COVID hawks are fighting a losing war

Our pandemic rules increasingly make no sense — and it's hurting public health

Lots of masks.
(Image credit: Illustrated | iStock)

I spent about a week in October at the Austin Film Festival and Writers' Conference, attending panel discussions, round-tables, pitch competitions — and, of course, parties. Because there's still a pandemic going on, the festival imposed a number of rules: All attendees had to be either vaccinated or have tested negative for COVID-19 within a couple of days of the festival start, and in any indoor forum attendees had to be masked, unless they were eating or drinking.

But at parties everyone is continually drinking, and sometimes eating. So the same people who were going from panels where they were assiduously masked went to the bar where they were drinking and shouting without masks in close proximity.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Noah Millman

Noah Millman is a screenwriter and filmmaker, a political columnist and a critic. From 2012 through 2017 he was a senior editor and featured blogger at The American Conservative. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Politico, USA Today, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, Foreign Policy, Modern Age, First Things, and the Jewish Review of Books, among other publications. Noah lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.