COVID pandemic amnesty? Not so fast

Last Fall, in October - November of 2022, a few interesting developments had taken place in the public discussion of the COVID pandemic in the mainstream narrative space, if I may call it that. In her article in The Atlantic that came out in late October economist Emily Oster argues that we should just issue a blanket amnesty to everyone who is responsible for the excesses associated with the response to the pandemic. During the same time frame an article came out in Washington Post admitting that the majority of COVID deaths in the US is in vaccinated people. I have covered that one already, showing that even if one were to view the efficacy of COVID vaccines in the most favorable light, one would be forced to admit that, while COVID is not a major threat to the majority of the population, the vaccination campaign has been basically proven to be a failure.

For now, let us focus on Ms Oster's article in The Atlantic. The basic premise of that article is that, well, some things that happened during the pandemic may have been wrong - but who could have known better? And so what if we had made some mistakes? We just did not know any better.

Of course, some of us did - including reputable researchers in relevant fields. But Ms Oster feels comfortable to make pronouncements of this kind, claiming complete ignorance - and to even teach a course on the pandemic at Brown University in Providence! I don't know if her ignorance is sincere or not - but that is not even the main point here. The main point should be that we need a full investigation into both incompetence and corruption involved, no matter at what level. We need to prosecute those who broke the law. We may show clemency and grant amnesty to some of them - but amnesty is granted to those who are recognized as wrong doers, if at all.

We should remember the victims of the pandemic response. Their suffering was as genuine as that of COVID victims. But, even more importantly, we now have an unprecedented law and human rights crisis caused by the pandemic, and history teaches us that society that foregoes law and embraces arbitrary diktat soon spins into violence and chaos.

References

Let's declare a pandemic amnesty
Emily Oster, The Atlantic, 31 October 2022

Majority of COVID deaths in the US are now in vaccinated people: The Washington Post
@borepstein , 24 November 2022

Big name researchers who never approved of COVID lockdowns and other authoritarian pandemic measures
@borepstein , 27 November 2022

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