Public Communication During the Covid Pandemic: Pandemic Amnesty? Hell, No

Emily Oster, writing at the Atlantic, asks whether we can all just forgive and forget about what we said and did to one another during the Covid-19 pandemic. On the question of masks, school closings, and the efficacy of this or that vaccine, some people got it right, and some got it wrong. But litigating this forever is a waste of time, she argues. The headline is “Let’s Declare a Pandemic Amnesty.”

No, thank you. I don’t want this. And I don’t even think Emily Oster should want this. Frankly, Oster herself deserves more credit for trying to talk sense into people during the pandemic about the harms that school closures were inflicting on children.

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Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review Online.

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Emily Oster, writing at the Atlantic, asks whether we can all just forgive and forget about what we said and did to one another during the Covid-19 pandemic. On the question of masks, school closings, and the efficacy of this or that vaccine, some people got it right, and some got it wrong. But litigating this forever is a waste of time, she argues. The headline is “Let’s Declare a Pandemic Amnesty.”

No, thank you. I don’t want this. And I don’t even think Emily Oster should want this. Frankly, Oster herself deserves more credit for trying to talk sense into people during the pandemic about the harms that school closures were inflicting on children.