Bill Straub: Masks, social distancing, vaccines work; it’s just amazing how much Paul, Massie get wrong

That’s right. Believe it or don’t. No one has died because of the CDC recommendation that was consequently imposed on the residents of 39 states to battle COVID-19, a disease which, by the way, has officially resulted in almost 600,000 deaths and unofficially untold thousands more.

Thankfully, the need to wrap a cloth around your face and maintain a space between you and your neighbor as you hobnob about the proper way to seed the lawn is coming to a close. The CDC has formally concluded that the nation has reached a point in the battle against COVID-19 where mask and distance are no longer necessary. On May 13 the agency declared that those who have been fully vaccinated can safely forgo masks in most public settings, indoors and out.

Which is good news. Wearing a mask, most folks have discovered, is a pain in a place well below the neck. How many times have you sauntered toward Kroger’s only to reach the destination and remember you left the mask in the car? The device is uncomfortable, belabors breathing and reeks from repeated use.

The mask and distance mandates imposed in most states also had an obvious deleterious effect on many local economies and businesses. But it saved lives, so there’s that.
Yet some folks acted like absolute dopes over the entire rigmarol — here’s to you, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Bowling Green, and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-SomewhereorotherLewisCounty – reacting as if the mask-wearing requirement adopted by the participating states resulted in thousands of deaths and was the greatest atrocity since the Reds traded Frank Robinson to the Baltimore Orioles.

Now that may sound hyperbolic but the constant bellyaching by this duo over the simple responsibility of donning a protective mask in an effort to allay the spread of a deadly disease bespeaks for the need to administer to both of them a strong dose of Pepto-Bismal.

Paul in particular appears to have succeeded the late Professor Irwin Corey as “The World’s Foremost Authority.” He has consistently clashed with Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and President Biden’s chief medical advisor, proffering nonsense over subjects he knows little or nothing about.

Paul has for months been raging to quash the facemask and distance recommendations, insisting that those who have been inoculated against COVID-19 or previously suffered from the malady are immune and that following the guidelines is unnecessary.
Appearing this week on Fox News, his home away from home, Paul took his anti-mask argument further, maintaining the entire procedure proved fruitless.

“I think that history will demonstrate that the only thing that affected the course of this pandemic was the vaccine,” Paul said. “The government had a role in it. The Trump administration had a big role in this. But all the other things were ultimately found out to be irrelevant and ineffective six feet of distancing didn’t work. Mask, cutting you undershirt up and making it into a mask doesn’t work. None of the other mitigation strategies did anything.”

During the same broadcast, Paul taunted Fauci, who he previously had referred to as a “little dictator” who “probably has the highest IQ for someone who actually acts like an ignoramus every day of the week.” He further insisted that “we’ve known that, when you’re vaccinated, we’ve known this for quite a while, that you’re not transmitting it and you’re not getting it. We’ve known that for months now. But also vaccine immunology, if you believe in it, if you believe in the vaccine, that’s what happens, you don’t have to wear a mask afterwards.”

Paul has essentially been taking the world’s longest home run trot, insisting that his calls to dump the mask and distance requirements, dating back to at least March, have been proved correct.

And, of course, he’s full of it. On all counts, despite the efforts of some commentators to present our boy Rand as some modern Nostradamus for his amazing insight.

There is no question that vaccination is the greatest tool for battling COVID-19. No one with any sense is challenging that notion. Fauci believes in immunology, knows more about it than Paul does in his wildest dreams, and is constantly pressing members of the public to get their shots.

But it’s flat out wrong to say masks and distance carried no impact. Several studies maintain to the contrary. One focused on Kansas where, for a period beginning on July 3, 2020, some counties required those within their borders to wear masks while other counties did not. It ultimately was determined that incidences decreased in 24 counties with mask mandates but continued to increase in 81 counties without mask mandates.
A Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report issued in February by the CDC entitled, “Decline in COVID-19 Hospitalization Growth Rates Associated with Statewide Mask Mandates — 10 States, March–October 2020.” also supported the efficacy of masks. And there are, of course, many others.

As for vaccine immunity, ask the New York Yankees. Seven members of the coaching and support staff tested positive for COVID-19 after being vaccinated. In addition, the club’s shortstop, Gleyber Torres, tested positive after being vaccinated. What’s more, Torres had previously suffered from COVID-19 in December.

Paul’s wildly inaccurate and possibly dangerous claims offer a stark example of why you don’t hand a loaded .45 to a three-year-old.

Rand Paul is a loud-mouthed know-it-all with an apparent superiority complex who can’t wait to mansplain the world to his loving subjects. Don’t think for a moment he will stop just because he doesn’t have a clue.

Really. Taking the word of a Rand Paul over any number of noted experts in a particular field is like ignoring the rain predicted in a forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in favor of the opinion of the incoherent thoughts of some schlub picked at random who thinks the sun is going to shine bright on my old Kentucky home.

The schlub might get it right once out of every 10 times. But who are you going to trust?

The masks, most of which can now thankfully be put away, and the distancing succeeded in slowing the spread of COVID-19, was intended to impede the spread and it obviously succeeded in that goal. When the CDC perused the data and determined that it would be safe to proceed without the protections, it retracted the mask and distance recommendations. Pretty simple.

With Paul, it was a witless prediction from a stark amateur.

Which brings us around to Wonder Boy, Thomas Massie, who has spent his entire congressional career playing the fool. Like Paul, Massie has already suffered from COVID_19 and he is refusing to accept the vaccination. He has long opposed the mask mandate, tweeting at one point, “There is no authority in the Constitution that authorizes the government to stick a needle in you against your will, force you to wear a mask, or track your daily movements.”

This week he led a protest on the House floor objecting to the mandate of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, that members continue the practice of wearing masks. He refused to do so and is therefore subject to a $500 fine.

It’s worth remembering that the Preamble to the Constitution provides the government with the authority to says its purpose is to, among other things, “insure domestic Tranquility” and “promote the general Welfare.” Vaccinations, masks and tracking during a pandemic certainly seem to qualify. And it should be further noted that Gen. George Washington, (you may have heard of him, he later became first president) saw to it that the members of the Continental Army were inoculated against smallpox.
So there does appear to be precedent.

It’s simply amazing how much this dude gets wrong.