This book recalls the experiences of an Health policy expert who became Advisor to the President during the Covid-19 pandemic and how he was introduced to the raw negative power lodged against anyone who does not spout the expected narratives. Dr. Atlas is truly appalled at how no real Public Health expert contributed to the discussions of policies that included societal lockdowns, masks and vaccines.
Dr. Atlas believed in targeting the vulnerable who needed to be safeguarded and mitigate the spread of the disease through social distancing, vaccinations etc. What shocked him was there was no discussion about policies and their possible effects. Specifically, there was no scientific evidence that supported lockdowns and moreover, there was the complete neglect of the negative effects of social lockdowns.
He believes that the lockdowns cause more harm than effectively mitigating the spread of Covid-19. Once the country locked down there were increases in domestic abuse, attempted suicides, neglect of schooling, neglect for other medical procedures like cancer treatments. There were no net gains from the lockdowns, there were adverse affects to public health! He points out that the working class suffers the most. Affluent elites can work from home but not the working classes!
He expresses frustration from the changing message and narrative. For example, masks at the beginning were not necessary, then they were necessary and now there is a claim that they don't work! Dr. Atlas quite convincingly argues from the evidence that masks did nothing to curb the spread of the virus. He displays the dates that mask mandates were put in place and then compares the increase of Covid cases! In not one place did Covid cases come down from the time that masks were mandated! He points to Sweden, a country that did not lock down or mandate masks and shows how that country outperformed at least 9 other countries that implemented mask mandates.
He singled out the outrageous mandate to mask young children. They have a need to see faces in order to properly develop language skills and societal ques and norms. He believes that there might be a long term deficit in this regard.
He singles out the tyranny of anyone who disagrees with the narrative, and the absolute vilification resulting from such dissent. He himself is dismissed as not "being an epidemiologist" and that his qualification as a Health policy scholar and expert at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University ignored.
He admits his naivete when confronted with the deliberate lies lodged against him by mainstream press. He figures a Journalists seeks the truth! That is not true, however, for example, he was completely and wrongfully accused of believing in "herd immunity" without mitigations. In other words, the press slammed the author for advocating for allowance of people to get the disease and built up herd immunity despite any subsequent piling up of deaths counts! Atlas never opined against the various recommended mitigations to stop the disease!
The author praises the Governor of Florida who took a more targeted approach and as a result Florida outperformed most of the States that imposed draconian lockdowns.
The vaccine fetish to the exclusion of other public health concerns is very disconcerting. In a free country where the common slogan was "our body ourselves" one sees that the country has turned into a totalitarian state that dictates social behavior and curtails one's basic freedom to congregate. The fear mongering was based on faulty modeling and although too many people have died, the actual statistic of those who have lost their lives were much lower and are basically from a specific demographic. Deaths were not as indiscriminate as first anticipated.
Closing schools does not make sense to author because the evidence shows that young people not only tolerate the disease but also do not spread it to adults! Anyone saying otherwise ignores the scientific evidence.
Atlas proves himself to be the scientist and dispassionate researcher that is truly needed in such situations like pandemics.
