The CDC is now recommending even vaccinated people wear masks in certain outdoor settings. It goes against everything they’ve said for months.
Summary
Americans, regardless of vaccination status, are being asked to wear masks indoors again “in regions where the coronavirus is spreading rapidly.”
- CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said infections in vaccinated people, called “breakthrough infections, are rare.
- The announcement is a complete reversal from several months of constant refrains from public health officials that getting the vaccine meant not having to wear masks.
- Walensky said “new scientific information forced the decision” to modify the guidance.
- Teachers’ unions, who were previously caught influencing COVID-19 policies against the science, praised the guidance to mask everyone inside regardless of vaccination status.
- The New York Times noted the guidance includes masking in your own home if there are children under 12 years old while also reporting the White House has re-imposed a mask mandate on all employees.
- The Washington Post’s opinion section published Marc Thiessen, a conservative columnist, who argued that for vaccinated Americans, “the pandemic is over” and that there’s a greater risk of dying from being struck by lightning than dying of COVID-19 for vaccinated people.
- The Atlantic framed an article as a story about “two Americas” in terms of how people respond to mandates and government orders, incorrectly blaming Republicans for the large swath of Americans who are unvaccinated.
- The New York Post made fun of Vice President Kamala Harris for immediately masking up and forcing reporters to do so despite the District of Columbia being under the “hotspot” threshold.
- The Daily Wire exposed White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki’s ridiculous and nonsensical response to a question about the masking recommendation in which she said it’s different now because it’s a different strain of the virus.
- The Washington Examiner highlighted Congressional Republicans’ reaction to the mask guidance, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz: “Hell no. This is politics, not science.”
Author’s Take
So, we have to protect the people who are already protected to protect the unprotected? What the hell does that even mean? Public health officials are losing more credibility by the day. Everyone eligible for the vaccine has had months to get it. At this point, it is on them. When you consider effective vaccines and natural immunity, there is plenty of societal protection.
It simply makes no sense, AT ALL, to ask vaccinated people, who aren’t spreading coronavirus, who extremely rarely contract it, and even more rarely die of it, even with the “highly contagious” delta variant. It is unfathomable how nonsensical this guidance is, how insulting to rational Americans public health officials have acted, how stupid they think we are.
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© Dallas Gerber, 2021
