Carlson: So everyone knows from watching television, reading the new York times, that the only people who haven’t gotten the vaccine are members of the qanon army, right-wing crazies. But actually it turns out just 30 percent of African Americans in New York between the ages of 18 and 44 are fully vaccinated. Hispanics are the second least vaccinated population in the country. So those mostly are not Republicans but you would never know that from reading the popular press.
The coverage of COVID has taken an openly political cast. People who don’t get the vaccine are considered criminals thought criminals: they’re right-wingers. Salon just ran this headline: quote, “it’s time to start firing unvaccinated people. Trump fans are overdue for a lesson in consequences.” Can you imagine that’s healthcare in America 2021?
Glenn Greenwald is an independent journalist. He writes for Substack. He joins us tonight. Glenn, what do you do? I mean, you’ve watched this whole thing from afar a year and a half into this and now virtually every part of the government’s response to COVID seems to have political overtones. Where does that leave us?
Greenwald: Yeah I mean it’s hard for me even to endure listening to liberal discourse about COVID anymore. Usually when someone has a view that’s different than mine, I can isolate the rationale that they’re using to come to that conclusion even though I don’t agree with it. And I’m at a complete loss to understand what the argument even is.
On September 9th when President Biden went to the White House and gave a speech on COVID to announce his COVID mandate for large employers, he said–this is not me–he said, Joe Biden said, if you’re fully vaccinated, the chances that you can get severely ill, not even die just get severely ill, are very low. And the statistic that he gave is, out of every 160,000 people who have been vaccinated, only one ends up going to the hospital with a serious illness.
So the risk if you’re vaccinated is almost zero, which means what danger do unvaccinated people pose to people like me who listened to that and went and got the vaccine? I can’t comprehend the argument. And yet when Joe Biden imposed the vaccine mandate. he said–because he had to to justify why he could do it legally–the bottom line is we need to protect vaccinated workers from the dangers posed by unvaccinated people.
What dangers do unvaccinated people pose to those who are vaccinated? None. It is purely punitive. It’s a way of saying, if you don’t obey us, if you don’t defer to our superior wisdom, we are going to inflict pain and suffering on you and take vengeance on you for your defiance. That is all that this is about.
Carlson: It’s hurting my brain too and and I just want to restate what you said. You are vaccinated. You know, you can be vaccinated. You can love the vaccine. You can have nine booster shots. That’s not relevant to the debate here. The question is should people who don’t want it be forced to get it and if so why? And no one’s explained that. And I thank you for restating that. I’m baffled all day long, every day.
Glenn Greenwald, I appreciate it.
Greenwald: Good to be with you, Tucker.
William Brighenti, CPA
Barefoot Accountant
http://www.cpa-connecticut.com