Folks are worried political leaders will impose more COVID restrictions in the coming year. Should we actually be worried about a COVID re-emergence? Do the numbers indicate a change in the trend? Are there new, exotic blends of COVID? Or is this another power play by sinister politicians? At this point, I see no evidence of a COVID re-emergence. However, there is reason to be concerned about the political games and the blurring of the truth.
Three years ago, after recovering from COVID during Fall 2020, President Trump said “do not let it dominate your lives”. CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta said President Trump was a fool for acting with false bravado. Tapper said “it is OK to be afraid”:
COVID: Hope or Fear (and is Omicron Really the Big Bad Wolf?)
CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta reacted in absolute horror. Tapper called Trump’s remarks “disrespectful” and told his audience, “It’s OK to be afraid of COVID, and it’s OK that it’s dominating your life.”
“Jake, this is so disrespectful,” Gupta said. “I’m not even sure I can think about this in some sort of cogent way. It’s incredibly disrespectful.”
Fear is good? That’s the message we should send? I prefer “there is nothing to fear but fear itself”.
We knew in 2020 COVID was deadly, especially for certain demographics, but it was never quite what it was purported to be. I fear Americans today are ripe to be played again. Governor Whitmer in Michigan, one of the worst expositors of COVID panic was re-elected in 2022. Governor Newsome in California and Governor Murphy in New Jersey, two more awful lockdown fiends, were re-elected. In fact, no Governor or U.S. Senator who pushed the COVID panic has been defeated in an election since. COVID has been a non-factor in recent elections. Whitmer was a walking contradiction in 2020, but Michiganders just sort of forgot in 2022.
Covid:good-numbers-and-a-self-own
[After criticizing others for traveling to Florida and returning home to Michigan, it was revealed] Whitmer herself had traveled to Florida earlier in the year: Whitmer Traveled To Florida To Visit Father, Spokesperson Says (msn.com). So, even after she herself traveled to Florida, she appears on Meet the Press to chastise others who followed in her path [by visiting Florida]. When confronted with the fact that she had been to Florida herself, she explains that she had done travel right (unlike everyone else apparently); she wasn’t traveling for frivolous reasons, she wasn’t acting like those irresponsible college kids who traveled to Florida on Spring break and then callously returned home to infect other Michiganders. Whitmer responds to criticism over Florida trip: ‘I wasn’t partying in Miami’ | Fox News.
But remember the aforementioned (Whitmer) aide also traveled to Florida on vacation, not to visit a sick relative. Whitmer said the aide deserved grace for taking a Florida vacation but later said spring breakers partying on the beach need to be called out as irresponsible. Did her aide vacation in the correct manner, but nobody else knows how to safely vacation? . . . In any case, her aide may not know how to vacation more safely than adolescent college kids; pictures of the aide have surfaced and she was not social distancing nor was she wearing a mask and she appeared to be having a splendid time in Florida! Has any of this qualified as a double-standard?
No high profile public figure paid any price for their mendacity, for unnecessarily stirring fear, for perverting science, for attacking honest doctors who tried to raise the alarm. As he left office, President Trump issued a commendation to Dr. Fauci. The man who destroyed his administration’s last year was feted by the president on the way out. I don’t get it.
Fear of COVID was a means to change how the election was held. It enabled Biden to campaign from his basement and skip one debate against President Trump. COVID was also the impetus for a massive change in how people voted, with mail-in ballots and relaxed identity checking allowing Democrats to wrack up votes (using a method which had typically favored them in the past). Their strategy worked so expect something similar for the next election. Why expect different policies today when no politician was punished for prior bad COVID policies? If we get a Trump/Biden rematch, then Democrats can tuck the president in the basement again. This would be another excuse to skip election debates. This strategy may not work again, but it is certainly being trotted out.
Let’s Mask Up Again?
The usual suspects are sowing the same fear they sowed previously. Why not see what we can gain from a new scare?
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/is-masking-coming-back-covid-variants-experts-2023/
As three new COVID-19 variants are spreading across the country, many people are wondering: Are masks coming back?
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have not announced new mask mandates, some schools and businesses are reinstating this familiar pandemic-era rule – and depending on your situation, experts say you may want to consider it too.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/23/health/masks-covid-surge-wellness/index.html
CNN — If you’re at high risk of serious illness or death from Covid-19, it’s time to dust off those N95 masks and place them snugly over your nose and mouth to protect yourself from a recent uptick of the virus, according to a growing number of experts
There appears to be a never ending supply of experts willing to say anything to be on TV. An “expert” can be found to say exactly the thing you want to hear. The saddest revelation from COVID policy of the last three years has been the corruption of the medical industry. Perhaps there has always been corruption, but now it is obvious to the general public.
Masking of school kids, those least at risk to COVID, is also gaining momentum. This was perhaps the stupidest and most unscientific policy to ever be deemed as “following the science”. Those under 30 account for fewer than 1% of all COVID deaths (0.76% to be exact), and only the unhealthiest were at risk to begin with. I showed previously our kids are more at risk from the COVID vaccines than from COVID itself. My son’s high school sports governing body tried to put kids running cross country in masks. Sure, a kid hyperventilates during a race but is kept safe from COVID–something which has no impact to young healthy high school kids. They also told parents, we couldn’t attend races, not even standing on a hill fifty feet away while kids shuffled quickly by. The irrational fear of COVID turned administrators into morons, yet many are following the same path yet again.
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/31/1196943567/covid-cases-surge-mask-mandates
The U.S. is seeing a late-summer spike in COVID cases, prompting some schools, hospitals and businesses to encourage — or even require — people to start masking up again.
The most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, from earlier this month, shows nationwide COVID hospitalizations increased by nearly 19% in a single week and deaths by more than 21%.
Mendacious and politically motivated leaders at the CDC, WHO and NIH have been replaced with equally mendacious and politically motivated leaders. We all know politicians lie, but I cannot tolerate the lies and incompetence from these folks who are supposed to be scientific experts and claim to stand above the political fray.
I accepted the initial argument in March 2020: “Fifteen days to slow the spread”. It made sense to pause briefly and evaluate the situation. We knew COVID was potentially very dangerous, but we quickly determined we weren’t all going to die; we quickly learned it didn’t affect all demographics equally. We knew we needed to get back to work. Human beings are effective at adapting to difficult situations (we can survive on the moon, the North Pole, and anywhere in between). We (the people, not the government) effectively adapted to this one as well. The public understood the COVID risk and took appropriate precautions; government intervention in our daily lives was unnecessary.
Yet on April 2, 2020 “15 days to slow the spread” changed to “30 more days to slow the spread”. “Flatten the curve” became the new mantra, but within two weeks of that second proclamation, the curve was already flattened (see the graph below). Unfortunately, by April 2020, it was too late to close Pandora’s box.
I was done with COVID lockdowns and silly government policies after that; these types of slippery slopes never end. Throughout 2020 and 2021, state and local governments repeatedly went back to heavy handed policies. Once the president demonstrated lockdowns could be extended, others followed; the president had already provided the political cover needed. Media encouraged the panic to support ever zanier policies. Rahm Emmanuel’s catchphrase “never let a crisis go to waste” never had more support.
The curve flattened several more times since April 2020. It looks pretty damn flattened the last 18 months. Tell me again (slowly this time) exactly why we need to panic yet again today? Tell me again how much the numbers have gone up in the last week (or the last month or the last year)? Tell me why I should listen to the same people who lied to us in the past, the same people who were wrong time and time again?
The 21% increase in deaths reported reported by NPR above is actually under-stated. There was a doubling of the COVID deaths average this summer. Wow!
Still, take a breath. Can you easily discern this steep rise from the graph above? Of course, not! The baseline was very low, so the increase was not significant. Deaths rising from 60 per day on July 7 to 114 per day four weeks later (and then falling again), is not a cause for concern. The graph above shows five very distinct (and relatively high) death peaks, but none since February 2022.
In February 2022, the seven-day average rose to almost 3,000 deaths per day. Yet, the public had already adapted, so it was not noticed (and alos not close to an election); most had already moved on from COVID by then (I could go back to attending cross country races–and without a mask). Today, these COVID panic hustlers who have grossly encroached on our personal space the last three years want us stirred up by deaths rising to slightly more than 100 per day for a week this past August? Please do not accept their lies or silly analysis.
A million COVID deaths were reported in the first two years of COVID: March 2020 through March 2022. In the last year-and-a-half, there have been 175,000 deaths, and, in 2023 so far, just over 50,000 deaths. The rate dropped from about 42,000 per month the first two years to about 6,000 per month the first eight months of 2023. Sure, COVID has never gone away, but why put us back on the path to COVID lockdowns?
What’s the Point of the Panic?
The COVID narratives sold the last three years make little sense unless you examine the politics. In Fall 2021, President Biden tried to institute mandatory COVID vaccines for government workers, military, and businesses of more than 100 employees. The vaccines were introduced nine months earlier and a majority of American adults had been already vaccinated by this time. Furthermore, as the graph shows, vaccines were not slowing the death rate in America by Fall 2021 despite the already high vax levels. The death rate in 2021, the year of the vaccine, was the same as 2020, the year before the vaccine (this is clear from the graph above). In October 2021, we knew vaccines had limited effectiveness:
to-my-employer-and-joe-biden-I-will-not-comply
In September, Duke University reported 365 new COVID cases. 98% of the student body is vaccinated, and all but 4 of the new cases were among the vaccinated.
In early September, cases in Israel, one of the most vaccinated countries in the world (including 26% who were triple-vax’d), hit an all time high. Deaths were also up to 25 per day after falling to near zero for two-and-a-half months over the summer.
88% of Vermont adults have been vaccinated (it’s the highest rate in the nation), yet COVID cases in September were as high as they had ever been and they remain stubbornly high into October. Maine, the fourth highest vaccinated state hit record highs in September. Washington state, the ninth highest vaccinated state hit record high cases and deaths in September.
It wasn’t until Spring 2022, after the vaccines cachet was tarnished and vaccinations fell dramatically, that deaths in America actually diminished (this flattening can be clearly seen in the graph above). Deaths in America fell when vaccine usage plummeted. How about that? That result doesn’t indicate the vaccines enhanced COVID, but it does mean there was no correlation between increased vaccinations and decreases in death.
Yet, the administration still pushed for mandatory vaccinations in September 2021. Was it because more vaccines would make an actual difference or because of falling poll numbers? President Biden remained relatively popular during the first six months of his administration, but after the withdrawal from Afghanistan in July 2021 his poll numbers dropped precipitously. They have not recovered in the two years since.
The mandates distracted from the Afghan disaster. It did not matter they were beyond the president’s constitutional authority (Biden even stated this fact earlier in 2021). It didn’t matter mandates were unnecessary given the already high level of vaccination, and it didn’t matter vaccines were of questionable value. Vaccine mandates were only a political ploy to prop up a flailing presidency.
The Biden administration knows better, but in 2023 many still believe in a vaccine which has limited effectiveness and has created many problems itself.
Dr. Campbell laments “evidence based medicine is now impossible”. He was more open to the COVID narratives early in the pandemic, but the political and media insanity has simply worn him down. “We are not in a good place in the moment,” Dr. Campbell says:
Conflict of interests are a big problem everywhere:
In another video, Dr. Campbell address the question: Are drug regulators for hire? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-kbeYdL1ng
The new COVID variants (e.g. the new pirola variant) get lots of attention, but do we really need to be concerned? Dr. Campbell says in this video we appear to be making the same mistakes all over again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EdMMrCa_UE&t=8s
The CDC continues to recommend vaccines for all kids over six months (https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/planning/children.html), yet our pediatrician added the following in his newsletter:
Over the last year of Omicron related variants, our clinic has dealt with zero significant SARS2 COVID cases. Thus, the yield on vaccination has to be looked at from the perspective of reduction of viral transmission, to protect the vulnerable, for a solid reason to vaccinate all children who have had a prior vaccine or more likely natural disease. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no data, that I am aware of, that the current vaccine prevents meaningful transmission in humans. Severity reductions in at risk individuals appears to be real and worthy of being in the calculus of vaccinating.
Hippocratic oath: do no harm. Vaccines, albeit very rarely, can cause harm. Thus, to give a vaccine when the value is not there makes little sense to me.
The COVID panic hustlers are peddling the same defective COVID bridges. Again, proposed policies don’t make a lick of sense until you take a political perspective.
Biden and Trump, the two presumptive nominees from their parties, are running even in national polls. Most Americans do not want this rematch, but we seem to be careening towards it any case. Democrats know Biden is not popular; they know he is perceived as too old and not vital enough to get the job done. Pretending he can still govern is becoming a harder to sell, so they need an excuse for hiding him away during the 2024 election. Once they have the election won, they can find an excuse for him to step down.
Another COVID ruse improves Biden’s chances of winning, so it will be attempted. Anything which improves his chances, will be tried. It doesn’t matter how much the truth is distorted. Democrats cannot contemplate another four years of Trump; for them, it is a disaster of epic proportions (just as Republicans cannot contemplate another four years of Biden).
Attacking Trump in the courts, a fascist play from the Democrats (do-republicans-want-to-win-or-not), will severely hamper Trump in the general election. Despite this albatross around his neck, Trump still looks electable to many. Enter the new COVID narrative. Biden will be excused for campaigning from his basement. Trump will be attacked for putting people at risk from COVID while on the stump. Media deem it too risky to hold debates (although we should all realize President Biden just isn’t up to debating). The public will be misinformed yet again, but the ends (getting our guy elected) justifies these means for far too many.
Dr. Fauci Redux
I end this post with a word from Dr. Fauci, the man most responsible for the mess we are in today. Dr. Fauci has exited government, but still seeks the limelight on TV. Maybe now that he no longer has much power, the media is willing to deal with him more directly.
The man who declared himself science incarnate is now being challenged by some unlikely sources. A CNN anchor was abnormally inquisitive and he challenged Dr. Fauci’s repeated claim masks were effective at stopping COVID.
If this isn’t the language of a politician caught with his pants down: “At an individual level masking works,” Dr Fauci said. “The data is less strong when you look at the pandemic as a whole.” https://edition.cnn.com/videos/health/2023/09/02/smr-fauci-on-covid-masking.cnn. The “data is less strong”? This is a weak defense. The truth is unless you wear the unwieldy N-95 mask, the data says masks don’t protect you at all. Dr. Fauci has lied about this for three years to-mask-or-not-to-mask-that-is-the-question
The New York Times has challenged masking as well. All of one-channel liberal media lined up squarely behind masks for three years. Now they are coming around to our point of view?
Dr. Fauci has not been credible since he reversed his position on masking in April 2020. Yet, he and other medical and scientific experts continue to provide cover for deceptive politicians who want to use COIVD fear to enhance their own political goals.
Please don’t let them. Stay informed, share information with others, and show political actors we see through their nonsense.
Seek the Truth 