Dr. Phil McGraw is warning Americans to begin thinking about the "next pandemic."

On his show this week, Dr. Phil hosted guests who explained the problems associated with pandemic lockdowns. One guest, a teacher, detailed the extensive learning loss and behavioral challenges in schools today. Another guest told the story of her business being classified "non-essential" during the pandemic, leading to her arrest after she defied authorities.

The lessons that Americans should learn from the COVID pandemic are clear, according to Dr. Phil: We need a better plan for next time.

"My concern is when the next pandemic turns the corner, who's got the plan then? What was learned from this? Because you don't hear anybody talking about it, do you?" Dr. Phil said. "I want to force people to say, 'we need to get ready for when this happens again.' And I'm not some conspiracy theorist saying they're coming to get us and lock us up.

"But I'm saying we need to think about whether we're going to rely on science, and how we're going to react when the government comes in and starts telling us what we can and can't do," he continued.

"I think we need less government," Dr. Phil declared. "I think if they would step back, we tend to have a way to work these things out."

A common argument that lockdown apologists deploy today is to claim the so-called experts made the best possible decisions at the time with the information they had in the midst of the pandemic.

But Dr. Phil thinks that's hogwash.

"No, they did not. They knew better, and if they didn’t know better, they damn well should have known better. That's what they're paid to do," he exclaimed.

Dr. Phil has been speaking about the collateral damage from pandemic lockdowns for months. In February, he went viral after battling the liberal hosts on "The View" about the irreversible damage the lockdowns imposed on children.

"[Schoolchildren] suffered and will suffer more from the mismanagement of COVID than they will from the exposure to COVID. And that's not an opinion — that's a fact," Dr. Phil told them, triggering a loud applause from the crowd.

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