Originally published December 1, 2021
https://www.queensjewishlink.com/index.php/opinion/5583-should-we-fear-omicron
“Looking at the mildness of the symptoms that we are seeing, currently there is no reason for panicking as we don’t see severely ill patients. I also checked with the hospital, some of the hospitals in my area, and one of the biggest hospitals only has one patient currently that’s COVID-positive on a ventilator, and they don’t know if it’s Delta or if it’s Omicron. We acknowledge that it might change going forward, but the hype that’s been created currently out there in the media and worldwide doesn’t correlate with the clinical picture and doesn’t warrant to just cut us off from any traveling and ban South Africa as if we are the villains in the whole process. It should not be like that.”
This is what Dr. Angelique Coetzee, one of the first to suspect that South Africans were dealing with a new strain of COVID, told Reuters. Coetzee, a private practitioner and chair of South African Medical Association, gave an interview this week where she clearly and definitively laid out what she’s seeing on the ground from Omicron. So far, she has the most up-to-date information that she is sharing with American and European health officials.
Like nearly all aspects of COVID, there’s what the data and science says and what the bureaucrats, media, and politicians say and do. Rarely are the two in agreement, and usually the latter completely ignores the former. Omicron is no different, and it’s far past time for the public to stop being fooled by the media.
For well over a year, the impossible goal set by the media, the Biden administration, and many Democratic governors has been to eradicate COVID completely. This is why they continue lockdowns, masking, and vaccine mandates. It’s not for the originally-stated goal of ensuring the hospitals are not overwhelmed, because that isn’t happening anywhere in the nation. In fact, the only places where hospitals are short-staffed, like in New York, are because Governors like Kathy Hochul exceeded her authority to fire all hospital staff who didn’t comply with her mandates.
Dr. Anthony Fauci of all people admits that COVID cannot be eradicated. When asked by NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” if it’s “clear that [COVID] is an endemic,” Fauci responded, “we certainly are not going to eradicate it. We’ve only eradicated one virus and that’s smallpox. Elimination means there’s none of it in the country like polio and measles. I don’t think we’re going to be there with this.”
Fauci himself just gave all of his followers something incredible to consider. If you believe Anthony Fauci, which is highly questionable because he’s been wrong on nearly every aspect of this virus, then you were just told that this is never going to be over. You have to mask forever, get boosted forever, and live forever in fear. This is never going away.
The most stringent politicians are aware that the measures they impose upon people are useless. Last month, Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel was seen putting on a mask while exiting a vehicle, then walking into a building and taking off the mask, which is precisely the opposite of what would be an effective use of a mask. Kamala Harris wears a mask while walking up to a crowd, then takes it off when talking with them. Dozens of politicians crowd around Joe Biden when he signed the infrastructure bill, all maskless. The Mayor of San Francisco was seen this weekend partying, maskless. Biden was maskless in a Nantucket store last week, despite the “masks required” sign at the entrance. None of these people who are telling you to be afraid fear for their own health and safety, because they know that everything that can be done to prevent severe symptoms is done already.
Omicron is going to be more of the same. More masking, more testing, more lockdowns, more and more restrictions to how everyday Americans live their lives. Your adherence to these restrictions is entirely up to you. You are choosing to bow before their authority.
Or, you can do what tens of millions of fellow Americans are already doing and go back to normal life. Take off the masks, get together with friends and family (if you haven’t already). We have the medicine to deal with COVID, from therapeutics to vaccinations. Anything else is just performative, a facade disguised as science. Omicron shouldn’t scare anyone, despite what you’re being told.