The Pretend-It’s-Over Crowd Gets Louder, But They’re Still Dead Wrong

This appears to be the delusional tail wagging the dog – there isn’t any great national urgency to abandon protocols before the pandemic is actually over.

by Bob Cesca

WASHINGTON, DC – I really hope I’m the one who’s wrong about all of this because I assure you: I desperately want the pandemic to be over – more than I can describe in words here. But I also think it’s way too soon to know for sure. That’s my rational, prudent take, and it shouldn’t be a controversial one. But I feel increasingly outnumbered. Several more journalists have joined Bill Maher, podcaster Bari Weiss, and The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols in announcing an end to COVID before it’s actually ended, insisting that it’s time to abandon protocols and return to our pre-2020 lifestyles.

Yascha Mounk, a Johns Hopkins University professor, published a piece in The Atlantic on Wednesday, titled “Open Everything.” He covers all the usual bases, including how masking creates a “deep sense of social malaise,” especially for kids, even though teen suicides aren’t actually linked to masking in school.

“We finally have the tools to live with the coronavirus,” Mounk wrote. No, we clearly don’t, given the magnitude of the Omicron spike, and the reality that it was so infectious that it punched right through masking, certain home tests, and some vaccinations. Stack on top of that the emerging Omicron variant known as BA.2, which some estimates place at 1.5 times more infectious than Omicron BA.1.

And, yes, most COVID deaths are unvaccinated people. Mounk asks: “What do we owe to them?” Well, as I’ve written here, it’s not so much about those deaths as it is the resources they occupy. As of this writing, hospitals nationwide are 78 percent full. A recent study indicated that if we exceed 75 percent capacity, we can expect thousands of extra deaths, many from non-COVID patients who can’t get care at overwhelmed medical facilities. No, we don’t have the tools. Not yet. We have some, but not enough to declare an end to the pandemic.

The other hinky thing in Mounk’s piece was the headline itself: “Open Everything.” I might be missing something, but everything is already open. What’s closed? It’s not March 2020 any more. The suggestion here, intentional or not, is that things are still closed, and since Democrats are in charge nationally, then it’s President Biden’s team that’s keeping everything closed. But nothing’s closed. There’s masking and vaccine mandates, which are still necessary because the pandemic is still here, but nothing’s closed. Let’s try not to repeat this framing because it makes no sense.

The entire argument seems like it’s goading Democrats into a trap. Here’s another example of what I mean. This week, Anne Flaherty published an article for ABC News titled: “Pressure builds for Biden, Democrats to move past COVID.” We’ll circle back to this alleged “pressure” when we discuss Nate Cohn’s latest. Flaherty spoke with pollster Frank Luntz who declared:

"The public is saying 'enough.' The politicians are saying 'enough,'" said Frank Luntz, a longtime Republican pollster and strategist.

"If Biden doesn't say 'enough' at the SOTU, he'll be digging a hole he can't climb out. The (Democratic) governors know this because they're closer to the people," he wrote in an email to ABC News.

It sounds like he’s baiting a  trap. Let’s say Biden does exactly what Luntz is suggesting here, and a few weeks later a variant blitzes its way around the world, killing innumerable Americans in the process – after Biden said it’s over. Not only will he have been dead wrong, but the Republicans will absolutely seize upon the disparity, flipping the script and accusing Biden of his own George W. Bush-style “Mission Accomplished” event. Suddenly, Biden’s the reckless, irresponsible old man who killed thousands of Americans because he wanted to say the pandemic’s over. I can see it as if it’s already happened.

Now, back to the aforementioned Nate Cohn and his article in The New York Times, titled: “Americans Are Frustrated With the Pandemic. These Polls Show How Much.” Among other things, Nate cites a YouGov poll indicating that:

A recent Yahoo News/YouGov survey found that 46 percent of respondents thought Americans should “learn to live with” the pandemic “and get back to normal,” while just 43 percent thought “we need to do more to vaccinate, wear masks and test.”

First of all, as Michael Hiltzik from The Los Angeles Times pointed out on my podcast this week: “just” is a loaded word here because 43 and 46 are statistically even, given the margin of error. If you say “just” 43 percent, you also need to say “just” 46 percent, too. And much like Bill Maher, Cohn is cherrypicking his data. The YouGov poll also reports (via Dr. Lucky Tran):

• 59 percent are worried about COVID.

• 69 percent say the pandemic isn’t over for the U.S.

• 51 percent say the pandemic isn’t over for them personally.

• 82 percent wear masks when needed.

Do any of those numbers indicate Americans are comfortable with ditching everything and letting the virus spread uncontrolled? More numbers, while we’re here. A Navigator Research poll from early January shows 67 percent support for mask mandates. An Ipsos poll from the first week of February, meanwhile, showed 55 percent are opposed to lifting all COVID restrictions.

So, this appears to be the delusional tail wagging the dog – there isn’t any great national urgency to abandon protocols before the pandemic is actually over. But I imagine if this Maher-fueled meme continues, there will be. And it could be catastrophic. Again, I hope I’m wrong and the road ahead is clear. Any reasonable look at the numbers proves we’re nowhere near that threshold.

Read an excerpt from our latest for Banter Members:

Letters To The Editor

A new feature on The Banter! This week: Woke racism, Tucker the g**p and subscriber cancellations!

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As part of our commitment to our wonderful readers, we are introducing a weekly “Letters to the Editor” feature for Banter Members where we feature thoughtful/controversial comments and emails from readers. I’ll be chiming in with responses. If you have a question or want to write to us, please send to: ben@thedailybanter.com

- Ben

A reader writes in response to my piece on Whoopi Goldberg and the “non-liberal left”:

This attempted redefinition of Racism is a perfect example of all the things that absolutely infuriate me about the non-liberal Left. I am FIRMLY on the Left, and seeing those who are supposedly my political brethren spout off such ill-informed, poorly thought out, and just plain awful ideological ideals just makes me sick. Racism is NOT defined by "whiteness", which is another thing they have been working to redefine to encompass everything bad about humanity (just go on the Internet and do a search for the "meaning of whiteness."

This is also who I absolutely refuse to bend to this new standard of capitalizing black (and sometimes, albeit rarely, white.) This does nothing but emphasize and reinforce tribalistic differences between group when we should instead be doing everything to REDUCE these stupid tribal boundary allegiances…

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