Unmasked Substack

Six and a half years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and years after most of the media and the political class pretended it never happened, our maniacal response to the spread of the coronavirus is back in the news. All thanks to the not-so-fearless leader of our pandemic policy making, the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases head, Mr. Science himself, Anthony Fauci.

When a massive treasure trove of Anthony Fauci’s diary entries and emails were released recently, thanks to Sen. Rand Paul, it caused a tremendous amount of embarrassment for the 85-year-old former public health official. Fauci came across as a remarkable narcissist, someone obsessed with his own instant and surprising fame. He chronicled each and every media appearance, celebrating each instance a legacy outlet published yet another glowing, reverential profile.

Recently Sen. Rand Paul dropped a massive bombshell regarding the former head of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci. Paul released a treasure trove of private diary entries and emails from Fauci to celebrity pals, friends, allied media figures, or his peers in epidemiology.

Sometimes you learn that people are exactly who you think they are. And that may never apply more accurately and comprehensively than it does with Anthony Fauci. Fauci was portrayed, starting in early 2020, as an objective, brilliant, virtually infallible God-like figure.

There were and continue to be enormous rewards for researchers and scientists looking to promote consensus COVID policies and mandates. Giving politicians and their media partners license to continue mandates was its own separate economy, both in terms of influence and stature within educational institutions. So it should come as no surprise that there was, and still is, an enormous body of work published by academics designed to promote and uphold the organized push for masking.

The resulting side effects of our response to the COVID-19 pandemic have been so large, prolific, and destructive that we have yet to fully comprehend or understand them. Learning loss among school children was so catastrophic that an entire generation has been set back in educational attainment and growth.

One of the lasting side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and our catastrophically incompetent response to it is the decrease in trust in public health experts and their advice. The media has repeatedly warned about the dangers of “doing your own research,” or not blindly following whatever those experts claimed.

There’s no doubt that the media played an inordinate role in reporting - and supporting - the unconstitutional COVID-19 mandates and restrictions to not only begin, but to expand, and subsequently continue well beyond any reasonable justification. Whatever their motivation, be it ideological, personal panic, or a desire to capitalize on widespread fear, you will recall that the major media outlets almost immediately abandoned any pretense of journalism.

There are few things in this world more sanctimonious and hypocritical than left-wing sportswriters getting on their faux moral high horse. College professors spend less time lecturing than a typical sportswriter creating fake controversies to criticize. Fake controversies that always tilt against one specific viewpoint and ideology that they are too blinded to understand.

The primary election for Los Angeles mayor is currently underway, with weeks remaining to see the race certified. It’s been a high profile race, thanks in large part to the entry of former reality television star Spencer Pratt. Pratt, whose home burned down in the Palisades Fire, has spent his campaign demonstrating the failures of current city leadership, including incumbent Mayor Karen Bass.