What happens when ‘follow the science’ makes no sense?

With all things COVID-19, we are told to “follow the science.” Yet the “science” is what Dr Anthony Fauci and the medical establishment says it is, and when other science is used to question official dogma, social media fact checkers are quick to pounce and censor.

What happens when “the science” doesn’t make sense to the casual observer? Are we to shut up and not ask questions? Or risk scorn and potentially our livelihoods if we observe that the emperor is not wearing any clothes? Here are several examples.

First is the group of Texas Democrat legislators fleeing the Lone Star state to Washington, DC to avoid providing a necessary quorum for the state legislature to vote on election reform. They chartered a private plane and smugly took a selfie, all mask-less, despite federal regulations requiring masks on airplanes.

The delegation was treated like royalty, meeting with Vice-President Kamala Harris and Congressional staff from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. Rather than garnering either sympathy or support, they were a skunk at garden party.

So far, six members of the 50 or so delegation tested positive for COVID-19. Spreading the wealth, a White House staffer and one of Pelosi’s aides also tested positive after all attended a rooftop reception for the superspreader Texas Democrats. The White House declined to offer any criticism.

The Texas legislators all claim to be fully vaccinated. Assuming they are telling the truth, then why the positive COVID-19 tests? Do the vaccines not work? Or does the COVID-19 PCR test not work? If they are fully vaccinated, why are they even being tested?

We are told the vaccines are safe and effective such that everyone should be vaccinated, even children. We are also told that the PCR test, its results driving public health policy for the past year and a half, is reliable. So why are fully vaccinated individuals now testing positive?

The PCR test, as it is currently administered, is overly sensitive. The New York Times acknowledged a year ago, “The standard tests are diagnosing huge numbers of people who may be carrying relatively insignificant amounts of the virus.” Why are fully vaccinated asymptomatic individuals being tested anyway? Do we routinely test individuals for measles, mumps, or influenza in the absence of symptoms? Where’s the science?

This leads across the pond to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who despite having had and recovered from COVID-19 and being fully vaccinated, is spending 10 days in quarantine after exposure to someone with confirmed coronavirus. He has a double dose of immunity, from natural infection and the vaccine. If the vaccine works as advertised, why does he have to quarantine?

The CDC defines vaccine as, “A product that stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from that disease.” Boris has been vaccinated so he should be protected right?

He has immunity, defined by the CDC, “If you are immune to a disease, you can be exposed to it without becoming infected.” Then why is he quarantined after exposure to COVID-19?

The CDC, two months ago, lifted its mask mandate saying, “Fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing.” Meaning masks are not necessary in a crowded shopping mall but are in a crowded airport. Confused?

Then there is herd immunity, not conspiracy theory but basic science, described by the Mayo Clinic, “Herd immunity occurs when a large portion of a community (the herd) becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely.” “There are two main paths to herd immunity for COVID-19 – infection and vaccines.”

According to the CDC, 49% of Americans are fully vaccinated. The CDC also “estimates about 35% of all Americans have been infected with COVID-19 over the last year.” Even with some overlap between those previously infected and those vaccinated, 80 to 90 percent of Americans have either natural or vaccination immunity to COVID and we are at or past herd immunity.

Yet Los Angeles is going backwards, despite almost 70% of residents having had at least one vaccine dose, pushing them close to or beyond herd immunity. LA has reinstated an indoor mask mandate. What’s the science on that?

How effective are the mandated masks? Remember that both Dr Fauci and U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams told us last year that masks were ineffective at protecting the coronavirus. They were correct based on viral particle size but somehow the physics of particles and pore size changed during President Trump’s last year in office.

The COVID virus is 50-140 nm, while the pore size in standard surgical masks is 300 nm to 10,000 nm. This is using a chain-link fence to stop mosquitoes.

Despite this science, Los Angles now requires indoor masking. Dr Fauci wants Americans to “go the extra step and wear masks while traveling to parts of the country with low vaccination rates. If vaccines work, why the masks? Has he explained the science or just insisted we take his word for it?

Following the science today leads not to clarity but to confusion, seemingly fickle government diktats, that seem to contradict the science. Is this incompetence or deliberate obfuscation, combined with shifting goalposts, to keep the pandemic alive and the heavy boot of government firmly on the faces of ordinary Americans?

Brian C Joondeph, MD, is a physician and writer.

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Views expressed in this column are those of the author, not those of Rasmussen Reports. Comments about this content should be directed to the author or syndicate.