The indefinite extension of pandemic restrictions reflects an ironclad rule of institutional inertia: New laws, programs, and political arrangements always create new constituencies with vested interests in prolonging and expanding their power. The teachers’ unions are a very powerful constituency; as long as they see potential gain from wielding the threat of school shutdowns, they’ll keep on doing it. Public-health officials themselves have seen their power and prestige grow exponentially over the course of the past two years. Who wouldn’t be reluctant to give that up?

But the institutionalization of pandemic-era reforms opens the door to more dire abuses of power down the road. Vaccine passports, already introduced in a few of our major cities and now debuting in many more, are a dangerous step toward a Chinese-style social-credit system. That’s not hyperbolic. In Australia, law-enforcement agencies have begun to use location data from QR-code check-ins to track suspected criminals. New York bureaucrats are already fantasizing about creative ways to expand their “Excelsior Pass” system, too: “While Excelsior Pass started out as a tool to help New York businesses recover from the pandemic, the state is now exploring how the platform could be retrofitted to verify other types of records and credentials,” Vox reported in October. “New York hasn’t decided exactly what the Excelsior Pass system could be used for next, but it is confident there’s a role for these apps in the future.”

“Retrofitted to verify other types of records and credentials.” Oh. Fun!