Suddenly, in the last few weeks, the media has started to report the truth on the pandemic. You know, the things that I have been reporting for almost two years now? That kind of truth.
Let’s look at several examples.
The New York Times, which has been claiming for nearly two years that all people must be forced to wear masks — and double masks! — suddenly pivoted and printed the following: “The Mask Debate — More Democratic Governors Are Saying That Masks Can Come Off In Schools.” The reporter recounted an experience of trying to talk to a friend, both masked, and not being able to hear each other.
It was not a big deal, but it reminded me that masks have both benefits and costs… If you scroll through social media, you will find no shortage of people proclaiming that mask wearing is easy FOR THEM. I don’t doubt it. But it is not so easy for many other people, including young children, people with learning disabilities and people who are hard of hearing….The benefits of universal masking in schools remain unclear. Studies — in Florida and in England, for example — tend to find little effect on caseloads. One study that did find an effect has been largely debunked….Other experts believe that the universal mask mandates are almost worthless. Among the reasons: Medical masks are designed for adults, not children, Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota epidemiologist, notes. Even masks designed for children slip off their faces. Children take off their masks to eat. Add in Omicron’s intense contagiousness, and the benefits of the current mandates may be tiny.
I wrote something very similar in the summer of 2020, and my posts were marked as “misinformation” by Facebook! Meanwhile, several fellow bloggers on M* accused me of not being Christ-like, and you should see the hate-filled emails and comments I have gotten since 2020 for writing things that, in retrospect, appear actually quite logical and reasonable. More than a dozen people wrote me personal messages hoping I would die during the pandemic because I wrote things like the above, but apparently now it is no longer verboten.
How about questioning the lockdowns? Well, it turns out that a meta-analysis by professors associated with John Hopkins shows that the lockdowns are doing much more harm than good, and this story has, miraculously, made it into the mainstream media. A key paragraph from the study:
While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted. In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.
Huh. That sounds almost exactly like a post I wrote in November 2020 that many Christ-like Latter-day Saint readers responded to by hoping I would die from COVID! And of course such a study would have been blocked entirely by social media just a few months ago, but now you can read the study and decide for yourself. Something definitely is going on.
I conclude with a hilarious pivot by CNN TV doctor and former Planned Parenthood president Leanna Wen. In a segment on all the mask mandate terminations announced this week, Wen was asked if she agreed with the moves:
I do. There was and is a time and place for pandemic restrictions, but when they were put in, it was always with the understanding that they would be removed as soon as we can. And in this case, circumstances have changed. Case counts are declining. Also the science has changed! We know that vaccines protect very well against Omicron, which is the dominant variant. Everyone five and older has widespread access to vaccines. And we also know about ‘one-way-masking,’ the idea that, even if other people around you aren’t wearing masks, if you wear a high-quality mask, that also protects you, the wearer, too. In this case, I’m not saying — no one is saying — that no one should wear masks, but rather that the responsibility should shift from a government mandate, imposed from the state or district of a school, rather it should shift to an individual responsibility by the family, who can still decide that their child can wear a mask if needed.
“One-way-masking.” That is absolutely hysterical! That is exactly what people opposed to mandates have been saying for two years, ie, if you want to wear a mask, go for it and be “protected” but allow other people to make their own choices. Individual choice — the thing that Wen and her ilk have been opposing for almost two years — is suddenly in vogue!
The CNN host asked about dropping mask mandates at a time when there are still high case numbers in New Jersey. And Wen said:
I don’t think we should be looking at case counts at all at this point. Especially when we’re dealing with a milder variant, and when so many people were exposed to Omicron at this point, and therefore have at least some level of protection either through vaccination or immunity. The key number that we should be looking at is hospitalizations. If our ICUs and our hospitals in that particular region are not overwhelmed, if they are not over capacity .. then we should be able to relax all restrictions. And I actually believe that the first restriction removed should actually be the restrictions on children.
You should see the hate mail I got for saying that cases were much less important than hospitalizations and deaths, and of course writing that there should be no mandates on children. And saying and writing these things just a few months ago would have gotten you canceled on social media, but suddenly…it’s all OK!
What explains this change? In a word: politics. As I wrote in this post titled “Political Science,” the pandemic reaction has never been about science. It has always been about politics. And the politics are turning against the medical establishment and the Republicans and Democrats who have ignored science and supported liberty-suppressing mandates and lockdowns. Suburban moms, who for the most part hated Trump, are turning against the Democrats because they are sick of their kids’ schools being closed and they are sick of their kids being forced to wear dirty face diapers.
So, from the perspective of the establishment, the lockdowns and mandates were very useful in getting rid of Trump and allowing tyrannical governors and mayors to get their jollies by ordering everybody around, but the natives are getting restless. Now, it is time to pretend they never supported those policies in the first place.
The Democrats are absolutely panicked about November 2022 and the inevitable Republican wave. And, yes, there will be some big changes. But some of us will not forget that most politicians jumped on the mandate and lockdown train from the beginning. And most of us writers will not forget — and we will keep on reminding you — that we saw through the whole thing two years ago. Some of my supposed “friends” called me a dirty conspiracy theorist and many things much worse. I always forgive — that is what people who are trying to be truly Christ-like do — but I will remember who fell for the propaganda and who did not. Because the gullible and the easily fooled are all around us. Be honest: were you one of them, and if you were what are you going to do to the next time the media and the establishment lie to you? Will you be more skeptical next time?