For years, scientists and commentators who questioned COVID policies were censored, blacklisted, and canceled across the country. Many of these dissenting views have since been vindicated from the lab origins theory to the lack of efficacy of surgical masks to the opposition to the closure of schools. Now, a new study in the Journal of Infection further undermines the once orthodox views of the pandemic, concluding that “reopening schools did not change the existing trajectory of COVID-19 rates.” In other words, we shut down our schools, without any demonstrable benefit to the country. We did, however, succeed in reducing free speech in the name of combating “disinformation.”
The report is based on one of the comprehensive studies to date on the pandemic:
“Data were extracted from government websites. Cases and COVID-19 hospitalization and death incidence rates were calculated during the Delta and early Omicron periods in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland and the United Kingdom, for two weeks preceding and six weeks after schools reopened. We summarized stringency of public health measures (GRI), COVID-19 vaccination rates by age and SARS-CoV-2 testing rates.”
In comparing these different countries, the scientists found no significant differences in reported cases: “No consistent patterns in cases, hospitalizations or deaths despite school re-openings or changes to public health measures,”
The suppression of the lab theory and the targeting of dissenting scientists show the true cost of censorship and viewpoint intolerance.
The very figures claiming to battle “disinformation” were suppressing opposing views that have now been vindicated as credible. It was not only the lab theory. In my recent book, I discuss how signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration were fired or disciplined by their schools or associations for questioning COVID-19 policies.
Some experts questioned the efficacy of surgical masks, the scientific support for the six-foot rule and the necessity of shutting down schools. The government has now admitted that many of these objections were valid and that it did not have hard science to support some of the policies. While other allies in the West did not shut down their schools, we never had any substantive debate due to the efforts of this alliance of academic, media and government figures.
Not only did millions die from the pandemic, but the United States is still struggling with the educational and mental health consequences of shutting down all our public schools. That is the true cost of censorship when the government works with the media to stifle scientific debate and public disclosures.
Many still hope that Congress and the incoming Trump administration will conduct a long-needed investigation into the origins to allow for a more credible and open debate. That hope was increased by the nomination of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, one of the organizers of the Great Barrington Declaration, to be the next head of the National Institutes of Health.
One of the most lasting costs was born by our children who have shown both educational and psychological harm from the shutting down of schools. The study confirms what dissenters said all along: there is no evidence that this was necessary or had any benefit to society:
“Our findings show that there were no consistent patterns to case, hospitalisation or death rates in each country or jurisdiction, irrespective of whether schools were open for onsite learning or changes to PHSM. School closures were adopted by many countries as part of a suite of PHSM but in the future should only be implemented where there is strong evidence of effectiveness. Predesigned and approved study protocols, along with scenario-based planning for schools are needed to prepare for the next pandemic. The negative consequences on child health and development are profound, so understanding the role of schools in SARS-CoV-2 transmission should be a priority for pandemic preparedness and response.”
There’s definitely some upside to homeschooling—it’s not all bad news. My friend saw how public schools were pushing woke ideas on his kids.It’s amazing how much difference it made when he took control of what they were learning.
* The first realization in this discussion is the United States is a huge business. There is nothing that could possibly happen that would have shuttered schools and businesses. A nuclear bomb could be dropped and people would still be driving to work through the ashes. Did NY shut down in 911? Didnt skip a beat.
What conclusion is there? Someone or some group wanted to do this thing. Bizarre.
File this under, Duh! Ya think? At least more research is now being published instead of censored. I would, however, modify this statement a little: “Some experts questioned the efficacy of surgical masks, the scientific support for the six-foot rule and the necessity of shutting down schools. The government has now admitted that many of these objections were valid.” How about ALL of the objections were valid? There was never any science supporting these mandates. Very early on it was clear that children were virtually bullet proof to the vid–and not vectors, and DECADES of research show that masks are a joke for respiratory viruses. Sweden, anyone? Curiously, we have a Dutch (?) politician now admitting that the lockstep controls that swept the developed western world were orchestrated by NATO. Sweden, at the outset of Covid, was a non-NATO country, and could, therefore, follow a more rational approach.
If there was error, and simply because Turleyopines error doesnt vouchsafe its presence, it was error on the side of caution. Now its been made into cause celebre and exploited as an purist’s ideological football.
Trump is governing like a man who has been shot, indicted, investigated, and impeached and has no f—ks left to give. And it’s glorious.
Well said.
I believe that losing the 2020 election turned out to be an advantage. Democrats had long claimed Republicans were conspiracy theorists for saying Democrats were for open borders, pro criminal, the party of censorship, and had veered way too far Left into extremist views, such as not being able to define a woman. Biden’s Presidency proved every one of those Republican concerns correct. The nation experienced the disaster of Democrat hegemony, and they’re done.
The loss also afforded President Trump an opportunity to learn from mistakes in his first term. He learned to surround himself with people he can trust, because his entire first term was filled with moles who sabotaged and spied upon his campaign. He learned which departments had become politically weaponized and needed an overhaul. He had time to craft his plans for his return. He was a lean, mean, fighting machine, honed by the hell he went through from unlawful persecution by the Biden Administration and his apparatchiks, to assassination attempts.
I have never seen an administration hit the ground in a flat out sprint like that. President Trump demanded Hamas make a deal to return hostages before his term began, and the first 3 were returned the day before his inauguration. Biden had been pressuring Israel to let Hamas win the war, leaving Hamas in place, agreeing to their offer of returning the hostages dead or alive, and requiring Israel to provide Gaza with billions in aid that would flow direction to Hamas. They could have killed them all, returned the bodies, and Israel wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it. Trump’s team nixed that. This deal has a 2nd phase which requires the exile of Hamas leadership. If and when Hamas refuses, then Israel will go right back in, because the ultimate goal is that the terrorist organization Hamas will no longer rule Gaza. When Israel does go back in, the US will have its back. There will be no more sabotage, like Biden threatening a year ago that if Israel went into Rafah to rescue the hostages, the US would no longer supply military aid, like for the Iron Dome.
His Executive Orders were ready and waiting for him to sign the day he took office, sparking off a series of paradigm shifts in governance. It was a sharp contrast with Biden, who needed a teleprompter at private fundraisers, and had to be led off every podium by his wife holding his hand so he didn’t get lost.
Trump’s inauguration also spurred Belarus dictator Lukashenko to release American political prisoner Anastassia Nuhfer, imprisoned during the end of the Biden Administration December 2024 over her participation in a protest in 2020. Suddenly Lukashenko felt like making a gesture of goodwill with the United States.