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- Biden, Democrats, and the CDC are sending the wrong, unscientific message.
- By clinging to outdated COVID safety measures like outdoor mask-wearing mandates as a model of "good" and "patriotic" behavior, they're insulting the public's intelligence.
- It's time to level with the people: the worst is over, the vaccines work, "normalcy" is on the way.
- This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
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Conservatives, by definition, aren't big on change.
But in an ironic twist, it's liberals who need to evolve – and in a hurry – when it comes to their allegiance to outdated, unscientific COVID restrictions.
President Joe Biden, a number of well-educated Democratic-run municipalities, and several prominent liberal special interest groups have chosen to ignore the new CDC guidelines that encourage the loosening of COVID restrictions, such as outdoor mask-wearing.
And the CDC itself – nominally a nonpartisan science bureaucracy – has shown that it too is susceptible to political pressure when it comes to setting those rules. A recent report showed one of the country's biggest teachers unions, which is also a powerful political lobbying entity, essentially dictated several parts of the CDC's guidelines for reopening schools.
Compounding the confusion has been the release of the CDC's ridiculously restrictive guidelines for summer camps – which include no indoor sports, limited outdoor sports, and outdoor masks for everyone. These are in direct conflict with other current CDC advisories that say vaccinated adults no longer need to wear masks outside, that the risk of surface transmission is minimal, and that kids are particularly unlikely to catch or spread COVID, especially outdoors.
The muddled messaging is understandable, to some extent.
Moving on from the state of hyper-vigilance that was so shockingly demanded of us all last March was never going to be a quick and seamless transition.
But the "trust the science" partisans need to put their money where their mouths are and level with the public that the worst is past, that vaccines are the path to normalcy, and that once a person is vaccinated a lot of COVID precautions which once made sense no longer do.
To do anything less is to jeopardize the public's trust, which we're going to need if we want to hold on to a common thread of reality during the next crisis of mass proportion.
Trusting the public to handle good, optimistic news can also set an example for the vaccine-skeptical that they, too, can choose to do their part to get us all back to "normal."
Yes, Trump made people believe stupid things. But it's time to trust the public can handle the truth.
Whatever disagreements one might have with the new administration's policies, this country has benefited from Biden's demonstration of basic adult comportment after four years of a flagrantly corrupt, serially dishonest man-child in the White House.
But the fully-vaccinated 46th president's insistence on wearing a mask whether he's indoors in a room full of other adults or outdoors - where the CDC has long said COVID transmission is low-risk even among the unvaccinated - is little more than an awkward performance of COVID compliance.
In his mind, Biden is modeling "good" behavior, proving his commitment to a "patriotic" duty to keep up appearances.
There was a time for this, but that time has passed.
A year or so ago, then-President Donald Trump was lying to the public about COVID's deadliness, openly opposing increased testing, and claiming "no responsibility at all" for the US' pandemic response. Trump made something as basic as mask-wearing a culture war battlefield.
It really is impossible to overstate the damage Trump and his sycophants in the media and government did when it came to misinforming the public about the risks and encouraging ignorant non-compliance with basic public safety measures.
In the midst of such a disastrous void of leadership, there was an urgency for the adults in the room to set an affirmative example, even to the point of overcautiousness, because there was so much we still didn't know.
But now we know a lot more.
And in our deeply divided nation, there are plenty of confused people who don't view the pandemic through a partisan lens. They're not MAGA cultists, they know the virus is real and they want to mitigate the spread.
But they're also weary of continuing to practice rituals that we've known for some time are purely theatrical.
It's those people that Democrats are trying to reach now. Not through joyless "We're all in this together" displays of obsessive hand-washing, but by demonstrating - loud and proud - how effective the vaccines are.
Biden and company should be ditching the masks outdoors, while reminding everyone that there's absolutely no harm in wearing a mask, that the choice is theirs, and you are not a bad and irresponsible person for eschewing a face covering outdoors - especially when vaccinated.
This would also serve as a message to the highly-educated liberal enclaves that it's time to shed restrictions that are based more on hyper-partisan anti-Trumpism than well-established science..
It's so hard to say goodbye to COVID restrictions, but it's time
I've lived in New York City for the entire pandemic. I don't need anyone to tell me that masks work, that COVID is highly transmissible, and that the virus kills.
But now that I'm vaccinated, as are most of the adults in my neighborhood, I want life back.
I don't want to tell my kids they need to act like it's spring of 2020 during the summer of 2021. And I don't want to tell them they can't go back to school for the 18th consecutive month come September, because Joe Biden dares not tell the big-city teachers unions to stop treating America's children as bargaining chips in negotiations.
I want to tell them that America - so often the site of so much government dysfunction - has conducted a massive vaccination effort that's among the most efficient and successful in the world. And I want them to know that our sacrifice and suffering was not in vain, that life will get better soon.
That's the lesson Biden and Democrats should be imparting, as well. They should own the taming of the coronavirus, rather than clinging to last year's partisan battles over mask-wearing, social-distancing, and the necessity of draconian lockdown restrictions.
The vaccine is the path to normalcy. And normalcy will have to include not judging our fellow citizens by whether they choose to wear a mask outdoors out of an abundance of caution, or whether they refuse to wear a mask outdoors because it's simply unnecessary.
It's a time for optimism. It's a time for a once-in-a-lifetime celebration of health, friends, and freedom as the once-in-a-century pandemic enters its final stages.
There's a way to make this case, if only Democrats were brave enough to trust the public with the truth.
