{"id":374311,"date":"2021-11-30T06:08:35","date_gmt":"2021-11-30T03:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/theres-no-safety-in-returning-to-covid-19-lockdowns\/"},"modified":"2021-11-30T06:08:35","modified_gmt":"2021-11-30T03:08:35","slug":"theres-no-safety-in-returning-to-covid-19-lockdowns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/theres-no-safety-in-returning-to-covid-19-lockdowns\/","title":{"rendered":"#There&#8217;s no safety in returning to COVID-19 lockdowns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#There&#8217;s no safety in returning to COVID-19 lockdowns<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>The initial reaction from Dr. Anthony Fauci to the emergence of a new strain of the coronavirus pandemic elicited a collective scream of frustration.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When ABC <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a>\u2019 \u00adGeorge Stephanopoulos asked him whether the Omicron version of COVID would prompt a return to devastating lockdowns, President Biden\u2019s chief medical adviser kept his options open, saying, \u201cIt\u2019s really too early to say.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, within a day, the administration changed its tune. When Biden spoke about the Omicron variant on Monday, the president said that when he unveils a new \u201cdetailed strategy\u201d for dealing with the disease, it will focus on vaccinations, boosters and testing and \u201cnot shutdowns or lockdowns.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019d better keep his word about that, and make sure fearmonger-in-chief Fauci remembers it. The American people are weary from more than 20 months of heavy-handed and often ineffective measures that were supposed to keep them safe. The shutting down of ordinary life and commerce, as well as the schools, didn\u2019t curtail the death toll \u2014 which on Biden\u2019s watch has exceeded that of Trump \u2014 or prevent the virus from spreading and mutating.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The first duty of any government is to protect its citizens, but you don\u2019t have to be a libertarian absolutist to have noticed that COVID has been a gift that keeps on giving when it comes to the desire of federal, state and local governments to seize more power to deal with an emergency that never seems to end.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/NYC-Covid-cases-deaths-update-1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"COVID-19 cases and deaths chart\" class=\"wp-image-20311529\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/NYC-Covid-cases-deaths-update-1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/NYC-Covid-cases-deaths-update-1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/NYC-Covid-cases-deaths-update-1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>While cases of COVID-19 have fluctuated over the past two years, the number of deaths has fallen tremendously in places where vaccination rates are high. As this chart of New York City shows, deaths increased along with COVID cases in the summer of 2020. Yet a year later, even as cases spiked, the number of deaths didn\u2019t rise as much. Today, more than 85 percent of adults in the city are vaccinated and the number of deaths over a seven-day average since June has rarely risen above 20, with multiple weeks of no deaths. When Omicron comes to the United States, the number of new cases won\u2019t matter as much as hospitalizations and deaths \u2014 particularly since South African medical officials say symptoms are usually mild.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">NY Post composite<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Part of the problem is that authorities are focusing almost exclusively on \u201ccases\u201d \u2014 the rate of reported positive COVID tests \u2014 rather than on the rate of hospitalizations or, even more importantly, on the death rate from COVID.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Nothing can stop a virus from spreading, but in places like New York City, where vaccination rates are high \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>roximately 85 percent of adults have had at least one dose \u2014 the death rates have dropped even as infections spike or decrease. To even contemplate the possibility of lockdowns based on cases rather than hospitalizations or death rates is irresponsible.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The reason it\u2019s called Omicron is that it\u2019s the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet. Health officials have already gone through quite a few letters, although they skipped the 13th letter. \u201cnu.\u201d because it sounds like the English word \u201cnew.\u201d The 14th letter, \u201cxi,\u201d was skipped so as not to remind us of the despotic leader of the country that gave the world COVID. The virus will continue to mutate through the alphabet, but if it follows the typical pattern, the variants will become easier to catch but much less deadly.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/tobin-covid-769.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"Anthony Fauci (R), Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Chief Medical Advisor to the President, speaks alongside U.S. President Joe Biden as he delivers remarks on the Omicron COVID-19 variant following a meeting of the COVID-19 response team at the White House on November 29, 2021\" class=\"wp-image-20311492\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/tobin-covid-769.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/tobin-covid-769.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/tobin-covid-769.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Anthony Fauci speaks alongside President Joe Biden as he delivers remarks on the Omicron COVID-19 variant on November 29, 2021.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Instead of using this as an excuse for more authoritarian responses to the pandemic, our leaders need to start preparing Americans to learn to live with a problem that won\u2019t go away but probably can be managed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If many of us are cynical about Omicron \u2014 and the South African doctor who first raised alarms about the new strain has stated that its symptoms are \u201cunusual but mild\u201d \u2014 it\u2019s because we know that there is nothing temporary about government measures that are supposed to protect us from COVID.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In March of 2020, we were told extreme measures would merely last \u201ctwo weeks to flatten the curve\u201d of reported cases and hospitalizations, but we saw them drag on for months only to be replaced by a complex, illogical and often contradictory maze of regulations about <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social<\/a> distancing and masks. We also noticed that the rules enforced by authorities when it came to ordinary citizens were often flouted by the politicians who promulgated them, something that continues to this day, with Biden ignoring mask mandates that he demands others obey.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/tobin-covid-770.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"A Dallas County Health and Human Services nurse, right, injects a woman with her second dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at a county run vaccination site in Dallas, Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021.\" class=\"wp-image-20311495\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/tobin-covid-770.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/tobin-covid-770.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/tobin-covid-770.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Joe Biden said that when he unveils a new \u201cdetailed strategy,\u201d it will focus on vaccinations, boosters and testing and \u201cnot shutdowns or lockdowns.\u201d\u00a0<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AP Photo\/LM Otero<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Most importantly, the lockdowns and school closures clearly did more harm than good. While they may have temporarily checked the spread of the virus, they also inflicted massive economic misery on the poor and the working classes, caused many with other health issues to neglect treatment, and imposed crushing isolation on the vulnerable. They also stole more than a year of vital education and development from our children while teaching them to fear contact with other people, the cost of which will only be fully understood in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the pandemic has created an appetite for the sort of measures that can seem sensible to those who have become COVID fear addicts. But what we need from Biden and Fauci is less drama and more common sense. Encouraging vaccinations and booster shots is sensible. Whether Omicron is a serious problem or the health-care equivalent of a hurricane that doesn\u2019t make landfall, the message they need to hear from Americans is that we will never again be cowed into accepting draconian abridgements of our freedom that won\u2019t save us from disease but will badly hurt us in so many other ways.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in- chief of JNS.org.\u00a0<\/em>\n                        <\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more News articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/11\/29\/theres-no-safety-in-returning-to-covid-19-lockdowns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#There&#8217;s no safety in returning to COVID-19 lockdowns&#8221; The initial reaction from Dr. Anthony Fauci to the emergence of a new strain of the coronavirus pandemic elicited a collective scream of frustration.\u00a0 When ABC News\u2019 \u00adGeorge Stephanopoulos asked him whether the Omicron version of COVID would prompt a return to devastating lockdowns, President Biden\u2019s chief&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":374312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/tobin-covid-index-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[120515,30245,1545,991,67243],"class_list":["post-374311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-11-29-21","tag-anthony-fauci","tag-coronavirus","tag-joe-biden","tag-lockdown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}