Friday Lagniappe
When I was a metro columnist for The Virginian-Pilot I had an editor who used to urge me to write what he called “bits ‘n pieces” columns. You know, pieces that contained more than one subject. He said people liked them. I wasn’t sure.
Today I’m giving it a try. So this is for you, Nelson.
Stop with all the smallpox comparisons: I know it’s popular with the get-vaxxed-or-else crowd to compare Gen. George Washington’s smallpox vaccine mandate with today’s Covid-19 mandates.
But they’re not the same.
First, Washington’s 1777 mandate applied only to members of the Continental Army. Not civilians. It was a readiness issue. Smallpox was blamed for the patriots’ loss in the Battle of Quebec two years earlier. Even today we accept that military members are subject to many rules that civilians are not.
Oh, and Washington himself was not vaccinated because he’d contracted smallpox at the age of 19 in Barbados. In fact, all of his soldiers were carefully inspected for signs of prior infections before being allowed to be inoculated.
Seems Washington believed in natural immunity. Quick, call Dr. Fauci.
Second, arguing that Washington’s mandates were constitutional is laughable because there was no U.S. Constitution to protect civil liberties from government overreach. That would come a decade later.
Oh and there’s this, from Vox:
Smallpox was spread by a virus (technically, two viruses: Variola major and the significantly less common Variola minor). It caused fever, then a rash, which over the course of a few days developed into the skin-covering lumps that are the disease’s trademark. The more serious strain, Variola major, killed about 30 percent of people infected with it, with even higher death rates in infants. Death usually occurred within eight to 16 days.
A 30% fatality rate. Covid-19 is less than 1%.
False equivalencies make some of us crazy. Cut it out.
It’s also disingenuous to compare mandatory school vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, etc. to mandatory Covid vaccines as MSNBC’s Chuck Todd glibly did this week during the gubernatorial debate.
Those vaccines prevent childhood diseases that can have devastating effects on kids who contract them.
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Despite front-page headlines about a few children who have died or had a hard time with Covid-19, this virus generally results in a mild illness in kids.
Yet we are considering mandatory vaccines for 5-year-olds, essentially vaccinating them to protect adults.
That’s not the way this usually works.
When I worked in newspapers we were careful about printing corrections. When a reporter made a mistake, the paper corrected it as soon as possible. But the corrections were carefully buried on Page 2 where few would see them.
Likewise, The New York Times quietly fixed a whopper this week. On September 24, the paper ran a story by Michael D. Shear (most NYT reporters use middle - or first - initials to make themselves sound, I don’t know, important?) that claimed border patrol agents in Del Rio, Texas were “using the reins of their horses to strike at running migrants. ”
If you now check that story online the wording has been changed. It currently reads that the border patrol agents were “waving their reins while pushing migrants back into the Rio Grande.”
Here’s the nose-holding correction by The Times:
Correction:
An earlier version of this article overstated what is known about the behavior of some Border Patrol agents on horseback. While the agents waved their reins while pushing migrants back into the Rio Grande, The Times has not seen conclusive evidence that migrants were struck with the reins.
Overstated?
Would it kill the paper to admit it got this one wrong?
Geez. You’d think Michael D. Shear might have picked up his phone and called the photographer who took the picture to ask if the border agents were indeed whipping people.
Journalism today. Sigh.
Football is the one thing in America that is 100 percent normal again.
Thank goodness. There’s nothing the country needs more than a huge dose of normal.
This week’s big college game is No. 1 Alabama v No. 12 Ole Miss, my daughter’s alma mater. Oddsmakers are calling Bama a 14.5-point favorite.
I’m hoping for an upset. Besides having the best quarterback in the country in Matt Corral, the Rebel offense is fast and exciting, both on the ground and in the air. And the defense is a lot better than last year when the Rebs hung 48 points on the Tide but still lost 63-48. The most points scored on Alabama all season.
As unbeatable as Alabama sometimes seems, miracles do happen. I was in Oxford on October 4, 2014 when the Rebels beat the Tide 23-17. I still have my ticket.
More remarkable was one year later when Mississippi went to Tuscaloosa and beat Alabama at home 43-37.
That was the night of the Immaculate Deflection. I could describe the play, but you really need to see it. The look on Saban’s face is priceless:
Win or lose, this week’s match up promises to be an exciting game.
Do not call, text or email me on Saturday between the hours of 3:30 and 7:30.
You’ve been warned.
