A symptom of mental insufficiency

 Here is the news report:

Republican state house representatives Jon Hansen (R-Dell Rapids) and Scott Odenbach (R-Spearfish) authored the “COVID-19 Vaccine Freedom of Conscience Act.” The bill would effectively ban COVID-19 vaccine mandates under any and all circumstances in South Dakota.

And here is the context:

War	Combat deaths	Civilian deaths	Total deaths
Civil War	214,938	450,000	650,000
World War I	53,402	63,114	116,516
World War II	291,557	113,842	405,399
Covid-19 10/29/2021			743,050

The coronavirus has inflicted more deaths than any of our wars.

At this point, it is killing at the rate of more than 71,000 a day. If the government did not take measures to combat the enemy in our world wars, the citizens would revolt.  In the current case, government agencies are trying to implement measures to control and mitigate the disease outbreak.  But groups of citizens are rising up in opposition to those measures.  The major health organizations in South Dakota have mandated that their employees be vaccinated.  Today, a group of GOP legislators met to require a special session of the legislature that will deal with banning or severely limiting vaccine mandates.  

That raises the question if mandates for other vaccines will be revoked.  Currently. the law requires that to be admitted to school, children must be vaccinated for poliomyelitis, diphtheria, pertussis, rubeola, rubella, mumps, tetanus, meningitis, and varicella.*  It does have exemptions for religious or health reasons.   But if legislators are so concerned about mandates for Covid-19 vaccinations, can they ignore the requirements for other vaccines?

Or is their concern about Covid vaccines just another matter of the mindless, belligerent posturing of the Trump syndrome?  Some seem to believe that the more stupidly you behave, the more you are asserting your personal rights.  And there is no doubt that people have the right to be stupid, if that is their preference.

The whole question of public health versus the right to make personal choices is a sign of the mental failure that grips the country.  The issue is not a matter of partisan politics.  It is a matter of whether people have the rational intelligence to understand established science or whether they are attuned to strange spirits they think might be lurking under their beds, or acting according to urban legends they believe to be scripture.  It is a matter of people who are cognitively competent versus those inflicted with  grave mental defects.  In the past the cognitively competent have prevailed and have passed laws that protect the public health.  In the present, we have a strong anti-intelligence movement that resents and resists science and any other ideas produced by knowledge and intellect.  A war between knowledge and ignorance has broken out.  And the warriors of ignorance found a leader in Donald Trump, who professes the right to be stupid.  

But killing 743,000 people is not merely a matter of being stupid.  It is a matter of malice.  To stand idly by insisting on the right to personal choice is no different than standing idly by when the Gestapo marched people to the gas chambers.  Our fight, if there is one, is not with Covid-19.  It''s with stupidity compounded by malice.  The best we can do with people who wish to stand by and blather about their personal choice not to mask or vaccinate is keep them at a distance.  

Our nation is divided.  If the divide is between the intelligent and the stupid, the intelligent can think their way to a better way of life.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*13-28-7.1. Immunizations required for admission to school or early childhood program--Exceptions--Rules.

Any child entering school or an early childhood program in this state, shall, prior to admission, be required to present to the appropriate school authorities certification from a licensed physician that the child has received or is in the process of receiving adequate immunization against poliomyelitis, diphtheria, pertussis, rubeola, rubella, mumps, tetanus, meningitis, and varicella, according to recommendations provided by the Department of Health. The Department of Health may modify or delete any of the required immunizations. As an alternative to the requirement for a physician's certification, the child may present:

(1)    Certification from a licensed physician stating the physical condition of the child would be such that immunization would endanger the child's life or health; or

(2)    A written statement signed by one parent or guardian that the child is an adherent to a religious doctrine whose teachings are opposed to such immunization.

The Department of Health may promulgate reasonable rules, pursuant to chapter 1-26, to require compliance and documentation of adequate immunization, to define appropriate certification, and to specify standard procedure.