For all the Paul Krugmans out there, who believe lockdowns and vaccine mandates were not only necessary but also had more positive than negative consequences, The Covid Consensus provides a sobering wake-up call. If we do not band together to dismantle and replace the structures of authoritarian capitalism that determined the pandemic response, we will face a dire future indeed.
The Covid Consensus: This Book Is Essential Continue Reading
For a certain part of the population, perhaps bereft of rituals and practices designed to help them transcend the crude, cruel and ambiguity-generating rhythms of our now largely transactional culture, the surrendering the self to authority can take on an almost religious allure.
The Reality They Invent to Feed the Power They Crave Continue Reading
Trouble is always going to exist in River City. Modern-day versions of Professor Harold Hill will continue to present themselves as the savior of communities, and town citizens will place orders to protect themselves from the Fear of the Moment.
There Will Always Be ‘Trouble in River City’ Continue Reading
Unfortunately, many of these examples are not becoming outdated. Mask mandates have returned in some places, including schools, despite no high-quality supporting evidence. Same for COVID vaccine booster recommendations for healthy people under 65. Many European countries, including Denmark, have altered their recommendations based on careful risk/benefit analyses. Once again, although it would seem obvious that U.S. leaders should have followed suit, that didn’t happen.
Ten Examples Where Experts Were Wrong Continue Reading
Janis’ insights into the process of groupthink in the context of dysfunctional public policy decision making profoundly foreshadowed the behaviors observed within the HHS COVID leadership team.
The Madness of Groupthink Continue Reading
Were you aware of the massive censorship and propaganda that were happening to make people accept the lockdowns and vaccines? Do you feel like you were part of that campaign to convince people? Or do you feel like you were somehow forced to participate in it?
If I Interviewed Trump About Covid… Continue Reading
What drove each of these people to get behind the closing down of society as the ‘solution’ to a respiratory virus? We can largely see now who did what and when. What’s mainly missing is the why.
The Day Fauci Reversed Course: February 27, 2020 Continue Reading
Figuring out why sound public-health practice was rejected in favor of lockdowns is the job of writers and researchers for many years to come. But this much we know already. We had the information we needed to rationally address this threat. We had the experience and knowledge we needed to approach this responsibly and scientifically. A very small group of people on both sides of the Atlantic chose a different path.
What Might Have Been: Calm, Protection, and Care Continue Reading
The whole sorry episode speaks to a much larger and more entrenched problem: the symbiotic relationship between Big Media and the administrative state. It’s the permanent bureaucracy that serves the journalists’ primary and most credible source material. The higher the journalist or the bureaucrat rises in the profession, the fatter the rolodex grows on both ends. They maintain constant communication, as the FOIA’d emails about the pandemic have repeatedly shown.
The Culpability of the New York Times: Then and Now Continue Reading
Operation Warp Speed and the resulting Task Force operation was, by all objective accounts, a catastrophic blunder, but that didn’t stop many of its members from parlaying their roles on the high visibility government detail into successful post service gigs. So we thought now would be a good time to take a look at some of the healthcare/pharma-related government officials responsible for some of those fateful decisions, and where they are today.
White House Covid Task Force Members Cashed in on Pandemic Panic Continue Reading
