 as many of you probably know by now in late December of last year, the Delta Airline CEO sent a letter to the CDC asking them to reduce the required quarantine time for breakthrough COVID-19 infections from five days down to 10 days. And unsurprising to nobody, the CDC, like the good little stooches they are complied. So now it is the case that you only have to quarantine for five days as opposed to 10 days so long as you have no symptoms. So even if you test positive, if you've quarantined for five days, that's it. That's the only amount of self-isolation you need because these companies have to make money. So you've got to get back to work. The Centers for Disease Control, just openly, blatantly kowtowing to big business. They should be renamed the Capitalist Defense Center because that's what they're doing. They're not looking at the science here. They're just listening to what big businesses want. And big businesses don't care about getting COVID-19 under control. Big businesses care about patting their pockets. So this is shameless and there should be mass pressure on people at the CDC to resign as a result of this insane decision. Now, this isn't the first fuck-up from the CDC within the last year. And I shouldn't even call it a fuck-up because this is intentional. A fuck-up implies that there was some sort of a mistake but this is what they're doing intentionally so. But last year in spring, once most people were eligible to be vaccinated, the CDC just dropped all mask mandates. And they said, well, you know what? If you are vaccinated, you don't have to mask up. But people who aren't vaccinated, indeed, still have to wear masks except they implemented this using an honor system effectively. So what happened? Well, what we thought was going to happen. People who were not vaccinated just didn't wear masks. And then Delta hit and it was a disaster. So the CDC continues to make a fool of itself and now people are mocking them, rightfully so. Here's a couple of memes that I really thought were satisfying. This person says, the CDC says, fuck yeah, spread it. That's my favorite one also here. The CDC says just the tip is an effective birth control strategy. And you know, this is where we're at basically. It's a joke. And it's not just shit posters online making fun of the CDC to be clear. It's health experts, epidemiologists who are looking at this and thinking, what are they doing? Epidemiologist Eric Fielding writes, dear CDC, UK HSA requires not just one test but two negative tests in order to exit isolation before 10 days. But somehow a five day exit with zero negative test is okay in the United States. American exceptionalism does not apply to a pandemic virus. PSA symptomatic can still spread. And he's right about that. Now additionally epidemiologist Ali Mokdad called it careless and reckless from the agency that is supposed to protect us. And he's correct. It's clear that they're protecting the profits of big businesses and not doing what needs to be done in order to contain the spread of the virus. So this is very transparently about getting people back to work because that is what these big businesses want. And it's not like this is speculation or conspiracy theory because Dr. Fauci essentially admitted this openly on CNN. Well, the reason is that with the sheer volume of new cases that we are having and that we expect to continue with Omicron, one of the things we wanna be careful of is that we don't have so many people out. I mean, obviously if you have symptoms you should not be out. But if you are asymptomatic and you are infected we wanna get people back to the jobs particularly those with essential jobs to keep our society running smoothly. So I think that was a very prudent and good choice on the part of the CDC which we spent a considerable amount of time discussing namely getting people back in half the time then they would have been out so that they can get back to the workplace doing things that are important to keep society running smoothly. Now a logical follow-up you'd think would be but Dr. Fauci, aren't people who are asymptomatic still contagious? Can they still spread the virus? But that wasn't the follow-up. This was the follow-up that Jim Acosta asked him. And are you concerned Americans will have trouble keeping track of all of these changes, these rules that change here and there and does this boil down to just a big honor system now? Oh, that's definitely the concern, Jim Acosta. Good job. Great journalism, outstanding follow-up, 10 out of 10 sir. I'm definitely for one more concerned with whether or not Americans are going to be able to keep track of all of these new CDC guidelines. I'm more concerned with that than I am concerned with whether or not our public health institutions are just shamelessly listening to big businesses and making decisions not based on public health but on whether or not these big businesses will be able to continue to make money. But to be fair to Anthony Fauci he's not the CDC director. He should resign as well. But Rochelle Walensky is the CDC director and after a year of public health messaging mishaps and fuck ups, she needs to speak up here. And she did. And what she said was outrageously just patronizing. I don't know how else to describe it. Politico's Quinn Forhey writes on Wednesday, Walensky acknowledged that the CDC's decision to alter the recommended isolation period really had a lot to do with what we thought people would be able to tolerate. We have seen relatively low rates of isolation for all of this pandemic. Some science has demonstrated less than a third of people are isolating when they need to, Walensky told CNN. And so we really want to make sure that we had guidance in this moment where we were going to have a lot of disease that could be adhered to, that people were willing to adhere to and that spoke specifically to when people were maximally infectious she continued. So because people aren't following the CDC guidelines, they're changing the rules so that way people out of compliance are in compliance. So basically, you know, the people who already aren't going to follow the rules, they're definitely gonna follow the rules now because you changed it to appease them and not based on what should happen based on the disease. I mean, she needs to resign. There should be mass pressure on her to resign because the buck stops with her as the head of the CDC and it's clear, she's willing to sacrifice Americans to the gods of capitalism all to appease big businesses. This isn't about mitigating the spread of COVID-19 anymore. This is about making sure that our economic system continues to chug along as it usually is, fuck your life, this is about money. They don't care about you, they care about money. Shameless, absolutely shameless. Again, this should not be the capitalist defense center. This should be the center for disease control. And now they're basically just saying, fuck it, we're done. We're not gonna try to even control it. But look, here's what happens when you do things like this. This is what this looks like in practice and this really is a self-defeating strategy because what they're trying to do in stopping worker shortages, which is an issue, is going to lead to more infections. It's gonna make matters worse. I can't believe that they didn't foresee this but here's one individual who explains why this is an idiotic thing. There are no drivers for the B train, the D train, the W train, and I believe they said the M train. No drivers, why a Maricon? We have 50 drivers out and this morning four more were taken out. Now let me tell y'all this, right? I was told that a guy got on my job yesterday in my bus and said Manhattanville has 102 people out. First pond has over 40 people out. Listen, let me tell y'all what's going on. This is what's really happening. We were told, now listen to this. If you test positive, but have no symptom, you still have to come to work. Let me say that one more time. If you test positive for COVID, you still have to come to work. If you have no symptoms, there was a guy at my job yesterday. He had, he would test it positive but he had no symptoms. He was told he had to come still come to work. Tell me what sense does that make, right? So a person like myself, when I come in in the mornings, I relieve the driver that's on, rather they were coming at three in the morning or rather they worked overnight. I go and I relieve them. That means I go behind them in the bus, right? So that means we're not told who's positive. So if I get behind you and I don't know you're positive but because you were told you still have to work because you have no symptoms, what about if I get symptoms? And now we're only able to stay out five days. No more 14, five days. And they're saying on the news, five days because there's too many people staying out of work and there's not enough people to cover. So that's what the CDC's new guidelines look like in practice. You know, there is a worker shortage. I acknowledge that. But rather than making sure that more people don't get infected, which will lead to more worker shortages, they're just saying, you know, no, no, no, no. Go back to work and infect more people. Is that really, is that really sound? I mean, not only is it self-defeating because it will end up creating more worker shortages but you're getting people infected. So I just, the strategy is mind-numbingly stupid and it's already a lack strategy but still companies, hospitals, businesses, they're still trying to get around these already lax guidelines. Here's a TikTok made by a healthcare worker that explains what her company told her after she tested positive for COVID-19 and experienced symptoms, by the way. So I'm a nurse and I got COVID. I have been working in the COVID ICU throughout this pandemic and not once did I ever get COVID from work. I got it from my kids. Anyways, so I tested five days after I started having symptoms because I thought it was just a normal cold and sure enough, it was positive. So I call the workability line and the lady tells me that I need to quarantine for 10 days from the start of my symptoms and that was 10 days ago, not from when I tested positive. So here we are, 10 days from when my symptoms started, five days from testing positive. The workability lady calls me today and she says, how are you feeling? How are you doing? So I tell her I'm sneezing constantly. I have a cough still. I'm just so tired. I get short of breath. I just like don't really feel like myself. Just don't feel 100%. And then she proceeds to say, well, out of 100%, where would you put yourself? Well, ma'am, I would put myself at about 60%. I just don't really feel great. And she proceeds to say, well, are you having any fevers? I tell her no, but also I haven't really been checking them. I'm just going off of how I feel. She says, perfect. Well, you are clear to go back to work. You are good to go. Oh, okay. So back to work I can go when I'm still having all of these symptoms and I don't feel great, but I'm good to go. Oh, and it gets better. She says, make sure you don't take another test before you proceed to go back to work because it will for sure be positive. Oh, and then she says, but that's okay. As long as you're not having fevers, you're good to go. So return to work, please. And that, my friends, is where healthcare is at right now. So I don't even know what to say. So basically the new CDC guideline states that if you don't have symptoms, you can return to work after self isolating for just five days. But what are these companies doing? Well, predictably so. They're saying, well, how about this? If you don't take a test, but you're still experiencing symptoms, we can interpret that as, I guess, a negative result and just send you back to work. Anyways, this is what they're doing. They're already finding ways to exploit these lax guidelines from the CDC and it's a joke. And I'm sorry, but why is nobody talking about a lockdown? Why is nobody in the Democratic Party calling for people to be paid to stay home? If we pay people to stay home, then there will be less spread of the virus. But the Biden administration, they've given up. They don't care about COVID-19 ravaging the country. They don't care about record-breaking cases. If they did, they would try to encourage people to stay home by pushing for another round of survival checks, by extending the moratorium on evictions, which expired. And as of last month, evictions were on the rise. As the pandemic currently is the worst that it's ever been. Like I get that it's a little bit different now because of Omicron. So there's evidence that it's less severe than Delta. But still, I mean, we clearly as a country, we've given up and we've just decided to let the disease run its course. And we're doing Trump strategy from like Easter. Remember when in 2021 or 2020 rather, liberals were freaking out when he was visualizing people returning to church on Easter Sunday and Democrats, before they were in power, were saying, that's a horrible idea. Now they're just doing that strategy. And it's absolutely ridiculous. This isn't just about COVID. This shows that as a country, no matter how bad a situation gets, how severe a disease becomes, or whatever may be the case, we're not going to do anything to jeopardize profits. We're not going to do anything that big business doesn't want us to do. We're certainly screwed when it comes to a much more complex issue like climate change. So this is the state of America. This is what living in a late stage capitalist society looks like. Your life does not matter. You are meaningless. You're just a useless cog in the machine. And all that matters is that the machine is still fully functional. Your life is meaningless. Big business profits, that's all that matters. It's more important than your life. So remember this, because this is what the politicians think about you. They're not saying it explicitly, but tacitly, their actions indicate that this is their beliefs. They don't care about you. They care about money. You are useless. Remember that. This is capitalism, folks. This is capitalism.