America needs to start listening to Dr. Fauci.
From the highest levels of government to the man on the street, our nation’s premier expert in infectious diseases has been ignored, and the result of our collective stubbornness is becoming painfully obvious. Confirmed COVID-19 infections now regularly surpass 40,000 per day, and on Tuesday Fauci said he can envision that number rising into the six figures.
This is an ongoing public-health crisis, and pretending it doesn’t exist will not make it disappear. To the contrary, it makes matters exponentially worse. Our governments at the federal, state and local levels have kowtowed to an extremist element that demanded we reopen for business against CDC guidance and the wishes of the majority of society, leading to this debacle.
In Florida, Texas, Arizona, California and two-dozen other states, cases are spiraling out of control because of a misguided push to bring the economy back. Economic recovery will only take place after the virus is brought under control, and all premature efforts to return to normal will continue to backfire spectacularly.
What is happening today was entirely predictable a month ago, and it didn’t have to be this way. Numerous health experts warned us cases would spike, and they nailed it. Hospitals in several states are being overrun, as the death toll approaches 130,000.
Many people’s obstinate resistance to wearing masks -- with some going as far as fabricating ID cards that falsely indicate they are exempt, and others throwing toddler-like temper tantrums in grocery stores -- is exacerbating the situation. Aside from physical distancing and isolation, masks offer us the best protection from the virus. Yet, Donald Trump and Republicans turned it into a political issue about personal liberty, to the horror of public-health officials and the science-believing segment of the population.
Trump has even gone so far as hold rallies in hot zones, despite adamant pleas from local health officials, with his thousands of mask-less supporters standing shoulder-to-shoulder, expressing pride in their willful ignorance.
The entirely justified mass demonstrations for racial equality probably haven’t helped either, but at least the protesters wore masks. That is, until our paramilitary police forces started tear-gassing them, causing the demonstrators to rip off those face coverings and start coughing all over each other.
Now, American citizens are prohibited from traveling to the European Union, because they don’t feel safe from us. There is a particular irony in that, considering Donald Trump campaigned on and launched his administration by implementing a travel ban against foreign citizens. Just 3½ years later, we’re the ones who are blocked.
America is a society of individualists. We look out for ourselves first, and then we think about everyone else. It’s ingrained in our DNA. This is why people refuse to mask up when the simple act saves lives. It infringes on our comfort.
In other parts of the world, society is more of a collective. People look out for each other, and that’s what we need during a pandemic. That’s why European nations have been so successful getting the situation under control, and we have failed so miserably.
Anthony Fauci is a national hero. He has worked for six presidents who represented both political parties. He is a bipartisan figure who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- the highest honor our country bestows on a civilian -- by George W. Bush.
When this man talks, we need to listen. So why aren’t we? Fauci says we need to wear masks. We don’t. Fauci says we need to be patient before rushing back into bars and restaurants. We ignore him.
This man has been dealt a terrible hand. He is working with a president and an administration that has undermined him at every turn. Fauci, Dr. Deborah Birx and the CDC devised a detailed reopening plan. Phase 1 was to start after cases declined for 14 straight days.
But state governors, egged on by an irresponsible and negligent president, rushed to get going well before those basic standards were met. And they kept pushing and pushing and pushing, until the inevitable result became reality. So here we are.
A nation under siege once again.