People think having access to the internet makes them an expert on everything

It allows you to go searching for the answer you desire, no matter how dubious the source.

Want to justify eating ice cream for breakfast? You can find all types of articles saying that's good for you, nevermind they've all been completely debunked; you just don't read those or choose to completely reject them.


The internet has basically allowed people to invent their own reality and reject hard, evidenced-based science simply because they don't like what it says. And then go find the answers they want.


IMHO, it's not the disinformation. I personally see very little of it because I don't seek it out and if I do come across it, it's incredibly easy to spot. The problem is that many people are motivated to find reasons -- any reasons -- to not get vaccinated and not follow commonsense guidelines provided by non-partisan experts.

Anybody who says: "I don't know what to believe about Covid-19" is actually saying, "I reject the CDC and peer-reviewed scientific information and therefore would rather going trolling for something that I want to hear".

France and UK are requiring vaccine passports,eventually,to enter certain facilities.

Will Germany, Spain, Italy follow?

will it happen in the US?

BTW, to leave politics out of this I submit the greatest example of what I just described above: the growing number of Flat Earth believers.

What in the holiest of heck??? In this day and age that many people (sitting at a computer interacting with people all over the world -- the irony) would reject hundreds of years of solid science for this craziness... It's almost incomprehensible.


I have a theory about science-deniers and that includes most of the anti-vax crowd: they did poorly in science in school (that is a lead-pipe cinch because if you understood even the basics you couldn't possibly believe the crap they do) and therefore because they don't understand how it works, it's their little backlash against all the 'intellectuals' and 'elitists' that were actually able to comprehend the scientific method.

It makes them feel smarter to think that THEY are the ones with the real truth, not all those smarty-pants that devoted their lives to scientific study and invented things like the Internet in the first place.

I took a class with a guy who’s jaw hit the floor when he realized we thought he was joking when he was talking about the flat earth theory. We thought he was just pulling our legs so we went along with it for a bit. It then dawned on everyone that he was serious; he went up to the front of the lecture room and started drawing his theories on the whiteboard. (Instructor was just as baffled as we were so he allowed the interruption)

Yes - Amazing. He thought we all knew about it and believed it like it was common knowledge to believe.

Covid: Two jabs needed to enter nightclubs from September

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57893788.amp

France and UK are requiring vaccine passports,eventually,to enter certain facilities.

Will Germany, Spain, Italy follow?

will it happen in the US?

At the railroad yard BNSF, people would ask me why I liked the Affordable Health Care, known as Obama Care. I said it would be good for people without any health insurance, and I would ask them why they didn’t like it, and the answers were always it’s bad, and I would ask them (with full insured health care) why they didn’t like it, and there was no answer, other than its not good. Pretty much like the getting COVID shots.

At the railroad yard BNSF, people would ask me why I liked the Affordable Health Care, known as Obama Care. I said it would be good for people without any health insurance, and I would ask them why they didn’t like it, and the answers were always it’s bad, and I would ask them (with full insured health care) why they didn’t like it, and there was no answer, other than its not good. Pretty much like the getting COVID shots.

Covid: Two jabs needed to enter nightclubs from September

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57893788.amp

France and UK are requiring vaccine passports,eventually,to enter certain facilities.

Will Germany, Spain, Italy follow?

will it happen in the US?

Here's hoping

At the railroad yard BNSF, people would ask me why I liked the Affordable Health Care, known as Obama Care. I said it would be good for people without any health insurance, and I would ask them why they didn’t like it, and the answers were always it’s bad, and I would ask them (with full insured health care) why they didn’t like it, and there was no answer, other than its not good. Pretty much like the getting COVID shots.

Lots of polls showed that many were in favor of the Affordable Healthcare Act and then those same people were strongly against Obamacare.

Do you think they don’t want to be sick, but won’t take the shot. Unreality.

First off lets not call it Affordable. I never understood a person like myself that gets check ups ever 6 months have to pay 2 times as much as someone just 5 years younger whos never been to a doctor.

As far as lock downs never going to happen now. Did lock does really work all that well in the first place? ALL THAT WELL. They worked some but at what cost?

First off lets not call it Affordable. I never understood a person like myself that gets check ups ever 6 months have to pay 2 times as much as someone just 5 years younger whos never been to a doctor.

As far as lock downs never going to happen now. Did lock does really work all that well in the first place? ALL THAT WELL. They worked some but at what cost?

It may not have been "affordable" because it was willfully sabotaged. Only now will Oklahoma have a more clear picture of the benefits now that Medicaid has been expanded and federal subsidies have been returned. Not to derail the thread.

Stillwater Medical Center reports full ICU as COVID numbers rise. The hospital no longer has a separate COVID unit but tries to keep COVID patients on the same hall if possible. Staffing is still a major issue. Seems like the same thing repeating as was last summer. I wonder if the hospital CEO will ask the major to restore required masks. It's not hard to find a place that offers covid vaccines in Stillwater.

https://www.stwnewspress.com/news/local_news/stillwater-medical-center-reports-full-icu-as-covid-numbers-rise/article_3eb3d2e7-7a6a-5f23-82e1-ed8e5c611fe3.html

BTW, to leave politics out of this I submit the greatest example of what I just described above: the growing number of Flat Earth believers.

What in the holiest of heck??? In this day and age that many people (sitting at a computer interacting with people all over the world -- the irony) would reject hundreds of years of solid science for this craziness... It's almost incomprehensible.


I have a theory about science-deniers and that includes most of the anti-vax crowd: they did poorly in science in school (that is a lead-pipe cinch because if you understood even the basics you couldn't possibly believe the crap they do) and therefore because they don't understand how it works, it's their little backlash against all the 'intellectuals' and 'elitists' that were actually able to comprehend the scientific method.

It makes them feel smarter to think that THEY are the ones with the real truth, not all those smarty-pants that devoted their life to scientific study.
Climate change deniers. Fake moon landing. Space isn’t real. People would be surprised at the amount of people that subscribe to those conspiracy theories. It’s hard to believe that in 2021 we have people who don’t believe in science. You can’t help but wonder how much the dark ages set us back either and it’s ironic how we thought society would be today, 70 years ago.

Climate change deniers. Fake moon landing. Space isn’t real. People would be surprised at the amount of people that subscribe to those conspiracy theories. It’s hard to believe that in 2021 we have people who don’t believe in science. You can’t help but wonder how much the dark ages set us back either and it’s ironic how we thought society would be today, 70 years ago.

Yes, I to feel like something has gone wrong over the last 70 years. There are alot of factors at play, and I do not understand them at all. We have advanced technology, but in someways we have regressed socially. It is an interesting topic.

As far as lock downs never going to happen now. Did lock does really work all that well in the first place? ALL THAT WELL. They worked some but at what cost?

All those measures worked very well. We were down to very low numbers in March, long before the vaccine was widely available.

Since that time, people have been behaving like there never was a virus and you see the results.

The lockdowns and other restrictions were planned to get us to vaccination. Now we're there, and half the country refuses to take it.

I took a class with a guy who’s jaw hit the floor when he realized we thought he was joking when he was talking about the flat earth theory. We thought he was just pulling our legs so we went along with it for a bit. It then dawned on everyone that he was serious; he went up to the front of the lecture room and started drawing his theories on the whiteboard. (Instructor was just as baffled as we were so he allowed the interruption)

Yes - Amazing. He thought we all knew about it and believed it like it was common knowledge to believe.

. . .and it seems to be growing!! :yeahthat:

https://physicsworld.com/a/fighting-flat-earth-theory/

I took a class with a guy who’s jaw hit the floor when he realized we thought he was joking when he was talking about the flat earth theory. We thought he was just pulling our legs so we went along with it for a bit. It then dawned on everyone that he was serious; he went up to the front of the lecture room and started drawing his theories on the whiteboard. (Instructor was just as baffled as we were so he allowed the interruption)

Yes - Amazing. He thought we all knew about it and believed it like it was common knowledge to believe.

back about 5 years ago, i went on a date with a girl who dropped the fact that she was a flat earth believer at the end of the first date. i almost never called her again, but curiosity got the best of me, and I set up a second date just to hear her answers to a bunch of my questions.... She had some very interesting answers for all of them.

. . .and it seems to be growing!! :yeahthat:

https://physicsworld.com/a/fighting-flat-earth-theory/

and completely crazy, because we all know the Earth is shaped like a Donut...

and completely crazy, because we all know the Earth is shaped like a Donut...

We prefer the term Torus shaped.

465 new cases today; last several Tuesdays: 177, 85, 162, 45. Have to go all the way back to mid-February to find a higher Tuesday number.

Hospitalizations are now up to 408, that's +28 from just yesterday.

ICU is 137, +19.

After over a year of this and being in the medical field, and having had COVID in January, my mental health has crashed since the beginning of the year. I’ve been dealing with breakdowns and suicidal thoughts from stress and PTSD with all of this, and I know that many many healthcare workers are in the same situation. I have improved with therapy and medication, and I’m getting a medical retirement soon, and I know that there will be a mass exodus in medical workers with a much smaller pool wanting to replace them after this.

I’ve also pretty much accepted that I will have family members who refuse to get vaccinated die from this.

^

Wow, that's horrible to hear.


At the very least, healthcare workers will be less likely to look for work or stay in places like Oklahoma where half the population refuses to protect themselves and not tax workers and hospitals.

Just as before, the consequences of the pandemic are enormous in many ways people don't even consider. The difference is this time, it's completely avoidable.

It's way more complicated than equating every person that will not get the vaccine to flat-earthers. There's a real distrust in U.S. government, and for good reason. Additionally, if it wasn't for the FDA there wouldn't be a nationwide opiate epidemic, so let's not act like the scientists and doctors haven't chosen greed over integrity before. The government and its entities have their fair share of blame as to why so many aren't getting vaccinated.

^

Nobody is equating the two, just saying it's a similar mindset.

This is a free shot and very, very safe so comparing to opioids is ridiculous.


Just more false equivalencies and excuses.

It's way more complicated than equating every person that will not get the vaccine to flat-earthers. There's a real distrust in U.S. government, and for good reason. Additionally, if it wasn't for the FDA there wouldn't be a nationwide opiate epidemic, so let's not act like the scientists and doctors haven't chosen greed over integrity before. The government and its entities have their fair share of blame as to why so many aren't getting vaccinated.

There's a distrust in government because it is being actively sewn by political forces for purely political reasons. No, the FDA is not perfect but there are far more credible sources of information about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines than the FDA alone. There are people prone to believing demonstrably ridiculous conspiracy theories, and there are politicians who directly benefit from exploiting and preying on those people's fears and inclinations -- again, for purely political reasons.

This isn't that hard to understand if you would stop engaging in apologistic sophistry.

That kind of thinking is completely consistent with what I was saying before: start with an answer you like, then go searching for dubious information to confirm or find a very rare exception that isn't even directly connected, then use that to justify a position you've already taken.

People don't trust the FDA and scientists because they have been told not to by people they choose to follow. But then are quick to point to the lack of full FDA approval as a reason to 'wait and see'.

We didn't have this incredible level of distrust and rejection of solid science until quite recently. There has always been some, but a very small minority and on the fringes of society (like holocaust or moon landing deniers), not the majority of one of the two political parties.


We can talk about this a million different ways, but it always comes back to the same thing and I'm tired of people trying to make it out to be more than that. It's all just deflection from what everyone knows is the central issue.

12 and under need to mask once school starts

12 and under need to mask once school starts

Schools can no longer ask for it in Oklahoma, thanks to a law passed by the Legislature and signed by Stitt.

Has anyone else seen this insanity from the vice mayor of Broken Arrow:

https://twitter.com/chriskpolansky/status/1417571229591027717?s=21

That’s coming straight out of the mouth from the vice mayor of the 4th largest city in Oklahoma. She’s mad at Cains Ballroom requiring proof of vaccination and says asking her about her vaccination status is a violation of her “HIPPAA”(yes that’s how she wrote it) rights. She’s also telling her residents not to support businesses that ask for covid vaccination status as it violates their “HIPPAA” rights. Oh to own a business in BA and hear that your mayor is telling residents not to support you because you want to maintain a safe environment for your employees and customers by following science.

What a f@cking joke.

12 and under need to mask once school starts

absolutely not ..

It's way more complicated than equating every person that will not get the vaccine to flat-earthers. There's a real distrust in U.S. government, and for good reason. Additionally, if it wasn't for the FDA there wouldn't be a nationwide opiate epidemic, so let's not act like the scientists and doctors haven't chosen greed over integrity before. The government and its entities have their fair share of blame as to why so many aren't getting vaccinated.
It is total 8gnorance to believe the FDA is responsible for the opiate epidemic. Why not place the blame squarely on pharmacy and their reps and the billions of $ they chased, and doctors who prescribed them for every pain they couldn’t figure out how to manage with good knowledge.? People always blame the people who didn’t stop them, not the people who did it. Oh, but then they argue against regulations.

[QUOTE=Plutonic Panda;1174200]Has anyone else seen this insanity from the vice mayor of Broken Arrow:

https://twitter.com/chriskpolansky/status/1417571229591027717?s=21

That’s coming straight out of the mouth from the vice mayor of the 4th largest city in Oklahoma. She’s mad at Cains Ballroom requiring proof of vaccination and says asking her about her vaccination status is a violation of her “HIPPAA”(yes that’s how she wrote it) rights. She’s also telling her residents

absolutely not ..

Georgia deputy loses 5-year-old son to COVID-19 (https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/georgia-deputy-loses-5-year-old-son-covid-19/5VJIW5QTUVH55PHTEPL54ATHMU/)

Has anyone else seen this insanity from the vice mayor of Broken Arrow:

https://twitter.com/chriskpolansky/status/1417571229591027717?s=21

That’s coming straight out of the mouth from the vice mayor of the 4th largest city in Oklahoma. She’s mad at Cains Ballroom requiring proof of vaccination and says asking her about her vaccination status is a violation of her “HIPPAA”(yes that’s how she wrote it) rights. She’s also telling her residents not to support businesses that ask for covid vaccination status as it violates their “HIPPAA” rights. Oh to own a business in BA and hear that your mayor is telling residents not to support you because you want to maintain a safe environment for your employees and customers by following science.

What a f@cking joke.

Indeed, wonder how she will travel overseas, wait with a passport. The horribleness of that. I remember taking a 3 month trip to East Africa and got shotted up in London, and had to carry my inoculation passport with my passport. Violation of personal freedom? Not to get yellow fever, cholera, dengue, and be able to cross borders. What a load sh*t.

Typical scenario. They grab onto a term they that have no idea the meaning of and use it for everything. HIPPA (sic - HIPAA) only protects you from involuntary disclosure of your diagnosis, treatment, etc. it does not prevent someone from asking you or choosing not to do business with you for not voluntarily disclosing your vaccination status. Going to a concert is not a right - it is a voluntary business transaction to purchase tickets and the establishment has every right to set limits on the health and safety of the other attendees and staff.

I am so sick of this bullcrap. These people are acting like spoiled children.

Watch now how many people invoke HIPAA in the same way, even though it's complete BS.

These people are acting like spoiled children.

It's not acting.... they are

It's not acting.... they are

And all of us are paying for it.

I am already hearing the ranting from anti-vax family members about possibly going back to mask mandates etc. I just want to say - well the people who refuse to get vaccinated are the problem! I did my part, why are you complaining about it to me?

And all of us are paying for it.

I am already hearing the ranting from anti-vax family members about possibly going back to mask mandates etc. I just want to say - well the people who refuse to get vaccinated are the problem! I did my part, why are you complaining about it to me?

They go on and on about their want and desire for 'freedom', yet they won't do the smallest, completely free thing to insure it.

Watch now how many people invoke HIPAA in the same way, even though it's complete BS.

It absolutely is BS pulling HIPAA into it for a normal person.

Fact check: Businesses can legally ask if patrons have been vaccinated. HIPAA does not apply. (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/05/19/fact-check-asking-vaccinations-doesnt-violate-hipaa/5165952001/)

Georgia deputy loses 5-year-old son to COVID-19 (https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/georgia-deputy-loses-5-year-old-son-covid-19/5VJIW5QTUVH55PHTEPL54ATHMU/)

kids under 12 have a better chance of getting hit by a car in their own neighborhood and getting killed then by covid .. would you also tell them to never go outside? ?

Watch now how many people invoke HIPAA in the same way, even though it's complete BS.

the giant lack of understanding of HIPAA is pretty wide spread even outside of covid ...

kids under 12 have a better chance of getting hit by a car in their own neighborhood and getting killed then by covid .. would you also tell them to never go outside? ?

Pretty bad comparison to just having them wear masks to prevent the possibility of them dying to the virus or the chance of being a transmission vector. My condolences on your car analogy being so terrible.

Pretty bad comparison to just having them wear masks to prevent the possibility of them dying to the virus or the chance of being a transmission vector. My condolences on your car analogy being so terrible.

There's still a LOT of people who can't grasp how contagions work.

kids under 12 have a better chance of getting hit by a car in their own neighborhood and getting killed then by covid .. would you also tell them to never go outside? ?

What a powerfully dumb analogy. We knows cars are risky so we take lots of steps to make it as safe as possible, such as:

- teaching kids to look both ways
- low speed limits in neighborhoods
- significant signage in child areas and school zones

Requiring masks are a low-invasive way to decrease the odds of death and disease. I am hoping Stitt implements a state of emergency so schools can require masks again.

Google Maps now has a layer that shows covid trends. I've been watching the spread of the delta variant coming from Missouri and Arkansas. It looks like Tulsa will turn red soon, probably within a week.

I'm getting used to wearing masks again in public. It's surprising how quickly I got used to not wearing them and how much I'm struggling with the idea of wearing them again.

Aside from the necessities--grocery, medical care, etc--I have gone back to full pandemic protocols. Namely, I'm doing everything I can, again, to limit my exposure to the high percentage of Oklahomans' who refuse vaccines and masks.

Specifically, I'm wearing a mask everywhere and not going to restaurants or bars that have no outdoor seating or outdoor seating that's not properly spaced.

What a powerfully dumb analogy. We knows cars are risky so we take lots of steps to make it as safe as possible, such as:

- teaching kids to look both ways
- low speed limits in neighborhoods
- significant signage in child areas and school zones

Requiring masks are a low-invasive way to decrease the odds of death and disease. I am hoping Stitt implements a state of emergency so schools can require masks again.

kids under 12 have virtually 0 risk of getting sick of covid ..... that is a statistical fact ..

And, so it begins. DHS is going back to mask wearing when dealing with the public and outside of individual work stations when in the office (along w/temp checks , etc).

Thank you, to all of you that can get the vaccine, but don't because of lack of logic, lack believing in science, and believing in conspiracy theories. You are messing it up for the rest of us.

kids under 12 have virtually 0 risk of getting sick of covid ..... that is a statistical fact ..

Aside from trump and his media enablers who have used the exact phrase "virtually zero" risk what other "medical experts" claim this?

The CDC and Mayo clinic among others claim the opposite.


Children are a very low-risk population. There is virtually zero risk of death and low risk of hospitalization
Scott Atlas, former President Donald Trump's pandemic advisor


Tucker Carlson: “To children and the vast majority of young and middle-aged adults and the vast majority of teachers, (the coronavirus) poses virtually zero threat."

1203 new cases today. 750 7-day average - we haven't had those numbers since late February. This Delta variant is no joke. Hell, even certain Fox News personalities and several Republican leaders are encouraging people to get vaccines.

1203 new cases today. 750 7-day average - we haven't had those numbers since late February. This Delta variant is no joke. Hell, even certain Fox News personalities and several Republican leaders are encouraging people to get vaccines.

But then they will say it is a conspiracy, and they have either been sabotaged by the corrupt liberal media cabal, or they are only saying it so they don’t fall victim to “cancel culture”. It really never ends.

Largest Wednesday since 2/10.

We are basically back to where we were before the vaccine and headed rapidly in the wrong direction.

kids under 12 have virtually 0 risk of getting sick of covid ..... that is a statistical fact ..

Then show the statistics.

Here in reality, kids do get sick and ~10% of those under 12 end up with long COVID (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7927578/). There are 30 kids in this state, right now, that are hospitalized with COVID, and this wave has only just begun.

You have a reputation of posting absolutist facts with absolutely 0 backing and then rely on insults or empty dismissals rather than actually defending your point. I don't doubt you'll do it again in response to this.

Here in reality, kids do get sick and ~10% of those under 12 end up with long COVID (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7927578/).
how do you arrive at ~10% from that data? i see populations of people with "self-reported" long covid, but no total populations with which to compute the percent... but there are 10 tables, so i might have missed it.


There are 30 kids in this state, right now, that are hospitalized with COVID, and this wave has only just begun.
unfortunately you're kind of making bouldersooner's argument for him here. i couldn't find data for ages 11 and below... but 13% of oklahoma's population is 9 and below. (Oklahoma - Profile data - Census Reporter (https://censusreporter.org/profiles/04000US40-oklahoma/)) that's roughly 510,000 people. i *don't* agree with bouldersooner's conclusion on masking children in schools, but 30 kids hospitalized (couldn't verify this number myself) out of 510k is a rather small percentage... it's not too unfair to call that "virtually zero."

how do you arrive at ~10% from that data? i see populations of people with "self-reported" long covid, but no total populations with which to compute the percent... but there are 10 tables, so i might have missed it.


From the article:


The UK Office for National Statistics's latest report estimates that 12.9 per cent of UK children aged 2 to 11, and 14.5 per cent of children aged 12 to 16, still have symptoms five weeks after their first infection. Almost 500,000 UK children have tested positive for covid-19 since March 2020.



unfortunately you're kind of making bouldersooner's argument for him here. i couldn't find data for ages 11 and below... but 13% of oklahoma's population is 9 and below. (Oklahoma - Profile data - Census Reporter (https://censusreporter.org/profiles/04000US40-oklahoma/)) that's roughly 510,000 people. i *don't* agree with bouldersooner's conclusion on masking children in schools, but 30 kids hospitalized (couldn't verify this number myself) out of 510k is a rather small percentage... it's not too unfair to call that "virtually zero."

The denominator here isn't "all children in OK" since not all children have been exposed. 60,000 children have come down with COVID in Oklahoma (https://looker-dashboards.oklahoma.gov/embed/dashboards/75 which is likely a significant undercount), which even if you take lower end of estimates of long COVID means thousands of kids with long COVID and lingering symptoms, and this is with increasing masking, virtual schooling for a good chunk of the year, and social distancing, and a much less transmissible variant. Waving away thousands of long suffering kids as "virtually zero" is statistically, not to mention morally, wrong.

From the article:
lol... leave it to me to jump to the numbers without reading the abstract. : )






The denominator here isn't "all children in OK" since not all children have been exposed.
i disagree. when determining whether or not to mask my child, the question isn't "what are the chances that my covid-exposed child will need to be hospitalized?"... the question is, "what are the chances of my child needing hospitalization for covid?"... child hospitalizations over total children gets you that metric. i will say, though, i wouldn't object to using total hospitalizations instead of current in the numerator... but was just using what you provided.

but... i don't want to further embolden people who endorse bad policy decisions. let's just say that i agree that it's a good idea for kids to be masked when in school.

Watch now how many people invoke HIPAA in the same way, even though it's complete BS.

The HIPAA argument would be hilarious to me because it's so wrong, if the people citing it weren't using it as a defense for endangering others' lives. Those people have even gone so far as to create an entirely fictional HIPPA (two Ps in this one for "Privacy Protection"). Disinformation is their strong suit. Pathetic, but strong.

For those who don't know and are interested HIPAA, which stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, was passed in 1996 to ensure health information is properly protected by "covered entities." Covered entities are health entities:

1) Health care providers, like doctors, nurses, hospitals;

2) Health plans, like Blue Cross, Humana, United Health;

3) Healthcare clearinghouses, organizations that facilitate exchange of medical claims and payments for health services;

4) Other business entities that act on behalf of one of the above.

The health information they must protect from unauthorized access is individually identifiable health information, such as a diagnoses, insurance information, demographic data, medical history, test results, etc. Sharing information between health organizations for the purposes of providing care, coordinating care, administering care, and paying for care is an authorized use of that information. A hospital sharing information with your gossiping, in everyone's business Aunt Bertha, who is calling the hospital to find out why you've been admitted from the ER, is not authorized (unless you expressly authorized it).

In sum, HIPAA only applies to the covered entities above (i.e., health organizations). It does not apply to anyone else.

Thus, if Aunt Bertha were to ask you or any family member or friend why you were admitted to the hospital and they tell her, that is not a violation of HIPAA. It may be in bad taste, but it's not illegal. So, when you see extraordinarily unintelligent people like Rep Majorie Taylor Greene confidently tell a reporter that they've violated HIPAA because they asked if she's been vaccinated, you know why that's not true.

^

The worst thing about that entire incident is that the reporter didn't know or wasn't willing to challenge the ridiculous HIPAA excuse.

If they had, this could have been largely diffused.

Really high numbers. If you are on the fence or have family that is, now is the time to get the vaccine. With this kind of spread it will be exponentially growing.