Commentary The sphere of public education has been subject to the same psychosis that has afflicted other spheres of society since March 2020. Those in charge of this sphere haven’t addressed the problem by encouraging scholarly debate and the exercise of the academy’s critical function. Taking their cue from forces outside the academy, and from irresponsible elements within it such as the notorious pandemic modeling of the Ferguson team at Imperial College London, they have instead contributed to the general dysfunction. Nearly two years on, academic bureaucrats in disposable plastic masks (whatever happened to the righteous revolt against single-use plastics?) still solemnly swear that we’re facing the most serious health crisis since the Spanish flu. That the infection fatality rate isn’t remotely like that of the Spanish flu isn’t mentioned. That their masks are designed to screen large droplets or dust particles, not tiny viruses or proteins, goes unremarked. That …