National Review is calling out The Atlantic for a piece it published on Dec. 3 that predicted doom and gloom for Iowa. It was called “Iowa Is What Happens When Government Does Nothing” and it was written by Elaine Godfrey, an Iowa native.
In the midst of a statewide spike in COVID cases and hospitalizations, The Atlantic was predicting the state could expect to see “nothing less than a tsunami” during the holiday season.
Eli Perencevich, an Iowa epidemiologist and outspoken liberal on Twitter, said that “we know the storm’s coming. You can see it on the horizon.”
And it was all the fault of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.
The piece was critical of her decision to reopen Iowa gyms, bars and restaurants in early May. It criticized her resistance to issue a statewide mask mandate — which some would say still really isn’t a mask mandate (thankfully).
A “super peak” was coming over the holidays. Thousands of preventable deaths were coming in the following weeks.
The “super peak,” though, never happened. In fact, according to The Atlantic’s own “COVID Tracking Project,” Iowa cases have dropped by 47.8 percent since Dec. 3. Hospitalizations are down 52.7 percent.
According to the article at National Review, December became a decline rather than a “meteoric rise,” according to Suresh Gunasekaran (CEO of University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics).
Rather than blaming Iowa’s Republican governor, Gunasekaran pointed to pandemic fatigue.
California and New York, which implemented some of the tightest restrictions in the country and have had them in place for months, have worse case and death rates over the last week than Iowa.
Gunasekaran pointed out the best strategy is whatever causes the public to behave differently.
The Iowa Standard has held firm since the beginning of the pandemic, government mandates and orders are not the answer. They’re not constitutional either.
At some point, we have to rely on the common sense of those around us who we share our life experience with. People need to make the right decisions for themselves while trying to also make the best decision for others.
That decision will be different for everyone.
It is crazy to think that people believe Reynolds should have enacted more restrictions and not less.
We need more personal freedom and liberty, not less. Only then will we learn the importance of personal responsibility — a lesson far too many still haven’t grasped 10 months into the idea of 15 days to flatten the curve.
The time will come for Iowans to critique the performance of Gov. Reynolds during this pandemic. But for now, it’s important to note that the media’s doom-and-gloom, over-the-top predictions of annihilation simply never came to be.
They were wrong. They’ll never admit it, but they don’t have to.
The “science” already has.
