When you say it out loud, it’s a wonder we ever believed any of it.

Bridge Michigan tells us Covid was a lot less deadly than we were sold in 2020. 

Mike Wilkinson reports: “Michigan officials in October corrected an accounting error that led to the underreporting of 200,000 COVID-19 cases since 2020. During the omicron wave in 2021 and 2022, weekly case counts were 25% to 30% higher than what was reported at the time.”

The “Covid numbers” were always fake, that is to say. Remember how news websites in Michigan ran daily updates of the “Covid numbers,” based on state data? Those were always an undercount. Deaths were all-inclusive of anyone who had Covid, or was assumed to have it. But case counts were always much less than we knew, or could have known.

Let’s think this through. These 200,000 cases the state admits to are just the beginning. How many people, like myself, got the virus but were never tested? Or took at-home tests that don’t reflect in the state data? How many people got the virus and never knew it?

The more cases of Covid, the less deadly Covid was per capita. It’s safe to say this four years later, with Gretchen Whitmer’s presidential aspirations brought low and the governor reduced to something between a lame duck and an abortion influencer. 

But Covid and the image of a dangerous global virus was useful back then. They were tools used to seek regime change, to foster an impression that Donald Trump had left America vulnerable. Pandemic panic was good for Democrats like Whitmer, and it was good for the media that covers her. 

What looked to be a partnership back then was actually mutually assured destruction, with a four-year timer. 

Whitmer declared a state of emergency with just two cases in Michigan—but made sure she waited until the Democratic presidential primary was decided. 

Whitmer said the virus was deadly, and required us to either stay home or stand six feet apart. Then she traveled to Highland Park to march arm-in-arm with Black Lives Matter.

Whitmer said Florida was a hotbed for Covid, then flew to Florida to see her father. Then her health director, Elizabeth Hertel, vacationed there. 

Whitmer said travel was dangerous, then flew her daughters to Joe Biden’s inauguration at the height of Covid deaths. 

Whitmer said we couldn’t push tables together at a restaurant, then pushed tables together at a Lansing restaurant. When she was caught on camera, she scrapped the rule. 

By word, Whitmer was treating Covid as a deadly global virus. By deed, Whitmer was telling you that you’ll be fine, probably, if you’re not already old or sick.

Whitmer said we should upturn our lives and livelihoods to save grandma, then put sick old people into the nursing home with grandma. 

Theoretical grandma deserved every sacrifice we could make, every suffering we could bear.

Actual grandma was left afraid and alone, not seeing as much as a smile in her last days. No love. No touch. No familiar faces. We were all in this together, so grandma must die alone. 

Your media did not ask questions during Covid. 

Rather than cover Whitmer, they covered for her. Rather than question how one woman could scrap our state constitution, and the checks-and-balances of government, the media became Whitmer’s amen corner. 

They treated defenders of the constitution as sexists who couldn’t stomach female leadership. 

They waited in line for their pre-written questions to be answered, maybe, on the governor’s Zoom call. 

They explained the governor rather than question her. And in that moment, it seemed to work. For everybody. With a captive audience, they saw record-high numbers, and Whitmer was That Woman from Michigan—a president in the making, possibly. 

Four years later, the Whitmer-media alliance has failed. Whitmer’s memoir did not launch her to the A-list of possible replacements for Biden. Instead, it relegated her to the B-team. While Kamala Harris was efforting a loss, Whitmer was in bars and on party buses, supposedly doing her part to help.

But the Dorito Communion video didn’t help. Trump won Michigan, and Republicans took the House. Whitmer’s influence wasn’t strong enough to push a family friend, Curtis Hertel Jr., to victory in a Lansing-area seat. 

The Whitmer era is over. And the Lansing media has never been less relevant. 

While Whitmer takes selfies and tries to win social media accolades, Michigan’s flagship newspapers are homeless. They were last seen begging for dimes.

Turns out, Whitmer and the media really were in it together. The way Thelma & Louise were in the car together. 

James David Dickson is host of the Enjoyer Podcast. Join him in conversation on X @downi75.