The Big Picture – 
By Glynn Wilson – 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – An amazing thing happened at the time of our return to the nation’s capitol region in May.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a surprising announcement on Thursday, catching many people by surprise, including those who work in the White House.

“If you are fully vaccinated, you can resume activities that you did prior to the pandemic,” the CDC said in a new coronavirus guidance recommendation. “Fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.”

Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the new CDC director, announced the new recommendations, citing recent scientific findings. People who are fully vaccinated rarely become infected with the virus and almost never transmit the disease to others. Plus, vaccines appear to be effective against all known variants of the virus.

“There is no doubt at this point that the vaccines are powerful,” the New York Times reported, citing Zoë McLaren, a health policy expert at the University of Maryland.

“The science is quite clear on this,” she said. The risk “is definitely not zero, but it’s clear that it’s very low.”

The CDC released results from another large study on Friday showing that the vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are 94 percent effective in preventing symptomatic illness in those who were fully vaccinated, and 82 percent effective even in those only partly vaccinated.

“This study, added to the many studies that preceded it, was pivotal to CDC changing its recommendations for those who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19,” Dr. Walensky said in a statement on Friday.

The news was greeted with a celebration all around the nation’s capital, fueling business at popular local restaurants like El Golfo, where the favorite local band Downwire was already scheduled to play live music for the first time in more than a year.

As soon as the band kicked off a dance melody that included the Temptations’ “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” and “Get Ready,” people hit the floor for the first dance since early last March 2020, before the novel coronavirus pandemic was declared a national emergency in the U.S.

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They followed up with the Allman Brothers hit “Revival,” and the margaritas flowed by the pitcher.

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“I can’t tell you how blissful this feels,” said Brooks Boliek, 61, a native of Birmingham, Alabama who has lived and worked as a journalist and PR specialist in D.C. for about 30 years. He and his wife Jeri, also from Birmingham, hit the dance floor soon after the band began to play.

Chants of “The Great After” were heard through the night, as people seemed somewhat unleashed from the bonds that have kept much of the nation isolated at home, socially distant and wearing masks for 13 months.

For my part, it felt like freedom was ringing once again in this land that was clouded by deceptions and lies emanating directly from the White House for four long years.

Climate Change

In an anticipated move since Democrat Joe Biden was sworn in as president in January, the Environmental Protection Agency published a comprehensive set of indicators on the federal regulatory agency’s website this week detailing the human causes and affects of global warming and climate change.

Related Coverage: Biden EPA Issues Authoritative Report on Global Warming and Climate Change

Capitol Insurrection Investigation

And Democrats in the House began a series of public hearings to get to the bottom of what actually happened on Jan. 6, when an army of Trump supporters stormed the United States Capitol building in a violent riot and insurrection.

Related Coverage: House Oversight and Reform Committee Get First Shot at Questioning Trump Military and Justice Officials in Charge During Capitol Insurrection Jan. 6

Stay connected here to see some of the best coverage online of these issues and stories for the next few months.

Time in the Mountains

I will be back in the Catoctin Mountains some this week, and then back into the Shenandoah National Park for another weekend of camping, hiking and taking photos of wildlife and nature. I’ll back in D.C. by the next weekend, covering more national politics to fill in the gaps where the rest of the national press corps and broadcast media leave off.

If you like our coverage, please share it with your friends on social media. Together we can create a better democracy and maybe even save the planet. The events of this week give me hope anyway. I hope you feel the same way.

Can we allow ourselves to take a break, have some fun and feel a sense of happiness once again? That is, after all, our national mandate. The pursuit of happiness. I’m all in.

More Photos of the First Dance