Mrs. Mask

Rochelle Walensky's mask maneuvers mean she'll be going home to Massachusetts sooner rather than later.

Last Wednesday, on CNBC, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky swatted away mask questions from host Shep Smith and instead dumped tons of platitudes about “the science” on him.

“The science is evolving, the science is moving, and we are following the science each and every day.”

In under forty seconds she cited “the science” seven times.

“All true and exciting,” the suckling host mused.

“Everyone in my work group is wearing a mask,” Shep continued. “We’re all vaccinated, why do we have to wear masks?”

Guess what Walensky told him we have to look at?

Correct. “The science.”

She meandered here and there about the vaccines and the variants and making sure “you’re not an asymptomatic carrier if you’re vaccinated” before we could act like vaccinated people.

This was after she had spent the previous day in the Senate defending the CDC’s stringent guidance for summer camps, including mask-wearing for all campers, staff, and visitors at all times, both indoors and outdoors, except while eating and swimming.

So dangerous did Walensky consider summer camp to be, back on Tuesday and Wednesday, that she confidently informed Senator Susan Collins (R.-Maine) that she told her vaccinated 16-year old son he could not attend this year.

By Thursday morning everything had changed. New “science” must have come in overnight.

Vaccinated people could go maskless outdoors and indoors with some exceptions.

President Biden coughed out an admonition to Americans that the route to mask freedom was through vaccinations. “It’s vax ed, or mast,” he puffed, whatever that means.

That was just before telling us that a vaccination and then the subsequent de-masking would allow us to “earn the right” to smile at non-Americans.

God help us.

But back to Rochelle Walensky who was bursting with excitement as she declared, “Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing.”

It was a miracle and it makes us wonder what the new science was?

Was the new science the catastrophic jobs report?

Was the science the horrific inflation numbers?

Maybe the science was the “neanderthals” in Texas and Florida living maskless and free, making the administration look like fools.

Perhaps the science was the violence in the Middle East spurred on by actors not intimidated by the Iran-friendly administration.

Walensky cobbled together a few studies here and there but those were not new.

The move was unexpected, causing even the Washington Post to lash out:

Federal health officials’ decision Thursday to rescind almost all masking and distancing recommendations for fully vaccinated Americans created as much confusion as it did celebration, sending states, businesses and individuals scrambling to figure out what rules, if any, are still appropriate and when.

Yep. The administration opted to enact the distraction nuclear option and there was pushback from all sides.

The right railed against the blatant diversionary maneuver, while some on the left decried the lack of guidance and others broke down emotionally at the thought of losing some of the implements of their year-long infantilization.

It was ugly out there.

Someone had to take the heat. Take the fall.

To the gangplank walked Rochelle Walensky. She appeared on about 67 Sunday Shows and offered the same hopeful note before being wholly eviscerated.

Why the sudden change, demanded ABC’s Martha Raddatz: “Let’s celebrate this moment,” pivoted Walensky. Then she took her beating.

Was the shift handled badly, Fox News Channel’s Chris Wallace wanted to know: “First let’s just acknowledge where we are in this pivotal moment,” she floated before Wallace gave her both barrels.

What changed in 72 hours, NBC’s Chuck Todd inquired. “First I want to just sort of celebrate the moment where we’re at in this pandemic,” she fluttered moments before Todd shot her out of the sky.

Sunday was brutal for Rochelle Walensky. She had no good answers because there were no good answers. Instead she was made to take ownership of the Biden administration’s entire campaign of coronavirus incompetency, almost all of it fueled by cynical politics.

Don’t feel bad for her. Rochelle Walensky made a deal with the devil to get this gig and ever since her lab coat and credentials are just props in the messaging machine.

Remember just last month she declared racism a “public health threat.”

As her statement on the CDC website reads:

What we know is this: racism is a serious public health threat that directly affects the well-being of millions of Americans. As a result, it affects the health of our entire nation. Racism is not just the discrimination against one group based on the color of their skin or their race or ethnicity, but the structural barriers that impact racial and ethnic groups differently to influence where a person lives, where they work, where their children play, and where they worship and gather in community. These social determinants of health have life-long negative effects on the mental and physical health of individuals in communities of color.

Yeah, sell that horse sh*t somewhere else, you fraud.

She is finito, it is only a matter of when she will be quietly perp-walked out of the building to get the Acela back up to Boston.

Though the telegenic Rochelle Walensky put on a brave face during her time on the dock this Sunday, there is no doubt that she finished the day with a feeling of impending doom.