A few interesting things occurred the past week in the COVID world. COVID continues as a soap opera as people pretend what many of us know to be true is not true. Gaslighting is the term used for this modern common experience, something that is becoming frighteningly more common by the day. I share a dainty morsel from the news below.
But first, I will share briefly regarding my family’s encounter with COVID this past week.
The members of my immediate family lasted almost two years without experiencing COVID first hand, despite half of us remaining unvax’d and all of us eschewing masks whenever that choice was available to us. You might think our pictures are on display in the post office by now given such shameful behavior, yet somehow, my wife and I are still employed and our kids still not kicked out of school. We have heard the last two months that everyone would eventually be infected with the highly contagious Omicron, and we were not exceptions to the rule; we all contracted it within a week of my daughter being first infected.
We survived the COVID pandemic without turning into hermits these last two years. Our kids go to a public school, we participate in school activities, and go about town as often as most; we live a normal life, basically. However, we could not escape the Omicron strain, the strain Dr. Fauci warned us all in December could be a really big problem. The experience was commensurate to a very mild flu for my son and me and not much at all for my daughter and wife. It was not quite the event we should have expected after having heard all we had to do to protect ourselves and others from this virus the last two years.
It had been ten months since I was vaccinated, so I suppose the immunization was too long ago to help in my bout against Omicron. Maybe it kept me safe prior to this point? I certainly hope so. I skipped the booster as I had no confidence it would help at all against Omicron, and because Omicron is not as potent; Omicron is just not the same risk as the earlier variants, nor is quite the risk that has been bandied about by Fauci.
My wife was vaccinated fewer than six months ago, and she had the mildest case of all us, really just the sniffles, so maybe the vaccine was still effective for her. Our daughter’s symptoms were more impactful than my wife’s, but, on the other hand, hers were very short-lived, she being sick for really less than a day, another interesting development. After she recovered so quickly, we didn’t imagine we had just encountered COVID first hand.
Our son and I were hit the hardest of the four of us; our symptoms (headache, body ache, and fever especially) made us feel poorly for most of a day and then we gradually got better for the next two or three days, returning to normal in about four days. Our cases seemed more like the typical Omicron case.
My daughter’s case was the oddest; she slept much of the one bad day, but then had no lingering symptoms whatsoever. I wondered if she had even been sick at all. We gave her an at-home COVID test that day, but it came back negative, and because she bounced back so quickly, she never missed a day of school. We had no inkling, at the time, we were sending her to school as COVID positive. Her illness was so mild, there seemed no doubt it was the right thing to do.
A couple days after my daughter, I became sick. Once I got a fever and had that crummy worn out body feeling, I took an at-home test as well. It seemed more likely I had the COVID than my daughter, but my test came back negative as well. I have had the flu before and the flu was much worse than what I had this time, so I figured it was something other than flu or COIVD going around our house. I missed a half day of work, but was feeling much better after a not-so-great 24 hours. A few days later my son got sick as well, but then what shocked us all was that his at-home test was COVID positive. That got me to thinking.
Only one of the three at-home tests had come back positive, but at that point, I was sure we had all had the same thing: COVID. My daughter was was not at all convinced she had had COVID, but we would learn more about her case later. My wife was the only one spared to that point, but then she developed a sore throat and said she felt like she had a virus, but hardly slowed a bit throughout. Her case lasted a few days, but was not much to speak of. She had your basic mostly asymptomatic case. I don’t see had she could have avoided being infected, in any case. We had run out of at-home tests, so she never tested, but I am sure she had it as well (we are still waiting on the president’s six free tests, but, unironically, they will be too late to matter at this point).
Things turned a bit more interesting after my son stayed home from school Monday. We told the school he had a bug, but they called because they had to know what it was, of course. When we told them it was COVID, they immediately told our daughter, who was now a week beyond her illness and doing fine, she would have to come home from school–because she had been exposed to our son and they couldn’t take the risk. What risk? was my first thought. She was going to have to remain at home the rest of the week, and I was not at all happy about that. I was told I spoke with raised voice to the nurse on the phone. I was sure my daughter had already had COVID and had given it to our son and me as well, but my word was not good enough for the school nurse.
“How about an antibody test?” I asked. If she came back positive, that would be proof she had been sick and she now had a natural immunity.
“No. We can’t go by an antibody test,” the nurse responded. Neither my word, nor an antibody test was sufficient. Cheese whiz! I was more than a little frustrated they would keep my daughter home for a whole week given all this. They needed proof of an actual positive test. This was their version of “following the science” I suppose. Arguing with them was useless, so I gave it up at this point. They had their rules and they had followed them all year; I was not going to dissuade them, so my wife left home to pick up our daughter.
But while she waited at school, the nurse gave my daughter another rapid test. Somehow, this one came back positive. Really? She had not had symptoms for more than a week and she finally tested positive after all this time, whereas the prior test, the one taken the day she had not felt well, was the negative one. Go figure that one.
Furthermore, as my daughter explained, this was actually good news. “She told me if I tested positive, I could stay in school the rest of the week, but if I came back negative, I would have to go home.” I guess this is more “following the science”. We didn’t argue with the result or the decision, but we found the logic a bit interesting.
She had been positive, so she had a natural immunity, which meant she was no longer a threat. That’s a reasonable assumption, but wouldn’t they want a negative test before letting her come back to school? I would have understood that logic. How did they know how long she had been sick, in any case? They wouldn’t take my word earlier, but now because of the test, probably another crappy one from China, they believed that she was no longer symptomatic.
In any case, she was back in school the next day, still with the stupid mask unfortunately. I hadn’t pushed on the mask mandate recently, but it seems like the right time to raise it once again. It doesn’t bother our kids much and I certainly don’t want to send them to another school which is not as good academically, so we have put up with the inconvenience for now. Hopefully the mask requirement changes soon as many of the other mandates seem to be evaporating now (see more on the news below). I plan to speak at the school board about it next week.
At least, the school now recognizes our daughter’s natural immunity, some actual following of science, thank God. My doctor friend whose kids also attend don’t know what to say anymore; the school, guided by the omniscient state health board and the all powerful CDC, knows best apparently. I draw a few other conclusions from this experience:
- Omicron has been reported not be the same threat as prior versions, and now I can give you my confirmation this certainly is the case.
- I really am no longer sure about those at-home tests now. The Biden six free tests are made in China, so I am even less sure about those now. By the way, we have waited a month for these tests, having ordered them the first day they were available.
- Why was it my daughter could stay in school with a positive test, but would be sent home for a negative one? Logic has not been our strength throughout this whole COVID experience.
- The school tells us now that since our kids have a natural immunity, they will no longer be sent home for exposure, but only if that happens within three months. According to the school, vaccine immunity protects indefinitely (more following the science I suppose).
“Governor” Abrams:
The woman who has told us for four years she is the real governor of Georgia, Stacey Abrams, is now in some hot water (who said you can’t challenge elections? You most definitely can if you are a Democrat). Her campaign released the following picture of her celebrating “Black History” Month at a Georgia school, but somehow overlooked the anomaly that she is the only one NOT wearing a mask in it. It seems odd they were surprised she, an ardent advocate of mask mandates, might stick out in the picture.
It is yet another example of yet another woke, pro-mask, pro-lockdown politician not willing to follow the rules she wants everyone else to follow. Also, remember the mantra second only to “follow the science” is “we do all this for the children”. The children appear to be the unknowing pawns in this play. I don’t believe either mantra most of the time; I tend to avoid using them myself.
source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/stacey-abrams-calls-gop-criticism-210158943.html
Abrams has previously encouraged others to wear face masks. In a September 2021 tweet she said: “Wear masks. Get vaccinated. Support healthcare workers w/more than rhetoric. Do right.”
“This pathetic, transparent, and silly attack is beneath anyone who claims he wants to lead Georgia,” Abrams’s Sunday statement concluded.
“It is shameful that our opponents are using a Black History Month reading event for Georgia children as the impetus for a false political attack, and it is pitiful and predictable that our opponents continue to look for opportunities to distract from their failed records when it comes to protecting public health during the pandemic,” Abrams wrote in a statement shared on her Instagram account on Sunday.
What is this phony criticism of her opponents? Why does the Abrams campaign (she is running for governor again) go to the standard playbook—you’re a racist or a Nazi–when she was the one who made the mistake? Nobody set her up. We just happened to notice her mistake and comment on it. We can’t criticize her because she is black and a Democrat? Yet, somehow, she thinks she can change the story to one about her opponents, who did not do anything wrong in this instance.
The Numbers:
Now that we look back a month, we see an incredible decline in U.S. COVID cases, having fallen every day since January 13. The rise was impressive and the decline is as well. Furthermore, U.S. deaths have declined all but one day the last two weeks; its rate of decline is gaining momentum.
Cases have dropped from 820K per day on January 13 to 184K per day on February 11, a remarkable 77.5% drop in just four weeks–and they will go lower, much lower, still. What a very hopeful graph we have the last month.
Deaths also have been falling the last two weeks and will continue to fall more rapidly in the coming weeks. Notice as well that despite the very large numbers of infected, deaths this year were not as high as last January and February.
We are clearly on the right track with the numbers falling and Spring coming soon (at least we can say that where I live), so there is plenty of reason to expect more good news on this front. Of course, the U.S. followed this same rising and falling pattern the last two years, so you might expect Dr. Fauci and the lockdown crowd will tell us again why we should still be scared.
But then, it appears much of the Democrat party has now realized there is an election later this year and their policies are unpopular. Right on cue is Dr. Leanna Wenn, the liberal, former Planned Parenthood Chief, who told us all the the importance of following lockdown protocols the last two years, but just last week declared: “The Science has changed”, so much so that we can and should start relaxing restrictions now.
Dr. Wenn is actually following the crowd this time as well, perhaps she has been told by the Biden administration to float another trial balloon. We see that the CNN anchors have said absolutely nothing to challenge her assertions (imagine if Senator Paul had said the same thing before she did). “The science is changed” is the most plausible reason California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, Oregon, and Nevada, some of the biggest players among the lockdown crowd, have also announced a relaxation of their mask restrictions. However, listen carefully to Dr. Wenn and you will hear nothing new. She will tell you cases are falling, but cases have been rising and falling off and on for the last two years; that is not anything new. She said “the understanding was restrictions would be removed as soon as possible.” That’s been true for some states, but not all states, many have stuck with or returned to restrictions for two full years. She also says: “The responsibility should shift from the government to an individual” and that the restrictions have been “hardest on kids”. She sounds like a conservative when she says that, yet the CNN anchor who at times pretends to be a science expert, still says virtually nothing.
Dr-Lenna-Wenn-on-Relaxing-Restrictions
You would be more right if you listened to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who told us “the political science has changed”. In other words, the lockdown crowd is losing and wants to find a reason to exit, a reason to explain the sudden policy switch without conceding their opponents were right a year ago.
Around the world, countries like South Africa, Denmark, India, and the UK, countries who experienced Omicron before us, have seen similar declines. World-wide, COVID cases and deaths are falling as well. Right now, we are all on a good track regarding COVID. The good news will continue with regard to COVID. Things are playing out like anticipated. Four weeks ago in my post https://seek-the-truth.com/2022/01/14/writing-a-covid-ending/), I said the following:
We will be beyond this Omicron! crisis before you know it. Just hang on a bit longer, please. We may already be at the peak or we will be by the end of this week.
You would expect a much worse situation with everyone in the world getting sick or about to get sick in the next few weeks. Maybe the U.S. gets to 2,000 deaths per day (or maybe not). The relevant factor is that Omicron! is not the same beast as Delta.
We are near the absolute worst of Omicron! and are about to head down a steep slide into an endemic COVID state. Will there be another variant to end all variants or will Omicron! be last gasp until the distant future? Nobody knows for sure, but Omicron! is as good an omen as we have had the last two years.
I suppose it is a good thing many Democrats have figured this out as well. President Biden will give his State of the Union on March 1. By then, the numbers will have fallen further, more states will have pivoted, and he will be ready to declare victory again (as he did prematurely last summer). The several trillion dollars spent on the American Rescue Plan may be one reason he will provide for carrying us through this, although all we can credit that for is higher inflation. Nevertheless, I don’t see how he will pass up this opportunity to declare victory.
Dr. Fauci appears to have jumped on the bandwagon too. He seems better at doing what he is told by Biden than he ever was for Trump.
“As we get out of the full-blown pandemic phase of COVID-19, which we are certainly heading out of, these decisions will increasingly be made on a local level rather than centrally decided or mandated,” Fauci told The Times. “There will also be more people making their own decisions on how they want to deal with the virus.”
Jen Psaki, on the other hand, is still doubling down for now, perhaps because the Biden Administration is still fighting for more mandates in court (and still losing, by the way). I think her resistance won’t last long either; the president’s poll numbers have fallen too much. They have to change course, and can no longer stick with their current version of “following the science”. She will be telling us soon: “The Science has changed” and “The President defeated COVID”, neither of which are true, but they have no other winning strategy (even that strategy won’t win them much).
Vox, a liberal publication, continues to urge caution as well:
source: https://www.vox.com/22923414/breakthrough-infection-omicron-immunity
If you’re thinking of getting on a plane or attending an indoor sporting event, Bailey says to ensure you’re still taking precautions, like masking and avoiding crowds as best you can. “Even though I have my airbag, I’m still going to put my seatbelt on, I’m still going to pay attention to the traffic,” he says. “As I take that extra level of risk, I’m thinking about what else I can do in my immediate environment that limits unnecessary elevation of risk.”
But many of these folks will come around soon as well. Again, thank God and Mother Nature for bringing us to a serendipitous end. If it were up to me, after the next election, Congress should have many hearings and many medical and government professionals should explain the reasoning for policy and public statements the last two years. I think much of it has been criminal and it should be exposed.
Incentive
The following video on why hospitals are making money is quite interesting. Certainly, not everyone hospital is motivated by money, but when there is a temptation, it is likely some will succumb. I have been pointing out for a while the a focus is more on waiting for folks to become more sick rather than treating early and treating at home. Can we relate that to anything said below?
In a related story, hospitals are now examining how COVID cases are counted.
According to Politico, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are asking hospitals to change how they report COVID-19 patients. The federal government now wants hospitals to distinguish between people who go to the hospital because they have COVID-19 from those who are admitted to the hospital for other reasons, like a broken leg, and then test positive for the virus.
Changing the way COVID-19 hospitalizations are reported could have a cascading effect on the federal government’s response to the pandemic. Masking requirements, social distancing guidelines, and other coronavirus restrictions are enacted by public health officials who use case counts and hospitalizations as key metrics to gauge the severity of the virus.
The difference between folks who die with COIVD versus those who die from COVID is important. If we count every person who dies with COVID as a COVID death, it enhances the problem and makes is seem a bigger crisis. The video testimony above would explain why such a scenario is sought by hospitals. Now the politicians want to declare an end as we head into the election season, so by changing the manner in which we measure COVID, they can make it appear things are getting better even faster and their so-called solutions have made the difference.
The Damn is Breaking
The U.S. courts have continued to support an end to mandates as yet another court, the Fifth Circuit, weighed in this week on the side of freedom.
appeals-court-not-block-233031842.html
The new Virginia Governor, Glen Youngkin, is already making good on promises that propeled him to victory last year.
Note well that this was the Democrat-controlled Virginia State Senate. We mentioned yesterday that the same chamber voted in favor of a pro-optional school masking amendment by a shocking bipartisan margin, 29-9, a blowout. The new vote, by contrast, was on final passage of the underlying bill — and despite holding a 21-19 edge, Virginia’s Senate Democrats couldn’t hold the line. Two of their members defected to the GOP side, and the bill passed:
Here is another site forwarded to me by a colleague. It has a number of doctors and other professionals. Let’s hear what they have to say–uncensored: https://covid.daystar.com
The big story this week, the story that does not seem to end, is the Canadian trucker convoy. During the last week, Canadian truckers have been highly successful at eliminating mandates in several provinces. These folks have provided an example for the rest of the world and have made Canadian PM Trudeau look weak. These protests have worked exactly as they were supposed to. Take note.
source: Four-Canadian-Provinces-Lift-Mandates
Four Canadian provinces have moved to lift their COVID-19 restrictions as a massive protest by truckers continued blockades Wednesday in Ottawa, paralyzing the capital city.
Quebec, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island provinces have all announced plans to eliminate or roll back some or all measures. For instance, Alberta “dropped its vaccine passport for places such as restaurants immediately and getting rid of masks at the end of the month,” the Associated Press reported.
The moves came this week after a huge throng of truckers shut down Ottawa, protesting a Jan. 15 rule requiring truckers entering Canada to be fully immunized against COVID-19. On Wednesday, more than 400 trucks gridlocked the downtown area. And a blockade by fed-up Canadians entered Day 3 at the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, the busiest trade bridge in North America.
The protests from PM Justin Trudeau have been rather pathetic. He appears to be trapped by the success of these protests. I wonder if his failure is another reason why many American blue states are finally folding on mandates and restrictions. Blue state governors do not want to be shown up as weak in face of similar protests in the U.S., so it is better to declare victory before being forced to succumb ignominiously. Even Australia, arguably the most restrictive of the woke lockdown crowd, is finally ending travel restrictions after two years. They too have crashed into the wall of reality it appears.
Freedom Convoy truckers say Trudeau and North America’s liberal media are falsely demonizing them as ultra-right-wing crazies. And after spending a week in their midst, the Mail’s reporter can only conclude these peaceful, good-natured protestors are 100% correct about that – if nothing else
Since DailyMail.com arrived in Ottawa last week we have seen no indication of violence or vandalism or any extremist political agenda. In fact, the demonstrations have shown the opposite.
Apart from the incessant honking of their horns, all has been peaceful. The truckers seem to have united the people of Canada in a common goal, to get rid of government mandates
The Canadian government went after the truckers by seizing their fuel, but then hundreds of private citizens brought more fuel to them. Outsmarted yet again by determined protestors. Would regular Canadian citizens have done that for out-of-control crazy truckers or can we conclude Trudeau is just blowing smoke?
I have heard several stories about the honking of horns; in some stories, this was the only criticism of the truckers. They seem to have done this protest right, and the liberal government in Canada has responded with the typical push back that we have seen for anyone who disagrees with liberal policy–you’re a Nazi or a racist for opposing us. Do you remember the CHAZ/CHOP zone in the Seattle in 2020? There clearly appears to be a difference in the level of violence in the two scenarios, yet CHAZ/CHOP, the more violent, out-of-control protest, was tolerated for a very long time. Why the criticism for the better behaved truckers and not the lawless CHAZ/CHOP folks?
Here are more links in case you want to dig deeper:
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/authorities-panic-covid-protests-dissent-liz-peek
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/gofundme-lroadblock-canada-truckers-jonathan-turley
The truckers speak out in these clips. Do you think they are crazy, out-of-control, Nazi racists or just regular folks? They seem like normal folks to me.
https://video.foxnews.com/v/6294976571001#sp=show-clips
https://video.foxnews.com/v/6296203763001?playlist_id=5198073478001#sp=show-clips&spark_wn=1
Rogan
Spotify held their ground in support of Joe Rogan for a short while. Joe Rogan held his ground for a while longer, but after the woke crowd dug up old video of him using the N-word, he apologized publicly. But how he used the word is an important distinction that is lost in all this swirl. Was he using it to attack others or was he simply repeating the lyrics widely distributed by our record companies? There is a huge distinction between these.
The problem in all this, as has been played out in multiple instances the last few years, is that an apology is not a positive thing. I think it is wonderful when my kids finally apologize for a mistake. That life-changing event is often the end of an ugly incident. I do not continue to beat them up for their mistake. Would I ever get another apology if I did? But in the political world, the situation is different. Most of these folks who apologize publicly, don’t even realize they are caught up in political event; they think the civil rules we applied in family situations apply here. There is absolutely no similarity. An apology is not an end; it is only the beginning of the next round of torture.
Because Rogan apologized, an action which according to the infantile thinking of the political world means he was wrong, wrong in everything he has been accused of, the trouble is just starting. What he did ten years ago does not matter. People did not care ten years ago and they shouldn’t care now; that event is a pre-text to discredit his actions from today. Because he apologized, he can now be shown to be completely wrong in all things and all his work from the past two years can be discredited; this chain of events totally justifies their excuse for censoring him–and Spotify, now that they have lost the battle, is doing exactly that. Despite paying Rogan $100 million last year, Spotify is cowering to the woke mob and censoring their biggest star. None of this make sense, but, of course, that’s the world of politics today.
It seems an awful strategy to tell people never to apologize, but when you have people who will not treat you fairly, it is your weakness that dooms your fate. Rogan is clearly not a weak or fearful person, but he is caught up in a political game that he did not recognize soon enough. Apologizing for a political action is generally a death knell.
Feehery: Rogan should have never apologized — it’s a sign of weakness | TheHill
Rumble has offered Rogan $100M, the same paid by Spotify, to bring him onto their site. I hope that happens as a Rumble is a non-censoring site run by conservatives like Dan Bongino; Spotify needs to learn this hard lesson of what can happen when they give in to the woke crowd.
Rogan has to know he has other options; he is very popular, especially among the apolitical. He should tell Spotify not to censure him; their censures are not related in any real way to his apology. He should probably use the same tactics Abrams used. Stacy Abrams at least understands how the game is played: don’t admit anything wrong and attack your opponents instead. If they don’t comply with his demands, then he should try to leave. Rogan simply repeated the words in lyrics. If one person can use the words in lyrics, why can’t everyone? I am not advocating for the word to be used, but Rogan, in this instance, did nothing wrong. He should not apologize and he should not be censored.
Glen Loury, conservative Black professor who often makes a lot of sense, had this to say about Rogan.
source: https://glennloury.substack.com/p/policing-joe-rogan
These attempts to paint Rogan as a racist are completely wrongheaded. As John points out in this excerpt from our latest conversation, there is a big difference between “lobbing” a racial slur at someone and “referring” to it. If Rogan had called a black person the n-word, he would be worthy of our contempt. But that’s not what he’s being accused of. His supposed sin is simply that he uttered the word, not that he used it to verbally abuse any person or group of people. Are we really so frail that we can’t bear even to hear this word, no matter the context?
Conclusion:
Political leaders have created a large contingent which believes every word they have said about COVID; however, most of our leaders don’t believe their own words on COVID themselves. They use these words as means to win votes, discredit their opponents, and to expand their power. With COVID receding now, these politicians are in a spot because they can’t easily declare the pandemic over; many people have bought into their lies and they might lose support were they to give in on restrictions. Plus, they would have to admit their political opponents were correct about some things; that’s an impossibility for them. Some still believe their political interests require they double down on restrictions even when they know it is not the right course, although, fortunately, the tide finally seems to be turning and they are willing to take the hit in the hopes the public will soon move on. The more light we shine on this, the better. These political leaders who use such tactics need to be voted out–and the worst of them held accountable for the lies they have spread and the reputations they have unfairly tarnished.
Seek the Truth 