by Kerry Dougherty
Confused?
Of course you are. Anyone watching the hair-on-fire ninnies at the CDC is dizzy by now.
They lack common sense, their pronouncements are irrational, their messaging is bizarre. Oh, and they clearly have no idea what they’re doing.
One day these “experts” are experiencing scary “feelings of impending doom.” Next they announce that the vaccinated can ditch the masks. Now they say the vaccines work but the vaccinated should wear masks to protect others, presumably the unvaccinated.
Ridiculous.
Oh, and without citing any data, on Tuesday the CDC declared that all children in grades K-12 — who are at almost no risk of serious illness — should wear masks all day in school this fall.
Score one for the teachers’ unions.
I pity America’s kids. There is simply no off-ramp for them.
If the vaccines work — and there’s every indication they at least protect against serious illness — there is no reason vaccinated Americans should wear masks. Minor illnesses are a fact of life.
Vaxxed Americans have no duty to protect the unvaccinated. They made their choice. Unfortunately, the immuno-compromised will have to continue to exercise caution. I wish that wasn’t so.
Look, if the CDC was truly an agency concerned about public health, it would have called for the Southern border to be closed.
And it would have declared war on obesity more than a year ago when the data clearly showed that 78% of those hospitalized with COVID were fat.
Yes, I used the “f” word.
I’m not body shaming, I don’t want to be mean. I’m stating a fact. Despite campaigns telling us that obese is beautiful, it isn’t. Being overweight is unhealthy. When it comes to COVID, it can be deadly.
Why didn’t the CDC launch a campaign to get Americans moving and eating right more than a year ago? How many lives might have been saved if we embarked on a national weight loss campaign instead of lockdowns and mandates?
The Biden administration announced a goal of 70% of Americans vaccinated by the 4th of July. Clearly, the president and his staff are angry that the goal wasn’t met. As a result, the new guidance from the CDC seems punitive rather than helpful.
Take Kamala Harris, for instance, at an event yesterday, the vice president ordered reporters to wear masks. She made it clear this was punishment, not a precaution.
Kamala Harris office orders all reporters entering her afternoon event to wear masks:
“No one likes wearing masks… people need to get vaccinated,” Harris says. "That’s the only way we’re going to cut this off. Nobody likes wearing a mask."
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) July 27, 2021
Sorry, but that’s a hell of a way to convince people to take the vaccines.
The CDC says vaccinated folks should wear masks in areas of heavy transmission. Look for blue state governors with their tyrannical impulses to quickly fall into line even if their states are not seeing outbreaks.
Take Virginia, for instance. We have no COVID hot spots according to Tuesday’s map in The New York Times. That may be because 81.5% of all Virginians over the age of 65 have been vaccinated and 62.7% of all Virginians over 18 have, too.
Remarkable. We should be celebrating! Our kids should be heading to school without masks.
Yes, positives tests are ticking up in the Old Dominion, but hospitalizations are low and so are deaths. Last summer we experienced a spike in cases in July that began to abate by mid-August. On July 27, 2020, there were 821 patients in Virginia hospitals confirmed to be infected with COVID.
Yesterday there were 356.
Oh, and by the way, Virginia hospitals were not full last year at this time. In fact, healthcare workers were furloughed as elective surgeries and cancer screenings were cancelled.
There is absolutely no reason to panic or to order vaccinated Virginians into masks now.
No sooner had the CDC issued its latest proclamation than Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said, “The time for government mask mandates is over. Now is the time for personal responsibility.”
Amen, Governor.
This column has been republished with permission from Kerry: Unemployed & Unedited
