Covid Vaccine: Congress Jumps The Queue
I may not have a Ph.D. Or an Ed.D. But I can read, comprehend and do simple math.
Maybe I should run for Congress.
Seems many of our elected officials in Washington are unaware that Covid-19 is far more deadly to those over 85 than any other age group and that this demographic constitutes 30.5 percent of all American deaths from Covid. In fact, those older than 75 account for 56.8 percent of all fatalities.
So why in the world are we seeing photos of 31-year-old Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with a needle in her arm?
Or Sen. Marco Rubio, 49? Or Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, 54?
They’re getting the vaccine before nursing home residents, homebound elderly, most health-care workers and others who work hard for a living because the CDC deemed them essential to the “continuity of government.”
In other words, they’re privileged.
Members of Congress stampeded to the vaccine station all weekend. Meanwhile, grandma sits in a nursing home praying that today isn’t the day she gets infected.
When asked why they jumped the queue before healthcare workers and the elderly, several pols claimed that they were “setting an example” for their constituents.
Oh, please.
Can you imagine anyone looking at these charlatans and thinking, I don’t trust the brilliant research scientists who developed the vaccine or the FDA that approved it, but now that I’ve seen this former bartender getting the shot I just KNOW it’s safe!
Honestly, the hubris of these people.
Here’s an idea: Politicians ought to set an example by refusing the vaccine until ordinary, decent Americans can get it. That’s what Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is doing.
Sen. Rand Paul also refused the vaccine. Paul pointed out that he’s had the virus and has antibodies and won’t consider getting vaccinated until everyone who wants the shots is able to get them.
Look, I understand vaccinating Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence - they’re in the line of presidential succession and Pelosi is about 100 years old. (Kidding, she’s only 80.) Joe Biden makes sense, too, frail as he is. Plus he’s 78.
But every dose of the vaccine that goes to a politician is one that doesn’t go to a person who is actually in danger of becoming critically ill from the virus.
This is a case where leaders lead by going last.
