By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

What in the name of sound medical science does it take for the cold, hard truth to sink in to some people’s noggins?

Many hard-right-wingers keep insisting that the COVID pandemic is over. That it’s OK to gallivant about sans face masks. That it’s time to  restore normal lifestyles. That it’s time to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, the doomsayer who serves as senior medical adviser to President Biden.

One of them, rookie Republican U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson — the former physician who now represents the 13th Congressional District in the Texas Panhandle — has been particularly reprehensible in his messaging. “The pandemic is over,” he bellowed via Twitter recently.

No, Dr. Dipsh**! It’s not over. Have you seen the papers lately? The delta variant is sickening people, almost all of whom are not vaccinated.

Bottom line: The vaccines are working. Whether it’s from Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson or Moderna, they’re doing what researchers intend for them to do, which is protect us.

I won’t toss stones at all Republicans. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said it is time for all Americans to get vaccinated. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell has put out the call for vaccinations, too. Other Republicans in Congress have spoken forcefully in favor of the vaccines. However, they are being outshouted by the loons on the right wing of their party, the nut jobs who keep telling dangerous lies about the impact of the vaccines.

This struggle against the pandemic never should have devolved into the political mud-wrestling match it has become. But it has.

We need to pull together. All of us. In the same direction, with the same level of high energy to fight this killer.

What we need is what Gov. Ivey says is missing: “common sense.”