As the omicron variant spreads and COVID-19 keeps killing people around the world, Republican politicians in some states have started to pay people to NOT get vaccinated. Florida, Iowa, Kansas, and Tennessee have decided it’s a good idea to cut unemployment checks for people who have been fired from their jobs because they didn’t comply with vaccine mandates. Anti-vaxxer? Here’s your check!
Just when you thought public health and science couldn’t get any more politicized, right wingers start paying off their favorite recently fired anti-vaccine heroes and saying that the omicron variant is a plot by the Democrats. Ugh.
Meanwhile, millions of unvaccinated human petri dishes provide a fine place for the virus to keep cranking out new variants. Republicans aren’t the only ones to blame, however. Some conspiracy-minded liberals are also selfishly saying no to getting a lifesaving shot. And there’s plenty of blame to go around for the lagging distribution of vaccines around the world . . . but in some cases that can also be traced back to lies from right-wingers in the good ol’ U.S. of A.