With President Donald Trump’s impending exit from the White House, many are starting to perceive pivots from Democratic leaders and the mainstream media on the ineffectiveness of lockdowns and the reopening of society.

For example, Newsweek ran an article Thursday titled “COVID Lockdowns May Have No Clear Benefit vs Other Voluntary Measures, International Study Shows.” The study, published in the European Journal of Clinical Investigation, found through a mathematical model that there was “no clear, significant beneficial effect of [more restrictive measures] on [COVID-19] case growth in any country.”

This is just one study, of course, so it may not reflect objective reality any more than one study which concludes that lockdowns saved “millions of lives.” But after getting bombarded with messages from the media that lockdowns were necessary—with the opposite message found only on explicitly conservative outlets like Big League Politics—it may seem too coincidental to see such a story while the changing of the presidential guard takes place.

Not only that, it also comes at a time when some Democratic leaders appear to be chomping at the bit to reopen restaurants, bars, and schools—after several months of harsh insistence that they all must stay closed in the name of “safety” and “public health.”

On Monday, for example, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York called for the reopening of the state’s economy “smartly and safely.”

“We simply cannot stay closed until the vaccine hits critical mass. The cost is too high. We will have nothing left to open. We must reopen the economy, but we must do it smartly and safely,” Cuomo tweeted.

We simply cannot stay closed until the vaccine hits critical mass. The cost is too high. We will have nothing left to open. We must reopen the economy, but we must do it smartly and safely.#SOTS2021

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) January 11, 2021

Mayor of Chicago Lori Lightfoot put out a similar call on Thursday, saying that bars and restaurants need to reopen “as quickly as possible” because it will help those businesses survive and reduce the number of large private parties and gatherings.

And incoming president Joe Biden recently pitched a $175 billion plan to return children to school, $130 billion of which would be for public elementary, middle, and high schools, the other $35 billion for colleges and universities. Many teachers unions stubbornly refused to return to in-person classes for the longest time, but now that Biden has come out in support of in-person classes, don’t be surprised to see them suddenly change their tune.

The left is so predictable, isn’t it?