We are now in the fourth year of the COVID era.
By any definition, we are well past when policymakers could claim that emergency conditions dictate that they can make policies on best guesses made under time pressure.
Back in 2019, it was conventional wisdom that masks did little to nothing to reduce the spread of respiratory viruses, and Fauci said as much. Until April 2020, public health officials still recommended against masking.
Then, the recommendations switched in a remarkable turnaround. It suddenly became antisocial, even murderous, to fail to mask up. Mandates and social and economic sanctions were imposed, and the world turned upside-down.
Ever since then, masks have been a cultural and political flash point.
When Cochrane came out with its analysis that showed masks didn’t work, the organization was vilified, and after the publishing of the study, the world’s…
