The Big Government COVID-19 Lie

On Oct. 30, 2020, just days before the presidential election, Joe Biden tweeted, “I’m not going to shut down the country. I am not going to close down the economy. I’m going to shut down the virus.”

They were lying.

This was an untrue because The virus can’t be stopped by anyone.

The government cannot end all diseases as a whole. No government has the power to eradicate a dangerously transmissible virus called coronavirus. Even the sainted Dr. Anthony Fauci has admitted as much: “we’re never going to eradicate this … elimination may be too aspirational.”

This means the government does not have to aim at elimination, but it should aim for control. However, this control needs to be balanced by countervailing concerns. These could include economic freedom suppression or the consequences of social isolation. Incentivizing and disseminating vaccines, which is a Trump service, was the lowest-cost intervention. Overbroad and coercive controls that don’t achieve their goals would be the most harmful form of control.

Yet, it’s precisely these forms of control that Democratic governors and mayors are seeking. This is because Democrats have been pursuing these restrictions in spite of a transmissible variant, which is 70% more transmissible that delta. It has lower death rates than the previous variants.

This includes vaccination mandates, vaccination passports, mass testing and mandates for vaccination. Because the vaccines are effective at spreading COVID-19, vaccination passports won’t stop the spread of the disease. No mask mandates can stop the spread of Omicron. Nothing short of N95 Masks, theoretically speaking, would slow its spread. As evidenced by the New York City omicron spikes, mask mandates do not have the desired effect in practice. Because asymptomatic individuals will not be tested, mass testing won’t stop the spread of the omicron. If we quarantine millions of mildly and severely symptomatic individuals, it will also shut down our economy. And mandatory vaccinations are likely to cause supply shortages within the healthcare system as well as social problems.

So why not pursue counterproductive, but useless COVID-19 limitations?

We must not let the lies of the government get away with us. This is an article that requires faith. The faith of God requires that we sacrifice nothing. To pursue rational policy would evidence no fealty to the notion of government-as-protective-god. This is what it means to be faithful. If you’re not faithful you will be a heretic.

So regulatory genuflection is a measure of virtue. The ability to enforce strict regulations is an indicator of moral strength and belief in the catholicon myth. It is heresy to resist these regulations.

On Oct. 22, 2020, in a debate with President Donald Trump, Biden said that “anyone who is responsible for not taking control … anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America.” This was incorrect. It is true that any person who claimed that they were responsible for that many deaths was wrong. CouldThey should not be allowed to control a virus.

This will happen only if Americans stop worshipping government as a cult and get back to the real world. Biden and Democrats are ready to take on such blasphemy using every weapon they have at their disposal.

Ben Shapiro, 37, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and editor-in-chief of DailyWire.com. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers “How To Destroy America In Three Easy Steps,” “The Right Side Of History,” and “Bullies.”