I Can Only Sympathize With Dr Walensky

The poor lady has spent her life up to now building the perfect resume to reach what must be the pinnacle of her profession -- CDC director -- only to have her arrival obscured in the blinding celebrity of Dr Fauci, an incompetent time serving bureaucrat 28 years her senior, an old white guy who can go on any Sunday talk he wants, Just the other week, he got to go on CNN with his retired sidekick Dr Birx to complain about the now-departed Trump. Dr Walensky had to watch it from home.

In fact, Fauci has taken to contradicting his boss in public, while Dr Walensky doubles down on her prediction of a fourth surge:

A more easily spread coronavirus variant first identified in England last year has now become the dominant strain in the U.S., the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.

The variant, known as B.1.1.7, spread quickly across the United Kingdom and Ireland beginning last fall, with the more infectious version of the coronavirus thwarting restrictions and lockdowns that had earlier helped keep the original strain in check.

B.1.1.7 is "now the most common lineage circulating in the United States," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said at a White House media briefing on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, with COVID surges confined primarily to the US northeast, Georgia becomes the latest state to eliminate all restrictions:

This latest executive order from the governor lifts the ban on large gatherings, eliminates the remaining shelter-in-place requirements for vulnerable Georgia residents, and reduces social distancing requirements at bars, restaurants, and movie theaters from six feet to 42 inches (3 feet, 6 inches) between seated parties.

As Dr Fauci has pointed out, the vaccines are equally effective against the UK variant, and apparently all others. The issue is vaccinations. Masks and social distancing had no effect against surges throughout 2020. But as vaccinations have reached something like 20% of the population, infections, hospitalizations, and deaths have been dropping dramatically.

Poor Dr Walensky needs the pandemic to continue -- for what? At 52, she's reached the top of her profession. But for the foreseeable future, she'll continue in the dim shadow of her supernova subordinate, the octogenarian Dr Fauci.

Maybe she could find someone to infect Fauci with something, huh? Gotta be lots of lab samples at the CDC.