Who do you turn to when the “experts” can’t be relied upon? This is the vexing question facing all Americans.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is supposed to be the authority on all things concerning disease control and prevention. That makes them the expected authority dispensing guidelines and best practices during this Covid pandemic. But you don’t have to be a doctor to realize they no longer are “following the science”, let alone common sense.
The latest evidence of this change are the newest guidelines. While the CDC finally started telling vaccinated people that they can have normal interactions with other vaccinated people, they will only allow this in highly limited circumstances. With vaccines that have 95% efficacy, and no incidences of serious illness in the other 5%, common sense tells you it’s time to get back to normal.
Yet, the CDC still advises against air travel even after vaccination. This despite a year of experience with Covid before vaccines were available that demonstrated commercial airplanes, with their HEPA filtrations systems, are safer than hospital operating rooms.
Marty Makary, professor at Johns Hopkins Medical School, reports in The Wall Street Journal an unpublished study conducted by the Israeli Health Ministry and Pfizer showed that vaccination reduced transmission by 89% to 94% and almost totally prevented hospitalization and death. With immunity fully kicked in about four weeks after the first vaccine dose, people should be able to return to most activities without concern. Wearing masks in public places, at this point, is largely a matter of complying with public regulations and to reassure those who don’t know you’ve been vaccinated.
The CDC did concede that fully vaccinated people don’t need to be tested. One wonders why this recommendation didn’t come two months ago when vaccines were first available. The CDC stresses that the risks of infection in vaccinated people “cannot be completely eliminated.” No one ever expected that. No one ever said the vaccines were “100% effective.” But every year only about 60% of the population even bothers to get a flu shot that is about 60 – 70% effective, even though about 40,000 Americans die each year from the flu.
All of these CDC precautions ignore the risks of isolation, the economic impact of closed or partly open businesses and schools, and the mental health crisis that is happening all around us. A FAIR Health study revealed self-harm among kids increased as much as 300% last year in some parts of the country. Is it better to die of suicide than Covid?
Where does common sense come into this equation? By this time nearly everyone in our country, let alone the world, is aware of the risks of Covid. As informed adults, we can make our own decisions regarding how much risk we are willing to accept. It’s time to let the grownups decide their own fate.
Unfortunately, the Biden administration has undermined the credibility of the CDC and we can no longer trust their advice. (see CDC Director Caves to Politics) It is abundantly clear they want to prolong the fear of the Covid virus to use as leverage to pass legislation that would otherwise be unacceptable. They just successfully accomplished this with the poorly named American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 Trillion progressive spending blowout. The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Budget says only 1% of the money goes to vaccines and 5% for pandemic public-health needs. The rest is a huge income redistribution plan and bailout of states, mostly Democratic, that have large budget deficits due to poor governance. Even a state with a budget surplus, such as California’s $19 billion surplus, will get $26.2 billion in government handouts.
It’s time to look somewhere else than the CDC, or the White House, for Covid guidance.
