Wednesday, October 6, 2021

Fauci Now Says Americans Can Meet Family for Christmas — as he will; Bike Riders Wearing Masks — But Not Helmets — a Metaphor for Our Unscientific Times, and other C-Virus related stories

Scott Applewhite/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
Fauci now says Americans can meet family for Christmas — as he will:
You can have a holly, jolly Christmas with your relatives after all, Dr. Anthony Fauci now says.
President Biden’s chief medical adviser offered a second opinion Monday of his own humbug diagnosis after saying a day earlier it was “too soon” to tell whether Americans should gather with their loved ones for the holidays.
“I will be spending Christmas with my family,” Fauci told CNN. “I encourage people, particularly the vaccinated people who are protected, to have a good, normal Christmas with your family.”
On Sunday, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) chief was asked by CBS News “Face The Nation” host Margaret Brennan whether “we can gather for Christmas, or it’s just too soon to tell.”
“You know Margaret, it’s just too soon to tell,” Fauci responded. “We’ve just got to concentrate on continuing to get those numbers down and not try to jump ahead by weeks or months and say what we’re going to do at a particular time. Let’s focus like a laser on continuing to get those cases down. And we can do it by people getting vaccinated and also, in the situation where boosters are appropriate, to get people boosted.”
The comments were met with a social media uproar. --->READ MORE HERE
Cindy Ord/Getty Images
Bike riders wearing masks — but not helmets — a metaphor for our unscientific times:
In April of this year, I witnessed something on the Stanford University campus that’s seared into my memory: a student on a bicycle, wearing flip-flops, AirPods in-ear, going the wrong way through a roundabout in an active construction zone, with no helmet.
But like any good follower of science, the student was wearing a disposable blue face mask — for safety, I guess.
I think this anecdote is instructive in understanding the social dynamics that have emerged in the COVID-19 pandemic. Seemingly intelligent and well-rounded people (Stanford students, for example) have adopted bizarre, pointless habits to comport with new expectations about how to “stay safe” — like wearing masks outdoors — all while continuing in much more risky behaviors. This is not to say that riding a bicycle without a helmet is especially risky, or that I believe helmets should be mandated (they shouldn’t). But it’s absolutely a bigger risk than COVID-19 for a vaccinated twenty-something.
Unfortunately, it turned out that what I saw in the spring would not be anecdotal at all. When I got back to our 99% vaccinated campus last week, I realized that masking outdoors and on bicycles would be a custom. --->READ MORE HERE
Follow links below to related stories and resources:

Worst of delta surge appears over as infections dwindle; rural Americans dying at twice the rate of those in cities: COVID-19 updates

COVID-19 surge hits New England despite high vaccination rates

USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates

WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates

YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates

NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest

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