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The problem in ours, and many other states; are unilateral decisions being made by governors using provisions never designed for plandemics(lol).
These decisions need to be made by respective state legislatures, so as to represent the majority will of the people.
And considering how many aren't even willing to take the jabs, keeping things closed/restricted now seems pointless.
With respect to rugged individualism, employees in other countries have also objected to vaccinations; stating discrimination.
They'll be many lawsuits over this one, and little to no precedent for courts to make decisions.
The vaccine should be first-come first-served. 30% of NYC health care workers are refusing the vaccine. Enough with bureaucracy wasting time deciding who is in what “phase” and who is more important than who. I don’t care about your race or your income or your job. Make the thing first-come first served. You sign up online, take a number, and get your vax. I’m ready to sign up right now.
Where I live (St. Charles County) we have lower numbers of COVID than St. Louis city and/or St. Louis County, even counting for population numbers. And even though St. Louis city and county have tighter restrictions.
I'm thinking maybe the reasons might be because in our county, we are mostly a community of single family dwellers. Sure, we have apartment complexes and condos and townhouses, but we're MOSTLY single family dwellers. AND most of us have our own cars and don't depend on busses, trains, etc. to get around.
On the other side of the river, there are people who rely on the metrolink and/or the bus to get around. Modes of transportation where a lot of people are in a confined space every single day, if they're relying on them to get back and forth to work.
And then, if you live in an apartment (or anything NOT single family dwelling) are you sharing laundry facilities? Are you wiping down the washers and dryers and light switches before you use them? Do you wear a mask when you use a common area? Do you have your own private entry, or do you enter through a common area, the same as many other people?
I kind of think maybe this is how the virus is spreading faster over THERE, than it is here on this side of the river.
And so...if I'm right, that would perhaps mean that individualism is at least in part, keeping more people well, than making people sick.
I have heard the media on many occasions stating how hospitals are overflowing. If that were true, the Navy ship in NY would have been required, it instead sat empty. Friends who are medical professionals in my local area said there is no overload around here even though the local news was telling everyone there was. On one occasion they showed a local hospital prepping for the large influx, except they failed to realize New England doesnt have palm trees and the pictures they were using had palm trees in the background. I dont know where you would find this information other than from the media, but in my opinion, its not really a question I would even think to ask. I just know the media isnt always accurate with the info they provide and use stories such as this to invoke fear.
If all of the facts were presented, not partial facts or a compilation of outlying cases, I feel the public may have a much different outlook. We may have a much more positive attitude, more comradery, etc.
You live in NH that #46 for total number of cases, and is reporting approximately 50% of the National Average for both cases and deaths per 1M. Of course the hospitals are not overcrowded....
NYC put five times the capacity of the navy ship into the Javits Center. Gimme a break.....
Keep them damn palm trees outta New England.....
When and how would you know and be satisfied that all the facts had been presented?
I bet to differ. Individualism would have been a foreign concept in the American colonial era. Having emerged from the middle ages, there was a clear concept of one's place in society and the body politic. This was true of MA as well as VA. Some rich, some poor and one's place went back as far as Wintrop when he came with his great fleet in 1630. By 1775, New Englanders may have been hostile to the "airs" of the Virginians who came but they had a clear idea of where they fit in the order of their society.
In VA, an individual had rights as determined by race, sex, family, property and status but there was an obligation and a rigid hierachy. It was something someone couldn't avoid. The more you had, the more the obligation. Thus, Washington and Madison may have been ambivalent about religion but they were members of their respective vestries; they ran plantations which were in effect small towns with hundreds of people meaning they also sat on juries and other civic bodies even if they chose not to run for the House of Burgess. You couldn't avoid it really in VA. Starting in 1657 all tithable people hand to work on the roads. In 1676, Col. Hill of Charles City County, a man of status was fined for not working on the road as required. In 1690, Governor Nicholson ordered that if the justices overseeing the roads did not enforce the work requirement, the justices would be fined. I could go on, but this continued. Even being in the militia was mandatory. (It still is in VA, technically under § 44-4. whereby all able bodied men and women between 16 and 55 are in the Unorganized State Militia - it was last called up in 2017 - but only a handful during the unrest in Charlottesville where they took over some traffic duties to free up State Police.)
The late Bernard Bailyn (1922-2020) wrote about this relationship in his works. The role of class and individuals is a theme running through his work.
Good points. But I think the "rugged individualism" meme arose later, after the nation began to expand westward, building lonely outposts on the Plains or in the forests, lone pioneer families eking out an existence in sod houses, or Davy Crocket backwoodsman types, and such.
I have heard the media on many occasions stating how hospitals are overflowing. If that were true, the Navy ship in NY would have been required, it instead sat empty. Friends who are medical professionals in my local area said there is no overload around here even though the local news was telling everyone there was. On one occasion they showed a local hospital prepping for the large influx, except they failed to realize New England doesnt have palm trees and the pictures they were using had palm trees in the background. I dont know where you would find this information other than from the media, but in my opinion, its not really a question I would even think to ask. I just know the media isnt always accurate with the info they provide and use stories such as this to invoke fear.
If all of the facts were presented, not partial facts or a compilation of outlying cases, I feel the public may have a much different outlook. We may have a much more positive attitude, more comradery, etc.
The Southwest (AZ/NM) is full-up in the intensive care units, and the NM governor is desperate to dial the infection rate back, before people have to be turned away from the hospitals.
The vaccine should be first-come first-served. 30% of NYC health care workers are refusing the vaccine. Enough with bureaucracy wasting time deciding who is in what “phase” and who is more important than who. I don’t care about your race or your income or your job. Make the thing first-come first served. You sign up online, take a number, and get your vax. I’m ready to sign up right now.
I have wondered about this. When the swine virus (I think that was the one.) it was first come, first serve. I remember there being a few large gathering places, and people lining up to get it. I've wondered why the same hasn't been done for this vaccine.
(And I'm not implying anything, or insinuating conspiracy, or anything like that. I've just really wondered why it's not being done like that.)
Where I live (St. Charles County) we have lower numbers of COVID than St. Louis city and/or St. Louis County, even counting for population numbers. And even though St. Louis city and county have tighter restrictions.
<snip>
And so...if I'm right, that would perhaps mean that individualism is at least in part, keeping more people well, than making people sick.
I agree, and to the bold above, this is exactly why a collectivist, one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work in a country of our size. Nor should it, based on how the United States of America was designed by our founders, where the states are (should be) more powerful than the federal. What works in NYC is wholly and completely inappropriate for your county.
The Southwest (AZ/NM) is full-up in the intensive care units, and the NM governor is desperate to dial the infection rate back, before people have to be turned away from the hospitals.
Last time I looked, California is using a system, that as the ICU's dip to 15% or lower availability, COVID restrictions get tighter. Almost the whole state (by county) is at 15% or lower, and it can change by the day.
If the numbers climb above 15%, some restrictions are lifted. If it dips again, the restrictions are put back in place.
Like I said...this was the last time I checked (last week). There was only ONE county above 15%
The OP's main complaint seems to be that our culture isn't well suited to mitigating a contagious pandemic. Yet our Enlightenment-based culture has suited us quite well over the past, let's say two and a half centuries or so.
We have:
Abolished slavery
Given women the right to vote
Legalized gay marriage
Established world peace as an ultimate goal
India still struggles with violence against women, religious riots, and legacies of the caste system.
China (Beijing) still sends ethnic minorities to concentration camps, still forces the Dalai Lama to live in exile, and cracks down hard on Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters.
We may "get offended" when a foreign classmate gets too personal without realizing it. But so what? We are told to be very cautious because anything we say or do can be perceived as a "microaggression". Why now invite our foreign classmates to take stock of their own unintended microaggressions?
The vaccine should be first-come first-served. 30% of NYC health care workers are refusing the vaccine. Enough with bureaucracy wasting time deciding who is in what “phase” and who is more important than who. I don’t care about your race or your income or your job. Make the thing first-come first served. You sign up online, take a number, and get your vax. I’m ready to sign up right now.
I don't usually agree with you, but you maybe right about this.
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