Hope for the best, plan for the worst. 

This was the philosophy that spurred us to pull our child out of school in the final weeks of the 2020 school year, when parents and relatives and students were planning to pack like sardines into cramped auditoriums for awards ceremonies and end-of-the-year celebrations. 

It was a precautionary philosophy that spurred us to stock up on essentials in the early days of February 2020 when most Americans were yawning over sensational mainstream media coverage of a China flu that seemed too far off to matter.

We weathered the weary stares of skeptical onlookers as we loaded carts full of water and whiskey, bacon and coffee, donning Nitrile gloves and N95 masks.

And for the record, yes, we confess, it was us — selfish hoarders with little regard for our soon-to-be-paperless brethren — who stored pallets of water and toilet paper weeks before the rest of the country figured out that WuFlu wasn’t a conspiracy.

And we had little sympathy, either for the ignorant (for while it is bliss, it is no excuse, in law or in logic) or the skeptical, because timing is what separates a fool from a sage.

We happened to be wrong. Supply-chain shortages were short-lived and COVID deaths unfortunately hit the immuno-compromised first and hardest. Mask mandates and lockdowns mattered little. While policies varied state to state, the virus marched to its own drum. Cases fell everywhere regardless of local government interventions, and populations rejoiced as vaccines saved the world. 

And then cases rose again.

Many predicted it. Actual scientists and clever commentators alike warned that the big-G Government would give you a taste of liberation with a full, free, and open summer, only to clamp down again with increasingly Draconian measures as Fall approached.

And that’s exactly what happened. 

While officials pointed fingers at the unvaccinated, they ignored the statistical impossibility of how cases in August (with a 70%-vaccinated population) could surpass infection rates from February, when virtually 0% of the population was vaccinated.

Now we know why. 

It was in the fine print all along, with public health officials and Big Pharma executives warning early on that immunity could wane from three to six months after vaccination, and that boosters may be necessary. 

To their credit, the “experts” weren’t completely off base this time.

By July, cases started to rise and booster shots were the new strategy. What they didn’t account for (publicly, at least) was simple evolution.

All pathogens naturally mutate, and vaccines can actually increase the rate of mutation, creating new strands that make pathogens increasingly resistant to vaccination. 

This is the missing link. 

For those who blamed an ever-shrinking minority of the population for the spike recent in cases, simple evolution had the answer: We can see more COVID cases today, with 70% vaccinated, than we did in early 2020 when virtually 0% of the population was vaccinated, because vaccines spur a natural evolution in the virus.

If you didn’t know this, you can blame the technocrats running our public health institutions, and you can blame the mainstream media. But it doesn’t matter. If you got the vaccine so you could go back to your normal life, you were duped, and there is some sympathy there.

But not much.

If vaccines actually increase the likelihood of mutation, booster shots will too.

The power of defiance lies in action. If you claim to be vehemently opposed to masking your children as a condition of returning to school, then don’t do it. 

Sadly, few parents carried through on their threat to remove their kids from public school if their governments required masking. They knew the science and ignored it out of convenience. The frustration comes from knowing that if more people had put their foot down — and left it — our schools would be half empty and our public officials would be changing their tune.

Just a week into the new school year, at least seven New Mexico schools have already switched to remote learning in response to COVID outbreaks.

Rio Rancho High School and V. Sue Cleveland High School are the latest to announce temporary closures, joining Goddard High School in Roswell, Belen High School, Los Lunas High School, Carlsbad High School, and Carlsbad Intermediate School-PR Levya campus.

More are sure to follow.

You were told that a vaccine would prevent transmission, and it didn’t. You were told masks worked, and they didn’t. You were told you could return to your normal life if you just followed orders. Out of convenience, you put your kid in a muzzle and sent them on their way, hoping it was a short-term remedy. 

It wasn’t, and now your kids are home anyway.

If the rule that you followed brought you to this, to quote a famous movie, of what use was the rule.

There is no question mark there because it is a rhetorical question. The rule, of acquiescence out of convenience, proved useless.

If you saw this coming — because even Dr. Anthony Fauci said cloth masks would not prevent transmission of COVID — and you went along with it out of convenience, the frustration of having your kids out of school is completely on you.

The question now becomes whether or not you continue to obey. Do you mask your kids for school for three or four days only to have them sent home every two or three days for mandatory disinfecting, or do you do what you said you’d do from the beginning.

That, too, is a rhetorical question.