It’s funny how in the face of a deadly disease, American citizens, the richest and smartest people in the world, cannot unify on how to best protect ourselves from a biological crisis. We are so socially inept and our social model subsists on such a high degree of superficiality, that we cannot produce the candor necessary to collectively realize we face a deadly threat. Much of our population identify with the “Anti-Vax” or Anti-vaccination movement, an ideology adamantly opposed to vaccinations. While the anti-vax movement is not new and their pre-Trump reasoning is understandable, their current crusade against the COVID19 vaccine has little to do with logic and everything to do with Donald Trump.
Face it! COVID19 is Donald Trump’s failure and had the deadly pandemic not occurred or had he handled it according to the guidelines Barack Obama gave his administration, he would still be president today. Trump, being the “fiscal
conservative,” made it his thing to drastically cut his administration’s staffing in the name of “cutting the fat.” I recall one of the funniest effects of these knee-jerk-reaction staffing cuts being when he bragged about downsizing the First Lady’s staff, leaving her with seven less aides than Michelle Obama’s. Then in June of 2018, Melania wore a Jacket from Zara that said “I Really don’t care. Do you?” to visit children her husband’s “zero tolerance” immigration policies had separated from their parents. Looks like they cut one position too many, for someone on her staff should have recognized what that foolish wardrobe decision potentially communicated and put the kibosh on it.
Donald Trump made some catastrophic cuts that caused the COVID19 crisis to blindside our country. First, he fired Linda Quick, America’s epidemiologist embedded in China’s Disease Agency. She was specifically employed and installed to look over Chinese scientists’ shoulders for situations like COVID19 and alert a whole department that Mr. “Fiscal Conservative” cut; America’s Pandemic Response Team. The Pandemic Response Team’s job was to wait on calls from people like Linda Quick and respond swiftly. Looks like Trump tried to cut the fat but hit an artery. President Obama preemptively put these staff members in place specifically to prevent pandemics like COVID19 from sweeping through America like wildfire. Here’s a video of Barack Obama demonstrating true leadership by wrapping his head around a real threat and putting preparatory measures in place. The Pandemic Response Team would have also strongly advised that the Trump Administration refill America’s Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) stockpile, another fatal mistake the Trump Administration made. These key eliminations left America with our pants down and rather than roll up his sleeves and deal with the issue, Trump tried to ignore COVID19 away. This foolish, cowardly approach to leadership set the tone for how Republicans and Trump supporters would later regard COVID19 no matter how dangerous it proved itself to be. Once Trump realized COVID19 was unavoidable, he began blaming Obama, his rival, for not refilling the stockpile. He also blamed China, our adversary, for not informing us about COVID19 in time. We’re America and we are overly intrusive to other nations for a reason. We use our power to embed our scientists in our enemies’ agencies so we can inform ourselves. Media didn’t emphasize this point enough.
Along the same lines of their leader, Trump followers have wrapped their heads around a very real pandemic in a superficial way, thinking they can use their minds to cleverly construct words and themes to alter COVID19’s deadly reality. They put Trump over truth and have dedicated their mental capacity towards opposing anything that acknowledges the pandemic is real. First they minimized its severity, saying it was just like the flu. They said we should ignore it and focus on the flu because more people died of it. Their logic failed to grasp that COVID19 deaths would be in addition to flu deaths. Then Trump supporters mentally separated COVID19 from the deaths it caused to people with underlying ailments like heart conditions and asthma. Their logic ignored the fact COVID19 hastened many people’s deaths when, absent the disease, the deceased would likely still be living. Trump supporters used economic reasons to oppose lockdowns despite COVID19’s rapid spreading and scientists not fully understanding the threat yet. Then, in line with the disregard for black life many accuse Donald Trump of, as soon as experts announced that COVID19 caused more black deaths than white, Trump supporters began storming state capitols, demanding state governments reopen the economy regardless of the deaths COVID19 was causing. Trump supporters opposed masking because it was a reminder of their leader’s screw-up. They forced themselves, unmasked, into restaurants and stores despite those establishments doing their part to prevent the spread. Trump supporters never locked down then constantly talk about how the lockdowns didn’t work. They operated speak-easy restaurants and bars throughout the lockdown while permissive law enforcement turned a blind eye. I personally witnessed this in Orange County and San Bernardino County, California. These are the counties next to Los Angeles so imagine how serious middle America took the lockdowns. When the vaccinations became available, Trump supporters emphasized that his administration’s “Operation Warp Speed” made them possible then they coopted the anti-vax movement to oppose and discourage people from taking it. They even spread rumors that getting vaccinated would make men sterile and women infertile. Every sign of hope, like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin brought out a slew of professionals like “Dr. Oz” willing to expend their professional credibility to endorse supposed cures the majority of scientists denied worked. Trump supporters senile, confused and often contradictory reactions to COVID19 wreaked of desperation and show they are willing to forego truth and logic along with their own integrity to avoid realizing Trump’s screw-up; they just wanted COVID19 gone and they didn’t care who died in the process.
Anti-vax Trump supporters aren’t operating according to any principle other than minimizing or ignoring COVID19 regardless of how real it is. They often call the pandemic a “scamdemic.” The lack of foundational principles gives us insight into who they really are because they see every new development as either something to exploit or deny. On one hand they say “my body, my choice” and claim it’s a human right to remain unvaccinated. However, in the same breath, they’re pushing to mandate that South American immigrants be vaccinated to enter the country. HUH? Isn’t “their body, their choice” too? If remaining unvaccinated is a human right but you feel brown people shouldn’t be allowed to remain unvaccinated, aren’t you, by proxy, calling them less than human? Another hypocrisy is with mask wearing. Trump supporters fight tooth-and-nail to do away with mask wearing, however serve as the mask police anytime they can point out a Democrat is not wearing one; they certainly get up in arms any time they spot the President with his mask down. When Scientists recommended wearing masks, they opposed those scientists, creating theory after theory of how placing a physical barrier between people’s mouths and noses and others’ mouths and noses somehow caused a germ that spreads via mouths and noses to spread quicker. However, when African scientists discovered the Omicron variant and indicated it was milder, they heralded those foreign scientists’ words. Aren’t Trump supporters the ones who blamed Chinese foreign scientists for creating the disease and not informing America of its deadly nature to begin with? Why did they suddenly trust foreign scientists, especially from a “sh*thole nation?” The answer is, they are desperate to move past their leader’s screw-up and will embrace any tool they can use to do so regardless of the consequences. It’s clear that Republicans process everything through the filter of if it minimizes public awareness of Donald Trump’s screw-up, or not.
One last point: It’s easy to levy 100% blame of America’s dysfunction and inability to unify and eliminate the COVID19 threat on anti-vaxxers. The vaccine-advocates, while not equally responsible, are partially to blame too. We’ve lost the forest for the trees and those who appreciate and respect the COVID19 threat are more concerned with enforcing measures than fulfilling the task of eliminating the danger. Vaccine advocates are enjoying their righteousness so much they have forgotten what they are being righteousness about. They seem more concerned with enforcing vaccinations and regulations than eliminating the 
threat. A tell-tale sign is Omicron; it appears that this Omicron variant is a lot less deadly, which is a blessing vaccine-advocates are opposed to admitting. I suspect this is why the scientific community is slow to confirm its mildness as well. We can thank Africa for blessing the world with a tame version of COVID19 that will finally give anti-vaxxers the antibodies they refuse to get via the vaccine. It’s a strong possibility the Center for Disease Control (CDC) shortened its quarantine period from ten-to-five days to allow for the transmission of Omicron; who knows how deadly the next variant will be. I was fully vaccinated and received my booster shot a month before I caught COVID19 from a man at Starbucks coughing at a table 10 feet away. 10 days after the initial symptoms my home test still tested positive. If a fully vaccinated and boosted person can still carry the germ 10 days later, imagine how long it lingers in the unvaccinated. The CDC easing restrictions may be a way of threading the needle, for they can’t admit to wanting it to spread but its spreading would help end the pandemic.
It’s shameful that America hasn’t imbued its citizens with the mindset to handle truth and raw detail. We are trained to see authorities as superior thinkers who know everything definitively. The shifting in “experts'” definitive thought, especially with mask wearing, is why much of America has written off the CDC and its spokesperson Anthony Fauci. American culture has turned Americans into malleable, unempowered slaves that defer to postured authorities for their own opinions. Many of us don’t tackle details for ourselves; we just wait for authorities to tell us what is right. Trump voters are the newest iteration of this type of citizen, being so convinced that America needs Trump to “make America great” that, not only are they incapable of conceptualizing that he cost America dearly, they literally, to save their lives, can’t see their err in electing him. Their mentality prevents them from realizing their leader caused a deadly disease to sweep unchecked through our country.