My kids were in or entering high school. Their already-poor education dropped off to almost nothing - for years! At times my daughter was literally suicidal... Beyond a reasonable doubt, the lockdowns caused more harm than good. And that's putting it mildly.
Yes. I think that whole generation is scarred, especially those from blue cities/states that stayed locked down longest. They were already going to be unprecedentedly online and this just made it exponentially worse. Many have no clue how to interact IRL and I suspect missing the chance to do so in their formative years is a big part of that.
Thanks - my daughter is doing great now, and I hope your grandkids are too. But those were terrifying times for her mom and I, it was totally unnecessary, and I'm not forgetting - ever.
An 11-year-old boy in our school district took his own life when the governor of Michigan kept delaying the time she had given to rescind her order forbidding people to gather with anyone outside their own household. A high school boy in our county took his own life when sports were repeatedly promised to resume, but then postponed yet again. These are just two of many suicides during that time, and who knows how many other teens were on the brink?
Very good post Dave, but another point about "The Left" is that they were all against a co-vax while Trump was president until Biden got there--then they lined up like lemmings to the cliff. The problem with the lockdowns-that-weren't-lockdowns in my state was that there was, and still is, a Democrat apparatus that was in lockstep with the lockdowns and other measures. I will never forgive the monsters who harmed children, elders, and the rest in the name of "public health." Pfft. It was a global scam of mass proportions.
In her own words, Birx couldn’t do anything that would reveal her true intention. Yikes. It's hard to believe she put this in print, but I guess living in the public health bubble for so many years creates arrogant control. Plus, her scarfed schoolmarm look gave a sense of secure credibility -- we were her compliant students! Looking forward to your book!
I had a long section on her scarves, complete with multiple endnotes, that my editor mercifully cut. They're quite beautiful and stylish, and I think lent an air of sophistication that helped foster an unearned persona of gravitas and knowledge.
All these key “health care” actors all had similar attributes - mini Lenins, narcissistic, sociopathic, authoritarian. They did what they did because they could and most folks were oblivious that such people were possible.
Deborah Birx was a USAID operative, appointed to the Task Force by the National Security Council (as Trump's National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien stated explicitly) to make the public believe that the biodefense lockdown-until-vaccine plan was actually a public health response based on faulty models. Mistakes were not made, at least not by Birx. She knew exactly what she was doing and why.
This dark period shows that no law written, no federal or state constitution, no human right's charter in any form, can survive the exigent circumstances, state of emergency, divine emergency when government decides rights are impediments. Every human right was like the shifting sand on the seashore as government decided what to force on everyone. And, so far, the unaccountable tyrants still have the power and motivation to do it again but faster, harder, and meaner.
And there lies the problem with “experts.” So many see themselves as political operatives, needing to be doing “west wing” (tv series) style moves to get what they think is needed. It’s a slippery slope and hard not to be convinced that it’s the way to go to “save lives”, etc. It’s the same with all the “fight fire with fire” compromises with corruption, like if they do something crooked and evil (eg lawbreaking), then we need to fight them back with the same.
I am not sure what the solution is, but more of the above won’t work. How about just truth telling and less cynical political operatives pathway to power?
The problem is not with "experts" but rather with a government that has the power to impose the dictates of those experts on everyone else at the point of a gun (literally in the case of some COVID restrictions).
There is no good feedback loop with respect to decisions of those in government. As a feedback mechanism, biannual elections for individuals empowered to make decisions on a host of issues are terrible. Attempts to get better people in government doesn't work all that well either (they fall victim to bad incentives of the system (per Milton Friedman) and the knowledge problem (per Hayek).
The solution is to devolve as much decision-making as possible out of the government and into markets where participants get to make and evaluate their own decisions on a range of subjects every day. Thoughtful people may differ on where we should stop, but we are nowhere near that point now.
Yes, it's important for everyone to believe it was the pandemic that caused all this mayhem, and not the decisions of "experts". Canada has it's own share of these sorts of experts. Beyond the usual reasons for implementing authoritarian policies (everyone else is doing it) we also had a snap federal election called in the middle of this social panic. This evidently called for extended measures to ensure that the "good guys" maintained their grip on power, which meant that nothing was off the table, not even falsifying evidence and fraudulent studies used to back said authoritarian measures.
I'm wondering if you're regretful that you failed to take action early on, when you were still wanting to keep your job at the Atlantic.....Was it worth it David? I was the woman who emailed you proof of the use of ivermectin in Uttar Pradesh and you weren't willing to get confirmation from the WHO that ivermectin was in the "home medicine kits". Within 3 months, those kits ended the pandemic in that region of hundreds of millions of people - during the Delta variant no les. The headlines were there in the Times of India......
It was all based upon lies from day one and yet nobody has been punished for lying to the American people.
Not only the Americans were fed lies…it was a global scam with lots of liars calling the shots. I will never forget, nor forgive!
My kids were in or entering high school. Their already-poor education dropped off to almost nothing - for years! At times my daughter was literally suicidal... Beyond a reasonable doubt, the lockdowns caused more harm than good. And that's putting it mildly.
Yes. I think that whole generation is scarred, especially those from blue cities/states that stayed locked down longest. They were already going to be unprecedentedly online and this just made it exponentially worse. Many have no clue how to interact IRL and I suspect missing the chance to do so in their formative years is a big part of that.
So sorry, Ken---we've had the same issues with some of my grandchildren.
Thanks - my daughter is doing great now, and I hope your grandkids are too. But those were terrifying times for her mom and I, it was totally unnecessary, and I'm not forgetting - ever.
An 11-year-old boy in our school district took his own life when the governor of Michigan kept delaying the time she had given to rescind her order forbidding people to gather with anyone outside their own household. A high school boy in our county took his own life when sports were repeatedly promised to resume, but then postponed yet again. These are just two of many suicides during that time, and who knows how many other teens were on the brink?
Very good post Dave, but another point about "The Left" is that they were all against a co-vax while Trump was president until Biden got there--then they lined up like lemmings to the cliff. The problem with the lockdowns-that-weren't-lockdowns in my state was that there was, and still is, a Democrat apparatus that was in lockstep with the lockdowns and other measures. I will never forgive the monsters who harmed children, elders, and the rest in the name of "public health." Pfft. It was a global scam of mass proportions.
I have bever seen an explanation of how the #trumpvaccine suddenly became accepted and promoted by the very people who had publicly denounced it.
In her own words, Birx couldn’t do anything that would reveal her true intention. Yikes. It's hard to believe she put this in print, but I guess living in the public health bubble for so many years creates arrogant control. Plus, her scarfed schoolmarm look gave a sense of secure credibility -- we were her compliant students! Looking forward to your book!
I had a long section on her scarves, complete with multiple endnotes, that my editor mercifully cut. They're quite beautiful and stylish, and I think lent an air of sophistication that helped foster an unearned persona of gravitas and knowledge.
https://www.instagram.com/deborahbirxscarves
There is an Instagram about it! 😆
I’d love to blame Biden for all that went wrong but Trump was President from March 15, 2020 until January 2021. His capitulation was MADDENING.
All these key “health care” actors all had similar attributes - mini Lenins, narcissistic, sociopathic, authoritarian. They did what they did because they could and most folks were oblivious that such people were possible.
Deborah Birx was a USAID operative, appointed to the Task Force by the National Security Council (as Trump's National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien stated explicitly) to make the public believe that the biodefense lockdown-until-vaccine plan was actually a public health response based on faulty models. Mistakes were not made, at least not by Birx. She knew exactly what she was doing and why.
https://debbielerman.substack.com/p/white-house-covid-task-force-coordinator
This dark period shows that no law written, no federal or state constitution, no human right's charter in any form, can survive the exigent circumstances, state of emergency, divine emergency when government decides rights are impediments. Every human right was like the shifting sand on the seashore as government decided what to force on everyone. And, so far, the unaccountable tyrants still have the power and motivation to do it again but faster, harder, and meaner.
If gatherings were limited to zero, would it mean you couldn't be in a room with yourself?
And there lies the problem with “experts.” So many see themselves as political operatives, needing to be doing “west wing” (tv series) style moves to get what they think is needed. It’s a slippery slope and hard not to be convinced that it’s the way to go to “save lives”, etc. It’s the same with all the “fight fire with fire” compromises with corruption, like if they do something crooked and evil (eg lawbreaking), then we need to fight them back with the same.
I am not sure what the solution is, but more of the above won’t work. How about just truth telling and less cynical political operatives pathway to power?
The problem is not with "experts" but rather with a government that has the power to impose the dictates of those experts on everyone else at the point of a gun (literally in the case of some COVID restrictions).
There is no good feedback loop with respect to decisions of those in government. As a feedback mechanism, biannual elections for individuals empowered to make decisions on a host of issues are terrible. Attempts to get better people in government doesn't work all that well either (they fall victim to bad incentives of the system (per Milton Friedman) and the knowledge problem (per Hayek).
The solution is to devolve as much decision-making as possible out of the government and into markets where participants get to make and evaluate their own decisions on a range of subjects every day. Thoughtful people may differ on where we should stop, but we are nowhere near that point now.
It’s a real tragedy how much damage this terrible idea made.
As he takes her by his arm, Dante Alighieri says, "Walk with me Debbie while we explore hell together"
Yes, it's important for everyone to believe it was the pandemic that caused all this mayhem, and not the decisions of "experts". Canada has it's own share of these sorts of experts. Beyond the usual reasons for implementing authoritarian policies (everyone else is doing it) we also had a snap federal election called in the middle of this social panic. This evidently called for extended measures to ensure that the "good guys" maintained their grip on power, which meant that nothing was off the table, not even falsifying evidence and fraudulent studies used to back said authoritarian measures.
https://open.substack.com/pub/kenhiebert/p/canadas-vaccine-passport-policy-backed?utm_source=share&utm_medium=andruoid&r=15ke9e
Poor Canada! It was unrecognizable to me as a Canadian who left in 1994. So glad I was not there during Covid.
Sadly, it has yet to improve substantially. We're very hopeful that a coming election will at least take care of part of the problem.
I'm wondering if you're regretful that you failed to take action early on, when you were still wanting to keep your job at the Atlantic.....Was it worth it David? I was the woman who emailed you proof of the use of ivermectin in Uttar Pradesh and you weren't willing to get confirmation from the WHO that ivermectin was in the "home medicine kits". Within 3 months, those kits ended the pandemic in that region of hundreds of millions of people - during the Delta variant no les. The headlines were there in the Times of India......
The Plandemic...one of the biggest crimes in world history. And so many still have no clue...