The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been one of the last holdouts against post-COVID-19 normalcy. With the agency finally loosening restrictions that have been obsolete for more than a year now, state and local governments should drop their last restrictions and go back to normal.
The CDC no longer recommends quarantines for unvaccinated people exposed to COVID-19. The agency also cut quarantine and “test to stay” recommendations for children in schools. The infamous 6-foot social distancing recommendation is also gone. Other recommendations no longer draw a distinction between vaccinated and unvaccinated people.
The CDC still has a few masking and testing recommendations in place. Given its overly cautious tendencies, those may remain in place until the end of time. The agency had apparently been working on this change for months, and a co-author of the guidance made a point of saying that “the pandemic is not over.” But he also admitted that COVID-19 is “here to stay.” If quarantines and differing guidance for unvaccinated people are out, then for all practical purposes the pandemic is over. Government officials should start acting like it.
Instead, restrictions remain in place. Vaccination requirements remain in place in the military, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, thinks it is hypocritical to require some vaccines for children but not the COVID-19 vaccine, even though children are not at serious risk from COVID-19 the way they are from the measles and other diseases they must be vaccinated against. Schools in Washington, D.C., and New Orleans are banning children from attending class if they are unvaccinated, and several other school systems still have testing, masking, and quarantine requirements.
JUST IN: The Army has kicked out 1,500 active duty soldiers over the vaccine mandate as of Aug. 11. Many more to go.
Note: Only 24 religious exemptions granted out of thousands requested (likely ONLY to those leaving the Army as with the other services). pic.twitter.com/P5PuhfCsb6
— Kristina Wong ?? (@kristina_wong) August 12, 2022
How do you not understand the difference in risk for children between COVID-19 and measles?
Why do you think it’s okay to force someone to choose between a vaccine and their entire livelihood?
Why do you still fail to recognize infection-induced immunity?
— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) August 10, 2022
But COVID-19 vaccines have been readily available for 16 months now, and treatments have vastly improved since the start of the pandemic. If COVID-19 is “here to stay,” then there is no need for the government to continue to dictate how people, especially children, live their lives to deal with it. If people want to mask, test, quarantine, or wrap themselves in bubble wrap, that’s their choice. The government should no longer be involved in that decision-making process.
Once it was clear that “two weeks to slow the spread” didn’t work, the goal should have been to return to normal as safely and as quickly as possible. Most people accepted that as the goal well over a year ago. What few government holdouts remain should join them.
