Pandemic Fallout
Two years into the pandemic, and our Best-and-Brightest are just now easing the "two weeks" worth of restrictions they imposed in an effort to mitigate the spread of COVID. Much of what's being done now is the equivalent of TSA theater: “do-something” Kabuki that doesn’t accomplish much. Lockdowns are mercifully over, hopefully forever given that emerging data is showing their ineffectiveness. Mask mandates, however, persist, despite evidence that they, too, haven't been all that and a bag of chips.
Most head-scratching is the perpetuating of child masking. From almost the outset, we knew that age was a strong correlator to COVID risk, with the youngest being at the least risk of all (less risk than the regular flu), yet the youngest are the only population that's still required to mask.
If masking had no down side, it'd not be that big a deal.
It does. Masks are impacting speech-delayed children and overall cognitive development. Kids are masking outside, where it's utterly pointless, because they've been conditioned to an illogical level of fear. On top of that, remote learning has delayed education in youngsters that "may take years to catch up."
Mask mandates imposed on adults are persisting beyond their expiration date, as well. Masking in airplanes is losing scientific credibility - it turns out that good air circulation, not a fabric barrier to exhalations, is the key to reducing infections, and airplanes have excellent air circulation. The lesson there should be, "work on moving and cleaning air in closed spaces" not "mask forever," but government is a slow and stubborn beast, whose momentum is difficult to alter, so the "science" is not informing policy as it should. The saddest part is witnessing people wearing masks outdoors, or alone in their cars - a telltale of an irrational fear that's been inculcated by government mismanagement.
Then there's an article from the New York Times, "Nine Mass Shootings - A violent weekend highlights America’s continuing crime wave." Therein, the author puts forth a compelling argument that anomie[7, described as "empathy for other citizens — or "fellow feeling,"" correlates inversely with violent crime. Increased social alienation can tip people at the fringe over to violence.
That social alienation is not just about physical distancing. It includes loss of trust in the nation's institutions, a breakdown of societal norms, and (a drum I seem to constantly be thumping nowadays) the substitution of social media for actual human interaction. The pandemic lockdowns and continued remote learning and remote work magnify social alienation (as well as keeping us out of Vitamin-D-producing sunlight).
No surprise that crime is up, after decades of decline.
Of course, greatly exacerbating that increase is the woke-Left's insanity regarding criminal justice reform. I've blogged more times than I can count that there are good and utile changes to be made, but as usual the radicals took over the dialogue and imposed all the wrong remedies. Proving yet again that humans would rather be consistent than correct, the policy makers who crammed those bad reforms down our throats refuse to revisit them, choosing instead to either ignore the problems they created or blame them on everyone but themselves with some vague handwaving about "justice" or "structural blah blah." Or, in this case, the pandemic itself.
Even if the pandemic response wasn't the sole contributor to the rise in crime, its use as a stalking horse or red herring to perpetuate bad policy enhances its connection to crime increases, and contributes to the body of lingering ill effects.
A pithy retort, attributed vairously to John Maynard Keynes, Winston Churchill, and Paul Samuelson, speaks of one of the great problems in politics.
When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?
We know more about COVID than we did two years ago, but institutional response has not kept up with the science. That policies became politicized is sad but likely inevitable, given how the President at the time evoked such visceral love and hatred, but we were promised 'normalcy' and 'science' by his successor. We've gotten anything but, with "bend the knee" petulance overriding the evolving knowledge base.
Pandemic policy (with an emphasis on policy) has likely caused generational damage in both education and socialization of our young. Its impact on the way the broader population interacts is also likely to linger for years. The erosion of trust in public institutions may never be repaired. It has exacerbated the "yell at each other" and "talk past each other" breakdown of human interaction. All for little overall benefit, as we are now learning.
Unwinding it should be Job #1 of every politician. Unfortunately, the policies have produced a voter base that has lost interest in "new facts," and instead demands perpetuation of various coercions, either out of personal fear or out of animus toward the other tribe.
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Yours in liberty,
Peter.