The names of those involved in creating a false consensus based on inaccurate information have become an infamous reminder of the dangers of excessive reliance on a few politically motivated individuals: Anthony Fauci, Francis Collins, Jerome Adams, Deborah Birx, and later entries like Ashish Jha and Vivek Murthy.

There were a host of others who had a significant impact on the rampant spread of indefensible, immediately disproven ideas, mandates, and policies.

Many continue into 2024 to advocate for failed policies, "interventions" that still don't work, and unnecessary panic. And all with the willing participation of major media outlets dedicated to continuing their preferred narratives. For example, those who support the endless Covid vaccination series over natural immunity.

This week we saw two wildly opposite storylines on Covid narratives that indicate yet again the disastrous incompetence of the "expert" class.

New Variants Mean Same Old Masks

Perhaps the two most popular excuses for the failure of pandemic interventions were lack of compliance and new variants.

The United States was unable to control Covid because not enough people wore masks, even though Sweden had better outcomes with virtually no masking. And South Korea with its masking culture wound up near the top of case rate charts. Not to mention that the flu was eliminated in countries with wildly different mitigation strategies and mask compliance.

Then as new variants predictably emerged throughout 2021 and 2022, the failure of Covid vaccines to control infections and the disintegration of the response in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, and elsewhere was blamed on the Delta and Omicron variant.

Never mind the absurdity of believing that Covid could be eliminated or controlled permanently if marginally more transmissible variants would lead to essentially unchecked spread.