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Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

Posts Tagged ‘Flu’

Massive Peer-Reviewed Mask Study Shows ‘Little To No Difference’ In Preventing COVID, Flu Infection | ZeroHedge

Posted by M. C. on February 3, 2023

Move along, nothing to see here. Wear your mask, get your equally effective chemicals injected or else we will shut you down.

Don’t look for this study in the Erie Times-(News?).

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/massive-mask-study-shows-little-no-difference-preventing-covid-flu-infection

Tyler Durden's Photo

BY TYLER DURDEN

A massive international research collaboration that analyzed several dozen rigorous studies focusing on “physical interventions” against COVID-19 and influenza found that they provide little to no protection against infection or illness rates.

The study, published in the peer-reviewed Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, is the strongest science to date refuting the basis for mask mandates worldwide.

And of course, the CDC still recommends masking in areas with “high” rates of transmission (fewer than 4% of US counties, as Just the News notes), along with indoor masking in areas with “medium” rates of transmission (27%).

Masks are still required in educational institutions in Democratic strongholds such as New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington and California, according to the Daily Mail. Boston Public Schools denied its “temporary masking protocol” in early January was a “mandate,” following a public letter against the policy by student Enrique Abud Evereteze.

South Korea is still requiring masks on public transport and in medical facilities after dropping COVID mandates in most indoor settings, including gyms, Monday, Reuters reported. -Just the News

According to the Cochrane study, which included the work of researchers at institutions in the  U.K., Canada, Australia, Italy and Saudi Arabia, a total of 78 studies were analyzed. Most recent additions to the meta-analysis were 11 new randomized controlled trials.

As unlisted study author Carl Heneghan – who directs the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford noted on Twitter: “Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of influenza‐like illness (ILI)/COVID‐19 like illness compared to not wearing masks.”

See the rest here

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Flu on rise as COVID dips in Erie County

Posted by M. C. on March 11, 2022

86 cases reported last week, 100 the previous week

David Bruce

Erie Times-News USA TODAY NETWORK

Declining numbers of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in recent weeks have encouraged more Erie County residents to remove their face masks and gather together indoors.

Not surprisingly, the county’s number of flu cases has risen during that time.

It’s not over!

It will never be over (as long as the paper manages to stay in business and there is a headline to fill)!

STAY AFRAID!

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Why did the flu disappear? Hint: it wasn’t the masks. – by Justin Hart – Rational Ground by Justin Hart

Posted by M. C. on November 17, 2021

https://covidreason.substack.com/p/why-did-the-flu-disappear-hint-it

Justin Hart

Viral competition! Two respiratory pathogens slug it out on the boxing ring of humanity and one comes out a victor.

Are you signed up yet? Get the deets. Get the data. Join the team.

We’ve been trying to convince Team Apocalypse that the flu was crowded out (not snuffed out by masks) for over a year or more! Low and behold—they knew this already. Our RG colleague Stinson Norwood (@snortman1776) uncovers all the key players saying the same thing over a decade ago! Viruses compete! They’ve always known. Did they forget? Or did it diminish “the narrative” so they dismissed it.

Here’s the thread from Stinson reproduced. See the whole thing here.

It’s odd to see people refusing to give up the ghost since all of this has happened before. Even Tony knew it. ‘Fauci said pandemic flus such as H1NI tend to push out seasonal flu strains. “If we get deluged with H1N1 flu, there is a good chance it will crowd out seasonal flu,”‘

link to Fauci quote from 2009 article

And here’s Fauci discussing how you might know if you have H1N1 or the seasonal flu. “it generally overwhelms and crowds out the seasonal flu” (relevant part starts at 1:23

Others knew it, too. ‘In one of the biggest surprises, the pandemic virus made seasonal viruses do a vanishing act this past winter,…’

Stison continues his thread:

Experts love trying to take credit. But elbows aren’t as sexy as masks. “Another theory…is … campaigns urging people to wash their hands regularly and sneeze into their sleeves has stymied seasonal flu. But there is no evidence to back that one up.” Clinics were empty of seasonal flu and doctors didn’t know why.

This had happened before & we didn’t understand why. This time, instead of studying it, we gave credit to cloth & sprouted a religion. “The new virus doesn’t appear to have completely muscled out other flu viruses, as some past pandemic viruses have.”

WSJ article from 2010.

Lipsitch also makes an appearance a year earlier on this topic:

A Christmas bonus from 2009: ‘Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, said he thinks the seasonal strains will be crowded out this year, citing historical precedent.’

Even the great Paul Offit knew back in 2015 that masks were “silly”

Mask mandates are “a silly half-way measure that really doesn’t serve any useful purpose other than to identify a person as a healthcare worker who is choosing not to get vaccinated — selfishly,” Offit said. “You might as well wear a scarlet letter for all the good it does.”

In short – masks did NOT stop influenza… it was a knock-down throw-down of epic viral proportions and Covid came out on top.

Oh look – the flu is back!

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How The Fight Over American Freedom Will Probably Escalate – Alt-Market.us

Posted by M. C. on March 8, 2021

Yet, we never saw Bill Gates calling for economic lockdowns, mask mandates and medical passports because of the flu or pneumonia. Why is that?

I have had numerous readers from all over the world write to me, saying that they believe in the face of the pandemic lockdowns it is now all up to Americans to turn the tide. I agree. A successful rebellion against globalism in America will lead to rebellions elsewhere, but the fact remains that if we lose, no one else will dare lift a finger. The future is in our hands.

https://alt-market.us/how-the-fight-over-american-freedom-will-probably-escalate/

By Brandon Smith

Three months ago in December I published an article titled ‘Is The Globalist Reset Failing? The Elites May Have Overplayed Their Hand’. I was specifically interested in the development of the pandemic “crisis”, the lockdown mandates of governments worldwide, the bizarre vaccination campaign for the new and under-tested mRNA cocktail which was rushed out to the public in the span of six months, the World Economic Forum’s open statements that they hoped to exploit the pandemic as a springboard for their globalist agenda, and the public’s reaction to it all.

I have to say, I continue to see a divergence in what the elites clearly wanted to happen vs. what has actually happened. If the Event 201 pandemic war game on a coronavirus outbreak, held two months before the actual outbreak occurred in China, is any indication, then the globalists greatly overestimated the fear effect of Covid.

They predicted at least 65 million deaths from a coronavirus outbreak, but over a year has passed since the pandemic went international and the official death count stands at 2.5 million, with over 40% of deaths in the US attributed to nursing home patients that were ALREADY dying from preexisting conditions. Removing suspect nursing home deaths from the equation, the death count is probably closer to 1.5 million, again, if we adhere to official estimates.

To put this number in perspective, the CDC states that global deaths from the flu virus peak at around 649,000 depending on the year. Deaths from the flu and pneumonia reach as high as 1.4 million globally per year. Studies funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation find annual pneumonia death stats that are comparable to the CDC’s. Yet, we never saw Bill Gates calling for economic lockdowns, mask mandates and medical passports because of the flu or pneumonia. Why is that?

Today, the death rate of covid is 0.26%, FAR below initial predictions by globalist institutions and governments. It is now widely proven that the lockdowns did NOTHING to slow the infection spread of the virus, and now many areas of the US are starting to experience what the lab coat “professionals” affectionately call “herd immunity”. Infections and deaths are plunging, and the lockdowns and mask mandates were useless.

Like the vast majority of all viral illnesses, humans simply get sick, endure, build immunity and get healthy. Some of us die, as we always have, and government intervention is not needed nor is it welcome. This is why large portions of US and European populations are refusing to accept the lockdowns and the vaccines. Why destroy the economy and submit to a potentially dangerous genetic cocktail over a disease that 99.7% of the population is sure to survive?

The establishment elites really blew it this time.

My suspicion, my “conspiracy theory” if you will, is that the globalists announced their reset agenda under the assumption that the death rate for covid would be MUCH higher than it is. They were expecting something biblical, and instead they got something not much more dangerous than the flu and pneumonia.

There is now mass public resistance to the vaccinations and medical passports. This is probably why they rushed out the vaccines in the span of 6 months instead of a year to 18 months as they hinted at in early 2020. They are trying to get as many people as possible to take the experimental vaccines before the citizenry realizes that covid is a nothing-burger.

I can say that in my area the majority of people never wore the masks and the majority of local businesses never tried to enforce them. And though they initially went along with the first economic shutdown, they will not be complying with another. In my state of Montana, there are 1,300 deaths attributed to covid. In my county, the estimated infection rate is over 25% (which means almost everyone has probably already been infected), and there are only 13 deaths total.

No one is scared of this thing. Almost no conservative is going to wear a mask, and many people in Red states (and some in Blue states) are going to refuse to take the vaccines or accept medical passports.

This means that the globalists have a big problem. They obviously invested a lot into this pandemic. It is the key to their entire Reset agenda. Without a frightening pandemic killing tens of millions, the globalists will not be able to lock down the public and prevent them from traveling or organizing. They will not be able to institute the medical passports and contact tracing apps that would allow them to watch the public 24/7. They certainly won’t get most Americans to go along with the cashless society and the centralized global governance the elites are so obsessed with.

The fear of cronavirus is waning. The globalists have indeed failed in epic fashion. But, this doesn’t mean that they are going to give up. If my experience studying psychopathic people tells me anything, it is that when these lunatics are cornered they tend to double and triple down on their failures.

The question is, what will happen next? The establishment will need maximum instability and chaos in the near term if they hope to salvage their Reset project. If they wait too long awareness will spread and they might not get another chance for many decades to come, if ever. Here are the events I expect to see over the course of the next year…

Covid Mutation Hype

The globalists are doomed unless they can keep the pandemic panic rolling forward. For now, puppets like Biden and Fauci are going to pretend as if a full reopening of the economy is going to happen. This us a lie. Already we are seeing Biden waffling on when a reopening will take place. He has indicated that it will be at least a YEAR before the shutdowns will completely end, and this is predicated on the majority of Americans submitting to vaccinations and medical passports.

In other words, the establishment is telling us that they intend to hold the economy hostage until we take the jab and give up our freedoms.

Now, are these inbred totalitarians just out of their minds? Well, probably, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a Plan B. Just look at all the hype surrounding “covid mutations” in places like South Africa and Brazil; the narrative will be that a “new covid variant” that is more dangerous and deadly than the first virus is spreading, and that the lockdowns must return for the greater good of the public.

As a recent article from ‘The New Scientist’ states:

Existing vaccines should stop people getting severely ill and dying if they do get infected by the P.1 variant. However, because many people remain unvaccinated, plans to ease lockdown restrictions would have to be rethought if this variant causes a resurgence in case numbers. Plus, any variant that circulates widely will have more opportunities to evolve into a more dangerous form.”

The New Scientist does not seem to understand basic science. The overwhelming majority of viruses circulating in the world usually evolve into less deadly forms of their original iteration. Viruses need to survive too, and they don’t do this by mutating into more and more deadly monstrosities that kill their favorite hosts. There is still no evidence that the new covid mutations are any threat whatsoever, but the establishment is already staging the narrative that new lockdowns are coming.

Federal Lockdowns

If the mutation narrative continues on the path it seems to be following, then I expect the Biden Administration to attempt a national federalized lockdown similar to the Level 4 lockdowns used in Europe and Australia, and it will be announced sometime this year.

This program will trigger several reactions; most importantly, most conservative states and counties will refuse to follow federal mandates. I know that my county and probably most of Montana will defy any new shutdown.

There will be several economic consequences that will erupt from this conflict; some positive and some negative.

Domestic Economic Warfare

See the rest here

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WHO (Accidentally) Confirms Covid is No More Dangerous Than Flu – OffGuardian

Posted by M. C. on October 10, 2020

https://off-guardian.org/2020/10/08/who-accidentally-confirms-covid-is-no-more-dangerous-than-flu/

Kit Knightly

The World Health Organization has finally confirmed what we (and many experts and studies) have been saying for months – the coronavirus is no more deadly or dangerous than seasonal flu.

The WHO’s top brass made this announcement during a special session of the WHO’s 34-member executive board on Monday October 5th, it’s just nobody seemed to really understand it.

In fact, they didn’t seem to completely understand it themselves.

At the session, Dr Michael Ryan, the WHO’s Head of Emergencies revealed that they believe roughly 10% of the world has been infected with Sars-Cov-2. This is their “best estimate”, and a huge increase over the number of officially recognised cases (around 35 million).

Dr. Margaret Harris, a WHO spokeswoman, later confirmed the figure, stating it was based on the average results of all the broad seroprevalence studies done around the world.

As much as the WHO were attempting to spin this as a bad thing – Dr Ryan even said it means “the vast majority of the world remains at risk.” – it’s actually good news. And confirms, once more, that the virus is nothing like as deadly as everyone predicted.

The global population is roughly 7.8 billion people, if 10% have been infected that is 780 million cases. The global death toll currently attributed to Sars-Cov-2 infections is 1,061,539.

That’s an infection fatality rate of roughly or 0.14%. Right in line with seasonal flu and the predictions of many experts from all around the world.

0.14% is over 24 times LOWER than the WHO’s “provisional figure” of 3.4% back in March. This figure was used in the models which were used to justify lockdowns and other draconian policies.

In fact, given the over-reporting of alleged Covid deaths, the IFR is likely even lower than 0.14%, and could show Covid to be much less dangerous than flu.

None of the mainstream press picked up on this. Though many outlets reported Dr Ryan’s words, they all attempted to make it a scary headline and spread more panic.

Apparently neither they, nor the WHO, were capable of doing the simple maths that shows us this is good news. And that the Covid sceptics have been right all along.

UPDATE 9/10/20: In the interest of thoroughness, a desire to rely on primary sources, and not depending purely on mainstream sources (which may remove or amend articles), I decided to find the actual video of Dr Ryan’s remarks.

For some reason, although this was an important WHO meeting during an allegedly hyper-serious pandemic, the video is hard to find. The only place you are able to see it is the WHO’s own website, and even then you have to scrub through almost 6 hours of footage. Well, I did that, and you are welcome.

You can’t embed the WHO’s stream, but I can tell you to go to this page, click “Session 1” and skip to 1:01:33 to hear the exact quote:

Our current best estimates tell us that about ten percent of the global population may have been infected by this virus. This varies depending on country, it varies from urban to rural, it varies between different groups.”

I will work on getting an audio clip, for ease of sharing and to make sure it does not get memory holed.

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Do You Really Think Masks And Forced Isolation Are Going To Go Away? It Is Time To Stop The Mask Madness And Embrace The Old Normal

Posted by M. C. on May 20, 2020

A thought I had when the lockdown started was will the lockdown stop the annual flu pandemic?

Along with advice on keeping your immune system in peak condition the thing we don’t see in the news is flu data.

If masks and the prison lockdown were stopping flu, as one may expect, big medicine would be shouting it from the rooftops. Not happening.

The CDC stopped publishing weekly flu data early this year but what data there is looks typical. The lockdown and masks apparently did nothing to dampen influenza as one might expect.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm

But

“CDC does not know the exact number of people who have been sick and affected by influenza because influenza is not a reportable disease in most areas of the U.S. However, CDC has estimated the burden of flu since 2010 using a mathematical model that is based on data collected through the U.S. Influenza Surveillance System, a network that covers approximately 8.5% of the U.S. population (~27 million people).”

So, the annual pandemic that kills many tens of thousands just in the US every year is not a reportable illness. The CDC uses a “model”. Perhaps the same one that predicted millions of US COVID deaths?

Those that follow the money think that COVID death numbers are being jacked up because it is a money maker. $39K of government COVID cash for each person put on a ventilator last I read. About a tenth of that for each positive test.

As has been reported in COVID hotspot Italy any death may be classified as a COVID death. Goodness knows Italy needs as much free stuff from the EU as it can get.

In the US:

Here’s Illinois’ Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike saying people are listed as a coronavirus death even if they died of alternative causes. “Even if you died of a clear alternate cause but you had COVID at the same time it’s still listed as a COVID death.”

“Even if you died of a clear alternate cause but you had COVID at the same time it’s still listed as a COVID death.”

Illinois’ Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike says people are listed as a coronavirus death even if they died of alternative causes. pic.twitter.com/mtButgXHn2

— MRCTV.org (@mrctv) April 25, 2020

https://www.redstate.com/nick-arama/2020/04/25/watch-illinois-explains-what-qualifies-as-a-covid-death/

If Illinois admits this, it is likely happening in less forthcoming environments. Say, New York.

A major share of the COVID deaths are nursing home patients. COVID infected patients were forced to remain or be returned to their nursing homes in hotspot New York (in PA too).

https://nypost.com/2020/04/24/new-york-nursing-home-denied-requests-to-send-covid-19-patients-to-usns-comfort/

https://www.breitbart.com/health/2020/04/26/andrew-cuomo-under-fire-for-directive-requiring-nursing-homes-to-accept-coronavirus-patients/

Government making a bad situation worse. The same government that is demanding you live their definition of a COVID life.

The bottom line is health agency COVID data is questionable if not false. I believe COVID is likely the equivalent of a bad flu season.

In any flu season the vaccine is only about 25% effective and its been 100 years since the Spanish Flu. If COVID mutates will we have to wait another 100 years for a 25% effective vaccine?

Vaccine hype masters hope so. They are the Al Gore$ of medicine.

Masks, mandatory vaccine, vaccine digital ID, vaccine passport, contact tracking, virus patents and surveillance, they are necessary because:

Coronavirus is a money maker and a grand exercise in social engineering, fear mongering and control.

The new normal is wearing a mask, no handshakes and social distancing for…ever.  Too many willingly throw away their liberty. They believe what government tells them. Government is their blanky. They will happily stand in line to become part of a government medical experiment.

Do you really think mandatory masks and forced isolation are going to go away? You are a dreamer.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8315479/LA-Mayor-attempts-play-lockdown-extension-August.html

There is no cure for flu. Think of that when you hear the control people say no…fill in the blank…until there is a COVID cure.

Do what is best for your situation. Do what YOU think it takes to stay healthy. But do not undermine those that:

Throw off the government’s symbol of subservience and control that is a mask. Do not want to be medical experiment for profit. Want their old normal.

The state will not make it easy, but we have to try.

tattoo

Will This Be Your Vaccine Tattoo?

                    

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Notes From the French Confinement – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on April 22, 2020

I have watched several hours of coverage of Covid-19 on French television, including speeches by President Macron and Prime Minister Philipe, and interviews with many, many doctors and scientists. I have not seen a single mention of natural immunity; not a single mention of diet, supplements, nor sunshine. Perhaps of all the literal crimes committed by the authorities, this crime of omission by them, the healthcare community and by the media could be the worst.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/04/ira-katz/notes-from-the-french-confinement/

By

I am in confinement in France. There has been so much written about the Covid-19 crisis there hardly seems anything new to write about. Certainly most of what is presented in the mainstream I disagree with compared to the excellent reporting found on LRC. I also learn a lot from others such as James Corbett, Robert Wenzel and the Bionic Mosquito. But here I report on my observations from France that might be of interest to the international LRC audience.

First a positive story. The word for a crow (the black bird) in French is corbeau. But in familiar French a corbeau is a person who makes an anonymous denunciation to the authorities. In the context of the Covid-19 crisis this practice consists of calls to the police to report on people violating social distancing rules. In the US just look at Mayor de Blasio of New York. However, in France there is a vastly different approach. As this article from the newspaper Le Monde reports, due to the lasting memories of the denouncements of Jews and the resistance during the German occupation there is social pressure not to denounce people. But officially, even the police have stated they do not want to receive these calls; noting that it is often neighbors who already have had problematic relations who denounce each other. Some hard lessons are learned.

Living just outside Paris I have a lot of experience with extremely dark winters. Paris is very far north, at latitude 48.8566N similar to Montreal. In January I often arrive at work in the night and leave when night has returned. Furthermore, the sun hardley shines in the winter due to the maritime climate in Paris during this season. I had been convinced many years ago by the LRC writers Sardi, Brownstein, etc. that improving immunity by taking vitamin D is the key to preventing the flu. In France vitamins are not readily available over the counter. I need a prescription from a doctor to get my vitamin D. My current doctor prescribes for me one dose of 80,000 IU every three months. It is in liquid form and comes in an ampoule (glass bulb).

My practice, in spite of the doctor’s prescription, is to take an ampoule the fist of December, January, and February for protection during the winter. Since I started this practice about five-years-ago I have hardly had a sniffle. This year I continued in March to daily take 2000 IU tablets I had purchased in the US. That is until the weather turned to glorious spring sunshine. So now I sit on the balcony in the sun in lieu of the tablets. About four weeks ago my wife started to have symptoms of Covid-19 (or the flu, see below) consisting of a slight fever and diarrhea. I gave her my extra ampoule of vitamin D, and the tablets daily. Her symptoms were gone after the first day. We did not quarantine her in our apartment as it was not feasible in any event. My daughter has a slight rash that could be symptomatic of the virus. I have been symptom free.

I have watched several hours of coverage of Covid-19 on French television, including speeches by President Macron and Prime Minister Philipe, and interviews with many, many doctors and scientists. I have not seen a single mention of natural immunity; not a single mention of diet, supplements, nor sunshine. Perhaps of all the literal crimes committed by the authorities, this crime of omission by them, the healthcare community and by the media could be the worst. It  would be so simple to help so many people by following the advice of a physician like Dr. Brownstein without changing any other practice and with only a tiny pittance of cost. Heck, just to advise, sitting on the balcony in the sunshine could do so much more for healthcare workers than clapping at 8 PM.

A particular problem in the US is the incredible divisiveness over Trump. An illustration of this from the French perspective is the media scrutiny of the chloroquine treatment. In this US article reporting negative results the lead is that chloroquine is “Trump touted.” Trump has nothing to do with this particular study or whether or not chloroquine is a good idea. As Trump is the worst possible leader to the resistance, Emmanuel Macron might be the best example of a modern, technocratic leader to the same people who hate Trump. Yet this article shows that Macron is perhaps much more enthusiastic about chloroquine than Trump. I think this kind of comparison could be helpful to treat otherwise intelligent and well intentioned people of Trump derangement syndrome.

By profession I am a research scientist/engineer. Thus, I am very comfortable researching scientific literature. When the Covid-19 crisis became imminent I did a brief overview and came across this apropos article in PLOSone from 2012: Characterization of Human Coronavirus Etiology in Chinese Adults with Acute Upper Respiratory Tract Infection by Real-Time RT-PCR Assays. The key line in the paper is “Undifferentiated human rhinoviruses and influenza (Flu) A were the most common viruses detected (more than 35%) in HCoV co-infections.”  And more, “Our study also suggested that all non-SARS-associated HCoVs contribute significantly to URTI in adult patients in China.” My takeaway was that coronavirus is understood to be part of the normal cold and flu season, coexisting with other viruses. In fact, to differentiate the symptoms of Covid, that is, what virus is causing what symptom, is very difficult to do. This paper led me to believe that most likely this was perhaps a bad year, but otherwise typical of the flu season that includes the various flu strains including corona viruses. While the ultimate data might change my opinion, up until now this view has been reinforced in the passing weeks.

I have mentioned in a previous LRC piece the French principe de precaution, which in effect has been the response of the world’s governments. What I have not heard is the classical, but seemingly forgotten, bioethics dictum, first do no harm. So we wait here, like people are waiting around the world, for the following waves of harm caused by government actions. President Macron has given us the target of May 11th for the end of the confinement period, but it will be a progressive restart. So we are still unsure what we will be able to do when, as far as work and school are concerned. And perhaps most important for the French people, what vacations will be possible!

Finally, my hope for the LRC community is to Stay Free while trying to Stay Safe.

Be seeing you

 

 

 

 

 

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The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity : What If the Lockdown Was All A Big Mistake?

Posted by M. C. on April 21, 2020

When Anthony Fauci first warned that two million would die, there was a race among federal, state, and local officials to see who could rip up the Constitution fastest.

Last week the UN Secretary General warned that a global recession resulting from the worldwide coronavirus lockdown could cause “hundreds of thousands of additional child deaths per year.”

http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2020/april/20/what-if-the-lockdown-was-all-a-big-mistake/

Written by Ron Paul

From California to New Jersey, Americans are protesting in the streets. They are demanding an end to house arrest orders given by government officials over a virus outbreak that even according to the latest US government numbers will claim fewer lives than the seasonal flu outbreak of 2017-2018.

Across the US, millions of businesses have been shut down by “executive order” and the unemployment rate has skyrocketed to levels not seen since the Great Depression. Americans, who have seen their real wages decline thanks to Federal Reserve monetary malpractice, are finding themselves thrust into poverty and standing in breadlines. It is like a horror movie, but it’s real.

Last week the UN Secretary General warned that a global recession resulting from the worldwide coronavirus lockdown could cause “hundreds of thousands of additional child deaths per year.” As of this writing, less than 170,000 have been reported to have died from the coronavirus worldwide.

Many Americans have also died this past month because they were not able to get the medical care they needed. Cancer treatments have been indefinitely postponed. Life-saving surgeries have been put off to make room for coronavirus cases. Meanwhile hospitals are laying off thousands because the expected coronavirus cases have not come and the hospitals are partially empty.

What if the “cure” is worse than the disease?

Countries like Sweden that did not lock down their economy and place the population under house arrest are faring no worse than countries that did. Sweden’s deaths-per-million from coronavirus is lower than in many lockdown countries.

Likewise, US states that did not arrest citizens for merely walking on the beach are not doing worse than those that did. South Dakota governor Kristi Noem said last week, “we’ve been able to keep our businesses open and allow people to take on some personal responsibility.” South Dakota has recorded a total of seven coronavirus deaths.

Kentucky, a strict lockdown state, is five times more populated than South Dakota, yet it has some 20 times more coronavirus deaths. If lockdown and house arrest are the answer, shouldn’t those numbers be reversed, with South Dakota seeing mass death while Kentucky dodges the coronavirus bullet?

When Anthony Fauci first warned that two million would die, there was a race among federal, state, and local officials to see who could rip up the Constitution fastest. Then Fauci told us if we do what he says only a quarter of a million would die. They locked America down even harder. Then, with little more than a shrug of the shoulders, they announced that a maximum of 60,000 would die, but maybe less. That is certainly terrible, but it’s just a high-average flu season.

Imagine if we had used even a fraction of the resources spent to lock down the entire population and focused on providing assistance and protection to the most vulnerable – the elderly and those with serious medical conditions. We could have protected these people and still had an economy to go back to when the virus had run its course. And it wouldn’t have cost us six trillion dollars either.

Governments have no right or authority to tell us what business or other activity is “essential.” Only in totalitarian states does the government claim this authority. We should encourage all those who are standing up peacefully and demanding an accounting from their elected leaders. They should not be able to get away with this.


Copyright © 2020 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.
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Exactly How Many Deaths Are Needed to Justify Giving Governments Control of Everything? | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on April 20, 2020

So, a government looking to extend its powers, to assume additional rights from its citizens, will need to manufacture consent, else rebellion with ensue. And there is no better opportunity to manufacture consent than during an existential crisis, whether it’s enemies massed at the gate or ones concealed within.

Obviously, if those enemies do not exist, they have to be invented.

https://mises.org/wire/exactly-how-many-deaths-are-needed-justify-giving-governments-control-everything?utm_source=Mises+Institute+Subscriptions&utm_campaign=c19a729e74-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_9_21_2018_9_59_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8b52b2e1c0-c19a729e74-228343965

Listen to the Audio Mises Wire version of this article.

The CDC estimates that 61,000 Americans died from the flu during the 2017–18 flu season (with a range of 46,000 to 95,000 deaths). Few of us even remember that event. Stores stayed open, folks met and worked, and everyone lived as normal.

Taking sixty-one thousand deaths as our baseline, how deadly does a virus have to be to justify the destruction of our livelihoods and economy in general?

Half as deadly? No that wouldn’t make sense. But neither would “as deadly,” either.

Would twice as deadly cross the panic threshold? But that would be just twice something we didn’t notice while it was happening. So maybe even double is not enough.

No one is ever safe, ever. But we all lived lives in a world of uncertainty. That is, until many panicked and allowed governments to drive us into our own caves, so to speak.

But who incited panic? Media and social media initially sounded the alarm, sparking fear. However, it was government that provided justification for that fear, wrapping dour pronouncements in a veneer of supposed science and truth. Soon the panic threshold was breached. While the various media live off provocative headlines, government lives off fear.

So we end up with this strange symbiotic relationship: with the aid of a friendly media, government justifies the fears it propagandizes; constituents panic and turn to both government for help and the media for information. Certainly, it has to be this way. Why? Because government rules through the consent of the governed.

As Mises noted:

Only a group that can count on the consent of the governed can establish a lasting regime. Whoever wants to see the world governed according to his own ideas must strive for domination over men’s minds. It is impossible, in the long run, to subject men against their will to a regime that they reject.

So, a government looking to extend its powers, to assume additional rights from its citizens, will need to manufacture consent, else rebellion with ensue. And there is no better opportunity to manufacture consent than during an existential crisis, whether it’s enemies massed at the gate or ones concealed within.

Obviously, if those enemies do not exist, they have to be invented. As Schumpeter stated:

There was no corner of the known world where some interest was not alleged to be in danger or under actual attack. If the interests were not Roman, they were those of Rome’s allies; and if Rome had no allies, then allies would be invented. When it was utterly impossible to contrive such an interest—why, then it was the national honor that had been insulted. The fight was always invested with an aura of legality. Rome was always being attacked by evil-minded neighbors, always fighting for a breathing space. The whole world was pervaded by a host of enemies, and it was manifestly Rome’s duty to guard against their indubitably aggressive designs. They were enemies who only waited to fall on the Roman people.

Not too long ago, the devised enemy was ISIL—haunting the Levant in Toyota trucks. We were told daily that ISIL was readying a strike against the US some fifty-five hundred miles away. Plausible? Hardly. However, the propaganda machine was able to create some angst, for some time, anyway.

Today the enemy is through the gate unseen, infiltrating bodies and minds. COVID-19 is a government’s dream. Folks who just yesterday, or so it seems, said certain acts of government, such as closing churches, would ignite rebellion, gladly consent to authoritarian edicts. But why?

There is the manufactured fear, the product of the propaganda machine—the good doctors making dire predictions about likely death counts, surrounded by somber officials, all standing near a dais backed by the richly colored, acronymed logo of some official sounding agency. Great video, great propaganda.

But there is more. Government is blaming the virus, not itself. That serves several purposes. It allows government to employ a misdirect, pilfering the public purse and annulling rights while the masses concern themselves with social distancing.

It also provides personal cover to minor agents of the bureaucracy, who do not have to spend sleepless nights fretting about their role in the destruction of our economy.

Hannah Arendt wrote about the Eichmann trial and tried to answer the conscience question:

The trick used by Himmler…was very simple and probably very effective; it consisted in turning these instincts around, as it were, in directing them toward the self. So that instead of saying: What horrible things I did to people!, the murderers would be able to say: What horrible things I had to watch in the pursuance of my duties, how heavily the task weighed upon my shoulders! (Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem)

So you hear statements that twist reality in this manner: “The virus will let us know when we can reopen the country.” As if the virus is dictating policy.

We are told that government officials are only reacting as the virus commands. And the enforcement agents spreading tickets and handcuffs are simply shouldering the horrible tasks that must be pursued.

Is this how we, the people, choose to live? In a world where government foments fear for its own purposes and then stands back, blaming its actions on an enemy of its own creation?

Once more, how deadly does a virus have to be to justify the destruction of our livelihoods and economy in general? Twice the usual? Three times? I can’t decide the issue for all. I simply ask you to consider first what we are allowing (crashed economy, record unemployment growth, exploding government debt, unconstitutional government edicts, well, you get the picture).

And I ask you to consider who, or what entities, are benefiting. It is true that some cui bono (to whom it is a benefit) arguments are fallacious, but not all. However, consider this: besides a shift of rights and power from the people to the state, there is that matter of trillions moving from our wallets to those of the friends and families of the politically connected.

As I wrote above, no one is ever safe, ever. But until a month ago, we all accepted a world of uncertainty and didn’t panic. What was true then is true today—to be free is not to be safe. However, to live free is to live. Period.

 

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Corona: The Case Number Game – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on March 30, 2020

“Influenza is a highly contagious respiratory illness that is responsible for significant morbidity and mortality. Approximately 9% of the world’s population is affected annually, with up to 1 billion infections, 3 to 5 million severe cases, and 300,000 to 500,000 deaths each year.”

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/03/jon-rappoport/corona-the-case-number-game/

By

Jon Rappoport’s blog

In this episode of public health bureaucrats go crazy, let’s look at their numbers. Let’s accept their reality for the moment—the reality they claim to be working from—and trace the implications. Buckle up.

Start with Europe and just plain flu. Not COV. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Europe [1], “During the winter months, influenza may infect up to 20% of the population…” That’s ordinary seasonal flu.

The population of Europe is 741 million people. This works out to 148 million cases of ordinary flu. Not once. Every year. EVERY YEAR.

According to statista.com [2], “As of March 23, 2020, there have been 170,424 confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) across the whole of Europe since the first confirmed cases in France on January 25.”

I urge readers to roll those comparative figures around in their minds, and realize that ordinary flu has never been called a pandemic, and has certainly never resulted in locking down countries.

If we take the COV Europe numbers I just quoted, which cover a period of two months, and multiply by six, to estimate the number for a year, we arrive at 1,022,544 cases. Even if you want to build up this figure by claiming it’s accelerating, do you really believe it’ll reach 148 million for the year, the number of ordinary flu cases? And again, 148 million is the estimate for EVERY YEAR. Every year—and no mention of a pandemic. No lockdowns.

Let’s go to Italy. According to statista.com [3], “Italy has the highest amount of confirmed [COV] cases in Europe with 59,138…” That’s as of March 23. If you multiply by six, to get the annual figure, you arrive at 360,000 cases. You want to blow that up, because of acceleration? Go ahead. How about a million cases for the year? Two million. Three million.

Now let’s look at ordinary flu cases for Italy in a given year. According to sciencedirect.com [4], “In the winter seasons from 2013/14 to 2016/17, an estimated average of 5,290,000 ILI [influenza-like illness] cases occurred in Italy, corresponding to an incidence of 9%.” That’s 5 million plus each year. Not just once. Was a seasonal flu pandemic declared in Italy? Ever? Was the whole country ever locked down as a result? No.

Finally, let’s look at figures for ordinary flu, for the whole planet. A study published in the journal, Pharmacy and Therapeutics [5], states, “Influenza is a highly contagious respiratory illness that is responsible for significant morbidity and mortality. Approximately 9% of the world’s population is affected annually, with up to 1 billion infections, 3 to 5 million severe cases, and 300,000 to 500,000 deaths each year.”

A BILLION cases EVERY YEAR. Is this called a pandemic? Is the whole world locked down every year? No.

Feel free to track the purported number of COV cases as time passes. As I write this, the number is 392,286, and deaths are 17,147. Let me know when the COV case number reaches A BILLION for the year and the number of deaths passes 300,000. Then keep me posted on how the one billion COV cases are repeated EVERY YEAR with at least 300,000 deaths annually.

And that concludes this episode of public health officials go crazy and wreck economies and lives in the process.

There should be a tracking “world-o-meter” providing live updates on THOSE figures.

NUMBER OF ECONOMIES WRECKED BY PUBLIC HEALTH LEADERS—

NUMBER OF LIVES WRECKED BY PUBLIC HEALTH LEADERS—

Sources:
[1]. [Europe] 2018–2019 influenza season: what we know so far
[2]. Number of new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Europe from January 25 to March 26, 2020, by date of report
[3]. Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Italy – Statistics & Facts
[4]. Investigating the impact of influenza on excess mortality in all ages in Italy during recent seasons (2013/14–2016/17 seasons)
[5]. Influenza Update: A Review of Currently Available Vaccines (P T. 2011 Oct; 36(10): 659-662, 665-668, 684.)

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