Repeat after me: The government arbitrarily classifying your business as essential or non-essential is the DEFINITION of a non-market condition.

And guess what? The government, at least in PA, only targeted or enforced their mandates on businesses granted special licenses to operate by the state. Bars, restaurants, salons - if you didn't need a license to operate from the health department, you could say "fuck off" to Tom Wolf. The hardware store in the town near me never closed, never required masks, and never limited occupancy. The hair salon next door? Closed for months under threat of losing their license.

>Both Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have been approved through regular channels at this point.

At this point? how about in 2021 when the government was trying to mandate them? And if your answer is yes, then why aren't ALL vaccines approved and rolled out in under a year?

>This is the sort of crackpot shit I'm talking about.

Are you giving information contradictory to the PA department of health or the CDC? Are you saying a bandana, gator, or steelers-print cloth mask prevent you from catching or transmitting covid?

>had we just ignored the pandemic and done nothing at all, things would have turned out better.

Uh, yeah... they would have turned out better because the things the government did didn't work. So doing nothing would have had the same results without the drawbacks of the government interference.

>The great majority of Pennsylvanians saw no more onerous government restrictions than restaurants being closed for a few months and kids learning from home. Comparing your "plight" to interment is some incredible self-satire.

If it was so hands-off and reasonable, why have they stopped? Why are there no mask mandates? Why did they change "fully vaccinated" from the first two shots, to the first two shots plus up to date on boosters, back to just the first two shots? Why, with only about a 20% uptake of the bi-valent booster aren't there vaccine and booster mandates, today? According to google, 569 people have died in the US from covid in the past 7 days. At this rate, it'll be another 9/11 before Easter!