by Lowman S. Henry | June 08, 2021

In God We Trust is our national motto, at least until the “woke” crowd gets around to cancelling it.  God, it appears, is the only one worthy of our trust.  The national institutions which at one point had credibility and evoked trust have one by one proven they are no longer worthy.

This shattering of trust has occurred over time, but accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic as political science replaced actual science in much of the government and media response.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic most Americans looked at the Centers for Disease Control, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases as experts whose advice we should follow in stemming the spread of the virus.  We were told to “follow the science” and they were the ones producing the science.

Contradictory directions and periodically disproven “science” soon followed shaking the nation’s confidence.  In recent weeks we have come to find out it was more than just learning new facts as the pandemic unfolded.  We now know political interference, hiding of facts, and disinformation were baked into so-called scientific fact.

Particularly disturbing is a trove of Dr. Fauci’s e e-mails obtained by a BuzzFeed reporter through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.  A review of the e-mails finds inconsistencies or outright lies involving the necessity for wearing masks, development of the vaccine, and the possibility that COVID-19 is a man-made construct that leaked from a lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

In the politically charged atmosphere that was 2020 the lab leak theory was dismissed as a reckless conspiracy.  But now after months of news media cover-up and big tech censorship the possibility – indeed the probability – that the virus originated in that lab has become real.  At this point nobody except for Left wing sycophants will believe otherwise even if the Presidential commission now looking into the virus’ origins finds it occurred naturally.

If proven COVID-19 escaped from a Wuhan lab the Chinese Communist Party is in serious trouble.  Their failure to report and contain the leak left the world unprepared for the contagion to come.  Fauci, the CDC, the news media, big tech, politicians and others who stifled investigation into the issue in an effort to politically damage Donald Trump will find their own credibility destroyed.

The CDC suffered another blow to its credibility when it was learned the American Federation of Teachers put its thumb on the scale of school re-opening recommendations.  This was done at a time when the education establishment was pushing for billions in funding under the American Rescue Plan. A re-opening of schools would have undermined arguments that the funding was needed.

As a result of this political interference millions of school children had their return to the classroom delayed, while billions of unnecessary dollars were appropriated for schools.  Worse, much of that money won’t be spent until 2023 and beyond further pointing to its uselessness in ensuring school safety.

Another disturbing collaboration occurred between Fauci and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerburg.  American Commitment President Phil Kerpen has questioned why portions of the Fauci-Zuckerburg e-mails were redacted.  The e-mails were sent at time when the social media giant’s so-called “fact checkers” were censoring posts related to COVID-19 that did not follow the anti-Trump script.

As all of these details tumble out of the closet, and more are surely to follow, the American public has learned one thing: Ronald Reagan was right when he said “trust, but verify.”  Reagan said it the context of dealing with the Soviet Union, but that communist empire has proven to be more trustworthy than many current domestic institutions.

It is now crystal clear that political science – specifically the Left’s overwhelming hatred of Donald Trump – rather than actual science dominated the COVID-19 response.  Worse, the Left – which never lets a disaster go to waste – has used the virus to vastly expand the size and scope of the federal government with a spending spree unprecedented in peace time.

The loss of life, personal freedom, and economic well-being has been incalculable. Going forward it is important we get to the actual facts surrounding the development of COVID-19 and that we hold accountable those who created it and those whose actions to hide the truth prevented us from dealing more effectively with the pandemic.

(Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute and host of the weekly Lincoln Radio Journal and American Radio Journal.  His e-mail address is [email protected].)

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