Tag Archives: COVID

Investigate? For what?

Ronny “The Twitter King” Jackson keeps yammering about launching an investigation into Dr. Anthony Fauci when Republicans take control of Congress after this year’s midterm election.

Jackson, the rookie congressman from Texas’s 13th District, doesn’t specify what the charges against Fauci would entail. Hmm. Why do you suppose that’s the case?

I figure it’s because the moron doesn’t have a clue. He’s just angry because Fauci keeps telling us it is wise to mask up, to keep our distance from strangers and to take other precautionary measures against getting sick from the COVID-19 virus.

As for Jackson, the nimrod who’s got his share of troubles staring him in his puss, he ought to show a bit more respect for one of world’s premier infectious disease doctors. Indeed, he ought to lay low on Twitter for a while as the House Ethics Committee determines if he broke the damn law by using campaign funds for personal expenses, which has been alleged against this clown.

Jackson, let’s recall once was nominated to become veterans affairs secretary by Donald J. Trump. He pulled his name back after allegations surfaced about his conduct, relating to accusations of harassment, drinking on the job and dispensing drugs a bit too cavalierly.

So, he moved to the Texas Panhandle, ran for Congress and then got elected. Good grief!

He’s been nothing but an insufferable pain in the ass ever since, firing off Twitter messages incessantly castigating the commander in chief and, of course, Dr. Fauci.

I am waiting with bated breath to see what in the name of demagoguery the former doctor — Jackson — plans to investigate about the job Dr. Fauci has done while helping us navigate our way out of this pandemic.

I just wish the Twitter King Jackson would just shut the hell up.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Go ahead and sue, Mr. POTUS

President Biden’s administration has filed an appeal to overturn a federal judge’s ruling that tossed out the mask mandate ordered by the president as the nation struggles to contain the COVID pandemic and the virus’s assorted variants.

Go ahead and appeal all you want, Mr. President.

My wife and I are going to keep masking up. We’re going to keep maintaining our distance from strangers. We’re going to keep washing our hands frequently.

The judge, based in Florida, tossed out the mandate citing some nutty notion that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acted outside of its legal authority. Federal transportation authorities then removed the mandate on public transportation systems.

The president, though, is proceeding with his appeal. Fine. Go for it.

It won’t matter one damn bit to my wife and me. We’re going to keep doing what we can to prevent getting sick with the virus. We’re vaccinated to the hilt. That’s not enough, apparently. Masks are going to offer us protection. I’m all in on wearing masks.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Masks become a political weapon

There once was a time when the government told us to do something to protect our health, most of us would comply in relative silence. Few of us griped out loud.

No more, folks!

A federal judge this week overturned a mandate from the federal government to require airline passengers to wear masks to protect themselves against the COVID-19 virus. The Transportation Safety Administration has just decided it won’t require passengers to mask up before boarding planes.

I will go to my grave failing to grasp what in the world has happened to us. I will wonder forever and ever why we have begun fighting back with such anger at government’s desire to keep us safe from a disease that has killed nearly 1 million Americans.

Sigh …

It’s not entirely the “American way” to fight these efforts. Sure, we are a nation born from dissent against tyranny. Now we hear from those on the far-right wing of our political divide that “tyranny” has returned to government. It comes in the form of government ordering us to wear masks.

I scratch my noggin over that anger. Maybe I am just too passive. Some of you might think I’m a patsy, that I don’t stand up for my “rights” against an intrusive government.

I simply just comply with these mandates understanding that none of them lasts forever.

That anger has spread to visceral antagonism against medical professionals who advise the president on these matters. I have lost count of the rants I have read on social media from right-wing politicians who vow to prosecute Dr. Anthony Fauci over alleged “crimes” he supposedly has committed.

Crimes? What the … ?

It’s a new day, all right.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

They want this guy back?

Just think: a lot of Americans want to see this guy returned to the office he denigrated, disrespected and devalued damn near each day he occupied it.

I saw this social media meme and wanted to share it here. I don’t know its source; it doesn’t matter. I believe its content, although I need to put a couple of the barbs in some proper context.

The bit about “killing more Americans than Hitler” and losing “5 million jobs” is attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic, which wasn’t entirely Donald Trump’s fault. Yes, he did downplay the seriousness of it as the killer virus began its path of death and destruction through the nation and around the world. That helped contribute to the calamity that befell the nation in 2020 and 2021.

And yet, millions of Americans continue to say he “told it like it is.” No, he didn’t. He told it the way he wanted us to believe it to be.

I should add that the 45th POTUS also told an estimated 35,000 lies, put many of our international alliances in jeopardy, mocked people with disabilities and prisoners of war and — this is the best one — became a Vladimir Putin enabler by refusing to admit the Russian tyrant is a killer and by refusing to condemn him for interfering in our electoral process.

Puh-leeeze …

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Annual COVID vaccine? Sure thing!

If the nation’s medical pros are right that we’re going to be consigned to getting annual vaccines to fend off the COVID virus, well, I’m all for it.

I keep hearing that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the president’s team of medical advisers are telling us that the virus won’t be exterminated, that we might have to get the vaccines each year. We do it with the flu, correct?

If that’s the case, then I am totally OK with that.

My wife and I this week obtained our second booster vaccine. We went to our CVS pharmacy in Princeton, Texas. We were in and out in just a few minutes. The nurse who stuck the needles into our arms was pleasant. Why, she even told us we didn’t have to wait 15 minutes in case of ill effect from the vaccine; “I just have to advise you,” she said.

This appears to be in our future. Whether it’s a long-term routine remains to be determined. Whether it’s long term, medium term or short term doesn’t bother me in the least.

We are both prepared to do what our government says it will take to protect us against the virus.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

No ‘right’ to endanger others

Ted Cruz, bless his stone-cold heart, is once again on the wrong side of a compelling national public policy, which happens to be the idea of the government forcing Americans to get vaccinated against a killer disease.

The Republican junior U.S. senator from Texas has joined the “People’s Convoy” of truckers seeking an end to government COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

According to the Texas Tribune:

“If you make the choice to take the COVID vaccine, God bless you. That’s your right, and you have every right to do that,” said Cruz, who is vaccinated. “But if you make the choice not to take the vaccine, that is also your right.”

Health officials and medical experts have consistently said that masks can prevent the spread of COVID-19 and that getting the vaccine and subsequent boosters can reduce the chances of being hospitalized or dying from the virus. They also cite vaccines as key to slowing the pandemic.

Sigh …

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/03/10/ted-cruz-peoples-convoy-truckers-covid/

It’s no one’s “right” to put others in potentially mortal danger by not wearing a mask, maintaining social distance and getting vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.

I am delighted as the dickens to see hospitalizations from the pandemic declining. So are deaths. Infections, too. I am one American, though, who is willing to do whatever the government requires me to do to avoid getting sick, or getting my loved ones sick, or sickening total strangers.

If only other total strangers felt the same way in protecting my loved ones and me from their stupidity.

Ted Cruz has joined the ranks of the stupid cabal.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Happy pandemic ‘anniversary’

Gosh, it’s been two years since the global killer virus pandemic arrived in North Texas, which is what the TV news anchors are telling us today.

Do I wish everyone a “happy anniversary”? Nah. I’ll pass on that one.

I will take note of the date the media are marking by stating that it has taken us two full years since the virus struck its first victim in this part of the world to get it under control … at least that is everyone’s hope.

The World Health Organization (which we have since rejoined since Joe Biden became president), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United Nations and a slew of other medical experts are saying the “pandemic” has given way to an “endemic.” I think that is their way of saying that the coronavirus — aka COVID 19 — is here to stay, possibly forever, but that we’re going to have deal with it the way we deal with the flu and other common infectious diseases.

It will be my sincere hope that in the future we can wish ourselves a “happy anniversary” to mark the date that the COVID 19 virus is deemed no longer crucial to the way we conduct our lives.

I’m all for celebrating that day.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

No return to ‘normal’ … yet

Have we arrived at that place I will refer to as Post-Pandemic Nirvana? I am not yet willing to kick up my heels, break out into a song and shout from the roof of my North Texas home that we’re there … at least not yet.

Several states have declared their intention to lift mandates on masks in indoor places. One of them — my home state of Oregon — has caused a lifted eyebrow or two, given that state’s political climate and the aggressive nature of Gov. Kate Brown’s desire to impose mandates.

Texas isn’t one of the states to lift any mandates. Why is that? Because we haven’t had any mandates. I am sure Gov. Greg Abbott is going to take credit for the declining infection and hospitalization rate from the COVID-19 virus. Save it, governor. I am going to credit the vaccines and Texans’ willingness to adhere to mask “requests” along with social distancing recommendations.

I am going to continue to mask up for the foreseeable future. I don’t trust total strangers’ vaccine status. Nor do I trust their hygiene habits or their willingness to stay the hell away from me in closed locations.

I will join the rest of the country in cheering the decline in infection rates from the Omicron variant and the various sub-variants that haven’t yet been branded with a name. However, we shouldn’t yet return to what we used to define as “normal” behavior.

I am keeping my masks handy.

And you?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

COVID cases falling everywhere except …

U.S. health officials report good news on the fight to curb infection, hospitalization and death from the COVID-19 pandemic virus.

It is that infection rates are falling in 49 of the 50 American states. Which state is the anomaly? Alabama. Oh, there’s also this: Alabama has the lowest vaccination rate of any state in the Union.

Hmm. What does that tell you? It tells me that vaccines are doing their job. It tells me that those who refuse to be vaccinated are putting themselves, their loved ones and their friends at potentially dire peril from the virus.

I have several good friends in Alabama, so I am going to send good thoughts to them and their families. As for those who refuse to heed the wisdom passed down by the medical experts about the efficacy of the vaccines, well, I hope they don’t get unduly sickened by a preventable disease.

The nation is beginning to reap the reward of vaccines that were fast-tracked in 2020 and that are now establishing their value against a virus that has killed nearly 900,000 Americans.

There might never be a day when the COVID-19 virus is eradicated. At the very least we are going to have to learn to live with it, deal with it and protect ourselves and our loved ones against its infection.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Pandemic paranoia?

Paranoia is no fun when you are dealing with a deadly disease and the potential — no matter how remote it might seem — of being sickened by it.

I now shall explain.

I came down three days ago with a head cold. Classic symptoms: a little scratchy throat, a bit of a cough, runny nose, sneezing. You know, the usual. But wait! My mind started racing. Was it COVID-19, the virus that is still making people sick, sending them to the hospital, forcing medical personnel to roll out the ventilators, putting people into medically induced comas?

No. It wasn’t that. I sought to get a test. I couldn’t find a place to obtain one immediately. So, I waited it out. I’m well now. I am back to my usual effervescent self.

This is one of the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic that is annoying me to no end. I know what a head cold feels like. I’ve been getting ’em for, oh, more than seven decades. 

It kinda reminds me of when someone cuts me off on the street. My initial instinct used to be to lay on my horn, possibly shout a bad word or two and maybe offer an obscene gesture. No more, man! This is Texas! You never know who’s got a firearm with him. Too many damn road-rage episodes are being reported and too many of them are ending tragically.

Am I paranoid when I drive my truck? Not really … but I could get that way.

No, I am not paranoid because I caught a three-day head cold. It’s just that the killer virus has given me pause.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com