Rant #2,655: Looking For Clues

I wasn’t really planning on writing about the coronavirus today, but my hand is being forced to write about it because of the confluence of things that went on yesterday afternoon.
 
And if you think we are out of the loony bin because of a major decision that was made yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control, well, you are off your rocker.
 
Yesterday afternoon, the CDC—the powers that be that evidently know as much about the pandemic as your average kindergartner—completely eased the guidance on mask wearing for those who have been immunized against the coronavirus, pretty much stating that masking is not necessary anymore—indoors or outside—for those who have gotten their shot(s).
 
We saw our president and vice president mask less at the podium during a news conference, emphatically stating that this decision now just about directs people to get vaccinated, because now, if you get vaccinated, you don’t have to wear a mask and can pretty much go back to your old ways.
 
Here is what I wrote on Facebook about this decision:
 
“OK, good, but how can you trust that those without masks have been fully vaccinated and aren't just taking advantage of this ruling and haven't gotten their shot(s)?
More craziness being "masked" as a "victory." To wear a mask or not to wear a mask ... I am fully vaccinated, what the hell do I do?
People are also forgetting that the individual state governors have to sign off on this, so until Cuomo gives his thumbs up, we still have to wear the masks in New York State.”
 
Then, almost coincidentally, the New York Yankees announced that a player has joined their coronavirus cadre of seven coaches and officials that have contracted the virus.
 
Gleyber Torres, 24, the Yankees’ shortstop—who several months ago had gotten the coronavirus, who has been tested almost incessantly along with the rest of his teammates for the virus, and who was vaccinated against the virus—now has COVID-19 again.
 
Here is what I wrote on Facebook about this latest debacle:
 
“And now, the Yankees' Gleyber Torres has tested positive for the coronavirus ... after not only being vaccinated, but also having had the ailment several months ago.
Seven other Yankees' personnel have COVID even after having been vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
So, do we mask or not mask?
?????????????????????????????”
 
Later, I became absolutely incensed when I was watching the news, and the intrepid sports anchor on the local CBS affiliate here in New York actually spun the Torres and team episode as a positive—a stance that I later found out that seemingly the entire news media is spinning:
 
“Now, the idiot sports reporter on CBS has the audacity to say that this outbreak on the Yankees actually "proves" that the Johnson &Johnson vaccine "works," because seven of the eight affected people are asymptomatic.
Let me repeat the obvious to this moron: "They were all vaccinated, yet they still became infected, so it doesn't prove the vaccine works, it proves exactly the opposite."
What an idiot this guy is ... and people believe this yet ... .”
 
You really can’t make this stuff up.
 
As part of the CDC’s latest decision—which is so politically motivated that it reeks of odor from Washington, D.C., to the West Coast—businesses can still decided that you have to mask up while in their environs, and in certain instances, you still have to wear a mask, such as when you are traveling by plane.
 
But let’s be honest about it, this decision also opens up a Pandora’s Box of possibilities, and yes, there are some political people who aren’t jumping on board just yet with this decision.
 
I heard last night that Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey already stated that he isn’t necessarily giving a go on this in his state, because I think he sees that this doesn’t alleviate the problems we have faced, it just creates more problems … at least for now.
 
And the bottom line with all of this is that how do you prove that you have been vaccinated?
 
I will be damned if I have to carry around my vaccination card—which I laminated, by the way—to demonstrate that I am “safe” and “good.”

And are those that have decided for themselves to not get the vaccine "unsafe" and "evil?"
 
I mean, the next thing we will have to do is to get a star sewn into our clothing to tell the world we were vaccinated—and that harkens back to Nazi Germany, when Jews were forced to wear the star to show their fellow Germans who they were.
 
We are on the honor system here, totally and fully … and that begs another question:
 
What happens if positive coronavirus tests spike because of this new decision, and instead of being at 1 percent, all of a sudden we go up to 10 percent?
 
Will we be told that we have to revert back to wearing masks, keeping social distancing of six feet, etc.?
 
Heck, it won’t work, because if the cat isn’t yet out the bag, it will be really, really soon, and you can't put back in the bag things that don't fit anymore.
 
And back to the Yankees debacle … word has gotten out that most players and personnel decided to take either the Pfizer or the Moderna vaccines, but the affected personnel, including Torres, who again, already had the virus months ago, decided, for whatever reason, to take the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
 
First off, why did they go against what the rest of the team did? Was it out of the convenience of taking one shot versus two?
 
Second, if this doesn’t prove that taking the J&J shot is akin to getting inoculated with water, I don’t know what can prove this to people.
 
Sure, the infected are all supposedly asymptomatic, but it is the glass half full versus the glass half empty here.
 
They still got the virus, but have no symptoms, so that is the glass half full.
 
But even being vaccinated, they got the virus, so that is the glass half empty.
 
Do you go the half empty route, or the half full route?
 
I don’t know, the CDC doesn’t know, Dr. Fauci doesn’t know, the president and vice president don’t know, the so-called experts don’t know, and the problem is that nobody knows, nobody knows what we have gotten ourselves into, nobody knows the consequences of our actions.
 
And that, my friends, is the problem: the supposed experts have absolutely, positively and completely no idea what they are talking about and what they are feeding the masses about this entire episode during the past 15 months.
 
Period.
 
Try to have a good weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.