So, late last week a new “mini-documentary” appeared on YouTube making the case that it was Deborah Birx, not Anthony Fauci that was the true boogeyman behind the covid debacle.  I first learned about it from Scott Johnson at Powerline.  On Saturday Lloyd Billingsly, also at Powerline, added clarification on the relationship between Fauci and Birx.  This is all good information, but while we are clarifying there is much more to think about.

Firstly, the White House communication on the issue was a mess.  Then President Trump’s basic instincts on the disease were correct, and the task force, led by Vice President Pence seemed a great way to proceed.  But two things happened, more or less in parallel, that undermined the wisdom of this situation.  The press paid a lot more attention to the situation than anticipated and once Pence started drawing a lot of press, Trump stepped in front of the camera.  Simultaneously, presumably because the press had no faith in the Trump White House, they consistently went around both the President and the Vice President, reaching out to, and therefore empowering Fauci, Birx and the rest of the administrative state gang.  Put plainly, Trump being Trump, combined with the media hatred of Trump served to empower Fauci, Birx, et. al. far in excess of their office.  In the search for boogeymen, one has to put the media near, if not on top of, the list.

The most troubling aspect of that observation is the media’s motivation.  They decided the White House was wrong before the evidence was in, based solely on their distaste for the president.

But ultimately we, the American public, fell for it.  And we need to figure out why.  We were sold visions of hospital beds in the parking lot and they never appeared, why did we continue to put up with it?  We all know someone that got sick, and probably someone that died within a few degrees of separation, but the sort of mass death that decimates populations by tens of percents never appeared – why did we continue to act like it did?  Things were very different in different parts of the country, but no matter where you were the fear was real for a long time – far longer than the evidence warranted.  We acted far more like fish on a hook than we did independent, thinking individuals in a democracy.

We’re not the covid boogeyman, but like the idiots in the horror film that do not simply run away from the horrific place, we played a significant role in the fate we suffered.  In the search for the covid boogeyman, we have to wonder why we did not simply run away.