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March 24, 2021 - Dennis Prager Show
06:22
Phil Kerpen on the Media's role in the Irrational Lockdowns
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So, in effect, it's the media that has destroyed the economies and the well-being of societies.
Is that fair to say?
Yes.
I think the coverage has been disgraceful.
I think the media has bullied politicians, essentially, into making a lot of very bad decisions.
Political leaders still make the decisions, and so the media can create the incentive structure for them to make bad decisions, but let's not let them off the hook.
Okay, I'm with you.
And let's not let off the hook, the modelers in the science community.
Yeah, the models have been horrendously wrong, and as I mentioned there before the break, with tragic results, with Governor Cuomo and several other governors, basically...
We're sacrificing seniors in large numbers because they thought they needed the hospital beds for this big influx of non-seniors that never came.
And we have steeply higher, in my judgment, nursing home COVID deaths in the states that did that, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Massachusetts, than we otherwise would.
And that's why the overall COVID deaths in those places are some of the highest in the world.
Have you studied Sweden?
I have looked at Sweden, and they did have a nursing home problem very early on there.
It was a little bit different than the one in those states here.
It was more related to staffing issues, and they have a lot of low-paid staff that basically walked off the job early in the epidemic.
But other than early problems in the nursing homes, they have very little COVID death compared to other countries in Europe, and I think the low-stringency approach has generally been vindicated.
And, of course, they've got...
Much less economic damage and much less sort of social, emotional, and societal damage.
That's right.
And kids stayed in school the whole time.
What's your take on mask wearing?
I think there is very little evidence that there's any benefit from it.
And, you know, if it were, you know, it's interesting because you look at sort of the CDC studies that they've put out.
And they claim a very small benefit, and yet it gets sort of distorted through this media lens and into sort of peer pressure to be this sort of massive, high-impact thing that can stop the virus cold.
And if that were true, we would not have had anywhere near the results that we've had in places with very, very high mass compliance, and the virus just continues to spread anyway.
So I think that there may be a very, very slight benefit, but it's not, you know, you look at sort of the literature review from the World Health Organization, for instance, which has done a much better job than our own CDC, which says a lot because the World Health Organization is not particularly competent itself.
They've generally done a much better job than our CDC.
And they basically conclude that they have a low confidence in a small effect from masks.
I tend to think that it's essentially no effect because it's a highly infectious virus that's spread.
Do you wear one outdoors?
Outdoors, there's very little transmission outdoors because you can't have high concentrations.
Right.
The aerosols get dissipated very quickly.
So do you wear one outdoors?
I follow the local rule and custom such that I won't get ticketed and so forth.
But I don't really wear it outdoors because if you read the mayor's mask order here where I live, it says...
Wear it outdoors if you are likely to be within six feet of someone for more than a fleeting time.
So I just make sure my time interacting with people stays fleeting, and I do not wear it outdoors.
Well, you're a better citizen than I. I refuse to wear a mask outdoors, and I am looking forward to being arrested.
I announced that a year ago.
The outdoors is very strange, as is the masking of children.
Oh, that's beyond belief.
That is beyond belief.
I'll tell you, I have to put up as one of the ten, aside from horrible pictures of murder, one of the ten most depressing photos I've ever seen was of the President of the United States and the Vice President of the United States.
Is it correct both had COVID? Or I know the president.
They're both vaccinated.
I'm sorry, yes.
Both vaccinated and both wearing masks.
It's bizarre.
You know, they say we're doing it to model for people, but what are you modeling for them?
Stupidity.
They're modeling fear and irrationality.
Yeah.
It's very strange.
You know, I'm hoping...
That when we get to the end of his 100-day mask challenge, he'll declare victory and move on rather than try to extend it.
Well, hope.
I never speak out against hope.
As I heard once in a great line, there's always hope.
There's no chance.
But that's a separate story.
So how do people read your stuff?
Well, I do a free daily newsletter with Steve Moore and John Fund at Committee to Unleash Prosperity.
Oh, wow.
That's a high-powered team, the three of you.
Where do you do it at?
People like it.
It's pretty good.
It's CommitteeToUnleashProsperity.com.
And you can sign up for that.
It's free.
We send it every day, sort of in the lunch hour, basically.
And it's not just...
COVID, we also cover kind of, you know, tax and spending and energy and other sorts of things, but it's kind of started out.
We started it about a year ago now.
It started out being all COVID, and it still has a, you know, pretty good amount of that mixed in.
Well, that's why I had you on.
Yep.
Well, thank you so much.
I hope you get a lot of my listeners to read your stuff.
That would be terrific, and thanks for having me.
You're welcome.
Did you see that photo, my dear, dear listener?
Two people vaccinated against COVID wearing a mask.
To be models.
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