DO YOU KNOW BETTER? PROBABLY NOT AND YOU’RE NOT ALONE

What age marks the moment when you ‘ought to know better?’

How many times do we get fooled before we say we won’t get fooled again?

The first time you got fooled: That was unexpected.

The second time you got fooled: Didn’t we take care of that last time?

The third time you got fooled: I’m not fooled, this is normal.

No, this is not normal. The results are in.

Phil Valentine talked the talk:

In December 2020 he tweeted: “I have a very low risk of A) Getting COVID and B) dying of it if I do. Why would I risk getting a heart attack or paralysis by getting the vaccine?”

Now Phil Valentine died the death:

Valentine had been a skeptic of coronavirus vaccines. But after he tested positive for Covid-19, and prior to his hospitalization, he told his listeners to consider, “If I get this Covid thing, do I have a chance of dying from it?” If so, he advised them to get vaccinated. He said he chose not to get vaccinated because he thought he probably wouldn’t die.

Did Phil Valentine know better? Probably not.

After Valentine was moved into a critical care unit, Mark Valentine said his brother regretted that “he wasn’t a more vocal advocate of the vaccination.”

“I know if he were able to tell you this, he would tell you, ’Go get vaccinated. Quit worrying about the politics. Quit worrying about all the conspiracy theories,’” Mark Valentine told The Tennessean in July.

Who Ought To Know Better About Covid Vaccines

The future is a little cloudy on this one. Here in Oregon, way out west on the edge of the continent, we hear jokes about our backwardness.

Orebama is a good one.

It’s all good fun comparing Oregon to some of the lowest academic achieving states.

When does it stop being do damn funny?

From oregonlive.com:

Oregon’s rate — 77 percent — was the lowest of any state except New Mexico, where the rate was a paltry 71 percent.

Nevada, which had previously trailed Oregon, leap-frogged ahead and achieved an 81 percent on-time graduation rate, the U.S. Department of Education said.

That was 2017.

How did Nevada jump ahead of Oregon in the race to the top academic ranking among states? More reading, writing, and ‘rithmatic? Nope, just the opposite.

Nevada’s big increase occurred after the state dropped its longstanding requirement that students pass exams on reading, writing, math and science to get a diploma. 

Oregon Ought To Know Better

In the race for academic excellence what does Oregon do to prepare students for life after high school?

Did the decision makers consult Nevada?

Governor Kate Brown has signed Senate Bill 744, which suspends essential skills testing for the next three years. Normally the graduation pre-requisite evaluates a student’s ability to do math, read, and write.

Eight of the bottom ten academic states come with a southern flavor. This is also a region ripe with anti-mask and anti-vax sentiments.

The covid vaccine will turn you into a magnet! It will alter your DNA.

Getting the vaccine may affect your decision making abilities.

Eighty-three percent of unvaccinated people said they have little or no worry about their risks of contracting the virus. Less than 1 in 10 of those who reject the vaccine trust medical advice from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s most prominent disease expert, and 1 in 5 trusts the Centers for Disease Control.

Today I read that states on the Gulf Coast have few ICU beds available.

Doctors who refuse to treat unvaccinated Covid-19 patients?

Here’s one:

Dr. Jason Valentine, a physician at Mobile’s Diagnostic and Medical Clinic Infirmary Health, posted a photo on his Facebook account of himself pointing to a sign reading that effective October 1, 2021, he would no longer see patients who refused the vaccine.

“If they asked why, I told them covid is a miserable way to die and I can’t watch them die like that,” Valentine wrote in his post.

From Phil Valentine to Dr. Valentine, make an educated decision and do the right thing.

If you can’t read or write or do math, have someone you trust break it down for you, or just get the damn vaccine because your life is worth living.

If you don’t feel your life is worth it, think of others who will watch you suffer. It’s no way to die.

And if that doesn’t do the trick, get the vaccine so a loved one in someone else’s family may be able to get the medical treatment they need.

Just. Do. It.