As Tucker Carlson frequently says, because of the establishment’s response to COVID in 2020, the America we knew has been irrevocably changed, and not for the better. All of us can remember what led to that change: News out of China that hospitals were overrun and people dying in the streets because of a strange infection.

The West’s response was to turn itself into a series of prison nations—a decision that, in America, meant that a hugely successful president was driven from office. This December, the reports coming out from China—and the experts’ assessments—are eerily similar to what we heard before, and Democrats are reacting the same way. The question is whether ordinary Americans will let fear rule us again.

For almost three years, China had exceptionally draconian anti-COVID mandates, which Xi called his “Zero COVID” plan. Under the Zero COVID doctrine, whole cities have been locked down, people were denied food, children were seized and, generally, the Chinese Communist Party morphed from a police state to a super-duper police state. Viruses ignore things like that, and COVID is back in China.

Image: School children in masks. YouTube screen grab.

Along with COVID’s return comes the return of screaming headlines about “experts” predicting imminent mass death in China:

The Daily Mail: “'They work day and night but they can't burn them all': China's crematoriums 'are overwhelmed' as Beijing abandons failed Zero Covid strategy and experts say wave could kill 2m... but authorities insist only SEVEN people have died”

CNN: “China could see nearly a million deaths as it exits zero-Covid, study says”

Bloomberg: “China’s Covid Death Toll Could Near 1 Million, Study Shows”

Washington Post: “New models predict at least 1 million deaths in China amid covid surge”

These headlines sure sound like the headlines in January 2020, the same ones that panicked Democrat (and many conservative) Americans so badly that they willingly handed to the government all of their rights and freedoms—to worship, to work, to speak, to have access to a variety of medical treatments, to exercise, to get out into the fresh air, and to raise free children. Doing so trashed the economy, drastically increased depression and suicide, inflated the government and the currency, allowed the rise of BLM madness, damaged children’s physical and mental development, and drove Trump from office.

In various leftist regions, governments are already excitedly seeking to reinstate the COVID regime. In Canada, a government doctor engaged in a creepy little dialogue with “Mrs. Santa Claus,” during which children were urged to wear masks and get more of the same shots that do nothing to prevent COVID.

Meanwhile, here at home, the CDC and various Democrat doctors, bureaucrats, and politicians urged masking up again:

ABC News: “[Health] Officials urge mask-wearing as ‘tripledemic’ grows: What parents should know”

Chicago Sun-Times: “As Chicago moves toward higher COVID-19 risk, Lightfoot urges all to update their shots: Mayor says mask “advisory” is coming as virus cases rise.”

NewsNation: “CDC urges masking return as tripledemic surges”

San Francisco Chronicle: “COVID in California: CDC urges all holiday travelers to mask up as infection soars”

New York Post: “Mayor Eric Adams urges New Yorkers to mask up amid surge in COVID, flu and RSV”

All these warnings come just as the White House finally admitted what sensible people knew all along, which is that the masks are useless against these viruses. (The sensible person’s analogy is that, because viruses are so small, it’s like using a chain-link fence to block a mosquito.)

White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha did, however, make the stunning admission during a recent online discussion that masks aren’t the magic safety net that we’ve been told:

“There is no study in the world that shows that masks work that well.”

While masks may block that big glob of goo that comes out when you cough from a cold or tuberculosis, it’s useless against that ordinary exhalation of air that’s teaming with viruses.

In other words, the experts were wrong about masks, as they were wrong about lockdowns, the war against hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, ending people’s ability to exercise, etc. Everything the “experts” said was bass-ackwards, so why should we believe them now, when they’re undoubtedly trying to set us up for another “panic justifying a government power grab”?

I’m sorry for what the Chinese are experiencing because it sounds just vile, but I’m not ready to be stampeded into another episode of “1984 in America.”