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After Biden's CDC Changes Quarantine Period, COVID Fear Merchants Admit Science Means Nothing to Them

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When it comes to COVID, follow the science. Unless the science doesn’t make you very, very afraid. Then there’s either something wrong with the science or big bad corporations have corrupted it.

On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shortened the recommended isolation time for asymptomatic people who have tested positive for COVID-19, cutting it in half to five days. This should be welcome news, a sign that even with new variants, we know more about the disease and are able to go about our lives treating SARS-CoV-19 like any other endemic disease — if a somewhat more dangerous one. (It’s worth pointing out we’ve been advocating this approach for some time here at The Western Journal, and we’ll continue to fight against lockdown Karens and mask mandates. You can help us in our fight by subscribing.)

“Given what we currently know about COVID-19 and the omicron variant, CDC is shortening the recommended time for isolation from 10 days for people with COVID-19 to 5 days, if asymptomatic, followed by 5 days of wearing a mask when around others,” the CDC said in a statement.

“The change is motivated by science demonstrating that the majority of SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs early in the course of illness, generally in the 1-2 days prior to onset of symptoms and the 2-3 days after. Therefore, people who test positive should isolate for 5 days and, if asymptomatic at that time, they may leave isolation if they can continue to mask for 5 days to minimize the risk of infecting others.”

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“Isolation relates to behavior after a confirmed infection. Isolation for 5 days followed by wearing a well-fitting mask will minimize the risk of spreading the virus to others. Quarantine refers to the time following exposure to the virus or close contact with someone known to have COVID-19. Both updates come as the omicron variant continues to spread throughout the U.S. and reflects the current science on when and for how long a person is maximally infectious,” the news release continued.

Remember, this is the CDC. They represent science, or so I’ve been reliably informed. Isn’t science unimpeachable?

Not if its advice doesn’t keep you locked behind closed doors, it doesn’t! See, this wasn’t based around science, Twitter blue-checks said. This was all about making people go to work before they were ready — and infecting others in the process.

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Yes, fiendish capitalism strikes again.

Apparently nobody bothered reading this and noting it applied to asymptomatic people. I don’t care to minimize this, nor am I usually in the business of giving bright ideas to socialist layabouts — but if you really want to continue self-isolating so you can binge-watch the the rest of “Succession,” I can’t imagine that feigning symptomatic COVID is harder than bluffing your way out of a science test in high school by faking a fever. For the rest of us who don’t want to be trapped in our apartments or bedrooms for 10 days — and who like the idea of contributing to society via gainful employment — we’ll take it.

And, like all fear-based freak-outs, there’s a conspiracy theory involved. This one is dumber than most: The only reason the CDC did this, adherents claim, is because the CEO of Delta Airlines told them to.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian’s letter, which was sent to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky last week and obtained by Reuters, argued the quarantine rules for vaccinated individuals with breakthrough cases were developed “when the pandemic was in a different phase without effective vaccines and treatments.”

“With the rapid spread of the omicron variant, the 10-day isolation for those who are fully vaccinated may significantly impact our workforce and operations,” Bastian wrote. “Similar to healthcare, police, fire and public transportation workforces, the omicron surge may exacerbate shortages and create significant disruptions.”

So let’s get this straight: For roughly 21 months now, unelected public health bureaucrats have decided by practical fiat what businesses can and can’t do, killing both large and small companies in the process. Few of these officials — particularly those who inhabit the web of federal public health agencies — have given up any measure of power over human behavior in regards to the pandemic unless both overwhelming scientific evidence and public pressure have compelled them to do so. If you need evidence, consider this: We’re entering the third year of pandemic living, and Dr. Anthony Fauci is still more powerful than almost any elected official in these United States.

But last week — if we’re to believe this theory — the CDC received a letter from Ed Bastian, and against their better judgment, they decided to abandon science completely and put Americans at risk, because Delta Airlines runs the show. Right.

Do you support mask mandates?

All these people have is fear. Stripped of generalized anger at capitalism or inchoate speculations that the second-biggest airline in America is the one that’s really pulling the strings, what you have is a group of people who have been running on cortisol, hypochondria and self-righteousness for nigh on two years now — a toxic combination that can fray the steeliest of nerves beyond easy repair.

Yes, this disease has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. We cannot minimize that. However, we also cannot minimize the minds that it’s claimed through anxiety and despair, either — and the effect that fear has had on our body politic.

This is Peter Daou — a former adviser to Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, now a left-wing activist — responding both to the reduced isolation period and the end of quarantining entire classrooms in New York City public schools:

For people like Daou, it’ll always be March of 2020. They’ll act as if there are no vaccines or effective treatments. There will always be another variant just over the horizon. It’ll be deadlier than ever. And if you’re not lathered up into hysterics with them, you’re just denying the science.

But now, the science has forsaken them — which means, of course, that big business must have interfered somehow.

It’s because Delta Airlines got to them. It’s that Biden administration needs to work the plebes to death. It’s the ravages of capitalism. It’s anything but the obvious conclusion that “science” is, for far too many people, little more than a word used to justify a 21-month panic attack and the concomitant demands that we lock ourselves away from the world until the dread virus somehow vanishes.

This ugly, divisive strain of cowardice needs to be called out for what it is: a perfervid desire to be controlled — and harshly — by a paternalistic government in exchange for a modicum of illusory safety. That’s not science, that’s sickness.

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C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).
Birthplace
Morristown, New Jersey
Education
Catholic University of America
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Topics of Expertise
American Politics, World Politics, Culture




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