The Pandemic Did This? New York Times Fails Fact Check

The first paragraph states that “National test results released on Thursday showed in stark terms the pandemic’s devastating effects on American schoolchildren, with the performance of 9-year-olds in math and reading dropping to the levels from two decades ago.” 

"Then came the pandemic, which shuttered schools across the country almost overnight" and "Experts say it will take more than the typical school day to make up gaps created by the pandemic."

Thus, a pandemic is a disease that spreads rapidly to many people all over the world.

Based on this pretty much universally accepted definition, a pandemic can do exactly one thing: it can spread disease to many people around the world.

A pandemic cannot block borders or force people to stop traveling.

A pandemic cannot shutter schools - overnight or otherwise.

In case there's any doubt that the effects of a pandemic are separate and distinct from society's response to the pandemic, we can take a look at Sweden, where schools were never shut down, and where there was no learning loss and much less devastation to schoolchildren than in countries that closed schools during the Covid pandemic.

Blaming the pandemic for anything other than disease and/or death is misinformation.

https://brownstone.org/articles/the-pandemic-did-this-new-york-times-fails-fact-check/