Column By Mike Bibb
I thought all the government health experts and political know-it-alls assured us when a COVID vaccine was developed and made available to the public, we could finally toss the face masks and breathe like normal human beings again.
What happened?
My bewilderment was further compounded when I saw President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, and numerous Members of Congress wearing masks and sitting six feet apart when attending a recently televised presentation of the President’s address to the nation.
These are leaders of our country who have been vaccinated — supposedly. Yet, there they sat, fully masked, bumping elbows and social distancing. Looking as though COVID was still rampaging through the halls of government.
Why? What could possibly be their motives in continuing to appear like a freshman group of medical students preparing for a surgical observation?
Not good optics for politicians who are trying to convince the public the continued threat of COVID has nearly become non-existent.
I can’t say what their reasoning was/is unless they really don’t believe their own hype. Or, maybe they’re not telling us everything.
Or, maybe it’s the fact the vaccines haven’t been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. They were only granted an “Emergency Use Authorization.”
This might help to explain why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says nearly one-third of the population is hesitant about getting the shots.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s foremost COVID flip-flopping expert, reminds us “When you are getting a formal approval, you have to have a certain amount of time just observing predominately the safety – and obviously, the safety looks really, really good in well over 140 million people having been vaccinated with at least a single dose.”
But first, in order to get FDA approval, the Big Three pharmaceutical companies manufacturing the vaccines – Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson – have to submit something called a Biological License Application.
Apparently, the FDA prides itself on having a strictly scientific and regulatory process. Even a pandemic hasn’t prompted them into rushing their testing procedures.
Actually, I don’t really care if a person chooses to wear a mask or not. That’s their choice. They can wear two or three and a face shield if they wish. I just don’t want to be continually lectured by national, state, and community officials that doing so might still be a good idea; shot or no shot. After all, there may still be a person out there who could become infected by someone’s negligence.
Which kind of dismisses the importance of the vaccine. If an individual has been vaccinated, and the vaccines are working — as we’re told — then why be overly concerned if another person isn’t wearing a mask or received the shots?
Similar to wearing a seat belt while sitting in a parked car in a garage; what’s the point? The whole thing seems a bit absurd.
Please, don’t try to convince me the government’s cost of fighting the virus is also a big concern. That excuse flew out the window when Washington began fervently printing and handing out checks in the trillions of dollars.
Tax free!
