No doubt you have seen the news that a Florida federal district judge, a Trump appointed judge named Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, who was rated as unqualified by the American Bar Association when she was nominated, undid the federal mask mandate for airline travel. Other businesses are following suit.
It may take some time to determine whether the rescinding of the mask mandate for travel will result in more sickness or death. We may start getting data within a few weeks to determine whether my considering her a judicial version of the Grim Reaper in a Judge’s robe is an apt depiction of her.
This consequences of this ruling not-withstanding, what makes maters even worse is that this judge is only 34 or 35 and she could be on the bench for 50 years.
Here’s a little about her:
She graduated from Covenant College, a private Christian liberal arts college in Dade County, Georgia (rated 146th among national liberal arts colleges: www.usnews.com/...)
This is how the college is described:
Covenant College seeks to inspire and equip our students to be faithful stewards of their God-given abilities - all of our programs are designed with this in mind.
www.niche.com/...
Then she attended law school at The University of Florida which gets a much better number 21 rating from www.usnews.com/.…
If and when we have a Republican president and Senate, now that she has made a name for herself as a dyed in the wool right-winger she could end up being on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Google News (news.google.com/...) has numerous articles about the judge’s ruling:
While not nearly as many people are dying from Covid as did during the start of the pandemic and before vaccines and helpful treatments were available, they are still dying every week. You can track the numbers here. There is no doubt in the scientific community both that vaccines and masks are effective in preventing infection, severe disease, or death. Yet there is an all too human tendency to engage in wishful thinking.
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/...) describes wishful thinking as “the formation of beliefs based on what might be pleasing to imagine, rather than on evidence, rationality, or reality It is a product of resolving conflicts between belief and desire uses to illustrate their entry on wishful thinking” and they use this as their illustration.
Illustration from St. Nicholas: an Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks (1884)
There are numerous articles about the psychology of wishful thinking here: www.google.com/...
When health misinformation is supported or encouraged by those promoting a political agenda, as this judge seems to be doing, it can lead to dire consequences.
Obviously, people who not only refuse to get vaccinated but also won't wear masks when in proximity to other people risk not merely their own health but the health of others.
Those of us who want to avoid contracting Covid can take various levels of precaution from wearing well fitted N-95 or KN-95 masks whenever we are around people or by practicing varying levels of social distancing and even isolation if you think you may have been exposed, and taking Covid tests when appropriate can significantly decrease your own risks and the risks to other you may be in contact with. This is old news for us, but it is a sad state of affairs when something so simple is ignored by so many people.
On a personal note:
Yesterday I received my second booster. I live in a senior community so everyone here is considered above average risk of complications from Covid. All 400 plus residents where I live have received their initial Covid vaccinations and their first booster. The majority got their second booster yesterday.
Waiting while the pharmacists set up t give the booster shots.
I had a 10 AM appointment and was the first to arrive getting there at 9:30. By the time I got my shot there were 50 or more people in the auditorium where the clinic was held.
I wore my N-95 mask. The majority of people waiting weren’t wearing masks and were sitting right next to each other. I see this as a kind of wishful thinking. These aren’t right-wing folks. Our senior community is not only well educated but the vast majority of residents are Democrats. This is, after all, a suburb of Portland, Oregon.
Even though there was room for everyone to sit with an empty seat next to them, none of them with the except of myself, did so as far as I could tell. Of the four people sitting in front of me three were maskless. The man sitting next to me wore his mask.
…...
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