God Culls Out the Fools

 

I had a pretty good run at comic books as a child.  I started out on Little Lulu, then went for Donald Duck in a big way, especially the stories that featured Uncle Scrooge and his money bin (clearly, I was a natural economist and appreciated the advantages of capitalism even at a young age).  But then I discovered the Superman comics and never looked back.  The man of steel was my kind of guy.

The first story I ever wrote was a story for Superman Comics.  I even sent it to them for publication (handwritten on a Big Chief table!).  I got back a rejection but also a warm and complimentary letter encouraging me to keep writing and come see them after I finished school. 

I love the world of fantasy that comic books created.  But I knew it was a fantasy and I lived in the real world. Here is where this column gets less whimsical and more acidic. I was forced by both circumstances and intellectual rigor to adhere to the Biblical passage: 

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.  I Corinthians 10:11

My eschewing of comic books and comic book thinking is one of two things that prompt my despair for a phenomenon that I wish was not happening.  The other prompt is that, with a background in science and economics, I eat up data the way some people eat up chocolate.  Show me a PEW research article on voting by county (3,143 county or county equivalents nation-wide, by the way) and I will read it.  I read Forbes, The Economist and Scientific American with a highlighter in my hand.  Facts are fun and I am certain that smart is the new sexy.  

Here are some facts that I want you to know.

People living in the most pro-Trump counties in the United States are dying from covid-19 at a rate more than five times higher than in the most anti-Trump counties. Looking at the most recent data (that which reflects the opportunity of every person in this nation to get a free vaccination) shows that since June 30, there have been about 117 deaths per 100,000 people in the reddest 10 percent of the United States.  That is nearly six times the death rate of about 21 per 100,000 in the bluest decile. Likewise, the 100 million people who live in the most pro-Trump counties had a death rate of about 98 per 100,000 since June 30 — more than triple the 30 per 100,000 among the people who live in the least pro-Trump 30 percent.

The cause of the disparity, which persists when accounting for age and health-care access of the different populations, is obvious: As of Dec. 20, among the bluest 10 percent of the population, 68.8 percent are fully vaccinated. In the reddest 10 percent, only 41.9 percent are fully vaccinated. The pattern is consistent through all deciles of the population: the more pro-Trump, the less vaccinated the population — and the higher the death rate. 

            Believing in comic book style narratives, (tracking chips, magnetism, reptilian demon sperm…the list goes on) will kill you.  Counting on a horse de-wormer (Ivermectin) with zero legitimate scientific proof of efficacy to cure you if you get sick will kill you.  Failing to get the vaccination will kill you.  Slavish genuflection to the wingnuts on the fanatic right will kill you. 

         God is culling out the fools.  In a way, this makes the next election a bit easier for those of us who have rejected the worst of the Republican party, but it is not the way I want to win. 

            Get vaccinated and keep the faith.    

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