NYC Needs To Follow The Science On Regulations Regarding Covid-19 – Peter Pitts, Former FDA Assoc Commissioner

“We cannot ‘follow the science’ when it is convenient or suits our politics or personal belief systems. That leads to bad places. Science is neither blue nor red.” 

In NY Post op-ed Wed, former FDA Associate Commissioner, Professor Peter Pitts, says despite very clear guidance from the CDC, Gov. Hochul and Mayor Adams, many of his UWS neighbors want to keep their masks on (which is certainly their privilege), but they don’t want him to take his off either. And they’re aggressive about it.

Pitts says many remain wedded to the way things were, as though removing one’s mask is somehow an acknowledgment of victory for anti-science, anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers. Maybe it’s a new form of PTSD. It is certainly Creeping Chicken Little-ism.

But it’s more than just your run-of-the-mill New York City neurosis, Pitts said. There’s a real public-health risk brewing. If we can’t support our friends and neighbors who want to take off their masks when such actions are strongly supported by science, how are we going to get them to put their masks back on should the situation call for it in the future?

We cannot “follow the science” when it is convenient or suits our politics or personal belief systems. That leads to bad places, Pitts said. Science is neither blue nor red. And while that is inconvenient and uncomfortable for a lot of New York and a lot of America, we need to trust the system and each other.

Taking off your mask isn’t a victory for “the other side.” It is a public-health victory for all of us. We’ve worked hard for it. We’ve earned it. And our kids have earned it, too.

Banner Image: Masks Come Off. Image Credit – Peter Pitts

Peter Pitts

Fmr. FDA Associate Commissioner President of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest (CMPI) Visiting Professor at the University of Paris School of Medicine. Fmr. member of the United States Senior Executive Service. Named one of the 300 “most powerful people in American healthcare,” by Modern Healthcare Magazine