HOWIE CARR ON COVID DERANGEMENT SYNDROME: Coronavirus has the Karens and Biden voters cowering.

Covid Derangement Syndrome — it’s real, and there was a massive outbreak of it this week.

Three states announced they were ending the absurd yearlong “mask mandates,” and the left’s collective head exploded in outrage.

The reason is because this isn’t about public health anymore, or even politics, if it ever was. COVID is now the state religion, and the decisions by these GOP governors aren’t seen as a policy dispute, they’re considered heresy.

Only an infidel or an apostate denies that there is a … mild seasonal virus out there. Half the population cowers in abject terror — afflicted with CDS.

In New England, the leading prophet of the new faith is Gov. Charlie Baker. On Wednesday, in his daily sermon to the faithful, Tall Deval outlined the significance of the Mask in his strange cult:

“I think the mask mandate has been an important element in both encouraging behavior but also in sending a message about the importance of recognizing and understanding that COVID is still very much with us.”

He sounds like earlier generations of clergymen railing against the devil’s unending temptations, doesn’t he? But his real “message” is — we’re in charge, and you will do what you’re told.

It used to be said, if you want to send a message, call Western Union. Now you just tell people they’re going to be afflicted with prolonged suffering and a gooey death if they don’t obey your orders, no matter how preposterous.

And half the population — the feeble-minded, the Biden voters, the Karens — will instantly comply.

QED, someone who bills herself as a “Syndicated op-ed columnist @washingtonpost, commentator @cnn, special correspondent @newshour” admitting that she’s incapable of doing her job as a fact and opinion gathering journalist:

She better get used to mask burning parties eventually ­going nationwide in the coming year as more and more people are vaccinated.