In what appears to be a response to Bari Weiss’ appearance on Bill Maher declaring she’s “done with Covid,” MSNBC’s Chris Hayes thinks it’s “weird” that Republicans who’ve argued to “get back to normal” are still “very angry” because the “vast vast majority of stuff is open, including schools.”
THREAD ==>
The Covid discourse is weird and nasty because I think it just absolutely sucks to go through two years of a pandemic. But one thing that feels weird now is that the winning side in the "get back to normal" debate seems very angry about losing the debate even though they won?
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) January 25, 2022
I mean things are not back to normal because there's still a very active, highly transmissible, infectious disesase that's getting people sick and killing 2000 people a day. But from a policy perspective, the vast vast majority of stuff is open, including schools.
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) January 25, 2022
And I'll say I think that's roughly correct, policy-wise. Large scale NPI's – particularly closures – are not really on the table for good reason. Vaccinating and boosting 80+% of the population should be the priority along with…
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) January 25, 2022
But I don't quite get this sense of victimization and onerous oppression from those who are "done with Covid." I took the subway and played pick-up basketball in NYC yesterday. You can…do what you want?
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) January 25, 2022
Well, we’re glad Chris can play pick-up basketball again, but maybe he missed all the things THAT ARE NOT BACK TO NORMAL:
It's true that the abnormalcy is now concentrated in very blue areas but if you have kids in the big metros school and college life have absolutely not returned to normal.
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) January 25, 2022
And we’re “very angry” because there’s no indication there’s any sort of off-ramp:
Ye-e-e-e-s but a lot of elite college life never normalized fully even pre-Omicron and lots of masking rules and mask mandates didn't go away in the fall, so there's a fear that post-Omicron there won't be a clear path to normalcy, there will always be another wave, etc.
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) January 25, 2022
Nope, not normal at all:
It may be me, but suspending kids for not wearing a mask or forcing them to eat / take breaks outside when it's 25 degrees out feels weirdly aggressive and not like we are back to normal. https://t.co/uic9P6UN2K
— Patrick Ruffini (@PatrickRuffini) January 25, 2022
The WaPo’s Megan McArdle also doesn’t agree with him, tweeting “things are *not* normal”:
Yeah, I'm making a point of going out to eat every week, both to shake pandemic atrophy and to support local restaurants. I'm eating in a lot of nearly empty restaurants.
I don't know if it's Omicron fear, remote work, or folks just out of the habit, but things are *not* normal. https://t.co/8rD2tvO44n
— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) January 25, 2022
Except in Miami, that is:
OpenTable restaurant reservations in January 2022 as compared with January 2019:
Miami: +14%
Las Vegas: +1%
Houston: -13%
Denver: -26%
LA: -41%
Boston: -48%
Brooklyn: -55%
DC: -59%
Manhattan: -64%
San Francisco: -66%
Cambridge, MA: -75%https://t.co/KWA3Itdp1J https://t.co/AMhGAZPtd8— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) January 25, 2022
And normalcy has returned to other red states, too:
https://twitter.com/johnhawkinsrwn/status/1486102472275992591
But in blue states? Portland isn’t on Nate Silver’s list, but wow:
These numbers are brutal. Portland is down 64%; an owner told a friend here recently that she was his first dine-in guest in three days. https://t.co/1iKe1gTDGv
— Jacob Grier (@jacobgrier) January 25, 2022
And look at Boston and Cambridge:
Yikes, Boston. Double yikes, Cambridge. https://t.co/mO0OyjKfPM
— Tim Logan (@bytimlogan) January 25, 2022
Who could’ve predicted it?
New York banned 18% of adults and 60% of children from eating in restaurants.
I don't know what they thought was going to happen but it's happening. https://t.co/GN8izR13Pv
— Joe Colangelo (@Itsjoeco) January 25, 2022
***
Join the conversation as a VIP Member