“It may be time to break out the masks against Covid, some experts say.” That was the headline on a CNN report posted yesterday.
Is Covid making a comeback, then? Actually, no. But it might, and CNN is anxious to ensure that your anxiety level stays high. The report concedes, with almost palpable regret, that the CDC “doesn’t make a broad recommendation for everyone to adopt masks.” But if the number of Covid hospitalizations reaches 20 per 100,000 population, CDC will make that recommendation, and CNN wants you to be ready.
Are we close to that 20-per-100,000 threshold? Not at all. CNN lets a few cold facts creep into its coverage:
Overall, there were about four new hospital admissions for every 100,000 people nationwide in the week ending August 12, which is considered low, according to CDC threshold. No counties had high levels of Covid-19 hospitalizations.
So nowhere in the country do the statistics merit a mask mandate, even by the CDC’s standards. It would take a five-fold increase in Covid hospitalizations to justify a national mandate. And yet the possibility is in the news. With CNN setting the tone, the mainstream media are poised to launch a campaign of fear.
The flu season is still a few months away, but already the headlines speculate about the number of people who might be stricken, and the advisability of receiving a vaccine that might become available. Schools that already require Covid vaccinations may add a requirement for a flu shot.
The Covid epidemic, and the intrusive mandates and lockdowns that it provoked, should have taught us the dangers of basing public-health policies on speculation about what might happen. But I fear that we, as a society, have not learned that lesson. And now we are being groomed for another set of mandates, perhaps even another round of lockdowns, prompted by inordinate fears.
Continue reading at Catholic Culture
TAKE ACTION: Contact your bishop and ask him not to lock down our churches again.