Age of quackery

 This is just mainstream politics now.  

“There’s no question that the anti-vax movement is a larger entity now. It’s better funded, it’s better organized — and it’s been quite prolific at spreading its message,” Kanter said. “There’s a lot of families that have unfortunately fallen victim to that.”

Richard, whose district includes Crowley Kindergarten, said as vaccines have become more politicized, hesitancy has grown. The percentage of kindergarteners whose parents asked for them to be exempted from standard immunizations more than doubled in Acadia Parish over the past two years. Other parishes in Acadiana have seen a similar trend.

“The entire concept of vaccinations has become controversial,” Richard said. While numbers for the current school year are not yet available on a parish-wide basis, Richard doubts that they’d show a rebound in vaccinations. “I would not be surprised if the numbers are static or even lower,” he said.

This doesn't have anything to do with "the science" and who understands it.  None of these people is making a rational choice based on having been told the good information or the bad information. Rather, they're making a deeply felt statement about who they are and which side they are on.  

We don't live in a time when politics can be about policy choices doing anything to bring people a better life or better future. Nobody believes in any of that stuff. All that matters in politics now is sorting out who is good and who is bad and who deserves to be punished. So once a question... any question.. but in this case, a question like, "should I vaccinate my children" becomes embedded in cultural identity like this, there's no going back from it. We're stuck here.

Just mashing buttons

Logistical supply of goods and services is not a magical thing that just happens. Americans' extremely limited understanding of economics and markets (it's all done by some invisible hand of God or something!) is one reason why people can't get their heads around what "inflation" is. It's also what gums up the works politically such that the only possible policy response is for the democratically unaccountable bankers at the Federal Reserve to just mash a button.  What does the button do, though?  David Dayen says it pretty well. 

In fact, the rationing doesn’t stop with formula and vaccines; it’s our formal economic policy. Federal Reserve interest rate hikes to stop inflation are designed to “tamp down demand,” a euphemism for throwing people out of work in the hopes that millions will lack enough money to buy things. The current strategy is to ration our way through inflation, despite the fact that interest rates can’t end lockdowns in China or halt the war in Ukraine, the primary current drivers of the price squeeze.

What this comes back to is that public policy has relied—absurdly—on belief in an automatic process of capitalism, where shortages not only shouldn’t but cannot happen. When that internalized promise is not kept, people get really damn angry about it, and they should. They should know that it’s the result of decades of bad policy: monopolization, centralization of production, lax regulatory response. Until we recognize this deficiency and start re-engineering policy to ensure the general welfare, that anger will reap a whirlwind in November and beyond.

An angry "whirlwind" whipped up through a public deliberately kept ignorant by an aloof ruling class indifferent to its suffering is not going to be a good time for anybody.  But don't worry. They've got another button to mash on if that starts to get out of hand.  It's the one that buys more cops. 

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday urged states and cities to use unspent money from last year’s $1.9 trillion Covid relief package to fund crime prevention programs and hire police officers.

The president stressed the need for more funding of public safety programs at a White House event with mayors and law enforcement officials.

“To every governor, every mayor, every county official, the need is clear, my message is clear: Spend this money now; use these funds we made available to you; prioritize public safety,” Biden said. “Do it quickly before the summer, when crime rates typically surge.”

COVID numbers are already going up, the supply of masks and vaccines is running low, and the Democrats just decided it was more important to spend $40 billion on a war in Europe. Now, as the Fed prepares to deliberately induce a recession, the President wants to spend money already allocated for COVID relief on a war at home. It's going to be an interesting summer. 

The line is going back up again

LDH is reporting 853 new COVID cases in Louisiana today.  (42 in Orleans Parish) That is the biggest one day jump since February.  Most likely this is related to the spread of the more highly contagious "Delta" variant of the virus.  According to most of what we read, the available vaccines seem to protect you as well against the new variant so here is the LDH site with information on how to get your shots.  

If you are reading this, though, it's highly likely you've already been vaccinated.  The problem is, you are one of about only 35% of Louisianians who have been.  Which makes us one of the more vulnerable spots in the whole country right now. (On the bright side, your lotto odds are pretty good!) Add to that an entire regime of political leadership who have all but given up on protective public health measures in favor tourism promotion and "reopening" campaigns and you've got a recipe for disaster brewing. 

Hopefully it won't be that bad! But it's worrisome.

Name some names, Tanner

Only a week in but this is already the worst Louisiana Legislature I've ever had to watch.  The characters on display during committee hearings on the tax reform bills yesterday fell into three categories: the ignorant, the bought, and a few who are clearly bewildered and intimidated by the ignorant and the bought.  

But more on all that later. That's not really why I opened up the blogging program this morning. Instead, I just wanted to note this comment from one legislator on how ignorant the ignorant caucus is. 

But given how politicized mask-wearing and even the COVID vaccines have become, lawmakers are unlikely to require students in Louisiana to take the COVID vaccines.

“No, it won’t happen,” said Rep. Tanner Magee of Houma, the second-ranking Republican in the Louisiana House. “The political climate right now with vaccines, just the hysteria around it, won’t allow for any sort of mandate,” he said in an interview.

In distributing the vaccines, he added, “We honestly have some legislators who think that we really are implanting 5G chips into people.” 

I'm not usually into getting anyone to rat on their friends but I'm afraid Tanner is going to have to give us some names there.  Or, at least, get us an idea of how many "some legislators" is so we know the size of what we're dealing with. 

Or maybe he doesn't have to. The Advocate already tried to get a handle on the number of anti-vaxxers in the Capitol last week.  But these numbers and the possible reasons for them are open to interpretation. 

Among 142 lawmakers polled, 98 said they had availed themselves of the jab, while 30 said they have yet to be vaccinated. A handful said they had recently recovered from COVID-19 and plan to take the vaccine soon.

The two most powerful lawmakers – House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzales, and Senate President Page Cortez, R-Lafayette – refused to say whether they had been vaccinated. They joined a dozen other GOP lawmakers who wouldn’t answer the question, with some calling the survey an invasion of privacy.

I think when they say "invasion of privacy," they mean they are vaccinated but are afraid that might hurt them with their constituents. At least, that's what I read between these lines in particular. 

Some political leaders are content to stay out of those conversations. 

"I don't want my constituents to be influenced one way or another by my decision,” said Rep. Jonathan Goudeau, R-Lafayette, who refused to answer whether he had been vaccinated. 

“That’s a private health matter that I wouldn’t want to discuss publicly,” said Rep. Philip Tarver, R-Lake Charles.

And the reason I lean that way is that, typically, the legislators aren't so shy about sharing their weird ideas.  The ones who aren't getting vaccinated seem like they are happy to tell you why.  And... oh man.. let's see some of those. 

Some lawmakers referenced misinformation about the vaccine, which has been particularly potent on social media, in their decision not to get vaccinated.  

Rep. Beryl Amedee, R-Houma, said she was concerned the vaccine could cause spontaneous miscarriages among women — a claim that exploded online in March but was promptly debunked by medical experts as untrue. 

Sen. Mike Fesi, R-Houma, claimed that a family friend died from the vaccine, though a spokesperson for the Louisiana Department of Health said the state has not confirmed any deaths from any of the vaccines administered in Louisiana.

That's only two of the 30 unvaccinated lawmakers running around up in Baton Rouge right now. This article says five of those have already had COVID and think they have natural immunity. That's not really supported by the research which says the vaccines are the more sure way to go. But you can kind of see why a reasonable person might think that at first. What we really need to know is how many of them are spreading pure conspiracy nuttery (and possibly COVID itself, not to mention) like Amedee there.  Maybe Tanner can tell us more.

It's not a competition

What is he trying to win the vaccine Olympics?   This is meaningless. 

When I came into office, you may recall, I set a goal that many of you said was kind of way over the top. I said I intended to get 100 million shots in people’s arms in my first 100 days in office.

Tonight, I can say we’re not only going to meet that goal, we’re going to beat that goal, because we’re actually on track to reach this goal of 100 million shots in arms on my 60th day in office. No other country in the world has done this. None.

We're not going to make ourselves safe until we make everyone safe.  Being better than other countries at meeting some number is irrelevant. Also.... there are reasons that is happening that we really should not be proud of. 

The normal rules of business that protect the profits of vaccine manufacturers will have to be set aside if that is what it takes to ensure everybody is immunised against the coronavirus, according to the director general of the World Health Organization.

Writing in the Guardian, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the world needs to be “on a war footing”. Before a key meeting of the World Trade Organization next week on the anniversary of the declaration of the pandemic, he supports a patent waiver that would allow countries to make and sell cheap copies of vaccines that were invented elsewhere.

“We are living through an exceptional moment in history and must rise to the challenge,” he says. “Flexibilities in trade regulations exist for emergencies, and surely a global pandemic which has forced many societies to shut down and caused so much harm to business – both large and small – qualifies. We need to be on a war footing and it’s important to be clear about what is needed.”

Biden mentioned being on a "war footing" during his speech. But by comparing US vaccine performance with the countries hampered by our intellectual property policy, he sounds like he means a war against those countries instead of, you know, the virus.

Can we maybe wait like another month or so?

This morning I opened Twitter and saw that practically everyone who had fingers to post was posting that they are making appointments right now to get vaccinated. That is a thing that you do very much in fact love to see.  The surge comes as the governor announces a major expansion of eligibility to those over 16 years old who can claim any of a list of conditions some of which are quite expansive.  For example you can now get a vaccine appointment if you are a smoker or if you are "overweight" as measured by a BMI number that pretty much includes everyone. 

That's great news but it's a little bit sudden given what we had been hearing about vaccine supplies and various plans for "intentional" distribution strategies over the last few weeks. It's enough to cause one to wonder if there's even a bit of panic behind it. 

The expansion comes as Louisiana enters a familiar — and perhaps foreboding — stage of the now year-long pandemic: hospitalizations, deaths and the rate of positive tests have all plateaued after declining from a post-holiday surge. Paired with rising case counts of the more transmissible variant of the virus from the United Kingdom, health officials worry another spike is lurking around the corner.

“We’ve stopped improving, and in every previous instance when that has happened there was another surge,” Edwards said. “We are literally in a race against transmission of the virus —  especially the new variants.”

Why is it, then, that given all of this experience with "foreboding" plateaus and concern about the new variants, that the state and the city are once again rushing to relax precautionary restrictions?

New Orleans officials plan to announce details on eased coronavirus restrictions on Wednesday as cases in the city have slumped in recent weeks. 

"All the numbers are moving in the right direction, and we do anticipate an additional easement of the guidelines," said City Hall spokesperson Beau Tidwell during a press conference Tuesday.

Wait a minute, the governor just got finished saying the numbers had stopped moving in the right direction and plateaued. Which is it?  Anyway, if we really are in a "race against transmission of the virus," doesn't it make sense to keep doing everything we can to keep our opponent  in that race moving as slowly as possible?   Just keep the restrictions where they are until we get more people vaccinated.  It looks like the plan is for that to start happening quickly enough.  Plus a new federal stimulus bill is about to clear congress which, while not perfect, should be sufficient to keep things from falling completely apart in the meantime. We've waited a year. What's a few more months?

Gator blood on Fridays

The oddball Catholicism of New Orleans is so ingrained in the city's routines that it's ironically easy to forget about. I mean, yes, there are many ways in which it is obvious. But most of the time it is like background radiation subtly influencing the events, culture and politics that affect everyone here regardless of one's own personal faith.  

But sometimes it just blows up in great big mushroom plumes. Consider the 2011 funeral of Archbishop Hannan. Thousands of people turned out in the streets to watch a massive procession of marching bands and celebrities and politicians that practically shut down the city.  

People also stood or sat on the ground watching the final farewell to Hannan, who was the most active of the city's archbishops for his 23 years, and remained active during his retirement.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, state and parish lawmakers were among the mourners as was Victoria Kennedy, widow of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Among the honorary pall bearers were former U.S. Rep. Lindy Boggs and New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson and Xavier University president Norman C. Francis.

Boggs, 95, said she had been friends with Hannan for many years and said he would have been thrilled with the ceremony.

"When I was a member of congress he came often to Washington," Boggs said. "He would have loved the service today."

Consider Boggs' funeral a few years later in that same Cathedral where the Mayor of New Orleans delivered this performance.

Consider also the peculiar rituals kept by the current mayor in her City Hall office.  In fact, here is a product you can order to celebrate her expression of faith.

There's plenty of other stuff to cite. Real 80s kids out there will remember this deep cut. 

In 2010 there was much rejoicing when the Archbishop granted area communicants this very special Lenten dispensation. 

Catholics abstain from eating meat on Fridays during the time between Ash Wednesday and Easter, but seafood is allowed. Three years ago, when Jim Piculas was trying to settle a debate among his friends about whether gator qualified as seafood, he wrote a letter to the archbishop of New Orleans to ask.

His letter must have been pretty zealous, because not long after he wrote it, he got a response from Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond saying: "Yes, the alligator's considered in the fish family, and I agree with you — God has created a magnificent creature that is important to the state of Louisiana, and it is considered seafood."

Mysteries of the faith continue to abound, however. Because while we see the Archdiocese is willing to indulge the gustatory covetousness of the flock, it turns out this week, that it is less permissive with regard to their means of healing.

The day after the Federal Drug Administration granted emergency-use authorization to a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Johnson & Johnson, the Archdiocese of New Orleans issued a statement urging Catholics to choose, if they can, the other two available vaccines.

According to a statement released Sunday morning, the archdiocese instructs Catholics “that the latest vaccine from Janssen/Johnson & Johnson is morally compromised as it uses the abortion-derived cell line in development and production of the vaccine as well as the testing.”

The statement says that the decision to take that vaccine “remains one of individual conscience in consultation with one’s healthcare provider.”

I suppose we should commend the Archdiocese on its refreshingly "pro-choice" approach to the question.  Trouble is, it's not even a question anybody asked.  The Vatican has already told Catholics worldwide that it is "morally acceptable" to take the J&J shot if it is what is offered.  This message is echoed by bishops in Lafayette and Baton Rouge as well as by our very Catholic Governor who had this to say. 

"You do have to weigh this with the common good of ending a pandemic," Edwards said in a Tuesday afternoon press conference. "There's an imperative that we do this. The fastest way to do this is to deploy all of the vaccines and have the uptake of the vaccine be as great as possible. ... I'm encouraging everyone out there to take the first vaccine that is available to them whether it's Pfizer or Moderna or whether its Johnson & Johnson."

So, if you are a practicing Catholic in New Orleans, you have it on very good authority that the life saving medicines on offer do not simultaneously pose any threat to your soul. Instead consider them in the terms Archbishop Aymond used to describe the alligator. These medicines are "magnificent creatures" created for you to use. 

Someday, in fact, the next such.. um.. miracle may be derived from the blessed gator itself!

Chemists in Louisiana found that blood from the American alligator can successfully destroy 23 strains of bacteria, including strains known to be resistant to antibiotics.

In addition, the blood was able to deplete and destroy a significant amount of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Study co-author Lancia Darville at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge believes that peptides—fragments of proteins—within alligator blood help the animals stave off fatal infections.

In which case, we expect, that not only would the Archdiocese approve of such a drug, they would also permit it to be administered during Lent.