Since coronavirus is a serious and deadly issue, it is tempting to headline this piece with the storm of controversy surrounding Nicki Minaj.
But that would be, well, you have to put them in the store first.
In fact, what the hip-hop star did is emblematic of the flood of misinformation about vaccines. And by the way, for all the conservative criticism about President Biden’s vaccine mandates, a new poll shows majority support for his stance.
I shouldn’t say that, but anyone who knows anything about science understands that an anecdotal case means nothing. The “I-know-a-boy-who-knows-a-boy” approach makes no sense.
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But Minaj went there with this tweet: “My cousin in Trinidad won’t get the vaccine because his friend got it and he became powerless. His testicles swelled. His friend was a few weeks away from getting married. , now the girl canceled the wedding. Just pray there and make sure you are comfortable with your decision, and don’t be intimidated. “
Therefore, a man he does not know personally developed a testicular problem that could have been caused by a sexually transmitted disease or something other than the Covid vaccine. And Minaj uses it to alarm his 22 million followers.
The reaction was fierce. MSNBC’s Joy Reid unloaded the singer: “Use your platform to put people in a position to die of a disease they shouldn’t die of, oh my God. How they do it, how they do it hip hop, like someone who is your fan, I’m so sad you did it. So sad you did it, sister. Oh, my God. “
Minaj essentially responded by calling the cable host as a racial traitor, “This is what happens when you’re so thirsty to take down another black woman (at the request of the white man) that you didn’t bother to read all my tweets. “My God SISTER do better” imagine getting your ass on TV a minute after a tweet to spread a fake story about a black woman. “
At the request of the white man?
He even called Reid “uncle tomania.” And he told Meghan McCain to “eat s.”
Minaj says his words were twisted. He said he didn’t go to the New York Met Gala (the one where AOC wore the “Tax the Rich” gown) because “if I get vaccinated I won’t [be] for the Met. It will be once I feel like I have researched enough. “Vaccines have been available since late last year and Pfizer is FDA approved; how much more research do you need?
This flap, which hit an early segment of Fox, is entertaining, but it’s much deeper. Many of the 80 million unvaccinated Americans may feel that they have legitimate reasons for refusal, some of them linked to politics, but this hesitation remains a major obstacle for our country.
Faced with strong criticism of Biden’s move by many elected Republicans, a Morning Consult / Politico poll has some enlightening numbers.
Fifty-eight percent of adults surveyed favor vaccination warrants or weekly testing for employees of all but the smallest companies.
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Sixty-two percent want states to encourage shooting for all school employees; 60% support a mandate for most health care workers; 56% support this approach for most federal workers and contractors.
But, and this will come as no surprise, the partisan abyss is vast. When it comes to vaccine mandates for private sector employees, 80% of Democrats say yes, compared to only 33% of Republicans.
There is now a major debate over whether Biden exceeds his legal authority. But I doubt Republican support would be so low if Donald Trump were still president and took that step.
In the real world, there are an average of 172,000 new cases of Covid-19 every day. In the real world, one in four hospitals claims that more than 95% of intensive care beds are occupied. And all the ICU beds are occupied in Alabama. That means other patients are “in the waiting room, some are in the back of ambulances, things like that,” a spokeswoman for the Alabama Hospital Association told The New York Times.
Remember, as the story goes, unvaccinated Americans are ten times more likely to be hospitalized with Covid than those who have been shot.
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Biden originally opposed the vaccination orders, but his efforts to persuade him hit a wall. I’m sick of reading about anti-cowboys dying from the disease, whether it’s on talk radio (there was another one, Denver pastor Bob Enyart, Monday), or normal people. In some cases, they leave children behind. All of these cases are a tragedy and are preventable deaths. We routinely need shots against measles, chickenpox, and hepatitis. Why has the Covid vaccine become a lightning rod?
Too many people would rather treat vaccines as a political fight than figure out how to save lives. And, like Nicki Minaj, they sing the wrong tune.