By Brian C. Joondeph, M.D.
Forrest Gump, with his simple, commonsensical approach to life, often noted, “just like that” something changed. Whether it was the rain in Vietnam, his running adventure, or his Army service, “just like that” it was over.
Now after a year of mask-wearing, “just like that” it is no longer necessary per the CDC’s latest guidance. Last week the CDC suddenly reversed course with this new guidance.If you are fully vaccinated, you can resume activities that you did prior to the pandemic.
Fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.
If you haven’t been vaccinated yet, find a vaccine.What changed? Only a few months ago, last February, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that Americans may still need to wear face masks through 2022 to protect against the spread of COVID, emerging variants, and whatever else might escape from one of the labs he funded.
Around the same time, Dr. Fauci also recommended wearing two masks, “So if you have a physical covering with one layer, you put another layer on, it just makes common sense that it likely would be more effective.” If one is good, two must be better. Why not 3 or 4 masks? Or ten? Or a hazmat suit for everyone?
This is the same Dr. Fauci who said a year ago, at the beginning of the pandemic,There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask. When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is. And, often, there are unintended consequences — people keep fiddling with the mask and they keep touching their face.
Fauci wasn’t alone. U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams at that same time agreed, stating:You can increase your risk of getting it by wearing a mask if you are not a health care provider. Folks who don’t know how to wear them properly tend to touch their faces a lot and actually can increase the spread of coronavirus.
We have now come full circle, from no masks, to one, to two, then back to one, now none. What changed? Has America reached herd immunity? Or is there some other metric that spurred the new CDC recommendation? Such as case numbers? Or President Biden’s poll numbers?
Herd immunity could explain the reversal, but the mere mention of this well-established immunology concept could get you banned from social media. The Federation of American Scientists believes half of those speaking about herd immunity are social media bots, worthy of censorship.
“Herd immunity,” a basic tenet of immunology, is now considered a fringe conspiracy theory. The WHO defines it as, “The indirect protection from an infectious disease that happens when a population is immune either through vaccination or immunity developed through previous infection.” Note the word “either,” two paths to the same goal, nature or a shot in the arm.
While this might explain the CDC’s sudden reversal, this concept has not been mentioned. In fact, such immunity is a myth according to the big media smart set.
The experts at the New York Times proclaim, “Reaching herd immunity is unlikely in the U.S., experts now believe.” They go further with this headline, “Our pathetic herd immunity failure.”
The Guardian is certain, “The US won’t reach herd immunity this year. So how will it live with Covid?” Yet here we are in mid-May, ditching the vaunted paper masks. Why?Is COVID over? The NY Times worries, “Cases remain high in the U.S., but vaccinations are slowing.” If cases are indeed high, why again is the CDC recommending vaccinated individuals ditch the mask only now?
The CDC and the rest of the medical “experts” have yet to explain this conundrum. If masks work, why the push for the vaccine? If the vaccine works, why are we still masked up? It can’t be both ways.
Are vaccinated individuals truly protected from COVID? Nine fully vaccinated New York Yankees are test positive for COVID. Did the vaccine strike out? Is the COVID test off base? What’s going on?
Is the mask relaxation a “better late than never” acknowledgment that masks, especially now when the U.S. has likely already reached herd immunity, are little but virtue signaling fashion accessories similar to the myriad “awareness ribbons”?
Leftist David Hogg explains the real reason half the country, the “follow the science” crowd who now suddenly doesn’t believe the CDC, will stay masked up.I feel the need to continue wearing my mask outside even though I’m fully vaccinated because the inconvenience of having to wear a mask is more than worth it to have people not think I’m a conservative.
David should rest assured that no one will ever mistake him for a conservative. He and his followers can stay masked up forever if they so choose. They can wear their masks and face shields while walking outside or driving alone, far away from any COVID carrying conservatives. To each his own.
The question remains. Why did the CDC reverse course now?
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky now claims, “We now have science that has really just evolved even in the last two weeks that demonstrates that these vaccines are safe, they are effective.” As Gomer Pyle would say, “Shazam!” Just like that, the vaccines this past week, after five months of use, are suddenly safe and effective. What a coincidence!
In politics, there are no coincidences.
I guess the Democrats have developed a new farce to control the lives of Americans. Perhaps they think the phony “armed insurrection” is enough.
It’s always been a joke.
Like the moron Hogg, I, too, would be embarrassed if he were confused with a conservative so he should continue to make himself appear as stupid as possible, which hasn’t been a problem for him.
Maybe they decided you can either get your vaccination or take your chances.
Brian C. Joondeph, MD, the author of the article, is an ophthalmologist. If you visit his clinic, Colorado Retina, you’re REQUIRED to wear a medical grade mask. You’re REQUIRED to bring your own, and you’re REQUIRED to wear it at all time while you’re in his clinic. They take your temperature upon arrival. If you’re over 100.4 degrees, you’re not allowed inside. The staff are all REQUIRED to wear masks. Treating clinic staff are REQUIRED to wear masks PLUS face shields. I guess it’s a case of do what I say, not what I do.
https://retinacolorado.com/
“Herd immunity,” a basic tenet of immunology, is now considered a fringe conspiracy theory.”
That’s a complete load of steaming horse manure. CDC epidemiologists fully understand herd immunity, frequently reference it, and have taken it into account in establishing and periodically altering the COVID pandemic protocol. What they rejected was the lunatic theory that the best response was to simply allow everyone to become exposed to COVID-19 to get to the herd immunity point—an astonishingly STUPID idea, when you take into account the COVID fatality rate and the size of the population, and then do some simple arithmetic.
Have I your permission to “take [my] chances” and not get the shot or MUST I be “vaccinated”? I am retired and seldom have reason to leave the house. My wife elected to take the shots and is now (being past the period for the shots to take effect) fully protected therefore the likelihood of my being exposed is vanishingly small. Is it okay with you if I elect not to get the shots? Or is the slogan “my body; my choice” only operative when a woman wants to kill her unborn child?
I prefer knowing I’ll have some level of immunity if a variant surges or if I unexpectedly wind up in an ER or dentist’s office.
Way back almost a year ago, July 2020, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield acknowledged that the number of COVID-19 deaths were inflated where someone who had the virus actually died from something else, but it was recorded as a COVID death.
Redfield added “we’ve seen this in other disease processes too. Early in the HIV epidemic, somebody may have a heart attack but also have HIV. The hospital would prefer the DRG for HIV because there is greater reimbursement.”
OH!
GREATER REIMBURSEMENT!
Well, then, let’s call anything we can, “covid.”
Greg, Covid has a 99.+% survival rate.
Most people who’ve had it never knew it at the time.
587 thousand Americans are dead from COVID-19. That’s the officially recognized number. A recent study that takes the number of statistically excess deaths for the entire COVID period into account concluded that the actual number is probably closer to 900 thousand. Globally, COVID has killed 3.42 million. That figure is probably low, too.
So globally, almost three and a half million people are dead due to a Chinese plague yet, still you refuse to put the blame for that plague where it belongs; on the Communist Chinese government.
When will you demand they pay restitution for all those lives?