Tipsheet

Fauci: No, the CDC's Insane COVID Guidelines for Summer Camps Aren't 'Excessive'

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  May 05, 2021 1:05 PM

It's almost as if Dr. Anthony Fauci has decided to embrace the acute erosion in public trust that has befallen him among non-Democrats, particularly vaccine-skeptical right-leaners.  Here he is arguing on national television -- where he seems to spend much of his time -- that the CDC's latest COVID guidance for summer camps is not "excessive," but rather just "conservative."  Watch the clip, then we'll tell you about the supposedly scientific recommendations he's defending:


Not excessive, eh?  Science and data have demonstrated that children are at very low risk from COVID, and that outdoor transmission of the virus is close to non-existent.  "Minuscule," in fact, to quote Fauci himself, referring to the profound unlikelihood of even unvaccinated adults passing on or contracting Coronavirus outside.  And yet, here is what the disastrous bunglers at CDC have cranked out for kids at camp this summer:

This is among the most restrictive, unrealistic guidance the agency has released during the pandemic. It's more limiting than the CDC's guidance for vaccinated people exercising outside more generally. If followed, summer campers would be miserable, deprived of physical contact, and in considerable danger of overheating. The government has essentially recommended that summer camps treat kids like prisoners. Here are just some of the restrictions:

  • Everyone at the camp—including staff and every kid over the age of two—must wear masks at all times, unless they are eating or swimming. They should wear two layers of masks, especially when social distancing is difficult, regardless of "whether activities are indoors or outdoors."
  • Campers should be placed in "cohorts," and their interaction with people outside the cohort must be limited.
  • There should always be at least three feet between campers of the same cohort, and six feet between campers of different cohorts. Staff should keep six feet away from campers at all times, whether inside or outside. Distance should be maintained while eating, napping, or riding the bus: The CDC suggests seating kids in alternating rows.
  • The use of physical objects that might be shared among kids—toys, art supplies, electronics—should be limited wherever possible.
  • Camps should not permit close-contact sports and indoor sports, and should require masks regardless.
  • If anyone is curious there are separate restrictions for outdoor gardening.

Many experts are rightly aghast:

Mark Gorelik, a pediatric immunologist at Columbia University and an expert on MIS-C, the rare COVID-19-related inflammatory syndrome, said, "We know that the risk of outdoor infection is very low. We know risks of children becoming seriously ill or even ill at all is vanishingly small. And most of the vulnerable population is already vaccinated. I am supportive of effective measures to restrain the spread of illness. However, the CDC's recommendations cross the line into excess and are, frankly, senseless. Children cannot be running around outside in 90-degree weather wearing a mask. Period." An infectious-disease scientist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci's agency, spoke with me about the CDC guidance on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. "With staff and parents vaccinated, there is no reason to continue incredibly strict mitigation efforts or put severe limitations on activities," they said. "Charitably," the scientist, who has an expertise in respiratory viruses, continued, "masking kids at camp outdoors is simply virtue signaling. Requiring kids to continuously wear masks at camps, even while outside playing in the heat, when it provides little additional protection is unfair and cruel to our children.

"Senseless," "cruel," and "unfair," they say of this "virtue signaling."  A doctor I frequently interview on my radio program goes further:


The CDC is further destroying its credibility and recommending unscientific courses of action that actively harm children.  Forcing young children to run around outside in sweltering summer heat wearing one or even two masks over their mouths and noses is dangerous.  I cannot believe the guidance is real, but it is.  Here's another line from the agency's website: 

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They are doing damage, and they will be ignored by growing swaths of the country.  What's especially wild is that CDC guidelines are being rejected "from the Left," if you will, by politicians and teachers unions who are neurotically committed to even more science-rejecting restrictions.  For these people, the CDC's recommendations are too lax:


That full piece is worth the read.  I'll leave you with this hagiographic weirdness from Fauci's remaining faithful flock:


How appropriate the Fauci's vaccinated action figure is wearing a mask in an enclosed container.