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When the 'Cool Kids' Catch Covid

Larry O'Connor
Larry O'Connor  |  Dec 30, 2021
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

This week the Center for Disease Control radically shifted its long-standing quarantine policy for Covid-positive Americans (cases, they call them) and began the slow, inevitable shift toward treating the coronavirus not as a pandemic to cower in fear from but as an endemic virus that we must be knowledgeable and wary of, but ultimately we must learn to live with. 

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky explained the reasoning behind the 50% slash in mandatory quarantine for asymptomatic "cases" from ten days to five days. "It really had a lot to do with what we thought people would be able to tolerate," the doctor told CNN. 

Not a very scientific explanation, to be sure, but the first logical, understandable rationale behind her policies we've heard since she took office with Joe Biden almost a year ago. 

And, sadly, it's a policy approach we could have implemented in the earliest days of the Covid pandemic. If only Biden, Fauci, and the entire government/media/culture body-politic hadn't opposed any recognition of the devastating economic, psychological, and health impacts of the shutdowns as anti-science quackery. 

In late March 2020, President Trump was getting very frustrated with his Covid advisors (Fauci, Birx, et al.) and the economic shutdown they had prescribed under the guise of "flattening the curve" and "slowing the spread."

Internal discussions at the White House had the Democrat-Medical complex insisting on an extension of the devastating policy. Trump could see where this was heading, and he was trying to move the national conversation away from shutdowns, lockdowns and hunker-downs toward a reasoned, logical approach involving protections for the most vulnerable citizens in our society while cautiously allowing the vast majority of us to work, attend school and live our lives with freedom. 

"We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself," he tweeted. "At the end of the 15 day period, we will make a decision as to which way we want to go!"

Later that day, in his daily briefing, he expanded on the point.

"We're going to be taking care and watching very closely our senior citizens, especially those with a problem or an illness," the president said. "We're going to be watching them very, very closely. And we can do that and have an open economy, have an open country."

"We have to do that because that causes other problems," Trump concluded. "Maybe [the economic shutdown] causes much bigger problems than the problem we're talking about now."

Surely, Fauci rolled his eyes and mugged for reporters behind Trump's back while he was saying these things because, you know, he represents science and all the science stuff. 

But, in this case, when it comes to science, the multi-millionaire real estate developer from Queens who wasn't able to use all the proper, snotty phrases that CNN would demand actually had a better handle on the very real ramifications of the devastating shutdown policies that all the MDs, PhDs and self-proclaimed BFDs in the elite circles of DC and Manhattan put together.

Over the past several weeks, we've had report after report confirming soul-crushing rises in youth suicide rates. 

We've heard of a recent report that could put cancer deaths due to the shutdown at 20 million. 

We've also seen a steady flow of reports warning of historic spikes for substance abuse due to the lockdown protocols put forth by Lord Fauci-Mort. 

Twenty-one months later, Trump's famous warning that the "cure" was in danger of being much worse than the problem has been completely validated.

So, why the sudden shift? Why, after all this time, has Walensky and Fauci and whoever's reading things to Biden these days decided that it's time to do a long, slow 180 and steer this ship back in the direction of "learning to live with" the virus rather than "hiding in a bunker and sheltering in place" from the virus?

It appears that all it took was the recent spike in positive test results within the ranks of the populations of DC and Manhattan. In short: As soon as the liberal, responsible, pro-vax, pro-booster, pro-mask, PBS viewing, NPR-listening, Biden-voting pals of the powerful, medical-policy elites ended up testing positive, it was time to reassess the draconian restrictions they had imposed on the rest of us. 

As soon as the cool kids started getting the virus, it was time to change the rules. 

The attitude is perfectly summed up in this tweet from a professor, epidemiologist, and specialist in infectious diseases. Her name is Dr. Hailey Banack, and she recently tested positive for Covid-19. 

"I tested positive for COVID on Sunday. As an ultra-cautious, triple vaccinated, always-masker I was shocked and very afraid," she tweeted. "To my surprise, I also felt ashamed. And embarrassed. How could I have let this happen? How could I have put my family at risk?"

Read that last part again. 

"I also felt ashamed and embarrassed." 

Why? Why would someone feel ashamed and embarrassed over catching a highly contagious virus unless she associated embarrassing and shameful connotations with those who had tested positive in the previous 23 months? 

This doctor has clearly spent the past two years looking down her nose at people who caught Covid. She clearly thought there was something wrong with them; otherwise, why would she think there was something wrong with herself now?

And let's fully understand what this single example really stands for in the larger picture. 

Dr. Banack, like so many others who have recently tested Covid positive, proclaims herself to be one of the right kind of people in this narrative. "As an ultra-cautious, triple vaccinated, always-masker" she assures her audience. 

This is critically important to observe. Fauci and Biden and the media and late-night talk show hosts have all taken the attitude that if you just do what you're told, you'll be safe from this virus and if you're irresponsible (meaning if you don't do what they order you to do), you'll get sick. 

And now, suddenly, all their pals who've done all the right things are getting sick.

And this is all we needed. Now we'll start the slow return to normalcy. 

Don't expect any apologies or admissions of fault or even a small concession that maybe they didn't get everything right. No, they'll maintain that their draconian authoritarianism kept all of you stupid yokels alive. And only now can things loosen up because "the nature of the virus" has changed. Or, maybe they'll stick with the whole "it's just not feasible to continue this shutdown stuff so we'll have to start loosening things up." 

Either way, they're going to weasel their way out of the rules they've expected you to adhere to. This is how they are. 

Just look at one of the biggest weasels out there, Jenifer Rubin. The Washington Post columnist summed it up perfectly: 

"As we recognize that covid-19 is not a deadly or even severe disease for the vast majority of responsible Americans, we can stop agonizing over 'cases' and focus on those who are hospitalized or at risk of dying," she tweeted Tuesday. 

"As we recognize"? Really? Most of us recognized this reality last May. Now she's acting like she invented the idea. 

Just wait... within the next several months, as Biden and the Democrats recognize that their continued insistence on further lockdowns will lead to the biggest electoral disaster in American history this November, Biden will tell us all that "We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself," and Chuck Todd will applaud his reasonable brilliance in shepherding a shell-shocked nation through this tumultuous time.