Betsy
McCaughey | Posted: Apr 28, 2021 12:01 AM
The opinions expressed by columnists are their
own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
For 14
months, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended
draconian restrictions on Americans' daily lives to combat COVID-19. The CDC
made light of the hardships and economic losses the restrictions inflicted.
Call the agency the "Centers for Doubletalk and Confusion." Now,
evidence is emerging that the restrictions were based on flimsy science or sheer
guesswork.
Last week,
MIT researchers showed that the CDC's six-foot social distancing rule has no
basis in science. If you're indoors, your risk is the same whether an infected
person is three feet away from you, or six feet away, or even 60 feet away.
So much for
carefully standing six feet apart in the grocery line. It's a joke. On you.
In
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the MIT researchers explained
that an infected person emits the virus in an aerosol that can waft across
indoor space, traveling 60 feet or more. The six-foot rule, which restaurants,
churches, schools, gyms and retailers follow, offers no protection. The key
determinants are whether you're wearing a mask and how much time you spend in
the space.
On Sunday,
White House health guru Anthony Fauci pulled the veil off another CDC
guideline, wearing a mask outdoors. He admitted the risk of contracting COVID
outdoors is "really, really quite low." Scientists have known that
for months because outdoor air movement will disperse the aerosol. You'd have
to be talking nose to nose with an infected person to catch COVID-19 outdoors.
On Tuesday,
President Joe Biden announced that the CDC is eliminating outdoor masking for
people who are vaccinated. Truth is, outdoor masking is ridiculous in almost
all circumstances. Scientists have known that since they learned how the virus
generally spreads.
When the
pandemic hit the U.S. in February 2020, scientists suspected the virus was
transmitted on surfaces and through droplets emitted when people sneeze or
cough. With no knowledge about COVID-19, they applied what they knew about
influenza. When a person with the flu coughs, droplets land on the floor or a
surface within six feet. That was the origin of the six-foot rule.
It was
guesswork. As former Food and Drug Administration head Scott Gottlieb says, the
CDC should disclose when they're uncertain about the science behind a
recommendation so we can decide "how seriously we want to take it."
By June,
"superspreader" events showed that COVID-19 differed from flu. Though
COVID can be spread on surfaces and through droplets like flu, it more often
floats across indoor spaces and is blown away outdoors.
That's when
the CDC should have reconsidered the six-foot rule and the outdoor masking
rule. Instead, Americans struggled to comply.
At the
Doubletree in Syracuse, New York, hundreds of banquet department jobs depend on
hosting big weddings. That's not possible, because New York state is requiring
tables be six feet apart, in keeping with CDC guidance.
The same
six-foot rule has been "the biggest barrier to getting kids back in
school," according to infectious disease specialist Westyn Branch-Elliman.
In March, the CDC revised guidelines but only for elementary schools. This
week, as New York students return to class, the six-foot rule is still being
applied in middle and high school, limiting capacity.
Johns
Hopkins' Dr. Marty Makary faults the CDC's "counter-science track record
of being late and wrong."
Even less
scientific than the six-foot rule is the agency's guidance for the fully
vaccinated. The agency tells them to "continue to wear masks, maintain
physical distance and practice other prevention measures when visiting with
unvaccinated people."
That
guidance eliminates a major incentive for getting the shots and will slow
America's recovery. Infections among the vaccinated do occur, but rarely, and
serious illness is even rarer. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines reduce the risk
of developing COVID by 90 to 95%, compared with being unvaccinated. U.S. data
show the risk of getting infected after these vaccines is a minuscule 0.008%.
The science
is clear: Get vaccinated and enjoy life again.
Betsy
McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and author of "The
Next Pandemic," available at Amazon.com. Contact her at
betsy@betsymccaughey.com or on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey.
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