Joe Biden took to his little lectern on Thursday, shaking with righteous anger.  As you already know, he wasn't angry at al-Qaeda/Taliban terrorists who slaughtered thirteen Americans last month.  Nor was he angry about the sex trafficking flowing into America through our southern border and on planes loaded with unvetted Afghan "refugees."  Instead, his anger was reserved for those intransigent Americans who refuse to get vaccinated.

They must be punished, he said, whether by being forced out of their jobs or having weekly swabs stuck so high in their noses that they risk piercing their brains.  Others have already commented on the constitutional problems with Biden's remedy for the evil unvaxxed.  I want to talk about a few more practical issues.

First, too few people are paying attention to the fact that this draconian, indeed, fascist dictate is for a virus that, for people under 70, has a mortality rate that is less than 1%.  If a virus with a 10%, 20%, or higher mortality rate were sweeping through America, the panic factor might be different.  But again, we're talking about less than 1% for those under 70.  (And for those older than 70, the issue tends to be co-morbidities, including obesity.)  Just keep in mind that America fought a successful revolution even as smallpox, with its 30% mortality rate, was sweeping through the colonies.

Second, this is not a vaccine.  If it were a vaccine, those who are vaccinated would be perfectly safe from those who are not vaccinated.  For example, Howard Stern, who said "f--- their freedom" because this 67-year-old multi-millionaire (worth over $200 million) wants to leave his gated enclave to eat at a restaurant, wouldn't be going full fascist on the rest of us if the vaccine worked.  Instead, he'd be toddling off to dine at some fancy club, sneering at the unvaccinated and their illness.  Likewise, if this were a vaccine, those who were vaccinated would not need masks, because they would not be either virus givers or receivers.

Third, Biden has exempted the millions of illegal aliens pouring into the country from the mandate, as well as members of Congress and their staff.  One can view this two ways: Biden hates all these people and wants them to die from COVID.  Or, considering that <1% mortality rate, along with all the problems associated with the vaccine, Biden hates everyone else and wants all these latter people to risk death or other permanent health problems.  Remember, please, that teenage boys' risk of heart problems from the vaccine is six times greater than the risk of becoming seriously ill from COVID.

Fourth, as Anony Mee wrote me based on experience with the federal government, there are some practical problems with the mandate.  Do any of you believe that there are enough swabs, testing sites, medical personnel, diagnostic reagents, and related people and materials to process as many as 80 million tests a week?  Moreover, the PCR tests that are still common despite their accuracy issues can take as much as a week to deliver a result.

Fifth, Anony Mee had another practical point: "Don't forget the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995."  It's more than likely that both the Department of Labor and OSHA lack funding to cover enforcing these new mandates.

Sixth, there is the brain and skill drain, not just from the federal government's civil service, but from the military as well.  Anony Mee wrote about the civil service, but it's easy to imagine that the military will be affected as well (although the Defense Department and Air Force deny a claim that highly skilled people are already submitting their resignations):

The US is the largest single employer of hard science PhDs in the country, and most probably the entire world.  Of distinguishable groups, PhDs are the least vaccinated.  Can the USG afford to lose them?  DARPA?  USDA which has the largest research institution, the Agricultural Research Service, in the world?  Walter Reed researchers?

As a bonus, here's Ron DeSantis ripping Biden a new one:

“Here he comes from Washington DC instituting an unprecedented mandate, even his own people acknowledged is unconstitutional. That’s not leadership. The problem I have with Joe Biden is-this guy doesn’t take responsibility for anything. He’s always trying to blame other people.” pic.twitter.com/ZAhN1mva6o

— Christina Pushaw (@ChristinaPushaw) September 10, 2021

I believe that the vaccine mandate will get pushed back.  Indeed, I'm inclined to agree with those who claim that Biden is doing it both to distract from Afghanistan and to ride the wave of the delta variant's inevitable decline.  (That is, as the delta variant inevitably lessens, Biden will claim the credit.)  However, I also believe that America's large corporations, all of which are run by college graduates who have been marinated in leftism, will take the mandate as a green light to impose vaccine requirements on their employees.

While I don't see this ending well, there is a little light at the end of the tunnel.  I spent some time last week with young tech workers and learned that very slowly, little by little, they're starting to push back against the idea that the world must stop for a virus that has no effect on them.

Image: Joe Biden.  YouTube screen grab.

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