Still from Cronkite News video
Column By Mike Bibb
In an almost unbelievable understatement, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has finally acknowledged its management of the COVID-19 pandemic was substantially below acceptable standards.
Praise Jesus!!! Someone from CDC openly professes what many people have known for months, or years.
No, it wasn’t Dr. Tony Fauci. His bloated ego keeps getting in the way of any self-admission of wrongdoing, and I don’t see him suddenly experiencing an epiphany reversing the habit.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky admitted during NBC’s “Today” program, on Aug. 23, 2022, that “dramatic” mistakes were made in “reacting” to the virus.
Maybe she should have more correctly insisted that “dramatic” mistakes were made by “overreacting.”
During the interview, Walensky remarked, “For 75 years, CDC, and truly all public health in this nation, have been preparing for something like the size and scope of COVID-19.”
That was the buildup; then came the confession — “We need to recognize that in our big moment, our performance didn’t reliably meet the expectations of this country, and that’s exactly why I called for this ‘reset,’ why I called for this review” she said.
In a previous New York Times article, Aug. 17, 2022, she reported the CDC was “responsible for some pretty dramatic, pretty public mistakes, from testing to data to communications.”
Apparently, one of the “pretty dramatic” mistakes was the reliance upon a “faulty COVID-19 test” that hindered government efforts in slowing the spread of the virus.
President Joe’s delayed failure to provide sufficient quantities of updated home testing kits – “I wish I had thought about ordering 500 million COVID test kits two months ago” he said to CNBC News, Dec. 21, 2021 — also contributed to the confusion.
Instead, we were hoodwinked into believing locking down schools, “non-essential business,” churches, sporting activities, and other social organizations; washing our hands every fifteen minutes, canceling family get-togethers, compelling everyone to strap on a facemask or two, social distance and stand in line to receive an experimental vaccination that was touted as being a COVID fix, lives would be miraculously saved and the pandemic would quickly fade into history.
Perhaps the most grievous error of all was the demand by some agencies that people be vaccinated or they could lose their jobs. This utterly moronic decree was imposed upon members of the military, civilian first responders, and hospital and health care workers – the very people wrestling with containing the virus from the beginning.
I’d be curious to know how many people have called 9-1-1 and requested only a COVID-vaccinated police officer, fire crew, or medical tech be dispatched to tend to a home emergency.
Was there even a single instance in the entire country?
It was COVID hysteria run amok, with many federal and state officials buying into the nonsense. Washington was calling the shots, and as usual, missing the bullseye.
Yet, hardly a peep from Joe about the millions of unvaccinated migrants pouring across our southern border.
Why? What could have been the rationale to close U.S. businesses and schools because of virus anxiety, while permitting undocumented and unvaxxed people to saunter, unencumbered, into our country daily?
Clearly, COVID must be more than a respiratory illness, as it seems to adversely impair brain function in folks living and working in the D.C. area.
Following a litany of confusing CDC mandates, reality set in. When facts failed to coincide with experts’ prognostications, the storyline began to fall apart.
Statistics became overly skewed. Not everyone was dying because of COVID. Most were dying with COVID and other serious comorbidity issues.
As a result, additional health concerns were sidetracked as COVID evolved into Public Enemy #1, occupying nearly everyone’s attention.
Unfortunately, the virus was more stubborn than previously imagined – it began to mutate into variations. Health officials, politicians, and the media confirmed additional shots in the arm were needed. One, two, three, four, probably more, would surely tame the defiant beast.
By this time, the public was beginning to realize maybe the government’s approach to subduing the disease really wasn’t as simple as being temporarily vaccinated and revaccinated every few months.
Contrary to Joe and Dr. Fauci’s assurances, COVID didn’t turn out to be a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” as they passionately argued.
Quite the opposite.
The obvious clue was the very people insisting vaccines were the cure, were also the same ones catching COVID – even though they had been inoculated and boosted multiple times.
President Joe has had COVID at least two times within the past couple of months, so has the VP, First Lady Jill is suffering from it, and several of his administration officials have been infected, as well.
Still, they continue to publicly promote the same tried and failed treatments: More shots and more masks.
“I’m grateful I’ve been vaccinated and boosted” are the seven words Joe and associates uniformly repeat before news cameras and fawning reporters.
Which sounds more like an endorsement for a product that hasn’t met expectations. What better way to announce its unsatisfactory performance than having the president of the United States publicly proclaim from the isolation he has COVID?
Again.
“Whoo-Hoo! Contacted COVID for the second or third time. Oh, happy day. Good thing I’ve been fully vaxxed and masked. I’d hate to think what condition I’d be in if I wasn’t.” Or, similar dunderheaded excuses.
I don’t know, but after nearly half-a-dozen jabs in the arm and a couple of weeks in COVID quarantine, I’d give serious consideration to trying something different.
In attempting to atone for the government’s multi-year bumbling of the crisis, Ms. Walensky remarked to NBC, “We have some extraordinary people at the CDC who are often up all night to protect America’s health. And my goal really as we hit this reset was to have a new public health action-oriented culture that really emphasizes accountability, that emphasizes collaboration with our public health partners across the country, communication to the American public, and timelines with our information to the American public.”
Sounds like a typically scripted CYA speech from an entrenched bureaucrat who has come to the disappointing realization government’s response to COVID was irrational, socially and economically paralyzing, and nearly destroyed confidence the public may have once had in our nation’s health care system.
The key word in her disclosure was “accountability.” Good luck with that. If she can find anyone within the Biden Administration — including Joe — admitting to being responsible for any fizzled endeavor, she should recommend that person be promoted to Supreme Personnel Accountability Manager – SPAM.
Stat!
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author.
