An Op-Ed in The Atlantic showcased economist and Brown University professor Emily Oster argument for “pandemic amnesty.” She pleads that the people show forgiveness to the lying elite surrounding COVID-19-related fears and societal tensions.
In her article, “Let’s Declare a Pandemic Amnesty,” Oster describes her experience navigating life through the COVID-19 pandemic. The economist describes following “totally misguided” protocols as “important choices we had to make under conditions of tremendous uncertainty.” She concedes to a “consensus” of failed COVID-19-related policies. Those failed policies include school closures and early vaccine information.
“When the vaccines came out, we lacked definitive data on the relative efficacies of the Johnson & Johnson shot versus the mRNA options from Pfizer and Moderna,” said Oster. “This misstep wasn’t nefarious. It was the result of uncertainty.”
“Misinformation was, and remains a huge problem,” said Oster. Critics of the former President’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic spread the lie that Trump suggested consuming bleach.
“And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute,” said Trump after proposing the employment of ultraviolet light to kill the virus in April 2020. “And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs.”
“The people who got it right, for whatever reason, may want to gloat. Those who got it wrong, for whatever reason, may feel defensive and retrench into a position that doesn’t accord with the facts,” said the Brown Professor. She noted the contrast between pandemic-related lockdown critics, who warned of unintended consequences of school closures, compared to others who expressed steadfast support of those COVID-19 policies.
Oster continued to express her reasoning behind her argument for amnesty:
All of this gloating and defensiveness continues to gobble up a lot of social energy and to drive the culture wars, especially on the internet. These discussions are heated, unpleasant, and, ultimately, unproductive. In the face of so much uncertainty, getting something right had a hefty element of luck. And, similarly, getting something wrong wasn’t a moral failing. Treating pandemic choices as a scorecard on which some people racked up more points than others is preventing us from moving forward.
She added: “We have to put these fights aside and declare a pandemic amnesty.”
My latest in @TheAtlantic https://t.co/w6GIOEMhZv
— ProfEmilyOster (@ProfEmilyOster) October 31, 2022
“We can leave out the willful purveyors of actual misinformation while forgiving the hard calls that people had no choice but to make with imperfect knowledge,” Oster added. “But we need to learn from our mistakes and then let them go.”
