A ‘Pandemic Amnesty’? Hell, No

Emily Oster, writing at the Atlantic, asks whether we can all just forgive and forget about what we said and did to one another during the Covid-19 pandemic. On the question of masks, school closings, and the efficacy of this or that vaccine, some people got it right, and some got it wrong. But litigating this forever is a waste of time, she argues. The headline is “Let’s Declare a Pandemic Amnesty.”

No, thank you. I don’t want this. And I don’t even think Emily Oster should want this. Frankly, Oster herself deserves more credit for trying to talk sense into people during the pandemic about the harms that school closures were inflicting on children.

An amnesty means throwing up our hands and simply re-declaring something all adults should already know: Men and institutions are fallible. But what we need is more forensic accountability for our institutions; one hopes (perhaps in vain) that a Republican Congress can launch a solid inquiry into the FDA and the CDC on their response to the pandemic. And we need much better reflection from journalists, experts, and the public.