A sad commentary

[Fun CH]

The European Union is now requiring a covid passport. Without the passport you can't get into bars restaurants, movie, theaters Etc.

The President of France says it's time for the unvaccinated to stay at home, not us.

In the US federal health care workers are required now to be vaccinated. California is now requiring it's state workers and healthcare workers to become vaccinated.

Its about time.

Edit: both federal government employees and French citizens have the option of showing proof of a negative test. For the Feds, weekly testing is required as well as social distancing and wearing a mask if a person is not vaccinated.

[Fun CH]

I will continue to shop at Hank's without worry for my safety. Other may choose differently... It's a personal decision. There is always Thriftway in Winthrop.

I agree. Hank is one of the pillars of this community. Hank's was one of the first stores to place plexiglass Shields between workers and customers.

And before anyone criticizes someone for not wearing a mask, we have to remember that many of us older folks have medical conditions that prevented folks from wearing masks.

I've worn a mask for a total of about 3 hours during the pandamic. My normal routine is to not be around people indoors anyway. Its one of the reasons that I moved here. Very few people around here in the late 70's when I moved Okanogan County.

I did around 60 solo Backcountry ski tours last season because I felt the risk of avalanche or injury while being out in the mountains solo was less than the risk of contracting covid from a ski partner. And besides, climbing Mountains solo is often blissful.

The solution to increased vaccination rates is for the government to step in and require vaccinations in order to enter any government facilities including public land. For example, No vaccination without a medical exemption,=no fishing or hunting license.

This action preserves people's rights not to be vaccinated while rewarding those who are willing to carry the water for the community.

Why should I or any vaccinated person have to risk exposure from an unvaccinated person with a potential mutant variant strain of covid while hiking the maple pass Loop?

[mister_coffee]

But everybody is entitled to their own opinion.

But nobody is entitled to their own separate set of facts.

My opinion is that a lot of folks have to take a hard look at themselves in the mirror and think about what they have done (and are doing) to themselves and others. While opinions are one thing, making wild claims that could harm your friends and neighbors is something else entirely, and even if that was done out of the purest of intentions it is still an awful thing to do.

[pasayten]

Woodman,

I don't believe in your links or their science, if any, behind it. I am vaccinated and glad of it. But everybody is entitled to their own opinion.

[mister_coffee]

“In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” George Orwell

All you've got to do is look and you know that the vaccines are working. Nationwide, case counts and fatalities are lower than they have been since March of 2020 -- although Washington is a weird exception with stubbornly high case counts in spite of high overall vaccination rates.

At the same time, the rate of COVID-19 amongst unvaccinated populations remains as high as it has ever been.

You are not going to get very far telling me not to believe my own eyes and ears.

[woodman]

I believe that you have all been played. There is plenty of documentation to prove that we have been lied to by MSM. https://thehighwire.com/videos/live-fro ... dallas-tx/

I recognize that the video is very long, so I want to mention an important point that was made... EUA or Emergency Use Authorization was not obtained legally, so there really is no real "authorization" because the powers that be skipped the important steps necessary in order to be able to do that. One of the criteria is that if there are other proven treatments for a disease then they can not get EUA. They have deliberately withheld the availability of these proven treatment methods, and many people suffered and died as a result. These other effective treatment methods were a threat to the jab agenda. Doctors and nurses in hospitals were held hostage to these restrictions on care. Many countries have used early at home treatment kits with great success, especially those countries that are not involved in the vaccine trial. Doctors have not been allowed to practice medicine in the way they did before Covid.. Scientists are threatened to lose their funding if they don't tow the line. It is clear to me that in the US if early at home treatment kits were available, and if these treatments were used freely by doctors from the beginning, the number of deaths and serious injury would have been reduced by atleast 90%.
Top

[mister_coffee]

> Also, Americans are quick to drop all health measures as soon as they are vaccinated.

Even if this is generally true, given that the minority of Americans who have been vaccinated have had to jump through quite a few hoops to get there I suspect that isn't true of the population that has been vaccinated so far. My own anecdotal observations is that the people I know who have been vaccinated (including myself) are continuing to wear masks and social distance.

I suspect that a lot of us will be voluntarily wearing masks in crowded public settings, vaccine or no vaccine, for a long time.

[mister_coffee]

> if the third wave of the pandemic is a small wave, that is awesome.

It is interesting that neither the UK nor Israel are seeing a spike in cases. So they got enough ahead of the virus with their vaccinations that they might well slide through.

The situation here in the states is more ambiguous. My best guess is that we will have a surge in cases but relatively fewer hospitalizations and fatalities. In particular since many, if not most, vulnerable people have had access to a vaccination by now I suspect that we will see relatively more fatalities amongst younger people previously not considered vulnerable.

[pasayten]

I will continue to shop at Hank's without worry for my safety. Other may choose differently... It's a personal decision. There is always Thriftway in Winthrop.

[mister_coffee]

Yes, Hank is a good guy and has made many amazing contributions to our community and we should honor him for it.

However, he has at a minimum been badly misinformed about the nature of the pandemic we are in and his actions showed very little regard for the health and safety of his employees and customers.

Quite a few people who worked in essential jobs got covid over the last year, many of whom were not in the official covid counts because they couldn't or didn't get tested (more than a few only found out several months later when mass antibody testing became available).

[pasayten]

Hank may lean right and may not wear a mask, but he has a heart of gold... His generosity and benevolence to the community is unmatched by any other individual that I know.

[mister_coffee]

It is very sad that a thread encouraging folks to keep wearing masks is considered "political" and is deleted from the other board...

Next thing you know, asking people to wear pants, bathe regularly, and brush their teeth after every meal will also be considered political.