Editors at National Review Online urge Americans to “just say no” as COVID scolds ramp up their complaints.
By early August, data gathered from national wastewater testing suggested a new surge of Covid infections was upon us. That metric was reinforced by rising test positivity rates and a modest but observable increase in the number of Covid-related hospitalizations. In combination with the emergence of what epidemiologists are calling a “highly mutated” variant of the virus, New York State has reassumed a posture of “high alert,” with more states likely to follow suit.
With conspicuous alacrity, Covid’s reemergence was swiftly accompanied by the return of “the experts,” for whom humility in the face of unknowable circumstances is anathema and no precaution is too burdensome. …
… “You should be wearing masks in crowded areas, especially during a surge,” University of Texas epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina told PBS Newshour this month. Yes, even at home, “if you want to reduce household transmission,” she advised. “It may be time to break out the masks against Covid,” CBS News wearily reported. If masking remains a voluntary exercise, however, it will be a fruitless effort. …
… The national public-health apparatus’s admonitions have not fallen on deaf ears — at least, when it comes to the Americans who still hang on the words of the public-health apparatus. …
… Covid might have provided the initial impetus to close the nation’s schools to in-person education, but they stayed closed for longer in the U.S. — and longer still in the nation’s more culturally homogenous, wealthier enclaves – because certain special interests wanted them closed. Ventilation will not keep schools open; our collective resolve to never repeat the mistakes we made during the pandemic will. Indeed, since there appears to be little public appetite for sacrificing our children’s futures upon the altar of their elders’ anxiety, what purpose does the Times’ warning serve other than as an ultimatum to the nation’s parents? America’s teachers’ unions still have some unmet demands, the subtext reads. Do right by them, or the kids get it.
