Covid-19 Retrospective
A First of Many Looks Into The Impact of Government Response
BY TOM HACH and JEFF SKINNER
It has now been over five years since the pandemic lockdowns, which in Ohio started in March, 2020 under orders from Governor DeWine. In that year, we saw the beginning of mask mandates, social distancing, school closures and the shut down of much of the Ohio economy. Since then, many have asked what has changed in the last five years; what new information has come to light which illuminates the darkness of the Covid era.
Since the collapse of the Covid control structure, The White House has repurposed the website, COVID.GOV, which originally promoted COVID-19 narratives favored by Dr. Fauci, the CDC and other agencies. The site has been updated with information laying out the current administration’s position regarding the origins of the COVID-19 virus, the utility of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), social distancing and more.
Questions on COVID-19 Origins
There was controversy from the beginning of the pandemic, especially regarding the origins of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, which became known as COVID-19. The official narrative was that the coronavirus was first identified in China in December 2019 and was of natural origins, with many attempting to connect it to the ‘wet markets’ and arguing viruses may have jumped species and combined somehow. However, recently the White House re-released a report, produced by the Biden Administration but not widely distributed, which suggests US servicemen were exposed to the COVID-19 virus at the 2019 World Military Games, held during October 2019 in Wuhan, China, and another report indicates several Chinese scientists at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology fell ill and had to be hospitalized in November, 2019.
Also early in the pandemic, on February 1, 2020, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, met with leading virologists to discuss the question of the origins of the coronavirus. The forming consensus on that day was that a lab-leak was the most likely because the virus showed signs of genetic engineering; however, despite the legitimate concerns raised during the call, by the time of the release of The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2 on March 17, 2020, the lab-leak hypothesis was rejected in favor of natural origins.
Information on the potential roles of pending government research grants and efforts by senior government health officials, including Dr. Fauci and former National Institute of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins, to influence the opinions of the scientists involved to move from the lab-leak to the natural origins explanation can be found here and here. Additionally, the CIA, at the end of the Biden Administration, changed its position to a lab-leak as being the most likely source of the COVID-19 virus. While France’s Academy of Medicine recently concluded that Covid-19 emerged after a ‘laboratory error,' and scientists, including Dr. Fauci, do not rule out the possibility of a lab-leak.
Further studies corroborated this narrative, with one identifying the furin cleavage site, the portion of the virus allowing it to infect humans, as being a 100% genetic match to patented Moderna material. According to the study, published in Frontiers, the chance of such an occurrence in nature matching 100% to the patented code was 32.1 out of 100 billion. Separate studies have additionally identified the virus contains Glycoprotein 120 inserts at multiple different areas. Glycoprotein 120 is a specific protein found in Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV. The likelihood of HIV being found in a bat coronavirus is equally as implausible.
Masks, Social Distancing and Lockdowns
Some of the strongest and most lasting memories from the COVID-19 pandemic were the government requirements for masks, social distancing and lockdowns. In the five years since the origin of these measures, much more has been permitted to be discussed within the public sphere.
During the pandemic, it seemed as if Dr. Fauci, Dr. Collins, and Dr. Deborah Brix, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, were ever present in the media using frightening language as a way to get people to mask up, social distance and to lockdown. Five years on, many studies on topics related to these strategies have shown a different result. For example, a 2023 study, published in the PubMed Central which is associated with the National Institute of Health, reported that “widespread promotion, adoption, and mandating of masking for COVID-19 were based not primarily on the strength of evidence...but more on the imperative...to act in the face of a novel public health emergency....” Also in testimony in early January, 2024 before a Congressional Select Subcommittee, Dr. Fauci indicated he reviewed no scientific evidence supporting the recommendations for masking children or maintaining 6-foot social distancing before advocating these policies. Additionally, the Great Barrington Declaration, signed by over 60,000 medical professionals and over 877,000 concerned citizens, advocated for focusing preventive COVID-19 measures, such as lockdowns, on those most at risk rather than society-wide because of known negative impacts.
During the Covid era itself, information sharing was difficult, as social media companies censored posts conveying studies on the efficacy of masking. However, it was evident even before then that masking did not prevent or mitigate the spread of illness and could actually exacerbate bacterial infections.
In Ohio, Governor Mike DeWine, along with Dr. Amy Acton, Director of the Ohio Department of Health from 2019 to 2020, followed the lead of national COVID-19 actors and issued mask mandates, social distancing requirements and lockdowns starting in March, 2020. Ohioans responded to these restrictive actions with protests like Rally Around Ohio, multiple lawsuits and working with their members in the Ohio General Assembly to pass Senate Bill 22, which put checks on the governor's emergency powers, over DeWine's veto.
Five years on there is still much to be said about not only the response to Covid 19, but the impact such actions had on the average Ohioan. Ohioans can never forget the detriment these measures had on working class families and in future installments, TOR will look at how these impacts could still be felt today.
