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As New BA.2.86 COVID Variant Emerges, America Lifts Middle Finger To The Same Old Mandates
by Phil Boas
Arizona Republic
August 30, 2023
We're not starting at the same place we did when COVID-19 arrived in 2020. Americans barely trust any of our institutions anymore, so health care is not alone on the bottom rungs in our society.
“We’re at an inflection point,” said CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
More and more public-health officials are dusting off their old face masks and encouraging Americans to do the same for the new BA.2.86 variant of COVID-19, he explained.
Hearing that, Meghan McCain went to social media and spoke for an entire nation: “Uh no, we ain’t starting this s--- again.”
McCain isn’t some right-wing reactionary. She’s not QAnon. She’s not a wrapped-in-the-flag freedom marcher. On this issue she is very much mainstream.
Her point is that the COVID-19 endemic will be much different than the pandemic. Americans are a lot wiser now about this pathogen and the people who tried to manage it the last time around.
by Phil Boas
Arizona Republic
August 30, 2023
We're not starting at the same place we did when COVID-19 arrived in 2020. Americans barely trust any of our institutions anymore, so health care is not alone on the bottom rungs in our society.
“We’re at an inflection point,” said CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
More and more public-health officials are dusting off their old face masks and encouraging Americans to do the same for the new BA.2.86 variant of COVID-19, he explained.
Hearing that, Meghan McCain went to social media and spoke for an entire nation: “Uh no, we ain’t starting this s--- again.”
McCain isn’t some right-wing reactionary. She’s not QAnon. She’s not a wrapped-in-the-flag freedom marcher. On this issue she is very much mainstream.
Her point is that the COVID-19 endemic will be much different than the pandemic. Americans are a lot wiser now about this pathogen and the people who tried to manage it the last time around.
COVID tanked our trust in public health
That’s important information if you’re a doctor or public health official or epidemiologist.
We’re not starting at the same place we did when COVID-19 arrived on our shores in January 2020.
The American people don’t trust you.
Not the way we once did. Americans barely trust any of our institutions anymore, so health care is not alone on the bottom rungs in our society.
But in the past two years, confidence in health care officials has dropped 10 points from 44% to 34%, according to a Gallup tracking poll.
Article continues:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opin...done-public-health-mask-mandates/70710608007/
