Friday night is 10:00. I’m vaccinated, I’m alone and I’m alone. It’s cold outside, it’s three inches of snow on the ground and everyone else seems to be used to staying. So far it’s normal.
Right now, 13 months ago, I had friends in DC, getting ready for a night out. Drinks were shared, gossip was shed, and new music was introduced as we took turns the speaker. We would reach our destination by midnight and make 22-year-old decisions that we would say we regretted in the morning – but we didn’t really do. I would do anything to have that life now.
I cannot say that I suffered materially during this pandemic. I never got sick with COVID-19, I never lost a loved one because of it, I never lost my income. I moved across the country to Denver, the city of my choice, kept fit, and took refuge in the landscape, meeting people along the way in a place where I didn’t know anyone. I enjoyed the space the pandemic forced me to take from the wild nights of the 1920s, knowing that with the arrival of a vaccine, they would return soon.
Little did I understand, however, that two weeks to slow the spread would not just turn into waiting until there was a vaccine. Now we seem to be in an endless deadlock in which a population that does not even take care of itself demands life with an absolutely zero risk to the detriment of all others.
Thirteen months later, and it’s getting harder and harder for me not to blame Anthony Fauci and his allies in the political institution for all the nights I’ve never been out, for the singles I’ve never met, for the data I never passed on and the memories I never made. The raves are lame, the spaced bars feel useless and anyway most places are closed an hour early. All this is at the behest of Fauci, whose word has the largest share in the country on coronavirus, whether we like it or not, while intimidating experts to the contrary to speak by controlling their funding for research. But Fauci is not alone, he is not alone and, at the age of 80, he is probably not eager to go out.
There is no evidence that the blockages prevent the massive spread of coronavirus. On the contrary, there is a lot of research by elite academics who find something else, but the pursuit of current science would reject the “science” of the left, the only acceptable standard, which also typically solves exceptions for those who say “Black lives matter.” ”.
No one has to read a lot of academic research on blockages anyway to see its inefficiency. Take a look only at the states with the highest death rates and see their leaders. The deadliest states are ruled primarily by the closure of Democrats who listen to every command of Fauci. New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island top the list.
However, there will be no serious cost-benefit analysis of blockages. They have become so politicized that the party and career bureaucrats who have embraced them will never admit that they were wrong. The blockades have been so devastatingly expensive that no one who has approved them will ever admit it, because they have nothing to gain and everything to lose. Fauci has bet on his legacy to fail up on their supposed effectiveness, Democrats have used them to expand their central state planning, and corporations have made unimaginable profits, while small businesses continue to stay below left and right. .
Meanwhile, the American people were so convinced of the severity of COVID, even after vaccination, that they asked their neighbors to follow Fauci’s rules, or they became too powerless to do anything about them. How do they refuse to live according to Fauci’s orders to wear a mask while being vaccinated when they can’t go anywhere without one? How does he refuse to live according to Fauci’s orders not to go to crowded places where there are no crowded places?
The crisis that was supposed to end with an optional vaccine has no end and no optional vaccine. When public health officials say we have a choice to get vaccinated, I’m lying. The Americans are told that the blockade restrictions will remain in place until the nation reaches the herd’s immunity, while Fauci calls for restrictions in place even for those who have been vaccinated. Fauci says this is due to the fact that vaccinated people can spread the virus, contrary to research by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Facial masks have now become markers of a political streak, of which one vaccinated Fauci wears two.
Fauci also says that due to the potential viral variants, vaccinated people still refrain from returning to normal. Our leaders are now designing a policy based on what might happen, not on what is happening. Viruses move all the time. Fauci does not take freedom into account, yet gives Americans no choice but to accept the vaccine. He said this last week.
“I don’t see this as a matter of freedom,” Ohio Republican Representative Jim Jordan told Fauci during a COVID-19 hearing. The doctor doubled down on his comments on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, where he offered his left-wing views on gun control. “This has nothing to do with freedoms,” Fauci stressed on his orders to keep the nation closed.
You can call me selfish because I wrote this play. I do not care. You are probably the same person who asked you to close your neighbor’s business so that you can live a life without any risk. I’m sorry, but you’re on the wrong planet for that. More than half a million Americans have died tragically because of COVID-19. I’m not blind to that. It wasn’t their fault, but it wasn’t mine.
At some point, however, Americans should claim virtue in personal responsibility. Vaccinations are widely available, and those who want to take shelter can continue to do so. No one ever told them I couldn’t. And those who were really worried about getting COVID-19 would do well to train, because almost 80 percent of those hospitalized were overweight or obese. We knew from the beginning that being overweight substantially raised people’s risk profiles to complications from COVID, yet Americans hit on carbs, sugar and Netflix while asking their neighbors to stay home and wait for a vaccine. .
Thirteen months later, it is unclear whether we will ever return to normal. Given that his return has been politicized with opposing powers, we may never return to normal. If we do, it will be much, much later than it should be.
If I didn’t live in Colorado, it would be harder. Hiking during the summer evening week helps, and the weekend camping is superb. If I didn’t work for The Federalist, the blockages would also be heavier, because at work, I do something about them. If I hadn’t built a support group in Denver, the blockades would be unbearable. Thanks to the community found in mentoring, my reflection group and CrossFit, however, completely single weekends are a growing rarity.
But for now, here I am on Friday night, the 23rd, at the peak of my life, sitting at home – because at this moment, the new normal remains.