“Experts” were confident that they knew what America should do about Covid. They were wrong about so much.

Officials pushed masks, including useless cloth ones. Dr. Anthony Fauci said, “Don’t wear masks” — then, “Do wear them.”

Some states closed playgrounds and banned motorboats and Jet Skis. Towns in New York banned using leaf-blowers. California pointlessly closed beaches and gave people citations for “watching the sunset.” The list goes on.

Sen. Rand Paul’s new book, “Deception,” argues that government experts didn’t just make mistakes; they were purposely deceitful. A few weeks ago, this column reported how Paul was correct in accusing Fauci of funding virus research in Wuhan and lying about it.

In my new video, we cover other government deceit.

Paul says, “There’s been one set of truths in private and another set of truths for the people who aren’t smart enough to make their decisions.”

He points out that Fauci, in private, told fellow bureaucrats that masking is pointless. Fauci wrote in one email: “The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through the material.”

But in public, complains Paul, Fauci would sometimes wear multiple masks

“Things that have no scientific basis in fact. … There’s two sets of information going out, one privately and one publicly.”

“Why?” I ask.

“They think that there could be hysteria. They’re in government. They need to do something. … So let’s get everybody occupied with wearing masks. … But in the end, the Cochrane analysis looked at 78 randomized studies and found that masks didn’t work at all.”

“N95 masks may work,” I say.

“The Cochrane analysis looked at the N95 and found they didn’t work very well,” Paul replies.

Another mistake: the virus is 500 times more likely to kill people ages 65 and up than kill kids. But our government told parents: mask your children. Some states kept kids out of schools for two years.

Also, “When they approved the third vaccine for children,” says Paul, “The first committee was the FDA committee. … They came out with the advice: 65 and older. Nobody else. The CDC had another vaccine committee. … They said the same thing … (but) Rochelle Walensky, a political appointee of Biden, overrode both scientific committees and said the vaccine booster should be given to six months and up.”

“Why? What’s the motivation?” I ask. “Get more people frightened, and then they’ll take the vaccine and that will save America?”

Paul says, “I think most of them are not very smart and they just blindly think, ‘Take the damn vaccine, shut up and take it. It’s good for you.'”

Has he been vaccinated?

“God gave me my vaccine.” He tells me. “I was naturally inoculated. But members of my family, my wife, got vaccinated. We’re not against the advice.”

I clarify, “‘Naturally inoculated,’ meaning you got Covid?”

“I had Covid, so I have immunity,” he replies.

At the start of the pandemic, Sweden’s health officials did not shut down restaurants or other businesses. They also announced that they would not close schools for younger children.

For doing that, Sweden was repeatedly trashed by American government officials and the media. Time Magazine called Sweden’s plan “a disaster.”

But the Swedish approach was right! Not only did Sweden escape the economic and social harm of lockdowns, but its Covid-related death rate was lower than that of most other countries.

“It turns out they did as well, or better, than most parts of Europe,” says Paul.

“Better,” I point out.

“They also didn’t mandate masks in schools (or) close the schools. Everything we did in this country was wrong.”

I push back. “On balance, vaccines were a good thing. They work for older people, people my age.” In fact, Republican anti-vax “messaging may have killed people!” Before the vaccine came out, an equal number of Republicans and Democrats died. But once the anti-vax messages spread, Republicans had a higher death rate.

Paul replies, “Vaccine hesitancy comes from people’s disbelief in government.”

He adds, “I think people learned from this … (learned) what to trust and what not to trust. People will be smarter the next time around.”

JOHN STOSSEL at JohnStossel.com, Stossel posts a new video about the battle between government and freedom every Tuesday at JohnStossel.com