Where I live in rural northern Michigan, lots of people don’t believe covid exists, and like those Hawaiian vacationers, they are quite vocal about it.

They don’t get a lot of pushback, because covid denial is a common attitude up here.

Doctors and nurses at our local hospital are begging people to take things seriously, but denial has become a political/tribal belief system rather than a factual question that can be answered with data.

When my neighbors see data demonstrating that covid is a serious problem, they become very angry. Their leaders are telling them covid doesn’t exist and they believe those leaders — the same leaders who tell them Donald Trump actually won the election by a large margin.

Which is why we had to close our state capitol the other day. My neighbors believe all this so much they’re willing to commit violence or at least to threaten it.