From the Breitbart News Desk -- May 13, 2021

From the Breitbart News Desk today:

Federal health officials announced on Thursday, May 13, 2021, that fully vaccinated people don’t need to wear a mask or physically distance regardless of whether gatherings are large or small, indoors or outdoors. This will come as welcome—if overdue—news to many businesses. No one really wants to sit through a concert, a ballgame, or a movie in a facemask. Even shopping was a drag with diminished airflow.

Yet the sudden shift in policy—just over two weeks ago, federal health officials said the vaccinated should still wear masks—will do little to foster confidence in public authorities, whether they are public health officials, central bankers, or those whose jobs should currently be focused on resolving the gas crisis inflicting the southeastern United States. Throughout the pandemic period, the counsel of our public officials has just been too inconstant and unreliable to inspire trust.

Certainly, the Biden administration has done nothing to assist itself in this regard. If anything, its officials have seemed perfectly helpless in the face of the collapse of our gasoline infrastructure this week, warning the public about over-reacting and tut-tutting Americans for "hoarding" gasoline even while gas stations closed down for lack of product. This was, it shouldn't be forgotten, a foreign attack on the economy and security of the U.S. It's as if FDR responded to Pearl Harbor by telling Americans that the harbor would once again be open for business soon enough.

At the same time, President Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen have decidedly become unreliable narrators when it comes to the economy, insisting that an extra $300 per week could not possibly be a major cause of businesses struggling to find workers despite high unemployment. This defies common sense. In many states, unemployment benefits pay the equivalent of $20 per hour. As a result, a job that pays $30 an hour—the equivalent of over $62,000 a year—really pays just $10 extra. Many people quite sensibly would prefer 100 percent leisure time than 40 hours a week for an extra 10 bucks per hour.

Meanwhile, Fed officials have insisted the inflation seen in Wednesday's Consumer Price Index and Thursday's Producer Price Index will be only transitory, lasting only a few months. But if economists severely underestimated the level of inflation, they may also be underestimating its duration.

Fortunately, several Republican governors have announced that they will end enhanced unemployment benefits early. That should ease both the labor shortage and some of the inflationary pressures — assuming, of course, that the workers can find the gas they need to drive to work.

– Alex Marlow & John Carney
Breitbart News Network

 

That lede:

Federal health officials announced on Thursday, May 13, 2021, that fully vaccinated people don’t need to wear a mask or physically distance regardless of whether gatherings are large or small, indoors or outdoors. 

This was a huge shift -- just over two weeks ago, federal health officials said the vaccinated should still wear masks.

 

One needs to ask the question: why the sudden shift in policy? Nothing changed in two weeks and here we go: the "all clear" sign if one is fully vaccinated.

 

And there's the rub -- if one is fully vaccinated. 

 

My hunch: the sudden shift in policy was made when the data regarding daily vaccination was noted: the vaccination rate is decreasing. Today's "Thursday data" is the worst "Thursday data in ten weeks. The government needed to do something to spur "everyone" to get vaccinated. 

 

Ah, yes, the carrot and/or stick approach. This was the carrot approach. No mask needed if fully vaccinated. Finally, a science-based policy if the vaccine is 100% effective.

 

It's not. 

*******************************
HIPAA

And look what's trending on social media now:

HIPPA: wiki.