It’s hard to know what direction to go for guidance on COVID-19 protocols. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) says to do this, the World Health Organization (WHO) says to do that, and individual states, counties, and municipalities, create their own rules. It’s far and away from the start of the pandemic when instruction was explicit, and commonsense generally prevailed.
Indeed, no one considers the pandemic’s start as the good old days, but compared to what seems like a rush to ease protocols, political jockeying, and irrationality over mandates, the early days were at least consistent. Unfortunately, political theatre and fighting for an edge make this pandemic phase feel more like a dizzying topsy turvy, circus act.
Modifications are furious and mind-boggling. The rush to ease pandemic protocols likely will produce an array of unfathomable proposals related to masking and identification cards. It feels as though D-List actors are running amuck with a poorly-written script.
Imagine that you tune in to one of the cable networks and hear that someone vying for political office is proposing to require that anyone wearing a mask is fined or a suggestion to use sites once designated as vaccination centers as facilities to turn in unused COVID-19 testing kits.
As the pendulum swings the other way, absurdity has entered the realm of possibility, and things once relegated to the fringes, are front and center and without bounds.
It sounds farfetched, but consider that after more than 900,000 Americans have succumbed to the dreaded virus, suddenly, COVID-19 is no longer considered a constant crisis. Now the focus turns to cities, venues, and businesses that are chomping at the bit to ease pandemic restrictions.
It’s a political football, and the ground is fertile for the ridiculous. Consider what Florida governor Ron DeSantis, believed to have ambitions to the presidency, said about COVID-19 mandates. “We can either have a free society, or we can have a biomedical security state.” DeSantis continued, “And I can tell you: Florida, we’re a free state. People are going to be free to choose to make their own decisions.”
Don’t hold your breath for the scientific community to hold the fort. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Rochelle Walensky’s recent suggestion that the government is considering changing its mask guidance feels like she’s all in on taking the American public for a ride. Mentioning that COVID-19 cases, hospital admissions, and deaths are declining, Walensky said that “people are so eager” for health officials to ease masking rules and other measures designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Okay, what’s new about that? We’ve been anxious for almost two years.
Under the circumstances, it is hard not to think of what the great American showman P.T. Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
Anthony Stanford, who was named the 2014 Outstanding African-American of the Year by the Aurora African-American Heritage Advisory Board, is a columnist and author of the book, “Homophobia in the Black Church: How Faith, Politics and Fear Divide the Black Community.”