It’s great that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has finally recognized reality in its updated guidance on the coronavirus. But at this point, we are past even that. The “new normal” is over. It’s time to move on and go back to the old normal.
We already knew that vaccinated people do not need to wear masks, indoors or otherwise, before the CDC finally decided to make that its position. We already knew that, because children were not vectors of coronavirus transmission and that schools should be fully reopened, as now Dr. Anthony Fauci and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten are finally saying.
But still, Fauci is saying that children who are too young to be vaccinated still must wear masks around others. The CDC is saying that even in some outdoor scenarios, the unvaccinated must continue masking up. So long as that is the case, mask mandates will remain in place in the more overbearing liberal cities and states across the country. But the pandemic in the United States is now over.
Science tells us that children are not vectors for transmitting the virus, nor are they at risk of contracting severe illness from it. The vaccines are over 90% effective at preventing both infection and hospitalization of those infected, even among the elderly. Forty-five percent of adults are fully vaccinated. Nearly 60% have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Vaccines are readily available, and adults who haven’t been vaccinated are old enough to be responsible for their own decisions.
People who continue to live in fear of the virus, even if they are fully vaccinated, are free to continue wearing masks in perpetuity. They don’t have to go to parties or crowds. But the rest of us should stop catering to the bubble-wrapped among us.
This “new normal” that politicians and corporations have told us about for 14 months is no longer necessary. It isn’t necessary for vaccinated people, as the CDC has finally brought itself to admit. It isn’t necessary for unvaccinated people, who have made their own decisions and are still free to go get vaccinated. It really never was necessary for children.
It’s time to start lifting mandates and restrictions. Businesses should be allowed to return to full capacity, and customers should encourage them to do so. There’s no reason that the summer of 2021 shouldn’t look more like 2019 than 2020. The “new normal” should be retired to make way for the real thing.
