OPINION:
The week leading into 2022 signaled that perhaps the universe was in the mood to hold the previously untouchable accountable. There were guilty verdicts in criminal trials for two women who have enjoyed breathtaking lives filled with money, influence and power lavished on them by an establishment that rarely, if ever, pays the price for their crimes.
But Ghislaine Maxwell and Elizabeth Holmes, guilty of what appears at first blush to be disparately different offenses, are arguably the purveyors of very similar (and common) deceits in the worlds of politics and entertainment. Manipulation, lies and abuse of those around them wrapped in false promises of fame, success, safety, health or even freedom. It is the success of insufferable grifters and abusers who can convince their targets that everything is fine, and they should be trusted.
Whether it was Holmes’ big donors or regular Americans being conned by the Theranos lie of a transformative health care discovery, or the Epstein-Maxwell promise to young women of a safe and dreamy future leading in reality to sexual enslavement, the gig was up. Americans watched as two juries said yes. These people lied, misled and abused people to satisfy their greed for more power, money and influence.
Weaponizing dreams and manipulating fear is what abusers do to gain control, feeding ego and soothing malignant narcissism. Holmes, Maxwell and their enablers honed it into an art. We also must recognize it is reminiscent of what the Democrats have been doing to us throughout the COVID-19 pandemic via an establishment that normalizes corruption and abuse of power.
As those two women realized their chairs at the global power table were being removed, the world was watching the COVID-19 omicron variant sweep through the planet as a viral tsunami. Despite efforts by Big Tech to censor the conversation, more and more Americans realized governments were implementing failed plans that did not “stop the virus” and kept reverting to demonstrably catastrophic schemes of lockdowns, masks and vaccine passports.
This week the United States set a record with 1 million new COVID-19 cases. I am one of those fully vaccinated who contracted the virus. After staying in New York City throughout the pandemic because of my work, I lived carefully and then chose to get the vaccine knowing it was possible I would eventually contract the virus. Throughout, however, I was determined to at least not make myself an easy target. I succeeded for two years, but then omicron came to town.
For years now, we’ve witnessed White House Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci and his enablers flip-flop on every important issue ranging from masks, herd immunity to the National Institutes of Health’s involvement in funding gain-of-function research. This unelected bureaucrat continues to make declarations and behave as though he and the system are superior to everyone and too big for the drooling rubes to hold accountable. Smug, all-powerful and unaccountable. It’s not just for Epstein, Maxwell and Holmes anymore.
When asked about his perpetually changing advice, Dr. Fauci admits that his flip-flops are geared, in his own words, to “nudge” Americans into certain directions he deems best. Excused as “noble lies” wherein the liar has decided that lying is acceptable as the end-goal is in everyone’s best interest, it’s an explanation perhaps Holmes should have employed.
However, this explosion of omicron has exposed how useless virtually all other measures implemented by noble liars have been to end the pandemic. That was President Biden’s constant refrain on the 2020 campaign trail and early in his presidency — he constantly insisted he was going to “stop the virus.” People believed him. But that lie wasn’t noble; it was a politically expedient lie using fear and then the promise of rescue to get votes. And it worked.
I spoke with Dr. Marty Makary, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, about the alarming trajectory of omicron, and especially the fact that the vaccinated seem to be especially vulnerable to it. There are reports from a Danish study revealing unvaccinated individuals were less likely to contract omicron compared to the vaccinated and even boosted. Here in the United States, it’s clear both the vaccinated and unvaccinated are becoming infected at a record-breaking pace.
Dr. Makary noted first that in Europe, the natural immunity of those who previously caught the virus is taken seriously, discussed and recognized. The unvaccinated in Europe, in this case, and elsewhere, would likely have a significant cohort of those who had already been infected and are experiencing a more comprehensive immunity different from that provided by the vaccines.
Moreover, the government’s message that individuals can manage to keep themselves safe at all times from a virus has been one of the biggest and most dangerous lies perpetrated on our society. Social media is now replete with people expressing shock, embarrassment or shame that they contracted COVID-19. That inexplicable reaction has likely kept people from feeling free to share their status as the pandemic raged, illustrating yet another dangerous and idiotic unforced error by our self-assigned moral and intellectual betters.
The Democrats used COVID-19 in 2020 and found political success, and they loathe letting it go. It’s time they abandon using a pandemic for craven political purposes and get out of the way of the American people.
• Tammy Bruce, author, host at Fox Nation and contributor at Fox News, is a radio talk-show host.
