As Biden signals an end to Covid as a political issue, some bitter-enders remain in pandemic panic mode. Some of them might have a financial incentive to do so.
As Biden signals an end to Covid as a political issue, some bitter-enders remain in pandemic panic mode. Some of them might have a financial incentive to do so.
I n March 1974, Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda, one of the last Japanese regular army World War II soldiers still “fighting,” surrendered (and even then, he would only come peacefully if his aged former commanding officer was flown to the remote Pacific island where had holed up to personally relieve him). A similar refusal to accept change has infected large parts of the American Left and the Democratic Party, even after their leaders have effectively surrendered to the popular desire to move on from the pandemic restrictions.
President Biden’s State of the Union was (almost) normal. The president, the vice president, and the speaker of the House were all maskless. The chamber was a little sparse, but more cozy than we’ve seen in a long time. The president himself announced, “Most Americans can remove their masks.” Sure, there were a few masks at the event, but at this point they might as well have been political buttons or white pantsuits — virtue-signals. The next morning, the Biden administration released a “National Covid Preparedness Plan,” which has all the markings of a chapter closing on the pandemic as far as it is concerned.
All around the country, indoor mask mandates have all but disappeared (Boston is the latest domino to fall). By the end of March, it will likely be difficult for anyone to find a school where children are forced to be masked (at least outside Clayton County, Georgia, where Hiroo Onoda might have felt right at home). The airline industry this week petitioned the Biden administration for a lifting of the mask mandate on airplanes (and presumably such a move would loop in buses, trains, and ride-shares). Can government buildings, colleges, libraries, and so-called “congregate settings” be far behind? Covid is over.
The reason is not hard science, but political science. Ever since Glenn Youngkin won a surprise race for governor of Virginia last fall, things have changed. A hard Omicron winter meant more people than ever had immunity (the easy way or the hard way), and people could sense that their kids needed to get back to normal. Biden’s numbers kept tanking. So the word went out to roll back the restrictions.
But not everybody got the memo. You don’t have to go very far on Twitter to find people hyperventilating about the “immunocompromised” and how we need to be “compassionate” to them by wearing a mask everywhere the rest of our lives. Students in the District of Columbia still have to wear masks for now. Blue enclaves across America feature grocery shoppers and even outdoor dog-walkers proudly wearing a mask. Stipulating that Covid paranoia is not like fighting for the Axis powers, is the mindset that these people have really that different from that of the last holdout Japanese soldier?
Others might have more tangible motives. Nurses’ unions recently worked with the New York Times to produce a video editorial bemoaning the state of nurses in Covid-infested hospitals. This came after 14 strikes in 2021 alone. The timing, perhaps not coincidentally, lined up with a rash of union collective-bargaining negotiations that are set to occur this year. The nurses are represented overwhelmingly by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), as well as the National Nurses United (NNU). The former is one of the most politically active unions in the country, spending $150 million in the 2020 election on behalf of Democrats.
Like any negotiation, the goal is to increase leverage. By portraying nurses as underserved heroes on the front lines of the Covid pandemic, the unions’ goal is to make the “combat pay” that nurses have received in the last few years (in the form of overtime, relocation bonuses, etc.) into the normal, peacetime pay of the next contract. And of course, when Big Labor pushes for very low federal nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, they have this higher pay level in mind. Click goes the ratchet.
They aren’t alone. In Port Huron, Mich., EMT ambulance drivers have received a 24 percent wage hike since Covid started — and now the local politicians want to make it permanent with a new tax to pay for it. That’s a model that EMTs around the country are likely to want to repeat.
The Employment Policy Institute, a pro-union think tank, wants states and localities to boost teacher pay by as much as 20 percent using one-time Covid relief funds because, well, Covid. Guess who has to come up with the money after the federal money runs out?
These “Covid profiteers” don’t want the pandemic to end, or at least the extreme response to it. War has been good for their bottom line. But unlike the well-meaning mask Karen at your local grocery store, these bitter-enders are reaching into your wallets. Fields such as health care are overwhelmingly paid for by taxpayers. Health insurance has shifted in a government direction over the past two decades. An aging population growing into Medicare, states expanding their Medicaid programs, and of course the Obamacare fiasco all mean that more and more Americans find themselves in government-run (or at least very government-controlled) health-insurance plans. The nurses and EMTs who shake down hospitals are really shaking down all of us. The same goes for the local teachers’ union that bargains for double-digit pay hikes and extra days off.
It seems clear that a return to normalcy will involve getting some of our fellow citizens off Covid Island, as they are shell-shocked and don’t know what to believe anymore. But we shouldn’t have to pay them extra to bring them back home.