WaPo columnist blasted for saying she's 'totally uninterested' in who was wrong about COVID lockdowns

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Washington Post columnist Alyssa Rosenberg faced blowback on Twitter after suggesting that it’s unimportant to determine who was "wrong" about school lockdowns.

On Thursday, Rosenberg published a column acknowledging the devastating impact remote learning had on students during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

"As a country, we asked kids to make enormous sacrifices on behalf of everyone else during the worst of the pandemic. It came at a tremendous cost. It's time to start thinking about how to pay them back," Rosenberg tweeted.

Continuing the thread, she also added, "I am basically totally uninterested in who was right and who was wrong in the summer of 2020. Kids don't need adults' self-justifications. They need us to get moving and looking forward."

Students walk to class amid the COVID-19 pandemic at Washington Elementary School Jan. 12, 2022, in Lynwood, California.  (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

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Twitter users soon began criticizing the post for sidestepping who was to blame for the harmful lockdowns.

"I am very interested in who was right and who was wrong because we need to make sure that the people who made bad policy will never make policy affecting children again," Deseret News contributing writer Bethany Mandel wrote.

"Tell me you’re wrong without telling me you’re wrong," conservative writer Courtney Kirchoff tweeted.

RealClearInvestigations senior writer Mark Hemingway brought up today's controversies about transgender youth transition and tweeted, "10 years from now: ‘I am basically totally uninterested in who was encouraging children to take puberty blockers and surgically transition. Kids don't need adults' self-justifications. They need us to get moving and looking forward.’"

A "closed" sign in front of a public elementary school in Grand Rapids, Michigan in March 2020. Media outlets largely ignored the impact of school closures during the pandemic. (iStock)

Law professor Jonathan Adler wrote, "What about those who were wrong in 2021 and 2022?"

National Review podcast host Jeff Blehar tweeted, "Nah I’m pretty interested in it. Because if we don’t specifically identify who was to blame, and how they screwed up, those people will remain in power and WILL do it again. There’s no learning from mistakes if you just don’t accept on a fundamental level that you made one."

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Utilizing data from the World Ban, The Economist reported that remote learning and COVID lockdowns will likely lead to a $21 trillion loss in earnings over the lifetimes of children today and called the policies a "global disaster." The McKinsey consulting firm also estimated that closures will represent an annual loss of $1.6 trillion in the global GDP.

Most mainstream media outlets were slow to acknowledge the damage caused by remote learning, many times spearheaded by Democratic state leaders and teachers unions. By March 2022, Washington Post finally began noting that schools that worked to stay open during the pandemic had students who "flourished" more than schools that were closed. 

A general view of the message board in front of Millburn High School during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which reads, "Schools Closed but We Never Cancel Hope" on May 9, 2020 in Millburn, New Jersey. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

In April, Rosenberg also criticized the Biden administration for assuming that parents are "too stupid" make decisions for their kids regarding vaccines.

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"Apparently, the administration thinks parents are too feebleminded to parse that different vaccines with different dosages might have different levels of efficacy or require a different number of shots," Rosenberg wrote at the time.

Fox News’ Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.