One of the reasons the State promoted vaccinations is because it keeps healthcare costs lower. It should be obvious that preventing a disease is cheaper than treating a disease.
Here’s a quote from the press release: [1]
> Every business owner knows that to promote one thing, you must choose not to promote something else. We saw many examples of this over the past four years, in which people missed routine screenings and cancers went undiagnosed. Treatment for substance abuse was put on the back burner as deaths from opioid overdoses skyrocketed. Mental health disorders were left unattended, spilling over into crises of homelessness and crime. In Louisiana, maternal and infant mortality remain near the worst in the nation. All the while, chronic disease rates continue creeping up to crisis levels. These are the post-pandemic priorities of the Louisiana Department of Health.
So they are saying promoting vaccines means they didn’t get to promote cancer screenings of mental health? I am doubtful this change will move the needle on those other issues.
> In Louisiana, maternal and infant mortality remain near the worst in the nation.
If they stop mass vaccination, they seem likely to experience infant mortality due to measles (which is currently not much of an issue due to mass vaccination, as infants are too young to receive the vaccine themselves). And pertussis (quite dangerous to infants, and expectant mothers and caregivers are frequently advised to get extra vaccine doses to minimize risk to the infants).
Oh, and while hemolytic disease of the newborn isn’t managed by a vaccine per se, the same group of people seem to dislike the mitigation. Treating it is surely far more expensive than preventing it.
The surgeon general of Louisiana was formerly a U.S. House Representative. Luke Letlow was his campaign chairman and his chief of staff, almost certainly one of the Surgeon General's closest and most trusted colleagues. Luke Letlow died of COVID when he was 41 years old leaving behind a widow and two children.
From Luke Letlow's wikipedia page:
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Letlow wore a mask only sporadically during his campaign, and was photographed speaking indoors to constituents when masks were not being worn by him or those gathered.[14] In October, he had encouraged Louisiana officials to relax pandemic restrictions, warning, "We're now at a place if we do not open our economy, we're in real danger."
The problem with this is that he had been diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer in 2006. It is rare for a person with stage IV cancer to survive for another 14 years. He received treatment but most likely eventually he would have died anyway. Covid may have fastened his demise but his odds of dying were quite high even without covid.
A person at high risk of dying from a respiratory virus ignored public health warnings then got a respiratory virus and died. I think the surgeon general should consider this as a terrible object lesson in the value of protecting vulnerable populations.
I was actually commenting for Herman Cain. Sorry, for this mistake.
Yes, they made announcements without clearly thinking how they will be perceived. I agree that it was unnecessary and then dying suddenly didn't look good.
Nevertheless, if I had a situation like where I know for sure that my odds are not great, I would do the same. I would live full life today because tomorrow I could be dead. Herman Cain most likely knew that he is not going to last long. It didn't make sense for him to be afraid of death and isolate for indefinite period of time. His bravery is an example to follow.
We now know that masks were barely effective or not effective at all. They could even be net negative by causing people to take more risks.
Isolating was the only way. A lot of elderly in the UK did this successfully and never got covid. Lockdowns, masks and schools closures did not affect the spread significantly. We know this because Sweden did not mandate these things and had about the same amount of people getting covid until vaccines arrived. The benefits were that Sweden had less mortality from other causes.
A well-fitted N95 mask is almost perfectly effective. I have been in a number of situations where my maskless companions got COVID but I (wearing a 3M Aura) did not.
Sadly kids can’t choose whether they want vaccines or not. They’re the victims of this policy, not their parents.
Raw milk however is a self limiting problem. With the increasing rates of TB in the Midwest and a disdain of medicinal science becoming a political stance, cows are bound to start catching it one of these days. Bovine TB will set the tone on pasteurization real fast.
At least health insurance should cost more on the "Vaccine Freedom" regions. I would expect insurers would want to adjust to new risks governments create.
I like Gofundme for healthcare because it attaches a layer of meritocracy on top of the fight for survival. You need to be popular/pretty/hot enough to get traction. If you are not, you die.
Here’s a quote from the press release: [1]
> Every business owner knows that to promote one thing, you must choose not to promote something else. We saw many examples of this over the past four years, in which people missed routine screenings and cancers went undiagnosed. Treatment for substance abuse was put on the back burner as deaths from opioid overdoses skyrocketed. Mental health disorders were left unattended, spilling over into crises of homelessness and crime. In Louisiana, maternal and infant mortality remain near the worst in the nation. All the while, chronic disease rates continue creeping up to crisis levels. These are the post-pandemic priorities of the Louisiana Department of Health.
So they are saying promoting vaccines means they didn’t get to promote cancer screenings of mental health? I am doubtful this change will move the needle on those other issues.
1. https://ldh.la.gov/news/7478