March 29, 2021

"I'm going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom. We have so much to look forward to... but right now, I'm scared."

"We have come such a long way...just please hold on a little while longer. I so badly want to be done. I know you all so badly want to be done. We are just almost there, just not quite yet." 

Said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky:

Not long after that, as the NYT reports:

President Biden on Monday called on governors and mayors to maintain or reinstate mask-wearing orders, saying that because of “reckless behavior,” the coronavirus was again spreading fast, threatening the progress the nation has made so far against the pandemic. “People are letting up on precautions, which is a very bad thing,” he said. “We are giving up hard-fought, hard-won gains.”...

Asked if states should pause their reopening efforts, the president replied simply, “Yes.” He said that governors, mayors, local officials and businesses should demand mask-wearing, calling it a “patriotic duty” that is crucial to the nation’s fight against the virus.

162 comments:

Joe Smith said...

This is what passes for science...'feelings.'

Fire her sorry ass immediately.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Two more weeks to flatten... something.

hawkeyedjb said...

God help us. We're governed by teenagers.

Wince said...

Where does the "impending doom" come in, literally?

Argumentum ad emotionalism, not science.

c365 said...

Always looking for someone to blame when the policies fail. In the summer the US was spiking and EU was flat and it's Trump's fault. US drops while the EU is spiking and we have nothing to say. After the US drops 70+% the numbers bounce up a bit and it's a problem of a policy or compliance of some excuse.

We can't control airborne viruses. Evolution is stronger than your sketchy mask. 70% of adults have a respiratory virus of some kind. 90% of adults have EBV, spread through saliva. Science is being used against ignorant masses and politicians, and even the scientists are giving into group think.

The war on terror and drugs will always be far more effective than a "war" against a virus. Wake up people. The definition of a virus is essentially a single particle that invades the cell and replicates itself into other cells. A single viral particle in peer reviewed studies has been shown to create infections that reproduce by the trillions.

Want to win this "war"? Focus on your immune system. We've spent a year ignoring health and focusing on isolation. What a feckless policy. Sunlight, nutrition, and high intensity exercise.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The Persuaders sing to the unpersuaded...

Link

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Where does the "impending doom" come in, literally?

That's the problem with this virus. It's not deadly enough to declare martial law, but it's just deadly enough to tie us up in knots.

boatbuilder said...

Keep that sweet pelf coming.

Jim at said...

These people can just fuck right off.

Jeff C said...

The feeling of doom is over losing their ability to control the rest of us.

Hamlet's Fool said...

I suspect their real fear is that states like Texas without mask mandates or Florida that are largely open will not have increased infections. That, of course, would demonstrate the folly of the lockdowns and THAT WILL NOT DO!!!! After all, what if people start to question the past rules for the past 12-ish months?

So they push for everyone to go back to lockdowns hoping that even the red states will fall in line.

This, of course, is also why the metric moved from deaths to hospitalizations to "infections" (defined as positive tests) -- to enable them to claim that the crisis was still on.

Yancey Ward said...

Joe Shitforbrains can go fuck himself if he still remembers were he left Jill's dildo and his asshole.

chuck said...

Yeah, NY and NJ are having problems. My state is doing fine, Biden and Walensky can just eff off.

Yancey Ward said...

The state with the biggest spike in new cases, by far, is Michigan. I guess they should reinstate the statewide mask mandate, right?

JaimeRoberto said...

A month ago I figured they'd find a reason to lock us down some more for Easter, but with the numbers declining as they have, I changed my mind. It seems they are not giving up so easily though.

walter said...

Open the border!

Tina848 said...

So the masks and measures taken prevented the flu this year, but cannot stop COVID. Seems like it should work the same way.

robother said...

I just hate it when a doctor gives me a diagnosis of impending doom, just, you know, based on her gut feeling. Why I've given up on female doctors.

MeMySelf said...

We have 10's of thousands wandering across the southern boarder, all invited in by His Fraudulency, Dick Head Joe and his merry gang of asswipes. Many testing positive and being bused all over the country. They all can just fuck straight off.

stevew said...

Fuck em', fuck em' all.

Mrs. stevew and I are going to our granddaughters 9th birthday celebration this weekend, and we are planning to celebrate Easter with DIL's family on Sunday. Go ahead, try to arrest me.

If these assholes are correct, why is there a vaccine and outrageous demands that everyone be vaccinated, or forfeit their ability to wander about as they please?

JaimeRoberto said...

"I'm going to pause here. I'm going to lose the script."

Yet she continues to look down at the script. More theater.

Josephbleau said...

The last person I would take any advice from is Joe Beiden. In fact, I would probably feel safer doing the opposite of anything he suggested.

independent said...

Those who refuse to wear masks are already directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans. What's another 100k or so?

stevew said...

You're kidding, right?

I Callahan said...

Those who refuse to wear masks are already directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans. What's another 100k or so?

No, they’re not. The worst states have the highest mask compliance. Michigan is one of them. Explain that.

Enough with the fear pr0n.

Goldenpause said...

Another so-called professional acting unprofessionally. Can you imagine your treating physician saying he/she is “scared?” Where do they find these people?

Ray - SoCal said...

Masks NOW,
Masks FOREVER!

Hey Skipper said...

Over the last several days I drove from Wheeling, WV to Boise, ID.

Not a lot of restrictions anywhere. I was pleased to see that in Iowa, Nebraska, and Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho masks were nearly as rare as sparkly pastel unicorns.

To be fair, it was pretty annoying having to kick corpses out of the way to get into a restaurant.

Wait. What? No corpses? You mean this stupid, hysterical, bint is blowing it right out her fundament?

I have an idea. Let Teh Science™ speak for itself.

If memory serves, Texas is Neanderthal thinking embodied. So of course cases are skyrocketing. Except the exact opposite of that. That we haven't heard about this proves journalists are lazy, incurious, and deeply stupid.

Jim said...

These people can just fuck right off.


Mr. O. Possum said...

That was the single worst performance by any American political leader ever. Pitiful.

Tyrone Slothrop said...

I'm not sure I want people who anticipate doom to be making important decisions, or any decisions at all. I prefer realistic optimists like Donald Trump.

rhhardin said...

It's not doom it's just a lot more cases. Getting the disease works as well as a vaccination, so in terms of stopping the disease it also sort of works, just with a delay.

It's all about Rzero, how many people you infect on the average. If they're all vaccinated or immune, enough to get Rzero below 1.0, then the disease dies out. If restarted by a traveller, it doesn't explode but just produces a few local cases which also die out.

Social distancing gets Rzero to below 1.0 faster, is all.

Humperdink said...

"Those who refuse to wear masks are already directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans."

Fraudci at the baseball opener? Gruesome Newsome at the French Laundry for dinner? Masks? Don't need no stinkin' masks.

walter said...

Build back bother

iowan2 said...

Govt has been lying about covid since the start.

Tell me about the dead. We have all the vulnerable vaccinated. Exactly who is dying and from what?
Yes we should have new infections.But death from covid is in the rearview mirror.

David Begley said...

I was married to a doctor for years. I know many doctors. I use to defend doctors in medical malpractice cases. Real doctors don’t treat patients or offer opinions based on feelings.

Clyde said...

Bullshit! I just looked at the COVID tracker website and the number of new daily cases each week has been flat for about the past three weeks. It hasn't gone down, but it's not going up, either. More and more people are getting the vaccine (I got my first shot today). As more people get the vaccine and get protection from the virus, herd immunity will come into play and the virus will start to disappear. We don't need power-mad politicos giving us more restrictions.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

They have to keep it going at least until the midterms.

I'm Not Sure said...

"President Biden on Monday called on governors and mayors to maintain or reinstate mask-wearing orders..."

Because, God forbid, there be some unmasked people somewhere to compare things to. Just like with socialism, it's got to be complete compliance with nobody opting out. Otherwise, there is an alternate example reasonable people can use to evaluate the efficacy of the policy.

gspencer said...

"We have come such a long way...just please hold on a little while longer"

SHADDUP !!

Shouting Thomas said...

If I had known, a year ago, the full extent of the casualties, I would still have opposed the shutdowns and masks.

Freedom is worth the risk.

I’m really exhausted with seeing terrified people.

Big Mike said...

“I so badly want to be done. I know you all so badly want to be done. We are just almost there, just not quite yet."

Is anybody actually gullible enough to believe her? The NIH and the CDC are the next door neighbor who keeps promising to return the tools he borrowed, and in the meantime could he borrow something else? The CDC and Fauci and Birx squandered the trust that the entire medical profession had built up over the centuries. And for what? So they could play tin god for twelve months? Does this woman get a thrill out of restaurants and other businesses forced to close? Does she (for that matter, does Althouse) care about the single mother trying to buy food and nice clothes for her kids but the restaurant has closed it’s doors for the last time? Hey! She could have gone to med school or law school, right? Of if she’d aborted those kids she could get by on stimulus payments and unemployment, right?

Look, this disease is not the near death sentence it was this time last year. It’s treatable. So now it I s time for us to get on with our lives, rebuild our lives and our economy. And as for Dr. Walensky, we do not trust you, we do not like you. We. Have. HAD!!! It.

n.n said...

Intuitive, anecdotal, hypothesis (e.g. model), yes. Science, no. Masks that are anything less than N95 and following strict protocol, act as viral collectors, and petri dishes, increasing infections. The probability of transmission outside of environments with a greenhouse effect approaches zero, not impossible, but improbable. There is no evidence of any significant asymptomatic transmission. Wash your hands, now, and always to mitigate fecal transmission. Oh, and don't forget the google... goggles. The eyes are a window to social and viral contagion.

Postoperative wound infections and surgical face masks: a controlled study

Effectiveness of Adding a Mask Recommendation to Other Public Health Measures to Prevent SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Danish Mask Wearers

Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses

The majority of spread occurs in lockdowns (e.g. homes) and social contagion driving herd stampedes. The deaths attributed to SARS-CoV-2 occur in Planned Parent/hood, medical facilities (i.e. cross-contamination), and unsanitary environments (i.e. fecal transmission). The disease progression and excess deaths is mainly because of early expert, political, and popular denial and stigmatization of inexpensive, effective, low-risk treatments that normalize community immunity.

The progress of the COVID-19 epidemic in Sweden: an update

Whether the longer or shorter regression periods provide better estimates of normal mortality in 2019 and 2020, it seems clear that excess deaths, as a proportion of the population, were much higher in England than in Sweden. Excess deaths in England per 100,000 population were about four times those in Sweden for 2019 and 2020 combined, and about double those in Sweden for 2020 alone

Other factors, perhaps. Avoiding policy dictated by intuitive science minimizes, not infection rates, but mitigates disease progression, excess deaths, and collateral damage.

Interested Bystander said...

Bullshit. They’re planning something big. A coup or something.

boatbuilder said...

So I said to myself--She's the head of the CDC, she must be talking about something...real. Right?

I checked Worldometers. The graphs tell a story. A very clear story.

She is either pitifully unqualified for her job, or she's a despicable lying actor. Or both.

John Cunningham said...

A CDC study a couple of weeks ago found that masks and social distancing reduced Chinavirus spread between zero and 0.7%. well within the margin of error. Coronaviruses cannot be wiped out--eventually immunity builds up.

MacMacConnell said...

She is a coward, maybe she should teach in public school.

iowan2 said...

COVID tracker website and the number of new daily cases each week has been flat for about the past three weeks

Another of the lies. We have never tracked other infections diseases by "cases" its always been infections. Now its cases...predicated on the cycle count used in the test. Higher cycle count, higher case numbers.

n.n said...

Getting the disease works as well as a vaccination, so in terms of stopping the disease it also sort of works, just with a delay.

Whether antigen or vaccine, there is a delay as the immune system reacts and mobilizes the body's defenses. A large minority have preexisting (e.g. coreactive) immunity. A large minority develop immunity through infection. Some will need treatments (e.g. HCQ cocktail, Ivermectin protocol) to supplement immune system response to improve viability. A minority of people in high-risk categories (e.g. "fat is beautiful" is a comorbidity, drugs that degrade cardiovascular and pulmonary function) will benefit from the vaccine(s). Community immunity reduces the spread (e.g. exponential blooms) through minimization of safe sanctuaries and gateways.

alfromchgo said...

Off her meds?

I wouldn't do....

Mary Beth said...

I am tired of my life being governed by other people's fears. I am not a risk-taker by any stretch of the imagination, but I do not understand the level of fear exhibited by some people over the past year. It's like fear is a drug and they just work themselves up to get more and more of it.

I'm Not Sure said...

"It's like fear is a drug and they just work themselves up to get more and more of it."

Not just fear. Power is pretty addictive, too.

Michael K said...

Blogger independent said...
Those who refuse to wear masks are already directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans. What's another 100k or so?


Another anonymous Catholic troll who will explain why the superspreader event at the motorcycle rally in Sturgis SD killed all those motorcycle riders.

Other infotainment outlets that fell for this rotten study include the usual suspects, and to date not one has issued a retraction or correction that I could find.

One death in 350,000 attendees.

Try again, troll.

Leon said...

If you're wearing a mask and someone farts can you smell it? Them small scent particles just came right through didn't they....? Hummmmm.

Rabel said...

Tonight at Eleven!

n.n said...

A CDC study a couple of weeks ago found that masks and social distancing reduced Chinavirus spread between zero and 0.7%. well within the margin of error.

Was that the one based on anecdotal (e.g. limited sites/signal diversity) evidence or the one based on a model (i.e. hypothesis)? It confirms the observation from controlled studies. At best, non-pharmaceutical measures break even, and at worst increase infection rates in specialized use and especially in the general population.

Harsh Pencil said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Harsh Pencil said...

Blogger rhhardin said...

It's all about Rzero, how many people you infect on the average. If they're all vaccinated or immune, enough to get Rzero below 1.0, then the disease dies out. If restarted by a traveller, it doesn't explode but just produces a few local cases which also die out.

Social distancing gets Rzero to below 1.0 faster, is all.

3/29/21, 6:36 PM

Just to be that guy. R0 is a constant. It's how many people the average person would give a disease to over the course of their infection if 100% of the population was susceptible. Measles has an R0 of about 15. Covid-19 has an estimated R0 of about 2.5.

What you are referring to is Rt which is defined to equal St times R0. St is fraction of the population who can still get it at a given time (susceptible at date t) either because they had NOT already gotten it or hadn't yet been vaccinated. And you are right that if Rt < 1, then the average infected person gives it to less than one person, so the outbreak dies. The idea is that if the average person would give it to 2.5 people if 100% of the people he met were susceptible, he would only give it 2.5 x St if only St fraction of the people he met were susceptible.

So if R0 really is 2.5, then as soon as 60% of the population either has had it or has been vaccinated, this thing dies out, masks or not.

rcocean said...

I'm beyond caring. The USA is stupidity on steroids. Large numbers have been vaccinated. Large number have had the disease and are immune. Even when CV-19 was raging out of control, only those over 60 and with co-morbidity were dying at significantly high rates. Even then your chance of survival was 99.5%.

And who cares what Senile Joe thinks? Assuming he even thinks.

n.n said...

killed all those motorcycle riders.

A Brockovich event, or Silent Spring. Deadly in the laboratory, in theory, but fails to produce a statistically significant outcome in open environments without a greenhouse effect. Ironically, Obama's Arab Spring produced more excess deaths and collateral damage.

doctrev said...

Remember: if people give you grief about underpredicting China Flu, point out that you thought you lived in a First World society where the ruling elite weren't the bitches of the Chinese. That said, I'm unbearably smug about this poor woman's distress. If the vaccine was effective and safe, she'd be constantly giddy. She's gonna be a HERO, make tons of MONEY, and be ever so POPULAR! Instead she's just about ready to cry, like someone who's hoping she gets the gallows just to avoid burning at the stake.

Why is that? Does she know something we don't know? Don't get me wrong, if you're a retired nurse who's so much smarter than the actual doctors who brought us the original Warp Speed vaccines, go nuts- jab yourself all you want. Me, I'm going to wait comfortably. I hate the braying apes that call themselves professional athletes, and I avoid entertainment from the Hollywood pedo cult whenever I can. If you need a vaccine passport to enter a grocery store, I'm absolutely confident I can wait things out long enough for guards and citizens to be killed all over America. I'm rather looking forward to the impending disaster.

rcocean said...

Is masks were so important why was Dr. Facui - Dr Genius - not recommending them at the start?
I thought social distancing was as good as a mask. I also learned that 3 feet is as good as 6 feet. I mean c'mon. The ENTIRE WORLD has been dealing with this for over a year. Why is this even a matter of controversy or flip-flops or fear?

People are always yapping about SCIENCE. well, what does the fucking science say? Spit it out.

Mark said...

Hasn't Police State Joe gotten the vaccine?

Because I saw him in a clip from today and he was double masked, a cloth mask over a paper one.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Leon said...

If you're wearing a mask and someone farts can you smell it? Them small scent particles just came right through didn't they....? Hummmmm.

Shhhhh! Don't give 'em any ideas!

(Not that we aren't a couple of weeks away from having Fauci insist that you have to shove a mask up your ass when you go out....to be safe! Yeah, that's it! To be safe!)

I'm Not Sure said...

"Not that we aren't a couple of weeks away from having Fauci insist that you have to shove a mask up your ass when you go out....to be safe! Yeah, that's it! To be safe!"

Easy enough for Fauci- he's already got his head up in there.

n.n said...

Is masks were so important why was Dr. Facui - Dr Genius - not recommending them at the start?

Honesty. Integrity. Anything short of N95 following strict protocol will either break even, at best, or increase infection rates, at worst, and restrictive mandates generally produce collateral damage. Oh, and don't forget the goggles. The eyes are window to social and viral contagion. Ironically, conveniently, coincidentally, right, the mask mandates, social distancing (less than 4 meters?), reduce legal liability.

Leland said...

In Harris County Texas, the local government leader, Lockdown Lena, wants us to stay in lockdown. To do this, she developed her own set of guidelines. She removed the link to John Hopkins metric dashboard and replaced it with her own. She claims the governor is to dangerous to open up the state, but remember when we were told we needed to lockdown to flatten the curve? Well, you scroll to the bottom of her dashboard and see that local Covid hospital population numbers have been in decline since Jan 23rd. The curve is not just flat, it is falling. Every other metric is about people testing positive, which will remain high as long as people continue to be tested and counted as new. And it was shown by a local school district that the county was neglecting to avoid double counting repeat testing of the same case as a new case.

All of this only matters if you really care about the science rather than your personal fears.

I'm Not Sure said...

"All of this only matters if you really care about the science rather than your personal fears."

I wouldn't rule out the possibility she gets a virtual hardon (if she's cis, otherwise a regulation one) ordering people around.

JPS said...

What a leader, Dr. Walensky. You know, I think Churchill rallied the English people with something like that: I have a feeling of impending doom....I’m scared.

I’m all for leveling with people. My biggest criticism of Trump on this front would be the shoot-from-the-hip happy talk. This will all evaporate. Sober, well-chosen words can help. But if you’re so scared that you feel the need to tell people how scared you are, quit. Turn the job over to someone made of sterner stuff.

Sebastian said...

"I'm going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom."

OMFG. "Following the science."

But with "leaders" like her and Joe, we are in fact doomed.

Joe Smith said...

We used to be the nation with the biggest balls on the planet.

Now we're a bunch of sniveling babies...with apologies to sniveling babies.

Xi is wetting his pants with laughter.

Michael said...

Embarrassing.

William said...

That's some Emmy quality sincerity. Just suppose, she's actually arguing in good faith but also suppose that she's wrong. We'll know soon enough. What bothers me is not that she's probably wrong but that there will be no consequences for her having been wrong. Cuomo made a lame decision about sending those active viral cases back to a nursing home. I presume he did not do this to thin out the nursing home population but simply because he made the wrong decision. Like her, he's paid to make the right decision even when the data might be ambiguous or confusing. He didn't, and there's a good chance she's also wrong. If it turns out that her sense of impending doom is wildly exaggerated, she'll shrug it off and go on to manage the next health crisis.

PB said...

She needs medical leave and professional help for her fears.

PB said...

The CDC is most definitely a cargo cult.

Original Mike said...

Good pep talk.

gilbar said...

Where's Tim in Vermont (used to be Florida, but i guess is back to Vermont)
don't WE ALL want to hear Tim's slant on all this?

Gravel said...

Fuck these idiots.

gilbar said...

Serious Question
So, it looks like; SOON, citizens will need to show their Vaccine Passports to travel
(or work (or go to the show (or the grocery store)))
But,
illegal Aliens (Sorry! Undocumented Democrats) will be allowed FULL travel privileges

Isn't That SPECIAL?
Jose, from Honduras won't need a vaccine to get into the country
Jose, from Honduras won't need a vaccine to work under the table doing yardwork
Jose, from Honduras won't need a vaccine to travel AROUND town, or the county, or the country...
BUT YOU WILL

DavidUW said...

She's a fucking moron.
just like Fraudci

ken in tx said...

The feeling of impending doom is called anxiety. Lexapro is good for it.

DavidUW said...

Also, if you believer her "just a little longer" BULLSHIT, you are also a fucking moron.

They will "order" masking and distancing and all that crap forever, unless there is mass (un)civil disobedience.

Iowa got rid of their mandate in early Feb.. Where's the MASSIVE SURGE?
etc. etc

richlb said...

"We have come such a long way...just please hold on a little while longer"

How many times have we heard that canard.

grimson said...

I checked Nebraska's COVID hospitalizations and over the last couple of weeks, they have decreased about 25%. Don't expect us to pause reopening.

MountainMan said...

I completed my 2nd vaccination 7 weeks ago. Right now I have little fear of Covid. My wife and I have begun living our lives again. Cases and deaths in my community are down to almost nothing. I do have a significantly increasing fear of HR 1, PRO Act, tax increases, 3T "infrastructure" bill, PR/DC statehood, metastasizing critical race theory, a border that is out of control, a non-existent President, an increasingly belligerent China, and media that does nothing but tell lies or ignore important news. Other than that I am OK.

Owen said...

MountainMan @ 9:32: What you said.

This show is so over.

Francisco D said...

ken in tx said...The feeling of impending doom is called anxiety. Lexapro is good for it.

Lexapro is an anti-depressant, A good Kentucky bourbon is a better choice, IMO.

KellyM said...

Good Lord, she's a panic. Getting herself so emotional and close to bawling. And she's a retired nurse? I hope she wasn't acting like that around actual patients. Makes me think of the scene from "Gone With The Wind" where Prissy got all het up about delivering Melanie's baby.

The Godfather said...

My wife and I have had our shots, so we're immune (if the vaccines don't work, we're ALL in REALLy deep sh*t). We still wear masks in public. Why? I suppose, pour encourager les autres (to encourage the others). It really isn't a big deal to wear a mask in stores, etc. The big thing is to open the stores, the restaurants, the shops, the churches, and MOST IMPORTANTLY the schools. If we have to compromise on masks to get reopening, it's OK with me. But if THEY start closing everything down again, then it's Katy Bar the Door as far as I'm concerned (young Ms. Althouse might have to look up that phrase).

LA_Bob said...

People, stay locked down
Just a little bit longer.
Stay stay stay don't play
Just a little bit longer.

Now the CDC don't mind.
Teachers' unions don't mind.
I got a feelin' of doom
While I'm talkin' on Zoom,
Singin' the same old song

Oh, won't you lock down
Just a little bit longer.
Please please please
Say you will, say you will

I'm Not Sure said...

"My wife and I have had our shots, so we're immune (if the vaccines don't work, we're ALL in REALLy deep sh*t). We still wear masks in public."

So- for show, then? But you don't mind, so it's okay. Got it.

Maybe in the next act of "safety theater", there will be something you do mind. How will you feel if everybody else just blows off your concerns? Because- you know- they don't mind?

Ken B said...

Shorter CDC director: Don’t drive the car until the doors are closed.

Shorter Yancey Ward: Fuck that, pedal to the metal, and pass the tequila!

Ken B said...

Covidiots above are ignoring that her feelings are just rhetoric. She cited numbers as the justification for being careful.

Ken B said...

Shorter Yancey: Grandma had her extra year, now let it rip!

Ken B said...

Doctor: Don’t go skiing until the cast is off.
Big Mike: SKI TIME!

LA_Bob said...

"We have so much to look forward to [the Variants], so much promise and potential of where we are [more doomsday models to come!], and so much reason for hope [that I can send you all back to lock down at the flick of a pen]. But right now I'm scared [herd immunity is coming and you'll forget me]"

Ken B said...

CDC: We are approaching her immunity, but we aren’t there yet, and some outbreaks are still occurring. Please act responsibly for a little longer until more people are vaccinated.
Althouse Covidiots: Hell no, grandma has lived long enough!

chuck said...

I just looked at the COVID tracker website

Which one? https://covidtracking.com/ shut down March 7.

madAsHell said...

It's almost like she sees her paycheck depending upon Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.

Roger This said...

Shut up Ken B. For the love of god, shut up!

madAsHell said...

I think we can re-purpose a Pete Seeger song......

"Where has all the ammo gone?
Long time passing."

wildswan said...

Dear Weepy CDC Leader,
That "increasing feeling of doom" comes from increasingly realizing your country is the hands of clowns like yourself. We all feel the same. Unity.
Sincerely Sick of All of You
Patriot

Yancey Ward said...

Karen B spinning through the thread like a top. So, we hang on for two weeks, right Karen B?

I know you refuse to actually look at the data, but all the data in the US for the last two weeks demonstrates beyond all doubt that what Biden and his idiot CDC director said today is a load of horseshit so deep it would bury the Himalayas.

The states with mask mandates and the most lockeddown are suffering the increases in cases, not the states that don't. The masks don't work, and the lockdowns may actually be making the the situation worse, not better. One cannot escape the feeling that people like you want everyone locked down and masked so that the counterfactuals don't exist. Well guess what- they can't be hidden any longer. All the policies you advocated for failed. I don't think you realized just how fucking stupid you looked last week crowing about how the policies flattened the curve to get to a vaccine. If that is your measure of success, it is amazing you can wipe your ass any better than President Joe Shitforbrains.

Ken B said...

Yancey Ward aka Fox Butterfield.

Yancey Ward said...

You are just an idiot that can't admit you and all the other Karens fucked it up last year, Ken. Everyone but Inga can see it here, so you are fooling no one.

Peter said...

No correlation between mask mandates and caseload / death rates per state
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/bidens-call-for-reinstating-mask-mandates-undercut-by-evidence-from-texas-and-michigan/

Rt41Rebel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rt41Rebel said...

I agree with Ken B on many things, but he's def a Karen B on all things Covid. Perhaps he's bitter that he has to take his vitamin D in suppository doses as a Canadian, while some of us down here are awash in it in our daily open maskless living.

DeepRunner said...

After a year-long lockdown, people are ready to get on with life. It pays for Biden (or his puppet masters) and Walensky to keep things in perpetual stasis, or so they appear to think. Seems to me she got in trouble a couple months ago by saying schools should be ready to open again. The NEA/AFT overlords objected, and she had to reverse course.

Besides, if Muttering Joe can keep the sisters of suburbia focused on this, less time to pay attention to the epidemic incursion at the southern border.

Tarrou said...

Not quite yet. Just a few decades more. Maybe a century, certainly no longer than five hundred years.

wendybar said...

They need you good and scared so they can CONTROL you better.

Lewis Wetzel said...

How about some context for Walensky's words?
Michael Osterholm is a public health expert and virologist working out of the University of Minnesota. He advised MN governor Walz on his lockdown strategy & was one of the covid experts on Biden's transition team.
Here is what Osterholm said on the 29th of January (8 weeks ago).
Now we're down to 150,000 cases, which surely feels better than 300,000 cases. But this is our new baseline. And this is what we'll jump off on with the next challenge. And these new variants, we're seeing these mutated viruses are much more infectious and do actually produce much more serious illness. And I anticipate over the next six to 14 weeks, the darkest days of this pandemic are going to occur.

In fact, since January 29, new daily covid cases in the US have dropped from 155,000 to 65,000. (-42%).

And here is Osterholm on Feb. 18, when asked if he still stood by his prediction:
I'm more convinced that that's actually the case. I think right now what we're seeing is basically the lull before the storm. I liken it in a sense to — imagine we're all sitting on this beautiful sand beach on the Gulf somewhere. Blue skies, temperature of 80 degrees, slight breeze, not a cloud in the sky. And we're trying to tell people, "Get ready to evacuate." Everyone is saying "Why? this makes no sense." But we can see that Category 5 hurricane 400 miles south of the beach heading straight towards the beach. And that's what these variants represent right now.

Since February 18, daily new covid cases have dropped from 72,000 to 65,000 (9%).
These people know nothing.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Ken B... The sky is always falling somewhere! Warn them.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Virus is gonna virus. That's why The world banned the Wuhan type research. These people gonna lead America to dust.

BUMBLE BEE said...

By all means continue to buy Chinese!

jeremyabrams said...

How many Wuhan virus particles can fit in a fart molecule? Um, many, I'd guess. And the fart molecule can sneak through/around your mask...

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

This is how the Left does “science.” WTF is this hysterical skank in charge of anything much less a medical research and policy bureaucracy?

This is not normal. This is not “boring but competent” as some had hoped. No this is the disaster of the Peter Principle writ large and its corollary “fucked up personnel = fucked up policy”!

stevew said...

"hang on just a little while longer" How long, exactly? A year ago it was "14 days to flatten the curve", 14 days have become 365+ and counting. 14 days is, to me, a little while so are you saying we've got another year to go?

There was a time when America's attitude in the face of diversity was expressed this way: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.". Unfortunately they replaced the guy that thought that way with Slo' Joe.

God of the Sea People said...

I saw something about one of the new variants causing no symptoms and being undetectable by current tests. If that is the case, why should we even care? It is Schroedinger's Virus at that point, everyone both has it and doesn't have it at the same time. If it doesn't cause symptoms, then the only reason it would possibly matter is to give these busybodies a justification for continuing to interject themselves into our lives.

Even this pathetic woman acknowledges that there is light at the end of the tunnel- but first she has to try and scare you back into obsequiousness.

Temujin said...

We're led by hand-wringers, race-baiters, and liars. The worst leaders in our history.

Breezy said...

Ya - she needs to go. She’s not leading. She’s wallowing.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Really surprised Biden hasn’t offered Kenb a job as CDC spokeshole since he has the sky-is-falling act down cold.

gilbar said...

remember the Old Days? Back when they said We Had To Wear Masks; because they DID Something?
What's the reason for the masks now?
I mean, other than to show Submission to the Will of the State?

Leland said...

I see Karen B came here to paraphrase people since xe can’t argue on the merits. I provided links to data earlier. Today, three weeks after Texas lifted its lockdown mandate, COVID cases in this state are a record low. For those that didn’t know, the mandate was lifted just prior to Spring Break, so much for super spreader event theory.

Meanwhile, a pandemic isn’t enough to get Biden to prevent COVID infected migrants from crossing our borders illegally. Trump did it, but all the Biden Harris Administration can do is blame the previous administration for making them look bad by comparison. If the pandemic is still here and bad enough to restrict freedom, then quit importing new patients to flood our hospitals.

iowan2 said...

Ken B said...
CDC: 1) We are approaching her immunity , 2)but we aren’t there yet , 3)some outbreaks are still occurring. 4)Please act responsibly for a little longer 5)until more people are vaccinated.
6)Althouse Covidiots: 7)Hell no, grandma has lived long enough!


1) No definition, the very definition of propaganda.
2) Where exactly does "there" reside?
3) What outbreaks, where, numbers??? When?
4) What is responsible? "a little..." is that more than a smidge? less than a bit?
5) HOW MANY more? We are working with known values, but KB refuses to us the number.
6) Playground taunts always signal dispassionate citing of science.
7) Grandma received her second shot yesterday, and the science informs us that the
single dose is 100% effective at keeping recipients out of the hospital, and alive.

DanTheMan said...

I believe that most of us are past paying much attention to the CDC "guidance", as it seems much more political than medical.
Here in Florida, our kids have been in school all year, businesses are open, and even in those with signs saying "mask required for entry" you will see lots of people without masks. It's been that way for quite a while now.

And yet, some act as if we the dead are being piled up left and right... It's almost as if that's what they want to see, to justify their own fears.

tim in vermont said...

Case counts are rising, are hospitalizations rising? Are death counts rising? Call me then.

tim in vermont said...

Obviously masks are a highly emotional issue with certain people and the idea of wearing one causes them great psychological pain which shouldn’t be taken lightly. That’s not sarcasm, BTW.

DavidUW said...

Obviously masks are a highly emotional issue with certain people and the idea of wearing one causes them great psychological pain which shouldn’t be taken lightly. That’s not sarcasm, BTW.
>>
Forcing people to accept lies and discomfort is unacceptable.

You're a fucking fascist, timmy.

BillieBob Thorton said...

We are ruled by a bunch of fucking morons.

Birches said...

Some of us were opened with masks The Godfather since the summer. And we all didn't die. Now that the old and vulnerable are vaccinated we're taking the next step by refusing mask theater. I'm sorry you live in a place where you haven't been free, but the rest of us will continue to push for normal.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

The number of COVID deaths is the other Big Lie of the fake pandemic. Every honest review finds 40% or more of the deaths attributed to WuFlu are not actually from the ChiCom virus. This includes traffic deaths where a victim previously had a positive test, and routine flu & pneumonia deaths labeled CommieFlu because they fit the description and are called “COVID deaths” by default. How far above 40%? We may never know. But it is NOT 500K or anything close to it.

Birches said...

I know one Grandpa who has died of COVID in the last year, but five parents of friends who died because of the lockdowns. Hmmm.

Birches said...

Texas cases might possibly go up again, but it will have nothing to do with masks and everything to do with the virus waves that come and go. See NY, NJ and Michigan right now.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Tim, you confuse psychological pain with self respect.

Brian said...

Our local Walmart the other day switched from "masks mandated for everyone" to "masks recommended". If you didn't look for the sign though you would never know the new policy. Everybody was still wearing masks. Humans get into habit. Nobody questions, why?

Known Unknown said...

CDC Directors should not be engaging in this sort of drama. It's wholly unprofessional.

I'm Not Sure said...

"I believe that most of us are past paying much attention to the CDC "guidance", as it seems much more political than medical."

A wise choice, considering that the CDC lied to us about mask usage last year. At this point, nothing they say can be trusted without independent verification and confirmation.

AZ Bob said...

"I'm gonna pause here. I'm gonna lose the script...," she said as she continued to read from the prompter.

I'm Not Sure said...

Obviously masks are a highly emotional issue with certain people and the idea of not wearing one causes them great psychological pain which shouldn’t be taken lightly.

That’s not sarcasm, either.

gilbar said...


Remember the Old Days?
Back when Tim in Vermont advocated for Complete Lockdowns?
Funny thing is; Tim doesn't remember that!

Back when Tim in Vermont advocated for Complete Mask Mandates?
Funny thing is; Tim doesn't remember that!

Back when Tim in Vermont SWORE, that the Governor of Florida, was PERSONALLY trying to MURDER Tim (PERSONALLY!!) by relaxing Mask Mandates?
Funny thing is; Tim doesn't remember that!

Tim Vermont wants us All to forget his scary dreams

DavidUW said...

A wise choice, considering that the CDC lied to us about mask usage last year. At this point, nothing they say can be trusted without independent verification and confirmation
>>
As of October 2019, they had pandemic recommendations on their website that included the statement that "masks have not been shown to be effective at reducing respiratory virus transmission"

and that lockdowns should be very limited and also that the "benefit" of locking down had never been shown to be greater than the harm.

Unknown said...

Impending doom? Patriotic duty? The Democratic party has always played fast and loose with the meaning of words. Like Democratic.

bleh said...

Being on the verge of tears should be disqualifying for a CDC Director. I mean, if the tears are genuine. I believe the whole thing was staged, choreographed, rehearsed, etc. These people really think performative sadness is the best way to motivate Americans to trust them and take the virus seriously.

If they're right, God help us. We're too far gone and China will "eat our lunch" (to use Biden's phrase) for the next century.

Leland said...

our kids have been in school all year

Same in Texas. Years from now, this will be more pronounced as Florida and Texas students will be further ahead than NY and California. Of course, NY and California won't care. They'll just ask for a bailout or reparations to cover the gap they caused by their poor decisions.

Remember the Old Days?

I certainly do.

Paul said...

The Doom shtick is just a leftist scare tactic. They love sheep... and expect you to behave like sheep.


Texas COVID-19 rates are going down down down!!! Mask are being used less. Everyone is enjoying life down here..

The CDC can go f*ck a D*ck.

exhelodrvr1 said...

She's too emotional to be in that position.

exhelodrvr1 said...

There is no evidence that, over the long term, masks and/or lockdowns help control the spread, and some evidence that they actually are contributing factors to the spread.

Tom said...

It’s a bit difficult for me to square the hyperventilation sparked from the impending doom of allowing businesses to open and government mask mandate to expire - versus - the catastrophe that the Biden-Harris administration has caused at the southern border.

Aggie said...

Dear, your policies are failing because your politics are failing.

Jerry said...

Tim in Vermont said : Case counts are rising, are hospitalizations rising? Are death counts rising? Call me then.

Case counts (and they're not CASES so much as they are 'Positive Tests') aren't rising as such - difference between yesterday's and today's count (from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/ ) is 69,888 - UP about 10k from last week's Monday/Tuesday comparison - but we're WAY below the January/Feb numbers, and not up much from last week's numbers. So I think this MAY be a normal variation - but it's hard to tell.

(It helps if you actually keep track of the daily differences. Excel can make some really nice charts with enough data.)

What does 10k new positive tests mean? About 200 cases per state. My state (Georgia) is pretty much at a low (806 positive tests - haven't seen it this low since... maybe June?)

Hospitalizations - they're rising a bit - we had 1169 covid positives in the state yesterday, 1213 today, but last Friday we had 1242 - so a net drop.

https://dph.georgia.gov/covid-19-daily-status-report

Deaths - Nationwide - 689. Beginning of March we had maybe 1500-2000/day nationwide. Statewide - we had 51/day averaged over the weekend, today's count was 36. Last Tuesday we had 26, last Wednesday we had 16.

For a state with 12 million people, I don't FEEL a sense of doom - I FEEEL like we're getting to a point where we have a relatively constant, endemic level of it in the population. We may have another spike, but it's not going to be as bad as January/February, or even last summer's peak.

And locally I'm seeing mask compliance at around 60-70%, if that much. People don't see Covid as a threat. And the numbers... I'm not sure they're wrong. (BTW, there was essentially NO flu for most of last year. I'm thinking it got folded into Covid numbers...)

YMMV, results not guaranteed, data open to analysis - but the media has NO vested interest in making sure that the data they put out is accurate, and every incentive to get you to constantly check back for the 'latest breaking news'.

Bilwick said...

I have a feeling of impending doom, too. The resurgence of statism is sure to bring about a rise in Democide. Right, Inga?

Charlie said...

Looks like an audition tape for a weekend MSNBC show.

Tim said...

They figured out they were about to lose the midterms in a landslide if they didn't keep those absentee ballots flowing by the millions. They are stretching for an excuse to cheat again.

Dude1394 said...

Biden is another democrat fascist. Full stop.

n.n said...

The resurgence of statism is sure to bring about a rise in Democide

Demos-cracy is aborted at the Twilight Fringe. Even the CCP reached the conclusion that with secular incentives, em-pathetic appeals, and normalization, voluntary participation was a progressive approach to a planned population.

Dude1394 said...

What Yancey Yates said.

n.n said...

As of October 2019, they had pandemic recommendations on their website that included the statement that "masks have not been shown to be effective at reducing respiratory virus transmission"

WHO, too. It's a big website and censorship takes time, energy, and control. NIH is another resource that cannot be easily suppressed. Then there is the diversity of a global population who feel compelled to publish outcomes from trials and observations. Some of the best had domestic sources.

Jim at said...

Those who refuse to wear masks are already directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Your health and safety is not my fucking responsibility, leftist.

Openidname said...

"Tina848 said...

"So the masks and measures taken prevented the flu this year, but cannot stop COVID. Seems like it should work the same way."

I wondered about this, too, for a while. But it seems the most likely explanation is viral interference:

https://www.statnews.com/2021/01/31/a-viral-mystery-can-one-infection-prevent-another/

n.n said...

Your health and safety is not my fucking responsibility, leftist.

Intuitive science aside. Planned Parent/hood considered in its own class. Infections (viral spread in greenhouse environments) and disease progression (malnutrition and immune deficiency) forced through lock downs and unsanitary conditions (i.e. fecal transmission). And, of course, collateral damage including excess deaths, social distancing, economic progress, etc. The science of masks is that, at best, society breaks even, and, at worst, infection rates increase.

n.n said...

"So the masks and measures taken prevented the flu this year, but cannot stop COVID. Seems like it should work the same way."

It's more likely that Covid-19 reporting masked flu reporting. The same population at risk for Covid-19 are at risk for flu.

farmgirl said...

Speaking of Catholics- were u not, Dr K?- our Masses returned last June and as long as occupants skip a pew, we’re good to go. Masks are still mandatory, but today I watched a Mass from Sioux Falls SD and they are full capacity, non-masked and singing away. The dispensary was lifted and only if medically deemed is it ok to skip Mass.

Just in time for Holy Week.
Amen.