It happened two years ago Monday, Save Jerseyans.
On March 21, 2020, Governor Murphy issued Executive Order 107 which sent the Garden State into lockdown mode. Unless you were buying wiped-down groceries, visiting a close family member to steal a roll of toilet paper or heading into work (assuming your place of employment was still open for in-person operation), New Jerseyans were ordered to stay home or face criminal penalties.
“If folks are monkeying around, we will take action,” Murphy warned.
Few criticized the immediate shutdown though many of us questioned the disaster that was already clearly unfolding in assisted living facilities. Twenty-four months later, the case against lockdowns as one of the deadliest errors in modern history continues to build.
By now you’ve doubtless heard of the Johns Hopkins University paper titled “A Literature Review and Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Lockdowns on COVID-19 Mortality.” After analyzing a small mountain of studies scrutinizing lockdown impacts, the paper’s authors decided that “lockdowns have had little or no effect on COVID-19 mortality.”
You didn’t need a leading academic institution to tell you what you experienced firsthand. We didn’t flatten the curve of the virus but we did extinguish the prosperity of thousands. Ask a former owner of any of the 1 in 3 New Jersey small businesses that closed forever in 2020. The U.S. GDP dropped by 3.5% while the feds simultaneously spent $2.6 trillion on “relief,” ironically, from a manmade disaster of their own making. Our restaurants are still struggling to staff-up, our kids’ “learning loss” remains acute, and the psychological impact of the official pandemic response may take a generation or longer to overcome.
Said another way, we sacrificed dearly but achieved nothing. We’re actually worse off. Is anything “better” today than it was two years ago? Not anything I can think of.
What’s even more disheartening is the complete lack of introspection on the past of the Media and our elected “leaders.” With everything we now know, and everything that’s since been uncovered, I think we all know who the real knucklehead was. The verdict of history will be devastating.
