Conservatives Wasted Our Summer
Conservative conspiracy theories have wasted our summer. Our summer was supposed to be a time to regroup and refresh. All of the other Western European countries used the summer to heal their communities.
Western Europeans followed the advice of scientists and doctors. They shut down large gatherings. They implemented large-scale Covid 19 testing. They mandated masks in public. They implemented contact tracing. Most of all they made sure everyone could pay their bills.
They had no protest against these safety measures. All of this combined to drive down the infection rate and stopped mass hospitalization. As a result, they are slowly and safely, leaving their homes and going back to work.
The United States is going in the opposite direction.
Conservative, following the lead of Donald Trump, treated covid-19 as a hoax. Instead of listening to the doctors and the scientists, conservatives listened to talk radio, Facebook and politicians. When Covid was treated as a real threat, Donald spread the lie that China unleashed the virus.
We are collectively paying the price for conservatives’ failure of leadership. The first Congressional relief package will run out in October. According to the Wall Street Journal, large companies are planning layoffs and furloughs. When extended unemployment benefits end, too many Texas families will not be able to buy food or pay rent.
Low infection rates in Western Europe have allowed their football, or soccer, league to restart. They have no fans in the stands, but they can survive on TV advertisement revenue. Players are isolated from the rest of society to insure Covid 19 doesn’t spread throughout the league.
In the United States, university and pro teams have tried to welcome players back. They experienced the opposite results. Both players and staff caught Covid, forcing the institutions to shut down training.
The next big test will come with schools. For weeks conservatives have repeated the mantra that children and teenagers can’t contract Covid 19. Day by day this is proven a lie. Once again, according to the Wall Street Journal, Israel opened schools and at least 1,335 students and 691 staff got sick.
How many people in our communities have contact with school children or school staff? How fast will children and teachers spread the Covid 19 to each other? How fast will they spread it to their mothers and fathers, their sisters and brothers and their grandparents?
Yes, 2020 was a wasted summer. Donald told us Covid 19 would simply disappear. He told us we could go to church at Easter. We could celebrate July 4. He could hold mass political rallies. America had the opportunity to heal itself. Conservatives said no.  They wasted our summer, putting our lives and economy at risk.
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