The Virus Lessons We’re Getting Wrong

It’s crucial to distinguish real failures from those caused by chasing political phantoms

By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.. Excerpts:

"Governing is the hardest thing people do, period, so don’t take this the wrong way. All along messaging has had to target two bogeys, a political one and a public-health one, but the distortions are adding up.

It’s absurd that only now the CDC, very quietly, has begun recognizing, as it does with the flu, most cases go unreported. As of Dec. 31, when the media was highlighting 19.7 million “confirmed” cases, the CDC now estimates 83 million were infected."

"A long-running University of Southern California survey shows that risk perceptions have been distorted in exactly the way you would predict: Americans overestimate their risk of dying from Covid and underestimate their risk of catching it, with the result that millions likely have been selecting a level of risk that ill serves them, their families and society.

And where to begin with a Bloomberg News headline that blares about South Dakota’s “Failed Experiment in Herd Immunity.” The failure wasn’t herd immunity, the goal we all are seeking, but achieving it through infection rather than vaccination.

If the press can’t understand herd immunity after 11 months, how can we expect the public to?

In the first weeks of the pandemic, the CDC warned that most Americans would encounter the virus. This advice eventually disappeared from its website. It was never mentioned by any politician. Why? It sounded too much like government washing its hands of protecting the public."