Final Word from Wednesday, January 6, 2021

In every language a person lies in a different way, at least idiomatically. In Czech, a person lies like a newspaper (lže, jako když tiskne). In English, a person lies through his teeth, or homonymously, lies like a rug. The covid crisis is an opportunity, as Andrej Babiš said. It gives us the chance to unite our most pernicious liars under a single idiom easily understood in all Western languages, at least until the covid crisis causes some of these languages to wither and die. A person who "lies like an epidemiologist" uses his or her professional degrees and position to introduce a great lie into the public debate that is then built upon to create more lies. The original lie of the epidemiologists is that the coronavirus is so contagious and so deadly that anyone who is infected but asymptomatic must be locked down. This lie lives on, disproving the Czech saying that a lie has short legs and won't go far. When a person lies like an epidemiologist, the lie becomes immortal ... and societies die. [ Czech Republic epidemiology lockdown infection quaratntine isolation lying ]