by Kerry Dougherty
Am I the only one who noticed that once Joe Biden became president news outlets lost interest in the COVID scorecards they featured prominently during the pandemic?
Remember those screaming headlines about cases and deaths that ginned up the hysteria daily?
Just a memory now.
But guess what? I’ve been quietly keeping track of the stats ever since May 2020 and there’s very good news.
In all of Virginia yesterday there were only 90 new positive COVID tests.
And in the commonwealth’s largest city?
Four.
Yep, there were probably more cases of syphilis in Virginia Beach Monday than COVID-19.
And yet, all across Virginia and at the Beach kids are still wearing face diapers all day in school. By order of the governor.
Enough, already.
It’s time to take these useless rags off young faces and let the children breathe and smile at each other again. We owe them that much.
If the vaccinated and unvaccinated alike can sit in restaurants without wearing masks why can’t kids be maskless at their desks?
Many of us literally burned our masks when the governor finally relented and lifted the state mandate. Yep, adults were freed from the tyranny of face coverings last month but children were not.
Ironically, children are members of the one demographic least likely to become seriously ill from the virus or to spread it. They are in far more danger from the seasonal flu, yet we let them take their chances when that’s in the air.
In the beginning of the pandemic we were told we had to mask the kids to protect the vulnerable. Well, guess what? The vulnerable have been vaccinated. If they haven’t, that’s their problem, not ours. Certainly not the children’s.
Since March 2020, I’ve witnessed most of my fellow pediatricians and @AmerAcadPeds look the other way while we threw kids into a volcano to appease the Plague Gods. I’ve had ppl go after my job for advocating for open schools. One thing is for sure: I’ll never forget any of it.🦉
— elizabeth bennett (@ebennett74) June 7, 2021
This pediatrician is exactly right. Throughout this pandemic we sacrificed America’s kids with assurances that they were resilient.
Thanks to Gov. Ralph Northam my 5-year-old granddaughter had to wear a mask to pre-school this year. Even on the playground.
When I picked her up from school I’d find her mask soggy and filthy. Like the rest of her little classmates she chewed and sucked on her mask, wore it into the bathroom and touched it God-knows-how many times with her dirty fingers. I can only imagine the pathogens that were colonizing on that piece of cloth stuck to her face for hours at a time.
There was no science behind this. Just fear. And control.
Yes, I am aware that the CDC is recommending that students remain masked. Fine. We should ignore them.
This agency is run by a simpering ninny who on March 29 wept about her feelings of “impending doom.”
She was wrong then. And she’s wrong now.
