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.