COVID backlash could leave the U.S. less ready for the next pandemic

Who'd have thunk that letting liars and gaslighters run rampant with no repercussions for the amount of death they caused would mean that they had an impact on public health discourse and that instead of locking up these asshats for being dangers to public health by purposefully going in public to cough on people and other dumb loser shit, we went "Oh no, these people vote, and they hate vaccines, so fuck public health, we need to listen to these fucking losers. Oh and also rich fucks like Elon Musk don't care if poor people die so they want their factories open and open NOW. Guess we better give in completely than trust in science and try to deal with this disease effectively."

Nope, better to let literally everything get politicized to the point that fucking jackasses just make up shit constantly and it gets treated by the media with the same seriousness as people with fucking medical and scientific credentials. Who'd have thought letting that happen would massively increase burnout in medical professionals who don't love showing up to work to be abused, harassed, and treated like they're behind a hoax and that this lead to many quitting in great numbers.

I mean, what the fuck do we expect from a CDC that said "Fuck the curve, get the poors back the fuck to work, cut the isolation time in more than half," and more recently said "You know what? Fuck isolation times entirely, go to work sick because grandma and grandpa dying for the economy is more important." Like the CDC killed their own public trust with people who understood science by backing down for fucking idiots and rich asshats who don't give a fuck how many people die as long as they line their pockets. Why do we give a single flying fuck about the "public trust" of absolute fucking morons, liars, and gaslighters? Those asshats are not operating in good faith to begin with, so why always fucking capitulate to their fucking lies and the false reality that they peddle?

Like just so much of this was preventable. I feel like I'm taking fucking crazy pills.

EDIT: I do understand it was always a foregone conclusion that Trump wouldn't take it seriously, but that shouldn't absolve every asshat around him who followed suit. Him essentially sentencing millions to death because he hoped it would impact Democrat strongholds more since it initially was found there should have been what lead to him being taken to the Hague and hung by his neck for his crimes against humanity but our government is filled with weak willed fucking pussies and same goes for our heavily armed citizenry.

I'm of the mind it would have been entirely prevented if the quick response teams Obama had ordered stationed around the world had been in place.

Nope.

Fuck everyone because I'm a sack of shit man/child who can't take criticism and a joke from a black man. Fire them all and get me a diet coke!
- Oh yeah, Trump literally threw a monkey wrench in everything because of 1. Obama and 2. Thinking Illness == Weakness.
  
  He's always been scared shitless of illness. His father treated anyone who was afflicted with anything like a loser. Not surprising that at the end of Fred Trump's life, riddled with dementia, that his own family would treat him like a loser for succumbing to the issues of old age. It's part of why DJT spends so much time promoting the idea that he is young and healthy still somehow despite being old and obese.
Thank you for reminding us all of Trump’s view that the pandemic would impact the Democratic strongholds more and thus he was not motivated to take real action. I am not a Trump supporter and I paid close attention to everything he did while in office and yet some of these atrocities have escaped my recollection. It truly was an awful 4 years.

Next pandemic? We're more fucked than that right now today.

Fuck me, we got measles making a comeback. Y'all, I'm 53 and honestly don't know what measles is. For us kids, it was ancient history like smallpox. We didn't care.

"Be thankful you'll never have to suffer that!"

"OK dad. Can I play Atari or I gotta rake leaves first?"

Grandparents raised me and I remember mom, who hadn't a clue or care about science, extolling the virtues of the polio vaccine. She told me how fearful parents and children were and what a godsend Jonas Salk was. Can't remember what she said, but it stuck in my little mind. Kids didn't dare go swimming together for fear of being paralyzed, or landing in an iron lung. I'd seen pictures of those things. Fucking shoot me.

Had my first kid at 42, well before the pandemic, but well after these nimrods got traction. Everywhere we went we were bombarded with vaccine advice and posters and pamphlets. Honestly, it was annoying as fuck.

Yet another nurse was bugging about vaccinating our daughter, talking about "evidence-based medicine", cut her off midsentence, "Hit her with everything ya got, on schedule. Just let us know when." Wife was smiling and nodding right along. LOL, nurse literally had her mouth hanging open.

Jesus Christ on a flaming kayak, can you imagine a nurse trying to talk my mom into vaccinating me in the 70s?! Mom with a puzzled look, "That's fine. Can we do this today? Wednesday is my grocery shopping day."

And don't start me on "evidence-based medicine". I'm mad as hell such a phrase exists. "You know what they call alternative medicine that's been proved to work? Medicine."

And don’t start me on “evidence-based medicine”. I’m mad as hell such a phrase exists.

You shouldn't be. Its origins have nothing to do with distancing medicine from 'alternative' or 'complementary' medicine. Those can be evidence-based too, if someone does the trials. The problem was (and still is) that medicine in general was not being tested properly. And even when it was, the designs were too biased and sample sizes too small to say anything useful.

Testing Treatments is a decent explainer which includes some of the history. And AllTrials is an initiative to try to force Pharma to publish all its trials, not just the ones that are good for profits.

Correction, it'll raise the number of redcaps who welcome nurgle's gifts into their homes

These morons will literally subject themselves to the godblight if it meant they'd get to see even one "city slicker liberal" be even mildly inconvenienced for it.

Just a few hours ago, I had to listen to a coworker try and explain how wearing a mask or isolating during COVID had weakened another coworker’s immune system. By saying “but COVID was years ago”, I only lengthened the nonsensical lecture.

I must say, though, that the woman is a sweetheart… unless you mention COVID or politics.

that the woman is a sweetheart…

We must remember that our conservative coworkers, neighbors and family will politely watch as we are being loaded onto busses headed for re-education camps.
- Only if Fox “News” made her genuinely believe that it was for my own good. She’d fall for it then. If not, though, then god help whoever fucked with someone she cared about.
Might want to avoid religion, too.

Politicizing a fucking virus has definitely left us less ready for the next pandemic. I will never understand the reasoning for this.

Less ready? We were caught with our pants down and a dick in a chicken.

And worse still, it was one of those fucking canned ones.

Bring it on and rapture those dipshits

No fucking shit.