Dr. Anthony Fauci testified before Congress yesterday and said he was "cautiously optimistic" about a vaccine being ready by the end of this year. We're back to COVID panic porn now that the George Floyd riots have subsided and the Atlanta unrest was mostly contained within the city's limits. It did not set off the nationwide rioting that we saw after the officer-involved death of George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis.
During that two-week block, coronavirus was put on pause. You could go outside because this was a case of moral urgency or something. Meanwhile, 40+ Americans are unemployed, and the experts told us to stay inside and not be selfish. That narrative got blown up quicker than the Hindenburg, and now the experts have totally shredded their credibility. We've all seen what happens when the "woke" enter the sciences—a lot of nonsense is spewed. Don't go back inside. Be free. And ignore the experts. The lockdowns are over. If they could turn on a dime like this, then this virus was never that bad. We're done. And while Fauci may be hopeful for a vaccine, COVID-19 is weakening so quickly that one might not be necessary (via Jerusalem Post):
…according to Prof. Matteo Bassetti, head of the infectious diseases clinic at Italy's Policlinico San Martino Hospital, this may not be necessary.
Bassetti explained to The Telegraph that the virus has changed in recent months.
"The clinical impression I have is that the virus is changing in severity," he said.
"In March and early April, the patterns were completely different. People were coming to the emergency department with a very difficult-to-manage illness, and they needed oxygen and ventilation; some developed pneumonia.
"Now, in the past four weeks, the picture has completely changed in terms of patterns. There could be a lower viral load in the respiratory tract, probably due to a genetic mutation in the virus which has not yet been demonstrated scientifically. Also, we are now more aware of the disease and able to manage it," he said.
"It was like an aggressive tiger in March and April, but now it's like a wild cat. Even elderly patients, aged 80 or 90, are now sitting up in bed, and they are breathing without help. The same patients would have died in two or three days before," Bassetti said.
Did the initial social distancing/stay-at-home orders help curb the spread? Yes. But remember that was originally 15-30 days. Then, Democratic governors decided to arbitrarily extend the lockdowns, which later morphed into stay inside until we have a vaccine. That was not the initial goal. Some form of stay-at-home order was probably unavoidable, as the number of cases exploded, thanks to New York's leaders botching the response, and the Dow Jones losing anywhere from 1,500-2,000 points a day for a week straight. A 10,000-point loss is going to make any political leadership move, but now it's time to re-open.
And this isn't just Italy saying that COVID could die off. In the UK, their race for a vaccine is being hampered by not enough infected people being around. The virus is vanishing so quickly that successful testing now stands around 50/50.
Yes, cases will spike here because of the protests, but the death toll has not jumped. If that holds, then I couldn't care less if this state or that state has had a record number of new cases. Sorry, the lockdowns are done. The experts rendered themselves obsolete.
