Letter to the editor: Where is the covid finish line?

What are the metrics indicating a safe end to the covid-19 guidelines? Deaths, hospitalizations and case numbers are down. Natural immunity and immunizations are up. When is it safe to stop wearing masks, social distancing, limiting health care facility visits, etc.?

The public health experts have been and are in uncharted waters, for instance, with the use of masks: “no need to wear a mask”; then “you should consider wearing a mask”; then “no need to wear a mask — maybe”; “definitely wear a mask”; “you must wear a double mask.”

Surprisingly, these same experts who couldn’t decide on mask use never developed a safe, effective, cheap therapeutic regimen for treating covid-19, which skyrocketed the general public’s fears. Yet despite their less-than-stellar track record, they, in an audacious manner, mocked anyone, inside or outside the medical community, who suggested a possible safe, cheap, effective therapeutic.

Currently, our experts have a track record that includes a trail of nursing home deaths; bungled mask recommendations; modified distancing guidelines; zero medical therapies — big pharma pulled tight on that leash; and who can only deliver vaccines to well-publicized vaccination events in sport stadiums, hotels and large hospital systems. Certainly, a grounding unable to support any audacious pretense!

As we race toward an indeterminate finish line, I haven’t any expectation that we will know what that line is until we have crossed it. I hope and pray, for our society’s sake, that the line isn’t too close to a cliff.

Rev. James Holland

West Deer