One can never tell what political actors actually think or believe, if anything. They just say and do what they calculate might benefit them.
The politics of it specifically were, we have two-party system here, and in this state, the left are in power.
They faced constant attack from the right wing media, simultaneously for being too heavy handed (“Dictator Dan”) and for being too weak and for refusing the offers of assistance from the feds by way of the Army.
It’s all too perplexing for me to invest any angst in, any more!
On a technical front, yes, at the time the only people who had enforcement power were the authorised officers of the state Department of Health. The Army were only there for support and perhaps for PR.
I also don’t really understand the US context of simultaneous patriotism and individualist libertarianism. As in I support the military 100% but I will shoot them if they come knocking at my door in the service of the public interest. I don’t say that in order to imply I have a side. I just don’t get it.
I hunt, so I listen to hunting podcasts. This week the Meat Eater podcast had Tucker Carlson as a guest (even though they are regularly labelled as "green decoys!) When asked if he was a political activist, he pushed back hard and said with a laugh, “I like to watch!”
I suppose I’m just a bit further down that way of thinking, in that, I prefer to look away!
Vaccinated and unvaccinated people can both spread Covid. The degree of spreading Covid after full vaccination is less but not Zero. If 100% of the people were vaccinated against Covid then every case would be spread by a vaccinated person and every case would be caught by a vaccinated person ( Logical of course). Like every other influenza, people will have to learn to deal with living with Covid.
Which is why the CDC is saying everyone should wear masks indoors in areas with high community spread. “Living with COVID” means taking appropriate action to slow outbreaks when they occur.
Higher percentage of vaccinated people and higher compliance with mask wearing significantly impacts the exponential spread of the virus in a community when there is an outbreak.
I’ve been disappointed by some people who seem to think that because we probably will never eliminate COVID, we should abandon all efforts at mitigation. “Living with COVID” for some people means denying the efficacy of what can be done and pretending the severity of outbreaks is inevitable. They think if people die, it was destiny. That’s not accurate.
Living with Covid will be like living with any other influenza strain.
Vaccinations, health and safety measures, protecting the high risk groups.
We have to start thinking long term and lockdowns, for example, are not the way.
South Korea has done it very well with their combination of restrictions, masking, social distancing and contact tracing.