Conservatives slam Ivy League prof who demanded 'pandemic amnesty' for those who pushed lockdowns

A Brown University Professor is facing backlash from conservatives for demanding 'pandemic amnesty' for those who championed masking, lockdowns and vaccines.

Economist Emily Oster earned harsh criticism from her opinion piece in The Atlantic, 'Let's Declare a Pandemic Amnesty,' where she called on Americans to forgive and forget some of the failings of the COVID mandates. 

The liberal professor said that people were acting on the information they had at the time when they pushed for ineffective cloth masks, for schools to be shut down, and to reprimand those who refused to get vaccinated. 

Conservatives, many of whom criticized the mandates, said there was no room for amnesty because of how far children have fallen behind in school and that people lost their jobs because of the rules.

'Funny how the calls for amnesty come right before Republicans take charge,' Fox News Contributor Lisa Boothe tweeted, referencing the GOP's expected victory in the midterms next week. 

Brown University Professor Emily Oster (above) faces harsh criticism for calling on Americans to forgive and forget the failings of the COVID-19 mandates 

In her opinion piece for The Atlantic, Oster said Americans needed to move forward instead of focusing on the past, which created outrage online from conservatives 

Lisa Boothe, of Fox News, noted the timing of the piece just as Republicans are expected to take control of the House and Senate. Conservatives have long criticized the effectiveness of the COVID mandates and their impact on schools and the economy 

Conservative commentator Lauren Chen told Oster there would only be forgiveness if she apologizes for her previous tweets, which called on family members to shame each other into getting vaccinated. 

'Forgiveness usually comes after an apology,' Chen tweeted. 'I see no apology in this piece. 

'Remember how you encouraged family members to pressure each other and the unvaxxed to be fired? Perhaps a little I'm sorry for that' would be a good place to start.'

Business expert and TV personality Carol Roth joined in on the criticism, tweeting: 'Counterpoint: we could hold people accountable and make sure bs like this doesn’t happen again.' 

Libs of TikTok, an account that typically mocks progressives, agreed that there needed to be some accountability, not forgiveness. 

'Hell no. I’ll never forget what the Democrats did- how they destroyed thousands of lives by forcing school/business closures, people died alone in hospitals while nurses danced because they didn’t allow visitors, thousands lost their jobs for refusing a vax, list goes on and on.' 

Gerogi Boorman, a contributor for The Federalist, echoed the criticism and said it was hypocritical of Oster to say that the failures of the mandates were not a 'moral failing.'

'No, actually disinviting relatives to family gatherings because they refused a jab is a moral failing, Boorman wrote. 'Calling people "reckless" or "murderers" for not wearing a mask is a moral failing. Pushing the burden of protecting the elderly onto children was a moral failing.' 

Many conservatives took to Twitter to slam Oster for her call for amnesty 

Defending her idea on NPR on Friday, Oster said that the chaos and high infection rate of the pandemic forced people to make quick decisions that they believed was for the best of society. 

'We were all trying to do the thing that we thought was best - that we thought was best for our families, that we thought was best for society - in a world of basically no information, of just tremendous uncertainty.' 

Rather than focus on who was right and who was wrong, Oster said American's needed to move on to focus on fixing the damage of the pandemic. 

According to the Education Recovery Scorecard, which gathered a district-by-district analysis of test scores, the average student lost more than half a school year of learning in math and nearly a quarter of a school year in reading.

The report said the pandemic devastated children's well-being, not just by closing their schools, but also by taking away their parents' jobs, sickening their families and teachers, and adding chaos and fear to their daily lives.

'When you have a massive crisis, the worst effects end up being felt by the people with the least resources,' said Stanford education professor Sean Reardon, who compiled and analyzed the data along with Harvard economist Thomas Kane. 

The average American child fell behind six months in math (above) and about three months in reading due to COVID school closures, according to a new study

Students in Hopewell, Virginia, which is predominantly low-income, lost about 2.29 years in math, while in Rochester, New Hampshire, where about half the student body lives in poverty, kids are behind two years in reading. And kids in Memphis, Tennessee, fell behind in math and English by a year

NAEP assessment results are reported as average scores on a 0-500 scale. They are derived from student responses to assessment questions, and summarize overall performance levels

Online learning played a major role, but students lost significant ground even where they returned quickly to schoolhouses, especially in math scores in low-income communities.

Reading and math scores are one of the only aspects of children's development reliably measured nationwide.

'Test scores aren't the only thing, or the most important thing,' Reardon said. 'But they serve as an indicator for how kids are doing.'

And kids aren't doing well, especially those who were at highest risk before the pandemic. The data show many children need significant intervention, and advocates and researchers say the US isn't doing enough.

In some districts, students lost more than two years of math learning, according to Reardon and Kane's data. Hopewell, Virginia, a school system of 4,000 students who are mostly low-income and 60 percent Black, showed an average loss of 2.29 years of school. 

The data provides the most comprehensive look yet at how much schoolchildren have fallen behind academically, with the federal government's own report card indicating that math and reading scores have reached record lows. 

Dozens of protesters march across the Brooklyn Bridge last fall denouncing the vaccine mandate which went into effect

COVID mandates also took their toll on jobs as teachers, law enforcement and many others were fired for refusing to get vaccinated. 

In New York City, more than 1,750 city workers were fired for refusing to get vaccinated, including 850 teachers and classroom aides. 

Last week, Staten Island Supreme Court Justice Ralph Porzio ordered city officials to reinstate and hand back pay to the axed employees. 

In his ruling, Porzio wrote that former city Health Commissioner David Choksi's October 20, 2021 vaccine mandate 'violates the separation of powers doctrine' enshrined in the United States Constitution. 

The city's Legal Department, though, has said it is already appealing the decision, which a spokesman says 'conflicts with numerous other rulings already upholding the mandate.' 

Our comprehensive Covid Performance Index of the 50 states and Washington DC analyzed the results of government policies to determine what worked and what didn't. (Above chart shows study results) The 'Combined Score' in the third column from the left combines the three metrics (economy, education and mortality from virus).  The 'Economy rank' is shown in the sixth column from the left.  The 'Education rank' is shown is the eight column.  The 'Covid mortality rank' is shown in the 10th column. 

Stephen Moore, co-author of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity's Final Report Card on State Responses to Covid-19 that measured and compared how states handled the pandemic, highlighted the impact of the COVID mandates. 

'Our bottom-line conclusion: The strictest economic and societal lockdowns did not save lives, but they did have severe consequences,' Moore wrote for the DailyMail. 

'In 2020, the U.S. economy declined by more than in any year in 75 years.

'Tens of millions of jobs were lost in 2020 and even today total employment is about two million below the pre-Covid peak in January 2020.

'And our children suffered. Missed school days and poor-quality remote learning have caused significant learning loss for entire generations of students with long-lasting personal and societal costs.' 

Moore wrote that  Red states fared far better than blue states, although there were exceptions.

'But overall the picture is clear: The poorest performing states opted for heavy-handed lockdowns that wreaked havoc on local economies, while still suffering very high death rates from the virus,' Moore wrote.