At the end of March, amid absolutely no signs of trouble whatsover in “the data” – and after the establishment excoriated the “neanderthal thinking” of several red states for ‘prematurely’ and ‘recklessly’ lifting their COVID restrictions, freshly-appointed CDC Director Rochelle Walensky went “off-script” (though if one watches here eyes it appears she is very much reading a script) to warn the public about her “impending doom” following a very modest rise in COVID cases and hospitalizations.
“Right now, I’m scared,” Walesky, choking back tears, exclaimed.
Fauci doubled-down with the doom finger-pointing…
“I think the reason we’re seeing this plateauing and the increase that I hope doesn’t turn into a surge is because we are really doing things prematurely right now with regard to opening up.”
At the time we pointed out that Walensky’s level of fearmongering is disgusting and disingenuous and the American people are growing more and more insensitive to such evocations.
Now, just 6 weeks later, as all the doomsaying, fearmongering, panic-inducing double-speak was proven completely misplaced, and amid political pressure from even the leftest of leftists to “do something”, the masks are off and freedom (for the vaccinated) is offered back to ‘we, the people’.
Just two weeks after announcing a mask revision on April 27 to allow people who are fully vaccinated to do most things outdoors, with some precautions – again amid political pressure from an increasingly confused American public – CDC announced it revised its mask guidance again, now enabling those who are fully vaccinated to forgo wearing masks both indoors and outdoors.
“Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities — large or small — without wearing a mask or physically distancing,” said Walensky.
“Based on the continuing downward trajectory of cases, the scientific data on the performance of our vaccines and our understanding of how the virus spreads, that moment has come for those who are fully vaccinated,” she continued.
The message from the CDC could not have changed more drastically in this brief 45 days period…
And if the goal of the ‘big lie’ of impending doom was to ‘encourage’ scared Americans to get vaccinated or die, once again the ‘science’ in the data shows it didn’t work either as daily vaccination rates have basically trended lower since Walensky’s scaremongering…
As Stephen Miller notes, Fauci said on Mother’s Day (one week ago) that the country would not be close to back to normal until a year from now, including masks… and today, he told CBS’s “Face The Nation” on Sunday that:
“the accumulation of all of those scientific facts, information and evidence brought the CDC to make that decision, to say, now when you’re vaccinated, you don’t need to wear a mask, not only outdoors, but you don’t need to wear it indoors.”
Amazing what politics science can do!?
But Walensky assures the country that, “We followed the science here.”
Political science?
In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Walensky was asked what went into the CDC’s decision to shift from its previous position on wearing masks. As host Chris Wallace noted, as of Wednesday night, Walensky was still arguing that fully vaccinated Americans should continue to wear masks indoors. On Thursday, however, the updated CDC guidelines stated that those who have been fully vaccinated “can resume activities that you did prior to the pandemic” and do not have to wear a mask or socially distance in most indoor and outdoor settings.
Wallace then pointed to the “increasing pressure” from the public and members of Congress, such as Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who expressed during a Senate hearing “incredible frustration” with an apparent disconnect between science and health officials who say they follow science.
“Can you state flatly to the American people that pressure had nothing to do with the abrupt shift in the CDC guidelines?” Wallace asked.
“Yes, I can,” Walensky responded. “I can tell you it certainly would have been easier if the science had evolved a week earlier and I didn’t have to go to Congress making those statements, but I’m delivering the science as the science is delivered to the medical journals.”
“And, you know, it evolved over this last week, the cases came down over the last two weeks,” she continued. “I delivered it as soon as I can when we had that information available.”
Walensky’s comments also come as the CDC faces allegations that it changed its school reopening guidelines under the influence of American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the second-largest teachers’ union in the United States. According to numerous emails obtained by the New York Post, AFT reviewed a draft of those guidelines, and the CDC adopted at least two of the union’s recommendations nearly verbatim in the final release.
“Recently released emails reportedly show that the CDC has been taking its cues from teachers’ unions instead of following the science,” a group of four Republican members of Congress wrote in a letter to Walensky, demanding explanation regarding the NY Post exposé.
“This political interference has resulted in months-long delays in the opening of schools to the detriment of American children.”
Science, schmience!
Of course there are some who refuse to believe the CDC’s “new science” – that masks are not required because outdoor spread is for all intent and purpose non-existent for anyone and indoor spread from or to the vaccinated is negligible at worst – and choose to continue to signal their virtue…
And of course, AOC told her instagram followers…“Personally I’m going to keep wearing my mask in shared indoor public spaces…it’s also a nice accessory when you don’t want to do all your make-up…”
“Science-deniers?”