The beauteous Ali McGraw, in the movie Love Story, tells us, "Love means never having to say you're sorry."

As the latest variant of COVID-19 sweeps the land, that movie line is also the mantra of federal, state, and local health officials.

They're doctors, some of them much like "Dr." Jill, and they love you, John Q. Citizen, so much that, even when they totally botch the U.S. response to the Wuhan Flu, causing untold death and misery, they feel no need to apologize.

So they will never apologize for ordering shutdowns.

"Everybody stay in your cave!" is a short-term provision for a wolf or a shooter on the loose.  Used on a large scale, society simply unravels.

We were supposed to shut down for only two weeks.

The extended and unnecessary countrywide shutdowns damaged children, mental health, small businesses, access to routine medical care, the arts, and...the list goes on.

But as the umpteenth variant of COVID-19 currently does its thing, it's obvious that shutdowns, especially prolonged ones — like children not remotely learning for two entire grades — had no positive effect.  Still, don't expect anyone in the health establishment to feel bad about the lockdowns they ordered.

How 'bout them masks?  COVID Mask Theater — that's what I called it in the beginning, and that's what I call it now.

I've worn paper surgical masks my whole working life, and for even modest protection against pathogens, you have to follow a strict protocol.  It involves frequent changing of masks, proper technique when changing masks, constant handwashing, and covering your mouth and nose with a well adapted mask, at a cost of thousands annually.

None of that happened during the pandemic.

It had no chance of happening, and the idiots in charge knew it.  For all the fiddling people did with their mostly improperly worn masks, they probably increased germ transmission.

Sadly, and those white coat bullies may not know this, much of human communication involves facial expression.  For some, interacting with an entire society wearing masks must have seemed like an eerie episode of The Twilight Zone.

Forcing people to "pretend mask" may or may not have done considerably more harm than good.  But there's no denying the damage mandated masking caused the American psyche, making the man on the street feel just a tad more isolated and disconnected from society.  Take a drive on Route 684 if you doubt me.

Still, don't expect a "sorry" from Fauci and his liberal disciples, many of whom were photographed having great fun, sans mask, with their fellow swells during the pandemic.  They knew that masking as a preventive measure against a virus was a joke.

The servants in those photos, however, all wore masks. Make of that what you will.

How 'bout the totally made-up six-foot "social distance"?  (And wouldn't "Social Distance" be a great name for a punk rock band?)

I wore masks my entire working life because, as a dentist, I was constantly being showered in aerosols of blood, saliva, and whatever.  And I assure you, saliva from quiet speaking may not travel six feet; but yelling, coughing, sneezing, and singing pretty much shower the entire room one's in with potentially COVID-laden spit.  The mandated six feet of social distancing was purely a placebo, and a crappy one at that, meant to calm the masses.

Did phony-baloney social distancing seriously damage the way people look at each other?  Did health officials not say all of these?  Stay with your tribe!  Stranger danger!  Mask on between bites!

They did, but they're apparently OK with the immeasurable harm they caused, encouraging citizens to regard one another as disease vectors, something to definitely steer clear of.

I hate to appropriate the great Dionne Warwick, but what the world needs now is love, not mandated social distancing.

The people who made that six-feet crap up should be ashamed of themselves.  But they're not — because they're rich, and you're not.  (See net worth, Fauci.)

My screed would not be complete without discussing the COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters.  They didn't work.  In fact, they failed miserably.

As per the definition of "vaccine," the formulations our white-coated masters forced upon us totally failed to prevent the acquisition or transmission of COVID disease.  When something makes disease symptoms less severe, it's not called a vaccine; it's called a "therapeutic," and it's something the patient decides whether to try or not — not some Trump-hating, scarf-wearing bureaucrat hoping to score a lucrative future book contract.

The failed COVID vaccines that were jammed down American throats, although protecting no one from getting or spreading the bug, did have quite a few other side-effects.

The failed vaccines made many, many people in Big Pharma and Big Government very wealthy.  And refusing to take the failed vaccine caused cops, doctors, nurses, and pilots, among others, to get fired!

People who refused the failed vaccine were abused and demonized by their liberal bosses, the media, Hollywood, Twitter, the Biden White House itself.  And at present, thousands of people have had adverse effects from the failed COVID vaccines, many in age groups, like children or teens, who are at very low risk of COVID mortality or morbidity in the first place.  But, thanks to the brotherhood of shady politicians and sketchy drug CEOs that exists in today's America, we'll never hear about them.

The drug-makers are already immune from vaccine damage suits, thanks to the lawmakers they donated to, and the politicians are more than happy to hawk a failed, potentially damaging product, as long as they get their slice of cheddar.  Neither group is remotely interested in stats on adverse events being kept, or, worse in their minds, being made public.

Our morally corrupt media will obligingly continue to sing the praises of both the failed vaccine and the multitude of public health bureaucrats profiteering from it, but the rapidly mutating virus that Democrats assure us had nothing to do with a Level 4 virology lab in Wuhan will simply continue to virus.

It's here to stay.  Soon it'll soon be rare to meet anyone who hasn't had COVID.

Shutdowns clearly did infinitely more damage than good.  Having the general population "pretend mask" was absurd from the get-go.  Six feet of social distancing was capricious and at least twenty yards short.  And relatively untested vaccines that ultimately failed were jabbed with immunity into the arms of a docile, trusting public, even as the fat cats got fatter.

You'd think you could at least get a "My bad!" and a shrug from the highly credentialed, richly compensated Dr. Fauci types spread, unfortunately, all across the fruited plains at the highest levels of government.  An "Oopsie!" for their hubris, mistakes, high crimes, and misdemeanors in the Great COVID-19 Response Fiasco.

But you won't.

Big Government means never having to say you're sorry.

Image: qimono via Pixabay, Pixabay License.