COVID-19, A Five Year Retrospective Turning Our Lives Upside Down: Was It About Safety or Control?

COVID-19, A Five Year Retrospective Turning Our Lives Upside Down:  Was It About Safety or Control?

BY THE OHIO REGISTER CONTRIBUTOR

For most of us, March 23, 2020 will be remembered as the the day things changed in Ohio.  That day, Gov. Mike DeWine issued a  “State of Emergency” order, which banned public gatherings of greater than 10, closed K-12 schools for rest of the 2019-20 school year, shut down dine-in service in bars and restaurants and almost all small retail businesses. Beyond that, the order forced colleges to go to online learning and shut down dormitories, as well as stopped visitation to prisons, hospitals, nursing homes and other institutions.  All Ohioans were affected one way or another.

On the National front, Dr. Fauci pushed for the federal government to issue nation-wide stay at home orders across all 50 states regardless of a state' population distribution, size or severity of the pandemic.  To aid enforcement of the “stay at home” orders, TV and radio “fear porn” ads were ubiquitous and seemed to be designed to keep people compliant, unquestioning and afraid.  

While DeWine lifted Ohio's “Stay at Home” order on May 1, 2020, he left in place the mask and social distancing mandates until June 2, 2021, over 15 months after they had been instituted.  As was shown in an earlier COVID 19 Five Years On article, masks have proven to offer little or no protection against infection, and, per Dr. Fauci, there is no scientific evidence whatsoever supporting the six feet social distancing mandate.  

Although the lockdowns, mask and social distancing mandates generally ended by mid-June 2021, the government and medical establishment were not done imposing their will on society.  President Biden, in direct contradiction to a December 4, 2020 statement saying he would not impose a vaccine mandate, did exactly that on September 9, 2021.  On that date, he signed two Executive Orders mandating vaccines for all federal workers and federal contractors, and he further placed the same requirement on employers with more than 100 employees and health care providers estimating these actions would affect about two-thirds of the US workforce or about 100 million employees. 

Although a January, 2022 Supreme Court ruling struck down the vaccine mandate, by that time the vast majority of the mandated population had already been vaccinated.  Beyond looking at which populations were impacted by the vaccine mandate, it is also important to look at which populations the Biden Administration exempted from the order.  Chief among those exempted were the 12 million plus illegal immigrants let in during the Biden Administration, who were not required to be tested or vaccinated even if they were seeking asylum.

What were the costs of the decisions made during the pandemic, and what costs are we still paying today?

Estimates for federal grants and other strictly pandemic spending for businesses, small businesses and unemployment benefits for individuals is estimated to be over $2.7T, mostly as a result of the economic impact of the lockdowns.  While Dr. Fauci and others pushed for the maximum lockdown possible, a number of pre- and post- 2020 studies strongly suggest that lockdowns have very limited health benefits especially compared to the overwhelming economic and social harm lockdowns cause.  It is estimated that at least 200,000 business were permanently closed as a result of the questionable pandemic lockdown.  Additionally, keep in mind that the $2.7T was all added to the US national debt and that every American will be paying the interest and principle on these payments for generations to come. 

The reactions to the pandemic also had, and continues to have, a devastating impact on the youngest among us.  It was well known early on that COVID-19 had comparatively minimal impact on children; however, children were the one demographic most severely harmed due to the closure of schools and social isolation.  Initial analysis shows there was a learning loss of about half a year in Ohio and across the nation, and that by 2025 students are back on track in most subject areas except for math. Potential reasons for math scores lagging behind include that students fell further behind in this subject and because there’s been more focus on reading.

[Citizen journalist note:  When doing research on the lesser impact of COVID 19 on younger people, a Grok search was conducted asking for mainstream media articles on this topic.  While Grok did provide links to articles from CNN, Washington Post, BBC, etc., when the links were accessed almost all of the articles associated with the links had been removed.  Only links to more academic sources were generally available.]

In closing this article and the series on COVID-19 Five Years On, the question asked  is “Was It About Safety or Control?”  While it is up to each reader to decide the answer to this question, the information presented here and in earlier articles is intended to provide perspectives and insights which were not necessarily given full attention to by the mainstream media.  Regardless of where you fall on this question, it is up to us as citizens to scrutinize those in authority whether it involves policies on health, immigration, property rights, foreign affairs or anything else to ensure we are getting the truth and can judge the outcomes clearly as they affect the well being of our nation and our future.

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