{"id":442808,"date":"2022-05-06T02:12:54","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T23:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/we-still-need-to-learn-the-right-lessons-from-americas-disastrous-covid-response\/"},"modified":"2022-05-06T02:12:54","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T23:12:54","slug":"we-still-need-to-learn-the-right-lessons-from-americas-disastrous-covid-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/we-still-need-to-learn-the-right-lessons-from-americas-disastrous-covid-response\/","title":{"rendered":"#We still need to learn the right lessons from America&#8217;s disastrous COVID response"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3c667d44a79\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3c667d44a79\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/we-still-need-to-learn-the-right-lessons-from-americas-disastrous-covid-response\/#%E2%80%9CWe_still_need_to_learn_the_right_lessons_from_Americas_disastrous_COVID_response%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;We still need to learn the right lessons from America&#8217;s disastrous COVID response&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CWe_still_need_to_learn_the_right_lessons_from_Americas_disastrous_COVID_response%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;We still need to learn the right lessons from America&#8217;s disastrous COVID response&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>More than a century ago, Mark Twain identified two fundamental problems that would prove relevant to the COVID pandemic. \u201cHow easy it is to make people believe a lie,\u201d he wrote, \u201cand how hard it is to undo that work again!\u201d <\/p>\n<p>No convincing evidence existed at the pandemic\u2019s start that lockdowns, school closures and mask mandates would protect people against the virus, but it was remarkably easy to make the public believe these policies were \u201cthe <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"Science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">science<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Undoing this deception is essential to avoid further hardship and future fiascos, but it will be exceptionally hard to do. The problem is that so many people\u00a0<em>want\u00a0<\/em>to keep believing the falsehood. <\/p>\n<p>Adults meekly surrendered their most basic liberties, cheered on leaders who devastated the economy and imposed two years of cruel and unnecessary deprivations on their children. They don\u2019t want to admit these sacrifices were in vain.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re engaging in what <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social<\/a> psychologists call \u201ceffort justification,\u201d which has been observed in studies of painful initiation rituals for fraternities and other groups. Once people endure the pain, they convince themselves that it must have been worthwhile even when their reward is actually worthless.<\/p>\n<p>If one brief bad experience can transform people\u2019s thinking, imagine the impact of the pandemic\u2019s ceaseless misery. It\u2019s been a two-year-long version of Hell Week, especially in America\u2019s blue states, with Anthony Fauci and Democratic governors playing the role of fraternity presidents humiliating the pledges.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/tierney-covid-lessons-193.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Fauci\" class=\"wp-image-22161060\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/tierney-covid-lessons-193.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/tierney-covid-lessons-193.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/tierney-covid-lessons-193.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Dr. Anthony Fauci warned Americans that the pandemic isn\u2019t over, as things head back to normalcy. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AP\/ Susan Walsh<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Americans obediently donned masks day after day, stood six feet apart, disinfected counters and obsessively washed their hands while singing \u201cH<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>y Birthday.\u201d They forsook visits to friends and relatives and followed orders to skip work and church. They forced young children to wear masks on the playground and in the classroom \u2014 a form of hazing too extreme even for Europe\u2019s progressive educators.<\/p>\n<p>To undo the hazing\u2019s effects, we need to not only present the facts but also reassure people that they\u2019re not to blame for the useless suffering. They submitted to it because they assumed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention knew how to control disease and scientists and public-health officials would provide sound scientific guidance about public health. <\/p>\n<p>Those were reasonable assumptions. They just turned out to be wrong.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/tierney-covid-lessons-190.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Children\" class=\"wp-image-22161053\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/tierney-covid-lessons-190.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/tierney-covid-lessons-190.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/tierney-covid-lessons-190.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Many parents are still struggling on whether or not their children should wear masks in school.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AP\/Marcio Jose Sanchez<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>CDC leaders terrified the public with worst-case scenarios based on computer models \u2014 and then used those blatantly unrealistic projections to claim unprecedented powers and experiment with untested strategies. They ordered lockdowns without even pretending to weigh the hypothetical benefits against the tangible economic, medical and social costs \u2014 not to mention the intangible costs in emotional hardship and lost liberty.<\/p>\n<p>Randomized clinical trials conducted before the pandemic had <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cato.org\/sites\/cato.org\/files\/2021-11\/working-paper-64.pdf\">repeatedly shown<\/a> that masks did little or no good at preventing viral spread, but the CDC proclaimed them effective against COVID and promoted mask mandates nationwide. Federal officials stubbornly ignored the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/articles\/more-than-400-studies-on-the-failure-of-compulsory-covid-interventions\/\">hundreds of studies<\/a> around the world showing that, except in a few isolated places, lockdowns did not reduce COVID mortality and mask mandates were <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.city-journal.org\/the-failed-covid-policy-of-mask-mandates\">generally ineffective<\/a> and <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.city-journal.org\/facebook-and-its-fact-checkers-spread-misinformation\">senselessly harmful<\/a> in classrooms. Instead of heeding all this evidence of their mistakes, officials did their best to suppress it and silence dissenters.<\/p>\n<p>The public needs to learn what went wrong during the pandemic, but they\u2019re not going to hear it from the Biden administration. For now, the best opportunity for a public airing of the facts may be the 2022 election campaign. Some candidates are already attacking the lockdowns and mask mandates, and pandemic strategies could become a major issue in the 2024 presidential race, especially if Ron DeSantis runs on his success as Florida\u2019s governor.<\/p>\n<p>Florida employed some of the least restrictive COVID policies, avoiding lockdowns and mask mandates, and it still fared as well or better than the national average in measures of age-adjusted <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bioinformaticscro.com\/blog\/states-ranked-by-age-adjusted-covid-deaths\/\">COVID mortality<\/a> and overall <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usmortality.com\/excess-ranking\">excess mortality<\/a> (how many more deaths than normal from all causes occurred during the pandemic). <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/tierney-covid-lessons-191.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"DeSantis\" class=\"wp-image-22161055\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/tierney-covid-lessons-191.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/tierney-covid-lessons-191.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/tierney-covid-lessons-191.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is strongly against wearing masks. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">TNS\/ Joe Burbank<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Florida flourished economically by comparison with other states, especially California, which imposed singularly strict COVID mandates and suffered one of the nation\u2019s worst surges in unemployment. Yet California\u2019s overall death toll has been slightly <em>worse <\/em>than Florida\u2019s. <\/p>\n<p>If California\u2019s cumulative rate of excess mortality equaled Florida\u2019s, about 5,000 fewer Californians would have died during the pandemic. And if California\u2019s <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/charts\/state-employment-and-unemployment\/state-unemployment-rates-animated.htm\">unemployment rate<\/a> equaled Florida\u2019s <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/charts\/state-employment-and-unemployment\/state-unemployment-rates-animated.htm\">last year<\/a>, 500,000 fewer Californians would have been out of work.<\/p>\n<p>Those are the hard truths that Americans need to hear after two years of COVID hazing. It won\u2019t be easy convincing them that they fell for a deception, but it can be done, as DeSantis demonstrated at a recent appearance when he urged a group of high-school students on the podium to take off their masks. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to stop with this COVID theater,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you want to wear it, fine, but this is ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some students on the podium kept their masks on, looking like meek pledges during Hell Week, but a few were emboldened to uncover their faces and breathe fresh air. At least for the moment, they were free to wonder whether this ridiculous fraternity was worth staying in anymore.<\/p>\n<p><em>Excerpted with permission from City Journal.<\/em>\n                        <\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/05\/05\/we-still-need-to-learn-the-right-lessons-from-americas-disastrous-covid-response\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;We still need to learn the right lessons from America&#8217;s disastrous COVID response&#8221; More than a century ago, Mark Twain identified two fundamental problems that would prove relevant to the COVID pandemic. \u201cHow easy it is to make people believe a lie,\u201d he wrote, \u201cand how hard it is to undo that work again!\u201d No&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":442809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/tierney-covid-lessons-index.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[128859,71464,1545,67243,116860],"class_list":["post-442808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-5-5-22","tag-cdc","tag-coronavirus","tag-lockdown","tag-mask-mandates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}