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.”
Here’s the CDC’s new guidance, cutting quarantine to 5 days pic.twitter.com/r8BTXDb5Zf
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) December 27, 2021
“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.
Today, @CDCgov released updates to shorten the recommended time for #COVID19 isolation and quarantine. People are maximally infectious 1-2 days before symptom onset & 2-3 days after. This science & protection provided by vaccination & boosters informed the updated recommendation. https://t.co/iU7btjjy4K
— Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH (@CDCDirector) December 27, 2021
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.
necropolitics. https://t.co/Nn230eGI3z
— christopher petrella (@CFPetrella) December 28, 2021
imagine realizing that our society hinges around workers never taking 10 days off, yet concluding that the problem is the 10 days, not the cruel organization of society https://t.co/UU6i2UhQ4L
— Eric Weiskott (@ericweiskott) December 29, 2021
BREAKING: The CDC says you can now quarantine at work as long as you’re being productive, anyone slacking WILL die
— Diego Lopez (@thisdiegolopez) December 27, 2021
CDC recommends shorter isolation/quarantine for COVID, says quiet part out loud.https://t.co/A62K7LcsAE pic.twitter.com/kIz5TLEbSp
— Happiness Vampire (@nkalamb) December 27, 2021
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.
FYI: The CDC only made this change after being asked to do so by the multimillionaire CEO of Delta Airlines
CEO Ed Bastian’s annual bonus is tied to on-time performance, which has taken a huge hit because all of his staff are testing positive #onpoli https://t.co/wvmBEnLzdl
— Rob Gill (@vote4robgill) December 28, 2021
Strange that we’ve never run into this “scientist” at infectious disease conferences https://t.co/6yMGPyURBh
— Dr. Laurie Donahue-Hjelle (@Ldonahuehjelle) December 28, 2021
Delta CEO asks CDC to shorten the recommended COVID quarantine: “the 10-day isolation for those who are fully vaccinated may significantly impact our workforce and operations”
the next week, CDC shortened guidance to 5 days.
10 days is still the guidance in Canada, Europe + UK pic.twitter.com/GUSbc6gZxq
— Tori Bedford (@Tori_Bedford) December 28, 2021
For example, every media outlet should include that Delta CEO Ed Bastain asked the CDC to reduce the recommended quarantine time from 10 days to 5 for vaccinated people because of workforce impact. That’s not a health decision. The media needs to frame it that way every time.
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) December 28, 2021
Public health decisions should be purely based on public health, not the needs of CEOs. I truly hope the CDC is making decisions that will keep us safe instead of protecting corporate bottom lines. https://t.co/9o46eFDas8
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) December 28, 2021
Dear @CDCgov and @CDCDirector
You don’t work for Delta Airlines.
You should not do what their CEO ask you to do.
This wasn’t a health decision.
It was a political one.
You have made a serious mistake here.
.
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) December 28, 2021
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.
[firefly_poll]
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:
WHAT IN THE ACTUAL F*CK IS THIS?
With #Omicron, we’re facing the biggest surge of the pandemic. First the CDC cuts the isolation period in half, now NYC schools will eliminate quarantining!
Do they want to kill people? pic.twitter.com/CdCcong4Pj
— Peter Daou (@peterdaou) December 28, 2021
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.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
