Director of FreedomWorks’ Center for Economic Freedom, editor of RealClearMarket, and economic author John Tamny says that the latest COVID-19 requirements in cities like Boston, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C., are evidence that elected leaders are panicking — not just because of a virus that they still don’t understand, but also because they realize they may soon be losing their grip on controlling the population in the name of public safety.
Democratic politicians are hustling around the country to enact whatever vaccine mandate they can in the face of the Omicron variant, it does not appear that actual deaths are increasing due to the coronavirus — despite the higher transmissibility rates of the latest variant. For example, a recent study revealed that Omicron has an approximately 80% lower risk for hospitalization. To that extent, The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro blithely tweeted, “Stop you’re interrupting the panic.”
STOP YOU’RE INTERRUPTING THE PANIC https://t.co/u544lwbtk9
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) December 22, 2021
Tamny affirmed to The Daily Wire that politicians are indeed worried about their political future if the Omicron variant really is nothing to be feared.
“This is surely evidence of politicians panicking, both about a virus that thinks so little of all that they do to mitigate its spread, but also panic that if and when the virus becomes endemic, politicians will suddenly lack a podium from which to grandstand,” Tamny told The Daily Wire.
“If war is the health of the State, then ‘crises’ are the State’s oxygen,” he continued. “The political classes need what they’ve manufactured to lack an endpoint.”
“Except that the joke’s on them,” Tamny surmised. “If the virus is really so threatening as to require responses as dramatic as ‘papers’ and child mandates, then that’s the surest sign that political force is wholly superfluous.”
“Really, who needs to be forced to engage in behavior that might save them from sickness or death, and who most of all needs to be forced to protect the health of their children?” he pondered. “These questions answer themselves.”
But mayors like Chicago’s Lori Lightfoot seems to believe that citizens must be told how to protect their children and ordered to do so with punitive measures added. On Monday, the Democratic mayor announced that people in Chicago ages 5 and up would have to show proof of vaccination to enter a variety of shops and venues.
“So, beginning on Jan. 3, you must show proof that you are fully vaccinated to enter bars, restaurants, fitness centers and entertainment and recreational venues where food and drink are served,” Lightfoot said.
“Despite our diligent and equitable vaccine distribution efforts throughout this year, unfortunately, our city continues to see a surge of COVID-19 Delta and now Omicron cases,” Lightfoot added. “New steps must be taken to protect the health and wellbeing of our residents. This public health order requiring proof of vaccination to visit certain indoor public places is a necessary measure to ensure we can continue to enjoy our city’s many amenities as we enter the new year.”
Last March, Tamny released the book “When Politicians Panicked: The New Coronavirus, Expert Opinion, and a Tragic Lapse of Reason.” In it, Tamny argued that politicians abandoned common sense which ultimately slowed any economic recovery from the virus and in many ways harmed society more than the virus ever could have done.