We Wuz Robbed. BiglyBigly.

While Childers doesn't mention it, it was Donald Trump who declared the 'pandemic emergency'.  He wasn't alone; almost every subordinate Government--states, counties, municipals, animal-shelter zones, water and sanitation districts--also declared 'pandemic' emergencies.

What happened next?

 ...[There was] a disgusting, corrupt layer of icing on top of all the official scientific grants, hospital enhancements, forgivable loans, media buys, and influencer payments that we already know about. The pandemic was an institutional buffet for profiteers at every level. The crisis infrastructure empowered schemes from federal loan fraud to no‑bid city-level deals and county vaccination contract abuses.

The incentives created by pandemic profiteering —both official and under-the-table— help explain why so many nonsensical, contradictory, or unnecessary policies were not just implemented, but defended to the death.

Emergency declarations loosened procurement laws, disabled competitive bidding, and unlocked vast sums of state and federal money. Every time the emergency was renewed, the money-printing spigot stayed on. That gave agencies, contractors, lobbyists, and connected middlemen a direct financial incentive to keep the virus crisis going— which meant keeping the “emergency” alive.

The longer the pandemic panic lasted, the more masks, tests, tracing apps, vaccines, cleaning contracts, covid loans, hotel rates, and compliance consultants got funded.

The pandemic didn’t just reward obedience. It financially punished dissent and financially rewarded compliance, creating a self-reinforcing system where going along meant getting paid, and pushing back meant getting sidelined, censored, or unemployed.

Doctors, nurses, school administrators, tech companies, hospital managers, even pastors who went along with mask mandates, school closures, vaccine pushes, and social distancing were financially propped up, either through direct funding, liability waivers, and opportunities for new revenue streams (virtual learning, telehealth, emergency contracts, etc)....

Earlier we mentioned the cost-of-Government vis-a-vis the exodus of various industries from this country; the first comment in the combox is an outstanding essay on "Government Man" which fits very well into this post, too. 

Government is a necessary evil.  No more, no less.

Accent on the "evil," please.