Tom Woods is a historian and podcast host with a daily newsletter which (in part) analyzes issues of the day from a libertarian point of view. From February 2020 forward, both the podcast and the newsletter were largely oriented toward making sense of COVID — at first the virus and its effects, but then the broader effects of attempts at containment measures. Diary of a Psychosis is a selected collection of those COVID-related newsletters, beginning in February 2020 and moving forward until spring 2023. As you might guess from the title, Diary is highly critical of the way governments and public health agencies across the world, but especially within the United States, reacted to the pandemic. It is so not because of Woods’ libertarian scruples, but from the enormous human suffering that followed in the wake of a prolonged ‘health’ measures. Draconian lockdowns and dehumanizing mask mandates would be poor responses even if they were proven to be efficacious, Wood argues, but the worst part is that they were never proven as such.
The core of the book is Woods responding to news of various measures, and wrangling with data, especially as he and everyone else paying attention began realizing something screwy going on. Despite the confidence of The Science, imposed measures repeatedly don’t correlate to results: states with similar demographics have similar COVID waves despite imposing different levels of masking, supposed surges after events like Thanksgiving 2020 or Superbowl 2021 don’t appear, inexplicable spikes appear that no one can explain, deaths decline in states giving up on containment measures and increase in states that maintain them, etc. A running theme in this is Woods using his newsletter to monitor moving goalposts and compare predictions against actual outcomes, something The Authorities would rather us not do. Why can’t they simply admit when they don’t know why what’s happening is happening?, asks Woods. Why the continuing masquerade of confidence and certainty? And why, when we are sailing into uncharted waters in which no one has authoritative experience, are dissenting voices not only being ignored but actively suppressed (by twitter and facebook) despite coming from people with medical pedigrees just as robust as those dominating the news? Reportage and commiseration are another strong part of the book: Woods continues to travel throughout the lockdown period, reporting on areas that are both opening up and doubling down on their coronatainment measures, and shares letters from readers who see in his newsletters a rare breath of fresh air keeping their hopes alive despite being cut off from loved ones and overwhelmed by the culture of fear. Part of why Woods is offering this book (as well as Collateral Damage: Victims of the Lockdown Regime Tell Their Stories) is so that the cruel foolishness of the past three years is remembered next time — and those who abused the public’s trust and their perceived authority are brought to some manner of justice, if only by being sacked. The consequences of coronamania will be far-reaching: young people whose educations were derailed, children whose social development was marred by isolation and the spectre of facelessness, teens who are mental wrecks because they came of age amid multiple “We’re Doomed” cults etc — but there are other ramifications Woods touches on, like the bankrupting of public trust in health institutions, whether they acted out of honest and well meaning ignorance, or vanity in their own imagined self-importance. There will be pandemics in future, and if amends and corrections are not made, then public reaction based on the often irrational and inhumane COVID measures will undermine appropriate response to threats that don’t have a 99% survival rate for the majority of the population.
Related:
DiaryofCovid.com
The Tom Woods Show. Near-daily podcast with a variety of guests talking about literature, history, politics, cars, finance, foreign affairs.
Woods’ “COVID Charts Quiz“, in which he challenges visitors to examine charts and try to tell which states were adopting which measures, based on the data.
Other Woods works: Real Dissent, Nullification, and The Politically Correct Guide to American History
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I have a triple read on this subject coming up (next year as usual). I think some countries coped MUCH better than others. We didn’t do very well looking back – more because of too little, too late (as usual) rather than any great over-reacting. I did watch the US response with frank amazement. I think it was pretty much a classic example of what NOT to do in a pandemic. I shudder to think what the response will be next time -and as you say, there WILL be a next time.
I have a few myself — some critical like this, some more generic. Personally, I lost all faith in the CDC when they observed the floyd riots in the summer and said people should get out and protest for ‘public health’. It’s a pity, too: they were one of the few federal agencies who I don’t — didn’t — outright despise. At least there’s NASA and the National Park Service.
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