Since the economic havoc and negative health effects that lockdowns have caused have not taken a toll on the rich leftists at CNN, the network is still advocating for lockdowns. On Saturday’s CNN Newsroom, Ana Cabrera brought on the reliably alarmist CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner to meltdown over states and localities reopening. Reiner declared that ending lockdowns “is such a bad idea” and “makes zero sense.”
Cabrera began the segment by asking Reiner if it is a good idea for states to end lockdowns. Reiner responded by ranting against people being able to go to work and enjoy their lives:
Oh, no, this is such a bad idea. Who slows down once you break into the lead? It makes zero sense. Look, there's a lot of worry about variants that might become ascendant over the next few months. And just because we see fewer hospitalizations, you know, we still have over 3,000 people a day dying. The U.S. still has almost 130,000 new cases a day and this is not the time to let our guard down. This is the time to stay covered up and to vaccinate like crazy. But we heard this week that the governors of North Dakota and Iowa were, you know, removing mask mandates. It makes no sense. Particularly, you know, for a state like Iowa that has some of the highest case rates in the country.
Do you know what “makes zero sense?” In the U.S. alone, almost 100,000 businesses have closed permanently due to lockdowns. Furthermore, the lockdowns have caused millions of people to miss out on cancer screening and treatment, 130 million people to be on the brink of starvation worldwide, 1.2 million preventable child deaths, 93,000 excess deaths due to missed medical care, and 75,000 extra deaths of despair.
In regards to COVID, Reiner has previously claimed Donald Trump was guilty of “negligent homicide” and “criminal endangerment” for having rallies, told Americans that we could not celebrate Christmas, and suggested that just going outside is dangerous.
Cabrera then touted Reiner’s claim that schools should not reopen till teachers are vaccinated. Reiner backed up his claim by ignoring all scientific evidence in regards to teacher safety by saying that he’s “not sure we have data to prove they're safe”:
First of all, I know teachers. My mom was a New York City public school teacher for 30 years. They're dedicated to their kids and they're very loyal to each other. And they also belong to a very big union that looks out for them. No matter what we tell them, if they don't feel safe, they will not go into the classrooms. And I'm not sure we have data to prove they're safe. All the existing data being touted now is with the wild-type virus that was predominant months ago but as the variants become, you know, more present in our cities, we don't know that the teachers will be safe. That virus is much more transmissible. The only way to protect our teachers is to vaccinate them. There are 3.7 million teachers. We have enough vaccine to do that. We should do that over the next two weeks and then a month from now, we open all of our schools.
Never mind that the CDC is urging that we reopen schools, that many studies have stated that we can do it safely, and that the schools that have reopened have done so safely.
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Read the full February 6th transcript here. Click "expand" to read more.
CNN Newsroom with Ana Cabrera
2/6/21
5:28:33 PM
ANA CABRERA: This week, COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the U.S. outnumbered new cases of the virus ten to one. The CDC reporting today, overall, more than 39 million doses have been administered so far. Cases are down. It's been 20 days since the U.S. topped 200,000 new daily cases. Hospitalizations are also down, dropping below 90,000 this week for the first time in over two months. And take a look at this map, no red in sight. I want to bring in Dr. Jonathan Reiner, he's a CNN Medical Analyst and a Professor of Medicine at George Washington University. Dr. Reiner, as these numbers decline, some states are starting to ease restrictions again, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, all announcing that restaurants can reopen with capacity restrictions, for example. We've seen this before, metrics improve, states roll back restrictions, a few weeks later, cases spike. What goes through your mind when you see states roll back restrictions right now? Is it -- are we in the clear?
DR. JONATHAN REINER (CNN MEDICAL ANALYST): Oh, no, this is such a bad idea. Who slows down once you break into the lead? It -- it makes zero sense. Look, there's a lot of worry about variants that might become ascendent over the next few -- few months. And just because we see fewer hospitalizations, you know, we still have over 3,000 people a day dying. The U.S. still has almost 130,000 new cases a day and this is not the time to let our guard down. This is the time to stay covered up and to vaccinate like crazy. But we heard this week that the governors of -- of North Dakota and Iowa were -- were, you know, removing mask mandates. It makes no sense. Particularly, you know, for a state like Iowa that has some of the highest case rates in the country.
CABRERA: And you think about the masking, specifically -- the masks, specifically --
REINER: Yeah.
CABRERA: -- and the Biden administration trying to call in everybody to wear masks for 100 days straight and now there's word they may be mailing a mask to every American. I guess the issue there is you can mail to them everyone but it doesn't necessarily mean they will wear them. Do you think that move would be helpful or have an impact?
REINER: You know, Ana, that was one of the great lost opportunities of the last administration. They were going to mail about 600 million masks, about five million -- about five masks to every household in the United States at the beginning of April. It was a plan from HHS and the United States Postal Service but the White House cancelled it because it ran afoul with the President's disinformation campaign that the virus was nothing to worry about. That was an enormous lost opportunity. Now, I -- I see less of a -- of an opportunity for mailing masks unless you're mailing people N-95 masks or --
CABRERA: Okay.
REINER: -- high-quality surgical masks. That would move the ball forward.
CABRERA: Hold your thought on that --
REINER: Yeah.
CABRERA: -- because I -- I want to ask about that specifically. But I want you, before we discuss more about that, to listen to what I heard from Dr. Sanjay Gupta this week that caught my attention.
(Cuts to video)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA (CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT): Now I don't think the supply of masks, these cloth masks, is really the issue. I think the larger question is now can we get people masks like this, the N-95 masks? One of the guys I talked to at Harvard who's tracking the virus, said, if people wore these N-95 masks in high-risk -- risk situations for four weeks, just the mask for four weeks, we could essentially end this pandemic in the United States. So that's another discussion about masks.
(Cuts to live)
CABRERA: Are there enough of these types of masks? Should we all be wearing them?
REINER: Anyone who can get a -- an N-95 or a KN-95 mask from a reputable distributor should absolutely wear them. Look, we know that the sort of a single-ply cloth masks are really the least effective at preventing acquisition of the virus. As you get into the three-ply surgical masks and KN-95 and N-95 masks, your protection increases. Think of it this way, if you're wearing a mask and your glasses fog, then your mask is not secure enough. It -- it's not sealing enough. And these N-95 masks or KN-95 masks are much more effective against sealing and plus, they're constructed in a way that the actual material has electrostatic charge that trap -- traps virus particles. Yes, anyone who goes shopping in a store now, in a supermarket now or who has a front-facing public-facing job should be wearing a high- quality mask. The -- wear a mask as if your life depends on it.
CABRERA: And that -- that's the truth.
REINER: One -- right.
CABRERA: Our -- our lives really do.
REINER: Right. One of the big mistakes we made was trying to protect your neighbors, be altruistic. Now wear a mask as if your own life depends on it.
CABRERA: I like that. Let me get to this real quick and --
REINER: Yeah.
CABRERA: -- we only have 30 seconds for the answer if you will but you say the key to reopening schools is vaccinating teachers. We heard the CDC director with a different, you know, message this week saying it -- it may be safe enough to reopen schools without all teachers having the vaccine. Why do you think that's the answer?
REINER: First of all, I know teachers. My mom was a New York City public school teacher for 30 years. They're dedicated to their kids and they're very loyal to each other. And they also belong to a very big union that looks out for them. No matter what we tell them, if they don't feel safe, they will not go into the classrooms. And I'm not sure we have data to prove they're safe. All the existing data being touted now is with the wild-type virus that was predominant months ago but as the variants become, you know, more present in our cities, we don't know that the teachers will be safe. That virus is much more transmissible. The only way to protect our teachers is to vaccinate them. There are 3.7 million teachers. We have enough vaccine to do that. We should do that over the next two weeks and then a month from now, we open all of our schools.
CABRERA: Dr. Jonathan Reiner, as always, thanks for your insight and expertise.
