A few days late to this, but illustrative nonetheless. American golfer Bubba Watson announced on Sunday that he will be unable to compete in the forthcoming British open due to ridiculous and anti-science COVID protocols. I might understand if these were the rules a full year ago – although by that point we knew that being outdoors is overwhelmingly safe, and it's hard to imagine a more socially distanced sport than golf.
But in the summer of 2021, this is simply ludicrous, via Watson's Twitter feed:
Please read… pic.twitter.com/ryN6tDL2TU
— bubba watson (@bubbawatson) July 11, 2021
"For those wondering, the UK and US Covid-19 guidelines are quite different. Getting on the charter or a commercial flight was not an option available to me after my recent exposure. I don’t make the rules but do have to follow them," he added. To call the UK and US guidelines "quite different" is an understatement. I find it positively deranged that someone who is fully vaccinated and who tested negative, is barred from traveling and competing because of a known exposure. There's a very good reason why the CDC (which, obviously, does not govern UK rules and regulations) has advised vaccinated Americans that they do not need to enter any protocols or even get tested after an exposure, absent symptoms. Breakthrough infections are extremely rare and overwhelmingly mild and unharmful when they do occur. Watson actually did get tested, and tested negative, yet the moronic rules in place forbid him from putting others at "risk," even though there is no risk here. The man is fully vaccinated against a virus he does not have.
This is reminiscent of some of the madness that has played out here at home over the last 16 months, especially involving schools. Fortunately, at long last, CDC has issued guidance that more or less forecloses the possibility of teachers unions keeping kids out of schools this coming academic year, at least in most places, though some selfish adults will undoubtedly try anyway. Nevertheless, this represents "sanity at last," writes Allahpundit, though "sanity six months or a year ago would have been better":
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that teachers and students who are vaccinated against Covid-19 don’t need to wear masks in schools. Unvaccinated adults and children under 12, for whom vaccines haven’t yet been authorized in the U.S., should wear masks and students of all ages should continue to learn three feet apart, the CDC said. Where that isn’t possible, the CDC said, classes should be held anyway in conjunction with other precautions like ventilation and cleaning. Even where Covid-19 cases are rising as the highly contagious Delta variant spreads, the CDC said that all students and teachers should continue to meet in person and that those who are unvaccinated should be tested weekly…
We've known for many months at this point that kids are at extremely low risk for seriously negative health outcomes or death from COVID, thank God. How low? This low: "Children are at extremely slim risk of dying from Covid-19, according to some of the most comprehensive studies to date, which indicate the threat might be even lower than previously thought. Some 99.995% of the 469,982 children in England who were infected during the year examined by researchers survived, one study found. In fact, there were fewer deaths among children due to the virus than initially suspected. Among the 61 child deaths linked to a positive Covid-19 test in England, 25 were actually caused by the illness, the study found." It remains a national disgrace that so many children were locked out of in-person learning for most or all of this past school year, with documented, devastating consequences to their educational progress and overall well being. Juvenile fatalities from COVID are virtually nonexistent, just as new cases of the virus among the vaccinated are nearly nonexistent:
The Delta variant now accounts for more than half of the new coronavirus cases in the United States —52%. Almost all of the new cases — 99.7% —are among people who have not been vaccinated..."We're seeing people that are extremely sick with it," said Dr. Greg Gardner, chief of emergency medicine at Mountain West Hospital in Tooele, Utah. "A lot sicker than what they were the majority of the time in the winter time." The demographic is younger since then. Gardner said, "We haven't seen anybody that has been vaccinated."
In short, the kids are safe and the vaccines work. Finally, in an era of polarization and lack of consensus, Americans are increasingly coming around to the view that COVID likely escaped from a Wuhan lab, a viable theory that was verboten among most of the elite for months. I suppose this is also progress:
A majority of Americans now back the COVID-19 lab leak theory, and "the belief is bipartisan," according to a new poll.https://t.co/woWqYZ3oMl
— The Week (@TheWeek) July 9, 2021
A majority of Americans now believe that the novel coronavirus leaked from a laboratory, according to a poll by Politico and Harvard University. The survey found that 52 percent of Americans believe coronavirus leaked from a lab, compared with 28 percent who think the pandemic started following human contact with an infected animal. Support for the lab-leak theory is bipartisan, with 52 percent of Democrat and 59 percent of Republican respondents backing the theory.
A "debunked conspiracy theory" no more.