We seem to be starting to spot a pattern here. Joe Biden recently announced which would request funding for another vaccine aimed at combating the latest circulating strains of COVID. But public interest in experimental vaccines has waned dramatically this year, to put it charitably. So the legacy media seems to be gearing up to see if they can get everyone into a panic about some sort of pandemic resurgence. An example of this trend appeared on CNN yesterday, with a not-so-subtle reading of the headline: “Looks like everyone has COVID-19. Here’s why this wave is probably worse than official data suggests.” This surprised me as I hadn’t heard much locally to suggest there were more COVID patients than usual, although there have clearly been cases across the country and possibly even a couple of variants new
Covid-19 certainly hasn’t taken a vacation this summer. Virus levels in the US have been rising for weeks, but it’s hard to know exactly how far it’s spreading.
Federal data suggest that current increases have remained well below previous peaks and notable increases. But judging by word of mouth among family, friends and co-workers, it may seem like everyone knows someone who is sick with Covid-19 right now.
“Unfortunately, we have several people with Covid,” a health-focused nonprofit told CNN when asked for comment for this story.
You’ll immediately notice that the title of the CNN article carefully uses words and phrases that include “seems” and “probably.” That’s because we don’t really know how many cases of COVID there are right now, so they’re basing this analysis mostly (though not entirely) on anecdotal evidence. People no longer buy test kits like they did when the government distributed them freely. Doctors’ offices in most places no longer automatically test for COVID unless the patient appears symptomatic. The CDC’s latest numbers are based largely on estimates.
They’re trying to switch to reporting hospitalizations to monitor the size of the current “wave” of COVID, but even that plan doesn’t inspire much confidence. Hospitals still report every case they discover, but their procedures have also changed. During the height of the pandemic, hospitals were testing everyone who walked through the door. We now know that these procedures greatly distorted the numbers. If you were taken to the hospital because you fell off your motorcycle and tested positive, they listed you as “hospitalized for COVID-19” even though you were completely asymptomatic. They are now testing fewer people, specifically those who appear to be showing symptoms.
It seems pretty obvious that the White House would like everyone to return to a heightened state of fear over whatever the latest variant of COVID is and CNN is playing along. Before you know it, they’ll be pushing hard for the next booster shot and trying to get everyone to mask up again, even though masks have been proven to be almost completely useless. If they think they can get away with closing schools again, they probably will. And the teachers’ unions will gladly accompany them.
But if I read the room correctly, I have bad news for the White House and all the Anthony Faucis of the world. People really seem to have gotten over this and there is a lot of lingering resentment about the original handling of the pandemic response. Even under the more charitable view that assumes the government did nothing intentionally wrong, a lot of important things have certainly gone wrong. We’re supposed to have learned from this whole debacle so we don’t repeat those mistakes when the next pandemic hits.
But I’m definitely starting to get the impression that the Biden administration doesn’t want to wait for the next pandemic. They want to revive the last one and send us all to find the lifeboats. Whether they’ve learned anything or not will be revealed based on how many new executive orders are coming out of the White House. However, if they try, I have a feeling they will see a lot more resistance and non-compliance than they anticipate.
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