When we talk about exaggerations or rules that may seem too strict, there is a line that is often repeated as a way to justify those cautions. “Better safe than sorry.”
And for the most part, it’s a pretty good idea.
You know, like teaching your kids to not talk to any strangers. We all know that not everyone is some creepy predator waiting to lure your child into a van with candy. However, in this day and age, you just never know.
So we’d all rather err on the side of caution.
But, I’m not exactly sure that “erring on the side of caution” is what you call what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC continues to be doing with their guidelines.
And neither does the usually liberal-minded New York Times. In fact, according to The Times, what the CDC is doing now is more like flat-out being deceptive.
As the outlet reports, the CDC has given new guidelines on outdoor recreation as summer ensues throughout the country and positive COVID-19 cases continue to drop. But that doesn’t mean we can lower our guard or our masks, apparently.
Per the CDC, outdoor transmission of the virus makes up “less than 10 percent” of all transmissions. Now, to be clear, this is true. The number of transmissions known to occur outside is less than 10 percent – far, far less.
In fact, according to The Times, “the share of transmission that has occurred outdoors seems to be below 1 percent and may be below 0.1 percent.”
This means that the CDC is over exaggerating the likelihood of you catching the virus while outside by as much as 100 or possibly even 10,000 times.
Of course, that hasn’t stopped them from nevertheless proclaiming that everyone should still err on the side of caution, get their vaccines, and, as always, wear their masks.
The Times reports, “The CDC says that unvaccinated people should wear masks in most outdoor settings and vaccinated people should wear them at ‘large public venues.’” Why? Well, that’s a little more unclear.
According to the same set of CDC guidelines, those who have been vaccinated and happen to come into contact with an infected person “do not need to stay away from others or get tested unless (they) have symptoms.” And yet, those same supposedly safely vaccinated people should still be wearing masks anytime they are indoors with more than one household member present or outdoors.
It sends a bit of a mixed message, doesn’t it?
As The Times says, “Saying that less than 10 percent of Covid transmission occurs outdoors is akin to saying that sharks attack fewer than 20,000 swimmers a year. (The actual worldwide number is around 150.) It’s both true and deceiving.”
If this past year has taught us anything, it’s that giving into that caution and fear can sometimes be just as costly, if not even more so.
Just look at the skyrocketing number of teen suicides as schools remain closed. And lockdowns have caused countless businesses and livelihoods to be uprooted and destroyed, leaving families without jobs to put on the table.
And don’t even get me started on what federal unemployment programs have done to the workforce and economy.
While Biden, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the CDC go on parading about the supposed need to stay under lock and key, keeping our businesses and children shuttered, and our faces covered at nearly all times, the nation is dying. Not from the virus they claim to be so deadly, mind you, but from the consequences of letting our government be carried away by fear.
Then again, it’s not really the government that’s fearful, is it? They’re just trying to keep us that way so we are easier to control.
When even liberal media outlets The New York Times is noticing, it’s a definite problem.
And they’re not the only one either.
Check out what NBC’s Savannah Guthrie said to Dr. Fauci recently, suggesting that the CDC’s guidelines were “excessive” and “not following science.”
