Less than a year ago, President Joe Biden declared on CBS News’ 60 Minutes, “the pandemic is over. If you notice, no one’s wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape.”
At the time, Biden’s statement was music to the ears of millions of Americans who trudged through two-and-a-half years of mask mandates, lockdowns, and school closures. However, it seems like Biden’s acknowledgement that “the pandemic is over” is on shaky ground, considering that mask mandates are returning and COVID-19 fearmongering courtesy of the mainstream media is back again.
Consider these recent headlines from legacy media outlets, which had a terrible record of misreporting on all sorts of stories related to COVID-19 during the pandemic.
CBS News: “It may be time to break out the masks against Covid, some experts say.”
NBC News: “Covid-19 cases on the rise and a new booster is in the pipeline.”
CNN: “Scientists race to understand highly mutated coronavirus variant spotted in four countries, including the US.”
And, MSNBC, of course: “‘Covid’s back on the board,’ and ER doctors like me are bracing for an awful fall.”
With regards to the reimplementation of mask mandates, here are but a few examples.
Rutgers University: “Rutgers will still require COVID vaccine, mask mandate.”
Georgetown University: “Georgetown University mandates masks for students during in-class instruction.”
Morris Brown College: “Atlanta college reinstates mask mandate due to rise in on-campus COVID cases.”
Lionsgate: “Hollywood studio Lionsgate brings back mask mandate amid Covid spike.”
On top of these mandates, countless “experts” are also imploring Americans to mask-up, again. And, the push for vaccine boosters is back with a vengeance. “We will be encouraging all Americans to get those boosters,” a Biden administration official recently stated.
Even more concerning, whistleblowers from the Transportation Security Administration and Border Patrol state that mask mandates and other restrictions are likely to be reimplemented by the Biden administration as early as mid-September.
Based on this blatant fear porn, one would assume that COVID-19 cases are skyrocketing, hospitals are on the verge of being overwhelmed, and Americans are panicking over a COVID-19 resurgence. Yet, the data tell a very different story.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been 12,613 weekly new COVID-19 hospital admissions, for the week ending August 12. Although this figure may seem high, let’s put it in proper context. During the week ending January 12, 2022, the CDC reported 150, 674 new COVID-19 hospital admissions. Even more telling, the very week that Biden announced that the “pandemic is over” and “no one’s wearing masks,” the CDC reported 34,546 new COVID-19 hospital admissions.
Furthermore, it is important to note that these numbers do not mean that all of these patients were hospitalized due to COVID-19. Rather, they tested positive for COVID-19 while in the hospital. Many, if not most, of these patients were hospitalized with conditions that had absolutely nothing to do with COVID-19.
We also witnessed a similar fudging of the numbers concerning COVID-19 deaths. Stories abound of people who died of gunshot wounds or car accidents, who happened to have COVID-19 at the time, with COVID-19 somehow being labeled as the cause of death.
Unfortunately, the writing on the wall leads me to believe that we are on the verge of a misguided overreaction to a slow uptick in COVID-19 cases. The cynical side of me can’t help but wonder if this is related to the upcoming election, seeing as how the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns turned out to be a big boost for Biden, conveniently allowing him to campaign from his basement.
With the first GOP debate tonight, and the polls showing that Biden is treading water with American voters, I think it is safe to say that the Biden administration is preparing to do whatever it takes to prevent a robust election season in 2024, even if that means destroying people’s livelihoods, reinstating mask mandates, closing schools, and all of the other pointless policies we suffered through for two-and-a-half very long and arduous years.
Photo by Nurse Together. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0.
Chris Talgo is senior editor at The Heartland Institute and a research fellow for Heartland’s Socialism Research Center.
