Subject: Re: Gorsuch on Civil Liberties
How many still believe the media got COVID right? How about the government? How did our so-called "experts" in public health do?

It's a mixed bag. They got some stuff right, some stuff wrong. With hindsight it is easy to armchair quarterback this. But, at the time, all we knew is that hospitals were slammed, morgues were overflowing into refrigerator trucks, misinformation was rampant, and officials were dealing with a very fluid situation from what limited information they had. I approve of the philosophy that when you don't know, err on the side of caution.

And there was plenty of "err". There was also plenty of good. For example, our lockdowns protected our seniors better than, say, Scandinavia where the disease tore through their elder population (they have since admitted they did a poor job protecting their seniors). It appears now that shutting down the schools was iffy, at best. It didn't spread through fomites, so sanitizing everything didn't do much (though that year the flu caused far fewer deaths and illnesses because everyone was isolating and sanitizing).

I admit my bias here in that 1poorlady was diagnosed with cancer a couple of weeks before COVID was in the news. So she had MAJOR surgery that should have required about 4 days in the hospital, but instead it was outpatient. I was her nurse at home, dealing with drains, and other stuff as best I could. They did it outpatient because a) there were no beds, and b) they didn't want her catching COVID because the hospital was full of COVID patients. I couldn't even wait for her in the waiting room. I had to wait in the car in the parking lot (the waiting room was closed). So I still get angry when folks say it was a hoax, and precautions were useless, because had everyone done what they should have, maybe she could have had a normal surgery and recovery. (And don't get my started on the chemo...her immune system nuked, and with nobody following protocols we had to be hypercareful that we didn't get sick and then bring it home to her.) So, yeah...I'm a bit biased about the deniers, and I admit it.

In hindsight, we are fortunate that the disease wasn't more virulent. If it had been, combined with people (including POTUS) calling it a hoax, we could have lost a significant chunk of the world's population. Some nations did a good job reacting early (e.g. ROK, Taiwan). Because of partisan bickering, the US much less so. Red states were hit the worst because of the partisanship, even though a virus has no party. Contagion was a very prescient movie...it even predicted deniers and people with phony cures, just like we saw in 2020/2021.