I THINK THE DEMOCRATS’ COVID PIVOT IS TRYING TO GET STARTED: What we talk about when we talk about a return to normal: The Biden White House thinks they’re doing it, but they’re not — yet. “Last week Joanne Kenen in Politico ran a hit piece on David Leonhardt on behalf of the public health community.”

The “public health community” needs to be running for cover, or donning sackcloth and ashes, rather than launching hit pieces. It’s had as abysmal a record over the last two years as any group of experts I can think of.

Plus: “It’s important to know things. But particularly as growing education polarization renders every community of subject-matter experts left-leaning, it’s important that progressive politics not become a logroll of deference to subject-matter experts.”

Too late! Also:

Covid-19 mitigation measures are causing burdens over and above the burden of disease per se. To the extent that disruptions are caused by sickness, we would expect to see more disruptions in conservative parts of the country with low vaccination rates. Instead, we see equal if not greater disruptions in liberal parts of the country, even though the higher vaccination rate reduces the burden of disease. That’s because those jurisdictions are implementing Covid-19 mitigation measures with costs that exceed their benefits. And by making high-vaccination places relatively dysfunctional, these mitigations are sending a negative (and inaccurate) signal about the power of vaccination to let people live their lives with confidence.

Tellingly, it’s not just that more liberal jurisdictions have these measures. The rules are specifically strictest in areas of life where left-wing people have the most political clout — universities and public schools — rather than in places with the highest objective level of vulnerability (nursing homes).

Leftists do a terrible job of making leftist values look appealing.