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| AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File |
A recent AP fact-check article declared as “false” claims by “conspiracy theorists” that mask mandates and other COVID-era policies are coming back. “With COVID-19 hospitalizations steadily inching up in the U.S. since early July, some on social media are falsely claiming that federal employees were told that … pandemic-era restrictions will start returning this fall,” it explained.
While there are few things I disdain more than conspiratorialists, one need not be given to complex theories about the Trilateral Commission and “dark-money” billionaires to recognize this possibility is not far-fetched. I’ve noticed people wearing masks again in airports. “Already, some U.S. schools and businesses have started bringing back mask mandates,” NBC News reported last week.
I’ve watched enough major events unfold in my life to know the pattern. People spread some possible news prematurely, fail to get the details right – and then the media corrects them. Then, sure enough, something similar to what they predicted unfolds in coming months.
COVID cases are increasing again and the pandemic was a serious deal. We should – as individuals, businesses and governments – learn the right lessons from the previous attempt to protect public health rather than repeat the past policies. That’s obviously hard to do in a nation that’s as polarized as ever.
Because of our system of federalism, we can try to compare the outcomes in states that enacted different policies. Our states vary so much in population size and density that it’s hard to draw too many conclusions between, say, rural Wyoming and urban New Jersey, but a 2022 Wall Street Journal article focused on Florida, which re-opened quickly, and California, which imposed strict lockdown rules: --->READ MORE HERE
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| Patrick Semansky/AP |
“We’re at an inflection point,” said CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
More and more public-health officials are dusting off their old face masks and encouraging Americans to do the same for the new BA.2.86 variant of COVID-19, he explained.
Hearing that, Meghan McCain went to social media and spoke for an entire nation: “Uh no, we ain’t starting this s--- again.”
McCain isn’t some right-wing reactionary. She’s not QAnon. She’s not a wrapped-in-the-flag freedom marcher. On this issue she is very much mainstream.
Her point is that the COVID-19 endemic will be much different than the pandemic. Americans are a lot wiser now about this pathogen and the people who tried to manage it the last time around.
COVID tanked our trust in public health
That’s important information if you’re a doctor or public health official or epidemiologist.
We’re not starting at the same place we did when COVID-19 arrived on our shores in January 2020.
The American people don’t trust you.
Not the way we once did. Americans barely trust any of our institutions anymore, so health care is not alone on the bottom rungs in our society.
But in the past two years, confidence in health care officials has dropped 10 points from 44% to 34%, according to a Gallup tracking poll. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
China won't require COVID-19 tests for incoming travelers in a milestone in its reopening
While Cuomo preened, COVID hit NYC worse than anywhere else
USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates
WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates
YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates
NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest
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