AMAC Exclusive – By Louis J. Senn
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When U.S. District Judge Kathryn Mizelle tossed out the federal government’s transportation mask mandate earlier this week, many Americans (and airline workers) joyously celebrated the end of one of the last remaining COVID-19 restrictions. But even as the country can now look forward to no longer having to wear masks on planes – assuming, of course, that the Biden administration’s appeal of the ruling fails – the tragic consequences of the past two years of COVID-19 policies, and particularly draconian lockdowns, are just starting to come into full focus.
Many have watched in horror as the Chinese Communist Party pursues more lockdowns in Shanghai following a spike in cases. For many in America, the horrific scenes emerging from inside the city have brought back to life a memory that has likely already begun to fade: March of 2020. It was an eerie time as every religious, school, and social activity was canceled indefinitely. A trip to the grocery store felt post-apocalyptic. The streets were vacant.
And then, we thought, it was finally behind us. Thanks to President Trump’s Project Airbridge and Operation Warp Speed, the country was able to gear up to massively increase PPE and medical equipment supplies and then distribute vaccines to everyone who wanted one, all in the span of just a few months.
But for many on the left, this was only the beginning of the descent into outright tyranny. It was only after massive public backlash and dreadful polling that some Democrat leaders at the state level reluctantly began lifting lockdowns and restrictions on businesses.
Was it all worth it, though? Did the lockdowns really save lives, and were the side effects of killing millions of jobs and keeping people locked in their homes really that effective?
Put simply, it appears that the prolonged lockdowns after the initial wave did not reduce death or slow the spread of COVID-19. As some states started to reopen in the early part of the pandemic, many doomsayers suggested they would rue the decision and claimed these governors were putting their citizens at risk. However, the reality is that the states that reopened did not see any significant increase in either infections or deaths compared to the states that remained locked down.
Florida was one of the first states to remove lockdown restrictions and then return kids to school in the Fall of 2021. When Governor Ron DeSantis began to reopen the state, the media suggested that he was callous and would harm Floridians. However, a recent study listed Florida as one of the top-performing states overall when considering the metrics of economic recovery, the COVID death rate, and the progress of children in school.
In stark contrast, California and New York were some of the last to reopen schools and businesses. Both states persisted with some of the most stringent pandemic policies. Unsurprisingly, the same study ranked both states near the bottom when it comes to performance handling the virus.
The comparison between Florida and other states with strict lockdowns forced even the New York Times to admit last year that “Florida’s death rate is no worse than the national average and better than that of some other states that imposed more restrictions, despite its large numbers of retirees.”
The reality increasingly looks to be that no matter how stringent the lockdowns were, it would be difficult for any government to stop or even slow the spread of the virus. From a public health perspective, the evidence says harsh lockdowns (employed mostly by blue states) were no better or worse at preventing people from catching COVID-19 than taking common-sense actions to protect the vulnerable while allowing most people to return to life as normal (employed mostly by red states).
However, the question of whether or not lockdowns are a good idea goes beyond even the immediate and obvious effects of COVID. In particular, the lockdowns in the U.S. and around the world have had drastic consequences on mental health, especially among young people. Studies from the U.K. showed that depression in adults was already spiking as early as June of 2020. Studies in our own country alarmingly showed similar data in June 2020 that nearly half of adults were struggling with some form of mental health issues or substance abuse. Furthermore, a quarter of adults aged 18-24 reported they had suicidal thoughts in between May and June of 2020.
What’s worse, those numbers don’t appear to be getting better, even as life returns mostly to normal. A recent study by the CDC showed that nearly half of high school students suffer “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” while 1 in 5 high school students “seriously considered attempting suicide.” There was also an alarming rise in attempted suicides by teen girls in 2020 and 2021. In the summer of 2020, visits to the ER due to suicide attempts by teen girls were up 26% and were up 50% by the winter of 2021. While there’s likely more than one cause for this burgeoning mental health crisis, the correlation between this phenomenon and the onset of pandemic restrictions cannot be ignored.
Pandemic lockdowns also appear to be linked to a dramatic increase in substance abuse and drug overdoses. 2020 marked the first time that deaths due to drug overdoses surpassed 100,000. The number of teenagers who died from a drug overdose nearly doubled from 2019 to 2020, a figure that stayed consistent last year. Experts attribute this rise across the board to stress related to the pandemic. While the Biden administration’s open border policies are partially responsible for allowing massive amounts of drugs to enter the country, it was the pandemic lockdowns that led to widespread hopelessness and despair, ultimately proving in many cases to be a far more deadly disease than the virus itself.
As President Trump wisely stated early on during the pandemic, “We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself.” Extended lockdowns proved to be just that. Americans should not forget the harm wrought on their communities by these policies, which were overwhelmingly perpetuated by elected Democrats. They should keep all this in mind the next time a politician asks for “temporary emergency powers,” and most importantly, when they head to the ballot box this November.
Louis J. Senn is a lawyer living in Louisville, Kentucky. He previously served in the Trump administration.
But Dems WANT mask mandates Back.
Cant live without masks?
Rebreath your own C02??
l wiII not comply.
Why wouldn’t our Comrade Democrats want a universal mask mandates? . . . Bandits, crooks and thieves ALWAYS wear masks when committing their crimes!
By mid to late April of 2020, scientists around the world had gained sufficient knowledge about Covid-19 to make more accurate assessment of what would work and what wouldn’t work concerning shutdowns, masking, and various preventive and treatment measures. They understood better who was most at risk and who was less at risk. Obviously, those most at risk can continue to either self-isolate or indefinitely mask if they so desire and their doctor feels it is medically prudent. Covid-19 is endemic at this point. For everyone else, it is long past time to resume a normal lifestyle. So universal, one size fits all policies were no longer deemed scientifically valid by the end of April 2020. However, in the United States and other countries around the world, the leftists saw a massive opportunity to leverage the pandemic for political gain. A way to justify an expansion of power (and the access to trillions of dollars they could leverage) completely unconstitutional under the guise of medical necessity. So it became a fight between the science of Covid and the political opportunities of Covid.
Much of Europe was actually returning to a more normal existence by June of 2020, with children under 12 attending school and businesses starting to re-open under more sane conditions. In the United States, the Democrats kept most schools and businesses closed for several months longer and small businesses were crushed by the tens of thousands. Once the Democrats had a taste for their new, expanded powers, they were loath to give any of them up.
Masking and the incessant calls for more and more “booster shots” are the last vestiges of the Democrats means to exert additional power over the population. So I expect the Biden administration will continue to press to get masking requirements restored by any means at their disposal. This morphed from a science-based discussion to one of expanded political power a long time ago.
how are the democrats goign to force mail in ballots if there is no mandates and covid to scare us with!!! this is a disaster for them. They will need to release a new virus.
It has been well known to the medical community since long before Covid was unleashed upon the world that 99.9% of the masks out there do nothing to prevent one from spreading or from contracting any sort of virus. In fact, masks make things worse because the buildup of bacteria in the mask causes other infections, including pneumonia. The best analogy I have seen is that expecting one of those masks to stop a virus particle is like throwing a bucket of sand at a chain link fence and expecting the fence to stop the sand. The masks have been used as nothing more than a symbol of obedience and subservience to our “masters.”
… Democrats have to have a mask mandate; they have to have a pandemic. Lose either one, all is lost, America retakes control over Washington DC, and the democrats are back to square one, election rigging to retake Washington DC –
No matter how bad the lying, fearmongering “authorities” try to paint the next panic, we cannot/should not buy into it. The data/ statistics of Covid 19 were manipulated and exaggerated in order to implement they CONTROLS over virtually every aspect of our lives. THEY WILL TRY IT AGAIN AND WITH EVEN MORE AUTHORITY. WE CANNOT LET THEM DO IT. The extreme actions of the Communist Chinese government against the citizens of Shanghai could be a blueprint of what might be tried here next. There’s also a warning of some serious food(s) shortages coming in the U.S. due to the war in the Ukraine and sanctions on Russia. If so, it points to the fact we used to be an exporter of a lot of surplus foods and now that we are tied to the World Trade Organization and “free” trade, we are dependent on the world for a lot of things we used to be self sufficient in providing for ourselves. .
It’s all about Communist Fascist Democrat CONTROL. They are NOT AMERICANS. They are TERRORIST CRIMINALS using TERRORIST TACTICS against the AMERICAN CITIZENS while they talk out of both sides of their mouths.
They give TERRORIST, CRIMINALS and ILLEGAL ALIENS more Rights than AMERICAN CITIZENS.
By CONSTANTLY LETTING IN ILLEGAL ALIENS is ESPIONAGE to COMMIT HARM ON PURPOSE AGAINST the CITIZENS and UNITED STATES of AMERICA.
If the FASCIST liberals were AMERICANS they would not be hell bent on DESTROYING our country.
CONVENTION of STATES IS THE ONLY WAY to STOP these acts of ESPIONAGE and TREASON against US and PROSECUTE DICTATOR Beijing biden and COMMUNIST harris for ESPIONAGE and TREASON for JUSTICE to be SERVED and SENTENCES CARRIED OUT ON LIVE TV.
I drove by a local school every day during the height of this pandemic and marvelled at the genius who decided that masks on elementary school kids, seperation, and roping off teeter-toters, jungle gyms, and swing sets saves lives… I hope they do fight for more masks. Nothing guarantees their loss in November more than a pissed off electorate! As if we could be any more pissed…
Fact is “the cure” wasn’t a cure at all. It was an exacerbation of the disease, which, I believe, was intentional and perpetrated exclusively by the Marxist Democratic Party and Deep State.
Well, I guess we’ve make it. A judge is now making medical decisions for the nation. The same judicial icons who can’t deal with our criminals, creating the revolving door of crime by the same criminal over and over is accepted as capable to make medical decisions. Well, I guess since we refuse to accept the science, common sense or doctors, and we kind of reject politicians, if we disagree with them, we now believe a judge knows the truth and is fully qualified to make medical decisions. You guys are really something…..
One thing that the lock downs absolutely did was make the divide even deeper in America. If the socialist democrats see dark times ahead toward November, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them try the lock downs again. We the people can’t let that happen again. Too much harm to too many kids and too many suicides.