In the early days of the pandemic, I advocated for a temporary shutdown that I believed was necessary to prevent the healthcare system from collapsing. I also supported the widespread use of masks indoors because I believed they were better than nothing. Both of these opinions were based on the scant knowledge we had at the time and the concern that we would not be well equipped to fight this virus.
But now we know two things for sure: The shutdown, which went from 14 days to several months, did a lot more harm than good, and the cloth masks that the vast majority of people use are barely better than useless. These were not solutions; they were Band-Aids, and we should not accept the reimposition of impractical restrictions when the only real solution, the vaccine, has been available to everyone for months.
Several states and cities are returning to mask mandates as the delta variant spreads and vaccination rates wane. My own city, Washington, D.C., is reportedly planning on keeping its renewed mask mandate in place until Thanksgiving, even though we have a seven-day rolling average of zero coronavirus deaths. There is no reason for this — it is an anti-scientific policy, one that defies common sense. Just ask Mayor Muriel Bowser, who violated her own mandate while at a wedding the other weekend.
We are expected to follow guidance that is often so unnecessary and evidence-free that our own government leaders don’t bother following it. So, it’s time for the rest of us to start doing the same.
Sen. Rand Paul put it this way: “It’s time for us to resist. They can’t arrest all of us. They can’t keep all of your kids home from school,” he said in a video. “We don’t have to accept the mandates, lockdowns, and harmful policies of the petty tyrants and bureaucrats. We can simply say: ‘No, not again.'”
Unsurprisingly, Paul is being accused of wanting to see a lot of people die. But here’s the thing: If you don’t want to die from the coronavirus, then go get the vaccine, and you won’t.
It’s not Paul’s responsibility, or my responsibility, to keep you out of the hospital when the solution is right there in front of you. There are, of course, exceptions — people who can’t get the vaccine for various medical reasons. But there will always be people who are more at risk than others. This has never changed the way we live our lives before, and it shouldn’t now, either.
Paul understands what a lot of us have come to realize: The only way this is going to end is if we end it. There will always be a new variant, a new threat that requires us to sacrifice individual freedoms for the sake of public health. The officials in charge will always find a reason to hold on to the power the pandemic gave them. So it’s time to start saying “no,” and find others who will also say “no,” and hope that it’s enough to make a difference.
