Internet responds to professor asking for ‘pandemic amnesty’ after calling for mandates

An op-ed published in The Atlantic Monday drew fire from social media users for calling for a “pandemic amnesty”. 

“Let’s declare a pandemic amnesty,” reads the headline of the article by Brown University Economics Professor Emily Oster. “We need to forgive one another for what we did and said when we were in the dark about COVID.” 

Oster was an unabashed supporter of mandates throughout the pandemic. In April 2020 she called for widespread lockdowns and school closures. 

“Even if schools are not themselves major vectors, there are places which need a more full lockdown like, right now,” Oster tweeted at the time. “How have we let bars and indoor dining be open and are not focused on schools? Where are the resources? I cannot see an end or a solution. I’m sad.” 

In November 2020 Oster called for another lockdown: 

“Wildly unpopular and politically infeasible but: I think Governors should consider a short term total lockdown over thanksgiving week.” 

In April 2021 Oster said she was “in favor of vaccine mandates for students,” and in July pushed for employer vaccine mandates. 

In August 2021 Oster recommended parents of unvaccinated children wear masks indoors. 

Now, Oster wants a “pandemic amnesty”. 

“But the thing is: we didn’t know,” claims Oster in the article, failing to identify the “we”. In the article, Oster also pushes the false claim that “the public health community had to spend a lot of time and resources urging Americans not to inject themselves with bleach,” a throwback to a media disinformation campaign in 2020 fabricated to discredit the early COVID cure hydroxychloroquine and President Trump. 

Many people, however, have not been quick to forget COVID-19 mandates and those like Oster who pushed for them. 

“They closed your church. They closed your schools. They took your job. They made you wear a mask that didn’t work. They made you cancel family gatherings and funerals. And now they just want you to forget about it. NOPE,” tweeted Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) in response to the article. 

“They made you cancel funerals and say goodbye to loved ones over Skype,” echoed Congressman Troy Nehls (R-TX). “No pandemic amnesty. Accountability is coming.” 

“Absolutely f*cking not,” commented influencer John Cardillo. “These savages destroyed lives, ruined children, forced the elderly to die alone and not have funerals, and now they want forgiveness. Never.” 

“Everyone of these leftists asking for ‘pandemic amnesty’ should die in prison, poverty, shame, or preferably all of the above,” he added in a separate tweet. 

“On behalf of my autistic son who did speech therapy in a f*cking mask for two years and is now in Kindergarten significantly behind his peers, go f*ck yourself. I'll never forgive you wretched, authoritarian human stains.”

“No @ProfEmilyOster, we will not forgive,” wrote former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) staff member Vish Burra. “No, we will not forget. Yes we will completely and totally punish you. Yes we definitely want to see you in jail. Yes your livelihood should definitely be stripped from you. There is no pandemic amnesty. Only vengeance.” 

“You cannot just declare a pandemic amnesty after supporting this,” tweeted one netizen above a video of an NYPD squadron ordering a young mother and her frightened child to leave a restaurant for not being vaccinated.

Other notable responses include: 

“Uhh..  We absolutely knew.   People were banned for asking questions.  Doctors who knew were banned for trying to inform people.  F*ck off Atlantic.” 

“Remember, they fired you, fined you, closed your business, closed your school, forced you to get vaccinated, forced you wear a mask, caused record inflation, a recession, sent billions to pharma and testing companies. They didn’t forgive you.” 

“No. One side threatened to imprison and even kill the other. Peace was never an option.” 

“Not on your life. People who have lost children and grandparents and husbands and jobs and friends have a much longer memory than the overlords hope.” 

“Wtf is ‘pandemic amnesty’? If they expect us to let this go...they are mistaken. I want heads on pikes.”