UPDATED: As COVID fills Rhode Island’s ICU beds, Flip Filippi says he can’t be bothered

Charlestown state Rep becomes state’s leading Mask-hole

By Will Collette

If Flip did run for Guv, he's be held accountable for his record

State Trumplican leader Rep. Blake “Flip” Filippi who unfortunately represents Charlestown has become the leading politician pushing back against public health measures to curb the latest surge in deaths and hospitalizations from COVID.

UPDATE: Well, Flip got his wish: a big mention in the Boston Globe for his Twitter stand against masking (see below). Since Flip's only clear objection as a politician is public exposure, then "Mission Accomplished." Flip has also refused to say whether he is vaccinated, an answer I think qualifies as a "no." As we go into the 2022 election year, let's all remember who stood up for public health and who acted like a jerk.

On Tuesday, WPRI reported that six of the state’s hospitals have full ICU wards including South County Hospital and all inpatient beds statewide are at 86% capacity. Today, the leaders of most of the state’s hospitals are asking for the state to reinstate its indoor mask mandate, even though accidental Gov. Dan McKee is afraid this might somehow hurt his precious small businesses.

Hey, Dan, WAKE UP! When people are again worried to go out because the of surge in infections, including breakthrough infections, that’s not a good thing for your small businesses.

While all this is going on, Flip Filippi thinks he’s Mel Gibson and sees efforts to stop the spread of COVID as tyranny and COVID idiocy as a freedom fight as this Flip tweet shows:

What we have learned since the pandemic became a part of our world is that vaccines do work. They save lives not just by preventing COVID, but by helping to reduce your health risk if you are among the small percentage who still catch COVID (probably from some unvaxxed COVIDiot).

We have three vaccines that are FDA-approved as safe and effective and you can get the shots for free in numerous locations. We have learned that masks work. So does avoiding packed-in crowds. We have also found that mandates work, no matter how much Trumplicans and Q-Anoners squawk.

We have learned that the scientists and health professionals actually do know what they are talking about and are dedicated to trying to save our lives. But asshole politicians like Flip think it’s OK to take cheap shots on Twitter against such health care heroes as Brown University’s emergency medicine expert Dr. Megan Ranney:

To answer your snide question, Flip, Dr. Ranney is a top expert on emergency medicine and COVID and not on Providence tax policy and Brown management. Unlike you, she generally confines her remarks to things she actually knows about.   Idiot.

Flip also has a flippant answer to the rising COVID death rate: lose weight. Yeah, Flip, that’s an idea that’s going to go over big with your base. Flip’s tweet:

Is the guy on the stretcher wearing a MAGA hat?

Dan McGowan of the Boston Globe reports that a new survey shows Rhode Islanders falling away sharply from being among the most public health conscious about COVID to being among the worst in categories like wearing masks, washing hands, and avoiding crowds.

And we are paying the price. Our community transmission rate – the measure of how widely COVID is spreading – is up to 559.5 per 100,000. It was only 12 per 100,000 on July 4^th. Right now, 226 people are in the hospital with COVID, the highest number since last February.

But meanwhile, irresponsible fools like Blake “Flip” Filippi tweet their outrage at countries like Germany where they have decided to quarantine all those who refuse to be vaccinated:

Yeah, Flip, in the good old US of A, you'd just call in the Oath Keepers and they'd dose the cops with bear spray while beating them half to death, like then did on January 6.

Let’s all remember that while Flip has decided that running for Governor is too much of a stretch for someone who has no legislative achievements, a history of lying, ties to insurrectionists and lawsuits against him by his own family, he still plans to run for re-election in House District 36.

He assumes he has a lock on this district, what with the unwavering support of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance – for whom he has done almost nothing – and his fortune. I hope we can change that in 2022.