When Covid-19 hit in March 2020, governors quickly showed they were willing to abuse their emergency powers. They closed schools and most businesses, taking what at first seemed reasonable measures to prevent viral spread in crowded rooms. But then they also closed outdoor public spaces—parks, trails, beaches, waterways, and even children’s playgrounds. They had police…

Perhaps one of the deadliest mistakes made by government officials (predominantly those in New York State) during the pandemic was requiring re-admission of Covid-positive patients back into nursing homes. On March 25, 2020, then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an “advisory” prohibiting nursing homes from “den[ying] re-admission or admission to the NH [nursing home] solely…

During the Covid pandemic, numerous federal officials and agencies implemented an expansive censorship apparatus, which was used to compel—and, in some instances, collaborate with—social media companies and other private intermediaries to suppress a range of Covid-related viewpoints that ran counter to or questioned the government’s policies or preferred narrative. The censored viewpoints included those which…

In many ways, adults and their policy choices failed children during the pandemic. None as obviously as the Center for Disease Control’s guidance on masking, which adopted a policy of masking children ages 2 and up. Childcare facilities, schools, retail establishments, transit systems, and airlines quickly adopted CDC’s guidance. Who can forget the viral video…

The Administrative State’s overreach during Covid also had grave consequences for Americans’ health care. Draconian mandates imposed by state governors in the early (and even waning) days of the pandemic created widespread social isolation and disrupted many routine aspects of life, such as visits to the doctor’s office. For many people these disruptions were not…

 It is counterintuitive, but when my infant son tested positive for Covid-19 in early 2022, my husband and I breathed a sigh of relief because it meant a short but welcome 90-day reprieve from Covid testing and daycare exclusions. Take, for example, the District of Columbia’s exclusion and return-to-care criteria issued by the Office of…