{"id":1449554,"date":"2022-04-22T07:16:47","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T11:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1449554"},"modified":"2022-04-22T07:17:53","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T11:17:53","slug":"how-the-white-houses-mask-play-finally-exposed-covids-true-culprits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-the-white-houses-mask-play-finally-exposed-covids-true-culprits\/","title":{"rendered":"How The White House\u2019s Mask Play Finally Exposed COVID\u2019s True Culprits"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhow-the-white-houses-mask-play-finally-exposed-covids-true-culprits%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1449554&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>On a gray afternoon in May 2020, Santa Cruz, California was closed.<\/p>\n<p>Its famous Boardwalk stood silent and still. Shops and restaurants <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/06\/09\/a-journey-across-america-in-pictures\/\">were shut down<\/a>; boarded up. Breweries lay dormant; church doors, closed. <\/p>\n<p>Downtown, yellow police tape blocked off the public beach, while officers stood guard against trespassers. Teenagers trying to surf were forced to sneak 14 miles across the bay, where a 26-year-old man had been killed by a Great White Shark just days before.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\">\n<p><figcaption class=\"col-12 col-md-6 body-xs px-15 pe-md-0 ps-md-30 py-15 m-0 text-center\">Zelda\u2019s, in Santa Cruz, Calif. Martin Avila.<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Reno, Nevada told a different story. Just a four-and-a-half-hour drive into the Sierra Nevadas, through Donner Pass, its bars remained closed, but its restaurants limped along with indoor service and spaced-out tables. Electronic signs outside darkened casinos <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/06\/09\/a-journey-across-america-in-pictures\/\">flashed advertisements for loans<\/a> to empty streets.<\/p>\n<p>Eight hours east, past gold mines and through dust storms, young people drank beers in the courtyard of a Salt Lake City bar, while nearby, <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/05\/21\/we-had-to-lay-off-our-son-american-businesses-are-doing-everything-it-takes-to-survive\/\">restaurant wholesalers struggled<\/a> to make ends meet.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/05\/27\/covid-rolls-downhill-in-wyoming-the-american-people-are-making-the-hard-calls-when-our-leaders-wont\/\">The bars had just reopened<\/a> up north, too, in Jackson, Wyoming. To the east, in Pierre, South Dakota, they\u2019d been open more than a month.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/f9d2a4c5-8611-42f2-9fce-4d2838ee6e7a-1024x683-1.jpg\" alt=\"A shutdown Reno, Nevada casino offering loans in place of games. Martin Avila.\" class=\"wp-image-217854\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/f9d2a4c5-8611-42f2-9fce-4d2838ee6e7a.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/f9d2a4c5-8611-42f2-9fce-4d2838ee6e7a-300x200-1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/f9d2a4c5-8611-42f2-9fce-4d2838ee6e7a-768x512-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/f9d2a4c5-8611-42f2-9fce-4d2838ee6e7a-405x270-1.jpg 405w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/f9d2a4c5-8611-42f2-9fce-4d2838ee6e7a-998x666-1.jpg 998w, https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/f9d2a4c5-8611-42f2-9fce-4d2838ee6e7a-200x133.jpg 200w\" \/><\/p>\n<p><figcaption class=\"col-12 col-md-6 body-xs px-15 pe-md-0 ps-md-30 py-15 m-0 text-center\">A shutdown Reno, Nevada casino offering loans in place of games. Martin Avila.<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Across the nation, a mismashed patchwork of regulations decided who could open and who must close; who could worship, and who could travel. People and businesses alike lived and died depending not on the disease, but on which part of the patchwork they lived under.<\/p>\n<p>Lives were spared, and lives were ruined, all based on the whims of state and local leaders, yet somehow, they weren\u2019t held accountable. As if under some deep spell, we went about our days, blaming an invisible disease for the ills our ruling class brought down on us. No one was traveling; corporate advertising repeated the refrain: \u201cwe\u2019re all in this together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As the months wore on, word started to spread. Florida was open! We were told by our leaders that everyone living there would surely die, as the pundits predicted, and deserve it too.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/The-neighborhood-bar.-Martin-Avila.-1024x683-1.jpg\" alt=\"The early evening crowd at the neighborhood bar. Martin Avila.\" class=\"wp-image-219086\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/The-neighborhood-bar.-Martin-Avila..jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/The-neighborhood-bar.-Martin-Avila.-300x200-1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/The-neighborhood-bar.-Martin-Avila.-768x512-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/The-neighborhood-bar.-Martin-Avila.-405x270-1.jpg 405w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/The-neighborhood-bar.-Martin-Avila.-998x666-1.jpg 998w, https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/The-neighborhood-bar.-Martin-Avila.-200x133.jpg 200w\" \/><\/p>\n<p><figcaption class=\"col-12 col-md-6 body-xs px-15 pe-md-0 ps-md-30 py-15 m-0 text-center\">The early evening crowd at the neighborhood bar. Martin Avila.<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>They didn\u2019t, of course, and in December 2020, the children lucky enough to visit Florida were <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/12\/16\/florida-is-open-new-york-is-closed-and-the-latter-has-more-covid-deaths\/\">able to sit on Santa\u2019s lap<\/a>. It would be five long months before the since-disgraced governor of New York would announce moves to reopen the state\u2019s bars and restaurants.<\/p>\n<p>Over 2020, I was able to travel to 23 different American states, taking in Covid reactions ranging from crowded dance halls to boarded-up town centers. What shocked me most was the lack of anger from the people living under even the most draconian parts of the patchwork.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, frustration was evident from the beginning. <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/06\/10\/the-story-of-the-ranchers-businesses-and-people-in-the-only-state-to-not-shut-down\/\">The tattooed San Franciscan bartender<\/a> pouring me a cold beer in her new home, Pierre, South Dakota, for one. But by and large, the frustration was broad; the anger undirected.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Fenway-Park.-Photo-by-Frank-Kavanagh.-1024x745-1.jpg\" alt=\"Fenway Park. Photo by Frank Kavanagh.\" class=\"wp-image-215889\" width=\"845\" height=\"615\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Fenway-Park.-Photo-by-Frank-Kavanagh.-1024x745-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Fenway-Park.-Photo-by-Frank-Kavanagh.-300x218-1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Fenway-Park.-Photo-by-Frank-Kavanagh.-768x559-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Fenway-Park.-Photo-by-Frank-Kavanagh.-371x270-1.jpg 371w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Fenway-Park.-Photo-by-Frank-Kavanagh.-998x726-1.jpg 998w, https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Fenway-Park.-Photo-by-Frank-Kavanagh.-200x145.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Fenway-Park.-Photo-by-Frank-Kavanagh.-294x214-1.jpg 294w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Fenway-Park.-Photo-by-Frank-Kavanagh..jpg 1650w\" \/><\/p>\n<p><figcaption class=\"col-12 col-md-6 body-xs px-15 pe-md-0 ps-md-30 py-15 m-0 text-center\">John Hall poses for a photograph in an empty Boston. Photo by Frank Kavanagh.<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The enemy was Covid, people reasoned. With few exceptions often focused on isolated instances of hypocrisy, the bureaucrats and politicians escaped the kind of rage due an official who ruins his citizens\u2019 lives and livelihoods, masks their children, keeps them from their dying family, and criminalizes their gatherings. It was a disconnect, an obfuscation \u2014 but their culpability was real.<\/p>\n<p>That disconnect, however, might finally \u2014 mercifully \u2014 be coming to an end.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Liberal Connection<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>While Americans and airline workers of all stripes across the whole country cheered the end of arbitrary mask mandates, the White House was dour.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow can we undo this?\u201d they asked. On Wednesday night, the Biden Department of Justice <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/04\/20\/us\/politics\/cdc-transportation-mask-mandate.html\">launched an appeal<\/a>. The order to wear masks on planes and public transportation, the Centers for Disease Control claimed, \u201cremains necessary for the public health.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Except, how could it? Even in Covid-caution bastions like Boston and New York, mask rules are long over. More than 112 million people watched the crowds at the Super Bowl in Los Angeles. Bars, restaurants, and even most concert venues across the country have long forgone the mask, and those that pay it lip service rarely do more than that.<\/p>\n<p>How can we go about nearly every aspect of our daily lives safely, with our faces uncovered, but masks remain \u201cnecessary for public health\u201d on public transit? There, virtually alone? <\/p>\n<p>But when earlier this week Fox News\u2019s Peter Doocy asked the White House press secretary to explain why reporters were sitting in a crowded room sans mask-mandate while American flyers still suffered under one, her reply <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?app=desktop&#038;v=DqQ8SzJnGPI\">dripped with derision<\/a>w.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, Peter,\u201d she said, \u201cI\u2019m not a doctor; you\u2019re not a doctor that I\u2019m aware of. If you\u2019re a doctor, I wasn\u2019t aware of that today, until today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOK,\u201d she continued. \u201cNot a doctor. Just making sure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s her problem: The American public doesn\u2019t need a doctor to know when contradictory guidance doesn\u2019t make sense. The cult of experts we\u2019ve lived under for over two years has become a theater of the absurd, and if a medical degree can explain the theatrics we\u2019re seeing, then it\u2019s not a degree worth trusting. Ordinary people are beginning to see that.<\/p>\n<p>When this all began, many of us put our faith in those experts and their prognostications. They knew best, we reasoned. A lot of us didn\u2019t notice the stark differences in policies from state to state, and when we did, as with Florida, a lot of folks believed the predictions of deserved death for those who dared to stray from the expert consensus. <\/p>\n<p>None of it happened.<\/p>\n<p>Most of us are now maskless, and if the spontaneous cheers and celebrations on airlines all across the country are any indication at all, a whole lot of us are deeply happy about this.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, there will be resistance from the most fervent control acolytes. Obama family confidant Valerie Jarrett, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ValerieJarrett\/status\/1516451750852575243\">for example<\/a>, took a picture of herself in an expensive silk scarf, being driven by a professional driver, with the caption, \u201cWearing my mask no matter what non-scientists tell me I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><\/figure>\n<p>But the working-class guy cheering from the middle seat near the back of a commercial airplane might not be so impressed with her courage \u2014 or interested in her opinion. <\/p>\n<p>The architects of <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/03\/15\/two-years-after-lockdowns-the-wests-troubles-arent-ending-theyre-just-beginning\/\">America\u2019s disastrous Covid policy<\/a> \u2014 the experts, the elites, the left-wing political class \u2014 have long had the luxury to demand an orthodox adherence to their ever-shifting safety regime. They\u2019ve borne neither the brunt of their policies nor the blame for them. Until now: The folly of the airplane debacle has finally and completely exposed the little men and women behind the curtain. <\/p>\n<p>Even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/mask-mandate-exposes-divide-between-vulnerable-democrats-and-biden\">while vulnerable Democrats break<\/a> from the White House\u2019s mask line ahead of the November midterms, the heads of the Democratic Party are championing nonsensical Covid restrictions \u2014 and finally beginning to earn the blame they\u2019ve deserved for years now. The spell is, perhaps at long last, broken.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo you presume to criticize the great Oz, you ungrateful creatures?\u201d the famous movie wizard once <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-RQxD4Ff7dY\">bellowed at Dorothy<\/a> and her friends. \u201cThink yourselves lucky that I am giving you [what you ask for] tomorrow instead of 20 years from now!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAn order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for public health.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe great Oz has spoken.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re not a doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPay no attention to the man behind the curtain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo matter what non-scientists tell me what do to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am the great and powerful\u2026 Wizard\u2026 of Oz.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHumbug.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Christopher Bedford is a senior editor at The Federalist, a founding partner of RightForge, vice chairman of Young Americans for Freedom, a board member at The Daily Caller News Foundation and National Journalism Center, and the author of &#8220;The Art of the Donald.&#8221; His work has been featured in The American Mind, National Review, the New York Post and the Daily Caller, where he led the Daily Caller News Foundation and spent eight years. A frequent guest on Fox News and Fox Business, he was raised in Massachusetts and lives across the river from D.C. Follow him on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CBedfordDC\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On a gray afternoon in May 2020, Santa Cruz, California was closed. Its famous Boardwalk stood silent and still. Shops and restaurants were shut down; boarded up. Breweries lay dormant;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1449554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1449554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1449554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1449554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1449554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1449554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1449554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}