While out at dinner with fellow super-spreader friends, the absurdly obvious solution to achieving immediate herd immunity was stumbled upon; and then immediately dismissed out of hand for obvious reasons.
As we were violating “orders” to not dine indoors (at a completely packed and non-socially distanced restaurant) we spewed droplets all over each other and those around us as we laughed uproariously and loudly. As we did, we kept noticing that we were literally the only 4 people who walked in without masks, and never put one on as we made our way to and from our booth, the restroom, and the front door.
We discussed our shared visceral disdain at people who remain sheepishly compliant even when there is no reason at all to do so. The restaurant didn’t even have the obligatory “masks mandatory” sign posted, nor were they enforcing any guidelines…and yet, the self-enforcement was essentially 99.9% (we were the .1%). Even as we were leaving, we couldn’t help but eye-roll our way through the parking lot as we saw people walking outside, alone, wearing their damn masks. Complacent isn’t a strong enough word at this point.
During dinner, one woman got up to go to the restroom, took a few steps and realized she wasn’t wearing a mask (as she walked right by all of us dining mask-less, far closer to her than 3, let alone 6 feet). She stopped in her tracks, grabbed a napkin from the only empty table in the place, and covered her face with it as she went on her way. She returned a few minutes later with the same napkin being held over her nose and mouth. I think I literally (and quite accidentally) laughed right in her face when I saw it happen. Fortunately, if I happened to be infected, she is safe, for I had a bowl of pasta in front of me and the presence of food somehow kills the Covid virus because…SCIENCE!
During dinner we discussed the lunacy of everything we’re being told about the vaccine and wondered how in the world our society remains so willfully ignorant. Oh, I should mention at this point, that one of the super-spreaders at the table is a doctor. With that said, as a reminder, the following are facts from the CDC:
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- The vaccine protects you from getting sick if you contract Covid-19
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- You can still get the virus, but your body will fight it off with anti-bodies and you’ll be fine
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- The vaccine does not protect ANYONE other than you (unless and until 75% of the population has had the vaccine and herd immunity has been achieved).
For those reasons, we are told that even after getting vaccinated, we must wear masks, since we are still able to spread the virus. In fact, none other than Dr. Doom himself, Heir Anthony Fauci, said last week that Americans should expect to wear masks into 2022…and he went even further by refusing to say that life will ever be “normal” again if by “normal” we mean 2019 America https://www.marketwatch.com/story/will-we-still-be-wearing-masks-in-2022-when-will-life-return-to-normal-dr-fauci-cautions-it-really-depends-on-what-you-mean-by-normality-2021-02-22
We have come to expect such dire prophecies from Fauci because he is a glass-half-empty, be as scared as possible type of person. Additionally, his gloom-and-doom predictions are almost always spot-on because, after all, he’s the man trusted to make the very policies that are enacted. This is akin to me predicting what will be on the RAD Radio show tomorrow. Trust me, if I predict it, the content will come.
Don’t get me Fauci…I mean wrong. Don’t get me wrong, that’s what I meant. Fauci has made many dire predictions that haven’t come true, but those have been about various virus spreads and results; things out of his control. Fauci said many times that Florida was behaving recklessly with the virus and that California was the gold standard; and yet, nearly a year later, wide-open Florida has identical case and death rates when compared to vastly locked-down California. Speaking of Florida, it’s been more than 3 weeks since the Super Bowl and all of the subsequent super-spreader events that we were told by Fauci were going to lead to another nationwide surge as those folks went back home…waiting….waiting…I think we’re going to be waiting for a while for that surge.
All of this got us thinking aloud and swiftly evaluating yet again, how wrongly we’re handling this as a nation.
In the past 6 weeks, the goal-post for herd immunity has been moved from summer to fall to Christmas. Meanwhile, the goal-post for losing the masks has been moved from “when we reach herd immunity,” to “2022.” HUH? Further confusing things is the CDC guidance that if you’ve been vaccinated, and are then knowingly exposed to the virus, you no longer need to quarantine…even though you’re still contagious. And since you’re still contagious, that’s why you need to wear a mask, even though you don’t have to quarantine. HUH? If masks work that well, then why isn’t everything open, everywhere and we all wears masks? (we all know the answer to that one…it’s a rhetorical softball).
The reason the herd immunity goal post has been moved has been the universal dis-interest Americans have shown to getting it. Other than the elderly, between 30-70% of all other Americans have no interest in getting the vaccine for a variety of reasons not important at this time and space. https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2021/02/10/nearly-1-in-4-republicans-definitely-wont-get-covid-19-vaccine-survey-finds/?sh=64e7fb1a2b68
So, let’s apply a little of that now-extinct common sense thinking that we in the RAD family so stubbornly cling to. If the ultimate key to normalcy is having the virus under control and weakened via herd immunity, and if herd immunity is most swiftly and assuredly achieved via the vaccine, why not incentivize the skeptical to get vaccinated?
After all…those who are most at risk of the virus are the ones actually getting vaccinated, as they should. Those who are most resistant are those who are not afraid of the virus, not sure of the vaccination, and not seeing the reason to get the shots since it changes nothing.
CALLING PRESIDENT BIDEN: Listen up, sir. I have your solution to near instant herd immunity. Announce that life in America will return to complete normalcy IMMEDIATELY upon 75% of all Americans getting the vaccine. Get some wizards at MIT to make you a mathematical chart/formula/equation and pin-point the date that is achievable if there’s endless demand for the vaccine. Boom…done.
People of the United States…if 75% of you get the vaccine, everything will be back to normal. Concerts, travel, sporting events, and no masks or distancing as of September 1st of this year. Make your travel plans now because Labor Day weekend is going to be epic!”
Additionally, announce an immediate change to public policy; effective right away, once you are vaccinated, you no longer have to wear a mask. Anyone who is afraid of the virus and hasn’t been vaccinated is told to take all precautionary measures to protect themselves, including, but not limited to self-isolating until they either receive the vaccine or herd immunity is reached. This allows the nation to instantly boom and keeps those afraid safe.
The SCIENCE is sound; the vaccine protects the vaccinated. If you’re not vaccinated and you’re not afraid of the virus, then you don’t care about catching it…but you do care about getting your life back, so you’ll get the vaccine and rip that damn mask off of your face. Those very few who are afraid of the virus who for some reason haven’t been vaccinated will happily stay home and away from the deadly Vid. Those afraid of the vaccine more than the virus will reconsider when their very return to life is offered as an incentive. It’s perfectly logical, sound, and reasonable. And for that reason, it will never happen.
Fauci himself revealed in an interview that even though he’s been fully vaccinated, and is now fully protected, he refuses to leave his house much at all. The mis-messaging on this vaccine is stunning. The almighty Dr. Fauci gets fully vaccinated and then tells people he’s still so afraid of the virus that “I still do not do dining indoors.” He additionally stated that he does not let visitors into his home unless they have received the vaccine or were being tested on a very regular basis. Fauci further claimed that he only visits the grocery store during off-peak hours and limits the number of trips he makes there. Meanwhile, he says he is still avoiding air travel, and is cautioning Americans against pre-planning summer vacations. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9295071/Dr-Fauci-80-wont-dine-indoors-despite-receiving-doses-COVID-19-vaccine.html
WHY? WHY? WHY?
Because…the reason very reason my totally logical recommendation won’t happen is that it returns the power and freedom to us to make our own decisions and live our lives freely. Whether we ever get that back remains to be seen, but if we do, it will be at the very last possible moment. And that’s what’s sad and evil. If this were really about getting the country back to 2019, my proposed policy would be implemented at once. But it isn’t, and so it won’t be.
And this was proven the day after Fauci said he doesn’t leave his house when he declared that vaccinated people BETTER NOT go to the movies or dine indoors. And as has been the reasoning for a year now, we do this to protect others. “There are things, even if you’re vaccinated, that you’re not going to be able to do in society,” Fauci said at the White House COVID-19 press briefing, “For example, indoor dining, theaters, places where people congregate. That’s because of the safety of society. https://www.deseret.com/u-s-world/2021/2/24/22297005/covid-vaccine-restaurant-dr-fauci-warning
That’s right…if you’re vaccinated stay home so that you protect me…someone who doesn’t want to be protected from Covid. Makes total sense.
Could I interest you in one more punch to the gut? Last summer I predicted that America would never fully recover from mask wearing and that, at the very least, we should all be prepared for mandatory mask-wearing seasons. Sure enough, this week, Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said we will want to wear masks every winter to protect ourselves and our loved ones against all sorts of respiratory viruses. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/02/22/covid-19-why-get-vaccine-and-still-wear-mask-coronavirus/4547437001/
Lest you think all remains lost, there are still more emerging signs that more and more people of prominence are stepping up and speaking loudly enough to be heard, questioning America’s continued response to the virus.
A few weeks ago we spoke of the rift between Fauci and Dr. Michael Osterholm, the latter of whom has been in lockstep with Fauci for a year and is also part of Biden’s Covid advisory team. When Fauci said to wear two masks, Osterholm publicly said that made no sense. He hasn’t been seen or heard from since, but that isn’t stopping others. https://nypost.com/2021/01/31/infectious-disease-expert-double-masking-can-do-more-harm/
Last week, Dr. Martin Makary, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, (considered for the last year as one of the most respected and trusted on Covid), predicted that COVID-19 would be “mostly gone” by April and that America will have achieved herd immunity. https://www.businessinsider.com/johns-hopkins-professor-herd-immunity-us-april-2021-2
Days later, Dr. Scott Gottlieb who used be the commissioner of the FDA and spent 2020 being widely critical of President Trump’s handling of the pandemic, said that infection rates will continue to plummet and even went so far as to say “we’ve injected about a third of the country, that is enough protected immunity…Once you get to about 40% of the population with some sort of protected immunity — you don’t have herd immunity because it will continue to transfer, but it will transfer at a much slower rate.” He said the virus will continue to spread, but those at risk will be protected and life can return to normal by summer’s end. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9285321/Ex-FDA-chief-Scott-Gottlieb-COVID-infection-rates-FALL-summer-cases-fall-56K.html
Naomi Wolf, one of the longest and most reliable liberals who has worked on or with every prominent Democrat in the last thirty years, including both Clintons, has recently been loudly warning that the SCIENCE behind lockdowns is non-existent and she fears that the U.S. is teetering on totalitarianism. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9289695/Former-Clinton-adviser-Naomi-Wolf-bemoans-COVID-lockdowns-fears-totalitarian-state.html
It is possible that pandemic fatigue is finally starting to hit critical mass, and cause many of the formerly most committed to being terrified of the virus to reconsider their positions…but it doesn’t appear that we have reason yet to be even cautiously optimistic. Preparing for the worst is still the best course of action, but how much longer such negativity will remain manageable and tolerable is unknowable. More and more states, along political lines, of course, are announcing ends to mask mandates and restrictions, causing both cheers and uproars (and of course dire warning from Dr. Fauci). Your summer vacation plans will basically be dictated by choosing an open state and then deciding if you’re willing to mask up to get there, or if you’re going to drive. https://www.foxnews.com/us/states-reopen-roll-back-mask-mandates-coronavirus
https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-warns-covid-19-rules-relaxation-will-lead-to-rebound-2021-2
One thing that’s for certain is that all of the arguing, fighting, and viral videos over masks in 2020 will pale in comparison to the same in 2021, heightened by an equal number of arguments, incidents, and ended relationships over vaccines. All, once again, fueled entirely by horrifically bad messaging and an endless amount of misinformation; all in the name of SCIENCE!
