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When Does the COVID-19 Panic End?
Townhall.com ^ | August 4, 2021 | Ben Shapiro

Posted on 08/04/2021 8:53:21 AM PDT by Kaslin

Two weeks to slow the spread.

That was the original rationale for the lockdowns, masking and social distancing: Prevent transmission of the coronavirus so that Americans could be assured that we would not overwhelm hospital capacity, causing needless death.

Wait until a vaccine is available.

That was the next goalpost: an admonition to continue to take precautions to avoid spreading the coronavirus until a vaccine could be developed. Despite the warnings of COVID-19 pessimists that a vaccine would take years to develop, despite the unjustified alarmism of figures like Vice President Kamala Harris that the Trump administration would skew the vaccine protocols to achieve political ends, vaccines were miraculously developed.

Wait until every adult has a chance to get the vaccine.

That was the final rationale for caution. And as states began to tranche out vaccines by the millions, every person above the age of 12 in the United States was given the opportunity to get vaccinated. As of today, over 90% of adults over the age of 65 -- the most at-risk population in the United States -- have been vaccinated, and more than 70% of all Americans over age 18 have been vaccinated as well.

And yet.

We are told that we are experiencing a massive COVID-19 crisis. We have been told that the vaccinated must mask up again; that the unvaccinated should be barred from public establishments; that children must be masked in school. We have been told that America faces doom and death on a daily basis and that we're seeing a crisis akin to the last wave of the coronavirus in January. We're masking up and checking vaccine cards in Washington, D.C., in San Francisco, in Los Angeles, in New York.

The statistics simply do not bear this out. According to the seven-day rolling average as calculated by The New York Times, fewer than 400 Americans per day are dying of COVID-19; at the height of the pandemic, well over 3,000 were. In Washington, D.C. (total population: 692,000), that number is 0; in San Francisco County (total population: 875,000), that number is 0; in Los Angeles County (total population: 10 million), that number is 9; in New York City (total population: 8.4 million), that number is 3.

The current delta variant spike has resulted in a massive case count, particularly in Florida, but deaths are not following cases -- and if the United States follows the pattern of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, we're likely to see the case count begin to crater in the next few weeks. Those who are vaccinated are not dying of COVID-19; their death rate is minuscule. Those who are unvaccinated have chosen not to vaccinate; they are independent adults capable of determining their own approach to risk and reward.

All of which requires us to ask the question: When are we done?

When are we done telling children to mask up to protect adults who don't want to vaccinate? When are we done telling businesses to close up or bar customers based on vaccination status? When are we done with mask mandates (data suggests that mask mandates are ineffective, even if masking is sometimes useful), with evidence-free social distancing rules (six feet is pure conjecture), with the ever-vacillating, Delphic pronouncements of Dr. Anthony Fauci? We have hit the goalposts; every adult now has the capacity to protect himself. There are no other realistic goalposts: Zero COVID-19 cases was never a realistic goal.

When is the job of government done?

And yet.

Our public health "experts" continue to promote more and more outrageous restrictions. This week, National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins went so far as to recommend that vaccinated parents mask up in their own homes around their own children. There is no limiting principle to this, no end goal. There is only a bureaucratic and political elite unwilling to treat citizens as adults, recognize their own limitations and leave us all the hell alone.

And if we accept that, we deserve nothing less than subjection to their paternalistic control.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: benshapiro; chinavirus; civilrights; covid19; hysteria; lockdown; maskmandate; masks
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1 posted on 08/04/2021 8:53:21 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

The 12th of NEVER! It’s ALL about CONTROLLING US!!!


2 posted on 08/04/2021 8:55:30 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: Kaslin

It never started with me...


3 posted on 08/04/2021 8:56:01 AM PDT by Little Ray (Civilization runs on a narrow margin. What sustains it is not magic, but hard work. )
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To: Kaslin

Just wait till the midterms and you’ll see the worst plague the world has ever had.


4 posted on 08/04/2021 8:57:53 AM PDT by dljordan (Slouching towards Woketopia)
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To: dljordan

right, there will be a mid-term variant


5 posted on 08/04/2021 8:58:35 AM PDT by joshua c (Dump the LEFT. Cable tv, Big tech, national name brands)
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To: Kaslin

leave us all the hell alone.

=
amen


6 posted on 08/04/2021 8:59:26 AM PDT by joshua c (Dump the LEFT. Cable tv, Big tech, national name brands)
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To: Kaslin

Never.


7 posted on 08/04/2021 9:01:47 AM PDT by tennmountainman ( Liberals Are Baby Killers)
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To: Kaslin

Never.

The communists have found the perfect control mechanism.


8 posted on 08/04/2021 9:02:56 AM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizens Are Born Here of Citizen Parents)(Know Islam, No Peace - No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: Kaslin

When the ovens for deniers get built, and everyone not on board with the liberal agenda gets rounded up.

MGT should never have apologized for her comment. What is happening is history repeating itself. Thr left are engaged in a hostile takeover of this country, and good people are suffering for it, being denied due process, having their rights denied them etc, and the sick and elderly were exterminated by hateful liberals drunk with power. And just for the record, those that were murdered by their governors when those governors deliberately sent in sick people to infect and kill the defenseless sickly,elderly folks, some were cremated. No thismisnt the same extent of horror that jews went through by any means, and it isn’t meant to dismiss what they did at all, but it is plenty horrible in its own right, and the ones who perpetrated these vile human abuses, are still walking around free, drunk on their own power, just like Hitler was.

MGT should never have apologized for what she said. What this country has just endured at the hands of vile power-drunk liberals is beyond reprehensible


9 posted on 08/04/2021 9:04:50 AM PDT by Bob434
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To: Kaslin

Never. Unless the people end it, but more than 50% will fall for anything.


10 posted on 08/04/2021 9:07:19 AM PDT by ilgipper (The mob only destroys. Never creates. )
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To: Kaslin

It won’t end until Nancy gets all the ‘promised’ mileage out of it.

It’s truly-the gift that keeps on giving. Never again do Liberals need to cast about for a crisis to exploit or search for the appropriate tool to CREATE a crisis.

As the perfect and wholly arbitrary tool, the ‘virus’ will always be AT HAND!!

We’ll never again see Liberals’ childish, predictable and maladroit efforts to spin a hiccup into a global crisis.... COVID came and sat on our doorstep, never to leave!


11 posted on 08/04/2021 9:07:40 AM PDT by SMARTY (Republics decline into democracies & democracies degenerate into despotisms. Aristotle)
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To: Ann Archy

Gates wants no more than 5 million population world wide...


12 posted on 08/04/2021 9:09:09 AM PDT by ridesthemiles ( )
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To: Kaslin

13 posted on 08/04/2021 9:09:13 AM PDT by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: Kaslin

They will have to kill the global village to save it.


14 posted on 08/04/2021 9:10:34 AM PDT by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: Kaslin

Panic? Never panicked over this. But sheeple and lemmings, yeah, they panicked and still are.


15 posted on 08/04/2021 9:11:15 AM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this? 😕)
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To: Kaslin

This Meathead nailed it one year ago. He was spot on.

https://gettr.com/post/p67egk


16 posted on 08/04/2021 9:13:35 AM PDT by weston (As as I'm concerned, it's Christ or nothing)
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To: ridesthemiles
I Know....Hey Bill.....you first off yourself and your family.

Wow....they got a divorce already....record time.

17 posted on 08/04/2021 9:16:35 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: Kaslin

When the anti-christ reveals himself?


18 posted on 08/04/2021 9:19:23 AM PDT by LastDayz (A blunt and brazen Texan. I will not be assimilated.)
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To: Kaslin

Never. This will never end. Everyone is going to get this virus over the next few years, so buckle up.


19 posted on 08/04/2021 9:19:28 AM PDT by ready2brd
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To: Kaslin

When the commissars determine it is no longer useful.


20 posted on 08/04/2021 9:23:54 AM PDT by MrBambaLaMamba (87>13 people need to wake up. Taxation is theft.)
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