I have been teetering on the edge about taking my trip to Portugal in a month. Well, thanks to all of the people in this country who have refused to help get this COVID pandemic under control by getting vaccinated and wearing masks, the EU is apparently going to recommend once again shutting its borders to US citizens given the exponential rise in cases in this country, so the decision will be made for me!1 I guess I should be thankful on the one hand that postponing this trip will save me a bunch of money – at least in the short term. On the other hand, it really pisses me off that all of these people who are screaming ‘freedom’ seem to think their rights are more important than the rights of all of the rest of us.
While thinking about this whole issue, I think I’ve come up with a solution that should appeal, in some respects, to both sides. Many years ago in Hawaii, when people came down with leprosy, they were sent to the colony at Kalaupapa on the island of Molokai. Since there was no treatment for leprosy at the time, these people were sent there to basically live out their days. My guess, had there been a vaccine for leprosy at the time, most people would have taken it, but that’s another discussion. I digress.
In the current situation, there is a way to prevent and contain this disease and since people are refusing to take those steps, I would propose the following. If people refuse to get vaccinated and they contract COVID, I believe they should be shipped to a special COVID colony. Right now, since Alabama has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, I nominate Alabama to be the COVID colony. I would further propose that the Federal government build a wall around Alabama (we know how much Republicans like building walls at borders!) to ensure that COVID-positive patients could not ‘escape.’ Kalaupapa was isolated because of a high cliff so there was only one way in and one way out.
The hospitals in the Alabama COVID colony could be staffed by those health care workers who object to being vaccinated. The police force could be staffed by those individuals who object to being vaccinated. And the schools could be staffed by those teachers who object to the COVID vaccines and they would never have to worry about mask mandates again.
We would, of course, make sure the Alabama COVID colony is supplied with sufficient supplies of hydro chloroquine, bleach, and Ivermectin. As you may or may not know, Ivermectin is the latest treatment for COVID being ballyhooed by the likes of Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham and others in the Conservative media. It is a medicine that is normally used for livestock, i.e., to treat horses and cattle for things like worms. There is no sense sending any COVID vaccines to the Alabama COVID colony because they won’t be used. We should also make sure that the Colony is supplied with a sufficient supply of body bags, coffins and back hoes needed to dig graves.
Unlike leprosy, some people will recover from COVID and when they appear to have recovered, we could set up something like a halfway house to quarantine them for 14 days to make sure they are no longer contagious. For this, perhaps we could annex part of Mississippi for this effort. We would have to build another wall but, like I said, Republicans like to build walls so this shouldn’t be an issue. If people survived their stay in the Alabama COVID colony and they successfully quarantined in the Mississippi annex, they could be released back into society. However, as a condition for their release they would have to get vaccinated. If they failed to get fully vaccinated within thirty days of their release, they would be subject to a $20,000 fine (average cost of treating a COVID patient) and sent back to the Alabama COVID colony.
If you think this is a ridiculous proposal, think about the fact that people with large audiences are actively promoting the use of expensive medicines normally used for livestock to treat COVID versus a proven, effective and free vaccine that is specifically designed for humans. I think this is a case of horses’ asses with no horse sense promoting horseshit. Mr. Ed would be so proud! It’s going to be a long winter!
Well, as much fun as this has been, I need to excuse myself so I can go start cancelling all of my travel arrangements.