The systematic corruption of basically all our public policy institutions over the last two generations has quite a bit to do with the topic at hand, which was

The systematic corruption of basically all our public policy institutions over the last two generations has quite a bit to do with the topic at hand, which was the response to the pandemic. And not you obviously, but my point is that "nobody could have predicted" is such an overused response by people with authority it should be banned. In every relevant instance of major policy failure people actually did predict it, but the people in charge were corrupted by the wrong incentives, made predictable mistakes, and don't feel like being held accountable for it.