Memo to Eric Schmitt: You have already won your Senate seat. You can stop with the COVID demagoguery now.

That memo has, unfortunately, been missed.

With new cases of the disease on the rise in St. Louis and around the country, Schmitt has lately taken to his X (formerly Twitter) account — not to responsibly encourage people to take the new round of vaccines coming out soon, but to irresponsibly gin up the phony fears that new lockdowns and vaccine mandates are on the way.

No one who isn't cynically trying to revive a politically useful controversy is talking about new lockdowns or mandates. But the recent rise in COVID cases, led by the new omicron subvariant EG.5, is real, and a new vaccine will be widely available to Missourians soon.

In keeping with mainstream medical advice, we would encourage readers to get the vaccine.

If that doesn't sound like the more urgent statements that this page and so many other sources were issuing during the pandemic, there are two reasons for that:

One, even the elevated COVID numbers today are nowhere near pandemic levels. At the height of the pandemic, with hospitals filled beyond capacity and the virus lurking everywhere, those who refused to vaccinate and take other precautions were putting other people's lives at risk. Which is why those lockdowns and mask mandates — which undoubtedly saved many lives — were necessary.

Today, anti-vaxxers are generally endangering only themselves and those who choose to congregate with them. (Their children have less choice in the matter, but luckily, kids remain less at risk than adults.)

Secondly, Schmitt and those like him on the political right have so poisoned public discourse on this issue that trying to convince anti-vaxxers to abandon their discredited and self-destructive belief system is a lost cause anyway and could even be counterproductive.

We share the apparent sentiment of the Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services, which tweeted last week: "COVID vaccines will be available in Missouri soon, if you're in to that sort of thing. If not, just keep scrolling!"

Some have criticized that as recklessly nonchalant from an agency that should be trying to convince people to get vaccinated. But it's arguably an appropriate stance toward a segment of the population that, three years and 7 million worldwide deaths into this thing, still clings to their anti-vax delusions.

It could even be argued that a subsection of that population will be less likely to get vaccinated if mainstream medical experts recommend it. This is the upside-down political culture of America today.

So we'll just leave it at this: You're an adult. Get the vaccine that could spare you from illness and even save your life. Or don't. Whatever.

We're just tired of fighting this bizarre culture war that the political right declared in the face of solid medical science — and apparently is intent on continuing to fight, even now.

Which brings us back to Schmitt.

He won his Senate seat last year by positioning himself as a champion for those who reject mainstream medical advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and using his power as Missouri's attorney general to sue school districts for following CDC recommendations on mask policies.

Having learned how effective this toxic strategy is, Schmitt has continued it in office. In the past few weeks, as COVID cases have risen in his home state, he has ramped up his attacks on science.

This has included showily vowing to resist any return to shutdowns and masking mandates. Ever though, again, no one outside the right-wing echo chamber is suggesting that's even on the table.

It has included asking of his followers in an online poll, "Do you trust the CDC?" Which, predictably — given the audience — found more than 90% didn't.

It has included acting like a garden-variety troll with faux-clever stunts like putting a trademark sign ((tm)) after the word "experts," thus inviting readers to scoff along with him at the very notion of scientific expertise.

It has included tapping out the two-word declaration "Fauci lied," presented with no context and apropos of nothing. In his zeal to whip up his base with that debunked allegation about former federal disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, Missouri's junior senator sounds like some disturbed conspiracy theorist standing on a street corner, randomly barking out angry phrases.

But conspicuously absent from Schmitt's lively feed lately has been any suggestion to his constituents that the rising number of COVID cases is a genuine danger they should be aware of and take precautions against.

"COVID tyranny must never be allowed to take hold again," Schmitt tweeted, with characteristic histrionics, regarding pandemic policies. He's clearly less concerned about whether COVID itself takes hold again.

We have long since given up suggesting that Schmitt should be ashamed of himself for spreading misinformation to his constituents, vilifying dedicated doctors and scientists and generally demeaning the office he holds with this circus-barker stuff. Shame clearly doesn't factor into his ruthless political calculus as he stokes fear over a non-existent threat while downplaying a real one.

That threat is, thankfully, manageable today. As the (yes) experts have long predicted, COVID is here to stay but has receded in its reach and severity, taking its place alongside annual flu bugs. As such, it will still be deadly to some unlucky Americans every year. But most people can mitigate that risk (and the more common risk of an unpleasant if non-lethal infection) with a simple shot.

To readers who are still unsure about it, we'd say, don't take our word for it — but for heaven's sake, don't listen to Schmitt and the other snake-oil salesmen of the right, either. Just ask your doctor.

And if you routinely take your doctor's advice on health matters generally, as most people do, then ask yourself why this issue should be any different.

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Photo credit: Daniel Schludi at Unsplash