Cynical Slaughter
The current guidance from the CDC and other public health officials that people who are fully vaccinated can remove their masks in crowded, interior spaces without any fear of being infected, getting sick or dying amounts to a prescription for disaster.
I don’t expect politicians to be experts on science. However, they are experts in human behavior. They know full well that once the public is told that only unvaccinated people need to wear masks inside, pretty much everyone will take them off. I have seen this with my own eyes. Almost no one is wearing a mask now, even though about 50% of the public is unvaccinated. Of course, the delta strain will spread like wildfire in the unvaccinated if people stop wearing masks. This was completely predicable and is largely a result of CDC policy. You can blame the unvaccinated for not wearing masks, but everyone knew that they would stop wearing them the second that the mask mandate was removed.
Most people who are getting very ill and dying are unvaccinated. This does not mean that you are perfectly safe if you are vaccinated. You are simply safer-er than the unvaccinated. You can still get sick and die from delta if you are vaccinated. Breakthrough infections are common. Serious illness and death among the vaccinated is increasing. Also, mixing the unvaccinated and the vaccinated in public spaces without masks is the ideal situation for creating a fully vaccine-resistant strain of virus. The stupidity of Dr. Walensky in creating the perfect environmnent for such a strain to evolve is shocking. Had this policy been enacted during the Trump administration, there would have been widespread condemnation by virologists, public health experts and the media. But because there is a Democrat in the White House, there is little opposition to a policy that will certainly result in large numbers of Americans dying.
The Biden Administration is preparing to blame the unvaccinated for the coming disaster. This is partly just. If everyone was vaccinated, the spread of the virus would be much slower. However, the Biden Administration knows that making Dr. Fauci the chief communicator on vaccines guarantees that the people who are suspicious of vaccination will continue to refuse the vaccine. Yet, there he still is.
No children under 12 are vaccinated. Although they are less likely to die than adults of COVID-19, some of them will get sick and die if infected. And they are all going to get infected with the delta strain if the mask mandate is not re-instated. Will the Biden Administration blame the dead children for their infection?
Removing the mask mandate and prematurely celebrating our “independence” from SARS-2 will go down in history as one of the worst decisions any American president has ever made. We can blame President Trump’s response to the pandemic for the first 600,000 American deaths. But when we cross the line to 1,000,000 dead Americans, President Biden will have to assume full responsibility.
Monotreme's Blog 
I’ve been a fan of Nancy Messonier, formerly of the CDC and the first to sound the alarm about Covid, and believe she would have been a great choice to lead the CDC. Instead, she was pushed out of her position with the CDC this past May. I wouldn’t have been surprised had she been removed from her position under Trump, but that the Biden administration’s Walensky was apparently responsible for her removal made me think even less of Walensky.
Yes, there were others that left as well. I think there is not much difference between the Trump and Biden administrations when it comes to choosing the economy over lives. Indeed, I think President Biden is less likely to be called out by the media when his administration downplays the pandemic and the incompetence of his health care administrators. I predict at some point there will be a pivot from a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” to a “pandemic of Republicans”. Sorry to be so cynical.
I thought Redfield was horrid as head of the CDC – and when Walensky was appointed, I had hopes higher than were warranted. I totally agree with everything you’re said, Monotreme, but I don’t know a solution other than someone suddenly having a revelation that yet again we’re going down a wrong path. I had higher hopes for the Biden administration as well as just Walensky – and while I would never say we’re not better off with Biden than with the “former guy”, we’re still not where we need to be, and we’re not being led in the right direction.
Having turned 70 this year, I remain cautious. I have had to have some dental work that will end up taking two months or so to be completed, so I’m looking at the end of August until all is said and done. The dentist office is a place where one, of course, has to remove a mask. I get so nervous about it that I have to take a Valium before each appointment. It doesn’t help that the dentist who owned that practice died of Covid in June and so while I’m familiar with the office staff it is taking a lot for me to deal with a new dentist – and I also had to have a visit with an oral surgeon to have extractions earlier this month. Point being – I don’t like to go anywhere without a mask even though my second dose of Moderna vax was at the end of March. I still don’t feel safe even at the thought of mixing and mingling with the vaxxed and the unvaxxed, and for the only time I’m glad not to have grandchildren.
Any fool should have realized that by ‘rewarding” the vaxxed with the thought that they are safe to go back to pre-pandemic life without a mask, it would mean that everyone would think they should take off their mask as well, regardless of vaccination status. I hate wearing a mask – with COPD, it makes it even harder to breathe – but I tell myself on a regular basis that the mask might mean I can continue to breathe, albeit with difficulty, so when I absolutely have to go out I will continue to wear a mask. Delta is a monster.
Fauci – meh. As far as I can tell, he’s doing nobody any good at this point. My mother would have called him “mealy mouthed”, a good Southern idiom that seems applicable.
I’m an ‘old hippie’ and have always guarded my rights under the Constitution with a vengeance. I’m also an intelligent human being with the sense to know that Publlic Health has to take precedence over most things. I hear other docs on CNN who make more sense than Fauci now, such as Peter Hotez. Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama spoke out recently. There are lots of people other than Fauci to whom we should be listening.
This is exactly right, Claudia. Unfortunately, the CDC Director is the fool and she is supported by spineless pundits in the media and in public health who won’t criticize her because the President is of their Party.
Dems are now using Fauci to raise campaign contributions. The fact that he is allowing them to use his image and name to do this tells you everything you need to know about his priorities. He knows that by staying in his position he is discouraging Republicans from getting vaccinated. He is apparently perfectly OK with this. So, we now have public health official who would rather keep his job than save lives. This is sick.
Not the President…he can’t. Read our Constitution….know the limits of a president. There are many to protect us. No President has Carte blanche. even if they think they do.
This is a state fight…not a federal one. JMHO
The CDC Director is a political appointment. President Biden appointed Dr. Walensky. He can fire her. If he leaves her in place, he is responsible for what she does. State Governors do have lots of political power; but do not underestimate the importance of CDC guidelines. See my response to Snowhound below.
Just like everything else…the President cannot be blamed for everything….Trump or Biden. The fault now lies with the Governors of our 50 states and territories. They are ultimately responsible for those in their state.. and they are failing badly. States are scewing it up. They have the power to do something and they do nothing. It isn’t federal…it is state. That Is the way the constitution was written. The Supreme Court would have to change that..
I can’t tell you how many times I have heard “We are following CDC guidelines”. Few state governors will dare to do more than the CDC recommends. Few doctors will either. The CDC is a federal agency. They have screwed up royally by rolling back mask guidance. The Director of the CDC serves at the pleasure of the President. He has the power to solve the problem at the CDC.
Sad to say, especially considering the high hopes I had for the Biden administration, but I don’t believe the President understands the problems that we see so clearly regarding the CDC. I don’t see any indication that Walensky has a clue that she comes across as being in over her head. I don’t see the competence and the truth-telling that I was so hopeful we’d see, certainly after 6 months of the new administration. Delta is a monster and I am back to believing that the light at the end of the tunnel is indeed an oncoming train.
Eric Lander is a brilliant guy. He is the President’s Science Advisor. I’m hoping that he will be able to do something. We’ll see.