In the great debate over how seriously we should be taking the COVID-19 pandemic’s recent resurgence, there are essentially two schools of thought: On one side are the folks who are ready to lock it all back down and wait, no matter what the economic or societal impact of that may look like.
And then there are those who are simply over the whole thing. These are the Americans who believe that personal sovereignty is the paramount issue in this crisis and that the government will take a mile for every inch that we give them.
With cases rising around the country, several health experts are now pushing for Americans to succumb to extra precautions, and they’re not saying so lightly.
White House Chief Health Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci has rejected the idea that face masks are a “personal choice” in the face of the increasingly severe delta variant of the coronavirus.
The United States on Thursday recorded almost 80,000 new COVID-19 cases – well below the January peak of nearly 300,000 new daily cases, but a stark rise from a month ago when daily cases were under 10,000.
While the number of those cases driven by the more transmissible delta variant is not clear, the CDC advised in early July that the variant was likely the dominant strain in the U.S. The CDC once again advised masks whenever individuals are inside shared spaces, but many people have resisted the call to wear masks, saying they have a right to choose whether to wear one.
His words were intense.
“I respectfully disagree with them,” Fauci said on ABC’s “This Week.” “There are things that are individual responsibilities that one has, and there are things that have to do with you individually which also impact others, and the spread of infection that we’re seeing now … is impacting everyone in the country.”
“Although you want to respect a person’s individual right, when you’re dealing with a public health situation, and we are in fact in a very serious public health challenge here … a person’s individual decision to not wear a mask not only impacts them … but you very well may infect another person who may be vulnerable,” he added.
Fauci has been in the middle of the great COVID debate for months, with a number of Republican lawmakers attempting to undermine his credibility, and a great many Americans beginning to distrust the nation’s leading infectious disease doctor.
