Episode 21 - The Politics of COVID

In April of this year, I wrote a blog post entitled “Coronapocalypse.”  Back then, I suspected that the Corona virus pandemic was overblown reasoning that politicians, scientists and the media didn’t have enough data and were being super cautious with policy. Six months later, the data indicate that the pandemic is definitely overblown but the reasons for the hype have changed. For months now, certain “health” authorities, the political class and their media hand maidens have relentlessly promoted a fearful narrative about the COVID-19 pandemic as if the daily count of new cases were a major public health emergency. 

 If we have learned anything in the past eight months, it should be that that lockdowns have questionable benefits that are hard to prove, but they impose huge economic, health and societal costs which everyone can see for themselves. The notion that we can just close schools, businesses, churches and sports venues—with the unemployed being compensated with printed money—until someone develops the magic vaccination and not suffer huge consequences is as whimsical as the idea that if California bans fossil fuels, its wildfires will disappear. The financial and emotional stresses that come from lockdowns are harmful to both physical and mental health and the evidence is all around us.