COVID restrictions: Who was right?

At the start of the pandemic, "experts" shouted: "Stay home!" "Close schools!" "Wash your hands!" "Disinfect countertops!"

Clearly, disinfecting countertops and washing hands made no difference. What about closing schools and lockdowns?

The media trashed Gov. Ron DeSantis when he lifted Florida's lockdown. "Acting irresponsibly!" roared MSNBC's Dr. Vin Gupta. Reporters praised New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's lockdowns.

On CNN, Andrew's brother Chris gushed, "I am wowed by what you did!" By contrast, he said, Florida was "in such dire straits."

But actually, adjusted for population, Florida and New York had about the same number of deaths. Given that Florida has more old people, Florida did better than New York. Much of the media just report what they want to believe.

My new video this week covers which states and countries handled COVID well and which didn't.

For the most part, there are few dramatic differences between states that opened up and those that didn't. The two states in the continental U.S. with the fewest deaths: Vermont and Utah – a red state and a blue state.

At first the lockdowns were a panic attempt to do something as the risk of the virus was unknown. If things had stopped at two weeks to flatten the curve we would not have created the mess. However, fueled by idiocies uttered by Fauci, a media determined to spread panic and a Democratic Party realizing the pandemic could be used to help oust Trump the COVID scare just snowballed. Once it became clear that most of the population would behave as sheep, the tyranny started in earnest. Power drunk Governors sought to control everything from what businesses could stay open to closing churches and schools. The media immediately upped the COVID hype once it was realized that it could be used against Trump. The COVID pandemic moved the country closer to fascism than was ever dreamed possible.

Two positive outcomes from the COVID pandemic: First, kids forced into distance learning gave parents a first hand look at what schools were teaching prompting the backlash we are seeing against teaching CRT, wokism and gender bending ideology. Second, many businesses were forced into remote work. This demonstrated that off the shelf technology could allow businesses to operate without the need for a workforce commuting to big glass boxes in downtown. We are now seeing a paradigm shift that will upend urban planning. We are already seeing in many big cities increasing vacancies in downtown office buildings. The need for expensive mass transit boondoggles will disappear. The exodus of corporate headquarters from liberal states like California and New York to places like Texas and Florida will accelerate. Big corporations will even seek relocation to more rural Red States like South Dakota to enjoy the tax benefits. This will time dilute the dominance of the East and West coast states in both business and politics.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.