I’m feeling like a sitting duck these days, as are the other members of my family. For my son at Flagler Palm Coast High School, for my wife with the strings program she runs, they’re convinced it’s a matter of time before they get infected with covid despite their vaccines, despite their masks, which can’t do much against those around them who think masks are the biggest threat to their freedom since Tojo bombed Pearl Harbor.
So we go about our business waiting to see what kind of casualties we’ll be in this biological civil war that’s claiming more lives much faster than did the more conventional one a century and a half ago. I don’t think it’s ironic that the two wars at this point follow the same North-South boundaries. It’s more like a replay by other means. It’s the divide between the maskers and anti-maskers, the vaccine states and the anti-vaxxer confederacy, the scientific north and the social media South, where misinformation has the weight of gospel, and where even elected officials abuse their position to corrupt truth and amplify fabrications.
We have nearly 100 people hospitalized with covid at AdventHealth Palm Coast. At least 40 Flagler County residents have died of the disease just in the last four weeks. We’ve had more infections since July in Flagler than we had all of last year combined. When the latest numbers are posted today and tomorrow, Flagler County schools in less than three weeks will have exceeded the number of student infections it had in 10 months of school last year, when we didn’t even have the vaccine.
For all that, what took up 90 minutes of the school board’s time before the chamber had to be cleared last week were fanatical arguments against masking and a bogus story about an Indian Trails Middle School student. It was a hothouse of covid deniers exactly four miles down the road from the morgue at the hospital, where bodies are piled up as if the Black Death were resurrected. Then came a school board vote turning down a temporary mask rule.
The county is in the worst public health crisis it has known in its history. Our physicians and health care workers are understaffed, overrun and exhausted. They are pleading for help beyond the public bromides about health care heroes, words and drive-bys that mean nothing if not backed up by actions that help cut down the body count. Our neighbors and friends and family members in the prime of their lives are dying at a rate of more than 10 a week. But we’re still debating masks and sniffing at vaccines (Flagler only last week crossed past the 50 percent vaccination threshold). The settled science of masks and vaccines, I should say. It’s as if the population of London would argue with Churchill against taking shelter in the underground during Nazi air raids because it interfered with tea time. It’s that incomprehensible.
Mask-wearing is not a black and white panacea. No one would ever claim it is. Like vaccines, it’s not a guarantee against harm. But neither are seat belts. Neither are car seats for children. Neither are motorcycle helmets (at least for minors in Florida). Neither are no-smoking rules. But we not only take all those precautions. We concede that they are and should be mandatory. We don’t argue about them. We know they greatly diminish risk because we have the data. Somehow, that data is acceptable but the data on masks is not to be trusted, while the blares of social media memes and demagogues are.
But smoking rules aside, even these analogies fall short, because they focus on benefits to the individual rather than on the communal benefit of slowing and stopping the spread of a disease. Fighting covid is more like the Observer’s Brian McMillan’s analogy the other week about every property along the ocean doing its part to allow the government to build protective dunes against rising seas. Even if one or two property owners were to refuse, the project fails (Flagler’s very nearly did so), and everyone behind the dunes is at risk of flooding. It’s an existential choice that has less to do with freedom and more to do with survival. It’s not about property rights, which aren’t even infringed. It’s about communal responsibility. So it is with covid.
I could understand the argument about personal choice, and ultimately it’s never been anything other than personal choice, since every mandate has its opt-outs. But there’s no connection between that choice and freedom as properly understood–as defined by John Stuart Mill, for example: my freedom ends where your harm begins. As opt-outs go, even hurricane-evacuation orders don’t mean residents who don’t want to go will be dragged out of their homes. They won’t. But paramedics will not risk their lives during a hurricane to rescue someone who refused to evacuate. Freedom has its limits, as does government’s responsibility to ensure those freedoms. Intransigeance, recklessness and harm to others shape those limits.
The mayor of Anchorage the other day tried to speak of masks as freedom of choice by comparing it to wearing a tie or not wearing a tie, as if an aesthetic accessory had anything to do with protecting somebody else’s health. Or else we hear about masks causing harm, as if surgeons who spend their days operating on patients were somehow compromised by wearing the mask that protects patients from infection. This isn’t politicizing the pandemic. It’s inventing a mythology of logic, an absolution of lies divorced from reality. It’s chauvinism masked as freedom, with flags and slogans as accessories.
The extreme of that prejudice is embodied in Gov. DeSantis and his bellicose assault on precautions–those orders banning mask mandates, banning vaccine checks, undermining schools that take too many precautions, threatening to cut off their funding. The assault from a governor more concerned about errant migrants than 21 million Floridians speaks more of vengeful defiance than looking out for public safety. It isn’t about choice, because there is no choice when the difference is life and death. It’s about giving one side the right to infect while placing the burden of protection on the other side. It’s as if DeSantis banned air bags or seat belts as standard requirements and said: if you want them, you pay for them, and if you drive on state and county roads, they’re restricted anyway. That’s what he’s done with masks. It’s that simple. It’s that depraved.
My sense is that the administration in Flagler schools would prefer masking rules, if only because the sheer number of students getting covid and those having to quarantine because of exposure is making it difficult to maintain the pretense of a normal school year. At this rate the district is gambling it’ll be spared a child fatality, as Leon County again had this week. Ten school districts have imposed mandates so far. It would have been more reassuring to have a board willing to risk its hide if it meant living up to its claim, spoken in one way or another by every board member: “We’re here for the children.” Based on last week’s vote, I’m not so sure.
On Friday a Leon County judge may well strike down DeSantis’s ban on school mandates, though if he does–a big if–even that seems temporary. The case will make its way to the state Supreme Court, itself a hothouse of DeSantis appointees, each more of a sophist than Gorgias. That lift for DeSantis is as solid as the one in his cowboy boots. He knows no masking mandate will survive in this state. So do we all. Not in this graveyard of science and human ethics. Of sitting ducks.
Pierre Tristam is FlaglerLive’s editor. Reach him by email here.
david says
fear monger
FlaPharmTech says
Thank you for being a voice of sanity in these insane times, Pierre. Excellent article!
CovidiotsSurroundMe says
1. Masks work. I haven’t had Covid, the flu, a rhinovirus, or even allergies in 1 1/2 years. It’s not like I’m home bound either. I’ve been up North to visit family 6x since last summer. Been to Disney 5x this year alone. Go grocery shopping 2x a week.
2. When did people become so gullible? A MEME is not fact, it’s a picture…with words…someone made up. I’m fairly certain if we had social media and the College of Meme, many of us wouldn’t be here because our ancestors would’ve died from smallpox, polio, 1918 flu, and so on because they believed a sheep meme saying vaccine-believers were following the herd but then they themselves took sheep dewormer to cure said illness. Huh? Who in their right mind buys animal dewormer and uses it? I guess the key word is “right” mind, in more than one sense.
3. Latest polling shows only 33% of the state oppose mask rules. The rest support.
4. I have nothing else nice to say so I’ll end it here.
Peaches McGee says
Fact: Those not vaccinated are the ones currently dying.
They’ll all be dead by Christmas.
Mythoughts says
The county is in the worst public health crisis it has known in its history. Our physicians and health care workers are understaffed, overrun and exhausted. They are pleading for help beyond the public bromides about health care heroes, words and drive-bys that mean nothing if not backed up by actions that help cut down the body count. Our neighbors and friends and family members in the prime of their lives are dying at a rate of more than 10 a week. But we’re still debating masks and sniffing at vaccines (Flagler only last week crossed past the 50 percent vaccination threshold). The settled science of masks and vaccines, I should say. It’s as if the population of London would argue with Churchill against taking shelter in the underground during Nazi air raids because it interfered with tea time. It’s that incomprehensible.
Are the city of Palm Coast officials and Flagler County officials reading this article? What are you waiting for? More deaths of people and children? The one and only hospital crowed that can’t handle this, doctors and nurses over worked. Maybe when it hits your loved ones you will wake up and do something.
I went to the grocery store in Palm Coast and witnessed uncaring, careless individuals not wearing masks. Then at the check out with a regular check out person telling me, she just lost her friend of 41 years of age with children to covid19 in palm coast.
Any elected official that isn’t steping up to plate and doing something about what is going on in Flagler County has no business being in office. It is bad enough we have a governor that could careless who is dying even young children.
Are you waiting until all businesses in Flagler County have to shut down, and of course the careless governor will stop the people of this state to collect unemployment or state assistance.
Wake up people this is not something to over look any longer.
JEK says
Apparently you can’t fix stupid and sorry to say there are a lot of stupid people out there. Unfortunately there are the willfully ignorant as well and they make me furious. It’s like talking to a wall!!! Pitiful
Sherry says
TRUTH MONGER! Thanks so much, Pierre. . . an excellent article!
Unfortunately, those who really need to learn from your words are now so FOX/Facebook brainwashed that they can no longer think independently. Hopefully, as their loved ones are taken from them by Covid, they will come to some kind of consciousness beyond the cult’s alternate reality. . . Or not. Over the long run Darwinism will have its way.
Enough says
All it’s going to take is for these unmasked kids to go home with the virus and spread it to their family unknowingly, not to mention any other people they will come in contact with. It really doesn’t sound like the kids protesting as much as it does the insecure parents who, for whatever reason, feel their rights as parents are being taken away. When your child becomes ill, do you not consult a doctor to assure that all is going to be okay? If the doctor recommends a medication, do you argue and state that you know more than he does? I would think not, unless you really couldn’t care less for your child’s well being. So, what’s the difference now? It’s not just your child that is involved in this; it’s everyone’s child!! Get over your self and do the right thing for all of us. If you don’t want your kid to wear a mask, keep him home and school him there! Good Luck with that!!
Cary says
Biden lets illegals with COVID walk across the border and then ships them to other parts of the country to spread it. I dont want to hear a peep from you mask people until Biden seals the border. Bunch of hypocrites. Lets see if this leftest rag posts this.
Bill C says
“…misinformation has the weight of gospel”. Perfectly expressed Pierre. This is no longer a question about health and science but more closely resembles a religious argument where belief , when questioned, draws an angry response from the believer.
D says
Mask don’t work. They give you nothing but a false sense of security.
David Schaefer says
I am so sick and tired of these people who will not protect themselves their family and the public. How stupid and and clueless can you be. I need to have have medical care in Jacksonville and I am being held up with the amount of Covid cases. I’m just pissed period. Excellent article Pierre….
John stove says
Don’t want to get vaccinated or wear a mask because it’s a “personal choice? or some conspiracy?
Fine….then don’t come to the ER and clog the health care system to the point that scheduled surgeries and treatments for others are cancelled or delayed, don’t make my health insurance rates go up because you and your friends end up in the ICU and spend 2 weeks in the hospital, and don’t go on social media asking for prayers because your loved one is on a ventilator.
Personal choices you make have personal consequences, if you chose to not get vaccinated or wear a mask then you deal with it yourself.
David Acevedo says
I’m not sure who’s screaming out about the wearing of mask but You don’t represent the people that know it does not in no way protect you from any virus Go listen to CNN who are now retreating about the terrible ordeal in Afghanistan
Pierre Tristam says
False. They work. But disinformation may make you sick.
Bartholomew says
He won’t read it, but thanks for trying.
Pierre Tristam says
Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala, the three nations responsible for the most migrants across the border, have infection rates rates one-tenth (Mexico and Honduras) and one-quarter (Guatemala) that of Floridians. The only thing migrants would be spreading is desperately needed labor, though any migrant would be reckless to want to come to Florida in its current condition. Thank you for the “leftest” compliment, but I can only wish, though in this county anything to the left of John Birch and other epochal gongs now may look “leftest” to you.
Mike Cocchiola says
It’s enough to say that the clown holding the sign in the picture above is the same clown that stands on the corner of U.S.1 and A1A in Flag Beach with Trump signs and screams at passersby.
You can’t fix ignorance, stupidity, and crazy.
John Stove says
The deal was initiated, negotiated with Trump and the Taliban when The Orange idiot was still President . Trump set May 2021 as the date all troops had to be out and Biden asked for an extension to September 2021.
Never forget that Trump was the one who negotiated with terrorists and set the deadline.
Edith Campins says
The scientist and common sense say masks work but you can’t fix the ignorant. They are the ones getting sick and dying but they still don’t get it.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/coronavirus-mask/art-20485449
Steve says
fantasy misinformation false Freedumb monger
Bill C says
The only one screaming here is you. What evidence do you have that masks don’t work? Maybe try taking some hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin. Fox and OAN say they work.
Toto says
You’re so right, you can’t fix stupid. But it’s easy to identify by those red mega hats!
Deborah Coffey says
Blessed are the anti-vaxxers for they shall inherit intubation.
Blessed are the anti-maskers for they shall soon see the face of God.
Covid 19: 20-21
Sam says
Anti vaxers, no maskers your f*cking choice. Just don’t go to the emergency room when you get Covid.
Angie says
Wow, just insane. FPC had 11 new positive students today and 7 yesterday! What about the safety of students who mask and are vaccinated. They are trying to stay healthy, but unmasked, possibly unvaxed other students/adults are putting everyone in Flagler schools in danger.
Angie says
I agree with 100%. School board, Superintendent, and all elected officials need to passs mask mandates to protect the people.
E-e-on says
Exactly, there’s no convincing these people of anything, masking up means looking out for your fellow neighbors and it’s just a sad fact that so many in this county only care for themselves and sometimes their immediate family, but, that’s pretty rare too
Zuzanna says
I almost never agree with Pierre. He is right on the money this time.
Coyote says
If only ….
trybeingacaringhumanbeing says
I moved to Flagler Beach in 1984. Back then we were a small community with varied backgrounds who all realized how lucky we were to live in such an incredible area. I appreciate FlaglerLive for their news articles, but I am appalled at the majority of the posted comments from the residents of Flagler County. We should not be slamming each other’s stance on politics, race, religion, who is “right or wrong” concerning masks, vaccines, etc. …especially now… We are human beings in a community that should care about the health and welfare of our fellow neighbors. I am shocked and saddened to read how little people care about civility and kindnes when posting their thoughts. And please don’t make this into a political issue…it is about being compassionate caring human beings.
Ted Underhill says
Yet Floridas little Cesar wants to keep exposing the kids and censuring school administrators. These are crazy times Ronnie, but you still have the chance to set things right. Gotta trust the scientists on this one, can’t keep playing partisan politics.
Jimbo99 says
Well, the sun rises & sets every day, live your best life. Try not to dwell on things nobody can change. None of this is a solution for Covid, they don’t really have one. So this is the new normal, the risk of dying from Covid now.
Tongue Tied says
“Masking up means looking out for your fellow neighbors “………. Sorry but I don’t like my neighbors behind my house. I do like 1 neighbor next to me. We drink beer together but we figured a great reason to wear mask…… We go to Winn Dixie and stick our tongues out at STUPID people and make disgusting tongue movements at the pretty young women shoppers. We highly recommend trying our ” Wear your Mask ” reasons.
Gary R says
John Stove – Did Trump tell Biden to evacuate the military BEFORE the civilians? And the billions of military equipment?
YankeeExPat says
We have become a nation of “Kooks”
It works, thanks says
They work. I got sick, when not wearing a mask over just a span of 1 week at work. had not been sick since Feb 2020. The only time I wore no mask at work, in the span of 1 week, I was sick with the common cold (I tested negative). I have to ask, are you wearing it correctly? I don’t think so, either that, you never put one on or you did for a day or two.
herewegoagain says
Politics
Religion
Covid
All Incendiary discussions,
because whatever Kool-Aid
we have been drinking has
altered our Critical Thinking Skills ??
marlee says
All of you who are anti-vax…..PLEASE do not go to the ER if you get sick with Covid.
PLEASE!
You are taking up too much space in our hospitals. You are wearing out our Healthcare workers.
If you make the choice for freedom from Vaccines…PLEASE stay home if you get sick.!
Concerned Citizen says
I wear the mask and I’ve had the shot.
I don’t feel oppressed. It doesn’t make me any less of a man or American. I have high risk people in my life I care about. And I care about you also.
But this is America so.
You have the right to not wear the mask. You have the right to not get the shot. And your entitled to your own opinion. Just don’t force it on me. And know that there are consequences for not taking precautions.
Flatsflyer says
So when you catch the Virus, please don’t clog up our hospitals, stay home and give it to the rest of your family or go to church and give it to the rest of the believers, in either case your going to die..
Shelley says
If YOU want to wear a mask, YOU wear it. Before COVID, I would occasionally see a person with a compromised immune system due to cancer or another illness wearing a mask. They weren’t wearing it to protect YOU from catching cancer. They wore it to protect themselves from YOUR germs.
This is not a vaccine, it’s a shot. There really is a difference.
And no, the masks really don’t work. Kids with wet spots from breathing on their masks, pulling them down to breathe, to eat, to get away from the discomfort are probably putting more germs on their face than if they didn’t have them on. If in my classroom I have students who have been vaccinated and have contracted COVID and have ALL been wearing masks, then tell me how the masks are working?
It’s a false sense of security and I know you all think oh it’s just a mask. But it starts with just one thing and then you wind up like places like Australia where they are forcing vaccines on children (physically forcing) whose parents chose not to vaccinate them.
And yes, people who are vaccinated have died. MANY from the vaccine itself but also from getting COVID. And no it’s not always a mild case if you’ve been vaccinated so that’s spreading false information.
It’s about living in a country where we have freedoms. If you want to mask, wear it. If you want to vaccinate yourself, do it.
If you dont’ know what it’s like to live without freedom, talk to people who came from oppresive countries. Look at the current situation in Afghanistan. Do those people have freedoms?
Christopher Todd Lemke says
47 separate studies have shown that masks don’t work.
I’ll be happy to provide my sources.
Sheila Zinkerman says
Good Citizens’ Talking Points
Ron DeSantis is Now the Face of a Bad American Citizen
He is an Ivy Leaguer who miserably fails Harvard’s Personal Character criteria that looks in part for: character, leadership, concern for others, and grace under pressure.
https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/apply/what-we-look
He shamefully exploited his own children with his public campaign ads and smiles as he uses them to indoctrinate his lame talking points. Since 2018, he has widened his exploitation with his mask mandate ban to include COVID-19 exposed maskless parents and schoolchildren.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1YP_zZJFXs
He sneers maskless as he bans science-supported mask mandates and blips at public opinion with a 60-36 parent’s support for mandatory masks in schools (Quinnipiac 2021.) https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a37396647/florida-ron-desantis-covid-surge-approval-drops/
He scapegoats and spews misinformation about our immigrants to hide his own COVID-19 leadership incompetence while he simultaneously puts Floridians in danger with his foolish attack on our public health system for his own political gain.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/andres-oppenheimer/article253325148.html
By contrast, Ronald D. DeSantis is also a Navy veteran.
https://floridaphoenix.com/2018/10/15/what-is-and-isnt-known-about-ron-desantiss-navy-career-records-provide-a-glimpse/
Dee says
Thank you for your MUCH needed post. As you mentioned, stats don’t tell lies. Every person has the right to decide what the best decision is for their families and themselves, with that being said, all you anti-maskers and anti-vaccines, please do NOT be the first to rush to the hospital when you are sick and overwhelm our doctors, nurses, and hospital staff who put their lives on the lines every day and all day all while wearing masks and vaccinated because they are cognisant of the potential higher risks associated with not protecting themselves and others.
Cary says
You are delusional. People like you are a danger to our republic.
Concerned Resident says
Amen to every word you wrote.
T says
Trump had only 2500 troops there and the equipment was Afghanistan army to fight they didn’t tablian took it
Jane Gentile-Youd says
I am so dumbfounded at several ‘close’ friends outrageous beliefs that the vaccine is a conspiracy that I really don’t want to have anything to do with any of them anymore. They are all using insane excuses to cover up their selfishness and lack of caring about anyone other than themselves . Sad ,frightening and very depressing to think you have ‘friends’ when you really don’t..
Mark says
There are no Heroes in Flagler County
HammockBear says
R E S P E C T . Respect for Self and Respect for others. Wear a Mask.
Don Appignani says
Broward County School System has over 260,000 students and a mandatory mask policy.
As of yesterday, they had only 183 students test positive for COVID this school year.
Compare the numbers to Flagler County where we have approximately 13,000 students and a voluntary mask policy.
Flagler County Schools had 238 positive cases as of 4 days ago.
Please tell me again that masks do not work.
The dude says
That’s the beauty of the internets…
You can find validation of literally ANY situation you can dream up.
Used to be the cranks and conspiracy minded had to actually get out to find each other.
Ted Underhill says
Yes let’s see the studies. I assume they are peer reviewed from credible sources. Did you vet them through google scholar or accredited trade journals or the AMA? Or are they just the normal left and right rhetoric floating around out there? Please tell me it’s not a matter of “I saw online so it must be true.”
The dude says
Walked out on to my screened lanai yesterday… got bit by a mosquito.
This morning I’m calling around trying to find a contractor to come tear this screened cage around my pool down.
Screened cages obviously don’t work.
I’m sure I can find 47 internets studies out there to back this up.
What Else Is New says
Hmm
More than 1000,000 deaths from COVID
Does this equate bringing -100,000 refugees from other countries including Afghanistan? Hope so.
Excellent writing, Pierre.
Katrina Elizabeth Friel says
Fantastic! Misogyny is a stellar reason for wearing a mask.
Katrina Elizabeth Friel says
No, he is correct. Vet them and then put them to work. Americans don’t want to work.
Bill C says
Good one! You forgot to mention that the mosquito was denying you your FREEDOM.
Gary R says
Biden: It’s Time for Afghanistan Forces ‘To Fight for Themselves’ It is the withdrawal that Joe Biden screw the pooch.
mausborn says
When you make it illegal for schools to enact policies that protect the students, that’s fascism!!!
Wake up Palm Coast…..you are better!
The dude says
Well… we spent 20 years trying to force FREEDUMB on those Afghani savages…
It’s not our fault it didn’t take.
palmcoaster says
David: I find your words a threat to the wellbeing of children (students) and adults and a display of political ignorance rhetoric!
Linda Hagman says
After a recent trip to the ER for “chest pain” I learned that Advent Health Systems does not mandate their employees get vaccinated. In fact, I had a staff person come in my room and due to a “hot flash” fan herself madly within 6 feet from me and tell me (upon my inquiry) that she was not vaccinated cause she had Covid in March and therefore did not need the vaccine. Furthermore, she knew she was protected by God from the virus.
Well, prior to demanding she leave the room at once, I informed her that unless she had been recently tested, she has no idea how many antibodies she currently has in her system and that as far as God is concerned, being a spiritual person myself, I give full credit to God for giving us the blessing of having a vaccine which spares us from suffering needlessly from this virus.
Checking with local ER management, I learned this “no vaccine mandate” is directly from Advent Health Corporate and does not reflect local management’s opinion. Advent Health Systems is the largest hospital system in Florida. Their total disregard to the health and safety of not only their patients but also their employees by not mandating vaccines, is irresponsible and reckless.
I’m angry–no one should be needlessly exposed to this virus by an unvaccinated person when seeking health care –nor is it fair that fellow health care workers who are vaccinated and take the precautions to prevent the spread of the virus to their patients and family have to deal with colleagues who ignore science.