Fauci apparently comes around, but...

Here's an article saying that Dr. Anthony Fauci thinks the US is out of the pandemic phase, i.e., the pandemic is (almost) officially over. Problem is, the lockdown-loving liberals who have been drooling about following the science now find themselves without a reason for any more witch hunts. Sorry, assholes! The fun had to end sometime!

From the article:

As Americans and the rest of the world have passed the two-year mark since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, otherwise known as “Science Itself,” appeared with Judy Woodruff on the PBS New Hour on Tuesday to discuss the state of COVID in the U.S.

In a rather surprising statement coming from Fauci/The Science, he declared the pandemic phase in the U.S. as being all but over. This of course sent liberals over the edge.

[...]

This announcement sent the left into an angry tailspin, shocked and saddened by the conclusion of Dr. Fauci.

Several factors are in play, not least of which is an expected drubbing of the Democrats this coming November as people vote to show how much they think the liberal party has screwed the pooch over the past two years. Some policy nerds think a lifting of restrictions will benefit the Democrats; others think the Democrats are relying on continued COVID restrictions to help influence the vote in November. I should also note that, if Dr. Fauci is indeed saying the pandemic is over, this doesn't mean anything unless and until we see real action showing that the authorities believe the pandemic to be over. 

Here in Korea, I expect the incoming conservative administration to start doing away with many vestigial COVID-related restrictions, but I think the last obstacle to fall will be masks. I think masks will prove to be a psychological hurdle that's hard to surmount for three reasons: (1) because Korean politicians are too afraid to take any sort of extreme initiative, (2) because Korean citizens—many of whom are, admit it or not, naturally superstitious—think of the mask as a protective talisman that they fear to remove lest the mysterious miasma of COVID take them,* and (3) because Koreans, being East Asians, have used masks since long before the current pandemic, i.e., masking is an ingrained habit. Government policy in South Korea, as my buddy Charles pointed out to me months ago, is that you don't need to wear a mask while outside, yet Koreans continue to do so religiously. There is definitely something vaguely religious or magical going on when it comes to masks and the realities of government policy. This is a ripe topic of study for anthropology students, and a good way to see how predictive of a science anthropology can be. So, anthro-nerds, what happens next?

UPDATE: as per usual, Fauci has done his characteristic flip-flop: the pandemic is NOT over, he now says. Never trust a word out of that man's mouth. But follow the science! Right?

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*I'm not saying Koreans are robotically monolithic. I've seen, and still see, plenty of defiant Koreans who go around either maskless or with their masks on their chins, exposing their faces. People might be religious, but they aren't (all) stupid, and this defiance is even more visible when you leave the big cities. As I've said before, people on the country's east coast are routinely maskless; a lot of them either don't care or don't buy the authorities' rhetoric.