In this interview, John Tierney and host Dennis Prager critique COVID‑19 lockdown policies and their unintended consequences. Tierney argues that simple, low‑risk measures like vitamin D supplementation have been ignored despite evidence linking deficiency to severe COVID‑19, while harmful mandates such as forcing masks on toddlers constitute child abuse. He cites economic data—World Bank estimates that over 100 million people fell into extreme poverty and that one‑third of the global workforce lost jobs or businesses during lockdowns—to illustrate the massive socioeconomic damage. Tierney condemns the “laptop class” of remote workers, journalists, and scientists who advocated lockdowns while remaining insulated from hardship. He also decries Silicon Valley’s role in censoring debate and the wasteful focus on surface cleaning, noting that the virus spreads primarily via aerosols, not fomites. Prager adds examples of hotel policies that eliminated daily room cleaning, further harming hospitality workers. Both speakers portray the policies as driven by authoritarian central planners prioritizing fear over freedom, resulting in lasting harm to children, the poor, and the broader economy.
Chapters
You know, can argue about how good the evidence is, but there's certainly some studies showing that vitamin D deficiency correlated with severe cases of COVID And that's one of these harmless things that, you know, I mean, Fauci in one interview, I think on Instagram, did say, yeah, he takes vitamin D. And I wonder why isn't he telling this, that, you know, I mean, this is something people could do that was probably going to help protect against it. Um, you know, and it's harmless, you know, unlike the lockdowns and all these other policies they do and forcing forcing children to wear masks, which is harmful to them. Um, you know, it was just, you know, bizarre the way they were so intent on exercising this power and they were ignoring, you know, simpler, cheaper solutions.
When I see airlines forcing 2-year-olds to wear masks, I, I truly despair for my country.
I agree, it's child abuse. I mean, I think, you know, I did a piece for City Journal called Much to Forgive. You know, that it's horrible what we have done to our children. And people who claim to, you know, be concerned about the most vulnerable members of society and then doing this to children, you know, and forcing them to wear— when I see 5-year-olds on playgrounds where outside wearing masks, it's just I mean, it's horrible what we've done to kids. And it's really just, you know, just to appease the neurotic fears of some adults and the, um, and the sort of cavalier wishes of these autocrats, you know, who just want to order, you know, I mean, Fauci and these autocrats, you know, all they care about is minimizing COVID. They don't care what damage it does to people's lives. That's the whole point.
They don't care what damage it does. I read to people from the very beginning the projections of the number of people who would be out of work and impoverished. I mean, literally impoverished. It was rich people who set policies to ruin the lives of poor people. Is that a fair—
Exactly, exactly. The laptop class went on working, you know, at home and, and causes economic devastation, you know, for other people. It's, you know, worldwide, um, 1 in 3 people worldwide lost lost a job or business during the lockdowns. You know, half of them saw their earnings drop, and the World Bank estimated that more than 100 million people were pushed into extreme poverty. And yet, you know, you've got these professionals sitting at home, these journalists and alarmist scientists, saying, well, no, no, we gotta lock down, and they're not suffering. And it was, you know, and it was terrible what Silicon Valley did, censoring the debate about this. While they're prospering from these lockdowns, you know, Facebook and YouTube and Google, that are bankrupting local businesses. I mean, it was just horrible. You know, it was appalling to me to see these celebrities on Zoom and YouTube that we're all in this together. Well, we weren't. You know, they were off, you know, in their homes safely, in their spacious homes working on their laptops, and everyone else was suffering. They were in it for themselves.
This continuing on the suffering, I was reading a piece, I think it was in the New York Times, which of course is a big sponsor of the lockdowns, about how hotels— and I saw this, I was at a hotel in Texas this weekend and I saw this at play. It is now policy, at least this was true for the Hyatt chain, which obviously I stayed at on this occasion. And they no longer have your room cleaned each day you're there unless you ask for it. And so what is a result is that a lot of people are no longer getting their jobs back in the hotel industry.
Yeah, that's just— it's— I mean, all these effects that— I mean, it's, it's a horrible thing about letting central planners run society. They can't possibly anticipate all the consequences of it. And I mean, the other thing, you know, the forcing hotels— and now this maybe made some work for people— but forcing restaurants and hotels and schools to do all this surface cleaning. You know, everything means nothing.
Reportedly it's meaningless, right?
And they knew this last year that it wasn't really spreading by surface contamination, but they never bothered. They couldn't be bothered to say, you know what, I know you're doing enough, you skip the surface cleaning, you don't have to do that anymore. And think how many billions of dollars and, and hours were spent They still hand you these moronic wipeys when you come on the airplane. I know, it's just insane. I mean, once you create this climate of fear, it's, you know, you can't unring that bell. And, and you still— I still see people walking around, vaccinated people, you know, driving, you know, wearing masks outside. It's just, you know, I mean, it's, it's awful. I mean, we count on leaders. They're supposed to, you know, keep calm and carry on and, and give us good advice.
They carry on, but they don't keep calm. Anyway, listen, we'll do a part 2. You wrote a magnificent piece, John Tierney. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Dennis.
The piece is up at DennisPrager.com. It is the best summary of the last year and a half that I know of. We shall return. I'm Dennis Prager.
