The phrase was attributed by journalist Ron Suskind to an unnamed official in the George W. Bush administration who used it to denigrate a critic of the administration's policies as someone who based their judgements on facts. In a 2004 article appearing in the New York Times Magazine, Suskind wrote:
The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' ... 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do'.
International relations scholar Fred Halliday writes that the phrase reality-based community (in contrast to faith-based community) was used "for those who did not share (the Bush administration's) international goals and aspirations". The source of the quotation was guessed to be Bush's senior advisor Karl Rove, although Rove has denied saying it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community
Doesn't quite work for Pandemics, does it? Can't change this reality, can't argue with it, can't hide it, can't pretend it doesn't exist. Act away, history's actors. The reality based community will be here waiting when you get back from la la land.
