Even the World Health Organization says that lockdowns aren’t a valid approach, except in very limited cases. According to senior WHO envoy Dr. David Nabarro, “We in the World Health Organization do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus. The only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganize, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted. But by and large, we’d rather not do it.”

So essentially, one of the most used, and most destructive, responses to the coronavirus turns out to be held in odium by WHO. We hear a lot about following the science here, but all too often, that phrase is a political synonym for: Silence, peasant!

Republicans would be foolish not to capitalize on this well-earned distrust of public-health officials, especially among key Democratic constituencies. The Democrats, beholden to the laptop class and to bossy interlopers, are likely to favor extended and intrusive interventions and a long-lasting power-grab by health bureaucrats.

Republicans can extend the inevitable backlash. And all it takes is a simple, consistent message: The pandemic is over. The vaccines have crushed the virus, with deaths and hospitalizations trending down precipitously. Say no to masks, to irrational rules, to the ways Karen and her bureaucratic servants would suffocate ordinary people’s lives, especially working-class Americans who can’t work remotely.