The GOP Thinks Relitigating the Pandemic Will Help Them in the Midterms. They Might Have One Small Point Here.

The conservative impulse to champion individual liberty—at least individual liberty as it applied to them—butted headfirst against the collectivist nature of a public health response. But more than that, they’ve pushed conspiracy theories that have spun policy disagreements and health misinformation into sordid tales of sadistic health officials. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“We harmed young people in very real ways,” said David Barnes, a public health historian at the University of Pennsylvania. These conspiracy theories will get picked up and circulated among the MAGA die-hard, he says, taking up space in political discussions. But the MAGA movement is committing to its story about the COVID pandemic, and in doing so, it has successfully legitimized fringe conspiracy theories and rewritten history for millions of Americans.