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<p>I thought “Death by Stupidity” was a hit Hollywood thriller by Alfred Hitchcock from the 1950’s. What do I know?</p>
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<p>Stupidity Category I. Just when you thought folks couldn’t top the lunacy of POTUS’s suggestion to drink Clorox to kill COVID-19, along comes a new idiocy – ivermectin.</p>
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<p>It cannot be true that over 88,000 Americans (as of Aug. 30) have taken ivermectin as a protective against COVID-19; after which they got sick, called the Poison Center of their choice, and some died. I cannot believe that here are that many totally insane Americans.</p>
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<p>Listen carefully, SAR-CoV-2 (aka COVID-19) is a coronavirus, one of thousands of coronaviruses. Clue word … virus. COVID-19 is a bloody virus. Get it?</p>
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<p>My veterinarians used ivermectin at the monkey farm to treat monkeys for parasites. It is also used on cows, horses, and various other non-human animals to treat parasites (worms usually). Repeat out loud: “Parasites are not Viruses. Covid-19 is a virus. Ergo, do not buy and consume ivermectin.”</p>
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<p>If you have worms, take it. If you want to avoid COVID-19, get vaccinated.</p>
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<p>One of my friends emailed me that the Wall Street Journal has scooped me on this “stupidity” business. Darn. I quote (reference WSJ, Aug. 30, second sentence): “We live in a golden age of stupidity.”</p>
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<p>I am stunned to learn that the WSJ is a “fake-news, left-wing, liberal screed of a newspaper.” Who woulda thunk that? Go figure.</p>
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<p>Stupidity Category II. Refusal to get vaccinated for COVID-19. Hello out there. COVID vaccines have been proven to be effective and safe, readily available and vaccinations are free. Some folks are getting paid to be vaccinated — where do I sign-up and get paid for my booster?</p>
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<p>I recently devoted a piece to those who refuse to get vaccinated. Sincere thanks to all of you who sent me kudos for that article — next time, please copy the editor to save me the trouble. If you didn’t like it (heaven forbid), email Duffy Stone.</p>
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<p>Mathematics is a pure science. No theories, no speculation, no guessing; just rules and axioms. Humans lie; numbers don’t.</p>
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<p>At least 80 million Americans are not vaccinated. Today, infections and hospitalizations exceed 150,000 per day. Our nation’s hospitals no longer have empty ICU units.</p>
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<p>Folks with other life-threatening medical maladies, such as heart attacks, strokes, gunshot wounds, and injuries from car accidents, are being turned away because unvaccinated folks occupy those previously available hospital beds. Well more than 90 of new COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations reside in folks who are not vaccinated.</p>
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<p>As Dragnet’s Sgt. Friday would say, “just the facts ma’am, just the facts.” Here boys and girls are the facts. They are bad now; think what the COVID-19 landscape will look like when winter arrives in a few short months, with the flu riding shotgun, if unvaccinated “patriots” continue their unquenched thirst for “Freedumb?” It will be devastating, with 100,000 more deaths projected before the end of the year, all of them totally unnecessary.</p>
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<p>To date (Aug. 29), 647,356 Americans have died from COVID-19, the highest total world-wide; 156,886 are hospitalized with COVID-19; nationwide, 1,521 folks died on Sept. 2 from it, and a total of almost 40 million cases (underestimated) of COVID-19 have been reported for America.</p>
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<p>It would be “poetic justice” if every U.S. hospital set aside sufficient beds/ICU units for maladies “other than COVID-19 infections.” It is crystal clear that these “freedumb” patriots, who wage war against vaccination, hate themselves and the rest of us.</p>
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<p>Recently, anti-vaxxer protestors shut down a free-for-all COVID-vaccination clinic, a criminal variety of stupidity. Medical science has not yet invented a safe and effective vaccine for the infection of stupidity. But, even if we did, these “sunshine patriots” would not take it anyway.</p>
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<p>COVID-Delta rages, spreading devastation across America. “Red” state, GOP governors are taking sweeping action barring compulsory vaccinations and wearing masks; these imbeciles proclaim a clear and present danger — not a danger from Covid-19, mind you, but a (false) threat to individual freedumb. On what Disneyland planet do they live?</p>
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<p>I leave you with a quote from very smart folks. It is the only quote I pray you won’t forget, life-saving sage advice from Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness: “The only functional strategy we have for getting control of COVID-19 is vaccination.”</p>
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<p>Note hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, Clorox, acid-laced Kool-Aid, snake oil, or any other nonsensical potions do not appear on this list of prophylactics.</p>
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<p>What should be done with COVIDiots? Remember polio, scarlet fever, chicken pox, small pox, measles, rubella and mumps. Vaccinations to the rescue.</p>
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<p>Only one thing will save you, your children, your grandchildren, and everyone else from COVID. Get vaccinated! Dammit it all! What do you not understand? Vaccination. It is the only way to stop this vicious killer from continuing to kill. Period. End of story.</p>
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<p><em>“Well, all I know is what I read in the newspapers.” – Will Rogers. </em></p>
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<p><em>David M. Taub was Mayor of Beaufort from 1990 through 1999 and served as a Beaufort County Magistrate from 2010 to 2015. You can reach him at david.m.taub42@gmail.com.</em></p>
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