Ted Nugent, who has spent a year claiming that COVID is fake, announced that he has been sick for ten days and has coronavirus.
Nugent said on Facebook Live, “Everybody told me that I should not announce this. I have had flu symptoms for the last ten days. I thought I was dying. Just a clusterf*ck. “I was tested positive today. I got the Chinese sh*t. I’ve got a stuffed up head, body aches. My God, what a pain in the ass. I literally could hardly crawl out of bed the last few days… So I was officially tested positive for COVID-19 today.”
There is a deeper element to the story than COVID denier gets COVID. The odds are that Ted Nugent didn’t just make himself sick with his denial, but he likely also made others who came into contact with him ill as well.
The anti-vaccination argument from some is that they believe that they have the right not to be vaccinated. Because we live in a society when one person chooses to be infected and spread a virus, it impacts the rights of others who also have a right not to be infected with COVID.
Ted Nugent’s right to get COVIO is not superior to the rights of others to expect to live in a society where people take responsibility for themselves during pandemics. Hence, the term equal rights for all.
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Republicans and conservatives have developed an individualistic view of liberty that is incompatible with the social contract. Republicans used to be concerned about the individual liberties of all, but that has transitioned into a narrow concern for only the liberties of self.
The government shouldn’t mandate vaccinations, but the larger problem is that the tears in the collective fabric of American society that Republicans have caused through their focus only on the self have been exploited by the pandemic and could have deadly long-term consequences on the health of the nation.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
