When will they apologize? When will the lockdown enthusiasts, the mask mandaters, the vaccine promoters, the school closers ask for our forgiveness? When will they even acknowledge they were wrong to mandate that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines be required as a condition of keeping one’s job, or to direct that businesses and churches be shut down, or to demand that masks be worn, or to order that schools be closed and children – the vast majority of whom were never seriously at risk – be relegated to “remote” learning and denied the opportunity to play with their friends? When will they even acknowledge the damage they caused by their wild overreaction to the arrival of the coronavirus?
I fear the answer is never. But last week, in what was perhaps an unguarded moment, one of the government officials responsible for that oh-so-damaging government overreaction began the process of apologizing by admitting the truth.
Last week, former White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx admitted in a live television interview that she knew the mRNA vaccines deployed against COVID-19 were not going to protect against infection. In fact, those were her very words: "I knew these vaccines were not going to protect against infection. And I think we overplayed the vaccines … "
Of course, she wasn’t the only one who misled us. So did Dr. Anthony Fauci, and so did Joe Biden.
In promoting the vaccines, Biden actually went farther than Birx did. Biden said on July 21, 2021, “You’re not going to – you’re not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations.”
And Fauci? His lies are legion. Fauci lied about the value of wearing masks. Fauci lied about the worth of using hydroxychloroquine to fight the virus. Fauci lied about his own agency’s funding of “gain of function” research at a Chinese laboratory in the same city where the coronavirus originated. And Fauci lied about what percentage of the population would have to take the vaccine before herd immunity was reached.
With their sheer arrogance – anyone who had a different opinion was canceled, at the very least – they and their ilk directed a government overreaction that led to unnecessary deaths, unnecessary business closings, and unnecessary school closings, all of which led to unnecessary damage all across our society at all levels.
In February, Jonas Herby, Lars Jonung, and Steve H. Hanke – researchers at Johns Hopkins University –published research findings about the effects of COVID-inspired lockdowns. Entitled “A Literature Review and Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Lockdowns on COVID-19 Mortality,” their analysis said that American and European lockdowns reduced COVID-19 mortality by a grand total of 0.2 percent, while having what it called “devastating effects” on economies and social ills. “We find no evidence that lockdowns, school closures, border closures, and limiting gatherings have had a noticeable effect on COVID-19 mortality,” the authors wrote. “[Lockdowns] have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence, and undermining liberal democracy,” they continued. The study came to a stark conclusion: lockdowns, it said, “are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.”
Two months later, the National Bureau of Economic Research published a different study, authored by Phil Kerpen of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, Stephen Moore of The Heritage Foundation, and Casey B. Mulligan of the University of Chicago, which compared the states on their various responses to the coronavirus across three areas – mortality, economy, and schooling. The study concluded that there was no health advantage to locking down, even as there was significant economic damage done, and far worse effects on children’s education.
The academic studies merely reinforce the day-to-day realities we see as we go about our lives. Beyond the dry numbers and statistics, we can see the human costs, as we drive along city streets with businesses still shuttered, or see our school children still struggling to catch up on what they missed, or see friends and neighbors wrestling to overcome non-COVID-related illnesses or injuries for which they were denied timely treatment. That kind of evidence is all around us, plain to see. And it’s heartbreaking.
When will someone, anyone, apologize?
Jenny Beth Martin is Honorary Chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action.