Said the great American patriot Thomas Paine in 1777: “We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free.”
In 2021, as the cover of this Trends Journal clearly shows, the “fight” is gone, and the politicians and bureaucrats tell the people what to do and when to do it.
Last week, the CDC and the “health experts” declared Americans are free – sometimes – to not have to wear a mask.
The Associated Press wrote:
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased its guidelines Tuesday on the wearing of masks outdoors, saying fully vaccinated Americans don’t need to cover their faces anymore unless they are in a big crowd of strangers. And those who are unvaccinated can go outside without masks in some cases, too. The new guidance represents another carefully calibrated step on the road back to normal.”
Normal? As Trends Journal readers are aware, it’s been well-known scientifically for a better part of a year that virtually no one was getting infected while outdoors.
On 16 June, in our article, “MAKES NO SENSE” RULES: THE NEW ABNORMAL,” we wrote about one of the lockdown advocates, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy:
Absent a shred of scientific fact, Governor Murphy announced he would allow up to 100 people to meet outdoors (up from 25). And if everybody were good boys and girls, the limit would be raised to 250 by 22 June, then to 500 on 3 July.
On 19 May, in our article, “MENTALLY ILL POLITICIANS CREATING MENTAL ILLNESS,” we wrote:
In fact, even The New York Times noted in a 17 May article on beach openings and closing in in New York, ‘Many experts have said the risk of the virus being transmitted outdoors is fairly low.”
But There’s a Catch
No surprise, the CDC relaxing the mask mandate outdoors comes with a caveat: Get vaccinated:
“The mask guidance is modest and carefully written: Americans who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus no longer need to wear a mask outdoors while walking, running, hiking or biking alone, or when in small gatherings, including with members of their own households.”
Following its strategy of emphasizing fear and anxiety around the virus, the CDC, according to The New York Times:
“Stopped short of telling even fully vaccinated people that they could shed their masks outdoors altogether—citing the worrying risk that remains for transmitting the coronavirus, unknown vaccination levels among people in crowds and the still-high caseloads in some regions of the country.”
Only at the end of its long article did The Times admit to the growing pushback against unscientific restrictions on daily freedoms:
“The C.D.C.’s new guidance was issued amid growing debate over why the federal government was still recommending that people wear masks outdoors. Writing in The New England Journal of Medicine last week, Dr. Paul Sax, an infectious disease expert at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Massachusetts, said it was time to end outdoor mask mandates.”
TRENDPOST: Despite the CDC suggesting that vaccinated people do not have to wear masks outdoors and the numerous studies, such as the one from MIT we reviewed in last week’s Trends Journal of the very low odds of catching the virus outdoors, young and old in most states remain masked-up. (See our 27 April article, “MIT CHALLENGES SOCIAL DISTANCING RULES.”)
Moreover, The Journal of Infectious Diseases has noted: “Five identified studies found a low proportion of reported global SARS-CoV-2 infections occurred outdoors (<10%).”
