OPINION:
It’s going to take a bit in order for our country to fully return to normal – because Democrats seem unwilling to leave the COVID-19 pandemic behind us.
Despite 63.5% of all American adults having been vaccinated against the virus, 71% of Democrats want healthy people to stay at home as much as possible, according to a poll from Gallup. This compares to 87% of Republicans who agree with the recommendation that people should now strive to lead their normal lives. Forty-three percent of Democrats say their lives are not yet back to normal, as compared to only 24% of Republican respondents.
Apparently, Americans are also not willing to take off their face masks, which Dr. Anthony Fauci even questioned the effectiveness of early in the pandemic. In a separate Gallup poll released Monday, 79% of respondents said they have worn their face masks in the past week, despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance saying face masks are no longer needed among those fully vaccinated. The survey didn’t break down the respondents between political parties.
Democrats, it seems, have been swept up in the mass hysteria and misinformation spread by liberal news outlets throughout the pandemic.
MSNBC’s Joy Reid told her audience she would continue to wear two masks jogging outside, despite being fully vaccinated and it being against the CDC’s recommendation. The New York Times has run countless columns addressing Americans’ so-called nervousness about returning to normal. And Axios reported how Americans simply don’t trust others’ vaccine honesty. The thing about being fully vaccinated is you don’t have to care one iota about anyone else’s honesty, because you’re protected. But alas, this message hasn’t broken through among Democrats.
Throughout last year, the media vilified Dr. Scott Atlas for questioning the wisdom of lockdowns to contain the virus and praised Dr. Fauci, even as he flip-flopped on mask recommendations, moved the goal-posts on when heard-immunity would be achieved, and consistently painted a doomsday scenario of when the American people could return to normal.
Mr. Atlas was eventually proven right – a study from Stanford University infectious disease scientists and epidemiologists released in January concluded the mitigating impact of the lockdowns was small at best and “usually harmful” in terms of “pro-contagion.”
But group-think won out, and the media was all too willing — excited, even — to spread coronavirus-panic porn. And it worked among Democrats, it seems. Not only are they afraid to return to life as normal, but they’re also incredibly uninformed regarding basic facts of the virus.
A Gallup poll released earlier this year found the vast majority of Democrats overestimated the probability of being hospitalized and dying from COVID-19, compared to other ideologies.
There’s only a 1% to 5% chance of somebody with COVID-19 has to be hospitalized, yet 41% of Democrats believed there’s a greater than 50% chance. Only 10% of Democrat respondents in the survey knew the correct answer.
