Maskless!

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On May 13, 2021, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky informed the fully vaccinated that they can go without masks both outdoors and indoors in many circumstances. State and local officials are having to decide whether to follow suit. This marked a major turning point in America’s COVID Crisis. To date 585,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. That is more casualties than in WWI, WWII and Vietnam combined.

“We are asking people to be honest with themselves,” Walensky said on NBC’s Meet the Press which aired Sunday. “If they are vaccinated and they are not wearing a mask, they are safe. If they are not vaccinated and they are not wearing a mask, they are not safe.”

This decision was based on the current state of the pandemic in the U.S., along with evidence that vaccines are extremely effective in the real world. “That science, in conjunction with all of the epidemiological data that we have, really says now is the moment,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told NPR on May 13, 2021.

The CDC’s recommendation has created some confusion because it does not lift local mask mandates. States, municipalities and businesses can make the choice whether or not to follow it. There is no way to track if people have had the vaccine. Vaccine passports have been adopted in other countries but some Americans thin it would infringe on their freedoms.

“This was not permission to shed masks for everybody everywhere. This was really science driven, individual assessment of your risk,” Walensky said May 16, 2021  on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” For now, when you leave home, it makes sense to bring a mask with you in case the place you’re going still has a “mask required” sign on the door.

Bugs to the Zapper

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“In many ways, Jan. 6, was a bug light. It brought extremists from all areas. And they all came with different skill sets,” Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, told NBC. “You have the militias on one side. On the other side, you have the merely curious, people wrapped up in the moment.”

Donald Trump lured the bugs to the light with his big lie, that the election had been stolen. He incited the insurrection with this lie even before the election that he lost. The lie was simple though not based on any facts, he claimed he had won in a landslide though hos opponent had more votes. For months he paid for an ad campaign built around the tag line, “Stop the Steal.” He still insists that his lawyers refer to him as the 45th president rather than the former president.

On that fateful day he whipped up the crowd saying, “And we fight, we fight lie hell, and if you don’t fight like hell you aren’t going to have a country anymore.” But this was only one of hundreds of comments aimed at inflaming the hate red of his followers. He had convinced them over the months that their votes had been stolen. He claimed in a tweet “Dead people voted.” He didn’t offer evidence, he didn’t need to. The lie would incite his followers. On December 30, 2020 he tweeted “JANUARY SIXTH, SEE YOU IN DC!” The bugs flew to the light believing they were doing their patriotic duty.

New Strain Hurricane

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Epidemiologist Michael Osterholm recently told NBC that the new COVID-19 strains could create a new wave of cases. “The surge that is likely to occur with this new variant from England is going to happen in the next six to 14 weeks,” he said.

“The hurricane is coming. Because of this surge, we have to call an audible,” he said. “If we get a number of first doses in people, particularly 65-years-of-age and older, we can really do a lot to reduce the number of serious illnesses and deaths in this next big surge, which is coming.”

“We do have to call an audible. I think there’s no doubt about it. The fact is that the surge that is likely to occur with this new variant from England is going to happen in the next six to 14 weeks, and if we see that happen, which my 45 years in the trenches tells we will, we are going to see something like we have not seen yet in this country,” Osterholm said Sunday.

“That hurricane is coming. So I think we have to understand that because of this surge, we do have to call audible,” he said. This means he is advising that the distribution plan delay the second vaccine dose to prioritize first doses for as many seniors 65+ as possible.

“You and I are sitting on this beach where it’s 70 degrees, perfectly blue skies, gentle breeze,” Osterholm said. “But I see that hurricane five, category five or higher, 450 miles offshore. And, you know, telling people to evacuate on that nice blue sky day is going to be hard.”

Researchers from the University of Washington warned over the weekend that the new COVID-19 strains — like those from South Africa, the United Kingdom and Brazil — could create a deadly spike in the U.S. this spring, according to The Boston Herald. The U.K. variant, dubbed B.1.1.7, was first identified in the U.S. in late December but is thought to have been around as early as October. It’s soon expected to become the dominant strain of virus in the U.S.

While the strain has shown to be significantly more infectious and may cause more serious illness, the current vaccines being distributed seem to be effective in combating the variant.