One of the cardinal sins of journalism is something called “burying the lede.” Translated, that means sticking the most important piece of news somewhere in the body of the story, rather than in the first paragraph where it belongs.

You’d think The New York Times would know better. You would be wrong. 

In fact, you had to plod through 16 tedious paragraphs of yesterday’s merry Times story - “A Positive Covid Milestone” about how covid deaths have dropped sharply to get to the real news.

An admission that covid deaths were greatly exaggerated to begin with by peddlers of fear during the pandemic. 

Here it is:

Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths.

The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions.

We all heard credible accounts of people who died in car accidents who were counted as Covid casualties. And elderly folks already on life support for terminal diseases who tested positive and were included in covid deaths.

Anything to inflate the numbers and scare Americans into hiding under their beds.

Once again, those of us who urged the government to tap the brakes on the fear-mongering from the start of the lockdowns were right.

Yet we continue to wait in vain for apologies from those who stomped all over the U.S. Constitution during the pandemic.

Frankly, I don’t believe they’ll ever admit they were wrong, say they’re sorry and promise to never again sacrifice liberties for fear.

We need to remain vigilant.

Given half a chance, power hungry politicians will do it again.