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Politics

America Needs a Beach Vacation

Tom Purcell on

Crazy conspiracy theories abound.

A study by the YouGuv.com marketing company, reports the Insider, found that 20 percent of Americans believe that it is “definitely true” or “probably true” that there is a microchip implanted in the COVID-19 vaccines.

Wacky conspiracy theories are not the public’s only source of misinformation.

Our government leaders and public health experts have also sewn distrust with their “evolving” advice on masks, off-and-on-again lockdowns and the danger to school kids.

New York Times columnist Brett Stephens is critical of misinformation presented by immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci pertaining to herd immunity and other COVID truths.

"The impact of this misinformation on everyday life has been immense …” Stephens argued. “The credibility of public-health experts depends on the understanding that the job of informing the public means offering the whole truth, uncertainties included, rather than offering Noble Lies in the service of whatever they think the public needs to hear."

As a result of this failure to communicate clearly and straightforwardly, 93 million Americans who are eligible to get the vaccine have not gotten it, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

A lot of people say they are refusing to get the vaccine for reasons that have nothing to do with their politics or microchip implants, as the New York Times reports.

 

The top reasons, says the Times, were that they were worried about the vaccine’s side-effects. They are waiting to see if it is safe and didn’t trust vaccines or the government.

Alas, gone are the days when a tragic event or crisis brings us together.

Here to stay, I worry, is the incredible political polarization with which we now respond to all of our problems.

What our country could use this August is a long week relaxing at the beach, where we can try to restore our ability to calmly and intelligently work out our challenges.

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Copyright 2021 Tom Purcell, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Tom Purcell is an author and humor columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Email him at Tom@TomPurcell.com.


Copyright 2021 Tom Purcell, All Rights Reserved. Credit: Cagle.com

 

 

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