Georgetown's chief public health officer issues strict restrictions for students, but not for herself

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Add another left-wing hypocrite to the ever-growing list of those who violate their own COVID-19 restrictive mandates issued to others. Dr. Ranit Mishori, the chief public health officer for Georgetown University, all but locked down the campus over fears of the spread of the Omicron variant. Then she enjoyed a night out at the Kennedy Center. Hypocrisy, much?

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Dr. Mishori is also a professor of family medicine at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. In her capacity as the chief public health officer for the university, she issued new orders to the students on December 14. As of December 16, the campus fitness centers were closed. Students were ordered to no longer eat or drink in public spaces. All university-sponsored events were either canceled or moved outdoors. This came at the same time that students were taking final exams for the fall semester.

She issued the new restrictions via email, including advising students to seek help from the university website if they need mental or emotional help.

“I recognize this news is distressing, especially during the final exam period and ahead of holiday travel and gatherings. I urge all community members to use the Every Hoya Cares website to connect with mental and emotional health and well-being resources, should you need them,” Mishori told students in her email. “I am confident that we will continue to come together to protect one another and care for each other during this difficult time.”

Just a few days after she shut down normal activity on campus for students during the stressful time of final exams, she posted a photo on Twitter of herself and a companion attending a performance at the Kennedy Center. Apparently, she thought it was a good idea to show herself living life as normal. She was masked and sitting next to her masked companion. Her photo caption read “Living dangerously at the @kencen.” I’d post the tweet here but she deleted it. Imagine that.

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“Living dangerously,” indeed. Not only did she do as many other colleges and universities are doing as the Omicron variant races through the country by overreacting and shutting the campus down, she then turned around and publicized her own social activity. What a bone-headed move. If, as an adult, she can “live dangerously” by making her own decisions on social interaction, why can’t the students? They, too, are adults, after all. Part of the college experience is learning to make good decisions for yourself.

Dr. Mishori is denying students the same rights she is enjoying. Even wearing masks, students are not allowed to attend this kind of performance or event on campus. They must sit six feet apart in the library, though she was sitting right next to the person with whom she enjoyed the performance at the Kennedy Center. She proves once again that we all were never really in this pandemic together.

Hilariously, when she was criticized for her actions, Mishori explained she was practicing what she preached. She made her own mandates on campus irrelevant by saying the same thing that sane people say about handling the Omicron variant – she is vaccinated, boosted, and double masked. She said that vaccine cards were checked at the door. In other words, after doing as she’s been told to do to fight the virus, she’s getting on with her life. She’s just not allowing the students to do the same.

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“What you cannot see is that I double-masked and am boosted and they checked a vaccine card at the door,” she wrote. “I would say that is safe enough. We have to learn to live with the virus and that is what we are trying to do every single day, to protect your children (and mine).”

The university already requires students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and to wear masks. They must also be boosted before coming back to campus for the spring semester. The chief medical officer and the student body are already on the same page. However, she took away their freedom on campus, denying them the ability to live their lives with the virus as she says she is doing. It is, after all, what we all must do. The virus isn’t going away.

In case you are wondering before she was brought on to lead Georgetown’s COVID response, she was a health care policy adviser for both the Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden campaigns. That adds up, right?

The point is that healthy college students are in the low-risk category for COVID-19. Since they are vaccinated and will all be boosted, too, they hold a very low risk of suffering from severe symptoms if they do become infected with the Omicron variant. They are following all the rules and still being punished for what is a low risk of difficulties if exposed to the virus. Last fall, even outdoor Homecoming events were canceled.

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Imagine being a parent who pays the exorbitant price of tuition at Georgetown and finding out that not only can your child not fully enjoy the university experience but then seeing the chief medical officer out and about in public living her own life. Clearly, even Dr. Mishori realized her own hypocrisy after coming under criticism and deleted her tweet. Rules for thee but not for me.

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