Note from Surreal Land

That the omicron variant is causing such an agonizingly high number of cases and hospitalizations is largely due to malevolent right-wing disinformation campaigns discouraging people from getting vaccinated. Right-wing Republican politicians and media stars delight in demagoguing the issue by championing freedom to refuse to be vaccinated. This nihilistic form of madness has been carried to such lengths that five states (all unsurprisingly dominated by Trumpian types and their supporters) are giving people unemployment compensation if they lose their job because they (presumably heroically) refused to be vaccinated.