It’s 10:00 on a Friday night. I’m vaccinated, I’m single and I’m sitting alone. It’s cold outside, there’s three inches of snow on the ground, and it looks like everyone else has gotten used to staying inside. This is normal now.
At this time, 13 months ago, I had friends in DC and preparing together for an evening out. Drinks are shared, gossip stories are messed up, and new music is introduced as we turn the speaker on. We would reach our destination by midnight and make 22-year-old decisions that we would regret that morning, but not really. I will do anything to get life back now.
I can not say that I suffered materially during this pandemic. I never got sick with COVID-19, never lost a loved one to it, never lost my income. I moved across the country to Denver, the city of my choice, kept in shape and took refuge in the country and met people along the way in a place I knew no one. I enjoyed the space the pandemic forced me to take out of the wild nights out of the early twenties, because I realized they would soon be coming back with a vaccine.
Little did I understand, however, that two weeks to slow the spread would not just wait until there was a vaccine. Now it seems like we are in an endless exclusion where a population that does not even take care of itself is now claiming life with absolutely zero risk at the expense of everyone else.
Thirteen months later I find it increasingly difficult not to blame Anthony Fauci and his allies in the political establishment for all the nights I never went out, the singles I never met, the dates I never went on did not and the memories I had never made. The entrance ravens are lame, remote pubs feel pointless and most places are closed with an early hour anyway. This is all commissioned by Fauci, whose word carries the most weight on coronavirus, whether it wants to or not, while intimidating conflicting experts to control their statements by controlling their research funding. But Fauci is not lonely, he is not alone and he is probably not 80 eager to go out at 80.
There is no evidence to suggest that the obstruction prevents the spread of the coronavirus. On the contrary, there is a lot of research from elite academics who find otherwise, but to follow the real science would reject the left ‘science’, the only acceptable standard, which also excludes exceptions for those who say ‘Black Lives Matter’.
No one needs to read an abundance of academic research on the connections anyway to see its ineffectiveness. Just look at the states with the highest mortality rates and see their leaders. The deadliest states are run primarily by Democrats who conclude that Fauci obeys every command. New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island are at the top of the list.
However, no serious cost-benefit analysis of the closures will be done. They have politicized so much that the party and career bureaucrats who embrace them will never admit that they were wrong. The closures were so devastatingly expensive that no one who endorses them will ever concede because they have nothing to gain and everything to lose. Fauci bet his legacy of not failing to top their perceived efficiency, Democrats used it to expand their central state planning, and corporations reaped unimaginable profits while small businesses continued to suffer left and right.
The American people, meanwhile, were so convinced of the seriousness of COVID, even after vaccination, that they demanded that their neighbors obey Fauci’s rules, or that they became too powerless to do anything about it. How does one refuse to live according to Fauci’s instructions to wear a mask while being vaccinated if they can go nowhere without one? How does one refuse to live up to Fauci’s instructions not to go to overcrowded places where there is no pressure?
The crisis that would end with an optional vaccine has no end and no optional vaccine. When public health officials say we have the choice to be vaccinated, they are lying. Americans are told that lock-in restrictions will apply until the country reaches herd immunity, while Fauci demands that restrictions apply even to those who have been vaccinated. Fauci says this is because vaccinated individuals can still spread the virus, unlike the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s own research. Face masks have now become markers of a political streak, of which one vaccinated Fauci wears two.
Fauci also says that it is due to potential viral variants that people who are vaccinated keep returning to normal. Our leaders are now designing policies based on what can happen, not on what happens. Viruses mutate all the time. Fauci holds no respect for freedom, however, offers Americans no option to choose whether they want to accept the vaccine. He made that clear last week.
“I do not consider this a matter of liberty,” Fauci told Republican Rep during a House hearing on COVID-19. Jim Jordan, Ohio, said. The doctor on Sunday doubled his comments on CNN’s “State of the Union”, where he also presented his leftist view on gun control. “It has nothing to do with freedoms,” Fauci stressed at his command that the nation remain in the lock.
You can call me selfish because I wrote this piece. I do not care. You are probably the same person who demanded that you stop your neighbor’s business so that you could lead a life without any risk. Sorry, but you’re on the wrong planet for that. More than half a million Americans have tragically died of COVID-19. I’m not blind to that. It was not their fault, but neither was mine.
At some point, however, Americans should demand virtue in personal responsibility. Vaccinations are widely available, and those who want to take refuge can continue to do so. No one ever told them they could not. And those who are really worried about getting sick with COVID-19 would do well to get in shape, because nearly 80 percent of those admitted to the hospital were overweight or obese. We knew early on that excessive weight gain significantly increased people’s risk profile to complications of COVID, but Americans still succumbed to carbohydrates, sugar, and Netflix while demanding that their neighbors stay home and wait for a vaccine.
Thirteen months later, it is not clear if we will ever be normal again. Since his return has been politicized with the forces opposed to it, we may never be normal again. If we do, it will be much, much later than it should be.
If I did not live in Colorado, it would be harder. The summer hikes on weekdays help, and camping on the weekends is excellent. If I did not work for The Federalist, the lockdown would also be more difficult, because at work I do something about it. If I did not build a support group in Denver, the locks would be unbearable. However, by the grace of the community found in mentorship, my reflection group and CrossFit are completely alone on the weekends.
But for now, here I am sitting on a Friday night, 23, in the prime of my life, while sitting at home – for at this moment it remains the new normal.