There Is No New Normal

By Kassidy Thomas

News Feature Editor

February 2022

On December 27, the CDC determined that people who are asymptomatic only need to isolate for five days and continue to wear a mask around people for the next five. This was a drastic change from the 10 days that it previously was. Thus, I understand why people would be upset.

As baffled as I was by this, I was not in the least bit surprised. The Covid pandemic came as a shock to everyone. According to a 2020 Fox News article “no one sounded prepared, no one at CDC sounded prepared or educated on what was going on.” The CDC had shown that they initially had no idea what they were doing—that the one thing they were supposed to be prepared for, they weren’t.

Now, when they have the knowledge of the disease, it seems as though they are choosing to remain sessile—all they want is society to return to normal. “If you are asymptomatic and you are infected, we want to get people back to jobs—particularly those with essential jobs to keep our society running smoothly,” said Dr. Fauci.

He claims that he wants to keep society running, but we are living through a global pandemic, therefore, society should not be expected to return to normal. How are we supposed to go back to how things used to be when there are people dying every day? Families have suffered tragic losses, it is inconsiderate to believe society is capable of a somewhat normalcy just yet.

The CDC states that “The change is motivated by science demonstrating that the majority of SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs early in the course of illness, generally in the one to two days prior to the onset of symptoms and the two to three days after.” This may be true, but health experts say that there is no reason that justifies the CDC changing the guidelines. They are also not requiring a negative test before the five days are up, which means one could still be infected and think they are fine. In theory, they would participate in mask wearing after the five day quarantine. In actuality this is not put into practice, as it is unrealistic that the American people will actually listen to anything that scientists say.

According to ourworldindata.org, there have been a total of 902,266 Covid deaths in the United States from March 1, 2020, to February 5 of this year. The World Health Organization has shown that New Zealand has only had 53 deaths between March 23, 2021, and January 31 of this year. When Covid first appeared, the New Zealand Government shut down their borders and country in order to contain the spread. The United States, on the other hand, kept their borders open and did not shut down for months. Because of poor government and lack of planning, we now have almost one million people dead, while countries that had a structured plan, like New Zealand, only have 53.

People were supposed to look to the CDC for answers, as Covid was something we knew nothing about. But how are we supposed to trust them when they seem as though they still have no plan? Yes, Covid was new for everyone, yet living in the 21st century, we should have had a plan for this. We cannot ignore the fact that there are still people suffering and dying, and we must find a way to adjust society so that we can prevent future deaths.

Ed Yong writes: “We long to return to normal, but **normal led to this**. To avert the future pandemics we know are coming, we MUST grapple with all the ways normal failed us. We have to build something better.”