In her recent article in The Atlantic, a Brown University professor, Emily Oster, is calling for “pandemic amnesty.” She is telling me to “forgive and forget” everyone who was yelling obscenities at me for not wearing a mask in a public park or calling me a mass murderer for posting a picture with a friend visiting. I must forget all this, the author insists, because all those people had nothing but my well-being in mind!
The author admits that many (if not most!) measures imposed on us by “the experts” were harmful and destructive. But “dwelling on those mistakes” is “counter-productive.” After all, people who made these mistakes had only good intentions.
“As we now know,” the author concedes, cloth masks are practically useless. People who got vaccinated spread COVID as easily as those who did not. Keeping children locked up at homes had disastrous consequences on their development. And some of the COVID “mitigation” measures — like beach closures in California — were outright dumb. But let’s not “dwell” on them — because those were “complicated choices in the face of deep uncertainty.”
“We didn’t know!” the author laments.
After three years of living through the pandemic, the author all but admits that “the experts” were just as clueless about how to approach it as your next-door neighbor. “The experts” did not know even the most obvious things.
They didn’t know that wearing a dirty piece of cloth over your face would not amount to anything other than a sinus infection. Seemed like even a third-grader could’ve figured that one out — and many did.
They didn’t know that walking on the beach was the safest activity one could do during a pandemic. Sunshine and fresh air are the best disinfectants known to men, and a beach in early spring is the best place for “social distancing.” You don’t need a crystal ball to understand that surfing in the ocean is not “a super-spreader event.”
They didn’t know that being away from school causes learning delays, especially for kids who don’t have a parent in the home. For many kids, a school is the only environment conducive to education. To learn online, kids require constant supervision — I got a firsthand experience with that when my high school–age son was tutoring during COVID. He had to call the parents multiple times a day to return their kids back to the computer screen. What about the kids who didn’t have a parent around, or access to a personal tutor? It wasn’t a difficult conjecture to know that these kids would fall desperately behind.
After almost everything “the experts” told us has been proven false, they demand “amnesty” because of the “uncertainty” they were facing. Yet, back then, they denied that any uncertainty existed. Back then, they claimed they knew exactly what to do — until they didn’t. Back then, they claimed that everyone who contradicted them, or doubted them, was “spreading misinformation.” They proclaimed themselves “THE SCIENCE,” and they ordered everyone to follow their orders, or else.
You don’t need to know the future — only the past — to know that science does not require “blind following.” Science involves debate, experimentation, and inquiry. “The experts” and their admirers replaced real science with THE SCIENCE, also known as dogma. And every time it clashed with reality, they turned around on a dime, and they absolved themselves of responsibility, citing “the evolution of THE SCIENCE” without providing any evidence as to how the science had “evolved.”
Even in the face of uncertainty, the author admits, “some people got it right, for whatever reason.” Yet she is willfully uncurious as to what that reason is. That reason was that some leaders made decisions based on common sense, not politics. They consulted with scientists and health professionals of different persuasions, not just the ones who promoted the party line. They answered questions correctly because they asked questions in the first place. These were the reasons they got it right — but these reasons, the author argues, are unimportant. All that matters is that we do not blame “the experts” for their failure.
Some people got it right because they wanted to get it right. “The experts” did not — but still, they should get “amnesty” because they “meant well.” The author argues that some people made the right choices because they “had a hefty element of luck.” We are supposed to believe that for three years, Ron DeSantis magically guessed all the right cards, while Doctor Fauci just kept guessing wrong. And that’s why we all should cut the good doctor some slack. Sure, he was heavily compensated for his “expertise” that involved repeating whatever talking points his puppet masters were giving him. But he didn’t mean any harm, so let’s give him another million-dollar participation trophy.
But in spring and summer 2020, we had only glimmers of information. Reasonable people — people who cared about children and teachers — advocated on both sides of the reopening debate.
Now that “the alarming figures” are coming out, we must admit there were “reasonable people on both sides.” However, back in the day, only one side was viewed as “reasonable.” Anyone who dissented was known as “the science deniers” and “the grandma-killers.” People who claimed they “cared” did not advocate for debate. They advocated for shutting down anyone who disagreed.
Because of “the experts,” millions of kids suffered severe learning loss and developmental delays. Cancer patients missed life-saving treatments. Many did not attend the diagnostic tests that could have saved their lives. Gravely ill people died alone without saying goodbye to their loved ones. Because of “the experts,” elderly people went into the crowds believing that a stupid mask would protect them. So many lives needlessly lost. And now, “the followers of the science” demand absolution because they meant “no harm.” Fair enough: Let’s not be mean to the celebrities wasting their lives on Twitter.
In the face of so much uncertainty, getting something right had a hefty element of luck. And, similarly, getting something wrong wasn’t a moral failing.
“The experts” admit they “didn’t know then,” so getting it wrong “wasn’t a moral failing.” Not knowing is, indeed, not a moral failing — but refusing to learn is. It is because of “the experts” that we didn’t learn from this tragic event that impacted a generation. And we still don’t know. We don’t know why the first wave of COVID was so deadly, and why the one still around is not. We don’t even know how deadly each new variant is. We don’t really know how COVID spreads, and how to mitigate the spread. We don’t have a definite answer about the efficacy of masks. We don’t know if COVID vaccines protect you, and for how long. We don’t know why older people seem to be more in danger than the young. We could have answers to all of these questions by now if we were allowed to ask them. There is no excuse for why we don’t know.
Because of “good intentions,” we wasted millions of lives, and millions of livelihoods, and we chose to learn nothing from this horrible event. And that is why, should the new pandemic come tomorrow, instead of relying of what we have learned, “the experts” will revert to the same game plan they used during COVID, needlessly wasting more lives. If we let it slide, more people will die.
“The experts” failed us when we needed them most. Then they demonized us for doubting their “expertise.” And now they admit they weren’t “the experts” at all — only “well-wishers.” After ruining our lives, they cry for “amnesty.” If we learned one thing from a three-year pandemic, it’s that we should not give it to them. We should hold “the experts” accountable so that all the future experts take notice.
Tanya Berlaga is a freelance writer, translator, and publisher and is currently a contributor to Right Wire Report, The Liberty Loft, and Free Speech Movement.
Fauci was deposed yesterday. Here’s what we know so far:
Fauci Deposition report: “he can’t recall practically anything dealing with his Covid response!”
No amnesty, no forgiveness. Ignorance, even by self-proclaimed experts, may be forgiven. But not the bullying, the silencing of others who were equally well-intentioned, and , as it turned out, better informed.. Good doctors defrocked, careers ruined…
The primary mistake that was made was not following established practices of the last century to make sure not to do harm. The old rules that were developed for our protection should have been followed. It was not a matter of some people got it right and others did not. This was not a crap shoot. The old rules should have been followed. I am thinking of the rules preventing vaccines from being used until they had been fully vetted.
What about the rules protecting free speech. Why were such rules violated. Were not the mandates illegal?
And behind all this malfeasance was the desire of the Democrats to steal the election.
For anyone interested in the reliability of what we are pleased to call experts, consult C. Cerf and S Naivasky, ‘The Experts Speak’: a complete catalogue of how experts got it wrong. More in depth, with equally depressing results, is Philip Tetlock, ‘Expert Political Judgment’.
These ‘experts’ deserve no amnesty and they did not have the well-being of the public in mind at all. They lined their pockets with money and had their 1.5 years of fame. And we are the ones who are paying financially and emotionally. And we shall continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
“Life’s a beach and then you die.”
They want amnesty? I want justice. Let them make their case in court and ask a jury to see that what they did was due to ignorance and not due to complicity in the crimes which they committed against each and every one of us, our loved ones, our neighbors and our society. History will eventually have its say, but history should be informed by the testimony of these Experts, the documents which challenge their cries of ignorance, and the deaths which they caused, which are still not done being counted.
Forgive my frankness, but these bastards want amnesty not because they did not know what they were doing, but because they knew damn well what they were doing. I do not know who among the politicians might have had foreknowledge of the truth which was being hid from the masses, but certainly the Experts, the Fauci’s, the Birx’, the Farrar’s, the Alroy-Preis’, these Experts knew that masks do nothing against an airborne virus. They knew that the 6-foot social distancing was arbitrary and unuseful to prevent any spread of an airborne disease. They knew that people were dying from the lockdowns just as they knew that people were dying from taking the shots. They knew that HCQ and IVM were not dangerous or lethal drugs, but among the safest and most prescribed drugs on the planet. They knew all of this, and knowing this, they attempted to shut down all debate from those objecting to the false conclusions of the Experts, to end any alternate input regarding the misguided policies of the Experts, and to ignore the cries of the victims suffering from the solutions prescribed by the Experts. Had these Experts actually been acting in good faith, they would never have needed to activate their Social Media assets to cancel those reasonable voices who warned of the outcomes which their tyranny and their mandates, their limited treatments and their toxic shots, all resulted in causing.
In short, there were no good intentions here, no chance that these well esteemed scientists and Pharma researchers were acting in good faith, nor that they were acting to the best of their ability or knowledge. They acted against these abilities, and against this knowledge. Hence, they do not want amnesty for drawing the wrong conclusions about matters which they had no information. They want amnesty because their attempts to hide what they knew was happening, is now known by too many of us, and the rest will soon learn of how badly they were betrayed by these Experts. Is it simply chance that this call for amnesty is being made now that free speech might soon return in some degree with Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, where the ignorant supporters of these Experts will soon learn that their long held heroes of the pandemic have been lying to them with every statement they made and every edict they wrote. Indeed, these Experts want amnesty, not because they are innocent, but because their guilt will be impossible to hide as they face financial and criminal penalties, neither of which might ever result in anything but the slightest measure of justice for the calumny of which these Experts are guilty.
Why not punish them by forcing them to go to the beach where they will be repeatedly hit in the face by waves and get saltwater down their throats and up their noses. Is that like what they call waterboarding? 😀
“The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions”
I loved the beach, the couple times I went as a kid. Except for the sun, the sand, (the used drug needles in the sand) the crowds, the noise, the waves knocking me down and salt water going up my nose, down my throat, in my hair, in my eyes.
Like waterboarding without the board.
Hey, I know. Instead of forgiving them, why not force them to go to the beach all day every day.