Is life in President Joe Biden's America that much different than it was a year ago? Across the country, states and localities are reintroducing mask mandates, public health officials are fearmongering COVID-19, and bureaucrats and politicians still lust to rule over the American people. In addition to a skyrocketing cost of living, the other critical difference is that the United States maintains ample inventories of multiple vaccines, from Pfizer to Moderna to Johnson & Johnson. Before their release to the public, they were marketed as gateways to normalcy. Now that there is light at the end of the tunnel, those most adamantly pushing vaccines are undermining their efficacy.
Movement Licenses and Mask Mandates
New York City recently announced COVID passports to participate in civilized society, effectively prohibiting unvaccinated or pro-freedom people from lifting weights or sitting at restaurants. However, Mayor Bill de Blasio did make exceptions, allowing unvaccinated performing artists who do not live in New York City, members of professional sports teams, and staffers who accompany singers, artists, or athletes who live outside of the municipality to roam freely. Other jurisdictions, such as San Francisco and San Jose, have already adopted proof-of-vaccination requirements. Many others are in the process of developing a comparable system.
States throughout the nation -- including Hawaii, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington -- have returned to mask mandates. Although the results have been mixed, local counties also have forced residents to sport masks indoors and outdoors. For example, in Georgia, the places with face-mask directives have seen new infection cases rise more than those without such orders.
All three levels of government are beginning to require personnel to be vaccinated. If not, they will need to be tested for COVID every day or be terminated from their positions. Even the private sector is foisting vaccine requirements on staff, threatening to fire them if they do not follow company demands. Fox News, CNN, Google, The Walt Disney Company, Walmart, and thousands of other corporations and small businesses in the United States are imposing COVID jabs on their employees.
Are lockdowns next? For now, it is unclear. President Joe Biden recently conveyed to reporters that the United States will "in all probability" witness more guidelines and restrictions amid growing coronavirus cases.
Are the Vaccines Even Working?
Based on the decisions of the smartest men and women in government, these vaccines must not be working. Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Moderna must have delivered defective medical products. Not quite. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), here is what the United States is presently witnessing:
The seven-day average has surged to a seven-month high of approximately 150,000 new cases.
The seven-day average of deaths is 641, below the peak of 3,500 in January.
The current seven-day average for new hospital admissions of patients with confirmed COVID-19 of all ages is around 12,000, which is 26% below the previous peak seven-day average.
It is still unclear as to who in the United States is landing in the hospital or in the morgue because the CDC has conceded that there are limitations in the numbers. That said, the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report demonstrated that unvaccinated Americans were nearly five times more likely to catch COVID than the vaccinated. Also, people who choose not to be vaccinated are 29 times more likely to be hospitalized with coronavirus. During a recent White House press briefing, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told reporters:
"If you are not yet vaccinated, you are among those at highest risk. Do not underestimate the risk and serious consequences of this virus. Vaccines are the best tool we have to take charge of this pandemic. Nearly every death, especially among adults, due to COVID-19, is, at this point, entirely preventable."
Indeed, the breakthrough cases are minimal, representing a little more than 1% of all hospitalizations and 0.8% of all COVID-related deaths. Could these numbers change amid the rise of the Delta and Lambda variants? Time will tell, but Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief White House COVID adviser, has tergiversated from earlier in the summer and thinks a booster shot, much like in Israel, would be necessary to add another layer of protection.
For vaccine-hesitant Americans, are these the words and actions of confident officials? If not, what would be the best approach to increasing vaccination rates? Perhaps former President Donald Trump had the best mechanism of pushing more people to get the jab.
Donald Trump: ‘Take the Vaccines’
During a recent rally in Alabama, Trump spoke to a large crowd of supporters, recommending they get the COVID-19 vaccine, with some in the audience booing his remarks. He told the rallygoers:
"I believe totally in your freedoms, I do, you gotta do what you gotta do. But I recommend taking the vaccines. I did it, it’s good, take the vaccines.
“That’s OK, that’s all right. You got your freedoms. But I happened to take the vaccine. If it doesn’t work, you’ll be the first to know."
Trump took the vaccine, recommended it, respected Americans’ freedoms, and joked about negatively reacting to the jab. The 45th president is a salesman, and the insouciant approach may be the best tactic after several months of the public being bombarded with mandates, coercion, threats, and contradictions from the establishment.
Advertising experts also have provided some marketing suggestions to persuade unvaccinated Americans to visit their local pharmacy to inject their bodies with the vaccine. Some recommendations include giving Trump credit for directing vaccine development resources, avoiding thinking the unvaccinated are motivated by politics, and refraining from passing judgment on anti-vaxxers or the vaccine-hesitant. Would they be successful tactics to employ? It depends on if the supposition that vaccination rates have hit the ceiling is correct or not.
Pro-Vaxxers Disincentivizing Vaccinations
Right now, pro-vaxxers are portraying themselves as not being confident in the vaccines. Indeed, if they have been fully vaccinated and even wear double masks in public, why should they be concerned if a person next to them at a restaurant is unvaccinated? Be it mandates or passports, vaccine advocates are doing the public a disservice by disincentivizing those sitting on the sidelines to be vaxxed. If they are still required to socially distance, double mask, and worship at a Fauci shrine, why bother getting jabbed at all if life will be the same as it was a year ago?
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Read more from Andrew Moran.
