You probably don’t remember the lockdowns all that fondly.
But if you’re like a lot of Americans on this fifth anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, you at least understand why they were put in place.
The virus felt so frightening back then. So unexpected.
And if public health officials made some mistakes — you might be convinced, by this point, that they kept schools closed too long — you’re willing to cut them some slack.
People like infectious disease chief Anthony Fauci were doing the best they could with the information they had. They were following the science. And we got to the other side in better shape than we might have.
But if there’s something comforting in this story — even a little triumphant — there’s just one problem: It’s almost completely wrong.
Oh, so now dissenting opinions are allowed and the truth can be told. All during Covid, I insisted that wearing masks was performative nonsense that did nothing to stop the transmission of the virus. At one point, the World Health Organization agreed but then gave in to the mob:
And while the WHO acknowledged that the evidence for masking’s effectiveness was scant, the group still “conditionally recommended” it in severe pandemics — explaining that there is “mechanistic plausibility for the potential effectiveness of this measure.”
Was it worth it, America?
The costs of the shutdowns were enormous: trillions of dollars in deficit spending to stave off economic ruin; massive learning loss, concentrated among the least advantaged children; the special pain of leaving loved ones to die alone in dreary nursing homes and emergency rooms; a further cleaving of our already divided society.
And despite all the sacrifice, the United States still had a much higher death rate than other wealthy nations.
This is why Anthony Fauci had to get a blanket pardon.
Related (h/t Battleswarm):
“Does Dr. Fauci have a Nobel Prize?”
“No, but he does have a pardon for crimes against humanity.”
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