The perpetual pandemic: Politicians won’t let COVID end

The specter of March 2020 is back upon us. New restrictions, panicked news reports, and strict mask mandates, regardless of vaccination status, would make you think that we are nearing a new peak in coronavirus deaths. And yet, the actual data paint a far less alarming picture: Thanks to the easy availability of free and highly-effective vaccines, deaths from the virus are down more than 80 percent from December. Hospitalizations, while increasing recently, are down a third from their peak and overall cases are down nearly two-thirds. With more than 60 percent of the U.S. adult population fully vaccinated and the death rate down by 86 percent since January, the question comes: When will the COVID-19 hysteria end? Will the pandemic ever be over?

Among politicians and bureaucrats, there is a clear reluctance for a “return to normalcy.” President Biden previously promised no more masks with vaccination, before flip-flopping and demanding that even the vaccinated mask up in public. Various localities, including Oregon, Hawaii, Louisiana, Nevada and Washington, D.C. are re-introducing mask mandates despite low death rates from the virus. San Francisco requires proof of vaccination for indoor activities, even though there have been just two COVID deaths there during August. As COVID-related deaths and hospitalizations plummet, New York City hired 570 employees to enforce the new “Excelsior Pass” vaccine passport — if you want to dine out, go to the gym, or watch entertainment, you need to show your papers. Violators can face thousands of dollars in fines. This move will effectively block more than two-thirds of Black residents, who haven’t received the shot, from doing anything in the city.    

Meanwhile, many schools across the nation are requiring students to wear masks all day, every day, to stop a disease that is less lethal for children than the seasonal flu. Although masks are not likely to prevent the disease’s spread between children, they can stunt the ability to process language, verbal and non-verbal. The current hysteria over school reopenings is largely political in nature; the American Federation of Teachers wants school restrictions and is lukewarm about its members getting mandatory vaccinations.

Those in charge have failed to define the endpoint of the pandemic. Our nation will never reach a 100 percent vaccination rate or zero COVID cases. At what point can we get back to our normal lives? If recent actions by various levels of government are any indication, not anytime soon. The federal government is still paying an unemployment bonus for workers to remain jobless, while small businesses desperately need workers — especially as tiny margins already hammered by 2020 are eaten away by inflation. Suppliers are facing severe issues, with 60 percent of Americans reporting being unable to get products because of shortages. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) unilaterally suspended private property rights by decree through an extension of the eviction moratorium; even Biden believes that his actions are unconstitutional.

Why is this re-imposition of pandemic control happening now? Are there some politicians and bureaucrats genuinely alarmed by new COVID variants? There must be. However, mandates to purportedly keep citizens “safe” also produce tremendous, nearly unanswerable-for political control. Politicians and unelected members of government have grown used to the emergency powers that were accumulated during this once-in-a-century crisis. Figures such as Anthony Fauci, the president’s chief medical adviser and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky are now household names with abilities to act well outside their previous purviews, and governors such as Andrew Cuomo of New York knew that “doing something” could garner both increased control and (for a time) favorable approval ratings.

The pandemic will be over only when a large majority of Americans simply start to ignore mandates and restrictions. Most fully vaccinated Americans are ready to go back to their pre-pandemic lives and have no desire to be further exploited by power-hungry D.C. elites who continue concentrating power under the guise of a “crisis.” Meanwhile, those same elites have repeatedly broken their own rules. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) ignored COVID restrictions to get her hair done in secret; California Gov. Gavin Newsom did the same when he ate at a Michelin-starred restaurant with a large group of unmasked friends; D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser violated her own travel advisory when she traveled to Delaware for an “essential” Biden rally. 

Earlier this month, there was a surge in COVID cases on Martha’s Vineyard after hundreds of left-wingers gathered for a super-spreader event to celebrate Barack Obama’s 60th birthday. The average American has to ask themselves: If they’re not acting like it’s a crisis, why should we?

Our political class is increasingly out-of-touch with the feelings of the country-at-large and drunk with the emergency powers they have afforded themselves. Officials who betray public trust by refusing to relinquish control will soon face a populace ready to vote them out. If President Biden wants a Democratic majority after the midterm elections and any shot for a second term, he should pay heed to the precedent of the Roman dictator Cincinnatus, who ceded emergency powers not one day longer than necessary. It is Biden who does not show “courage and resolution equal to the majestic authority of that office.”

Kristin Tate is a libertarian writer and an analyst for Young Americans for Liberty. She is an author whose latest book is “How Do I Tax Thee? A Field Guide to the Great American Rip-Off.” Follow her on Twitter @KristinBTate.