NPR had a cute little infographic that showed vaccination rates by state. Click on the link and let me know if you see any discernable patterns. I could dance around the data and try to tell you all kinds of interesting facts, but I think we all know what’s going on here.

Except this story continues to evolve. Doctors and other medical professionals are exhausted. As a teacher, I see increased numbers but I don’t deal with the immediacy of it. They do. They see not only the increased numbers of unvaccinated people coming into the hospitals, but they also see the people with real medical emergencies being turned away.

However, some hospitals are fighting back. At least that’s the plan. It will be interesting to see if that kind of policy will work. For those that don’t want to click on the link, essentially some hospitals want to deny ICU beds to people that are unvaccinated. They will get care, but they will get care somewhere else in the hospital. Maybe it will be in the hall. Maybe it will be in the basement. For too many it will likely be in the morgue.

The former president held one of his rallies in Alabama and was roundly booed when he suggested his audience get the vaccine. You have to wonder if he felt like Dr. Frankenstein after letting the monster out to play. It’s become a perfect storm of idiocy and bombastic jackasses rolled up in one package.

Meanwhile, the misinformation piles up. I’ve heard some real doozies in the past few days. I’ve heard the vaccine is experimental. This is in spite of the fact that FDA gave complete approval to the Pfizer version on Monday. I heard that the vaccine killed one lady’s two friends within three days. You could utter the words “post hoc ergo propter hoc” but I’m afraid that most people just assume you are having a sneezing fit.

I’ve heard that it has the same rates as the flu. This usually follows the announcements that this person never gets the flu shot and they have never been sick. So, they trust God to keep them safe. We’ve heard all of these and more. The next thing you hear is about that person taking up a hospital bed.

I’d like to yell and scream, but I’m just too tired. I’d like to fill this space with caps locked profanity, but it wouldn’t do any good. The best thing that can happen is for all of the vaccines to get final approval and for the government to mandate vaccinations. Sure, some would refuse in a kind of Thelma and Louise blaze of glory, but we would get up to the levels necessary for herd immunity.

Some would blather on about this and that, but it’s time to just pat them on the head and give them the shot. The alternative is for all of us to end up like the town of Iraan. That’s the problem here. Even the vaccinated and masked clearly aren’t safe. That’s why lifting our hands and letting Darwin take care of it won’t work. They need to be brought kicking and screaming if we have to. The time for tolerating fools is long gone.

This is not the only story like this, but apparently the entire town of Iraan is closed. They’ve shut down the schools and apparently everything else because nearly half the town has COVID. It is reminiscent of the scene in “My Cousin Vinny” when an entire store caught the flu.

Yet, this kind of thing happens all the time. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen towns totally shut down because half of the residents are sick. Oh wait, that’s never happened in our lifetimes. Never mind. Nothing to see here. Disperse. Go back to your homes and your regularly scheduled program.

Rick Perry has come out of hiding, and by gawd, that boy’s going to Austin!

I imagine the legal bills over the investigation into the Department of Energy have left the boy in need of some greenbacks.  I will bet you a fresh five dollar bill American cash money that he’s got an air filter that kills all known germs including the one that causes bad breath and heel spurs.

I suspect that most of you are familiar with Dan Crenshaw, the congressshiver from Texas.

Once a year, members of congress are required to file a sworn statement of their personal finances so we can see who has bought them.  They disclose large gifts, stocks, bonds, speaking fees, money made off of personal book sales, and other kickbacks.

They were due April 26th. Dan Crenshaw asked for a 90 day extension. And that deadline swooshed past 10 days ago.

Naturally, you gotta wonder what he’s trying to hide.

I think Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen might know.

Houston Rep. Dan Crenshaw’s bestselling new book, Fortitude: American Resilience in the Era of Outrage, has been boosted by the National Republican Congressional Committee making a large bulk-order purchase.

The House GOP’s campaign arm recently spent nearly $400,000 to buy more than 25,000 copies of the freshman Republican’s tome.

So, the RNC comes in and places a large bulk order which helps to push Dan to the best seller list and Dan makes a personal kickback on every book.

Hummm … I guess he’s late with his filing because he lacks … what’s the word for it? Oh yeah, Fortitude.

Occasionally, you get the opportunity for a good extended metaphor. Those of us in the Gulf South know all too well what it is like to survive and recover from a storm. Most of us in the Gulf South can identify four stages of surviving a storm.

The first stage is the preparation stage. We know the storm is coming. So, from here we all make calculated decisions. Do we stay and mitigate or do we drive inland? Will we need to board up our windows? Do we have enough emergency supplies in case we lose power. You get the idea.

The second stage is the storm itself. If you are riding it out you just hunker down and do the best you can. If you’ve gone inland there is the worry that something bad will happen to your home or someone else you know. So far, everyone is in the same boat.

The third stage is the immediate aftermath. People are still fairly unified. Neighbors help neighbors and everyone pitches in. We clean up the damage. We make repairs. We deal with insurance adjusters, contractors, and the occasional con man trying to win one over during a crisis.

It is the fourth stage that is the problem. Some people get back to normal quickly. Some people never do. Talk to any charity and they will tell you the same thing. There is an initial enthusiasm that people have when giving that just goes away. People give around Christmas and then in January those charities dry up.

Most experts have said that it takes up to two years for most people to recover from a storm. Most of us just don’t have that kind of attention span. Amidst all of the political mumbo jumbo related to the pandemic, it is this fatigue that is costing us. Of course, one can’t avoid the other connection to a storm when we talk about the eye of the storm.

I vividly remember Hurricane Alicia as a kid. The eye passed over Galveston and Houston. Briefly everything seemed fine. Then the storm raged again. We knew it would back then, so we stayed hunkered down. Sadly, the eye of the storm of COVID came and went. We were told it was over. At every turn there has been an almost desperate need to put the virus behind us.

First, it was following the first lockdowns. People wanted to get out. Then, it was the warmer weather and the thought that viruses couldn’t survive in warmer weather. Then, it was an experimental round of drugs that were being peddled like snake oil at town square. Finally, we had a vaccine and the initial rush of most people getting the jab.

At each stage, the optimism was a fool’s errand. Weeks of progress were erased by super spreader events. Politicians desperate to save the almighty economy failed to uphold common sense safety measures. Some of them (cough Dan Patrick cough) even said they were willing to make an even swap. When that didn’t go over well he shifted his blame to Democrats and black people.

Storms come and go. They wreak their havoc, cause their damage, and leave some devastated. For a brief while, we all stand up and pitch in as much as we can. Then, we lose our focus. Life interrupts even the best of intentions. Even the most dedicated of people lose their focus. Obviously, some of us are not the best.

The virus is worse than a storm. If I hunker down and practice common sense measures I can keep myself and family safe during a storm. The virus doesn’t offer that kind of guarantee. The idiots ruin it for the rest of us. They clog up the hospitals. They infect those that are trying to be careful. They keep this thing going. Fatigue is real. So is being an idiot.

It used to be in Mississippi that people with Covid, but mild symptoms, would go and purposefully blow on your grandmother.  They are like that in Mississippi – perpetually 7 years old and mean as hell.  It got so bad that Mississippi State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs issued an edict saying that once people found out they had Covid, they are required to isolated for 10 days or else.

The else?

None of these people have $5,000 so I’m going with the five years in prison.

It’s not going to take long until Thomas Dobbs is in the unemployment line.