We’re really doing this again, it seems. Just in time for Christmas, we’ve got a renewed round of COVID hysteria. This time, though, we’ve ramped up the vilification of “The Unvaxxed.” Take a look at this White House press briefing on its latest efforts to eradicate disease:

It’s hard to imagine a more divisive statement coming from a presidential administration—let alone one that famously pledged unity. It’s also just incredibly counter-productive if your goal is to convince fellow citizens to get vaccinated. This sort of rhetoric certainly doesn’t portend to convince any unvaccinated Americans to finally take the jab—which makes one think that that may not be the ultimate goal of all this, after all.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the imperial capital, mask mandates are back, just one month after the mandate was lifted. And the DC government’s vaccine mandate gets stricter, with no test-out option:

3) Institute DC Government vaccinate mandate, including boosters, with no test-out option. pic.twitter.com/07AxxpKpTY

— Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) December 20, 2021

At this point, the irrational nature of these efforts to “Do Something” whenever we get a spike in COVID cases really needs no pointing out. We have an Omicron spike despite widespread masking and high vaccination rates. And why just the one booster for government employees? Pfizer’s PR team is already working overtime to make the case for a fourth jab.

DC’s Football Team, more commonly known as the Washington Redskins, is also feeling the effects of Omicron hysteria, as the team is preparing for a rare Tuesday night game:

The NFL, beset by a sharp rise in coronavirus cases this week among players leaguewide, made its first scheduling changes of this season Friday, postponing three games that had been set for this weekend.

90% of Redskins players are vaccinated. More importantly, as professional athletes in peak fitness, they are also at nearly zero risk of serious illness or death from COVID. But nevertheless, the NFL has bought into the COVID narrative, and as a result six teams whose Week 15 games were postponed due to positive tests will next play on a short week:

Due to the postponements, all six teams will be playing their Week 16 contests on a short week. The Browns travel to Green Bay to take on the Packers on Christmas, while the Raiders, Washington, Eagles, Seahawks, and Rams would all have two fewer days than expected between games.

Football is a brutal game. The NFL has been dogged with player safety concerns in recent years; just last week, it was announced that the late Vincent Jackson, the former Chargers and Buccaneers wide receiver who was found dead in February, had stage 2 chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). There’s a reason the NFL season is the shortest of any professional sports league, at just 17 regular season games. One wonders what is more of a threat to player safety: playing a professional football game on short rest, or playing with players who may have an asymptomatic illness that is largely innocuous to professional athletes?

I said it in August, and apparently it bears repeating: COVID-19 (and its ever-increasing variants) is here to stay, joining the countless other maladies that affect our fallen human condition. The loss of life at the hands of this deadly disease is tragic. Far more tragic would be a society in which living is lost, in which we are unable to pursue that which makes life worthwhile.

Enough. It’s FAR past time for this insanity to end.