We may not have known much about the novel coronavirus early on, but by the end of the spring of 2020, two key facts about its transmissibility and danger were obvious: The virus was more dangerous and transmissible among adults, specifically among the elderly, and the risk of contracting the virus was orders of magnitude greater indoors than outdoors. The absolute safest way to socialize was obviously any outdoor gathering, especially if any physical distancing was possible, while the single most dangerous way was an indoor, multi-generational gathering.
However, according to a new study by researchers from Harvard, the RAND Corporation, and Castlight Health, those pompous Karens who would whine at you to wear a mask while walking in a park and who rage-posted on Facebook about maskless beachgoers (who were minding their own business) did not, in fact, listen to the science behind closed doors. After browbeating strangers outside, the metaphorical Karen continued to host the highest risk socializing behind closed doors: birthday parties, almost by definition multi-generational.
“So much behavior around the pandemic — including mask use and the uptake of vaccines — appears to differ by people’s political party,” writes the New York Times of the study. “But the study found that birthdays led to increased Covid infections by similar levels in Republican and Democratic areas of the country. This suggests that although Democratic-leaning households may have been more likely to wear a mask while walking the dog, they may have differed less than Republicans in their comfort having a trusted friend over to visit.”
Humans are inherently social beings, and the notion that Democrats could simply cope better than Republicans by secluding themselves in months of isolation was always absurd. But rather than give advice for how to socialize safely and mitigate risk as much as reasonably possible, public health experts relied on the equivalent of telling a bunch of college kids the best pregnancy prevention is abstinence. That’s obviously true, but is it realistic to expect everyone to follow such a strict rule? Well, the answers speak for themselves.
Even before the data for outdoor coronavirus transmission clearly demonstrated the statistical risk was negligible, massive outdoor Black Lives Matter protests from the summer of 2020 never became superspreaders, nor had outdoor-dining reopening done so. But instead of telling the public to host limited social gatherings on patios and in parks, the “expert” class maintained a useless outdoor mask mandate and acted as though an outdoor picnic would be as dangerous as a frat party. When the holidays came, quarantining before an event, keeping windows open, and maximizing physical distancing were not advised. Rather, Anthony Fauci and company simply believed an entire country would cancel Thanksgiving!
For much of the pandemic, inside someone’s home was about the most dangerous place you could be, yet the government and medical “experts” all but conspired to make home gatherings the default for any socialization. Karen ought to have been a little less peeved at the outdoor gatherings infecting next to no one and more cautious with her own parties that could quite literally kill grandma.
