For 14 months, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended strict restrictions on the daily lives of Americans to combat COVID-19. The CDC downplayed the difficulties and financial losses imposed by the restrictions. Call the agency the “Center for Double Talk and Confusion”. Evidence is now emerging that the limits were based on flimsy science or pure guesswork.
Last week, MIT researchers showed that the CDC’s 6-foot social distance expansion rule has no scientific basis. If you are indoors, the risk is the same whether the infected person is 3 feet, 6 feet, or 60 feet away from you.
This is the only grocery store line that stands carefully 6 feet away. That’s a joke. for you.
In the minutes of the National Academy of Sciences, MIT researchers explained that an infected person could release the virus in an aerosol and travel more than 60 feet across indoor spaces. The 6-foot rule followed by restaurants, churches, schools, gymnasiums and retail stores does not provide protection. Important determinants are whether you are wearing a mask and how much time you spend in space.
On Sunday, White House health guru Anthony Fauci wore a mask outdoors and unveiled it from another CDC guideline. He admitted that the risk of getting COVID outdoors is “really, really, quite low.” Scientists have known for months that the movement of the outside air disperses the aerosol. To be infected with COVID-19 outdoors, you need to talk with the infected person through your nose.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced that the CDC would abolish outdoor masking for vaccinated people. The truth is that outdoor masking is ridiculous in almost every situation. Scientists know it because they have learned how viruses generally spread.
When the pandemic struck the United States in February 2020, scientists suspected that the virus had spread to the surface and through the droplets released when people sneeze or cough. It was. They had no knowledge of COVID-19 and applied what they knew about influenza. When a person with the flu coughs, water droplets land on the floor or on a surface within 6 feet. That was the origin of the 6-foot rule.
That was a guess. As former Food and Drug Director Scott Gottlieb says, the CDC should disclose any uncertainties about the science behind the recommendations. Then you can judge “how seriously you want to take it”.
By June, the “Superspreader” event showed that COVID-19 was different from influenza. COVIDs can spread through surfaces and flu-like droplets, but they often float across indoor spaces and are blown outdoors.
At that time, the CDC had to revisit the 6-foot rule and the outdoor masking rule. Instead, Americans had a hard time obeying.
At Double Tree in Syracuse, NY, hundreds of banquet department jobs rely on hosting large weddings. This is not possible in New York because the tables must be 6 feet apart according to the CDC’s guidance.
According to infectious disease expert Westyn Branch-Elliman, the same 6-foot rule was “the biggest barrier to getting a child back to school.” In March, the CDC revised its guidelines, which are for elementary schools only. When New York students return to class this week, the 6-foot rule still applies in middle and high school, limiting capacity.
Dr. Marty Makary of Johns Hopkins is making a mistake in the CDC’s “counter science track record of being late and wrong.”
Even less scientific than the 6-foot rule is the guidance of a fully vaccinated institution. Authorities tell them to “wear masks, maintain physical distance and take other precautions when visiting with unvaccinated people.”
That guidance will eliminate major incentives for taking shots and delay the recovery of the United States. Infections can occur among vaccinated people, but they are rare and serious illnesses are even rarer. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines reduce the risk of developing COVID by 90-95% compared to unvaccinated. US data show that these vaccines are at risk of infection after only 0.008%.
The science is clear: get vaccinated and enjoy life again.
Betsy McCoy is a former Deputy Governor of New York State and author of “The Next Pandemic,” available on Amazon.com. Contact her at [email protected] or Twitter @ Betsy_McCaughey.
