Contagion(s)

 There's a contagion loose in America these days, and it puts the Bastard Plague in the shade. Delta variant, you say? Pffft. This bastard plague's got a million variants.

Call it Viral Crazy. And so far there ain't no vaccine for it.

You hear it coming these days from the mouths of babbling halfwits on Fox "News", and from conspiracy kooks going live on the interwhatsis from Mom's basement, and even from elected officials. Hell, the Previous Occupant was Patient Zero for it.

And so you look up one day and here's some lunkhead congress critter named Madison Cawthorn talking, in almost wistful tones, about taking up arms against the dang gum'mint of which he's a part. And here's another lunkhead congress critter named Marjorie Taylor Greene hollering about made-up electoral fraud. And here are school board members and local political hacks saying wearing masks in a raging pandemic causes kids to commit suicide, and that ingesting livestock de-wormer is a safe and effective way to treat the Plague.

Anyone who says otherwise, of course, is simply a Tool Of Big Pharma who's Suppressing The Truth because they want us to take the Vile Vaccine, which everyone knows turns us all into brain-eating zombies.

Or, you know, something like that.

Just the other night, the anti-vaxxer, anti-mask nuttery was on full display at a local school board meeting. People, presumably parents, shouted down a doctor when he pleaded for a little common sense. They chanted "Re-vote! Re-vote!" when the board decided to re-institute mandatory masking because, well, kids are already getting sick two weeks into the new school year.

Their kids, presumably. Or some of them. I can't even.

Meanwhile, in the NFL ...

("Finally! Sports!" you're saying)

In the NFL, your Indianapolis Colts remain a bastion of anti-vaxxer nuttery, and because of that, new store-bought quarterback Carson Wentz is in Bastard Plague jail. So are wide receiver Zach Pascal and center Ryan Kelly -- and so, recently, was star offensive tackle Quentin Nelson.

Wanna guess what they all have in common?

Yep. None of them have been vaccinated. 

None of them have been vaccinated, even though the NFL is pushing it hard and instituting different rules for those who haven't been -- which is why Wentz, Pascal and Kelly are all on quarantine not because they tested positive, but because of "close contacts." Had they been vaccinated, they wouldn't be quarantined for that.

But now they all are, less than two weeks before the start of the season. And the Colts kinda-sorta need them. And what is the big damn deal, if you're at all a rational human, about getting a freaking shot?

The Pfizer vaccine is now FDA approved, after all, and it was safe before it was because they tested the hell out of it before they allowed it on the market. Long-term effects? I don't know, what are the long-term effects of any vaccine/shot/medication?

I'll tell you: Virtually none, statistically.

And so, yeah, I'm going to call out the anti-vaxxers as nutters, because that's what they are. I'm going to say Wentz and Nelson and Kelly and Paschal, and any other Colts who haven't been vaccinated, are being selfish and stupid. And I'm not going to shed any tears for Cam Newton, whom the New England Patriots abruptly released the other day.

Cam, you see, isn't vaccinated, either. I don't think that was why Belichick showed him the road, but I doubt it was a point in his favor. And I'd have to think long and hard about signing him if I were another team, because given the NFL's protocols, not being vaccinated means his availability would always be in question.

And, yes, I know what you're gonna say. You're gonna say name-calling is no solution, and I've been name-calling to a fare-thee-well in this post.

You're absolutely right. It's not a solution, and I have been.

But I can't help it. The truth may hurt, but I gotta speak it. And it's not my fault.

The Viral Crazy made me do it.