“But if you look at the data…the fact that we shut down when we did and the rest of the world did, has saved hundreds of millions of infections and millions of lives.”

–Dr. Anthony Fauci, NIH (June 2020)

Two things I think we can all agree on: Covid has been a very bad actor, and we know so much more now than we did in the first half of 2020.

But, how have we adapted? I think everyone’s familiar with Einstein’s witticism on the definition of insanity. Right?

There have been some changes. Remember when people were wiping down their groceries in the spring of 2020? Wearing gloves, and not just when working in the garden or performing surgery?

We have, thankfully, opened the doors to churches, restaurants, and schools…at least in most states.

People are attending sporting events. Please note that after a season of college and professional football, where seventy to one hundred thousand people gathered unmasked, we had no super spreader events?

Outside events, to be sure, but people yelling and cursing, drinking and spilling their cold beverages on others, and falling over each other in crowded stadiums. What does that tell us?

For many of us, life is almost back to normal. But some people still opt to stay home, wear masks when they aren’t needed, and even forgo family gatherings (maybe a silver lining for some people!).

The reason for such behavior is, I suspect, some measure of fear mixed with an inordinate amount of caution. And that’s perfectly okay. If you know you’re at higher risk for complications from an infection, or you just want to reduce your risk, it makes sense to take precautions.

But the fear? Ahhh. That is stoked by our government and our medical “leaders” who are determined to maintain control, even though they’ve done little to control the virus. Trump couldn’t, and Team Biden hasn’t.

Just last week, Johns Hopkins University released an aggregate review of thirty-four studies that showed we’ve likely reduced mortality from Covid by 0.2 percent–about 1,800 deaths. Not millions, as Dr. Fauci touted.

Every death is awful, and saving 1,800 would have merit, were it done in a vacuum. But it wasn’t. The lockdowns caused financial, educational, emotional, and social harm we’ll be evaluating for decades.

How many deaths from suicide, missed medical diagnoses, and drug overdoses were the result of our approach to the pandemic?

Furthermore, if you didn’t catch it, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky recently acknowledged that well over 50 percent of “Covid deaths” involved people who had four or more co-morbid risk factors.

Also, there’s finally been an admission that cloth masks do very little to mitigate the spread of Covid. Bottom line–if you’re at high risk, wear a surgical or N95 mask. If you’re not at risk, dare to go maskless!

Yet, even our president and Dr. Fauci, who know better, continue to model cloth masks. What is their message? To put a spin on an old commercial, I say, “Wear an effective mask, or wear nothing at all!”

Listen, I’m not interested in a mea culpa from Dr. Fauci. But I’d love to see him concede to the need for a shift to more ordinary living. The lower mortality and morbidity from the latest Covid strain would justify such a move.

Imagine if President Biden were to address the nation and declare that the pandemic is over. He could urge us to get vaccinated but recognize the value of natural immunity, take appropriate precautions if we are more vulnerable, and put every kid back in school with optional masking…but get back to regular living.

And that’s where the Great Barrington Declaration of October 2020 comes in. Spearheaded by three scientists at Oxford, Harvard, and Stanford (not too shabby!), it called for protecting the elderly and the compromised, and letting everyone else go on with their lives. I, along with over 45,000 other medical practitioners, signed it.

It made common sense. I’d be the first to admit that, despite my Masters in virology, Dr. Fauci has forgotten more about viruses than I ever knew, but I’d match the common sense of a general pediatrician, or any other primary care doc, against his ivory tower take on how the real world works.

To make matters worse, recently discovered emails between Dr. Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins, former Director of the NIH, show that they conspired to discredit the Barrington Declaration authors. To squelch alternative views is not science; rather, it is the antithesis of science. A black eye on an otherwise stellar career for Collins. As for Fauci…well, enough said already.

And, speaking of doctors, kudos to all the health care professionals who have put their lives on the line dealing with the fallout from this virus. We owe them all a huge debt of gratitude for a job well done.

Please don’t get me wrong: I would never discount the tragedy of a life lost to Covid, or the ill effects of long Covid, like cardiac arrhythmias, parosmia (look it up–it’s awful), and brain fog.

But, I’d also never discount the grief a dad suffers from a child lost to a drug overdose, the despair of a mom whose child has committed suicide, or a family in financial and emotional ruin due to a pandemic-related job closure.

We are, after all, all God’s children, and I would hazard a guess that He’d like to see us use some of the common sense with which we’ve been blessed…and get along with one another a little better!

Tell you what: I won’t ask you to explain why you’re wearing a mask if you won’t ask me to defend my going maskless. That’s called compromise, and that and Covid are two things we must just learn to live with.