A Brief Update on the Axis of Evil

Readers have probably realized by now that I try to occasionally insert a little lightness in a time of immense seriousness and peril.  I like to use a little sarcasm, irony, exaggeration, mockery.  When I referred to certain individuals who seem hell bent on ignoring obvious facts and destroying our economy, social lives and health as the Axis of Evil, I was only engaging in slight comedic exaggeration.  We have a group of people in this country who are fundamentally ideological and driven by political considerations above all else.  They root for the epidemic to be bad; they want high case and death numbers; they want jobs lost; they want businesses to disappear; they don’t care about the impact of their reckless policy recommendations on minorities or low-income people; and most importantly, they ignore the devastating health consequences of the endless lockdowns they would inflict on the country.  This is the very embodiment of evil.  So I am very serious when I refer to the individuals who promote these actions as evil.  People have to be held accountable for the real consequences of their actions.  People are what they do.

But you aren’t hearing as much from the Slavitts, Osterholms and Kashkaris of the world these days.  They were desperately praying that the high cases in the South and Southwest would continue, that their absurd predictions of greater deaths than New York and New Jersey had would come true.  They are greatly disappointed that the epidemic wave passed in those areas, as it always does.  They are looking for some pretext to continue actions that damage the country, so that they can further their political interests.  They have no regard for real science or data, that might lead to sensible policy.  These people are an obstacle to our ability to recognize the true status of the epidemic and employ the appropriate balance in minimizing harm from the epidemic with not causing greater harm through supposed mitigation actions.

I don’t know and can’t predict what will happen next in the course of the epidemic.  Will we see continued waves of cases, rising and falling?  Has it receded to background levels?  What we do know is that this is not a particularly lethal pathogen and our actions to suppress it not only are futile but have inflicted unprecedented damage to our people.  Those actions to date have been largely irrational, and we need to change that.  Ignoring the Axis of Evil will help.