For more than a year I have championed mask wearing, social distancing, and all the other CDC pandemic guidelines.

It was a life and death situation. There was a public health crisis. More Americans, 575,000 of us, have died in the past 14 months than in any war except the Civil War. Nothing could be done to stop the death totals and spread except for following the guidelines. It was for the good of everyone.

I didn’t think of any of it as a curtailment of our civil liberties, and every court case in Florida claiming that premise was dismissed. Governor DeSantis’ order to rescind closing businesses, which was earlier than most other states, proved to be correct. But I thought and still do that he should have imposed a state-wide mask mandate.

All of that was before the widespread availability of vaccines against COVID. At this point, there is no reason why those who want to be vaccinated cannot do so. It is time to end the continuation of the CDC guidelines as a matter of policy.

The reason that the vaccines were developed was to curtail the spread of the disease. The reason that millions of us were inoculated was so that we could resume our lives free from the fear of contagion. The country is now divided by those who have been inoculated and those who have not.

There are still some vulnerable populations that either medically cannot be vaccinated or for whom the vaccine is not yet approved. Of those, the largest group would be children under the age of 16. That is a big concern and needs to be addressed.

Currently, children as young as six months are part of trials to test the vaccines for infants on up to 16-year-olds. Some scientists believe that by fall the vaccine will be approved for kids. This will greatly increase our way to herd immunity.

We cannot force adults to be vaccinated. There will always be those who will refuse. That is no different than those that do not get flu, pneumonia or other shots that are medically recommended. They have made a conscience decision to ignore the science and risk acquiring a very preventable disease.

For those of us who have had the vaccine, it is time for us to resume our normal lives. I went to a party of about fifty people last weekend which was outdoors, and it appeared that all there had the “jabs”. I don’t even like parties, but I was glad to be at this one.

I fully support businesses that want to continue with requiring masks. The likelihood of a vaccinated person such as myself catching the disease is infinitesimal now and if I do it will be a mild case. I respect the right of a business owner to set the requirements for entering his store. If I do not agree, I will simply not patronize the store.

What I will not do is participate in any more Zoom meetings when the participants are local. It has now become a convenient excuse not to be in a room with others or worse sit at home half dressed. Most of the attendees in these meetings are multi-tasking and paying as little attention to the business at hand as possible. I am tired of sorting through “technical issues” with others about why their audio or video isn’t working for most of these meetings.

President Biden missed a great opportunity during his speech delivered in the House Chamber. Every legislator, cabinet member, and government official should have been sitting side by side without a mask. Everyone of those officials have had the opportunity to be vaccinated beginning months ago. If they have not taken advantage of that ability, then shame on them.

Biden could have peered into the camera and told Americans that the vaccine has been a success. Vaccinated Americans do not have to fear being with each other. All they need to do is get the shot. Those who opted to ignore science and not be vaccinated may catch COVID, but they chose to remain vulnerable. It was their choice and decision.

Now that is liberty!