CDC needs to keep its COVID-19 nose out of Thanksgiving

OPINION:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Robert Redfield just issued a quiet warning of possible COVID-19 case hikes during Thanksgiving festivities.

Memo to CDC: Enough. Stay out of Thanksgiving. And don’t even think of getting involved in Christmas.

Americans don’t need to be told by the government’s leading health bureaucrats that gathering in groups can lead to the transmission of germs. That’s what third-grade science class is for. Lecturing on the obvious, at this point in the coronavirus game, only falls on deaf ears.

Annoyed ears.

“[W]hat we’re seeing as the increasing threat right now is actually acquisition of infection through small household gatherings,” Redfield said, CNN reported. “Particularly with Thanksgiving coming up, we think it’s really important to stress the vigilance of these continued mitigation steps in the household setting.”

So cancel Thanksgiving?

Make it a virtual visiting Thanksgiving?

Well, Redfield didn’t say that. He didn’t have to — a so-called medical expert quickly stepped in and carried the water for him.

“Dr. Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine at George Washington University, said Wednesday that people shouldn’t have indoor Thanksgiving dinners with others who aren’t in their immediate household,” CNN wrote.

It’s a danger to the older folks, don’t cha know.

So save a life — do Zoom.

How many more days, weeks, months are the American people going to stand for health professionals running roughshod over basic individual rights — like the freaking right to gather for dinner and yes, it’s called Thanksgiving for a reason, for worship?

The government’s already wreaked havoc on the economy. The government’s already destroyed too many small businesses to count. The government’s already shut down schools, shut down fitness centers, shut down stores, shut down churches. The government’s already forced stupid face masks onto the faces of even solitary driving and solitary running and exercising and solitary standing men, women and children across America.

Now the government wants Thanksgiving, too? Then Christmas, then New Year’s, then roundabout, come full circle, here we are once more, Easter, yet again?

It won’t end until the citizens demand it ends.

Health bureaucrats are unelected, unaccountable to the people, and largely unconcerned about the devastations that come from their flawed predictions. It’s up to citizens to say: Enough.

Let’s hope virtual turkey is that moment.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE.