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Nurse Jordan Ledbetter performs a test for COVID-19 outside the Marion County Health Department in Hamilton, Alabama, on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. (AP Photo / Jay Reeves)

HAMILTON, Ala. (AP) A handwritten log kept by nurses tells the story of the losing battle to get more people vaccinated against COVID-19 in this corner of Alabama: Just 14 people showed up at the Marion County Health Department for their initial shot during the first six weeks of the year.

That was true even as hospitals in and around the county of roughly 30,000 people filled with virus patients and the death toll climbed. On many days, no one got a first shot at all, while a Mexican restaurant up the street, Los Amigos, was full of unmasked diners at lunchtime.

The vaccination drive in the U.S. is grinding to a halt, and demand has all but collapsed in places like this deeply conservative manufacturing town where many werent interested in the shots to begin with.

The average number of Americans getting their first shot is down to about 90,000 a day, the lowest point since the first few days of the U.S. vaccination campaign, in December 2020. And hopes of any substantial improvement in the immediate future have largely evaporated.

About 76% of the U.S. population has received at least one shot. Less than 65% of all Americans are fully vaccinated.

Vaccination incentive programs that gave away cash, sports tickets, beer and other prizes have largely gone away. Government and employer vaccine mandates have faced court challenges and may have gone as far as they ever will.

And with COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths subsiding across the U.S., people who are against getting vaccinated dont see much reason to change their minds.

People are just over it. Theyre tired of it, said Judy Smith, administrator for a 12-county public health district in northwestern Alabama.

The bottoming-out of demand for the first round of vaccinations is especially evident in conservative areas around the country.

On most days in Idaho, the number of people statewide getting their first shot rarely surpasses 500.

In Wyoming, a total of about 280 people statewide got their first shot in the past week, and the waiting area at the Cheyenne-Laramie County Health Department stood empty Tuesday morning. The head of the department fondly recalled just a few months ago, when the lobby was bustling on Friday afternoons after school with children getting their doses. But they arent showing up anymore either.

People heard more stories about, well, the omicrons not that bad, Executive Director Kathy Emmons said. I think a lot of people just kind of rolled the dice and decided, Well, if its not that bad, Im just going to kind of wait it out and see what happens.

Marion County, along the Mississippi line, is part of a band of Alabama counties where most people arent fully vaccinated more than a year after shots were rolled out. Just to the east, Winston County has the states lowest share of fully vaccinated residents, at 26%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 42% are fully immunized in Marion County.

The digital sign outside First National Bank flashes Bible verses along with the temperature, and many Marion County residents work in small plants that make mobile homes and components for prefab housing. Most area jobs are blue-collar, and TVs are typically turned to Fox News. A conservative, working-class ethic runs deep.

The area went heavily for President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. And yet resistance to the vaccine is so strong that two counties over, in Cullman, some booed Trump when he encouraged vaccinations during a rally that drew thousands last summer.

COVID-19 has killed almost 18,000 people in Alabama, giving the state the nations fourth-highest rate of deaths relative to population. Marion Countys rate exceeds the state average at 1.78%, with more than 140 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Health officials expected to have a hard time persuading Black people to get government-sponsored vaccines in Alabama, home of the infamousTuskegee syphilis studyand a place where distrust of Washington runs deep. They started work on public education campaigns weeks early in mostly Black areas, which now have some of the states highest vaccination rates, at 60% or more.

But they didnt expect the stiff resistance among rural whites that has kept vaccination numbers stubbornly low in places like Marion County, which is 94% white. While rural transportation difficulties, confusion over vaccine costs theyre free and a lack of health care access have also been factors, the partisan divide in America killed the vaccine drive for some before it really got started, officials said.

Rural white men who identify as conservative are just not interested in this. That caught us off guard, said Dr. Scott Harris, head of the Alabama Department of Public Health. By the first or second month of the vaccine campaign, it became clear that those folks just werent going to come in.

Richard Kitchens is among that group. The owner of a clothing and sports shoe shop on the square in Hamilton, Kitchens said he isnt interested in the vaccine after getting COVID-19 in 2020 before vaccines were available and having relatives who contracted the illness, developed only minor symptoms and recovered.

Short of a proven guarantee against illness which no vaccine provides he doesnt see the point.

I guess if I knew I could go out and get a shot and wouldnt get it or spread it, I would go get it, and they say it helps, Kitchens said. But I think that will be determined sometime down the road maybe.

Doris Peterson is fully vaccinated, but she said she didnt get a booster on the advice of her two adult daughters, neither of whom is vaccinated. Peterson said she is used to being one of the few people around still wearing a mask in public.

Most of the time I am it, she said.

Kelly Moore, a former Tennessee health official who now heads a CDC-funded vaccination advocacy organization named Immunize.org, recalled seeing data from a recent survey that hit her like a punch to the gut.

The results were presented at a CDC meeting of vaccine experts earlier this month. The January survey of about 1,000 adults asked unvaccinated participants what, if anything, would change their mind and persuade them to get a shot. Half said nothing.

It was quite demoralizing to see those results, frankly, Moore said.

With the pandemic still a mortal threat, public health workers havent given up on getting more people vaccinated, even if it feels like an uphill slog.

Jordan Ledbetter, a nurse who works at the Marion County Health Department, was thrilled when two people came in for first-time shots on the same day recently.

That was exciting, she said. There are days when I havent given any vaccines.

Read more:
US Vaccination Drive Is Bottoming Out as Omicron Subsides - WTTW News

Libertarian: COVID Is Reshaping Education

Pandemic-era stresses accelerated big changes to education, observes Reasons J.D. Tuccille notably, families growing acceptance of charters, homeschooling, and a host of flexible approaches to teaching kids. In December, EdChoice found that 68 percent of respondents had grown more favorable to homeschooling during the pandemic. Theyre also supporting, in similar numbers, public-funding measures (e.g., vouchers) for alternatives to traditional schooling. Such options had been gaining acceptance long before COVID-19, but the pandemic fueled discontent, as school officials, whod found educating kids a challenge in good times, left them high and dry in the midst of a public health crisis. Families that once deemed alternatives unthinkable soon began considering them. And as families go, so goes the culture.

A staggering act of appeasement, is one label for Team Bidens decision to arrange for the payment of Irans dues at the United Nations, report The New York Suns editors. Youd think the UNs decision to strip Tehran of its voting rights for failing to pay its dues would be a boon for America. Its the fruit of American sanctions, after all, and would mean that Iran would be able to foment less trouble at Turtle Bay. Yet the Biden administration arranged for $18 million of blocked Iranian funds to be released so they could pay their dues and vote. Meanwhile, Tehran finds the cash to supply weapons to the Houthis, help Hezbollah and join in naval maneuvers with Russia and China.

Democrats seem to think that the rallying cry of racism is essential to galvanizing their most loyal demographic, Black Americans, Barrington D. Martin II gripes at Newsweek. This amounts to little more than gaslighting us into submission, into voting for a party that has long ceased to do anything for us. Dems voting-rights bill isnt about helping Black voters, but maintaining political power by reinforcing the belief that the other party is racist. The idea that new voting laws put into place by GOP-led state legislatures in the wake of the 2020 election were created to disenfranchise Black voters is a ridiculous claim, one that shows the subconscious disdain Democratic officials have for their Black voter base.

The University of Torontos Jordan Peterson has left his professorial post, notes J. Scott Turner at Spectator World, and no wonder: The academy has changed fundamentally, and with each passing year there are fewer and fewer who can restore it. For refusing to use novel pronouns preferred by the transgendered, Peterson was denounced as a bigot, his university threatened his career, his speaking events were disrupted and his fellow academics deserted him: Totalitarian states, which our universities are coming to resemble, are kept in power by the skillful use of lies and pressure to conform. Yet change is not irrevocable. In late-1980s Eastern Europe totalitarian regimes collapsed catastrophically once people began to see that they were not alone in their doubts. We need fewer people willing to acquiesce in the lies, about race, about gender, about the soothing tropes of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The latest polling, warns National Journals Josh Kraushaar, shows Joe Biden isnt just losing support among typical swing voters . . . hes now starting to take friendly fire from his own base. And its a self-inflicted problem, since he inflated expectations among his supporters that hed pass a transformative big-government agenda like FDR and LBJ. In NBC polling, his 40 percent job approval among the youngest voters (age 18-34) is down 16 points since April. Worse: Hes only winning over 64 percent of African-American voters. The White House insists Republicans have no agenda, but being the opposition party without an agenda is a better place to be than the governing party facing a mutiny within the ranks.

Compiled by The Post Editorial Board

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COVID is reshaping education and other commentary - New York Post

Over winter break, I decided to re-read the Harry Potter series after it was referenced by Jordan Peterson, a famous Canadian psychologist, in a YouTube video. I got through the first three books before getting to school and used the extra time the past two weeks to watch all eight movies with my friends. As a kid, I fell in love with the books and movies because of the incredible world J. K. Rowling brought to life. The endless surprises in Hogwarts Castle, the quidditch matches, the every flavor jelly beans, the butterbeer from Hogsmeade and countless other aspects of the wizarding world had me hooked instantly. Even at this age, I find the images in the books and movies fascinating. However, after listening to Petersons video and going through the books and movies again, I realized how much more there was to the series than a well-crafted fantasy world.

In Petersons video, he stresses the importance of making yourself dangerous. He claims that a truly great man or woman must have the ability to do damage to others in some form, but harnesses his or her talent towards the good. He argues that people mistake not doing bad things as the mark of a good person. Peterson pushes back saying that many people are incapable of hurting others in the first place or they only do what is considered just due to fear of retribution for their actions. Basically, if people were put in a situation of power, many would treat people worse. In order to become this idealized man or woman, you must mold yourself into a very capable person. How you do so and the capabilities you would possess is up to the individual. After you have been molded into this highly capable person, you then must use your abilities to contribute towards the good. Essentially, being of high competency and using it in a positive way are the marks of a high character man or woman.

In the Harry Potter series, J. K. Rowling echoes the same message as Peterson. From birth, Harry has immeasurable potential, but he is not prepared to face Voldemort at full strength as a 12-year-old just entering Hogwarts. First, Harry must learn spells and basic wizarding activities in order to build up his abilities. Then, he faces challenges along the way that bolster his courage and knowledge on Voldemort. In each book, Harry ends up battling a weakened Voldemort and his followers until he finally is prepared to take on Voldemort at full strength in the final book. While Harry fulfills Petersons vision of a great man by building up his talent and using it for good, his similarities to Voldemort show the overlap in a great person and evil one. They shares rare abilities like speaking to snakes, and Harry can even see inside Voldemorts mind. It is even revealed that a part of Voldemorts soul lives within Harry. As equally powerful men, Harry and Voldemort have nearly everything in common besides their intentions and character. While Voldemort intends on living forever and having everything to himself at all costs, Harry desires peace and the well-being of his friends and family. Voldemort uses his power for his own sake; Harry uses his power for the good of others.

In addition to the contrast between Harry and Voldemort, Rowling shows how many individuals that are civilized in a typical situation act terribly once they have power. Many followers of Voldemort, called Death Eaters, were normal members of society while he was out of power. However, upon his return, they exploited their perceived opportunity to gain power. Again, as Peterson argues, doing nothing wrong when you lack power does not mean an individual is a good person. The true test of a man or woman is how they act when they have an opportunity to exploit a situation for their own benefit at the expense of another.

The Harry Potter series has created an incredible fantasy world that absorbs the attention of most readers or watchers. Because of its many kiddish magical aspects, it is easy to mark Harry Potter as a kids story. However, its examination of good and evil individuals lends to a greater lesson in the story. It raises three primary questions for the reader to consider in his or her life. Which abilities will you work towards to make yourself a capable individual? How will you build up those abilities? Then, finally, how will you use your capabilities for the good of society? With that said, given the story evokes such intricate truths and questions, I think its safe to say that Harry Potter is more than just a childrens book.

Mikey Colgan is a sophomore from Boston, Massachusetts, studying finance and ACMS. He is an avid college basketball fan and resides in Morrissey Hall. He can be reached at [emailprotected] or @Mikeycolgs15 on twitter.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

See the original post:
Harry Potter is more than a children's book - Observer Online

By Phil Lawler (bio - articles - email) | Jan 25, 2022

Massive convoys of trucks are converging on the nations capital. About 50,000 truckers are involved. In one place the convoy stretches more than 40 milesand thats before the separate convoys, coming from different corners of the nation, meet for their final approach. Tens of thousands of people are lining the highways to show their support; women are bringing hot meals out to the truckers when they stop to rest.

Doesnt that sound like a news story to you? Its happening right now in Canada. But you probably havent read it in your local newspaper; you certainly havent seen it covered on the major-network reports.

If the truckers were protesting gender discrimination, or even the rising cost of diesel fuel, this protestwhich produces some very dramatic visual imageswould lead the nightly TV newscasts. But the Freedom Convoy is protesting Covid-lockdown restrictions, and the major media have very obviously resolved to spike stories about any such protests. And so Silence.

Oh, I was able, with a bit of extra digging, to find a reasonably accurate Reuters story about the convoy. And CBC allowed that hundreds of truckers were protesting. But if you want any details at all, you need to look to non-traditional news providers, such as our friends at LifeSite News.

The mainstream media are not providing the news here; quite on the contrary they are deliberately suppressing the spread of public information. This is not a new phenomenon, of course; I have frequently commented on the curious blindness that afflicts reporters in Washington, DC every January, so that they do not notice the March for Life. But that willful blindness is now spreading, so that journalists ignore any developments of which their editors do not approve. Moreover, the self-appointed censors of social-media platforms do their best to shield readers from any facts that leak through the ever-tighter net.

And the major media are not alone in their campaign to restrict the flow of information. The same problem is very much in evidence in the field of educationespecially higher education. (See Jordan Petersons explanation of why he finds it morally untenable to remain on the faculty of a major university.

We can complainwe often have complainedabout liberal bias, in the media and in academe. But those complaints, too, are filtered out of mainstream conversations; they reach only those who are already inclined to agree, those who are open to alternate views. The fundamental problem, as Peterson explains, is that alternate views are actively suppressed, with increasing vigor and without apology.

Critics of the mainstream media outlets sometimes refer to them as the legacy media. The term is apt, I think. Like the fortunate offspring of wealthy families, these outlets have inherited powerful positions, built on the work of prior generations. Those prior generations amassed their influence by providing the public with information. The current leaders of the legacy media have abandoned that effort. Rather than giving people accurate information, and trusting responsible adults to form their own opinions, the mainstream media are now determined to shape opinions directly, telling people what they must think, suppressing contrary evidence and dissenting opinion. Today the most interesting news coverage is provided by upstart services, struggling to find an audience.

Complaints about media bias have very little impact. They, too, are filtered out of mainstream conversations, so that they reach only those people who already agree.

First, refuse to support the institutions that suppress the free flow of information. Insofar as possible, do not give them subscriptions, or tuition, or even attention.

Next, explore the alternatives. Not all of the new online sources of information are reliable; some discernment is necessary. Compare different accounts, and notice which outlets provide coverage that holds up to scrutiny. But do not be frightened away from new outlets simply because they are scorned by the legacy media.

Third and most important, inform your friends. And not only your Facebook friends, who may or may not actually be your real-life acquaintances. Share the news directly. Face-to-face conversations are always best, but email works well, too. Keep in mind that the internet was designed precisely to allow remote communications among people with shared interests. If the social-media giants thwart your efforts to share information, find other routes.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and his heroic allies showed how underground communicationssamizdatcould build a movement powerful enough to topple a political monolith. As the Soviet empire collapsed, the bid to control the spread of information will collapse, too. Facts, as John Adams said, are stubborn things. The truth will out.

Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org. See full bio.

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Censorship and samizdat on the internet - Catholic Culture

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This convoy appears to me to reflect a great deal of legitimate anger and frustration at our pandemic responses

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When Barack Obama was elected it was truly historic. Plus after eight years people were fed up with George Bush failing as a uniter, not a divider. But after eight years of Hope and change, Americans elected Donald Trump, and weve never had a mea culpa that just possibly Obamas condescending attitude had a polarizing effect. Then theres Justin Trudeau.

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Ostensibly hes all about sunny ways, sexy smiles and bringing us together. But watch him in action and somethings not right. Lyndon Johnson, no stranger to hardball politics, was fond of saying Come now, and let us reason together and sometimes he even meant it. Whereas Trudeau recently declared the vaccine-hesitant racist and misogynist without even checking whether they were angry old white men. He just reflexively invoked a mean-spirited stereotype.

It turns out vaccine skepticism is more common among non-whites. Of course they could still be racist, but theres a subject for another day. Or maybe not, because Monday I got one of those vapid PMO statements about commemorating something nobody heard of, World Day for African and Afrodescendant Culture.

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Only a few avant-garde activists know Afrodescendant is the new Black. Not even my woke spell-checker has gotten there yet. But Trudeau is so shallow and shiny he reliably reflects the progressive Zeitgeist, including obsessing over racial differences, which promotes division not inclusion. Especially in a holier-than-thou tone about the basket of deplorables he has the misfortune to govern, the invariable invidious subtext of Mr. Blackfaces smirking homilies about tolerance.

Trudeau is in fact a bully. Remember him elbowing his way through some MPs when he didnt get his way? I think he got away with it partly because it seemed so out of character people had trouble processing it. But Im not sure Trudeau really gets away with his ethical lapses and ruthless responses to criticism, including somehow tossing Jody Wilson-Raybould under the bus.

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I dont just mean his party is stuck at a level of popular support and Parliamentary seats that would have made Keith the Rainmaker Davey green about the gills. I mean lowering the tone of politics can bring Pyrrhic victories that preserve your own standing temporarily at the expense of souring the public mood in ways that make the nation permanently less governable.

It has happened in the United States, and its a tragic, horrible sight. I presumably dont have to remind readers that I was an anti-Trumper before he was even a candidate and have never wavered in my insistence that he was morally and mentally unfit for the office. But I have also maintained that for the other party to spend half its time promoting lunatic causes like defund the police and the other half sneering at MAGA deplorables has made things worse not better.

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Now consider Trudeaus knee-jerk reaction to this truckers freedom convoy. Its the only kind of reaction he has. And it was vindictive and shallowly partisan. I regret that the Conservative Party and conservative politicians are fearmongering to Canadians about the supply chain, but the reality is that vaccination is how were going to get through this. So yes, he reached out. With a wedge in one hand and a sledgehammer in the other. Never mind I see where youre coming from, but please consider this alternative.

This convoy appears to me to reflect a great deal of legitimate anger and frustration at our pandemic responses, including the casual trampling of what we thought were our rights and freedoms. But as Ive said about supporting Trump, the fact that people are asking important questions does not mean they have found sensible answers. So we should be having a conversation.

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To that end, let me seek to bring people together if only by insulting them all equally. Because its not just Trudeau and not just politicians. Even Jordan Peterson, or whoever manages his Twitter feed, recently denounced medical fascists while Ezra Levant said Trudeau wants a Reichstag Fire excuse to criminalize his enemies.

No. Do not give in to the dark side. No Hitler, no cow poop. Lose the tinfoil hats and expletives on Twitter, and mind your manners and morals as well as your IQ in public debate.

I dont mean surrender your principles. LBJs mantra was from Isaiah 1:18 and reads in full Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. So he wasnt exactly weak-kneed or non-judgemental. But he was suaviter in modo, sometimes. He would listen. He would meet you half-way, if only to subject you to a mix of flattery, arm-twisting and, if necessary, rational discussion.

OK, his presidency exploded too. But at least he tried.

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John Robson: Justin Trudeau the supreme divider of Canadians - National Post