Confused and why politician thinks masks and vaccines are both effective and “counterproductive”.
Erie County, NY, Executive Mark Poloncarz announced a mask mandate for all public, indoor facilities on Monday in response to rising COVID-19 infection numbers. The order took effect on Tuesday.
On Saturday, West Seneca Town Supervisor Gary Dickson released a rant, criticizing Poloncarz’s sensible measures. He said his rights were more important than community health. And that a mask mandate didn’t address hospital overcrowding.
Dickson thinks people should be free to get sick and infect others. While taxpayers, even those who had done their civic duty and been jabbed, should pony up cash to create more hospital space for the miserable bastards who refuse to get vaccinated.
The old saying has it that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. It could be updated to “a few dollars worth of vaccination is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars of ICU space”. I am sure that Dickson represents himself as a fiscal conservative. But where is the fiscal sense in his strategy?
Let’s look at his screed. He starts,
“The County Executive’s recent emergency order regarding masks does not address the root cause of the hospital utilization problem and is an abuse of the rights of every person in Erie County. Rather than use his emergency powers to increase hospital capacity to what it was earlier this year, he has decided to force the entire population of Erie County to wear masks and threatens to require proof of vaccination to enter an array of small businesses.
How does Dickson keep a straight face when saying that vaccines and masks don’t address hospital use? Every analysis shows that people who been vaccinated are far less likely to require ERs, regular hospital beds and ICUs.
He might as well have said that the best way to address car accident injuries is not to enforce DUI and seatbelt laws — but rather build more hospital space.
He goes on to say,
In the beginning of the pandemic severe restrictions were implemented to “flatten the curve” so that hospitals would not be overwhelmed with patients. Hospital capacity was increased by converting St. Joseph’s Hospital to a specialized COVID hospital and opening other facilities was considered. These and other measures worked and the spread of COVID was slowed.
Dickson is arguing with himself. He admits severe restrictions worked. But in large part that was due to mask mandates and quarantines. Gearing up hospitals to deal exclusively with Covid doesn’t hurt. But but the far better strategy is to prevent the spread of Covid in the first place. Especially as elective surgeries and routine procedures are postponed.
He goes on to say,
Unfortunately, complacency set in, and since the beginning of this year the total number of inpatient beds in Erie County hospitals has dropped by over 10% (HHS[1]) This has left the hospital system vulnerable to a rise in COVID cases, as we see today. If this drop in capacity had not occurred, the hospital system would not be stressed and there would be no reason for mandates.
Dickson continues to put an expensive cart before the horse. The most cost-effective way to deal with Covid, and I shouldn’t have to say this again, is to prevent people getting it. And that is best achieved with vaccine and mask mandates. That should not be hard to understand.
Unless you are Dickson. He goes on,
Whatever the cause of the loss of hospital capacity, everything possible should be done immediately to reverse this trend, especially the requirement that hospital workers must be vaccinated or lose their jobs.
It takes a special kind of dumb to think that allowing unvaccinated healthcare workers to be around patients carrying an infectious disease is going to help slow the spread of the disease.
Dickson then trots out a favorite of conservative sophists, the strawman argument.
The economic damage caused by the early lockdown and the damage to our children’s education may have been justified in 2020, but now, in the second year of the pandemic, the cost is too much. Any and all measures should be exhausted prior to bringing mandates back.
In 2020, there were no vaccine. And all we had were lockdowns, quarantines and mask mandates. Lockdowns hurt the economy and may well have hurt children socially and academically. But with the vaccine, we could tackle Covid with a lighter touch - but only if everyone got vaccinated. But sadly there are too many weak-minded, credulous Americans easily swayed by the liars on conservative media and religious charlatans.
Dickson goes on to make his dumbest argument,
I am sure that the County Executive, like most of us, believed that the vaccines meant the end of the pandemic … Unfortunately, the virus has proven to be more resilient than expected, and the vaccines are not as effective as hoped. But the county’s own data shows that the number of hospitalizations and deaths have not risen at the same rate as the number of new cases. This is good news.
Why does Dickson think the number of hospitalizations and deaths have not risen at the same rate as the number of new cases? It was the very vaccines and mask mandates he wants to get rid of. It is true that the vaccine is not as effective in preventing infection as the scientific community had hoped. But it’s done an excellent job of keeping people out of hospitals and morgues.
In his wrap-up, Dickson doubles down an individual rights over the general welfare of the community,
A true leader has the confidence and humility to admit when mistakes are made. I call on the County Executive to end the state of emergency and work with county legislators, city and village mayors, and town supervisors, to draft a COVID response plan that recognizes the new reality – that COVID will be with us for a long time, that hospital capacity needs to increase immediately, and that mask and vaccine mandates are counterproductive and abusive of residents’ rights.
To say that mask and vaccine mandates are counterproductive is a lie. It flies in the face of all evidence. And it is said in the sure knowledge that people who want to hear that message will not question the validity of that message.
In World War II and the Vietnam War we had conscription. Because there are times so dire that individual rights must be curtailed so the health, security, and safety of the nation is protected. Your individual rights do you no good if you’re dead. Ask anyone on a ventilator if they wish they had been vaccinated and I guarantee there’s a 95% chance they say yes. Dickson is killing his own voters. While his non-solution is to spend a whole lot of money that doesn’t need to be spent.
Patriots get vaccinated.