For Democrats, the COVID-19 pandemic will never end

OPINION:

COVID-19 cases are beginning to rise as we cruise through fall toward winter, and the government scaremongers are pushing a fifth booster to ward off the virus.

An autumn booster campaign was launched in September, with the feds advising people over 50 and those with certain medical conditions to take the jab. But Americans are pretty much done with all that.

“Around two-thirds of adults in the United States do not plan to get updated COVID-19 booster shots soon, according to a survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), a health policy nonprofit organization,” Reuters reported last month.

Still, you see them nearly every day: People wearing masks while alone in their cars, riding their bikes, or taking a stroll in the woods. Apparently, they slept through the high school lessons on parts per million — catching the virus outside is all but impossible.

Yet still, there they are. The establishment media in America spent two years terrifying these people with breathless reports that we were all about to die. Once they committed, they’re in it for the long game and may never take off the masks.

Make no mistake: COVID-19 is still out there, and along with the flu, will be a threat to your health this winter. The virus has weakened but can still cause serious symptoms, so we want to say here that it’s not a terrible idea to don a mask when in a crowded place like a subway car or a restaurant.

That said, most Americans are just done with the whole mess, saying the pandemic is most definitely waning.

“There is bipartisan, majority-level agreement that the coronavirus situation is getting better, with 76% of Republicans and 61% of Democrats saying so,” a recent Gallup poll found. “Independents also broadly agree that the situation is improving (62%). All three groups have roughly returned to the levels last seen in February and April after cases were down from the January surge in infections.”

But that’s overall. When the poll is broken down by party, it gets weird.

“Americans in all party groups have become more likely to say the pandemic is over since July, including increases of 12 points among Republicans, 14 points among Democrats and 10 points among independents,” Gallup found.

“However, Republicans are the only party with a majority saying the pandemic is over. Republicans are more than three times as likely as Democrats to say this, at 73% vs. 21%, while 48% of independents agree. Despite the fact that Biden has said he believes the pandemic is over, a majority of his party’s faithful, 79%, do not concur.”

That’s right — in July, just 7% of Democrats thought the pandemic was “over.” And that number is still just 21% in November, even though President Biden made a major declaration a couple of months ago.

“The pandemic is over,” Biden said in a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sept, 18. “We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over.”

That confident assertion didn’t last long. The scaremongers in the White House, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the resident Debbie Downer, immediately walked back the statement.

“We are not where we need to be if we are going to quote ’live with the virus,’” Dr. Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser, said the following day. “We still must be aware of how unusual this virus is and continues to be in its ability to evolve into new variants which defy the standard public health mechanisms of addressing an outbreak.”

With all the fumfering from the White House, Americans’ confidence in the president and the top federal health agency has plunged.

“One in three U.S. adults think President Joe Biden has communicated a clear plan in response to COVID-19. This marks an eight-point decline from the last reading in late 2021 and is the lowest on record for Biden,” Gallup found. “A similar 30% of Americans currently agree that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has communicated a clear plan, which is also an eight-point decline from the prior reading.”

So bottom line, Republicans mostly think the pandemic is over, but only 1 in 5 Democrats think so.

Look for a plethora of stories this winter on COVID-19 cases rising — they will, of course — and watch out for Democrats demanding a whole new round of mandatory masks and lockdowns. For most of them, the pandemic will never be over.

• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter @josephcurl 

For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.