Four years ago, the world and this country changed radically with the advent of Covid. Suddenly it was 15 days to slow the spread. We should never ever do that again. EVER.

Here’s how the Washington Post is framing this so-called anniversary. 

After a pandemic-fueled roller coaster, the U.S. economy is finally steadying.

Four years ago this week, the first wave of what would grow to be 20 million job losses set in, although most Americans were more terrified of catching a new, very transmissible, and sometimes fatal, virus.

Toilet paper was nowhere to be found, but at least it was cheaper than it is now, along with most groceries.
In the months to follow, the pandemic recession was largely recognized by global and political leaders as a severe economic trauma. And the swift and almost miraculous recovery of the U.S. economy has been the envy of the world.

Supposedly the wage increases, the fact that people were able to save money (REALLY?), the rise and fall in grocery and gas prices, along with the increase in immigrants (illegal) over 2023 has been a plus worth celebrating after this country shut down, not for 15 days, but months and in some cases, YEARS. 

That article is an epic ode to gaslighting that completely ignores the damage done. 

The learning loss that is only just now beginning to be calculated. Sadly and infuriatingly, there were teachers who phoned it in when teaching remotely. Kids just quit showing up. Kids with special needs were literally left behind or who benefitted from IN-PERSON contact were suddenly isolated and regressed horribly. Student athletes lost out on college scholarships because sports were shut down. The suicide rate among kids JUMPED. The damage was done. 

Today marks 4 years since the unleashing of lockdowns, and the false promise of 15 days to slow the spread.

The least empowered suffered the most under this reckless experiment.

Our forthcoming documentary, “15 days…” tells their stories so that they are never forgotten. https://t.co/0j082BZOC3

— RESTORE CHILDHOOD (@Rstorechildhood) March 16, 2024

Big box and grocery stores were essential. But those who needed to continue their medical care such as cancer, stay home. You can wait…until they couldn’t and ended up dying because their  treatments were deemed not essential. Hospitals, and I was witness to three, were NOT overrun. But asshats like Cuomo ignored both the hospitals and hospital ships and sent people to nursing homes to die. 

The severe economic loss was felt across the country. Las Vegas is a prime example. 

About a month after casinos in Macao were closed for 15 days to slow COVID’s spread, then-Gov. Steve Sisolak on March 17, 2020 ordered all casinos as well as restaurants, bars and other nonessential businesses in the state to close for 30 days.

~Snip

As a result of the 78-day closure, the Nevada Gaming Control Board estimated Nevada’s 219 major casinos lost $6.2 billion, a 25.2 percent decline from revenue generated a year earlier.

Now, Las Vegas is busier than ever. But what is also true is that prices in Vegas are MUCH higher now than they were in 2020. 

Remember the grand announcement of 15 days to slow the spread? I do. 

Remember when everybody had to stop going to school and start living inside their houses? Newscasters started broadcasting from home and everything? All that weird stuff?

And, oh yeah, they broke the economy like snapping a dry twig over their knee.

These people. https://t.co/d9CsJ55TsD

— Daddy Warpig (@DaddyWarpig) March 17, 2023

We were told to believe the Fauci, Birx and the rest of the “experts” as they told us ‘follow the science,’ but only THEIR science. And when we dared question either, we were vilified by the media, by Democrats, and people within our communities. When we pointed out the hypocrisy of someone getting arrested for surfing by himself, or filling skate parks with sand, or how children are more immune to what we all NOW KNOW is a flu variant, we were screamed at, censored, and even fired. 

Remember how the summer of ‘fiery but mostly peaceful George Floyd riots’ were ok, but going to church was the most dangerous thing in the world? That’s a result of the hypocrisy of the 15 days to slow the spread crap. 

Martin Kulldorff, one of the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, is blunt in his assessment of the damage that emanated from 15 days to slow the spread. He was censored as were others because they went against the prevailing narrative. 

That spring, I supported the Swedish approach in op-eds published in my native Sweden, but despite being a Harvard professor, I was unable to publish my thoughts in American media. My attempts to disseminate the Swedish school report on Twitter (now X) put me on the platform’s Trends Blacklist. In August 2020, my op-ed on school closures and Sweden was finally published by CNN—but not the one you’re thinking of. I wrote it in Spanish, and CNN–Español ran it. CNN–English was not interested.

I was not the only public health scientist speaking out against school closures and other unscientific countermeasures. Scott Atlas, an especially brave voice, used scientific articles and facts to challenge the public health advisors in the Trump White House, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci, National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins, and Covid coordinator Deborah Birx, but to little avail.

What are the lessons to take away here?

The science and medical community has squandered the public’s trust in anything they say or do.

There should be accountability, but there won’t be.

Both Trump and Biden share blame in their roles on the lockdowns and the vaccine mandates.

The lockdowns and the policies enacted caused harm and a loss of trust across the board. 

Welcome to the 4 year anniversary of "15 days to slow the spread" pic.twitter.com/EYH7tWWKXF

— Declaration of Memes (@LibertyCappy) March 15, 2024

Well over 200,000 businesses closed doors in 2020 due to the lockdowns, and that doesn’t include those in ’21 and ’22.

The masks didn’t work.

The vaccine mandates had a detrimental effect across the board.

Quarantine recommendations by the CDC were treated as law.

The learning loss is incalculable.

The rise of mental health issues across this country coincides in large part because of the lockdowns.

It isn’t just the United States that is reckoning with the damage done. Countless countries, such as Wales, are now facing the realization that their “cure” was worse than the disease. 

15 days to slow the spread? Never, and I mean NEVER again. 

Feature Photo Credit: image, cropped, Adobe stock standard license