"I'm Ready For My Close-Up, Mr DeMille!"

In a bizarre and weepy statement to the media yesterday, Dr Rochelle Walensky, head of the CDC, departed from her prepared statement and, close to tears, said

I'm going to lose the script, and I'm going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom. We have so much to look forward to so much promise and potential of where we are, and so much reason for hope. But right now I'm scared.

The first reaction I had was that leaders don't break into panic in prepared public remarks. Instead, leaders, even when things look bleak, outline a positive course of action. Think we shall fight on the beaches. But in fact, she's outlining no course of action at all, and indeed no serious understanding of the particular problem. And of course, if she thinks a spike in COVID "cases" is "impending doom", what word does she use for ebola or bubonic plague? I'll get to the over-the-top below.

Like Dr Fauci yesterday, she looks at a national total of cases without asking what the total reflects. In many highly populous states, most of which are the ones that eliminated controls, COVID cases are continuing to decline. The increases are taking place almost entirely in the northeastern US, led by New York-New Jersey. If I were CDC Director, or indeed if I were the president, I'd be asking my staff to give me serious answers for why there's such a difference in outcome between, say, Texas and New York.

The next question, which nobody pushing this current narrative brings up, is what effect vaccination is having. Just to be sure the curve wasn't suddenly turning around here, I visited the LA County health department site, and cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are continuing to decline here. Vaccination must be an important part of the trend, though as I've been saying, the sharp decline began right after the holidays and before the vaccine was distributed.

So something good is happening in California. Exactly what is it? Dr Fauci says in recent remarks, with which I assume Dr Walensky concurs, that factors in the northeastern US spike include travel, COVID variants, and states withdrawing their COVID restrictions. Are the COVID variants more severe in the northeast? According to the CDC, the vaccines should work against these as well as the common type:

Researchers are monitoring new COVID variants closely. This includes research to see whether new variants may change the protective effects of the current vaccines. So far studies suggest that antibodies gathered through vaccination with the current authorized vaccines do recognize new variants. (source – CDC) (2.8.20) Mar 15, 2021

So if authorities simply proceed with vaccinations, shouldn't this curb the "impending doom"? Neither Dr Fauci nor Dr Walensky will say. But all I can think is that Dr Walensky referred to trends in the northeast over the past several weeks, which smply aren't reflected in the continuing dramatic improvement in California, where every indication is that the population is enthusiastically getting the shots, and the authorities are capably making them available. At minimum, shoudn't her public remarks have stressed the need for people to get vaccinated? But they didn't.

In fact, I take the subtext of Dr Walensky's panic to mean that masks and social distancing aren't working. She's clearly blaming the plebs and certain unnamed reprobate governors for backsliding on the program -- except that the states that see continuing improvement are, with few exceptions, the ones that have eliminated said program, while the ones facing impending doom are precisely the ones retaining it and urging it on the plebs the more forcefully.

I think this is the source of the panic, and it's plain that there's an agenda afoot. Following Dr Walensky's peformance, President Biden went before the cameras to try to say the same things, more or less:

Joe Biden delivered remarks today in which he begged Americans to continue wearing masks. Most are; compliance is above 90% and has been for a long time.

. . . As Biden was walking away from the podium, a member of the lapdog media helpfully asked him if he wanted states that are reopening their economies to pause.

Biden paused from putting a mask on his blank face, turned, and answered “Yes.”

It's worth pointing out that dire predictions from Dr Fauci and others of post-holiday surges haven't been reliable. The early 2021 improvemeent in statistics in places like California began within ten days or so of the New Year holiday, when one would have expected the next big surge. Subsequent predictions of surges after King's Birthday, Super Sunday, and President's Day didn't take place. The current prophecies of impending doom anticipate Easter brunches, it would appear. Do not go to brunch next Sunday, people!

The panic is because the narrative is collapsing. A contributing factor is that Dr Walensky is feeling upstaged by her subordinate Fauci. But as I've said, we seem to be entering the "morning after" phase of a moral panic, and I think it will keep playing itself out. This won't end well for the moral entrepreneurs like Fauci and Walensky.