OPINION:
GRAPEVINE, Texas — America spent the last coronavirus year-plus in fearful, fear-filled, hunker-down mode, shut out of schools, shut out of work, shut out of churches — shut out of freedom. And on that, the left pounced, using COVID-19 to great political advantage, to exert massive political controls, to grow leftist political power.
Now come the variants.
Now come the delta variant warnings from the same people who brought the coronavirus warnings that led to the unconstitutional, unnecessarily long-lasting crackdowns on individual liberties.
Truly, the coronavirus is the socialist-communist-Marxist-collectivist side of the Democratic Party’s greatest gift to governing.
“Fauci: Delta variant is ‘greatest threat’ to eradicating COVID-19 in the U.S.,” The Hill wrote in a recent headline.
“‘Two COVID nations’: Delta variant threatens sections of the country where vaccination rates lag,” Yahoo News wrote, in another recent headline.
The news is filled with such dire warnings — which, for those paying attention, seem eerily similar to the same type of dire warnings that dotted the media landscape the last year-plus, resulting in, drumroll please, da dum dum dum, once again: unconstitutional, unnecessarily long-lasting crackdowns on individual liberties.
As Yogi Berra would say, it’s deja vu all over again.
The question now is: Are Americans going to go along with the fear and let the left shut down the country once again?
“Gravitas: Delta Plus variant: The new worry for the world,” WION wrote in one headline.
“Delta is the fastest COVID-19 variant and will pick off the most vulnerable: WHO,” another WION headline read.
“Delta plus variant symptoms: 41 cases of new strain found in UL,” Express wrote, in a recent headline.
Here we go again with the case counts — the meaningless case counts. Just as with COVID-19, variant case counts mean nothing without context. What matters is the percentage of people who die or suffer serious health harm versus the percentage of people who catch the virus and simply move on with their lives.
But the coronavirus has become all about the vaccine now.
It’s become all about getting as many people vaccinated with an experimental vaccine issued under emergency use authorization. And to keep that emergency use authorization in place, an emergency must be present.
Enter the variants.
“Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, warned that the U.S. could be following the United Kingdom’s course, where the variant has become the dominant strain due to rapid spread among youth,” USA Today just wrote. “Fauci says indications are that the vaccines remain effective against the variant.”
Americans have been lied too long enough.
Americans have been deceived on numbers, deceived on case counts, deceived on shutdowns, deceived on tests, deceived on just about everything tied to the coronavirus that was promised by politicians as temporary, guided by government health experts as necessary, mandated by the medical world as scientific and safe and sound.
When the coronavirus first hit, it was an unknown and special precautions were perhaps necessary. But those days have passed — more than a year ago, those days have passed. But the left won’t release its grip on power; leftists got a taste of what fear can accomplish, and they don’t want to let it go. So here come the variants.
The same people who promised “two weeks to flatten the coronavirus curve” as justification for total societal shutdown are now laying the groundwork for another “two weeks to flatten the Delta variant” curve.
Mark these words, and make way for a fight for freedom: The left will never willingly let go of the coronavirus. It’s incumbent on Americans to realize that truth, so as to ward off the shutdowns before they once again start.
• 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. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
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