To Your Health!

Sure, I'll raise a glass to your health. Somebody should be willing to, because you can bet Anthony Fauci and Rochelle Walensky (the new CDC Director, in case you didn't know) aren't going to. Think they're interested in your health? Think again.

See, their covid protocols have nothing to do with health, and they haven't since the 14th day of flattening the curve - if they ever did at all. Want proof? Here you go.

Fauci and Walensky want you to get vaccinated, then still wear a mask (or two), only gather with other people who have been vaccinated, even then only in small numbers and only outdoors. (Why? Are they finally admitting that the virus isn't transmitted outdoors?) They've criticized large gatherings like the Sturgis motorcycle rally, fans at NFL games, the Texas Rangers' home opener at 100% capacity, Spring Break, the resumption of travel - even though none of those things has been tied to a remotely significant outbreak. They warn us of going to restaurants, bars, even church.

"Well gee, it sure sounds like they're concerned with our health," you say. Yeah? Then why are they okay with hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants crossing our southern border from countries whose case counts are not declining? Packed in caravans, many of them without masks, not only outdoors but crammed into trucks and buses? The vast majority of whom are not being tested at the border? For the small numbers who are, exhibiting infection rates more than seven times those of the U.S.? Then being dispersed into the general population in U.S. communities, and allowed to board public transportation to travel freely throughout the U.S.? Or crammed into detention centers at 700% of capacity, or more?

If Fauci and Walensky cared one whit about public health, they'd be screaming bloody murder about this. But it's not about health. It's about politics. A few days ago, Fauci was asked about the situation at the border, and why he wasn't saying anything about it. His answer? "I have nothing to do with the border." Well, if he cared about Americans' - or these immigrants' - health, he'd have everything to do with the border. (Fitting that he did a bang-up Pontius Pilate impersonation right around Good Friday.)

Still not convinced? Remember all the teachers who are scared to death of the virus, so much so that even though the CDC has said it's safe to go back to in-person learning, they insist on staying home, damaging - perhaps irreparably - the educations of millions of American kids? Well, in San Diego, a number of them are volunteering - that's right, volunteering, to go back into the classroom to teach those same immigrant kids who crossed the border illegally. So they're not afraid of being in the classroom with a bunch of untested kids who traveled and were detained in those kinds of conditions, from countries with high infection rates and poor health care, but they're deathly afraid of being in the classroom with a bunch of American kids who've been stuck at home for a year, whose parents have probably been vaccinated. Why? Because it's not about their health concerns. It's about their politics. Teaching those immigrant kids is woke. Teaching their own students is not.

Finally, there's this: many in the medical profession, and pretty much all in the media, are outright lying to you. This one, I proved myself. A few mornings ago I was listening to a national news anchor interview Dr. Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist and Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, and - wait for it - a member of Joe Biden's COVID-19 Advisory Board. In other words, a doctor-cum-political hack, just like Fauci.

During the interview, the news anchor pointed out that in another recent interview, Walensky spoke of "the recurring feeling I have of impending doom." So much for "follow the science;" let's just go with our gut feelings, our baseless fears. Osterholm applauded her for her "honesty," and said the U.S. is the only country that's seeing a rise in new cases due to "this new variant" (referring to the B.1.1.7 variant, which has been known in the U.S. since early January, so it's hardly "new").

As is my wont, I decided to look at the data. And what did I find?

Daily new cases in the U.S. have been absolutely flat since the middle of February. Oh, but not only did he lie about the U.S. trend, he lied when he said we're the only country that has seen cases rise recently. I did a quick review of the trend in a few other countries with high case counts. Several are seeing sharp increases, to record levels.

(By the way, the media don't care about public health, either: the news anchor failed to question Osterholm's misrepresentation of the data. He either didn't know, or didn't care, that his interviewee was lying.)

Osterholm has since been making the rounds warning of the "fourth wave" or "surge" or "spike" we're experiencing. Why would he lie? First, because most won't fact-check him, and second, because it will justify not only maintaining restrictions, but spending massive sums of money on things the administration claims are related to covid, but in fact are not.

If it were about health, medical professionals would be telling us the truth, and citing the actual data. (We in Kansas have seen, on numerous occasions, how our own state health director manipulated data to attempt to convince us that masks are effective in reducing transmission.)

If it were about health, teachers would either get their butts back in the classroom, or wouldn't volunteer to teach immigrant kids in person, particularly given the conditions they traveled and were housed in and their relative infection rates. (Note: this is not a condemnation of all teachers. I know many who are back in the classroom, willingly, and many more who long to be.)

And if it were about health, the two people at the head of the spear would be focused on the human health crisis at our southern border, instead of washing their hands of it.

So get together with your friends, take off that mask, and have that drink - to your health!