior problems in middle school they'd never seen before, and they are now addicted to their computers, and classrooms have moved online so that we parents have ZERO ability to take their computers away because homework is done and turned in online. It's so bad, that parents are begging teachers to take away the Chromebooks in classrooms, and teachers are trying to figure out how to get the computers back out of the classroom to gain attention control back.

He's not just wrong, he's abusive, and he can't even come close to apologizing.

By his reasoning, we should just start punching kids because it teaches resiliency and compassion.

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The OTHER kind of coach we are all familiar with.

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Ok he was a bit hardline in Nov ‘22 - they did have data on it (dropped testing scores) - but would bet he wouldn’t do it again if similar lethality virus

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He needs to come out and say that then. I'm not willing to bet my teenager's life on this stuff because a second round of lockdowns will contribute to the anxiety and high cortisol that the first one started, and another 20 pounds is not acceptable for kids who are now obese.

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You’re being generous , Dr.

He deserves an F .

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Now do Connecticut please. Last month, they finally stopped Covid restrictions on utility shutoffs for non-payment. $200 million is being added to the bills of those of us who did pay for the next 10 months. To say nothing of the no bid contract the governors wife got to provide all the tests for the state. That’s just the beginning.

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As I’ve said before, I can’t blame pols for overzealous pandemic policies, because they themselves know nothing about it. Have any of them kept up with the millions of Covid studies produced since 2020? If they did, do any of them have even a little ability to critically assess evidence? No, so they relied on Fauci and friends, who misled everyone, and US governors made the same mistakes as leaders in other countries.

I can understand being angry about it, and I can understand wanting to avoid the same mistakes if/when another pandemic arises. Ron DeSantis made the right choices, not because he’s smart, but because he was well advised, and the advice matched what his base wanted.

I think the answer is education. Who’s gonna tell Democrats that the NPIs, the mask mandates, the vaccine mandates, were truly useless, possibly worse than useless, in a way that they won’t dismiss as conspiracy theory? Who’s gonna explain why, and provide the evidence or CDC choose to ignore? One or two of them seem to understand that they did everything wrong, but the rest don’t know this yet. I myself am a Democrat. Early on, I was completely gung ho for every restriction you can think of until I realized that I could barely tolerate a mask for 5 minutes. It was only then that I started looking for other information on the Twitter machine (it wasn’t really available anywhere else). Since those times, I’ve reversed my point of view 180 degrees. If I can listen to reason, maybe there’s hope for Tim Walz.

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Establishing a snitch line didn’t require staying up with the literature. It reflects a ridiculous over reach that contributed to pitting people against each other.

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It's okay if you can't blame them for their overzealous responses.

I'll be happy to blame them for you.

I hope enough of us are able to blame them that the lampposts look like chandeliers next time they do this.

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The “snitch line” takes the cake. His instincts AND intellect were so off base. Infuriating and also scary…

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agree 100%. The worst governor in America.

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Here’s the thing - he overreached - yes no one is disputing that. He should have turned things back to normal after vaccines came out. We know that. But they were acting on terrible information streams. Why Dr. Prasad keeps highlighting the “superlative” Republican response here is not comprehensible. That side put politics ahead of science - and they were correct but so is a broken clock occasionally right? If the initial virus was as deadly as envisioned they would have been wrong. But they also touted garbage treatments and undermined vaccine uptake.

Bigger point - the next sorta harmful to the old virus before a vaccine that happens - Walz is not going to overreach. He learns and adjusts. Dr Prasad’s heroes like Desantis (who didn’t allow restaurant owners to request vaccination even if they liked - some freedom!) will seek political talking points more than needed science.

And yes the policies hurt minorities but that’s not why they did them. The guy who fights for universal prek and school breakfasts and reproductive rights more likely does have more help coming for such populations - despite

Covid history.

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"the next sorta harmful to the old virus before a vaccine that happens - Walz is not going to overreach. "

Walz can't even acknowledge what he did wrong! There's no way he will even know that he's overreaching. Because he thinks he's RIGHT. And that the kids are just fine and dandy. He's just plain ignorant

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DeSantis READ the medical literature and had experts , kulldorf and battacharya advise his policies. The rest were sleeping with the teachers unions and with TDS in full psychological play, whatever Trump advised the knee jerk was DO THE OPPOSITE.

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Lol no he didn't....this is the guy banning books and refusing to address greenhouse gas emissions and signing abortion bands in a state where the maternal mortality rate is rising. His politics happened to align with a sensible covid policy.

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When your enemies are right, it's blind luck; when your allies are fascists, it's good intentions.

What an interesting mental landscape.

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Acknowledging civil liberties and restraints on one's authority is putting "politics ahead of science"?

And OF COURSE, it's ok to implement policies that disproportionately harm minorities and poor people as long as you didn't mean to. That's basically the whole premise that progressivism is built on.

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I get it -- you guys won -- I only fear if the next virus not be more lethal. Public health is too crippled from the last response to do anything meaningful should the need arise.

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Nobody won. And anyone ("side?") who values civil liberties and open inquiry will always be correct, no matter how bad any future virus might be. Nobody thinks Walz was only wrong because the virus turned out to be mild.

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We are about to become a combo of California and Minnesota. They aren’t kidding about not going back. I shudder for my grands.

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And to think....as bad as this is...it doesn't even make the top 3 of his worst decisions. But you'd never know it by the MSM's pusing the "he's everyone's uncle" talking point.

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Do tell....

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say what it is. communist/marxist. done

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With a nod to Prairie Home Companion, I'd have thought the Minnesotan version of "neighborliness" meant bringing a mac and cheese casserole and jello mold to a sick neighbor for covid relief, not snitching on them for behaving like normal social humans.

This number 2 is a notably weak VP candidate in an historically weak Democrat ticket.

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Who will probably win because the historic asininity of the Republic party in selecting an election-denying blowhard as their candidate.

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Maybe so. But don't complain about doctors offering political views. Your's are quite obvious.

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I’m pretty sure this political view is completely unbiased as Vinay already noted that he is a democrat. This is purely based on the Governor’s COVID-19 response which in my view is clinically relevant.

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Totally agree!

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Actually no- if you’ve followed Vinay Prasad for any appreciable length of time you would know that he’s a self proclaimed liberal Democrat. When it comes to science and medicine, he’s all about the facts and evidenced based research. That is what guides his articles and views.

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I think you are confusing patient with subscriber.

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I missed where Dr. Prasad expressed his political views. I did see his scientifically based views though.

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Snitch lines. Nope. Red line for me.

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Like WALZ, the majority of Minnesotans are FAT. As we know. fat people and covid is a bad combo. Just like Bernie Sanders who said the covid vaccinations should go FIRST to people in old age homes/ and assisted living, he failed to add that HIS voters are old and so is he.

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Vinay, you’re charitable. I would give him an F (and an f you).

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Yes, he is a disgrace !

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