With Republicans around the country still trying to relitigate the 2020 presidential elec- tion results, Beirich added, “All of this has created a fraught environment [that] we will be facing in the lead-up the midterms that could lead to more terrorist attacks, much as we saw in the lead up to the 2018 midterms. And if the 2024 election is decided by parti- san legislatures in various states, I think ma- jor civil unrest is a good bet.” ▼ COVID COVID CHILL past 14 days, the rate of positive cases has gone up over 350%. The county averaged more than 1,000 new positive cases per day over the past seven days alone. Dallas’ case numbers are growing faster than 80% of Texas counties. Meanwhile, new guidelines from the CDC A aim to relax quarantine requirements for those with positive tests, and some health professionals are unhappy about them. Nurses associations from across the country have condemned the new guide- lines, which say that people with COVID-19 should quarantine for 5 days if they don’t have symptoms, or if they have a fever that resolves within 24 hours. The National Nurses Association, the largest nurses’ union in the U.S., accused the CDC of changing guidelines according to pressure from political and private interests. In a press statement, they claim that busi- ness interests keen on avoiding an economic downturn as the omicron variant spreads have swayed policy toward “maintaining business operations, revenues, and profits, without regard for science or the health of employees and the public.” (The Texas Nurses Association did not respond to re- quests for comment.) Not all health professionals are on the same page, though. “I agree with the new guidance. In fact, I think it’s overdue,” said Dr. Erin Carlson, professor of public health at the University of Texas at Arlington. “We needed new guidance to take into account where we are scientifically with this newly dominant vari- ant,” Carlson said. When the CDC updates guidelines, they usually provide a scientific brief pointing to specific studies that back up the changes. This time, they didn’t. “Let’s see the papers that talk about the viral load, the rate of in- fection. I need to see all that so we can jus- tify this and make people feel confident in this redirection,” Jessica Malaty Rivera, an epidemiologist with the Pandemic Preven- tion Institute, told NPR. The CDC claims the changes are sup- ported by science showing that coronavirus is most contagious in the first few days after someone contracts it, but the announcement of the changes does not reference any spe- cific studies supporting this claim. Carlson said the CDC’s policy change is the result of many months of accumulated evidence showing that the coronavirus, and AS DALLAS COUNTY’S COVID CASES SOAR, CDC LAUNCHES RELAXED COVID GUIDELINES. BY MICHAEL MURNEY s the omicron variant sweeps across Texas, Dallas County has been ham- mered with new cases. In just the Brandon Bell/Getty Images the omicron variant in particular, is most contagious in the first few days before symp- toms show up, and the first day or so after. The new guidelines actually provide a bit more cushion than the science suggests is necessary, she said. Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson pointed out that the de- cision cannot be divorced from business or political interests even if it’s backed up by the science. “The medical advice that comes from the CDC has obvious economic impacts that the CDC is aware of and that they try to account for when they receive feedback from the White House, or from Congress, or from state officials,” Jillson said. “That was particularly evident in the past few days with the reduction in the quaran- tine recommendation,” he said. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, told NPR that because omicron spreads faster than past variants, so many will eventu- ally get COVID-19 that an across-the-board 10-day isolation period isn’t feasible. “We also want to make sure that we can keep the critical functions of society open and operating,” Walensky said. She did not reference specific scientific evidence that COVID is most contagious during the first few days of infection. ▼ POLITICS TEENAGERS ARE LIKE THAT T The omicron variant is now raging in Texas as people grow weary of COVID restrictions. mately prevailed in the Republican primary, Cruz emphasized that he wound up placing second. “And you know there’s a reason histori- cally that the runner-up is almost always the next nominee,” Cruz told Hollyhand. “And that’s been true going back to Nixon or Rea- gan or McCain or Romney. That’s played out repeatedly; you come in with just [an] enor- mous base of support.” Cruz was more popular than Trump in certain parts of the country, including in his home state of Texas. But Cruz’s policy posi- tions don’t appear to be too popular within his own home. In a recent video posted to TikTok, Cruz’s teenage daughter Caroline tells her followers about the pros and cons of being a senator’s kid. On the plus side, she says, she gets to travel and sometimes receives gifts and candy in the mail. Downsides include the fact that security has to shadow her wherever she goes, such as on walks through the neighbor- hood and to her friends’ houses. Next, Caroline reveals another, more sur- prising tidbit. “A lot of people judge me based upon him at first glance,” Caroline said, “but I really disagree with most of his views.” Dang. That diss probably stung Cruz more than the time Caroline dodged his em- brace on the campaign trail. After Caroline’s video began to make the TED CRUZ’S DAUGHTER DISSES HIM ON TIKTOK: ‘I REALLY DISAGREE WITH MOST OF HIS VIEWS’ BY SIMONE CARTER exas Sen. Ted Cruz would consider running for president again, but we know one person who wouldn’t vote for him: his own daughter. Last week, Cruz appeared on The Truth Gazette, an Alabama-based conservative news service. Asked by 15-year-old host Bri- lyn Hollyhand whether he’d consider run- ning for president again, Texas’ junior senator replied, “Absolutely. In a heartbeat.” From there, Cruz described his 2016 presidential run as the “most fun” he’d ever had in his life. Although Donald Trump ulti- rounds on social media, some drew parallels to Claudia Conway, the daughter of former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Con- way. Over time, 17-year-old Claudia has gar- nered a significant TikTok following largely because of her liberal views. She’s claimed that her mother’s job “ruined [her] life,” called Trump a “rapist” and even announced she planned to pursue emancipation. Thanks to these two teens’ apparent disdain for their parents’ conservative views, one social media user suggested that the pair start a caucus. The tweet in- cluded a screenshot of someone writing to Caroline that her dad is “awesome,” to which she responded with a less-than-en- thusiastic “ok.” Certain pop culture blogs have detailed the origin of Caroline’s newfound internet fame. According to those outlets, a TikTok video featuring a Cruz family Christmas card went viral after users remarked how miserable Caroline looks. In one photo, Caroline stands beside her parents and her younger sister, Catherine. In the other, she and Catherine pose with their pets, Snowflake, Topsy and Marmalade. Both photos show an unhappy-looking Caroline. Caroline also notes in the video that the Christmas card pictures had been altered so that her belly-baring crop-top fully covered her torso. Of course, Caroline wouldn’t be the first teen to get embarrassed by being photo- graphed with their dad, but this photoshoot may have been particularly excruciating. Cruz did blame his kids for the infamous Cancun getaway trip, after all. Still, maybe Caroline will get revenge at the ballot box. ▼ DISINFORMATION MORE BUNK one told you the vaccine for the virus will make you magnetic. Or that the vaccine ef- forts are a ploy to implant us all with micro- chips. Those things aren’t true. Neither is the claim that the unvaccinated can get “vaccine AIDS” by having sex with the vac- cinated. But, that hasn’t stopped people from believing it in. They’re calling it “VAIDS.” Google searches for the term VAIDS, “vac- Y cine acquired immunodeficiency syndrome,” have skyrocketed in recent weeks. According to Google Trends, which tracks search terms, Texas hasn’t been too interested in VAIDS compared with other states, though most of the Texas searches about VAIDS in Decem- ber came from the Dallas Fort-Worth area. VAIDS isn’t a real thing, but posts about the made-up syndrome have been spreading in online articles and on social media. This isn’t exclusive to the more fringe platforms like Telegram or Gab. Posts about VAIDS can be found all over TikTok, Twitter, Face- book and Reddit. (We wish all the posts were about how stupid this is, but …) The posts often claim there’s a new con- dition going around that’s like AIDS, but it’s caused by the jab. People who get the jab can get VAIDS, posters have inaccurately claimed. Then, if an unvaccinated person has sex with the VAIDS carrier, they can get VAIDS, according to the posters. This is nonsense. We hope you knew that, but just in case, here’s an actual doctor to tell you: “AIDS is a generalized body-wide com- promise of a specific subset of immune cells (mostly CD4+ lymphocytes) caused specifically by infection with the HIV-1 vi- rus,” Dr. Grant McFadden, director of the Biodesign Center for Immunotherapy, Vac- cines and Virotherapy at Arizona State University told The Associated Press. >> p8 PEOPLE ARE CLAIMING THE COVID-19 VACCINES ARE CAUSING A SYNDROME SIMILAR TO AIDS. THIS ISN’T TRUE. BY JACOB VAUGHN ou may have heard some strange things about COVID-19 since the pandemic broke out. Maybe some- 7 7 dallasobserver.comdallasobserver.com | CONTENTS | UNFAIR PARK | SCHUT |ZE | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | MOVIES | DISH | MUSIC | CLASSIFIED | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 JANUARY 6–12, 2022
