#Dr. Fauci’s intolerable obfuscation and other commentary

Iconoclast: ‘No’ to the ‘New Normal’

Globalist elites insist that “the way we live and work in the post-COVID world will be very different to how we lived and worked in the pre-COVID world,” notes Frank Furedi at Spiked Online — to which our answer should be: Hell no. What exactly they mean by the “New Normal” varies by elite camps: Some emphasize “decarbonization” of the economy, others want permanent online schooling, and still others demand even more technocratic — and thus less democratic — rule. The philosophical assumption behind all is equally impoverished: “A virus is effectively dictating our ­futures for us. Public life has been reduced to little more than an exercise in public health. The overarching objective of New Normal life amounts to little more than avoiding risk.” Its “dominant themes” are “human passivity and powerlessness” — a “dangerous backwards step for humanity.”

Culture critic: Animals Trump Unborn Babies

Britain’s House of Lords is debating an animal-cruelty bill that would “formally recognize animals as sentient beings,” scoffs Lord David Alton at First Things. “If only all humans enjoyed similar defenses in English law. Alas, unborn children in the UK are left without such protections. When I inquired whether some of the bill’s safeguards might be extended to unborn Homo sapiens, I was told that the bill had been cast in such a way as to prevent this.” Likewise, “the recent Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act stipulates that animal fetuses must be killed in ‘humane’ ways, but no parallel legal provision exists for human fetuses . . . We have come perilously close to self-hatred — hatred of our own species.”

Education beat: Stop Oppressing Kids

At Spectator World, Diederik van Hoogstraten wonders when “the random, ever-changing rules about masking and social distancing, locking down and staying home” will end for America’s schoolchildren. Studies long ago showed that kids are at negligible risk from the virus and transmit it at a lower rate than do adults, yet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to insist on masking children and “disrupting schools for a risk lower than the chance of being hit by lightning.” The world “has completely changed” since these mandates were handed down: Our hospitals are no longer at risk of being overwhelmed, and every adult has had the opportunity to be vaccinated. The logical approach now would be to “trust educators, school boards and parents to make sane decisions” and for the government to “leave us alone as we facilitate a wholesome world for our kids to thrive,” one where they can “play with their friends, unmasked and unafraid.”

Liberal: Fauci’s Intolerable Obfuscation

We’re no closer to a “full investigation of the labs in Wuhan, China,” ­laments The Washington Post’s Josh Rogin. Last week, when Sen. Rand Paul pressed national virus guru Dr. Anthony Fauci about whether the Wuhan lab’s activities amounted to so-called gain-of-function research — modifying viruses to make them deadlier and more transmissible, with funding from the US National Institutes of Health — Fauci denied it and dismissed the Kentucky Republican: “Senator, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly.” The problem, per Rogin: “Many scientists think Paul actually does know what he’s talking about.” A number of eminent scholars have insisted that the research described by Paul does, in fact, amount to gain-of-function studies, while others think Fauci is right on strictly semantic grounds. Either way, “what everyone can now see clearly is that [the] NIH was collaborating on risky research with a Chinese lab that has zero transparency and zero ­accountability during a crisis — and no one in a ­position of power addressed that risk.”

From the right: How Teachers Hide CRT

Last year, Missouri’s Francis Howell School District paid “equity” consultant LaGarrett J. King $15,000 to advise teachers on how to make classrooms a “racialized space,” reports PJ Media’s Rick Moran. In the training, teachers shared stories of hiding their extremist teaching methods to avoid the “noise” of parents’ concerns — a case study in how activist educators mislead moms and dads. “Informed and concerned parents are the only ones who can save their children.” 

— Compiled by Sohrab Ahmari & Ashley Allen