Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Lessons Not Yet Learned? (Paul Jacob on two pandemic controversies)

When will we learn to distrust big government?


While readers of this Common Sense have been tracking the Wuhan Lab Leak story for two years now, most people are still behind the curve. Fortunately, another government agency has weighed in on the Lab Leak side, as reported by Michael R. Gordon and Warren P. Strobel in the Wall Street Journal: "Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, Energy Department Now Says."


No wonder there's disagreement and confusion, though: "The Energy Department made its judgment with 'low confidence,' according to people who have read the classified report," Gordon and Strobel explain. 


There remains much we do not know, of course. But we should understand that is largely because China's totalitarian regime has purposely hidden information from the world. With the full assistance of Dr. Anthony Fauci and Big Government Science in the U.S. . . . and evasive coverage by our media.


Then consult Brett Stephens' "The Mask Mandates Did Nothing. Will Any Lessons Be Learned?" in The New York Times last week.


Now, many of us embraced masks early on, when little was known, bascally advising mask wearing as a signal of hope. We can do something. But soon the masks themselves masked something other than hope: the raw powerlust of the elites in their lockdown tyranny over the masses.


But for actual reduction in the contagion of a virus, Stephens reports, masks are useless. Citing an Oxford epidemiologist with the great name of "Tom Jefferson," not even N-95 masks do the trick: "Makes no difference — none of it," said Jefferson.


What about those studies we were informed proved the case? They were "nonrandomized," "flawed observational studies."


Yet lots of politicians and bureaucrats — including "the mindless" Centers for Disease Control — keep pushing masks.


It's not that we cannot learn. It's that they don't want us to.


This is Common Sense. I'm Paul Jacob.