Eighteen months into the COVID-19 pandemic, would you say you’re so completely over this shit? And that you’re thoroughly pissed? Pissed at the people who are to blame for us still having to worry about school closures and positive cases and whether or not we’ll have to spend the holidays away from our families again this year, i.e. the people who refuse to get vaccinated and the public officials doing literally everything in their power to keep this virus going for who knows how long? You’re not alone!
In addition to Nancy Pelosi, the pope, and the millions of individuals who have done everything right but are still living through this nightmare, President Joe Biden is pretty good and ticked. And he knows exactly who to direct his ire toward!
Defending the vaccine mandates he announced last week, which caused a collective meltdown among conservatives, Biden told reporters Thursday: “We’re facing a lot of pushback, especially from some of the Republican governors. The governors of Florida and Texas are doing everything they can to undermine the life-saving requirements that I’ve proposed,” he said, referring to Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott, who have seemingly been in competition to see who can kill off as many of their constituents as possible. The president also took a shot at Mississippi governor Tate Reeves, who, like DeSantis and Abbott, has railed against the president’s vaccine requirements, calling them “clearly unconstitutional” and likened them to tyranny. Tyranny!
“In Mississippi,” Biden said, “Children are required to be vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, hepatitis B, polio, tetanus, and more. These are state requirements. But in the midst of a pandemic that has already taken over 660,000 lives, I propose a requirement for COVID vaccines and the governor of that state calls it ‘a tyrannical-type move‘? A tyrannical-type move? This is the worst kind of politics because it’s putting the lives of citizens of their states, especially children, at risk. And I refuse to give in to it.”
Biden’s remarks are in keeping with the extra frustrated, so-fucking-over-it tone he’s had with anti-vaxxers and certain elected officials who seemingly want the pandemic to go on forever. Last week, while announcing the new mandates, he exasperatedly noted that “despite having an unprecedented and successful vaccination program, despite the fact that for almost five months, free vaccines have been available at 80,000 different locations, we still have nearly 80 million Americans who have failed to get the shot,” and then asked, “What more is there to wait for? What more do you need to see? We’ve made vaccinations free, safe, and convenient. The vaccine has FDA approval, over 200 million Americans have gotten at least one shot. We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin, and the refusal has cost all of us.” In response to the initial threats of lawsuits over his mandates, Biden responded, “Have at it,” adding that he is “so disappointed” in Republican governors who have been “so cavalier with the health of these kids, so cavalier with the health of their communities.”
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