I talk with David Zweig, writer of the new book "An Abundance of Caution," on why blue states went so wrong, how he got red-pilled on the issue, and if he's really a covert Republican.
Thank you for this interview, Alex! Besides being informative about what was actually happening on the ground when this "plandemic" originally broke, it was very instructive as to some of the issues you've been struggling with in your reporting. You pointed out that Zweig's perspective sounded like talking points from the Right, and this was clearly concerning to you. His response was extremely illuminating! "That never occurred to me, I was just following the facts!" (paraphrased) You see, Alex, sometimes (often, in fact) the so-called "Right's narrative" is simply a recitation of the facts as they actually exist! And reciting the actual facts of a story does not make you a partisan, even when the actual facts make one side of the political spectrum seem completely right about an issue and the other side completely wrong. Sometimes, that's just reality! For example, when Trump is completely right about an issue and you acknowledge that fact (something I have seen more of recently, in fairness to you), that doesn't make you MAGA, that makes you an honest, credible reporter! Hope to see more and more of that as time goes on! Keep up the great work, Alex!
You misunderstand. The fact is that Zweig is offering a Republican take (which I agree with), he just won't admit it, partly because it's hard for HIM to accept that fact and partly because he knows that doing so will make it harder for him to get publicity.
Zweig stated the facts as he found them. You slapped a label on it, because, why? Does it have to fit a category to be judged? Fit into a sound bite? Reduce to a known paradigm prior to investigation?
I’m asking sincerely because IMO that’s a that’s one of the biggest blind spots in journalism in general. Not sure anyone is immune, myself included.
Facts aren't partisan. A take based on the actual facts of what actually happened is not partisan. I was actually a bit surprised to find you trying to spin this as a partisan issue. It's not. The right can be just as stupid as the left; as Zweig pointed out in response to you, it just happened that in this case it was the left:
"I don’t think the right is immune from these same types of risk. It’s just so happened with the pandemic that’s what happened on the left, and it’s particularly important because the left occupies such an influential place in these institutions and our culture…"
There is a point there which is kind of partisan--the last sentence about the left being so influential in our institutions and our culture. But you don't fix that by pushing partisan issues from the right's point of view. You fix that by convincing people that what *should* be driving our policies is facts, not ideologies.
Respectfully, that's your take, not his. He acknowledged that his reporting may LOOK partisan but only because that's where the facts led and he was committed to reporting the truth. But your take is illuminating in that it explains why you are so reluctant to report all the facts of a story when those facts align with the Right's narrative, even if those facts are true. I hope and pray that you will develop the courage to report the truth no matter the fallout. Truth-talkers are in desperately short supply these days but they are needed now more than ever before. I truly admire and appreciate you and your work.
I am hoping against hope that my liberal library will make Mr. Zweig's book available. I have had to purchase or forego reading many so-called right wing books, while all left-wing publications are readily available.
I appreciate your response to Alex's analysis of Mr. Zweig's thought process. This left vs right take has to end. Where the facts lead matters to me, whether the facts align with Repubs or Dems matters none.
He's not offering a "Republican" take. What does that even mean? Republicans were all over the map on this stuff. And "The right says teachers’ unions are mostly to blame"? Who ever said that? Why do you insist on trying to force these narratives where they just don't fit?
Let's just call the school closures for what they are:
EVIL at the lowest depths of hell, so bureaucrats/teachers could cosplay being the saviors of humanity while playing "Naked and Afraid" in their own houses and binging on wine and Netflix.
Disgusting.
Has anyone heard a single teacher apologize for supporting this...or just going along with it?
I love how they all used the same line:
"Children are resilient"
Oh yeah, then what does that say about you as an adult?
And Governor Gavin Newsome and his cronies dining at the fancy, expensive French Laundry restaurant while the rest of California was locked down. What a bunch of scumbags!
And, the illustrious governor moved his family from my neighborhood where schools were closed, to another area where schools were open so his kids could attend school. When he moved in, he threw a huge housewarming party, attended by two of my patients who live in his new neighborhood. Party was well attended by Democrats , lawmakers in our area. This was during lockdown and mandatory masking. You can guess at the status of mask wearing at the party…practically zip, zilch, nada. Rules for thee but not for me…Newsom is the King of that idea. In addition, this party never made the news. I only know about it from my patients.
We had Whitmer! BLM marches were acceptable and attended by her during the mandatory lockdowns while it was illegal to even leave your house except for essentials like groceries or doctor appointments. Locking arms and marching with thousands of people, she claimed the movement was so important that they didn't need to follow the mandatory 6 feet social distancing. Abortion clinics and pot shops were open and "essential," but churches were closed, and you couldn't buy paint or seeds at the Home Depot. Once restaurants were allowed to open, masks were required walking into and out of restaurants, but not at your seat. And of course, her infamous birthday party she held at a local restaurant where she pushed tables together while everyone else was required to maintain 6 feet of social distancing. I could go on. The asinine, non-scientific Covid rules were insane and sadly have destroyed a generation of young people and rewired the psyche of the American people.
I wonder how many will still support Newsom when he runs for President? Will they remember what he did to them during covid or will they just latch on to his latest BS?
My infamous, childless, boomer lib SIL used that “children are resilient” line on me. We were all scared of nuclear attack as kids! We survived just fine! I pointed out that we all hid under our desks for 5 minutes each month as a “drill”, then we went to play with our friends. But somehow she was trying to make that equivalent to what she enthusiastically forced on kids during COVID. Despicable.
Some children are resilient- but some children committed suicide. They couldn’t deal with the isolation & hopelessness that was so prevalent in many communities. They couldn’t see an end to the madness. Lives were ruined & the bureaucrats didn’t care. They enjoyed their power & didn’t want it to end.
Fucking morons I would suggest! Any wonder why Trump wants to rid us of the Dept Ed? And the likes of Randy Weingarten? Just absolutely miserable with unmeasurable fall-out!
Isn't that the most ridiculous thing you've heard lately? An Ivy League Univ. has to teach high school math to students, who are supposed to be the best and the brightest, to gain admission.
Weingarten won't take responsibility for her part in keeping kids out of school, causing them to miss 2+ years of learning that they will never be able to make up.
Alex will roll his eyes, for me repeating this, but the academic medical centers knew it was a 4th Corona virus that mainly attacks the elderly when virulent. The cares act made them stay silent on school closings and putting sick elderly in nursing homes—-More harm to society than one can measure! Those responsible and liars to the 10th degree cannot be punished enough!
Exactly-anyone who paid attention knew by April that the elderly and those with poor health were the most vulnerable. Everyone else should have gone on with life. The children who didn’t have an opportunity to be homeschooled or attend private school were short changed big time and Randi Weingarten and her minions should be criminally punished. Also, I’ll never get over churches being closed and liquor stores being open! Praying that if/when there is another pandemic, citizens don’t cave to lies.
She makes sure that Union dues go to support Democrats. That's how she avoided criticism during covid. Give Dems money and they'll have your back no matter what. What the heck was she doing in Ukraine?
Dave Z was the only reporter during the lockdowns — at least that I am aware of — who seriously investigated the whole church closure debacle. I wish he would write a book on THAT. I know that a lot of people never returned to church (and a lot of “volunteers” never returned to charity work.
You are correct. Our church has finally seen an increase in the last 18 months, and fortunately the increase are young adults. I would be very interested in reading research on the church closure debacle.
Actually, it was the 5th corona virus. There were already 4 well-known common variants that were always included on respiratory virus panels going back many years. I had that virus panel done for me back in 2017!
Stunning. The hatred of a political rival is so blinding to so many that they are willing to sacrifice the lives of their countrymen to be on the other side of an issue.
But the issue for me is still the media. The fourth branch. Our journalists failed us because they stopped questioning authority and then outright lied to us. Knowingly. By design. Because they chose sides. This is the exact situation in which the fourth branch should have stepped in and spoke truth. They failed in their function in a democracy and there's no going back for them. They lost the trust of Americans, and deservedly so.
That's because the 4th branch was long ago co-opted by the powers that run the other 3 branches. Legacy media exists to broadcast a specific narrative, not challenge it.
That's why CNN and MSNBC ratings are non-existent. Even the big 3 networks lost viewers. No one believes them, well almost no one. I still come across people who think networks report the "news".
one of my favorite moments of the pandemic was when the teachers union told its members to stop posting tropical vacation pictures on facebook because it was undercutting their fake narrative about "safety".
My nephew was in high school at the time. My sister, his mother, was furious at the almost complete lack of attention paid to the students. Nearly every class became self paced, with no Zoom instruction or required attendance or participation. Teachers would post the assignments and grade them. That was it. What a huge grift by these teachers, getting paid for maybe ten minutes a day of work. No salary or benefit reduction though. Horrible.
Zweig is a fool for casting Emily Oster as a hero in this. She's the poster child for the false claim that "we just didn't know" and for the exceedingly absurd request for a "general covid amnesty."
Zweig's claim of naivete in the early days of Covid is also tiresome. Why is it that so many express shock and dismay at extreme leftist actions (in this case the prolonged school closures) only when a bad policy finally affects their personal interests (in this case, Zweig's own children)? His writing-off of the prolonged school closures as the leftists just wanting to "oppose Trump at all costs" is also less than intelligent, as it's a backhanded way of blaming Trump for the prolonged school closures (as if to say it were obvious that the leftists wouldn't have dug in their heels on school closures had some other Republican - or even a Democrat - been President at the time). That's still naive, Mr. Zweig. Just look at how the leftists behaved with respect to members of the military - an issue that didn't arise until after Biden became President. That one cannot be blamed on "otherwise reasonable leftists opposing anything that Trump advocated."
This is why I have no respect for leftist ideology. Even thought Zweig's book is a full on protest against the school closures, he's still willing to sound like an apologist for the extreme leftists whom his book is intended to criticize. They never own up to anything.
100% agree! After a few weeks it was obvious to me that school closures weren’t necessary and only the elderly and immune compromised needed any protection. Florida opened quite fast. There were a few other states that resumed business as usual fairly fast. Those governors had the right idea.
Yes. And, I don't recall Zweig trumpeting Florida's moves at the time, though maybe he did so. Alex didn't wait several years ex post facto to write a book about why delaying school reopenings were a bad idea.
It’s clear that bureaucrats in various institutions ignored evidence in favor of preferred narratives. The question is- why were these the preferred narratives? Is it really just anti-Trump?
The simple answer is almost always money. Grants that could be threatened by going against The Science, Dr Fauci, kept public health officials in line. Few doctors were willing to question what was almost immediately the only acceptable view. Who wants to be labeled a quack?
The teacher unions have been among the biggest donors to politicians for years, almost all to Democrats. No Democrat who wants to win elections will go up against teacher unions. Meanwhile, for many teachers school closures were a dream come true. No more dealing with unruly kids in the classroom on a daily basis. Stay home and get paid, while screaming about safety and promoting themselves as heroes. They refused to reopen schools until they got the huge pot of gold at the end of this rainbow.
The American public had been sold on germophobia for decades. Every soap, household cleaner and even sprays were sold as anti-bacterial. It wasn’t hard to convince them to cower in terror. Never mind that most didn’t understand the difference between a respiratory virus and those bacteria they had been killing with household wipes forever.
Jude, I think anti-Trump just doesn't describe it. Anything Trump is for they are against. It is a reflex they have, involving no thought or analysis. How could one be FOR waste, fraud, abuse? For criminal illegals instead of law abiding citizens?
Thankfully, I don't suffer from either neurosis, "orange man bad" or "MAGA always right". But follow the money is usually the right answer, as you articulate.
I agree, I think there is a lot of reflex reaction among the general population, on both sides. But I do think there’s usually something more among the bureaucrats and what is called “the elites”. In those circles, money is usually the answer to any question of “why?”
In George Orwell’s “1984,” Inner Party member (and interrogator and torturer of Winston Smith) O’Brien declares to Smith: “The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power.”
That is a succinct and accurate description of the current-day Democratic [sic] Party, which views “1984” not as a novel, but as an instruction manual.
That lust for power, and money, was what drove the COVID hysteria; “science” and “medicine” were mere fig leaves to conceal that lust.
The more I learn the more I think it was planned. I think the truth will eventually come out. It’s the next step after the acceptance of the lab leak theory.
Sorry but I disagree. It wasn't planned initially but the powers-that-be grabbed onto it very, very quickly when they realized how a virus could be used to give them immense power. Yeah, I'm a little cynical.
"wasn't planned initially but the powers-that-be grabbed onto it very, very quickly when they realized"
I agree!! But evil people seizing an opportunity to gain more money & power is def not the same as a "planned attack."
For example, teachers' unions were blatant about using it as a bargaining chip. They paid lip service to claiming, 'We want to open - but only when safe!" & then realized they could make more demands.
My son was in first grade. He’s now in sixth. The effects are still being felt. He spends too much time by himself and on phone and videos. He was never like this before electronic learning and being locked up.
Sorry to hear that. It was damaging to many children. My sister, a kindergarten teacher, says that this year and last, she’s having the kids that were toddlers, at home with no attention or supervision during the closure because their parent had to sit with an older sibling or siblings while they were in school. Many are developmentally delayed, in the same way that a neglected child would be. Very sad.
My daughter teaches kindergarten too. Last year was her student teaching year and she taught 3rd grade. Only a couple of the kids were at grade level. Most could barely read. The administration told her to focus ONLY on math and reading. Those kids were in online learning for K and 1st grade. No real social skills, no attention spans. It was like that for most of the schools -- so she ended up applying to Catholic school. Private schools in Arizona opened much faster than public schools.
Yes private schools had it together in CA too and opened a long time before public schools but were still closed way too long in my opinion. Sounds like your daughter is observing what my sister, a veteran teacher of 35+ years has been seeing.
We're originally from outside Sacramento -- I'm glad we left in 2019 before COVID. My two youngest went to high school in AZ, and they were shut down for spring 2020 like everyone else, but opened in August. My daughter (then a junior) did fine academically, but missed Varsity softball season and social things. My son (then a sophomore) didn't do well academically, going from As and Bs to Cs and Ds. He doesn't do well with on-line learning at all.
My daughter's best friend went to a private CA school. They opened, but could only have 50% capacity so had mornings and then CLEANED THE SCHOOL and afternoons. They had to do it because of public health requirements apparently. And everyone had to wear a mask EVEN OUTSIDE. Just ridiculous. When my daughter went to her graduation in 2021, they had it outside on the football field and limited tickets and there were distance rules I believe. At least she got a HS graduation -- so many in CA didn't.
What a story! It definitely was ridiculousness on full display. Unfortunately my daughter graduated from college in 2020 and didn’t have a graduation. I still feel sorry for her. It was especially difficult when her brother graduated from college in June 2024. Glad you got out when you did. Not sure what’s going to happen to CA. We live part time in OK, a move prompted by CA craziness and uncertain future.
I am so sorry for your daughter. I really feel for her and everyone who lost out on a milestone moment.
My son's first year of college was cut short in March (on line, he came home) and then his first semester second year (fall 2020) was all on-line, but he was in an apartment. And he was in Texas!!! Fortunately, no vaccine mandates, no mandatory testing, etc. Just no in person classes. He was a bit depressed.
"An Abundance of Caution"? Wrong title, it should be "An Abundance of Stupidity." The kids probably had greater risk of being run over by a drunk driver on the walk to school than dying from Covid. All along these liars and little Hitlers exaggerated the risks of Covid so they could impose tyrannical lockdowns. My favorite lie was an article in the New York Times arguing that Covid was more dangerous than climbing an 8,000 meter (roughly 26,000 feet) peak. Huh? The death rate on Annapurna is 25 percent. Not even remotely close to the seven tenths of one percent who died from (or perhaps more accurately, with) Covid.
Hey Cuomo instead of being in jail is instead the No 1 runner-up for mayor of NYC. He ORDERED that seniors be sent to COVID infected Nursing homes instead of using the Hospital Ship supplied to him that was empty. He stepped down from office not because his stupidity killed 10s of Thousands but because HE OFFENDED a woman sexually. You can't make this scheiss up.
As a (now) ex-Californian, I remember Gavin Newsom, in one of his rare moments of honesty (or maybe at the time he understood that his Californian progressive base WANTED to freak out about Covid, announcing, on Tuesday March 17 2020, that schools would NOT be reopening after "15 days to slow the spread". As reported at the time:
"In a stunning announcement that revealed disruption from the coronavirus is far from over, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday [3/17/2020] that California schools will remain closed not just until sometime next month, as most announced over the weekend, but probably for the rest of the school year.
“Don’t anticipate schools are going to open up in a week. Please don’t anticipate in a few weeks,” Newsom said. “I would plan and assume that it’s unlikely that many of these schools – few, if any – will open before the summer break.”
The governor dropped the bombshell in the middle of a wide-ranging press conference about the state’s response to the pandemic, in which Newsom also predicted severe restrictions now in place in the San Francisco Bay Area will soon spread to other regions and revealed that he had put the National Guard on alert."
True his word (and his teacher-union overlords), Newsome kept CA schools closed for almost 2 years.
Emily Oster is literally the author of the apologia in the Atlantic in October 2022 which was first to float the trial balloon for a generalized amnesty (read: memory-holing) for those who had consigned seniors in nursing homes to die alone.
Blowback to the Oster article was swift and furious, and perhaps the author of a book chronicling the failures of leadership during the height of the Covid panic ought to remember that she who he would lionize was in fact one of the perpetrators' chief defenders.
My Take from the interview. Tribalism, group think and anti-Trump syndrome blocks common sense and logic. Add liability exposure from anxious lawyers and activist judges and the formula for the Covid disaster is complete. My parents who came out of the Depression disaster prompted by bad Roosevelt policy and the Federal Reserve always told me "use your noggin" and take responsibility.
I fought like a banshee to get my kids’ 7-12 charter reopened in AZ Fall of 2020. Even after reopening with a slew of idiotic state mitigation rules, the English dept teachers refused to come to school and instead were teaching remotely ie recording one lesson and replaying it 7 times while they did god knows what. I marched into the executive directors office and was told there was nothing to be done when they refuse to come in person and I said, Bill, fire them! He looked at me with such surprise like it hadn’t dawned on him. He said, where will I find teachers? I said, hire subs. He said there was a shortage. I left there and got fingerprinted and got my sub cert. Of course, the principal wouldn’t hire me considering how confrontational I had been over it all but I started subbing at another 7-12 to help out. I was there almost every day that year. I could NOT believe how many teachers were taking advantage of 5 day sniffle quarantines. And how many didn’t leave lesson plans (literally all but 1). One day 2 junior high girls approached me in a math class to ask a question and when I smiled ( mask under chin)they backed away suddenly and I had to say “I am not afraid of you, you are not going to kill me” and the looks on their faces would have made you cry. This school allowed kids to be in person or online and one day an online kid said over the computer to me, “Oh good Ms. V, you’re here today. You’re the only person who talks to me all day.” I’m not an emotional person but that got me. Teachers were a huge part of the problem with schools reopening and I don’t think it was only from having to follow health dept advice. Teachers and nurses lost major aura with me from that covid year. Their grandstanding and dramatics can’t be forgiven. To be fair, there were good stories out of schools though like the day a kid came into chemistry without a mask on and when his classmates started giving him a hard time he just said, “I’ve had covid twice. That shit don’t work.” It was good to see some kids using their critical thinking skills. But hey — I was also the mom who paid her kids $20 for each piece of Covid propaganda they could steal out of the school. I framed a 6 foot apart floor sticker one ripped off and hung it in the tv room just to remind them to think for themselves. What a ridiculous thing it all was.
Thank you for this interview, Alex! Besides being informative about what was actually happening on the ground when this "plandemic" originally broke, it was very instructive as to some of the issues you've been struggling with in your reporting. You pointed out that Zweig's perspective sounded like talking points from the Right, and this was clearly concerning to you. His response was extremely illuminating! "That never occurred to me, I was just following the facts!" (paraphrased) You see, Alex, sometimes (often, in fact) the so-called "Right's narrative" is simply a recitation of the facts as they actually exist! And reciting the actual facts of a story does not make you a partisan, even when the actual facts make one side of the political spectrum seem completely right about an issue and the other side completely wrong. Sometimes, that's just reality! For example, when Trump is completely right about an issue and you acknowledge that fact (something I have seen more of recently, in fairness to you), that doesn't make you MAGA, that makes you an honest, credible reporter! Hope to see more and more of that as time goes on! Keep up the great work, Alex!
You misunderstand. The fact is that Zweig is offering a Republican take (which I agree with), he just won't admit it, partly because it's hard for HIM to accept that fact and partly because he knows that doing so will make it harder for him to get publicity.
No Alex, on this one you’re missing the point.
Zweig stated the facts as he found them. You slapped a label on it, because, why? Does it have to fit a category to be judged? Fit into a sound bite? Reduce to a known paradigm prior to investigation?
I’m asking sincerely because IMO that’s a that’s one of the biggest blind spots in journalism in general. Not sure anyone is immune, myself included.
Facts aren't partisan. A take based on the actual facts of what actually happened is not partisan. I was actually a bit surprised to find you trying to spin this as a partisan issue. It's not. The right can be just as stupid as the left; as Zweig pointed out in response to you, it just happened that in this case it was the left:
"I don’t think the right is immune from these same types of risk. It’s just so happened with the pandemic that’s what happened on the left, and it’s particularly important because the left occupies such an influential place in these institutions and our culture…"
There is a point there which is kind of partisan--the last sentence about the left being so influential in our institutions and our culture. But you don't fix that by pushing partisan issues from the right's point of view. You fix that by convincing people that what *should* be driving our policies is facts, not ideologies.
Respectfully, that's your take, not his. He acknowledged that his reporting may LOOK partisan but only because that's where the facts led and he was committed to reporting the truth. But your take is illuminating in that it explains why you are so reluctant to report all the facts of a story when those facts align with the Right's narrative, even if those facts are true. I hope and pray that you will develop the courage to report the truth no matter the fallout. Truth-talkers are in desperately short supply these days but they are needed now more than ever before. I truly admire and appreciate you and your work.
I am hoping against hope that my liberal library will make Mr. Zweig's book available. I have had to purchase or forego reading many so-called right wing books, while all left-wing publications are readily available.
I appreciate your response to Alex's analysis of Mr. Zweig's thought process. This left vs right take has to end. Where the facts lead matters to me, whether the facts align with Repubs or Dems matters none.
He's not offering a "Republican" take. What does that even mean? Republicans were all over the map on this stuff. And "The right says teachers’ unions are mostly to blame"? Who ever said that? Why do you insist on trying to force these narratives where they just don't fit?
Let's just call the school closures for what they are:
EVIL at the lowest depths of hell, so bureaucrats/teachers could cosplay being the saviors of humanity while playing "Naked and Afraid" in their own houses and binging on wine and Netflix.
Disgusting.
Has anyone heard a single teacher apologize for supporting this...or just going along with it?
I love how they all used the same line:
"Children are resilient"
Oh yeah, then what does that say about you as an adult?
And Governor Gavin Newsome and his cronies dining at the fancy, expensive French Laundry restaurant while the rest of California was locked down. What a bunch of scumbags!
And, the illustrious governor moved his family from my neighborhood where schools were closed, to another area where schools were open so his kids could attend school. When he moved in, he threw a huge housewarming party, attended by two of my patients who live in his new neighborhood. Party was well attended by Democrats , lawmakers in our area. This was during lockdown and mandatory masking. You can guess at the status of mask wearing at the party…practically zip, zilch, nada. Rules for thee but not for me…Newsom is the King of that idea. In addition, this party never made the news. I only know about it from my patients.
We had Whitmer! BLM marches were acceptable and attended by her during the mandatory lockdowns while it was illegal to even leave your house except for essentials like groceries or doctor appointments. Locking arms and marching with thousands of people, she claimed the movement was so important that they didn't need to follow the mandatory 6 feet social distancing. Abortion clinics and pot shops were open and "essential," but churches were closed, and you couldn't buy paint or seeds at the Home Depot. Once restaurants were allowed to open, masks were required walking into and out of restaurants, but not at your seat. And of course, her infamous birthday party she held at a local restaurant where she pushed tables together while everyone else was required to maintain 6 feet of social distancing. I could go on. The asinine, non-scientific Covid rules were insane and sadly have destroyed a generation of young people and rewired the psyche of the American people.
Wow- craziness!! Major abuses of power went unchecked and no apologies or admission of being wrong ever.
I loathe Newsom. Slimeball of the first order. And I truly, absolutely despise the Left. Every damn last one of them.
I wonder how many will still support Newsom when he runs for President? Will they remember what he did to them during covid or will they just latch on to his latest BS?
Voters do seem to have memory loss oftentimes. I think many don’t pay attention at all so have no clue.
No doubt. Just flaunting their abject hypocrisy.
And it's as if they're voters didn't care.
My infamous, childless, boomer lib SIL used that “children are resilient” line on me. We were all scared of nuclear attack as kids! We survived just fine! I pointed out that we all hid under our desks for 5 minutes each month as a “drill”, then we went to play with our friends. But somehow she was trying to make that equivalent to what she enthusiastically forced on kids during COVID. Despicable.
My kindergarten teacher sister would disagree with your SIL. Damage like that may never be undone.
Some children are resilient- but some children committed suicide. They couldn’t deal with the isolation & hopelessness that was so prevalent in many communities. They couldn’t see an end to the madness. Lives were ruined & the bureaucrats didn’t care. They enjoyed their power & didn’t want it to end.
Fucking morons I would suggest! Any wonder why Trump wants to rid us of the Dept Ed? And the likes of Randy Weingarten? Just absolutely miserable with unmeasurable fall-out!
1978 - we had an educational system that was the envy of the world - students ranked number one in proficiency in the world.
1979 - Dept. Of Ed formed.
1980 - proficiency immediately declines.
2025 - ranked 36th
Nuff said.
The "esteemed" Harvard U now has a remedial Math class. That says it all!
Isn't that the most ridiculous thing you've heard lately? An Ivy League Univ. has to teach high school math to students, who are supposed to be the best and the brightest, to gain admission.
Weingarten is a greedy, crazy, narcissistic sanctimonious witch who shouldn’t be anywhere near children.
Weingarten won't take responsibility for her part in keeping kids out of school, causing them to miss 2+ years of learning that they will never be able to make up.
And the enormous mental health fallout as well!
Yes!
Not all teachers supported the vaccine or the mandates. My wife certainly didn't. But the teachers' unions, that's a different story.
Alex will roll his eyes, for me repeating this, but the academic medical centers knew it was a 4th Corona virus that mainly attacks the elderly when virulent. The cares act made them stay silent on school closings and putting sick elderly in nursing homes—-More harm to society than one can measure! Those responsible and liars to the 10th degree cannot be punished enough!
Exactly-anyone who paid attention knew by April that the elderly and those with poor health were the most vulnerable. Everyone else should have gone on with life. The children who didn’t have an opportunity to be homeschooled or attend private school were short changed big time and Randi Weingarten and her minions should be criminally punished. Also, I’ll never get over churches being closed and liquor stores being open! Praying that if/when there is another pandemic, citizens don’t cave to lies.
Exactly. Randi Weingarten is a criminal with ties to some shady characters in the US and abroad.
She makes sure that Union dues go to support Democrats. That's how she avoided criticism during covid. Give Dems money and they'll have your back no matter what. What the heck was she doing in Ukraine?
An excellent question…
Dave Z was the only reporter during the lockdowns — at least that I am aware of — who seriously investigated the whole church closure debacle. I wish he would write a book on THAT. I know that a lot of people never returned to church (and a lot of “volunteers” never returned to charity work.
You are correct. Our church has finally seen an increase in the last 18 months, and fortunately the increase are young adults. I would be very interested in reading research on the church closure debacle.
You forgot the biggest benefit was open marijuana stores. Not blaming them, but the liars and bad politicians
Andrew Cuomo is finally being investigated for his part in killing people in nursing homes.
Yet this slime aspires to be governor again, and sadly, there are many idiots with nano-memories who would vote for him.
Actually, it was the 5th corona virus. There were already 4 well-known common variants that were always included on respiratory virus panels going back many years. I had that virus panel done for me back in 2017!
True….after 10 years of post grad I still can’t count!
But never will be.
Stunning. The hatred of a political rival is so blinding to so many that they are willing to sacrifice the lives of their countrymen to be on the other side of an issue.
But the issue for me is still the media. The fourth branch. Our journalists failed us because they stopped questioning authority and then outright lied to us. Knowingly. By design. Because they chose sides. This is the exact situation in which the fourth branch should have stepped in and spoke truth. They failed in their function in a democracy and there's no going back for them. They lost the trust of Americans, and deservedly so.
That's because the 4th branch was long ago co-opted by the powers that run the other 3 branches. Legacy media exists to broadcast a specific narrative, not challenge it.
Your last sentence sums it up nicely.
That's why CNN and MSNBC ratings are non-existent. Even the big 3 networks lost viewers. No one believes them, well almost no one. I still come across people who think networks report the "news".
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
one of my favorite moments of the pandemic was when the teachers union told its members to stop posting tropical vacation pictures on facebook because it was undercutting their fake narrative about "safety".
My nephew was in high school at the time. My sister, his mother, was furious at the almost complete lack of attention paid to the students. Nearly every class became self paced, with no Zoom instruction or required attendance or participation. Teachers would post the assignments and grade them. That was it. What a huge grift by these teachers, getting paid for maybe ten minutes a day of work. No salary or benefit reduction though. Horrible.
😆 love that
I remember that. There was also a teacher caught on Zoom "teaching" her classes from her car while in traffic.
Zweig is a fool for casting Emily Oster as a hero in this. She's the poster child for the false claim that "we just didn't know" and for the exceedingly absurd request for a "general covid amnesty."
Completely agree. Don’t give her any credit. She was part of the problem.
Zweig's claim of naivete in the early days of Covid is also tiresome. Why is it that so many express shock and dismay at extreme leftist actions (in this case the prolonged school closures) only when a bad policy finally affects their personal interests (in this case, Zweig's own children)? His writing-off of the prolonged school closures as the leftists just wanting to "oppose Trump at all costs" is also less than intelligent, as it's a backhanded way of blaming Trump for the prolonged school closures (as if to say it were obvious that the leftists wouldn't have dug in their heels on school closures had some other Republican - or even a Democrat - been President at the time). That's still naive, Mr. Zweig. Just look at how the leftists behaved with respect to members of the military - an issue that didn't arise until after Biden became President. That one cannot be blamed on "otherwise reasonable leftists opposing anything that Trump advocated."
This is why I have no respect for leftist ideology. Even thought Zweig's book is a full on protest against the school closures, he's still willing to sound like an apologist for the extreme leftists whom his book is intended to criticize. They never own up to anything.
100% agree! After a few weeks it was obvious to me that school closures weren’t necessary and only the elderly and immune compromised needed any protection. Florida opened quite fast. There were a few other states that resumed business as usual fairly fast. Those governors had the right idea.
Yes. And, I don't recall Zweig trumpeting Florida's moves at the time, though maybe he did so. Alex didn't wait several years ex post facto to write a book about why delaying school reopenings were a bad idea.
It’s clear that bureaucrats in various institutions ignored evidence in favor of preferred narratives. The question is- why were these the preferred narratives? Is it really just anti-Trump?
The simple answer is almost always money. Grants that could be threatened by going against The Science, Dr Fauci, kept public health officials in line. Few doctors were willing to question what was almost immediately the only acceptable view. Who wants to be labeled a quack?
The teacher unions have been among the biggest donors to politicians for years, almost all to Democrats. No Democrat who wants to win elections will go up against teacher unions. Meanwhile, for many teachers school closures were a dream come true. No more dealing with unruly kids in the classroom on a daily basis. Stay home and get paid, while screaming about safety and promoting themselves as heroes. They refused to reopen schools until they got the huge pot of gold at the end of this rainbow.
The American public had been sold on germophobia for decades. Every soap, household cleaner and even sprays were sold as anti-bacterial. It wasn’t hard to convince them to cower in terror. Never mind that most didn’t understand the difference between a respiratory virus and those bacteria they had been killing with household wipes forever.
Jude, I think anti-Trump just doesn't describe it. Anything Trump is for they are against. It is a reflex they have, involving no thought or analysis. How could one be FOR waste, fraud, abuse? For criminal illegals instead of law abiding citizens?
Thankfully, I don't suffer from either neurosis, "orange man bad" or "MAGA always right". But follow the money is usually the right answer, as you articulate.
I agree, I think there is a lot of reflex reaction among the general population, on both sides. But I do think there’s usually something more among the bureaucrats and what is called “the elites”. In those circles, money is usually the answer to any question of “why?”
Money, for sure, but also power.
In George Orwell’s “1984,” Inner Party member (and interrogator and torturer of Winston Smith) O’Brien declares to Smith: “The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power.”
That is a succinct and accurate description of the current-day Democratic [sic] Party, which views “1984” not as a novel, but as an instruction manual.
That lust for power, and money, was what drove the COVID hysteria; “science” and “medicine” were mere fig leaves to conceal that lust.
Alex you and Dave are still in denial that this was a planned attack and not just a bunch of idiots making stupid decisions.
The more I learn the more I think it was planned. I think the truth will eventually come out. It’s the next step after the acceptance of the lab leak theory.
I agree. Something nefarious behind all this.
That's why it's called the Plandemic. Plandemic, Plandemic, Plandemic. I'm writing all this so Google doesn't change it back to Pandemic.
If it was a "planned attack" coordinated internationally, we would see evidence by now & we don't.
There were so many blatent lies, like "It originated zoonotically, not from a lab!" "Vaxxes & masks top transmission!" Those lies have been revealed.
How about the UNC Chapel Hill’s role in sending the sequence for the virus to WIV?
Sorry but I disagree. It wasn't planned initially but the powers-that-be grabbed onto it very, very quickly when they realized how a virus could be used to give them immense power. Yeah, I'm a little cynical.
"wasn't planned initially but the powers-that-be grabbed onto it very, very quickly when they realized"
I agree!! But evil people seizing an opportunity to gain more money & power is def not the same as a "planned attack."
For example, teachers' unions were blatant about using it as a bargaining chip. They paid lip service to claiming, 'We want to open - but only when safe!" & then realized they could make more demands.
Yes I agree with you.
They were trying to get another plandemic going with Bird Flu but they couldn't get that one to fly...pun intended.
My son was in first grade. He’s now in sixth. The effects are still being felt. He spends too much time by himself and on phone and videos. He was never like this before electronic learning and being locked up.
Sorry to hear that. It was damaging to many children. My sister, a kindergarten teacher, says that this year and last, she’s having the kids that were toddlers, at home with no attention or supervision during the closure because their parent had to sit with an older sibling or siblings while they were in school. Many are developmentally delayed, in the same way that a neglected child would be. Very sad.
My daughter teaches kindergarten too. Last year was her student teaching year and she taught 3rd grade. Only a couple of the kids were at grade level. Most could barely read. The administration told her to focus ONLY on math and reading. Those kids were in online learning for K and 1st grade. No real social skills, no attention spans. It was like that for most of the schools -- so she ended up applying to Catholic school. Private schools in Arizona opened much faster than public schools.
Yes private schools had it together in CA too and opened a long time before public schools but were still closed way too long in my opinion. Sounds like your daughter is observing what my sister, a veteran teacher of 35+ years has been seeing.
We're originally from outside Sacramento -- I'm glad we left in 2019 before COVID. My two youngest went to high school in AZ, and they were shut down for spring 2020 like everyone else, but opened in August. My daughter (then a junior) did fine academically, but missed Varsity softball season and social things. My son (then a sophomore) didn't do well academically, going from As and Bs to Cs and Ds. He doesn't do well with on-line learning at all.
My daughter's best friend went to a private CA school. They opened, but could only have 50% capacity so had mornings and then CLEANED THE SCHOOL and afternoons. They had to do it because of public health requirements apparently. And everyone had to wear a mask EVEN OUTSIDE. Just ridiculous. When my daughter went to her graduation in 2021, they had it outside on the football field and limited tickets and there were distance rules I believe. At least she got a HS graduation -- so many in CA didn't.
What a story! It definitely was ridiculousness on full display. Unfortunately my daughter graduated from college in 2020 and didn’t have a graduation. I still feel sorry for her. It was especially difficult when her brother graduated from college in June 2024. Glad you got out when you did. Not sure what’s going to happen to CA. We live part time in OK, a move prompted by CA craziness and uncertain future.
I am so sorry for your daughter. I really feel for her and everyone who lost out on a milestone moment.
My son's first year of college was cut short in March (on line, he came home) and then his first semester second year (fall 2020) was all on-line, but he was in an apartment. And he was in Texas!!! Fortunately, no vaccine mandates, no mandatory testing, etc. Just no in person classes. He was a bit depressed.
"An Abundance of Caution"? Wrong title, it should be "An Abundance of Stupidity." The kids probably had greater risk of being run over by a drunk driver on the walk to school than dying from Covid. All along these liars and little Hitlers exaggerated the risks of Covid so they could impose tyrannical lockdowns. My favorite lie was an article in the New York Times arguing that Covid was more dangerous than climbing an 8,000 meter (roughly 26,000 feet) peak. Huh? The death rate on Annapurna is 25 percent. Not even remotely close to the seven tenths of one percent who died from (or perhaps more accurately, with) Covid.
Hey Cuomo instead of being in jail is instead the No 1 runner-up for mayor of NYC. He ORDERED that seniors be sent to COVID infected Nursing homes instead of using the Hospital Ship supplied to him that was empty. He stepped down from office not because his stupidity killed 10s of Thousands but because HE OFFENDED a woman sexually. You can't make this scheiss up.
He and Anthony Fauci can share a cell.
Fauci pardoned, Cuomo (the murderer) not. Justice unlikely.
Pretty amazing that Cuomo wasn't run out of town with pitchforks when he said he wanted to run for governor again!
This may curtail Cuomo’s political ambitions: https://nypost.com/2025/04/21/us-news/house-republicans-ask-doj-to-charge-andrew-cuomo-for-lying-about-calculated-cover-up-of-ny-nursing-home-deaths/
Q: " Could this happen again?"
A: " No, but something equally stupid could."
Count on it !!
As a (now) ex-Californian, I remember Gavin Newsom, in one of his rare moments of honesty (or maybe at the time he understood that his Californian progressive base WANTED to freak out about Covid, announcing, on Tuesday March 17 2020, that schools would NOT be reopening after "15 days to slow the spread". As reported at the time:
"In a stunning announcement that revealed disruption from the coronavirus is far from over, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday [3/17/2020] that California schools will remain closed not just until sometime next month, as most announced over the weekend, but probably for the rest of the school year.
“Don’t anticipate schools are going to open up in a week. Please don’t anticipate in a few weeks,” Newsom said. “I would plan and assume that it’s unlikely that many of these schools – few, if any – will open before the summer break.”
The governor dropped the bombshell in the middle of a wide-ranging press conference about the state’s response to the pandemic, in which Newsom also predicted severe restrictions now in place in the San Francisco Bay Area will soon spread to other regions and revealed that he had put the National Guard on alert."
True his word (and his teacher-union overlords), Newsome kept CA schools closed for almost 2 years.
Emily Oster is literally the author of the apologia in the Atlantic in October 2022 which was first to float the trial balloon for a generalized amnesty (read: memory-holing) for those who had consigned seniors in nursing homes to die alone.
Blowback to the Oster article was swift and furious, and perhaps the author of a book chronicling the failures of leadership during the height of the Covid panic ought to remember that she who he would lionize was in fact one of the perpetrators' chief defenders.
My Take from the interview. Tribalism, group think and anti-Trump syndrome blocks common sense and logic. Add liability exposure from anxious lawyers and activist judges and the formula for the Covid disaster is complete. My parents who came out of the Depression disaster prompted by bad Roosevelt policy and the Federal Reserve always told me "use your noggin" and take responsibility.
I fought like a banshee to get my kids’ 7-12 charter reopened in AZ Fall of 2020. Even after reopening with a slew of idiotic state mitigation rules, the English dept teachers refused to come to school and instead were teaching remotely ie recording one lesson and replaying it 7 times while they did god knows what. I marched into the executive directors office and was told there was nothing to be done when they refuse to come in person and I said, Bill, fire them! He looked at me with such surprise like it hadn’t dawned on him. He said, where will I find teachers? I said, hire subs. He said there was a shortage. I left there and got fingerprinted and got my sub cert. Of course, the principal wouldn’t hire me considering how confrontational I had been over it all but I started subbing at another 7-12 to help out. I was there almost every day that year. I could NOT believe how many teachers were taking advantage of 5 day sniffle quarantines. And how many didn’t leave lesson plans (literally all but 1). One day 2 junior high girls approached me in a math class to ask a question and when I smiled ( mask under chin)they backed away suddenly and I had to say “I am not afraid of you, you are not going to kill me” and the looks on their faces would have made you cry. This school allowed kids to be in person or online and one day an online kid said over the computer to me, “Oh good Ms. V, you’re here today. You’re the only person who talks to me all day.” I’m not an emotional person but that got me. Teachers were a huge part of the problem with schools reopening and I don’t think it was only from having to follow health dept advice. Teachers and nurses lost major aura with me from that covid year. Their grandstanding and dramatics can’t be forgiven. To be fair, there were good stories out of schools though like the day a kid came into chemistry without a mask on and when his classmates started giving him a hard time he just said, “I’ve had covid twice. That shit don’t work.” It was good to see some kids using their critical thinking skills. But hey — I was also the mom who paid her kids $20 for each piece of Covid propaganda they could steal out of the school. I framed a 6 foot apart floor sticker one ripped off and hung it in the tv room just to remind them to think for themselves. What a ridiculous thing it all was.
Amen - from a fellow banshee.