The COVID Response. What We Got Wrong.
Part IV: Shutting Down Outside Activities
Do you remember that, beginning in March of 2020, on the advice of the WHO and the CDC, the US began issuing mandatory stay-at-home orders? California was first, on March 19, and was soon followed by 42 states and territories.
We were all so terrified of COVID, and knew so little about it, that almost nobody objected.
And do you remember that, although we were allowed to go shopping for “essentials,” there was a total ban on outdoor activities, including concerts and sporting events?
I was a bit surprised by that. Being outdoors – even in a crowd – seemed safer than being in a small indoor space with people you didn’t really know.
But what seemed absolutely insane to me was when they closed down the beaches and parks. Being surrounded by people in an outdoor stadium felt like it had some level of risk. But being outside on a beach or in a park, where it was easy to distance yourself from others? What was the point in that?
There was no point because it never did make sense.
Yet, the mandates were issued and enforced without a shred of evidence that they worked. On the contrary, studies done soon after the outbreak – early in 2020 – showed that being outside greatly reduced the risk of infection. And by a very significant degree.
But those studies were ignored. They were ignored by the CDC. And they were ignored by the mainstream press. Instead, we were shown hypothetical, mathematical models of the virus spreading outdoors at alarming rates.
And then, just like the other falsehoods we were told to believe, the obviously idiotic lie about the danger of being in outdoor spaces was no longer front-page news.
Beaches and parks were gradually and quietly opened, though outdoor venues continued to be shut down in most places. That seemed somewhat sensible, despite the fact there had been evidence since the beginning that the risk of attending outdoor concerts and sporting events was actually quite low.
For example, a study of 64 college football games during the 2020 season involving 1,190 athletes found zero spread of COVID during game play based on three postgame PCR tests over the course of a week – likely because of the outdoor setting and short duration of close contact, researchers said. And another study published in Nature magazine in November of that same year showed that the vast majority of transmissions were happening indoors.
Those studies were conducted early in the pandemic. Why didn’t we hear about them then? And why did we continue to keep outdoor activities shut down for more than two years? (California, the first state to do it, was also the last one to open them up again in March of this year.)
Looking at the 2020-2021 mandates now, it’s obvious that they were not just unnecessarily severe, but also irrational.
And yet we accepted them.
But the truth will out, as the Bard said. And when the public began to be aware of the facts, what did the CDC and the government and the major media do? Did they correct the inaccuracies? Did they investigate how and from where the misinformation had come?
No. They simply stopped talking about it. And we stopped hearing about it.
If you check the CDC’s COVID guidelines now, you will find no mention of the danger of going to parks and beaches or attending outdoor events. Instead, you will find a recommendation to “spend time outside when possible, instead of inside,” advice they should have published two years ago. “Viral particles spread between people more readily indoors than outdoors,” they now say, “because the concentration of viral particles is often higher [indoors] than outdoors, where even a light wind can rapidly reduce concentration…. You are less likely to be infected with COVID-19 during outdoor activities because virus particles do not build up in the air outdoors as much as they do indoors.”
