It’s tempting to try to forget the COVID-19 pandemic. Nobody likes to dwell on bad memories. But we do ourselves no favors if we forget how the federal, state, and local governments responded to the crisis — especially the public health bureaucracies.

From the possible source of the virus in China to the effectiveness of masks to social distancing to school closures to vaccine mandates, officials squandered the public’s trust and goodwill with dishonesty, arrogance, and authoritarianism.