Vaccinating Big Bird, Children, and Giving Adults a Choice to Vaccinate
Sesame Street’s Big Bird Gets a Covid Vaccination
After Sesame Street’s Big Bird tweeted that he received the COVID-19 vaccine, Sen. Ted Cruz and other right-wing media figures criticized the character for promoting “propaganda” to children.
Sesame Street launched a promotional campaign during the past week after the COVID-19 vaccine was authorized for ages 5-11, according to Insider.
I got the COVID-19 vaccine today! My wing is feeling a little sore, but it’ll give my body an extra protective boost that keeps me and others healthy. Ms. @EricaRHill even said I’ve been getting vaccines since I was a little bird. I had no idea!
Big Bird account posted on Saturday.
Ted Cruz Criticizes Big Bird Over COVID-19 Vaccine (medscape.com)
Big Bird’s post drew more than 258,000 likes and more than 16,000 comments by Monday morning.
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Ted Cruz Critiques Big Bird’s Vaccination
A response from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was among them. Cruz responded to the tweet, accusing Big Bird of promoting “propaganda.”
“Government propaganda…for your 5 year old!” he wrote on Twitter.
Newsmax host Steve Cortes also responded, calling Big Bird’s post “evil.”
“This kind of propaganda is actually evil,” he wrote in a tweet. “Your children are not statistically at risk, and should not be pressured into a brand new treatment. Do Not Comply!”
Ted Cruz Criticizes Big Bird Over COVID-19 Vaccine (medscape.com)
Other right-wing figures, including Fox News contributor Lisa Boothe and political commentator Michael Cernovich, also posted criticism about Big Bird’s comment. Several people, including Cruz, continued to post new comments about Big Bird throughout the weekend.
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Oh, The Irony . . .
Then the vaccines arrived.
They proved so powerful, and the partisan attitudes toward them so different, that a gap in Covid’s death toll quickly emerged. I have covered that gap in two newsletters — one this summer, one last month — and today’s newsletter offers an update.
The brief version: The gap in Covid’s death toll between red and blue America has grown faster over the past month than at any previous point.
In October, 25 out of every 100,000 residents of heavily Trump counties died from Covid, more than three times higher than the rate in heavily Biden counties (7.8 per 100,000). October was the fifth consecutive month that the percentage gap between the death rates in Trump counties and Biden counties widened.
Some conservative writers have tried to claim that the gap may stem from regional differences in weather or age, but those arguments fall apart under scrutiny. (If weather or age were a major reason, the pattern would have begun to appear last year.) The true explanation is straightforward: The vaccines are remarkably effective at preventing severe Covid, and almost 40 percent of Republican adults remain unvaccinated, compared with about 10 percent of Democratic adults.
Charles Gaba in Michigan, who I know and a nonpolitico health care analyst, has pointed out the gap is also evident at finer gradations of political analysis: Counties where Trump received at least 70 percent of the vote have an even higher average Covid death toll than counties where Trump won at least 60 percent. (Look up your county.)
Almost all-White and trump majority Livingston County, Michigan with ~180,000 people has almost twice per 100,000 cases than what Wayne County, Michigan has with a population of 1.7 million and nine times the density per square mile.
U.S. Covid Deaths Get Even Redder – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Ted Cruz Criticizes Big Bird Over COVID-19 Vaccine (medscape.com)
This irony tastes like chicken. THX
Cute. I though Ted attacking big bird was out of his league for a Senator. Dems should rebut Ted for attacking a kids puppet and get the kids supporting Big Bird. The data I supplied is there. Unvaccinated Republican dominated states have more cases. In Michigan you can see the same in cases per 100,000 when comparing heavily populated Democratic Wayne County with its larger population of Black Americans as compared to 96% white Republican Livingston County.
Sentimentally I am with Zardoz, but Arne has a point regarding that natural selection when it does not reach breeders will be natural while still providing no selection. Betty White was right on.
Personally though, I wish all adversaries were as weak minded as Ted Cruz. Which leads to the conclusion that anyone that would take Ted Cruz as an authority on anything, but particularly in opposition to Big Bird, would ignore whatever I had to say.
‘S Is For Self Own’: Big Bird Brings The Heat To ‘Cancun Cruz’
Big Bird is running for Senate with Cookie Monster as his campaign manager. What do you call white bread that has been burned in the toaster? Ted Cruz.
Also, that side by side picture of Ted Cruz and Big Bird is worth way more than a thousand words.
Ron:
Brought a smile early this morning in AZ. Thank you.
Run:
My pleasure; U R welcome.
This is just natural selection at work. It’s way past time.
Zardoz
I agree. Repubs just do not accept it and want to die or get deadly sick defending their right to do it.
It’s not natural selection if it primarily hits calcified older people who have already had their kids.
Arne:
You believe in taking a crap-shoot with your kids? I am assuming you have some. Then don’t get them vaccinated. Indeed they can get COVID and the severity of it varies too the same as adults. It is not known why it may be of a lesser intensity in both adults and children. Minorities appear to be more susceptible to Covid.
November 5th, 2021; COVID-19 (coronavirus) in babies and children
Why spread doubt?
Run,
I suppose you have a point. I was really just thinking about those people who are making decisions for themselves. If you are receiving your genes from someone who makes lethal decisions for you, then I guess it could be natural selection.
“It’s not natural selection if it primarily hits calcified older people who have already had their kids.”
True, it does not remove their genes from the gene pool. But to Run’s point, natural selection can still remove a certain subset of voter’s from the voting pool.
Bakes:
As displayed in the comparison I made, in the less populated Livingston County where I lived; the number of cases per 100,000 was worse than the more densely populated Wayne County.
Livingston County was the richest county in Michigan for which I was a drag on their income and wealth. We did ok but I am not an upper ten-percenter.
In comparison, Wayne county has a combination of various incomes with Detroit being at the lower end and other communities being at the other end.
One point though: Main takeaway for me is that age-adjustment *does not* remove the Trump gradient. Not even close.
Why is that? Outside influences such as Cruz, Trump, Marjorie, etc. Ok, so kids are more resistant to getting Covid. Do you think that holds true in counties where there is a higher concentration of Covid? Keep in mind too, you do not have to had a bad case of Covid to suffer from Long Covid and or suffer damage to internal organs.
Get the shot(s). J.S. Mill will agree with your actions.
People, read the links Charles Gaba provided. I suggested he send the links to Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin who is our (or their) Congressional Representative.
Ted Cruz probably should have Googled “Koch PBS” before taking on Big Bird.