【Text/Observer Network Columnist Li Quan】
Marx said that history itself often repeats itself, the first time is a tragedy, the second time it becomes a farce.
The new round of the epidemic in the United States is the result of a farce, and it is a political farce. To put it more bluntly, it is not to see the coffin without tears.
Let's look at the data first. The peak of the last wave of the epidemic in the United States came on January 10 this year, and the New York Times data for the day was an average of 254,877 cases on the 7th. The data for mid-August was an average of 130,808 cases on the 7th. My state of Florida, which previously had the highest number of infections per day on January 8, reached a new record of 21,706 in mid-August. The highest number of deaths in Florida was previously recorded at 185 per day, and now it is 153. As the number of hospitalizations has reached a new high, the record number of deaths per day will also be a high probability event.
Look at the operation again. Since mid-to-late July, local school districts have begun to promote the resumption of offline classes in the face of repeated epidemics, canceling financial support for individual schools to open online classes separately, forcing the vast majority of students to return to school. Online classes at home do increase the burden on parents and affect the normal working rhythm of parents, especially families with small children.
From this point of view, it is understandable to resume offline classes as soon as possible. The premise, of course, is that schools need to take various protective measures to prevent students from infecting and spreading to their families. Because various data have shown that Delta strains can infect more young people and children.
But at this moment, the Florida governor's divine operation was introduced. Not only did it not take any measures to restrict the flow of people and passengers, but it also formally signed an order on July 31 to strictly prohibit school districts from issuing mandatory masks, otherwise they would stop financial allocations to schools. The "sacred" reason given by the governor is to protect the freedom of choice of parents!
Since the beginning of the epidemic last year, the United States has been messing around wearing masks. First of all, the theory that masks are useless, and when the death toll continues to rise, we have to admit the protective role of masks, and then the theory of freedom to wear masks has emerged everywhere. The fierce opposition to wearing masks took out the spirit of "not being free, preferring to die" that opposed George III during the Revolutionary War, and sang the national anthem to burn masks, as if as soon as the masks were worn, the beacon of freedom would fall.
The current Governor of Florida, Ron de Santis
There are more than 300 million people in the United States, more than 200 million adults over the age of 18, and some people irrationally oppose masks in line with the intelligence probability distribution of the population.
Florida is the third largest state in the United States by population, and this state has graduated with second class honors (Magna Laude) in yale history, and then entered Harvard Law School to also graduate with honors. He used administrative means to ban statewide public schools from requiring masks, apparently not for intellectual reasons. On the contrary, the author speculates that it was only after careful calculation that the governor chose to violate public health common sense and ignore the safety of students, but also to sign this seemingly brainless decree that can help the virus spread.
The reason for this is that when the governor was elected in 2018, his Democratic counterpart had a lead of less than 34,000 votes in more than 8 million votes, or almost 0.4 percent. Florida has always been a key state in U.S. elections, with supporters of democracy and republican parties evenly matched, and small voter changes can change the outcome. That said, each vote is much more important than any other state.
The number of fiercely anti-mask voters in Florida is not much in absolute terms, but just more than 0.4% is enough to influence the outcome of the election. And because this segment is the most politically active, it must be fought for — in 2022, the governor will need to seek re-election.
If the risk offends this small group of people, the probability of losing the governor's throne is extremely high. Considering that the governor still dreams of inheriting Trump's mantle and one day entering the White House, it is even more necessary to keep the governor's position.
If you make a little more cold inference, most of the Democrats who support wearing masks, whether these people wear masks or not, whether they will be infected to death, they will not vote for the governor. Republican supporters are more vocal in their opposition to wearing masks and less concerned about infection.
As a result, the ban angers only those who are already in the opposing camp, and draws together a minority that can play a key role in their re-election, and these people will not blame the governor for not wearing masks and getting infected. In this way, you don't have to go to Harvard to know how to choose, not to mention the dual elite of Yale and Harvard.
On the 10th of this month, public schools in Brevard County, Florida, opened. Since the school did not make it mandatory to wear a mask, just a few days after the start of the school year, there were already 473 confirmed cases of students and staff, and about 1,060 others were quarantined.
The governor's own calculations were not enough, and the state health department eliminated the daily publication of infections and deaths from June 4 and replaced it with a weekly report. Out of sight, out of mind, is the so-called out-of-sight, unburdened. What could be more "sacred" work than coaxing a group of muddled supporters to happily cast a solemn vote under the banner of "freedom"?
In order to get out of office, the governor did not even pay attention to Biden.
During this period of time, the number of cases in the United States has surged, and Biden is also in the eyes and anxious. After all, as the "head of a country", and then make more than 30 million infections like Trump, more than 600,000 deaths, not only Biden's own performance is not good, but also the Democratic Party's midterm election next year, the glorious image laid by the Century-old foundation of the United States must be further dusted.
However, subject to the federal system of the United States, Biden, as president, does not have the power to directly direct the governors of the states to fight the epidemic. In desperation, Biden had to ask the Republican governors in a public speech that if they did not want to take the initiative to fight the epidemic, at least they should not stand in the way and hinder the administration of the federal government.
Before the words could be heard, the Florida governor fought back: You Biden don't grin there, take care of the U.S. border first, don't let so many illegal immigrants in. As for how Florida fights the epidemic, that is within the scope of state power, and it has nothing to do with your federal government!
Biden previously set a goal: By July 4, Independence Day, 70% of adults in the United States will receive at least one dose of the new crown vaccine. U.S. officials quietly announced on Aug. 2 that they had reached that goal, nearly a month later than the scheduled date. Meanwhile, covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths in the United States are climbing rapidly, and health officials are calling on some 90 million unvaccinated people to be vaccinated as soon as possible.
Know that hating Biden, hating immigrants, and hating the federal government's finger-pointing are standard for the vast majority of Republican supporters. The governor's short words stomped on the hearts of his Republican supporters. For these people, even if their children do not wear masks and bring the virus home to themselves, they are not as important as the values they cherish. Just as the so-called "life and death matters are small, and the loss of control is big", this kind of operation is even higher than Pei Duofei.
Of course, because Florida is a democrat and republican, the governor's executive order unsurprisingly provoked a lot of dissatisfaction and opposition. On the weekend before school started last week, listeners on radio shows called in, and one mother couldn't even stop sobbing, worried that her elementary school children would get infected by not wearing masks. The minimum vaccination age in the United States is now 12 years old, and if schools do not allow masks, then all children under 12 years old are equivalent to running naked in an environment where the virus may be present.
It wasn't until a moment before school started that school districts came up with a compromise against the governor's order: requiring students to wear masks, but allowing parents to freely choose whether to let their children wear masks, just write a statement to the school!? In the end, as expected, when picking up and dropping off, there were many people who did not wear masks. With Delta's spread, it's only a matter of time before school clusters of infections occur. Other states have already seen examples of schools closing their doors and switching to online classes within a week of school.
Even more ironically, the governor's orders govern only public schools, while private schools are beyond the reach of the governor. According to some media reports, the governor chose to send his children to a private school that required all masks. Putting leeks in a dangerous situation and harvesting leeks with their backhands is the reality of the United States today!
Given that in American schools, children eat lunch together in school cafeterias, simply requiring masks and taking no other measures is far from substantial comprehensive protection. Wearing a mask is just a minimum requirement in a system protection project. If even this point can make both sides blush and thick necks in the United States, let alone think about the comprehensive system of fighting the epidemic. Of course, there are many people in the United States who don't think they need to worry about the epidemic at all. Traveling, eating at restaurants, working out in gyms, K songs in nightclubs... Everything doesn't fall.
The only sustenance that underpins the surface normalcy is now the vaccine. With the increasing number of cases of breakthrough infection, the official rhetoric has now changed from "more than 90% protection rate" to "effective protection against severe illness and death". For people with a defective immune system, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the possibility of booster injections. As the weather cools, if cases and deaths continue to increase at the current rate, it is estimated that all vaccinations will soon be recommended for booster injections.
Now that there are reports that a more powerful variant than Delta has emerged, it is probably the most appropriate to use "Game of Thrones" to describe the United States today. Winter has arrived, the virus ghosts outside the North Wall are quietly approaching, and the power game inside the North Wall is in full swing. In the TV series, the second lady hits the Night King, but in reality, where does the United States go to find its own second wife?
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