A famed conservative columnist who lives at the epicenter of the United States’ latest Delta COVID cluster said of the virus ‘Let it rip’ after seeing how mild his vaccinated friends’ symptoms were.
Writer Andrew Sullivan says the COVID-19 outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts, that infected around 900 people and triggered CDC‘s mask U-turn was sparked by wild July 4 indoor parties following Pride Week.
This outbreak was behind the CDC’s sudden backpedal on mask recommendations for vaccinated Americans to wear masks in indoor places in COVID hot spots.
But now Sullivan says first-hand experience of his friends’ illnesses showed that the Indian Delta variant poses little risk to vaccinated people – and called for restrictions to be lifted once and for all.
Writing his his popular blog, he said: ‘Take the rational precautions – a solid vaccine – and go about your business as you always did,’ Sullivan wrote.
‘We are at a stage in this pandemic when we are trying to persuade the holdouts – disproportionately white Republicans/evangelicals and urban African-Americans – to get vaccinated. How do we best do this?
Andrew Sullivan, an influential journalist and Provincetown resident, said COVID-19 outbreak in his town that infected around 900 people and triggered CDC’s mask U-turn was sparked by wild July 4 indoor parties
People walking through Provincetown at the tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts on July 20
A sign on a P-town’s Heaven Cafe encourages customers to wear masks until they’re seated
‘Endless, condescending nagging won’t help. Coercion is not an option in a free country. Since the vaccinated appear to be able to transmit the virus as well, vaccine passports lose their power to remove all risk.
‘Forcing all the responsible people to go back to constraining their everyday lives for the sake of the vaccine-averse is both unfair and actually weakens the incentive to get a vaccine, because it lowers the general risk of getting it in the broader society.
‘So the obviously correct public policy is to let mounting sickness and rising deaths concentrate the minds of the recalcitrant. Let reality persuade the delusional and deranged. It has a pretty solid record of doing just that.’
Sullivan said many had just come from Pride parties in New York City and packed into bars and dance clubs.
One of the bars is like a ‘dang dungeon where sweat drips from the ceiling and mold reaches up the walls,’ Sullivan said.
‘It might have been designed for viral transmission,’ he added.
But all the friends he described in his post on The Weekly Dish experienced mild symptoms after testing positive.
Town Manager Andrew Morse confirmed that most of the 900 people connected to the Provincetown COVID outbreak had mild symptoms. Only seven were hospitalized and no one died, Morse said.
Morse – who was one of the 900 infected – said the popular holiday spot is safe, and expects life to return to normal there over the coming weeks.
The small town at the tip of Cape Cod – with a population of about 3,000 – is known for its eccentric and LGBTQ-friendly party atmosphere that Sullivan said attracts upwards of 40,000 people during the peak season.
Walking through the fishing and whale watching town has a Bourbon Street, New Orleans-feel.
Dressed as Maxine the Vaccine, Poppy Champlin encourages pedestrians to get vaccinated for Covid-19 while promoting her comedy show on Commercial Street in Provincetown
Only four of the vaccinated people were hospitalized, two of whom had underlying conditions, and there were no deaths showing vaccines are effective even against the Delta variant, which now makes up 83% of all new infections
A new CDC report detailed 469 cases of COVID-19 linked to an outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts between July 3 and July 17, of which 74% were in fully vaccinated people
In a good-news-bad-news situation, it’s scary to think that around three-quarters of the people who contracted the virus were vaccinated, but the outbreak is proof that vaccines are effective.
Dr. Ashish Jha, an epidemiologist and dean of public health at Brown University, said in a nine-tweet thread that he felt the situation was ‘reassuring.’
While the Delta variant is ‘more contagious than Ebola, Spanish Flu and probably chicken pox’ causing breakthrough cases in vaccinated people, the ‘vaccines prevent vast majority of infections, transmission and nearly all hospitalizations (and) deaths,’ Dr. Jha Tweeted.
‘Yeah, delta variant is bad. Like really bad. Our vaccines are good. Like really good. Breakthrough infections happen. Sometimes they may spread to others. But if enough people get the shot, the pandemic does come to an end.’
It’s a blunt and probably controversial hot take, but Sullivan has made a career of doing just that.
The longtime journalist and conservative-leaning columnist, who is gay and HIV-positive, has been widely read and highly successful, with fans including Barack Obama.
But he was axed by as a columnist at New York Magazine after four years in 2020 and ripped cancel culture on his way.
He wrote in his final column that staff writers who weren’t in line with ‘woke’ issues surrounding race, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity were ‘actively, physically harming co-workers merely by existing in the same virtual space.’
‘Actually attacking, and even mocking, critical theory’s ideas and methods, as I have done continually in this space, is therefore out of sync with the values of Vox Media,’ Sullivan wrote. ‘That, to the best of my understanding, is why I’m out of here.’
He has been one of the most influential reporters and columnists since the late ’80s/early 90s and known for his contrarian views.
While editor of The New Republic magazine in 1994, Sullivan published a cover-story headlined ‘Race and IQ,’ which has seen him face continued criticism over a piece many claimed was racist.