What an excellently written and cogent take. Since so much of the covid messaging comes from the government and is filtered, approved, and "fact-checked", an od

What an excellently written and cogent take. Since so much of the covid messaging comes from the government and is filtered, approved, and "fact-checked", an odd echo chamber of information gathers strength. Almost 2 years into this and the only US official allowed to discuss the risks and threats of this virus is one person - Tony Fauci. The man is frankly in love with himself and his own celebrity. Why is this the only person we can get to speak to us about what's going on? I'm grateful we live in a diverse republic where the opposing party is openly critical of this man, his advice, and his record. At this point, like it's been with chicken pox and other viruses, it seems less risky to just let our kids contract the Omicron variant than to expose them to a vaccine with the "rare" effect of myocarditis. I've never trusted the pharmaceutical companies in this country, so why should I now? Because "fact-checkers" on Twitter, Facebook and NPR, who receive government funding, tell me to? And yet if I try to express this sentiment in my circles, I risk being called a conspiracy theorist or worse, "anti-vaxxer", even though my wife and I are vaccinated. What's up with that?