The most significant pandemic of our lifetime arrived as the United States was experiencing three major societal trends: a growing divide between partisans of the left and right, decreasing trust in many institutions, and a massive splintering of the information environment.

COVID-19 did not cause any of this, but these forces fueled the country’s divided response. Looking back, nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults (72%) say the pandemic did more to drive the country apart than to bring it together.

If the world seems to you a little nastier and more confrontational than it was just a few years ago, you're not alone. Many Americans say the world is a ruder place than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic and the public health responses that closed too many businesses and schools, effectively confined some to their homes, and isolated large numbers of people. Unfortunately, both current evidence and history suggest we may be stuck with a coarser world for years to come.

Imagine my surprise when, Sunday, I read a New York Times editorial admitting that “We Were Badly Misled” about Covid as it was happening.

The op-ed matter of factly concluded what we’ve all known for years — that despite being the overwhelmingly most “common sense” place to look, the Covid-19 lab leak theory was dismissed by scientists and public health officials, who suppressed discussions and misled the public to maintain the appearance of consensus.

The New York Times published an opinion column claiming the scientific community "badly misled" the public in an effort to suppress the theory that COVID-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan, China, even after the paper's own science writer called the theory "racist." 

Since scientists began playing around with dangerous pathogens in laboratories, the world has experienced four or five pandemics, depending on how you count. One of them, the 1977 Russian flu, was almost certainly sparked by a research mishap. Some Western scientists quickly suspected the odd virus had resided in a lab freezer for a couple of decades, but they kept mostly quiet for fear of ruffling feathers.

New York City can't penalize its employees for being unvaccinated, a state court says. In a decision published yesterday, Judge Ralph J. Porzio held that city employees who were fired for not being vaccinated against COVID-19 must be reinstated and receive back pay.

Government lockdowns enacted in response to the spread of COVID may have caused the “first major reversal” in nearly two decades for American fertility rates, according to a new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Forging vaccine cards, passing off fake medicine as the Moderna vaccine, and billing hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent tests are among the criminal activity alleged by the Department of Justice Wednesday as it unveiled a slew of COVID-related fraud charges.

The government is charging 21 people across the country in cases totaling $149 million in alleged COVID fraud. Charges include taking kickbacks, exploiting the Telehealth system, and misusing aid from the CARES Act.

While inflation has risen to record levels over the past year, leading to rising prices of goods, some companies have taken advantage of the situation.

A new report by Accountable.US reveals that some companies, in an effort to increase profits, engaged in price gouging and rose costs exponentially on consumers both during the COVID-19 pandemic and as inflation started to grow. The report named companies that were found to have engaged in the practice.

Given “emerging parent power” in the nation’s public schools, school districts would be wise to embrace such convictions, according to a new report from Georgetown University’s public policy think tank FutureEd.

“Prioritizing more meaningful parental engagement stands to increase parents’ trust, reduce rancor and provide local education leaders with valuable new insight into student needs, especially from low-income parents and parents of color who have long been relegated to public education’s periphery,” the report states.