Ross Douthat of the New York Times pleaded Tuesday for President Biden and the sainted Dr. Anthony Fauci to please, please, please let us all know when they plan on giving us back our full rights to work, socialize, and resume normal schooling.
“Biden presumably hopes to underpromise and overdeliver, while Fauci clearly has a theory of his own role that involves steering public expectations rather than just saying flatly what he thinks,” he wrote. “But after a year of misery, death and sacrifice, the public has a right to know in advance when the emergency should reasonably be over.”
Over? What’s this “over” business Douthat is talking about?
It’s been clear for the better part of a year that Democrats and their aligned coronavirus “experts” see no future without masks and “social distancing,” so let’s stop pretending like the answer for returning to “normal” is going to come from them. It’s not.
When has Fauci or any Democrat said anything about the pandemic being “over” or coming to a definitive end? They’ve never said that. We only hear about some “degree of normality” (Fauci) or “a very different circumstance… than we are today” (Biden).
True, Biden did, once upon a time, promise to “shut down” the virus, but that was just campaign talk. How silly of anyone to have taken it to heart.
Anyone paying close attention to the pandemic should have figured out by now that returning to normal is a personal choice. Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Kristi Noem of South Dakota have proven this. DeSantis lifted all remaining restrictions on businesses and restaurants back in September. Noem hasn’t had any in place since May of 2020. Yes, those states saw new surges in cases, and people continued to die, but that happened in states that remain in severe lockdown to this day.
New cases in South Dakota have been on a steep decline since mid-November. They’ve been in free-fall in Florida since the start of the new year. And that’s true for the nation as a whole, as well, with new cases down 40%. Yet, the most Biden and Fauci will give us is the uncertain hope that people can visit with their own families in small, maskless groups if every member is vaccinated.
Wow, thanks! You’re the greatest!
Everyone needs to realize that we’re not going to get permission from these people to return to normal. We’ll have to start living it ourselves by assessing our own individual risk levels, with or without a vaccine, and determining what we’re willing to do.
That same calculation will also apply to business owners who may very well find themselves restricted or shut down even after a majority of the population is vaccinated and new cases, and deaths have flatlined. What risks will they be willing to take to get their lives back to normal? Many business owners who have defied local ordinances have already made that decision.
So will everyone else. We’ll have to decide ourselves because Biden and Fauci don’t have the answer.
