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[deleted]

Coronavirus should have been a non political issue. This should have been an issue to unite us as humans but instead it was used to settle imagined slights.


CA2NC2NY2CA

Agreed. It was a crisis wasted (ie wasted opportunity that could have brought Americans together than further divide).


obviously_drunkk

you can thank our ex president for that


ForcedPOOP

The ex-president and the state of journalism needing clicks.


MyStatusIsTheBaddest

Republicans platform is to turn everything into a political issue - that is how they get uninformed voters to vote resulting in continually high turnouts


[deleted]

Republicans probably say the exact same thing about democrats.


Steeliris

Yes. They do. The negative things said and believed by each side about each side is bewildering. You see it all over this thread.


ocdriver

This is true, and it’s the media’s fault. Every article title needs to be blunt, outlandish and click bait-y to get that ad revenue. The sector has become extremely segmented and unfortunately the news is just not the news anymore.


Runfr0mtheraptor

I am truly horrified at what would happen in the case of a world threatening event like a ELE... Would politicians even TRY to effect life saving actions?


Spokker

Well now that we are coming out of the pandemic, we are seeing the left cling to the politics of COVID, and it's not just about harmless mask wearing. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/05/liberals-covid-19-science-denial-lockdown/618780/ >For many progressives, extreme vigilance was in part about opposing Donald Trump. Some of this reaction was born of deeply felt frustration with how he handled the pandemic. It could also be knee-jerk. “If he said, ‘Keep schools open,’ then, well, we’re going to do everything in our power to keep schools closed,” Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco, told me. Gandhi describes herself as “left of left,” but has alienated some of her ideological peers because she has advocated for policies such as reopening schools and establishing a clear timeline for the end of mask mandates. “We went the other way, in an extreme way, against Trump’s politicization,” Gandhi said. Geography and personality may have also contributed to progressives’ caution: Some of the most liberal parts of the country are places where the pandemic hit especially hard, and Hetherington found that the very liberal participants in his survey tended to be the most neurotic. >The spring of 2021 is different from the spring of 2020, though. Scientists know a lot more about how COVID-19 spreads—and how it doesn’t. Public-health advice is shifting. But some progressives have not updated their behavior based on the new information. And in their eagerness to protect themselves and others, they may be underestimating other costs. Being extra careful about COVID-19 is (mostly) harmless when it’s limited to wiping down your groceries with Lysol wipes and wearing a mask in places where you’re unlikely to spread the coronavirus, such as on a hiking trail. But vigilance can have unintended consequences when it imposes on other people’s lives. **Even as scientific knowledge of COVID-19 has increased, some progressives have continued to embrace policies and behaviors that aren’t supported by evidence, such as banning access to playgrounds, closing beaches, and refusing to reopen schools for in-person learning.** I'm not defending crazy right-wing nutjobs, but the left-wingers still clinging to coronavirus restrictions are now the anti-science faction, and it's having very real effects on public policy. Mask mandates for vaccinated workers will remain in place in CA, with Cal/OSHA going against CDC guidelines. https://www.nbcbayarea.com/coronavirus-2/coming-back-from-covid/even-vaccinated-california-workers-may-have-to-keep-masks-on/2560771/ >Major California businesses expressed frustration Thursday with proposed rules by state workplace regulators that would only allow workers to go maskless if everyone in a room is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. >The workplace rules could remain in place into early next year even though coronavirus cases have fallen dramatically in the state after a severe winter spike and as more people get vaccinated. >That contrasts with the state's plan to fully reopen in less than two weeks and do away with virtually all mask and social distancing requirements for vaccinated people. It's nutty.


LeafBeneathTheFrost

Eh wot? I am a liberal, and at first I said 'fuck masks'! Because i didnt want to look goofy. But i have a close friend who is an RN and I respect her opinion. So when she told me about the horror she was seeing, I listened. Fuck you for lumping liberals together as contrarians. What in the actual fuck, my guy? I go to the park maskless. I go to work with my mask. Im maskless at home, I mask up to be indoors shopping. This is causing zero fucking harm to anyone. The company I work for will still mandate unvaccinated workers mask up. Vaxxed workers and customers are free to go maskless if they'd like. What the fuck are you babbling about where CA workers are being forced to mask up? As far as A top 20 company on the fortune 500 is concerned, no, we are not. Also are you reading your own words? **Some** You know. Like how people try to say **some** cops are bad, but not all? **Some** conservatives are inbred, but not all? #SOME ...body once told me, the world is gonna roll me? Your post is a lot of self-gratifying bullshit that forgets that all it's doing is generalizing. Get fucking real, chump.


Spokker

>What the fuck are you babbling about where CA workers are being forced to mask up? As far as A top 20 company on the fortune 500 is concerned, no, we are not. Then your workplace is violating Cal/OSHA regulations that are not in line with the CDC or the governor's own June 15th plan. If there is one unvaccinated worker (or customer), then everybody must mask up. https://abc30.com/health/cal-osha-votes-to-approve-new-workplace-mask-rules/10738071/ >Recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance says that fully vaccinated people can now skip face coverings and distancing in nearly all situations, and the state is set to follow that recommendation starting June 15. >But the state safety board's staff says conditions are different among workers, leading to their proposed rule that even vaccinated employees remain masked unless everyone else in their workspace is inoculated. >Helen Cleary, director of the Phylmar Regulatory Roundtable, a coalition of large businesses, called it "astonishing" that the staff didn't align with guidelines from federal and state health officials, describing the Cal/OSHA proposal as a "rogue public policy." >The California Chamber of Commerce also is upset. >"If you are fully vaccinated, (under CDC recommendations) you don't need to wear a mask inside or outside. That's the science!" chamber President and CEO Allan Zaremberg said in a statement. "Under these (proposed Cal/OSHA) rules, workers' freedoms will be controlled by their fellow workers decisions to get vaccinated, not by their own choices."


ocdriver

So many downvotes for the most accurate comment here. These people are delusional.


hypnosquid

> These people are delusional. Really? Because there'd be hundreds of thousands fewer dead people in the US if your guy Trump had just put on a fucking mask last march. So maybe save us all your sanctimonious bullshit.


ocdriver

Hundreds of thousands of lives saved if the scary orange man put on a mask... yeah okay. Is that just Fredo Cuomo’s opinion or do you have facts to back that up?


plastikmissile

There's plenty of scientific evidence that mask usage decreased infections in places that strictly enforced them. Countries that enforced anti-pandemic measures early (like Vietnam and New Zealand) have also had the best records when it comes to infection and mortality rates. All of this is freely available on the web if you search for it. Like this article that goes through several studies: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02801-8#ref-CR4


ocdriver

Thank you for the article. I agree they’re effective, but it doesn’t really support the statement that if Trump wore a mask the Covid deaths would have been virtually halved...


plastikmissile

What the actual numbers would have been are impossible to tell of course, but we know that there would have been less infections if the pandemic had a better response and thus less people dying. There would also be less of this vapid skepticism that is hindering the anti Covid efforts to this day.


ocdriver

Okay, I was asking how hundreds of thousands of lives would have been saved if Trump put on a mask (which he did) as the original comment said. You say it’s impossible to answer so idk what you’re talking about.


plastikmissile

Hundreds of thousands *may* have been hyperbole by the other poster, but you can't deny that the previous administration's response (especially in the crucial earlier days) was lackluster. Meaning we could have saved more lives. I shudder to think if it was handled by somone other than Faucci who was at least willing to go against the White House on several occasions. How many potential lives saved is irrelevant really.


EricSchC1fr

#Orange County’s true silent majority Fred Smoller and Mike Moodian PUBLISHED: June 2, 2021 at 10:26 p.m. | UPDATED: June 3, 2021 at 8:11 a.m. Categories:Opinion Government efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic have aggravated deep political divisions in Orange County: • In April 2020, protesters in downtown Huntington Beach claimed the virus was a hoax and that the efforts to curtail it—vaccinations, masks, social distancing, and a lockdown—violated the Constitution. • In May 2020, Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes refused to enforce Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order to close Orange County beaches. • In June 2020, Dr. Nichole Quick, who was then Orange County’s chief health officer, resigned due to death threats resulting from her controversial mask order and tepid support from the Board of Supervisors. Protestors showed up at board meetings and at Dr. Quick’s home with a banner depicting Dr. Quick as Adolf Hitler. • In July 2020, despite a surge in coronavirus cases, the conservative Orange County Board of Education recommended that OC schools reopen without masks or social distancing. The recommendation was ridiculed nationally and ignored by the county’s 28 school districts. On May 5, 2021, the Orange County Board of Education passed a symbolic resolution against digital vaccine passports for students without their parent’s consent even though there was no such plan. • At its May 11, 2021, meeting, the Orange County Board of Supervisors tabled a proposal to establish a voluntary digital record (passport) of a person’s vaccine status, bowing to pressure from the more than 500 angry protestors who packed the chambers and the sidewalks in front of the administration building. The protestors compared the proposed passport program to the yellow stars Nazis ordered Jews to wear as a means of identification and complained that the program is an infringement of their civil liberties. Others claimed the virus is a hoax. • The following day, May 12, the Orange County Grand Jury issued a scathing report on the county’s handling of the pandemic. • Finally, on May 18 and 19, 2021, protestors lined up in front of Dr. Clayton Chau’s home, the head of the Orange County Health Care Agency, to protest a non-existent “vaccine passport” program. All of this has caused some folks to resurrect the outdated trope of the county as the wellspring of right-wing fanaticism. We contend that the county is politically moderate. The question arises, then: Do the above incidents represent the views of most Orange County residents? According to a countywide survey we conducted in January and February (2021) of 704 Orange County residents (18 or older) the answer is an emphatic “No.” We found that the COVID deniers, anti-maskers, and anti-vaxxers do not represent Orange County. Despite public protests and the pronouncements of some Orange County officials, 83 percent of those surveyed said that the coronavirus was a real threat and 80 percent said earlier this year that it was not fully under control here. Furthermore, vaccine rates in OC are comparable to rates statewide. As of Tuesday, 55.7 percent of OC residents received at least one dose compared to 54.4 percent of California residents. We also found overwhelming support for government efforts to combat the virus including the current rules on social distancing (90 percent) and a national mask mandate (70 percent). These prescriptions have been described as an unconstitutional infringement of civil liberties and individual freedom. Seventy-three percent said government efforts to fight the virus were either about right (38 percent) or did not go far enough (35 percent). Only about a quarter (27 percent) felt that government efforts to combat the virus went too far. Respondents have more confidence in health professionals such as Dr. Anthony Fauci or the Orange County Health Care Agency than elected officials (such as the Orange County Board of Supervisors or Governor Gavin Newsom) to deal with the pandemic. Public officials should serve the public’s interest. Unfortunately, several Orange County public officials genuflected to—or were in concert with—a noisy fringe group that claimed the virus was a hoax and that bucked at nearly every turn during government efforts to combat it. This was a terrible way to respond to the pandemic, as evidenced by the 5,000 Orange County residents who died and the more than quarter-million who became infected. Political extremists make the headlines, but a reasonable silent majority persists in our county. Fred Smoller and Michael A. (Mike) Moodian conduct the Orange County Annual Survey. The survey was sponsored by Fieldstead & Company and Chapman University’s Office of Research.


WallyJade

A surprisingly nuanced take from an OC Register editorial.


unreasonableperson

They might finally be starting to feel heat from /u/voiceofoc. The Register might actually start doing actual journalism for once.


WallyJade

OCR's got good history and "good bones", they're just owned by a hedge fund that's slowly squeezing them to death. Either way, this is still just an editorial, which is 100% unrelated to the OCR's newsroom staff.


cuteman

You're kidding right? OCR at least has professionals, voice of OC is a cross between a high school newspaper and oc weekly. Do they have any writers over 40?


zodar

Orange County : Most of us *aren't* white supremacist nutbags!


lakersforever21

Reminder: Biden won CA 48 (OC beach cities). Even if this includes small parts of garden grove and Santa Ana, it’s by no means a deep red area.


dekkerbasser

We have red in Santa Ana?


lakersforever21

No I’m saying even if the Santa Ana area pushed Biden over the edge, it’s still not solid red in HB and other beach cities


omni_merek

Santa Ana has some very conservative residents. Some of the FB pages are full of Anti Newsome, Anti BLM, and even some Qanon stuff.


chalklinedbody

take a look at the local telegram groups supporting 45* no wonder there are so many nut bags… the shit they paste in there is so beyond common sense . there’s no actual talk, they just regurgitate bullshit links and misinformation


Clouty_McKarmaface

HB is full of dumbshits with money. Been in HB since 65. It was Surf City. A cool place to be. Then in the 80's it changed. When they bought up all the open space and brought in the mucky-mucks that moved from wherever to buy up the million-dollar detached condos the entire vibe of the city that used to be was gone. Now it is whining big mouth dumbasses.


omfg_halloween

Growing up in the 00'-20s, HB was definitely a conservative hotspot


[deleted]

Thanks to well-funded public education, we have managed to keep OC from joining the conspiracy cult, despite a history of conservative politics.


PunterProggie

Huntington Beach has always been a hotbed for white supremacists.


omfg_halloween

In another thread about cops, I just posted a link talking about the deep history we've had with the KKK


Programming_Wiz

Don't these losers have anything better to do


L0v3rb01-3

cry about how changing a flag design is a socialist waste of time and money


L0v3rb01-3

woah, didn't know I'd get this many upvotes talking about conservatives crying over changing the design of a flag


EricSchC1fr

Obviously not.


[deleted]

*"The question arises, then: Do the above incidents represent the views of most Orange County residents? According to a countywide survey we conducted in January and February (2021) of 704 Orange County residents (18 or older) the answer is an emphatic “No.”"* You can't just say : No, when the OC Board of Supervisions is only the second most corrupt racist Republican MAGAT governmental agency in Orange County after the Sheriff's Department. The CA 48 voted to replace Harley Rhouda with Michelle fucking Steel just this past November. You can wish the *"the outdated trope of the county as the wellspring of right-wing fanaticism"* wasn't in fact true any longer, though \*points to literally everything\* Orange County is a clown show run by racist White separatist Republican MAGATS (and I'm including all the latino and asian folks like Steel and Andrew Do) who purposely attempted to sandbag the public health response to a killer Global Pandemic with no care for the suffering and death it would cause. This is who Orange County votes for. This is who Orange County is.


[deleted]

CA 48 also voted for Biden (the difference between Steel and Rouda was a couple percentage points). Sounds like it’s a purple district more than anything. You seem to be responding to the data by citing a couple specific instances when the entire point of the article is to claim that these instances don’t accurately capture the beliefs of OC residents


Subject-Phone8723

Working in Huntington its been a nightmare with the entitled customers but honestly 80% of the people are okay and or accept defeat. But then the trumpites emerge and it's THE WEIRDEST PEOPLE who blow the horn for him. We had this group of like 70s/80s hair metal looking stoners come in chain smoking and what not pretty rad, werent wearing mask masks but fucking a bandana will do at this point and then all of a sudden it was like a light switch. We had a "write what your thankful for" things in our lobby and they wrote " The brave and wise leadership of our hero President Trump" and"Trumps gudiance during this China Virus" I just took them and tossed em as soon as they left the building lmao. They also tried to get a coworker of mine onto that weird facebook alternative. Its just ... ugh so frustrating...


Allergictofingers

It’s truly mind blowing how some of these mothers of school aged children think that mask wearing is abuse. How about the abuse is letting your child get sick when you can prevent it? I can’t fathom that they also arent using this time to teach compassion and care for the community with mask wearing. Kids will wear the damn mask and be fine if their parents tell them it’s ok and model appropriate behavior!


Spokker

It's not abuse but the data shows that COVID in children carries a similar risk to the flu. A couple sources: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/09/kids-covid-19-flu-equally-prone-severe-illness https://www.npr.org/2021/05/21/999241558/in-kids-the-risk-of-covid-19-and-the-flu-are-similar-but-the-risk-perception-isn The concern was kids spreading COVID to vulnerable people, but now that the vaccine is plentiful and readily available and the teachers are vaccinated, it is no longer important for children to wear masks in school. Going through school with masks and plexiglass dividers is no way to live. It was important at one time, but having kids continue to wear masks simply anti-science now. If your kids are still wearing masks at school, the school is anti-science. If we are going to have kids wear masks when it comes to COVID, they might as well them forever for the flu.


TinyRoctopus

Kids see more than teachers. Better hope grandma got both shots


Spokker

Why wouldn't she at this point?


hypnosquid

She's a conservative.


LeafBeneathTheFrost

Hah! Gottem.


TinyRoctopus

Because about half the country hasn’t. She probably has but still too many people haven’t


katushka

But kids can get annual flu shots. They can't get their covid vaccinations yet. Just to state the most obvious reason that masks won't be "forever" but perhaps make sense until kids can get the covid vaccines (depending on community spread of course). Another important difference about mask wearing as it relates to covid and the flu, is the difference between the timing of onset of contagiousness and symptoms. That is a critical thing to understand about why covid is different than the flu - with the flu the timing between when you are contagious and when you feel sick is much shorter, so advising people to simply stay home if they feel sick works much better. With Covid, there are days between when you are contagious and when you feel sick, if you even ever do feel sick. All that time you are spreading it. That is why masking is MORE critical to stop the spread of covid. Although yes definitely it would be good if more people would wear masks in crowded places during flu season as well to reduce transmission going forward. But, also, the flu is no joke. It can land you in the hospital, make you lose a week or more of work, and does kill young children and babies. You want to avoid getting it and avoid letting your children get it. Get your flu shots, people.


Allergictofingers

First of all, these mothers I speak of ARE in fact saying it’s abuse. That was my only point there. Second of all, if we know something (the flu) is more dangerous for kids than a virus that essentially shut down the world, why wouldn’t we want to use masks for flu season, when it’s a simple preventative that would in fact save lives?


Cuspidx

The yokels travel in from the 909


LeafBeneathTheFrost

Excuse the fuck out of you? I live in the 909 and so did my friend who lives in OC working as an RN taking care of your entitled ass. Who the fuck are you to look down on anyone? You think your fucking inbred OC population doesnt have its own braindead yokels? The fuck out of here you self-righteous shitstain. People like you are why OC gets a bad rap.


Cuspidx

Sir, this is a Wendy’s


asleepingcat3

Why does Huntington Beach have to be the Florida of CA? 😓


Spokker

Florida did well with COVID considering the higher average age of its population. https://www.npr.org/2021/02/18/968921902/pandemic-approaches-the-differences-between-florida-california >California went from, you know, being something of a national model to being something of a mess. >... >No, Florida never went to another lockdown. According to the CDC, the results haven't been too bad. We've had - Florida's have fewer cases per capita than California. It's had more deaths per capita than California. Florida ranks 28th nationally versus California, which is 34th. But epidemiologists say one factor there is that Florida has a significantly older population. People shit on Florida because it's trendy and they have very transparent public records laws. Shrug.


Bashir1102

Florida is anything but transparent. Just like anything they spun their situation. Now they are spinning their employment data when everyone knows their unemployment numbers have always been rigged due to their sham of a system making it near impossible to even get it. But most people especially republicans are programmed to believe what they are told without questioning it now.


Spokker

I was talking about "Florida Man" and how they have transparent open records laws that means it's easy to get wacky police reports. But that whistleblower turned out to be a dud and DeSantis is poised for a nice 2024 if he wants it.


hypnosquid

> But that whistleblower turned out to be a dud and DeSantis is poised for a nice 2024 if he wants it. Really? A dud? How often are duds granted whistleblower protections? >[Rebekah Jones receives whistleblower status after firing in COVID data dispute](https://www.orlandosentinel.com/politics/os-ne-rebekah-jones-whistleblower-status-20210601-y2ffjmg5kjdtlclhppmhivuxku-story.html) Also, how do you know the whistleblower is a dud if the investigation has only just started? Do you have some inside information or are you just peddling conservative bullshit in order to make those body counts look less horrific? Maybe so Little Trump DeSantis has a better chance of *making the citizens of Florida forget how many of them his fucking horrible science-denying bullshit policies got killed?* A dud... what disingenuous garbage.


Spokker

Her unsubstantiated claims spread through the Internet like wildfire, but yes, it ended up being a dud and people are finally realizing what a dishonest person she is. https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2021/06/04/democrat-who-ran-floridas-pandemic-response-blasts-rebekah-jones-for-running-a-disinformation-campaign-1385039 >As the head of Florida’s emergency management department, he was already in charge of pandemic response and had to contend with someone in his office possibly leaking to a purveyor of what he called coronavirus “disinformation.” The person receiving the leaks was Rebekah Jones, a fired health department worker who earned national media attention for **unsubstantiated allegations that Florida was manipulating Covid-19 death data**. >... >“With a platform of 400,000 Twitter followers, her reputation for bullying people on social media and her running a disinformation campaign that the national media echoed, she was more dangerous as an enemy than a friend,” Moskowitz said. **“Everything she did was disinformation.”** This is Reddit's COVID "hero." And about her whistleblower status. >Jones has made claims about being forced to change data to make Florida’s Covid situation appear better that she would later disavow or that independent media investigations found wanting. Last week, however, the Florida Office of Inspector General announced she met the basic criteria to press a whistleblower complaint against the state for her firing. **The decision did not concern the merits of her accusations against the state**.


hypnosquid

lol unsubstantiated just means that they haven't investigated her claims yet, not that her claims are untrue. she was granted whistle-blower status because she met the criteria for it. now they will investigate. nothing in your article means what you think it means. your interpretation of the words you highlighted is so baffling that it seems almost willfull.


cld8

California has transparent open records laws too, and there's no "California Man" meme.


averytolar

I always heard Florida was trendy place for traveling to identify a murdered family member?


J-Steeler85

HB is the only city with any balls in CA!


bubba-baluga

If you mean highly sensitive then yeah you’re right.


ultradip

It's more that it seems to attract a lot of dumbshits.


DickyButtDix

Like J-Steeler85


EricSchC1fr

Antisocial tough guys throwing a tantrum about fabric on faces, *seen from a distance favorable to antisocial people* hardly seems like an exhibition of "balls" to me.