On Meet the Press the other day, CDC director Rochelle Walensky was asked about the new rules of public engagement. It’s nice that we vaxxed people have now been liberated, that we can go maskless inside as well as outside, but doesn’t that give anti-vaxxers the freedom to move maskless among us?
Walensky’s reply: “You know, we are asking people to be honest with themselves.”
Oy. Has she ever met her fellow Americans?
Having spent the weekend on a Jersey Shore boardwalk, I can report that the CDC’s mask-relaxing rules are being greeted like it’s V-J Day in 1945. (That’s my photo atop this column.) Granted, a beach scene is looser than real life – sniffing that ocean tang always does the trick – but oh, such divine decadence! From taco shops to taffy stores to custard stands, thousands breathed free like it was 2019 again, and there was no way of knowing (or seemingly even caring) whether some dude in an Iggles tee was un-vaxxed and sharing the virus with some oblivious un-jabbed bro.
We who have been fully vaccinated are generally protected (unless, say, you’re immunocompromised); as Anthony Fauci said Sunday, we are “dead ends” for Covid, “and when there are a lot of dead ends around, the virus is not going to go anywhere.” But excuse us for caring about others. Liberating the un-vaxxed to ditch their masks and blend in with the rest of us basically gives them license to keep spreading the virus among themselves – and making it tougher for America to tame it.
Perhaps the CDC’s honor system will work in the end; perhaps the hesitant and the resistant will eventually come to their senses. But I bet that most people share my skepticism; two years ago, a national poll found that 79 percent of Americans have “too little” or “far too little” trust in each other – what the pollsters called a decline in “interpersonal confidence.” And my skepticism is admittedly fueled in part by the unhinged emails I get from readers.
I’ll spare you the worst of them. But here’s a recent gem from a guy named Kevin: “My BODY, MY CHOICE. When you people call for unity what you really mean is forced conformity, at the point of a government gun if necessary. Give me Liberty or Give me Death!!” (The virus would be happy to arrange the latter.)
And here’s one from a lady named Rose: “We are obeying God in the decision not to get vaccinated! Others are believing the lies of this world. There is no ‘pandemic.’ Sir, if you wish to do some relevant investigative journalism, look into the herd immunity myth. Or, do you just prefer to regurgitate every lie you’ve ever been fed? You also clearly do not know that the coronavirus vaccine sheds. In your opinion, people should get the vaccine to prevent illness, but what you are actually requesting is for more people to get ill.” (The vaccine “sheds”? What, like a dog?)
Do I want these people shopping next to me at Trader Joe’s? Nope. Not because they might endanger me, but because they’re heedless of their responsibility toward others.
Dr. Fauci said last week, “You’re gonna be depending on people being honest enough to say whether they are vaccinated or not.” Honest enough? Good luck with that. If only there were a way to weed out the un-vaxxed. If only I were king of the world, I’d screen everyone seeking to enter a store by asking them five simple questions:
Did Donald Trump win the 2020 election?
Is Bill Gates plotting to track us by implanting microchips?
Is climate change a hoax?
Did JFK Jr. fake his death and become the Q in QAnon?
Do you have God on speed dial?
If the answer to any question is “Yes,” they’re instantly banished. But how about this for a compromise: They can hew to their delusions as long as they go get vaccinated.
It ain’t V-J Day yet, despite the celebratory sign I saw in a boardwalk store window (“Smiling Faces Preferred!”). This particular war is far from over.