Masks, Workforce Thoughts & More…

By Ron Signore

I recently visited Arizona for a business trip with a healthcare organization. During the meeting, I lowered my mask to take a drink, and was asked a question. No more than 2 seconds into my answer, a C-Level executive started “psst”-ing me and signaling I put the mask back up. I very quickly did so, and felt so bad, I had to express how pro mask I am. In my defense, this was the first on-site client meeting I have had since March of 2020.

As we approached lunch, I had started some conversation with this person really focused around the vaccine and masks. I felt I had to personally inquire about the information they felt was important with the vaccine and masks overall. I know I previously mentioned the overwhelming data to the positives of the vaccine, but it really came down to my question around masks. I asked if they are seeing any problems around the area with mask mandates, explaining how in the Midwest masks are a very polar topic.

She very calmly informed me that the smart ones mask, the smart ones get the vaccine, but overall it is not a very polar topic in Arizona. Now, that had been refreshing to me since I was a little afraid to go to Arizona in slight fear of a red uprising- naturally all my MAGA acquaintances assured me that Arizona was Trump country and would be the first domino to fall after this special forensic recount. Something I had NEVER spoke about within a business setting went past my filter and right off my tongue… “So, would you consider this a red or blue state politically.” One person, my main point of contact, suggested it is a purple state. But this executive was strong to the blue. “So do you think any changes will come from this recount going on?” She quickly assured me that Trump lost the state and that she was tired of paying taxes to have recounts done for the same result, insisting a status of insanity if we keep doing the same things to get a different result.

This all had me thinking back to a college course I had taken at Purdue. POL 300: Political Statistics, with Dr. Parker… she was one of the best professors I ever had (Harry Targ was another just for reference). In that course we had learned about polling and statistical analysis on many topics. One that always stood out in my head was the statistical analysis that the followers of the Democrat tendencies were more a higher education level than those on the conservative side of the spectrum. The point being that the stupidity we are seeing right now is at an all-time high. It is a stupidity derived from spite and ignoring of fact and made-up conspiracies driven from a paranoia that is just embarrassing. Parents protesting schools mask mandates because they believe it is some sort of control of eliminating our freedoms. Parents protesting possible vaccination mandates to attend schools for fear that all were doing is playing into the communist agenda and Chinese takeover (or the freedom thing). Pro-Lifer’s quickly adopting the “my body my choice,” slogan in an effort to mock the will of women who have a choice in their bodies.

I am not a hypocrite, I hope. I believe in someone’s right to not get vaccinated the same as I believe in the right to terminate a pregnancy. But denying a possibility, no matter the odds or chance, to flatten this pandemic, especially out of a paranoid spite is ridiculous. The detriment these people are doing to our country is absolutely damning. I just sat through an evening having to explain to my 10 year old that her teacher, a 30 year old single mother of 3 had been on a respirator and in a coma for a month before passing away from COVID last week. What parent is okay risking even a .00001% chance of illness to their child? We are rid of illnesses like Polio and Small Pox because the vaccines administered helped lesson the effects and spread to almost nothing here in the US. Yet, many question our history and highest ranked healthcare professionals out of some sort of conspiracy to kill our country.

Here is one for all you MAGATs, our country made the vaccine mandatory for the military. A country who fears no one and claims military dominance over the world, a country who is not to be messed with, made each soldier get the shot. Why would we risk the lives of our military men and women across the world by administering a vaccine that was not safe?

I suppose the answer is that Biden is a secret Chinese or Russian agent that wants the United States to become available for a takeover…

Idiots.

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