Tomorrow will be the fifth anniversary of then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's first statewide emergency declaration issued in response to COVID-19, setting up a long series of orders shuttering down businesses, closing schools, and ordering people to stay in their homes.
When enacted in early March 2020, Cuomo's order was the consensus policy response to the pandemic, endorsed by the first Trump administration and quickly replicated by most red state governors.
Meanwhile, critics of lockdowns were dismissed as dangerous, fringe characters who were peddling "nonsense" solutions or even experimenting with"human sacrifice."
