Despite the CDC’s mortality data showing that COVID-19 has led total deaths in the US to rise just slightly higher than the 2018 flu season, you wouldn’t know that from the media coverage of COVID-19. Every uptick in new cases or deaths is cause for alarm. The sky is falling, we’re on the verge of societal collapse, and only masking ourselves 24/7 will ensure that we can survive. Or at least so say the fearmongers.
The reality is that COVID is completely overblown. Yes, there are people who suffer greatly from it, but there are people who suffer greatly from the flu, from cold viruses, bronchitis, etc. Highlighting a handful of severe COVID cases is pulling at emotional heartstrings to get people to panic and think of COVID as a more severe illness than it actually is. Just look at the data. Deaths were higher in 2018 than they are today, which is not what you would expect to see if COVID really were a “pandemic.”
Unfortunately, most Americans don’t bother looking at data. They accept what the government and the mainstream media feed them without questions. And then they attempt to browbeat their fellow citizens to follow them. That benefits politicians who have used COVID to exercise even more control over the US population. And those politicians have even more in store for us.
If you thought quarantines were over and that mask requirements would eventually fade away, you’re sadly mistaken. We have Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari suggesting a six-week “hard lockdown” of the economy to get the virus under control. And for those wondering how people would survive, Kashkari says that Congress should spend freely to support the economy. As if a nearly $4 trillion budget deficit this year weren’t already enough, Kashkari thinks that the federal government should spend even more money.
Kashkari has always been a monetary policy dove and has often been ignored, but in an era of ultra-dovish monetary policy, there’s a chance that his policy prescriptions may be taken seriously. What we’re going to see around the country is a battle between those who advocate renewed and lengthened lockdowns and those who want a return to sanity. Germans are already beginning to revolt against mask mandates and overbearing lockdowns. Will Americans do the same, or do we as a people now welcome totalitarianism to protect us from bogeymen?