We had previously noted the OpEd column by Alison McCook in The Philadelphia Inquirer on the 14^th. Miss McCook said:

I have spent the last 20-plus years as a science journalist. I believe in the vaccines, and that the CDC’s new advice is likely supported by the latest data. I believe in Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, who says he feels good about the CDC’s new decision and wants people to feel like we are approaching “normality.” But Thursday’s announcement from the CDC has filled me with fear.

Well, the Inquirer isn’t letting up on the fear-mongering!

Help, I’m still anxious about getting COVID-19 even though I’m vaccinated.

That anxiety? It’s totally natural, experts say, and there are ways to start managing, and conquering, it now.

By Grace Dickinson | May 14, 2021

Once you’re fully vaccinated, it’s safe to start resuming activities like traveling and having friends over for dinner, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As of recently, you can ditch your mask in most settings, too.

These are moments many of us have dreamed about for over a year. And yet, now that they’re finally here, you may be finding yourself having trouble shaking off the fear of getting COVID-19. That anxiety? It’s totally natural, experts say, and there are ways to start managing, and conquering, it now.

The fear is natural.

We’ve spent months training ourselves to be cautious and avoid anything that could put ourselves at risk of getting COVID-19. While getting vaccinated significantly reduces that risk, vaccines aren’t an overnight cure for anxiety. Nor can they do the work to reverse all that training, says Usama Bilal, an assistant professor in the urban health collaborative and the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at Drexel University.

“I still wear a mask outdoors half the time, even though I know that’s something I can stop doing,” says Bilal. “We’ve just experienced the worst pandemic in a century, and it’s both normal and OK for people to take the time they need to transition back to normal.”

If you’ve lost a loved one to COVID-19 or are part of a community that’s been disproportionately impacted, the transition may take longer. “I’d expect post-vaccine fear to be more prominent particularly for communities of color, and in a very valid way,” says Rachel Talley, an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. “No matter who you are, feelings are not something to be judged. We’ve collectively, as a world, went through a traumatic experience, and a pandemic that we’re not truly over yet.”

At least that article is about how people can overcome their fear, but in claiming that “the fear is natural” the article normalizes the fearmongering which drove so many people into becoming sheeple!

On the 17^th, columnist Elizabeth Wellington wrote “No, you shouldn’t ask for someone’s vaccination status. Here’s what to do instead,” making suggestions on how to get the answers you want without having to ask that very rude question. It feeds into the media-generated and Twitter-disseminated meme that it’s dangerous for fully vaccinated people to dispense with masks because no one can know if the next unmasked guy is vaccinated or not.

And on Wednesday?

The CDC says vaccinated people can unmask. But don’t feel pressured to let your guard down. | Expert Opinion

If you feel confused and worried about changing recommendations, you are not alone. A visit with your PCP is a good place to start.

by Jeffrey Millstein, For The Inquirer | May 19, 2021

For many, the recent news from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that fully vaccinated people can unmask and discontinue social distancing in most public places is a cause for celebration. However, that was not so for a patient I saw shortly after the May 13 announcement.

“Since I’m fully vaccinated, I know that if I do get COVID, it will probably be very mild,” he said. “But I don’t want to get COVID at all.”

He went on to express his frustration with the new CDC guidelines, which he feels will put him at greater risk because he suffers from chronic lung disease. In the past, even mild, non-COVID infections have caused his disease to flare enough to land him in the hospital. He also fears scorn from family and friends if he chooses to continue masking, or that people will assume he is unvaccinated if he wears a mask.

I said that I understood his concern, and that he should certainly continue to wear a mask in public if he feels less vulnerable doing so. We discussed the science behind the new recommendations, and the hope that it may inspire more people who have been hesitant to receive a COVID vaccination. The vaccines show excellent protection for all prevalent virus variants up to at least six months; firm data beyond that point are still lacking because it’s a new vaccine.

As always, there’s more at the original, but it all works out the same: if you are afraid, your fear is justified.

Fear is how we got to this point in the first place. The government wanted everybody afraid, to use fear to get the American people to accept the illegal and unconstitutional restrictions on our constitutional rights, as being just so necessary, don’t you know. When governors across the country ordered churches closed, churches and bishops went right along with it. When a couple of churches ignored Governor Andy Beshear’s (D-KY) order, he sent the Kentucky State Police to record license plates and vehicle identification numbers on vehicles in church parking lots, on Easter Sunday! Two federal judges ruled against the Governor, allowing churches to reopen, but they did not rule until May 8, 2020.

It wasn’t just last year: purportedly Catholic President Biden’s CDC wanted us to miss services this Easter as well!

Easter Sunday was April 4^th, yet within five weeks the CDC were saying that ‘fully vaccinated’ people could go without masks in public.

Fear! As Frank Herbert wrote in Dune, fear is the mind-killer, and fear was what the government used to get people to comply. Fear will always be used when a government wants to force you to do something unnatural, something you would not be inclined to do. Fear must be resisted, fear must be fought.