Why Isn't the End of Omicron Bigger News?

The Commentary Magazine Podcast

Commentary Magazine

News Commentary, Politics, News

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🗓️ 1 February 2022

⏱️ 59 minutes

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Summary

Today's podcast looks at the precipitous decline in Omicron and wonders at the fact that the media aren't trumpeting the end of the surge and the possible return to normalcy that should follow it. Why isn't this the headline of all headlines? We try to answer the question, and we discuss Georgetown Law School's shameful violation of academic freedom and Whoopi Goldberg's moral idiocy. Give a listen.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the commentary magazine Daily Podcast today is Tuesday, February 1st, 2022.
0:29.8	I am John Pajor, it's the editor of commentary with me as always executive editor,
0:33.6	A. Greenwald Hi, John, senior writer, Christine Rose and Hykristine,
0:37.5	and associate editor, Noah Rossman, Hi, Noah. Hi, John. So wouldn't it be the biggest news in the
0:44.7	world if the COVID surge that has preoccupied America for the past two months and allowed for the
0:55.6	continuation of strictures or the re-imposition of strictures in some places that that that
1:05.1	surge is over, New York, which is one of the key places where the surges cases are down 95%.
1:14.3	If you look at the Omicron chart, you will see that it will be gone by next week pretty much
1:23.8	according to the measures in only New York, but in most places in the United States.
1:29.0	Shouldn't that be the top story in the media right now?
1:36.4	Well, that Omicron's story is in case rates unless case rates are going up. When case rates are
1:41.0	going down, that's not the top story, the top story or hospitalizations and deaths, which they
1:45.7	should be, but things are different now in ways that we've discussed previously, make things
1:50.9	very complicated as far as how we code these deaths. That's the press's focus is no longer on case
1:58.4	rates. I think the point that I think I'm trying to make, the point I'm trying to make here is that
2:07.2	there is a there is a mania abroad in the land to continue to have the country focused on
2:14.9	COVID and the COVID response as a socially disruptive fact of life, rather than as the thing that we are
2:26.4	now combating. So I'll give you an example of this Pfizer believes that the FDA is about to approve
2:34.4	the use of its vaccine for children under the age of five sometime by the end of this week. A two dose
2:41.5	try, no, two dose vaccination. Omicron is going away. What are we going to talk about for the next
2:50.9	two weeks? We're going to talk about vaccine resistance among parents with children five and younger.
2:57.4	We're not going to be talking about the fact that the questionable idea that kids under five
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