You may have forgotten the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) even had COVID guidelines. Already whittled down from severely draconian origins to something that more reflected Florida’s early policies, the CDC’s official guidelines have finally been updated to better reflect public opinion. That’s not quite how they put it, of course.
“CDC is streamlining its COVID-19 guidance to help people better understand their risk, how to protect themselves and others,” began their Thursday press release. Isn’t “streamlining” a nice-sounding word?
Of course, people have already figured out “their risk,” and “how to protect themselves and others” — no thanks to The Science personified. We were forced through a crash course in the unhealthy effects of constant paranoia and fear, and sooner or later concluded that “zero risk” is not a practical objective. Even The New York Times, often sequestered in their metropolitan bubble, could narrate, “many Americans dispensed with practices such as social distancing, quarantine, and mask-wearing long ago.”
One infectious disease expert, Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota, believed the CDC was “attempting to meet up with the reality that everyone in the public is pretty much done with this pandemic.” Living as he does in daily proximity to the bluest part of a blue city in a blue state (the University of Minnesota lies in the congressional district represented by Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar), Osterholm is uniquely qualified to comment both on scientific and popular merits of the CDC’s decision. Even from his vantage point, “Everyone in the public is pretty much done with this pandemic.”
In the CDC’s latest update, they no longer recommend six feet of social distancing. They no longer recommend quarantining if you’ve been exposed (only if you contract COVID). They no longer recommend wearing a mask unless you’ve been exposed. And they updated guidance for people who aren’t up-to-date on their vaccinations to be “consistent” with people who are.
In other words, barring exceptions that can elevate a person’s risk, you don’t have to get vaccinated (although they still recommend you stay up-to-date with your shots), wear a mask, socially distance, or even quarantine (unless you’re actually sick). But folks in most places had all that figured out by last summer, if not sooner.
It’s great that the people we pay (a lot) to be the experts have finally concluded to just recommend what the average Joes already know, but where do the people who were punished for being right go to get their apology? What happens to the thousands of firefighters, police officers, and airline employees who were terminated for not submitting to tyrannical mandates? Some private sector employees have been allowed to return to their jobs, but bosses with no profit incentive have been much more stubborn.
The U.S. military is still working to kick out soldiers (the Army has expelled 1,500) who haven’t partaken in the double-jab sacrament, even though they can barely meet half of their recruiting goal. To add insult to injury, the two jabs received last year is no longer considered “up-to-date” protection, so the Army is separating servicemembers for not submitting to a treatment that no longer protects those who have gotten it.
There’s a difference between following the science and being left behind in its dust. The CDC has undertaken the latter strategy. The evidence against vaccinating children for COVID is so strong that some countries, like Denmark, have banned the vaccine for children under 18. Meanwhile, in the U.S., the CDC has been manipulating data to monger fears about (virtually nonexistent) child mortality from COVID.
Oh, how the mighty have fallen! There was a time in early 2020 when Americans were willing to listen to the opinions of public health experts. Out of ignorance, we desperately wanted the public health experts to explain to us this strange, new disease. But instead of transparently confessing their own ignorance and then updating us on the facts as they obtained them, public health officials chose instead to manipulate our behavior by telling us information they knew to be false. They abused the trust the public had placed in them.
As a result, after a while the public simply stopped listening. Now, humiliated by the widespread disregard of their guidance, these public health “leaders” have decided to modify the guidance to fit the public’s preferences. This baldly self-serving stratagem won’t win them back any friends — or any trust. They broke the system, and now the system won’t work for them.
This article originally appeared here.
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