CORONA Main Coronavirus thread

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

COVID Contact-Tracing Has Been A Monumental Failure

Wed, 11/18/2020 - 04:15

We all know we are already in the midst of Covid's "second wave". But the real question remains the same as it was 10 months ago - where are people catching the virus? There's no doubt contact tracing, especially in the U.S., has been a monumental failure. The good news is that it means increased privacy for citizens. The bad news is that it will likely be used as a scapegoat to forego those privacies in the future - and that it'll result in broad lockdowns.

This was the question explored in a new WSJ article that sought to try and find out where the record amount of new cases are coming from across the globe. In Germany, for instance, authorities say they don't know where 75% of people who test positive from the virus have gotten in. In Austria, that number is 77%. In Spain, the country was only able to identify 7% of cases. In France and Italy, that number is around 20%.

Here in the U.S., we only don't have much more in the way of detail. In New York, for example, a senior adviser for public health estimates 10% of cases came from travel, 5% came from gatherings and 5% came from "institutional settings".
The rest? We'll, there really isn't any visibility into where they came from.



Jay Varma, senior adviser for public health for NYC's Mayor's Office, said: “The vast majority of the remainder—somewhere probably around 50% or more—we don’t have a way to directly attribute their source of infection. And that’s a concern.”

While Asian nations interview about 10 people per case, for contact tracing purposes, the U.S., France and the U.K. generally only interview or identify fewer than four contacts per case.

That data is then easily "skewed by statistical distortions", according to Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He said that cases in people's homes are probably overlooked: “We may be putting too much emphasis on what we can trace…and not acting on the types of establishments that are very likely contributing but for which data isn’t as compelling.”

Cue the "we need access to your homes" government line. "Trust us - it's for your own good," they'll say.

Restaurants, where diners are among strangers, also make contact tracing difficult. Only few European countries and U.S. states have required restaurants to take down contact information from their customers. In France, this requirement only started in early October. In Paris, local authorities said they "haven't conducted a single investigation" using customer data.

Falko Liecke, city councilor for health and youth in Berlin’s popular Neukölln district, said they have a problem contact tracing because people either can't - or simply don't want to - remember where they were at, when and with whom. It's almost as if they don't want the government infringing on what they do in their own private time - imagine that.


German cities have asked people to keep a "contact diary" of those they are in contact with, in case they test positive.

Contact tracing is made even tougher by the fact that the virus takes 10 days to show its symptoms - if it shows symptoms at all. Again, up to 40% of cases are estimated to be asymptomatic at this point.

So, as government does best, the baby will be thrown out with the bathwater: new lockdowns are being implemented both overseas and here in the U.S., where an incoming Biden administration is toying with the idea of a 4-6 week total shutdown.

So much for 15 days to slow the spread back in March, huh?

And again, we're sure this angle of not having visibility into contact tracing will result in new, Orwellian rules that'll be "for everybody's own good" at some point, despite the fact that we are just weeks out from having a vaccine in widespread distribution.

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

COVID-19 Ushers In An Unconstitutional Hell For America

Tue, 11/17/2020 - 22:40
Authored by Michael Walsh via The Epoch Times,

Thanks to the dreaded Covid-19, it’s good-bye Thanksgiving and, soon enough, farewell Christmas. And after that, who knows?



Having discovered that Americans have lost their spines and are now easily penned inside their homes like two-legged sheep, the petty potentates who rule - not govern, rule - far too many states and municipalities have concluded that we will never fight back, never resist, and never reject their latest whimsical edicts.

For proof, look no farther than California, where 41 of the state’s 58 counties have just been returned to most-restricted status, and a statewide curfew is now being bruited in Sacramento. California is “pulling an emergency brake,” as CCP virus “cases” rise, said Newsom, who recently attended a pricey private birthday party at the exclusive French Laundry restaurant in the Napa Valley, violating his own Caligulan guidelines.



There are vague promises that things might begin to open again next year, but don’t hold your breath. “Two weeks to slow the spread” and “fifteen days to flatten the curve” have long since morphed into a semi-permanent nanny state in which the very act of slowing and flattening ensures that the virus will go on indefinitely by guaranteeing a continuous stream of new “cases” with which to frighten the public and increase government power.

In defiance of all previous medical experience, the Covid “pandemic” has muzzled the population with bank-robber masks, driven families asunder, forced elderly couples to die apart, punished schoolchildren with the false promise of “remote learning,” made Americans eye each other with suspicion and sidle away, and created a near-Stasi level of rats and snitches only too happy to inform on their fellow citizens.

It’s also killed the hospitality industry, the airlines, and commercial real estate. And all in brazen violation of the Constitution’s explicit guarantees of freedom of speech, assembly, and religious observance.

It has been a monstrous disgrace, made even worse by its supine acceptance. But even more dire consequences have followed the arrival of the Chinese Communist Party on our shores. In short order:

Masks became normalized, even mandated, thus allowing the brutal, cowardly thugs of Antifa and Black Lives Matter “activists” to go about in public in ninja mufti, faces concealed in violation of innumerable local ordinances. Once, the wearing of a concealing mask was practically prima facie proof of criminal intent, but now, thanks to the irresponsible and self-aggrandizing Dr. Anthony Fauci and other “experts,” the lack of a mask signals an inability to accept authority and perhaps also a willingness to expel the phantom virus into the faces of the innocent.



With the public rise of the neo-fascist Left in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, urban disorder became mainstreamed, justified as it was by calling it “mostly peaceful” protest against the United States of America and its form of government. Even as private gatherings were being banned, thousands gathered in the streets to demonstrate against the American constitution and celebrate Donald Trump’s apparent electoral defeat. Indeed, “Black Lives Plaza” on one of the most expensive blocks in Washington, D.C., violates private property and civil rights within sight of the White House.

Watching the videos of patriotic Americans who had gathered in Washington, D.C., over the weekend to show support for president Trump’s efforts to legally fight clear vote fraud in the recent election—as is his constitutional right—and who were then set upon, sucker-punched, and otherwise assaulted by the feral minions of Antifa and Black Lives Matter within sight of the White House, was sickening and enraging.

Once actual peaceful protest had become essentially forbidden, the red-diaper baby media was free to shed its skin-suit of journalistic “objectivity,” enthusiastically join the leftist cadres in its open loathing of Donald Trump and all that he symbolized, and renew its attack on the Constitution, including among other things, the Electoral College, the Senate, and the Bill of Rights. All in the name of a more “honest” journalism adhering to a “higher loyalty,” of course.

Indeed, the New York Times—Pravda West—in the run-up to the election informed the nation via Twitter that it would be the media that would call the winner of the 2020 election, even before the votes were counted, certified, and sent to the Electoral College.

“The role of declaring the winner of a presidential election in the U.S. falls to the media,” the Democrat propaganda sheet masquerading as a newspaper proclaimed, falsely.

It later deleted the tweet and issued a sheepish “apology” for “referring imprecisely to the role of the news media. … [It] projects winners and reports results; it does not declare the winner of the election.”

Of course, that was a bald-faced lie as well. In fact, insofar as the media is concerned, it does declare the winner—and its word goes. Why else is an often-masked Joe Biden now claiming the non-existent “Office of the President-Elect”? The media couldn’t wait to declare Biden over the top, even though the election is now in its constitutionally permitted disputation phase, and does not go to the Electoral College until Dec. 14.

Lastly, the Dreaded Covid occasioned a wholesale “emergency” rewriting of voting laws, removing essential safeguards in the name of “safety” and thus permitting a host of outcome-altering refinements, including a record-number of mail-in votes whose provenance is often unprovable, early voting, late voting, and last-minute registration and voting.

During the counts in crucial swing states, tallies were suddenly halted for a couple of hours in the wee hours as the Democrat urban-machine apparatchiks calculated how many manufactured votes were needed to overtake Trump’s lead and then, two hours later … they appeared, courtesy of foreign-made voting machines with hidden algorithms.

And all because of the CCP virus. For unless something dramatic happens, the Left will never, ever, ever let us go. Thanks to the hysterical overreaction to the novel coronavirus, the weaponizing of it by the Democrat Party in order change election laws and thus harvest millions of likely fraudulent mail-in votes in key swing states, and a leftist media that speaks with one voice as it gaslights the population with the party line, we are now all living in the unconstitutional hell of the neo-Marxists’ “new normal.”

How do you like it, America?

 

[Housecarl]

Posted for fair use.....

What the data say about asymptomatic COVID infections

People without symptoms can pass on the virus, but estimating their contribution to outbreaks is challenging.

www.nature.com

NEWS
18 November 2020


What the data say about asymptomatic COVID infections

People without symptoms can pass on the virus, but estimating their contribution to outbreaks is challenging.



Bianca Nogrady

Roughly one in five people with COVID-19 don’t experience symptoms.Credit: Ezra Acayan/Getty
How many people don’t experience any symptoms after becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2? And what is their role in spreading COVID-19? These have been key questions since the beginning of the pandemic.

Now, evidence suggests that about one in five infected people will experience no symptoms, and they will transmit the virus to significantly fewer people than someone with symptoms. But researchers are divided about whether asymptomatic infections are acting as a ‘silent driver’ of the pandemic.

Although there is a growing understanding of asymptomatic infections, researchers say that people should continue to use measures to reduce viral spread, including social distancing and wearing masks, regardless of whether they have symptoms.

The issue with putting a reliable figure on the rate of asymptomatic COVID-19 is distinguishing between people who are asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic, says Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious-disease researcher at Stanford University School of Medicine in California. “Asymptomatic is someone who never developed symptoms ever throughout the course of their disease, and pre-symptomatic is somebody who has mild symptoms before they do go on to develop symptoms,” Kuppalli says. There is also no standardized accepted definition of that, she says.

Research early in the pandemic suggested that the rate of asymptomatic infections could be as high as 81%. But a meta-analysis published last month1, which included 13 studies involving 21,708 people, calculated the rate of asymptomatic presentation to be 17%. The analysis defined asymptomatic people as those who showed none of the key COVID-19 symptoms during the entire follow-up period, and the authors included only studies that followed participants for at least seven days. Evidence suggests that most people develop symptoms in 7–13 days, says lead author Oyungerel Byambasuren, a biomedical researcher at the Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare at Bond University in Gold Coast, Australia.

Silent reservoir
Byambasuren’s review also found that asymptomatic individuals were 42% less likely to transmit the virus than symptomatic people.

One reason that scientists want to know how frequently people without symptoms transmit the virus is because these infections largely go undetected. Testing in most countries is targeted at those with symptoms.

As part of a large population study in Geneva, Switzerland, researchers modelled viral spread among people living together. In a manuscript posted on medRxiv this month2, they report that the risk of an asymptomatic person passing the virus to others in their home is about one-quarter of the risk of transmission from a symptomatic person.

Although there is a lower risk of transmission from asymptomatic people, they might still present a significant public-health risk because they are more likely to be out in the community than isolated at home, says Andrew Azman, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, who is based in Switzerland and was a co-author on the study. “The actual public-health burden of this massive pool of interacting ‘asymptomatics’ in the community probably suggests that a sizeable portion of transmission events are from asymptomatic transmissions,” he says.

But other researchers disagree about the extent to which asymptomatic infections are contributing to community transmission. If the studies are correct in finding that asymptomatic people are a low transmission risk, “these people are not the secret drivers of this pandemic”, says Byambasuren. They “are not coughing or sneezing as much, they’re probably not contaminating as much surfaces as other people”.

Muge Cevik, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of St Andrews, UK, points out that because most people are symptomatic, concentrating on identifying them will probably eliminate most transmission events.

Viral dynamics
To understand what is happening in people with no symptoms, Cevik and colleagues conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis3 of 79 studies on the viral dynamics and transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2, which is posted on social-sciences preprint server SSRN. Some studies showed that those without symptoms had similar initial viral loads — the number of viral particles present in the blood — when compared with people with symptoms. But asymptomatic people seem to clear the virus faster and are infectious for a shorter period.

The immune systems of asymptomatic individuals might be able to neutralize the virus more rapidly, says Cevik. But that doesn’t mean these people have a stronger or more durable immune response — and there is evidence that people with severe COVID-19 have a more substantial and long-lasting neutralizing antibody response, she says.

Although there is a now a better understanding of asymptomatic infections and transmission of COVID-19, Cevik says that asymptomatic people should continue to use measures that reduce viral spread, such as social distancing, hand hygiene and wearing a mask.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03141-3

References

1. 1.
   Byambasuren, O. et al. J. Assoc. Med. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. Can. https://doi.org/10.3138/jammi-2020-0030 (2020).
   • • Article
     • Google Scholar
2. 2.
   Bi, Q. et al. Preprint at medRxiv Household Transmission of SARS-COV-2: Insights from a Population-based Serological Survey (2020).
3. 3.
   Cevik, M. et al. Preprint at SSRN SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV Viral Load Dynamics, Duration of Viral Shedding and Infectiousness: A Living Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis by Muge Cevik, Matthew Tate, Ollie Lloyd, Alberto Enrico Maraolo, Jenna Schafers, Antonia Ho :: SSRN (2020).

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[Rebel_Yell]

Top Pathologist Claims COVID-19 Is "The Greatest Hoax Ever Perpetrated On An Unsuspecting Public"



by Tyler Durden

Thu, 11/19/2020 - 14:15


Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,
Top pathologist Dr. Roger Hodkinson told government officials in Alberta during a zoom conference call that the current coronavirus crisis is “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting public.”



Hodkinson’s comments were made during a discussion involving the Community and Public Services Committee and the clip was subsequently uploaded to YouTube.

Noting that he was also an expert in virology, Hodkinson pointed out that his role as CEO of a biotech company that manufactures COVID tests means, “I might know a little bit about all this.”

“There is utterly unfounded public hysteria driven by the media and politicians, it’s outrageous, this is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting public,” said Hodkinson.

The doctor said that nothing could be done to stop the spread of the virus besides protecting older more vulnerable people and that the whole situation represented “politics playing medicine, and that’s a very dangerous game.”

View: https://youtu.be/uEo3rnU12jw



Hodkinson remarked that “social distancing is useless because COVID is spread by aerosols which travel 30 meters or so before landing,” as he called for society to be re-opened immediately to prevent the debilitating damage being caused by lockdowns.
Hodkinson also slammed mandatory mask mandates as completely pointless.

“Masks are utterly useless. There is no evidence base for their effectiveness whatsoever,” he said.
“Paper masks and fabric masks are simply virtue signalling. They’re not even worn effectively most of the time. It’s utterly ridiculous. Seeing these unfortunate, uneducated people – I’m not saying that in a pejorative sense – seeing these people walking around like lemmings obeying without any knowledge base to put the mask on their face.”

The doctor also slammed the unreliability of PCR tests, noting that “positive test results do not, underlined in neon, mean a clinical infection,” and that all testing should stop because the false numbers are “driving public hysteria.”
Hodkinson said that the risk of death in the province of Alberta for people under the age of 65 was “one in three hundred thousand,” and that it was simply “outrageous” to shut down society for what the doctor said “was just another bad flu.”

“I’m absolutely outraged that this has reached this level, it should all stop tomorrow,” concluded Dr. Hodkinson.

Hodkinson’s credentials are beyond question, with the MedMalDoctors website affirming his credibility.

“He received his general medical degrees from Cambridge University in the UK (M.A., M.B., B. Chir.) where he was a scholar at Corpus Christi College. Following a residency at the University of British Columbia he became a Royal College certified general pathologist (FRCPC) and also a Fellow of the College of American Pathologists (FCAP).”
“He is in good Standing with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta, and has been recognized by the Court of Queen’s Bench in Alberta as an expert in pathology.”

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTCZq16T2Ag
LIVE at 1:02:52 min
Members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force Hold a Press Briefing
•Started streaming 63 minutes ago


The White House

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOmXCgVH0fU
41:23 min
COVID-19 Update – Critical Care and Pandemic Response
•Streamed live 5 hours ago

JAMA Network

In the midst of rising COVID-19 case rates globally, Derek C. Angus, MD, MPH and Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH return to JAMA's Q&A series to update viewers on developments in the pandemic and the critical care management of COVID-19 patients. Dr. Angus is Chief Health Care Innovation Officer at @UPMC, Professor and Chair of Critical Care Medicine, and a senior JAMA editor. Dr. Walensky is Chief of Infectious Diseases at @MassGeneralHospital and a Professor at @Harvard Medical School. Recorded November 19, 2020.

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yXjDWBv2Ns
1:59:35 min
TWiV 683: Two COVID-19 mRNA vaccines
•Nov 18, 2020


Vincent Racaniello

On this episode of TWiV, mRNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer show over 90% efficacy, prothrombotic auto-antibodies in serum of COVID-19 patients, and the whereabouts of SARS-CoV-2 in the human body.

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

"We Are The People" - German Protesters Clash With Police Over New Coronavirus Restrictions

Thu, 11/19/2020 - 04:15

Thousands of demonstrators on Wednesday protested against the German government's attempt to enact additional coronavirus restrictions. German police were forced to unleash water cannons and pepper spray to disperse angry crowds in Berlin's government district, according to Deutsche Welle (DW).
Around 190 protesters were arrested, and nine police officers were injured after clashes in central Berlin. Police said large crowds ignored repeated calls to wear face masks and practice safe social distancing - though none of the requests were followed by protesters.



"Police calling on demonstrators to leave. Lots of booing. Demonstrators want to access cordoned-off area around parliament where new additions to infection law are being debated [at the moment,]," DW's Nina Haase said.

Police calling on demonstrators to leave. Lots of booing. Demonstrators want to access cordoned-off area around parliament where new additions to infection law are being debated atm. #1811 pic.twitter.com/k3jZvaiolL
— Nina Haase-Trobridge (@NinaHaase) November 18, 2020

In a series of tweets, Haase described the chaotic scene outside the Brandenburg Gate. She said demonstrators chanted, "we are the people," adding that many were singing the national anthem as they held the line.

Bizarre scenes: “We are the people” shout demonstrators. Police repeat calls to leave the area. Demonstrators not budging. Singing national anthem. But placards also call for scientists to be thrown into prison. Police have warned to make use of water cannons. pic.twitter.com/9KHKWgjh6i
— Nina Haase-Trobridge (@NinaHaase) November 18, 2020

Police were seen moving in on demonstrators, using large vehicles outfitted with water cannons. She said, "police called on demonstrators to stop attacking police officers."

Police moving into crowd in front of Brandenburg gate. Police call on demonstrators to stop attacking police officers pic.twitter.com/wasPK6otBe
— Nina Haase-Trobridge (@NinaHaase) November 18, 2020

As water cannons soaked demonstrators outside the Brandenburg Gate, riot police also moved in protesters, pushing them back away from government buildings. Twitter handle "SecondOpinion" shows the angry mob from an elevated view.

Belarus? Hongkong?
No, it's Berlin today.
Protests against the new
German Infection Protection Act pic.twitter.com/gLbcD4hQ43
— SecondOpinion (@DaFeid) November 18, 2020

Absolute chaos on the ground.

Nicht #Minsk nicht #HongKong das geschieht HEUTE in #berlin #b1811. #polizeistaat #Gewalt gegen friedliche #Demonstranten #pfefferspray #diktatur #coronavirus #CoronaDiktatur pic.twitter.com/Y8G4IzllRc
— OCN (@OktayTR57) November 18, 2020

Dispersión de la manifestación en #Berlín. 18/11/2020#Alemania El tiránico régimen de #Merkel, que se aferraba a la silla de la Canciller con dedos azules, dispersó la manifestación de destacadas personalidades. manifestantes contra las restricciones del #coronavirus en Berlín pic.twitter.com/wOGivuhdNX
— DerrotarSistema (@DerrotarSistema) November 18, 2020

Hier die Situation zwischen Brandenburger Tor und Bundestag kurz nach dem ersten Einsatz des Wasserwerfers:
Viel Pfefferspray und mehrere Festnahmen. Polizeibeamte werden mit "Schuldig"-Schildern und einem Regenschirm angegriffen. #b1811 #Berlin pic.twitter.com/6cNAisuk2v
— Raphael Knipping (@RaphaelKnipping) November 18, 2020

The protest was sparked by Germany's lower and upper houses that passed changes to the country's existing infection protection law. The changes allow government officials to impose new social distancing restrictions rules on mask-wearing, and regulations of when businesses can open and close.
In recent weeks, Germany has seen a sharp uptick in new infections. About 17,600 new coronavirus cases were reported in Germany on Wednesday, bringing total infections to 833,307.



The coronavirus pandemic is turning out to be an era of mass social unrest worldwide. As the second virus wave ravages many western countries, people will rise up against these draconian measures.

Is the US next to see a wave of social unrest as new restrictions are being reimposed

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

CDC Director: "All Schools Should Remain Open"

Thu, 11/19/2020 - 17:43

In a stunning rebuke to various governors across the nation who have kneejerked their authoritarian responses to the COVID casedemic and shut schools almost universally, today's Trump administration Coronavirus Task Force briefing will come as a shocker.

Having explained in detail how vaccines will be delivered to all Americans (as opposed to the less-priveleged priority of the Biden administration), CDC Director Bob Redfield dropped a "science" tape-bomb as he explained - using the science - why America's schools should remain open!

“At no time has the CDC suggested school should be closed...
...All school should remain open. It is the safest place for children to be.”

As NY, the largest school district in the nation, is set to close on a de minimus positivity rate, Redfield exclaims that following the data shows "there has been no intra-school transmission and we must make sure not to make emotional decisions when the data strongly supports making sure schools remain open."

CDC Director Robert Redfield: It's very important that schools stay open pic.twitter.com/ylnazduooS
— Team Trump (@TeamTrump) November 19, 2020

Redfield concludes:

"It is counterproductive to close schools."

View: https://youtu.be/EeATDWfzubU
1:20:30 min
[Wee bit toasty at the very end when reporters yell "why aren't you willing to work with the transition team? You are undermining democracy. "]

After Redfield spoke, Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, HHS Asst. Secretary (in charge of the nation's mental health), reiterated his comments that schools must be open and that “we have tools to keep our schools open.”

The reason is simple, she explained:

“We know about the emotional distress, child abuse & neglect” that these lockdowns are causing.

We look forward to the Left's "scientists" arguing their way out of this...After vowing to listen to the CDC 'experts', we assume now, given pressure from teacher's unions, the Biden administration will politicize science some more.
Watch the briefing here (Redfield begins around 1:43:00 in and is followed by McCance-Katz)...

OPEN THE F**KING SCHOOLS AND GET THE KIDS BACK TO THEIR FRIENDS!

*CALIFORNIA ORDERS 10 P.M. CURFEW FOR 94% OF STATE'S POPULATION

Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered a curfew for all California counties in the purple tier. The curfew will affect 41 of the state’s 58 counties — a vast majority of the population.

The curfew, which the state is calling a “limited Stay at Home Order,” will be in effect from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. starting Saturday.
The restrictions between those hours will be similar to the stay-at-home order that was in effect in March. That means all non-essential work, movement and gatherings will have to stop in all purple tier counties.

The curfew is set to remain in effect until Dec. 21 at 5 a.m.

You cannot make this shit up! Show us the data Gavin that supports a 10pm curfew?

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Lockdowns, Mask Mandates, & Forced Vaccination

Wed, 11/18/2020 - 23:50
Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

With the presidential election highly contested and the mainstream media hyping the rising infection numbers, the public is now facing important questions regarding the future of the pandemic response. Some states have decided to unilaterally introduce “executive orders” to restrict citizen movements, business openings and public activities.



Anthony Fauci is on the news constantly, calling for families to cancel Thanksgiving and Christmas and telling Americans to just “do what we are told”. The media is generally trying to drum up fear in the minds of the populace and paint images of plague and death everywhere. If Biden does actually end up in the White House, a federalized and national high level lockdown is on the table starting in January.

In April of this year I published an article titled ‘Waves Of Mutilation: Medical Tyranny And The Cashless Society’, which outlined a social engineering model put forward by globalists at MIT and the Imperial College of London which I called “wave theory”. The model essentially works like this:

Governments must use the pandemic as a rationale for “waves” of restrictive lockdowns, followed by controlled re-openings of the economy and of normal human activity. Globalists claim that this will “slow” the spread of the coronavirus and save lives. However, they also openly admit that these cycles of closures and openings have other uses.

Over time, the citizenry becomes acclimated to governmental intrusion in their everyday lives, and they get used to the idea of bureaucracy telling them what they are not allowed to do when it comes to the simplest activities. The system thus bottlenecks all human interactions to the point that we are constantly asking for permission. We become slaves to the Covid response.

As globalist Gideon Lichfield from MIT stated in his article ‘We’re Not Going Back To Normal’:

“Ultimately, however, I predict that we’ll restore the ability to socialize safely by developing more sophisticated ways to identify who is a disease risk and who isn’t, and discriminating—legally—against those who are.

…one can imagine a world in which, to get on a flight, perhaps you’ll have to be signed up to a service that tracks your movements via your phone. The airline wouldn’t be able to see where you’d gone, but it would get an alert if you’d been close to known infected people or disease hot spots. There’d be similar requirements at the entrance to large venues, government buildings, or public transport hubs. There would be temperature scanners everywhere, and your workplace might demand you wear a monitor that tracks your temperature or other vital signs. Where nightclubs ask for proof of age, in future they might ask for proof of immunity—an identity card or some kind of digital verification via your phone, showing you’ve already recovered from or been vaccinated against the latest virus strains.”

Note that Lichfield suggested that in order to participate in the normal economy you might need to show verification that you have been “vaccinated against the latest virus strains”. In other words, the elites expect there to be many more viral events or mutations AFTER Covid 19 has run its course, and the restrictions and controls we see today are meant to continue, possibly FOREVER.

The reality is that the wave model is not a very practical plan for stopping viral spread, but it is a perfect method for conditioning people to submit to a high level of control over their personal lives that they never would have accepted otherwise. The Covid response has also been heralded by elites at the World Economic Forum as a perfect “opportunity” to initiate what they call the “Great Reset”. The reset is a plan to deconstruct what’s left of the free market capitalist system, introduce carbon controls in the name of the global warming fraud, institute a global cashless monetary system, and finally, move humanity into what they call a “shared economy” in which the average person is no longer allowed to own private property of any kind and is completely dependent on the system for their basic necessities.

Of course, such a complex system of “solutions” (dominance) over every individual would need to be managed in a highly centralized way.

Meaning, global governance by the elitist establishment would be the end result. Naturally….the globalists would reluctantly take the reins of power for “the greater good”.

This is the bigger picture, the underlying threat at the core of the lockdowns and Covid laws. That said, there are also numerous arguments based on logic and evidence as to why there is no reason for people to submit to such restrictions. Let’s outline them in a simple list:

The Coronavirus Kills Less Than 1% Of The People It Infects
Medical studies in the US indicate that the coronavirus deaths rate for citizens NOT living in nursing homes has been holding well below 1% on average. The largest percentage of deaths by far in the US has been in nursing homes among elderly people with preexisting conditions. People in long term care facilities make up 8% of Covid infection cases but they are 45% of all covid deaths.

Pneumonia alone kills around 50,000 Americans each year according to the CDC, and that’s with vaccinations, yet, we are supposed to panic and hand over all our freedoms in the name of stopping a disease which affects a tiny percentage of the population? This is why the media and governments have decided to hyperfocus on infection numbers rather than deaths. The death numbers do not warrant the amount of panic the establishment is trying to foment.

Lockdowns Destroy The Economy
It’s basic math and finance; the small business sector of the US economy is dying. Small businesses make up around 50% of US employment. The Covid bailout money, handled by international banks like JP Morgan, did not get to the vast majority of small businesses that were supposed to receive it. Those businesses that did get bailouts are still on the verge of closure or bankruptcy. Any further lockdowns will be the final nail in the coffin for the US economy, except for major corporations which are enjoying the lion’s share of stimulus cash.

How many lives will be damaged or lost due to poverty and economic collapse if the current trend continues? I suspect far more than any lives lost because of Covid.

Why is no one in the mainstream talking about the most practical solution to the pandemic? The small percentage of people who are most at risk can STAY HOME and take precautions as necessary, while the rest of us get on with our lives. Why are we being ordered to do the exact opposite just to make less than 1% of the population feel safer? How is this logical, reasonable or scientific? The only answer that makes sense is that the lockdown response is about control, not saving lives.

State Governors Have No Authority To Take Away Your Civil Liberties, And Neither Does The President

Restrictions based on executive orders have no legal authority under the Constitution. They are color of law, not true law. Laws are debated and passed by state legislatures, not by state governors. Executive orders only apply to state employees and have no bearing on the citizenry.

Leftists and statists argue that during a national crisis the governor has emergency powers and states can do whatever they want. This is false.

Under the constitution and the Bill of Rights, state governors do not get to proclaim a national emergency based on their personal opinion and then declare themselves dictators in response. Any “laws” exerted because of such a process are therefor null and void; they are meaningless.

If the states have the ability to do whatever they want without oversight, then they would be able to bring back Jim Crow laws (among other things). Do leftists support that idea as well? If the federal government and the president have the power to violate the Bill of Rights during a national emergency, then Donald Trump has the authority to bring in martial law across the country because of leftist riots. Do leftists agree with that outcome?

It is interesting to me that the political left in particular is so keen on defending the idea of states and governors having the power to unilaterally enforce pandemic restrictions without oversight or checks and balances. Yet, they have been aggressively opposed to state powers in the past when they had a Democratic president like Obama in office. The left has also been staunchly opposed to executive orders applied by Donald Trump, but they applaud the idea of executive orders on lockdowns being instituted by Biden.

So, leftists support unilateral state power only when it works in favor of their agenda, and they support unilateral federal and presidential power only when it works in favor of their agenda. What a surprise…

The bottom line is this: State government powers do not supersede the Bill of Rights. Federal government powers do not supersede the Bill of Rights. NO ONE has the legal power to take away your inherent liberties. Those that claim otherwise have something to gain from your enslavement.

Mask Laws Are Unscientific
The majority of masks being used by the public today are cloth masks. Not even the CDC recommends the use of cloth masks for their own employees or medical workers. They only recommend N95 masks. They also admit that cloth masks are much less effective at preventing contact with the virus. Yet, the CDC supports the enforcement of cloth masks for the public.

On top of that, some states and countries with the most stringent mask laws continue to see huge spikes in coronavirus infections. For example, New York has been one of the most tyrannical enforcers of mask laws and lockdowns in the US, but in November the state has witnessed extensive infection increases. California, Michigan and Illinois have also seen dramatic infection spikes this month despite hard enforcement of masks. So, where is the science?

It would appear that masks are a placebo; if they actually worked, then the states with the most aggressive enforcement should be seeing a dramatic downturn in cases, not exponential increases.

Furthermore, why are many states and countries trying to force citizens to wear masks outside in open air and sunlight when viruses cannot survive in such conditions? UV light from the sun is nature’s sterilizer, but no one in the mainstream or in government acknowledges this scientific fact. Again, this shows that mask laws are about control, not about science or saving lives.

Covid Vaccination Is Unnecessary And Potentially Dangerous
Why should people get vaccinated for a virus that over 99% of them will easily survive anyway? Why not simply attain “herd immunity” through natural infection spread and antibodies? The mainstream will continue to ignore these questions because they are inconvenient to the wider agenda.

Also, why should anyone trust a vaccine that was rushed out in less than a year’s time? China and the rest of the world spent over a decade trying to develop a vaccine for SARS unsuccessfully, but we are supposed to believe that they created a vaccine for SARS related Covid 19 within months?

The last time the government rushed out a vaccine for a viral epidemic was the 1976 swine flu scare, and that ended with numerous permanently damaged or dead individuals due to faulty vaccines.

As I noted in my article ‘Why The Public Should Rebel Against Forced Vaccinations’, published in May, there are numerous examples of vaccine tests and implementation going very wrong, from Bill Gates and the World Health Organization giving people polio in various countries through vaccines, to Novartis and their deadly testing of a Bird Flu vaccine on homeless people in Poland, to GlaxoSmithCline and the deaths of children due to their pneumonia vaccine.

Again, it’s simply not worth the risk over a virus that over 99% of people will survive. The idea of such risk being forced on the public is completely unacceptable, but many government officials have supported the idea over the past six months. It is important for the public to make it clear now that they will NOT be allowing state or federal governments to make vaccination mandatory.

Rebellion Is Needed To Put A Stop To The Fear Machine
In closing, there are endless reasons why we must end the pandemic lockdown agenda once and for all. Most importantly, the lockdowns, mask orders and vaccine plans are a stepping stone to something much worse – Medical tyranny and centralization on an unprecedented scale. I will not personally follow such rules because they are not scientifically or morally sound. They are nonsense designed to frighten the public into complacency and consent.

A rebellion against such measures would be very easy to win. All we have to do is refuse to follow their mandates. What are they going to do? Lock up millions of people? Shoot us? That would sort of defeat the supposed purpose of the very measures they demand we follow. And, if it comes to violence, so be it. I have no problem fighting to defend my freedoms and the freedoms of future generations. Perhaps it is time for conservatives and moderates that stand against the lockdowns to organize for this possible future.

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Hundreds Of Companies That Got PPP Loans Have Gone Bankrupt

Thu, 11/19/2020 - 08:50
Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,

Recipients of PPP loans have filed for bankruptcy after the money ran out.


At least a Half Billion in PPP Loans Won't Be Repaid
Hundreds of companies employing 23,400 people went Bankrupt after PPP Funds Ran Out.

The total number of companies that failed despite getting PPP loans is likely far higher. The Journal only analyzed the big borrowers from the program, which accounted for about half of the overall loans though only about 13.5% of the total participants. And many small businesses simply liquidate when they run out of cash rather than file for bankruptcy.
The SBA has only released data on the largest borrowers, which the Journal linked to bankruptcy filings.

About $525 billion in loans were distributed to over 5 million companies between April 3 and Aug. 8.

At least 285 medium-sized companies went under. Undoubtedly thousands of smaller companies did as well.

PPP Program Fatally Flawed
I never understood giving money to corporations so they could pay workers.
The workers were covered by state unemployment insurance, plus pandemic assistance.

Many people made more money being unemployed than than they did working thanks to $600 in weekly pandemic assistance checks.

Moreover, the program was fertile grounds for fraud. Many companies opened businesses to take advantage of the guarantees.

Evidence of PPP Fraud Mounts

Please consider Evidence of PPP Fraud Mounts, Officials Say

The Small Business Administration’s inspector general, an arm of the agency that administers the PPP, said last month there were “strong indicators of widespread potential abuse and fraud in the PPP.”
The watchdog counted tens of thousands of companies that received PPP loans for which they appear to have been ineligible, such as corporations created after the pandemic began, businesses that exceeded workforce size limits (generally 500 employees or fewer) or those listed in a federal “Do Not Pay” database because they already owe money to taxpayers.
Several hundred PPP-related investigations have been opened, involving nearly 500 suspects and hundreds of millions of dollars of loans, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Some Democratic lawmakers and others have voiced concerns that the SBA’s refusal to release the names of all borrowers would make detecting fraud more difficult.
That issue might have been resolved last week, however, when a federal judge sided with news organizations including Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, that argued the SBA was legally required to disclose the borrowers.

More Shutdowns Means More Bankruptcies

1. Ohio Gov. Restricts Weddings, Threatens to Close Businesses
2. 24 States Reach Their Highest Level of Covid Hospitalizations
3. Utah Governor Mandates Masks and Restricts Gatherings
4. El Paso Shut Down as 10 Mobile Morgues Fill Up

Also note 83% of Passengers Will Not Return to Old Travel Habits
States are increasing lockdowns again except this time there is no program in place to deal with the mess.

Bankruptcy counts will soar. What a disaster.

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Initial Jobless Claims Re-Accelerated Last Week, Pandemic Claims Continue To Soar

Thu, 11/19/2020 - 08:38

'Only' 742,000 Americans filed for first time unemployment claims last week - breaking a 4-week streak of drops as perhaps the second-wave lockdown impacts are starting to be evident...



Source: Bloomberg
Louisiana saw the biggest surge in jobless claims while Illinois and Florida saw the biggest drops...



Continuing claims continued their (now 8 week) streak of reductions, falling to 6.372mm from 6.801mm last week. However, as the chart below shows, as Americans fall off those 'standard' claims rolls, they are transitioning to the Pandemic Emergency Claims rolls...



Source: Bloomberg
Overall, the aggregate number of Americans on unemployment claims remains above 20 million...



Source: Bloomberg

And given the current lockdowns, this is about to get worse.

 

[marsh]

 

[TammyinWI]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

COVID-19 Ushers In An Unconstitutional Hell For America

Tue, 11/17/2020 - 22:40
Authored by Michael Walsh via The Epoch Times,

Thanks to the dreaded Covid-19, it’s good-bye Thanksgiving and, soon enough, farewell Christmas. And after that, who knows?



Having discovered that Americans have lost their spines and are now easily penned inside their homes like two-legged sheep, the petty potentates who rule - not govern, rule - far too many states and municipalities have concluded that we will never fight back, never resist, and never reject their latest whimsical edicts.

For proof, look no farther than California, where 41 of the state’s 58 counties have just been returned to most-restricted status, and a statewide curfew is now being bruited in Sacramento. California is “pulling an emergency brake,” as CCP virus “cases” rise, said Newsom, who recently attended a pricey private birthday party at the exclusive French Laundry restaurant in the Napa Valley, violating his own Caligulan guidelines.



There are vague promises that things might begin to open again next year, but don’t hold your breath. “Two weeks to slow the spread” and “fifteen days to flatten the curve” have long since morphed into a semi-permanent nanny state in which the very act of slowing and flattening ensures that the virus will go on indefinitely by guaranteeing a continuous stream of new “cases” with which to frighten the public and increase government power.

In defiance of all previous medical experience, the Covid “pandemic” has muzzled the population with bank-robber masks, driven families asunder, forced elderly couples to die apart, punished schoolchildren with the false promise of “remote learning,” made Americans eye each other with suspicion and sidle away, and created a near-Stasi level of rats and snitches only too happy to inform on their fellow citizens.

It’s also killed the hospitality industry, the airlines, and commercial real estate. And all in brazen violation of the Constitution’s explicit guarantees of freedom of speech, assembly, and religious observance.

It has been a monstrous disgrace, made even worse by its supine acceptance. But even more dire consequences have followed the arrival of the Chinese Communist Party on our shores. In short order:

Masks became normalized, even mandated, thus allowing the brutal, cowardly thugs of Antifa and Black Lives Matter “activists” to go about in public in ninja mufti, faces concealed in violation of innumerable local ordinances. Once, the wearing of a concealing mask was practically prima facie proof of criminal intent, but now, thanks to the irresponsible and self-aggrandizing Dr. Anthony Fauci and other “experts,” the lack of a mask signals an inability to accept authority and perhaps also a willingness to expel the phantom virus into the faces of the innocent.



With the public rise of the neo-fascist Left in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, urban disorder became mainstreamed, justified as it was by calling it “mostly peaceful” protest against the United States of America and its form of government. Even as private gatherings were being banned, thousands gathered in the streets to demonstrate against the American constitution and celebrate Donald Trump’s apparent electoral defeat. Indeed, “Black Lives Plaza” on one of the most expensive blocks in Washington, D.C., violates private property and civil rights within sight of the White House.

Watching the videos of patriotic Americans who had gathered in Washington, D.C., over the weekend to show support for president Trump’s efforts to legally fight clear vote fraud in the recent election—as is his constitutional right—and who were then set upon, sucker-punched, and otherwise assaulted by the feral minions of Antifa and Black Lives Matter within sight of the White House, was sickening and enraging.

Once actual peaceful protest had become essentially forbidden, the red-diaper baby media was free to shed its skin-suit of journalistic “objectivity,” enthusiastically join the leftist cadres in its open loathing of Donald Trump and all that he symbolized, and renew its attack on the Constitution, including among other things, the Electoral College, the Senate, and the Bill of Rights. All in the name of a more “honest” journalism adhering to a “higher loyalty,” of course.

Indeed, the New York Times—Pravda West—in the run-up to the election informed the nation via Twitter that it would be the media that would call the winner of the 2020 election, even before the votes were counted, certified, and sent to the Electoral College.

It later deleted the tweet and issued a sheepish “apology” for “referring imprecisely to the role of the news media. … [It] projects winners and reports results; it does not declare the winner of the election.”

Of course, that was a bald-faced lie as well. In fact, insofar as the media is concerned, it does declare the winner—and its word goes. Why else is an often-masked Joe Biden now claiming the non-existent “Office of the President-Elect”? The media couldn’t wait to declare Biden over the top, even though the election is now in its constitutionally permitted disputation phase, and does not go to the Electoral College until Dec. 14.

Lastly, the Dreaded Covid occasioned a wholesale “emergency” rewriting of voting laws, removing essential safeguards in the name of “safety” and thus permitting a host of outcome-altering refinements, including a record-number of mail-in votes whose provenance is often unprovable, early voting, late voting, and last-minute registration and voting.

During the counts in crucial swing states, tallies were suddenly halted for a couple of hours in the wee hours as the Democrat urban-machine apparatchiks calculated how many manufactured votes were needed to overtake Trump’s lead and then, two hours later … they appeared, courtesy of foreign-made voting machines with hidden algorithms.

And all because of the CCP virus. For unless something dramatic happens, the Left will never, ever, ever let us go. Thanks to the hysterical overreaction to the novel coronavirus, the weaponizing of it by the Democrat Party in order change election laws and thus harvest millions of likely fraudulent mail-in votes in key swing states, and a leftist media that speaks with one voice as it gaslights the population with the party line, we are now all living in the unconstitutional hell of the neo-Marxists’ “new normal.”

How do you like it, America?

Front page news!!! The truth!

It should be, instead of the oppressive lies that are hammered on, pounded on daily, from all directions.

 

[TammyinWI]

I know someone young that just committed suicide (I am devastated)...and like the song by Ozzy: "...satan laughing spreads his wings."

And "they" have been using "churches" to convince people about masks/instill compliance and fear...in direct defiance of the Bible! So, they will continue (this plandemic has helped to open my eyes more).

Gates, Big Pharma ploy to use religious leaders to convince people to get the COVID-19 vaccine

In its entirety:

Bill Gates plot REVEALED: Are we being fully informed about the “COVID-19 Solution?”
by: Sara Middleton, staff writer | November 19, 2020

As the battle for winning the COVID-19 vaccine competition continues, we’re seeing more and more excitement in the headlines. Is this factual reporting on COVID vaccine developments – or merely an attempt to persuade the public into taking the shot?

Many experts suspect the latter. And despite all the promises and claims by pharmaceutical companies that are jumping the gun on this fast-paced race, millions of Americans are still unconvinced about vaccine safety and effectiveness.

Obviously, this is a huge wrench in Big Pharma’s plans for widespread vaccination – and players like Bill Gates have plenty of plans to make sure things go their way.

Gates, Big Pharma ploy to use religious leaders to convince people to get the COVID-19 vaccine

It’s no secret that Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates – who has no medical training – is a huge proponent of mass vaccinations. And in his estimation, “vaccine hesitancy” is a major obstacle in his and his cronies’ attempt to push vaccines onto the world at-large.

Gates frequently attempts to belittle vaccine skepticism as purely conspiratorial, and he recently suggested using religious officials and other community leaders to carry the banner for mass vaccination and convince people to line up for the jab.

Gates and his partners already used this approach in developing countries like Nigeria in order to convince people to allow their kids to be vaccinated against polio. Of course, you may remember that at one point in 2019, more African children ended up paralyzed due to a mutant polio strain from the vaccine itself rather than the wild polio virus the drug was supposed to protect people against.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci has also admitted to the same PR strategy for COVID-19. He has reportedly encouraged government officials to use sports stars, community leaders, and other celebrities that people look up to as a means to convince the public to get vaccinated with the hastily-developed vaccine.

But so far, the public still isn’t buying it.

Majority of Americans concerned about vaccine safety and effectiveness, say a vaccine will be likely released before we know about side effects, recent poll indicates

A September 2020 poll by Pew Research Center found that of 100,000 Americans surveyed, only about half would “definitely” or “probably” get a COVID-19 vaccine if one were available. This is a huge decline since April, when the Pew Research Center found that nearly three-quarters of Americans would be willing to get vaccinated.

Contrary to what the media may claim, this doesn’t appear to be a partisan issue, either. The decrease in vaccine willingness was observed across all major demographic and political groups, according to Pew.

The September survey also indicated that most Americans (77 percent of respondents) believe that a COVID-19 vaccine will be approved before we fully know the degree to which the drug is safe and effective, and that concerns for side effects is a major deterrent to agreeing to the vaccine.

And despite the understandable misgivings about the COVID-19 vaccine from the American public, we continue to see the threat of mandates and penalties associated with the drug, ranging from travel bans to job loss. Make no mistake about it: medical tyranny has arrived and must be stopped in order to protect public health.

Stay tuned to NaturalHealth365, as we continue to monitor these developments closely.

Sources for this article include:

Statnews.com
RT.com
UMN.edu
PewResearch.org
TheGuardian.com
NPR.org

COVID-19 Bill Gates Plan Revealed | NaturalHealth365

(NaturalHealth365) Bill Gates has a worldwide plan to vaccinate the entire population against COVID-19. But, there is a risk rarely revealed.

www.naturalhealth365.com

 

[marsh]

IT BEGINS: Orange County, Sacramento and El Dorado County Sheriffs Will Not Enforce Gavin Newsom's Curfew Order | The Gateway Pundit | by Cristina Laila

Gavin Newsom California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) on Thursday issued a curfew for most California counties.

www.thegatewaypundit.com

IT BEGINS: Orange County, Sacramento and El Dorado County Sheriffs Will Not Enforce Gavin Newsom’s Curfew Order

By Cristina Laila
Published November 19, 2020 at 8:10pm

Gavin Newsom
California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) on Thursday issued a curfew for most California counties.

The curfew will affect 41 out of 58 counties in California currently in the most restrictive “purple tier.”

Earlier this week Newsom said he was looking at studies from other countries about curfews including France and Saudi Arabia.

Yes, Saudi Arabia, where they behead women in public.

The 41 counties in the purple tiers will be under a curfew which will be in effect from 10 PM to 5 AM starting on Saturday, November 21 until December 21st.
However there is just one problem for the Democrat tyrant currently occupying the governor’s seat in California.

Sheriff’s offices from Orange County, El Dorado County and Sacramento will not enforce Newsom’s curfew order.

Orange County, a conservative enclave in Southern California will not comply.

OC Sheriff Don Barnes released a statement Thursday evening and said his department has better things to do than respond to requests about face masks or social gatherings enforcement.

Statement from @OCSheriffBarnes on the limited Stay at Home Order issued by Governor Newsom. pic.twitter.com/qDnYS4fk6U
— OC Sheriff, CA (@OCSheriff) November 20, 2020

Sacramento Sheriff Scott Jones released a statement on Thursday and said his department will not be enforcing Newsom’s orders:

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office will not be determining—including entering any home or business—compliance with, or enforcing compliance of, any health or emergency orders related to curfews, staying at home, Thanksgiving or other social gatherings inside or outside the home, maximum occupancy, or mask mandates. Further, we will not dispatch officers for these purposes—callers will be advised to call 3-1-1 and be routed to County Health. Of course, if there is potential criminal behavior or the potential for impacts to public or personal safety we will continue to respond appropriately.
I would like to wish everyone a happy and meaningful Thanksgiving Holiday.”
-Sheriff Scott Jones

El Dorado County Sheriff said his department will not be enforcing the curfew order and will not prevent Thanksgiving activities.

“The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office will continue to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America.”

On Nov. 19 the California Department of Public Health issued a curfew order for the state of California. The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office is aware and will not be enforcing this curfew order.
El Dorado County sheriff’s deputies will not be determining compliance with, or enforcing the compliance of, any health order related to this curfew. The Sheriff’s Office will not prevent Thanksgiving activities, maximum occupancies or mask wearing mandates at social gatherings within the county of El Dorado. Calls received by the Sheriff’s Office regarding enforcement of any COVID-related orders will be referred to the El Dorado County Department of Public Health at (530) 621-6100.

We will still address reports of criminal activity related to public safety and our El Dorado County citizens. The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office will continue to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America.

Gavin Newsom has lost the consent of the governed.

Newsom recently attended a dinner party at The French Laundry, a restaurant in Napa Valley that charges $800 per person for their tasting menu while he tells Californians they can’t gather with their families for Thanksgiving.

No one at the dinner party was social distancing and nobody was wearing masks which is why many Californians are simply ignoring Newsom’s new order.

 

[marsh]

Governor Newsom Created This ‘Surge’ in COVID Cases – California Globe

californiaglobe.com

Governor Newsom Created This ‘Surge’ in COVID Cases

No proof, no evidence, and really no danger as the 20,039,659 Californians who tested negative have already proved

By Katy Grimes, November 17, 2020 7:24 am

Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Department of Public Health Secretary Mark Ghaly announced Monday they have halted the entire state from reopening following 250 days of various stages of lockdown since March.

Newsom even claimed the reason is “the fastest increase in cases we have seen yet — faster than what we experienced at the outset of the pandemic or even this summer.”

CHHS Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly during a press conference on July 21, 2020. (Photo: Zoom)

This is just not true.

What the governor has done is ordered the fastest increase in testing California residents for coronavirus, and the commensurate positive test results.

Gavin Newsom ordered the rapid increase in testing, and even spent more than $100 million to open a lab in Los Angeles to process the tests.

Here are the current COVID-19 numbers:
21,068,895 Californians have been given COVID-19 tests
1,029,235 total Californians have tested positive for COVID-19
20,039,659 total Californians have tested negative for COVID-19
18,263 deaths as a result of COVID-19

CDPH COVID dashboard. (Photo: CDPH.ca.gov)



What we are seeing is not an increase in deaths – those are on the decline – we only see a rapid rise in tests proving that more than 20 million Californians have tested negative for coronavirus as the graph above shows.

Dr. Mark Ghaly said research has shown businesses have been sources of virus transmission, but he offered no evidence of this outrageous claim, other than to say where friends gather together at restaurants and bars is how COVID-19 is spread.

No proof, no evidence, and really no danger as the 20,039,659 Californians who tested negative have already proved.

Yet Gov. Newsom and Dr. Ghaly announced moving 41 of the state’s 58 counties into the strictest reopening tier solely based on positive virus tests.

“It is not because some restaurants have been open, it’s because that is what viruses do. To limit the spread, do your best to keep up on washing your hands, keeping distanced and wearing a facial covering when you can’t. We can and will overcome this as a free society,” Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) Tweeted.

It is not because some restaurants have been open, it’s because that is what viruses do. To limit the spread, do your best to keep up on washing your hands, keeping distanced and wearing a facial covering when you can’t. We can and will overcome this as a free society. 4/4
— James Gallagher (@J_GallagherAD3) November 16, 2020

The silliest, hyperbolic response to Gallagher’s Tweet:

“I’m so embarrassed to hear this kind of remark! You obviously don’t know or see the people suffering. Until you experience what other people are, just keep worrying about restaurants! Cmon respect others and not just yourself!”

Where are the people suffering? The hundreds of thousands of homeless vagrants and drug addicts living on the streets in California cities?

The only people suffering in California are businesses owners whose businesses have been forced into closure, their employees, families stuck at home, kids not attending school, and the elderly who have been isolated since March, terrified of catching the virus.

Gov. Newsom and Dr. Ghaly appear willing to destroy the lives of everyone else in the state in order to “manage” the virus, which is not possible.

Unlike Newsom and Dr. Ghaly, a recent controlled test group of 1,848 Marine recruits was done, who were told to isolate themselves for two weeks at home, then in a supervised military quarantine at the closed Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, Marine Corps Times reported. That included having a single roommate, wearing masks, keeping at least 6 feet apart and doing most training outdoors. They also had daily fever and symptom checks.

The recruits were tested for coronavirus when they arrived for the military quarantine and 7 and 14 days afterward. Sixteen, or about 1 percent, tested positive on arrival and only one had any symptoms. Another 35 — an additional 2 percent — tested positive during the two-week military quarantine and only four had symptoms.

A separate study published Wednesday in the New England journal reports on an outbreak last spring on the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. Among the crew of 4,779, mostly young people, 1,271 became infected; 77 percent did not show symptoms when diagnosed and 45 percent never developed any.

Dr. Ghaly and Gov. Newsom have made months of unfounded claims.

Remember when Newsom said the virus started in nail salons?

Regardless of the controlled environment, the virus still spread, and most people don’t even know they have it. Strict lockdowns do not manage the virus or even make a difference in the spread… except to destroy the middle class, their businesses and their children.

California resident Dave Rubin, author, speaker, pundit, sums up what a lot of Californians are feeling today:

Good morning to everyone except Gavin Newsom. You suck, dude.
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) November 17, 2020

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr2DbSqcM7I
10:53 min
COVID-19: Questions and Answers, November 20, 2020
•Nov 20, 2020


Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

CDC’s Dr. Henry Walke answers common questions about COVID-19.

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Up To 20% Of COVID-19 Infections Asymptomatic, Far Less Likely To Transmit Virus: Study

Fri, 11/20/2020 - 10:50
Until now, evidence suggested that up to half of COVID-19 patients are asymptomatic "silent spreaders" of the disease who were unwittingly contributing to outbreaks. Some estimates even pegged the rate of asymptomatic infections as high as 81%.



Now, new evidence suggests that just 17% of those infected with COVID-19 will experience no symptoms, according to Nature, citing a meta-analysis of 13 studies published last month which involved 21,708 people. What's more, asymptomatic individuals are 42% less likely to transmit the virus than those with symptoms.

The research, spearheaded by lead author Oyungerel Byambasuren of the Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare at Bond University in Gold Coast, Australia, defined asymptomatic people as those who showed none of the key COVID-19 sysmptoms during the entire follow-up period. The authors only included studies which followed participants for at least seven days, as evidence suggests symptoms typically develop in 7-13 days (during which people are still contagious).

One reason that scientists want to know how frequently people without symptoms transmit the virus is because these infections largely go undetected. Testing in most countries is targeted at those with symptoms.

As part of a large population study in Geneva, Switzerland, researchers modelled viral spread among people living together. In a manuscript posted on medRxiv this month2, they report that the risk of an asymptomatic person passing the virus to others in their home is about one-quarter of the risk of transmission from a symptomatic person. -Nature

That said, the analysis acknowledges that while there is a lower risk of transmission among asymptomatics, they may still present a public health risk due to the fact that they are more likely to be out in the community vs. isolating at home, according to Switzerland-based infectious-disease specialist Andrew Azman of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a co-author on the study.

"The actual public-health burden of this massive pool of interacting ‘asymptomatics’ in the community probably suggests that a sizeable portion of transmission events are from asymptomatic transmissions," he said.

Nature notes that other researchers disagree over the extent to which asymptomatic spread contributes to community transmission. "

Byambasuren, the lead author, says that if the studies are correct that asymptomatic people are a low transmission risk, "these people are not the secret drivers of this pandemic," as they are "not coughing or sneezing as much" and are "probably not contaminating as much surfaces as other people."

So, while the 'silent spread' factor appears to be far less pronounced than previously thought, and the virus kills less than 1% of those infected under the age of 60, one still has approximately a 10% chance of becoming a "long hauler" - an infected person who essentially suffers from waves of flu symptoms for months on end. Is that worth shutting down the economy over?

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Pfizer Asks FDA To Approve COVID-19 Vaccine For Emergency Use

Fri, 11/20/2020 - 08:03

Update (1445ET): Pfizer has just confirmed that it has filed all the paperwork for emergency approval of its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.

* * *
A few hours after one of China's top state-backed vaccine makers claimed that roughly one million Chinese have already received a COVID-19 vaccine under extremely broad emergency-use criteria, Pfizer has confirmed that it will be applying for emergency-use approval from the FDA on Friday, as was widely expected.

Once the FDA has approved the vaccine - a meeting for review has been scheduled for Dec. 8, 9 and 10 - Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla says the first doses of the vaccine could be shipped out within hours of the EUA approval.

During an interview on CNBC Friday morning, reporter Meg Tirrell explained that the FDA needs nearly two weeks to prepare all documents and data for review, which is why the committee tasked with approving the vaccine won't meet until Dec. 8. It's believed that both the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines could receive EUAs during the meeting (Moderna says it expects to apply for its EUA in a week or so).

The first #covid19 vaccine is headed to FDA for review, from Pfizer & BioNTech. Moderna expected to follow. Potential advisory committee meetings Dec 8, 9, 10 - with possible EUA soon after.

Your vaccines could be traveling w your holiday gifts this Dec (PFE using FedEx, UPS) https://t.co/jXQLXzByQb
— Meg Tirrell (@megtirrell) November 20, 2020

Pfizer says its timeline for approval could see the first doses shipped by the middle of next month.

A "green light" from the FDA would cap the fastest vaccine development program in history. Typically, it takes years for scientists to approve a vaccine. A large swath of the population, including the most vulnerable patients, could be vaccinated by early April, according to an estimated timeline parroted by analysts and government officials.

Pfizer's submission will mark the first time the agency has reviewed an mRNA vaccine, which relies on a revolutionary new technique which essentially reprograms the body's genes to produce antibodies that will fight off COVID.

During its Phase 3 trial, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was administered to 19,000 subjects, and at least two months of safety data were collected.



The nature of the FDA's approval is still not clear: The FDA could authorize the vaccine broadly for the US population, or limit it to a specific group such as the elderly or minorities. Pfizer's vaccine - which according to its "final" report is roughly 95% effective (up from 90% in the 'preliminary' data) - must be stored at -70 degrees Celsius, equivalent to -94 degrees Fahrenheit. Pfizer has created a special container to keep the shots cold during distribution. The US government has already agreed to pay Pfizer and BioNTech some $2 billion for 100 million doses of the vaccine, and the companies have struck similar deals with other companies.

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Rising Up - Anti-Lockdown Protests Spread Across Europe

Fri, 11/20/2020 - 02:00
Via Off-Guardian.org,

As the alleged “second wave” of the Coronavirus “pandemic” is reported to be sweeping across Europe in recent weeks, many governments have enthusiastically embraced their totalitarian side and granted themselves sweeping new “emergency powers” alongside new lockdown measures.



The public has been markedly less co-operative this time around. Rebelling against the seemingly arbitrary limitations which are not supported by either science or common sense. Protests have taken place all across the continent.

GERMANY
Thousands of people gathered in Berlin over the last few days, protesting the Merkel government passing a new lockdown law. Police turned water cannons on the crowds, and nearly 200 people were arrested.

According to reliable sources, elements of Antifa rushed to the scene of the Anti-New Normal Totalitarianism protest in Berlin today, hoping to hold the "Corona Deniers" down, so that the cops could hose them real good, but they were just a little too late. pic.twitter.com/RdQ67qYjnN
— Consent Factory (@consent_factory) November 18, 2020

The mainstream reported “hundreds” of protesters, but as pictures plainly show it was more like tens of thousands:

"Thanks for the picture Majd Abboud, not hundreds, not thousand, but ten's of thousands protested in Berlin today and it's only the beginning of something big..." Sonja Van Ende#Covid_19 pic.twitter.com/hLxNaTEqYv
— vanessa beeley (@VanessaBeeley) November 19, 2020

Berlin, Berlin, das wird Folgen haben... pic.twitter.com/SbDca1k5FA
— Bajazz3.0 (@BatschkappMZ) November 18, 2020

SPAIN
After the Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sanchez declared a sixth-month state of emergency in late October, there were days of protests across the country.



Barcelona, already a hot-bed of anti-government feeling due to the brutal repression of the Catalan Independence referendum, saw violent confrontations between riot police and protestors

FRANCE
Emmanuel Macron’s brand new “comprehensive security law”, known by protesters as the “gag law”, would further militarise French police whilst making it a crime to capture or distribute the image of police officer. It has met fervent resistance in the shape of angry marches through cities across the country.

Protesters across France took to the streets after a law called the Global Security Bill was passed, which outlawed taking photos of police that could be used to expose an officer's identity.France Riots Against Global Security Law Protecting Police - Protests.media#StopLoiSecuriteGlobale #StopTheGlobalSecurity pic.twitter.com/WYpy0BCbLU
— Protests.media (@ProtestsMedia) November 19, 2020

Macron’s government has a history of attacking civil liberties, and in response to his “reforms” the country has seen large-scale protests by the Gilets Jaunes for over a year.

ITALY
The anti-lockdown protests in Italy reached a fever pitch in late October, and were probably the most extensive on the continent. Marches occurred in dozens of cities across the country, including Rome, Naples, Genoa and Bologna.

BOLOGNA, ITALY: The conscience of a country's population standing against their politicians speaks through this woman who says her life has been destroyed by lockdowns & has nothing to eat or to feed her 3 year old child:pic.twitter.com/84MEBgglkV
— Robin Monotti Graziadei (@robinmonotti) October 29, 2020

The mainstream media went out fo their way to undercut and smear the protests. CNN and Reuters reported only “hundreds” of protesters. Does this photo have “hundreds” of people in it?



Politico went so far as to actually blame the protests on the Mafia.

SLOVAKIA
Bratislava was home to a huge march of protesters on November 17th, marking the national holiday known as Fight for Freedom Day. These marches were illegal under the Slovakian emergency law, notionally designed to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA: Anti-Covid restrictions & anti-government protests despite a ban on public gatherings, on the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution of 1989 & the student demonstration against Nazi occupation of 1939: Street protests as Slovakia marks the Velvet Revolution anniversarypic.twitter.com/oWqhlSTfex
— Robin Monotti Graziadei (@robinmonotti) November 18, 2020

DENMARK
The Danish parliament was subject to 9 days of protests right outside its doors, in opposition to the proposed “vaccination law”, which would allow the police to “physically coerce vaccination through detainment”.

DENMARK: 9 days of protests over a new law that "would be able to define groups of people who must be vaccinated. People who refuse the above can be coerced through physical detainment, with police allowed to assist."pic.twitter.com/LN0SBVKUE8
— Robin Monotti Graziadei (@robinmonotti) November 14, 2020

After nine days of protests, it was reported on social media that the Danish gov’t had dropped the law. However, I could find no official confirmation of that, or reports in the media.

DENMARK: GOOD NEWS! After 9 days of banging pots & pans outside parliament the epidemic law is SCRAPPED. PROTESTING WORKS: DO IT!#WeWillNotComply pic.twitter.com/iFuszio05P
— Robin Monotti Graziadei (@robinmonotti) November 15, 2020

In fact, the media have barely covered the proposed law, and literally not mentioned the protests in Copenhagen at all. A search for “Covid protests Denmark” on google, turns up almost no results relating to that topic.
The reason to cover the Danish protest less than the others is that they apparently worked. and the last thing the establishment wants people to see is that civil disobedience can change anything.
*
It’s good to see the general public’s fraying sense of patience with a Covid narrative that has never made any sense, and a “pandemic response” which is likely to do far more damage than it ever could prevent.

Though civil unrest is undeniably a good and powerful thing, this is also a time to be wary. If the establishment feel they are losing control of the situation or the narrative, they are likely to double down or try something desperate.

 

[joannita]

The county one of my siblings lives in;

Allegany is the only New York County with a 7-day infection rate higher than the U.S. average

wellsvilleregionalnews.blogspot.com

Allegany is the only New York County with a 7-day infection rate higher than the U.S. average

 

[joannita]

​ DoD incr Health Protection Condition (HPCON) level to Bravo-Plus for Pentagon Reservation due to spread of COVID19. Change effective 11/26 @ 5am EST. See email. ​ Supplemental Info: BACKGROUND: COVID-19 cases within the DoD are climbing. On Thurs., Retired Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata, a top Pentagon official, tested positive for Covid-19 after meeting with the Lithuanian Minister of Defense, Raimundas Karoblis, according to a Pentagon statement. Karoblis also met with multiple senior Pentagon leaders, including acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, the secretaries of the Army and Air Force and the secretary of the Navy. Karoblis tested positive after meeting with the Pentagon officials. Statement by Department of Defense on Increased Restrictions for the Pentagon Reservation NOV. 20, 2020 DOD Chief Management Officer Lisa Hershman has approved additional restrictions for the Pentagon Reservation, which will move the Pentagon Reservation to Health Protection Condition Bravo-Plus effective 5 a.m. EST, Thursday, Nov. 26, 2020. Both Armed Forces Retirement Home campuses, in Washington, D.C, and Gulfport, Mississippi, will remain at Health Protection Condition Delta, the highest level of protection, due to the vulnerable residents and healthcare workers at our retirement homes. The Acting Secretary of Defense’s number one priority during the COVID-19 pandemic is protecting our workforce. The decision to move to HPCON Bravo-Plus took into account health data provided by state, district and local governments in the National Capital Region, as well as nearby military installations, and is based on a steady increase in COVID-19 cases and positive test results on the Pentagon Reservation since the end of August 2020, as well as an increase in cases in the National Capital Region since the middle of September 2020. With the change to HPCON Bravo-Plus, the following will take effect at 5 a.m. EST, Thursday, Nov. 26, 2020: Goal of no more than 40% of the workforce in workspaces; 60% teleworking; Continued encouraging of maximizing telework for all employees with a set goal of at least 60%, with continued emphasis on telework for vulnerable populations who should remain at home until HPCON Alpha; Cloth face coverings remain mandatory if six-foot social distancing cannot be maintained; Random entrance screening of workforce at 5-15%; continued 100% screening of visitors; Limit gatherings to fewer than 25 persons (currently less than 50), including conference centers; Reduced numbers in the Pentagon Athletic Club. Cloth face coverings are required in all areas of the PAC except for cardio (elliptical, bikes, treadmills, etc.), swimming, and showers; members not complying will be asked to leave; Maintain availability of increased parking to the workforce due to reduced mass transit; urge use of single occupancy vehicles and discourage car-pooling/slug lines; Food court options will provide take-out only. Discontinue current limited seating. DOD remains committed to protecting our people, maintaining mission readiness, and supporting the whole-of-government effort response to COVID-19. We believe these measures and continued dialogue with Pentagon leadership, as well as with the JTF-NCR and service military districts, will help us continue to mitigate the COVID-19 spread and enable our workforce to continue implementing the National Defense Strategy, with emphasis on transforming the department for great power competition and the expected future strategic environment. We are continually emphasizing to our people the need to take actions to protect themselves and those around them by employing protective measures, including practicing good hand washing, social distancing, wearing cloth face coverings, and taking appropriate actions if feeling sick now. These can dramatically decrease the risk of infection and slow COVID-19’s spread. For more information on the Pentagon Reservation response to COVID-19, visit https://www.whs.mil/Coronavirus/ We encourage all DOD personnel to visit https://www.defense.gov/Explore/Spotlight/Coronavirus for information on staying healthy during the pandemic. View the Original: https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2423803/ statement-by-department-of-defense-on-increased-restrictions-for-the-pentagon-r/ ​

 

[Freeholder]

This information has already been posted, but I think this is a different article.

The Danish Mask Study

A full exposition of the Danish mask study, which on close reading has even stronger findings than the headline results suggest.

healthy-skeptic.com

The Danish Mask Study
By Kevin Roche November 18, 2020Commentary

This is the fuller post.

The headline result–wearing a mask makes no difference in cases or in level of transmission in the community. It is obvious to all of us now, that this is true, as we can see the case growth in areas of the country with extremely high mask-wearing rates. Here is the cite. (Danish Mask Study) Coupled with the withdrawal of the county study which purported to show a benefit based on limited time period study, this should put an end to any Governor claiming that mask mandates are backed by science and data, but it won’t. As I noted in my flash report, people are already coming out with all kinds of BS criticisms of the trial. It is amusing in a sense, that people who just accepted all the mask modeling “research” without any quibbles or skepticism are finding all kinds of criticism directed at an actual randomized trial attempting to answer a real-life question–what is the effect of wearing a mask in the community.

Before describing the study and its findings, let me make a couple of preliminary observations. I have been reading medical research for 40 years and science papers for even longer. When you read this study and you know the history of the attempt to get it published, you are immediately struck by what the authors must have been forced to do to get any reputable journal to publish it. They were clearly forced to constantly refer to limitations and caveats about the study and there is a discussion about the confidence intervals around the results that you absolutely never see in the published reports of research. What kind of science is it that decides in advance what the results have to be and tries to suppress any research that challenges those pre-ordained results? When I complain that science has become completely politicized, what happened to this study is Exhibit A.

Unlike all the garbage modeling studies about mask mandates and mask wearing reducing cases, this was an actual randomized trial on the critical question–does wearing a mask in the community affect the level of transmission, the number of cases, in that community. It is real-life, we aren’t wearing masks in a model simulation or in some experimental room. We wear them in the community, in real life, properly, improperly, touching them, not touching them, with gaps, without gaps, changing them frequently or not, washing them or not. That is the reality of mask-wearing. That is what this study replicated.

6000 people participated in the study. 3030 were randomly assigned to the mask group and 2994 to the control arm. Out of the entire group 4862 completed the study period. These were adults who spent more than 3 hours a day outside their homes and didn’t wear masks at an occupation. Both the mask wearing arm and the non-mask wearing arm were told to follow social distancing measures. The mask-wearing group was encouraged to wear a mask outside their home and were given 50 surgical masks for this purpose. So better masks than cloth ones. The primary outcome was number of infections after one-month. 42 people got infected in the mask wearing group and 53 in the control group. Because more dropouts occurred in the mask group, there was no statistical difference in infection rate. One interesting little nugget in the characteristics of the groups is that more people in the control arm had what might be considered higher-risk occupations than in the mask wearing arm. Yet still no difference in infection rate.

Some of the criticisms are that the data on mask usage were self-reported, this only tested the effect on the mask wearer, not whether they might be less likely to infect others, and other niggling concerns. The real criticism is that it doesn’t fall in line with the orthodoxy on all of us needing a mask glued to our face 24 by 7. Self-reported adherence was good, with over 90% of the mask-wearers saying they largely complied with the recommendation and almost half saying they always did. Taking out the 7% who reported poor adherence did not change the primary finding. And very importantly, looking only at those persons who reported always complying with the mask recommendation also did not change the outcome. It appeared there was very low in-home transmission that caused the infection in either arm of the study, so most transmission was occurring in the community. Another interesting finding was no difference in infection with other respiratory viruses.
This was a well-designed study. If masks made a difference in the community, it would have been seen in this large a group. And that distinction between protecting the wearer versus others makes no logical sense. Think about it. If wearing a mask doesn’t do a better job of keeping you from getting infected, i.e. keeping the virus from coming in, why would it do a better job of keeping it from going out? In fact, you might expect the opposite, there is less pressure in the inhale than the exhale.

And if the problem is that people who are infected aren’t wearing a mask then wouldn’t we expect to see even higher levels of community spread among the non-mask wearing population–if masks worked, at least on a relative basis the masked people would be better protected from infection than the unmasked ones. Think about it logically for a minute, if lots of people aren’t wearing masks, and they weren’t at this time in Denmark, according to mask theory there is a tremendous risk of exposure in public. So there should be an even greater protective effect of a mask protecting the wearer from getting infected, because there is more opportunity for exposure to the virus. But according to this study, a mask did no better job of protecting the wearer in this hazardous environment than did not wearing a mask. If anything, this aspect of the trial strengthens the finding.

So wear them if you want to or have to, but don’t for one second think they are offering you or others any significant degree of protection. And that is my concern about the mask mandate fetish, not only are people being lied to about the science, but they are being misled into thinking they will have a level of protection they won’t.

 

[marsh]

[COMMENT: After watching the anti-lockdown and curfew protest in LA last night and the reaction of patriots being moved by police to another (less residential) corner. Also seeing patriot streamer Villian Phoenix in Portland being arrested by LE in Portland, I see this trend. COVID is being used to make non-criminal average Joes into subjects of a militant government. We are losing "consent of the governed."]

Sacramento Sheriff on Not Enforcing COVID Curfew: Making Cops 'Instruments' of 'Oppression' Damages Community Relations

On Saturday's broadcast of the Fox News Channel's "Fox & Friends," Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones said that he won't enforce the state's | Clips

www.breitbart.com

Sacramento Sheriff on Not Enforcing COVID Curfew: Making Cops ‘Instruments’ of ‘Oppression’ Damages Community Relations

IAN HANCHETT21 Nov 2020178

Video on site 2:29 min

On Saturday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones said that he won’t enforce the state’s coronavirus curfew or any current or future coronavirus orders. Jones explained that his department still has “the same types and amounts of calls for service as we always have” to deal with and he doesn’t want his sheriffs “to be instruments of…oppression. I want folks to call us when they need help, knowing that we are going to show up and make their lives better and make the situation better, and this is the opposite of that.”

Jones said, “Well, we won’t be enforcing that, or any of the other orders that are in existence now or might be coming. A couple of reasons for that: Really one is practical. We still have the same types and amounts of calls for service as we always have, from the mundane to the exciting. But there’s also kind of a theoretical aspect of it. I mean, my kids, my family, my extended family are all suffering during this, like everybody’s family. And it really has had an oppressive effect on everybody’s family, and I really don’t want our women and men of the sheriff’s office to be instruments of that oppression. I want folks to call us when they need help, knowing that we are going to show up and make their lives better and make the situation better, and this is the opposite of that.”

He later added, “f we’ve learned nothing else over this last year, folks are crying for police to be more responsive to their community. Enforcing these rules, that are not criminal laws, is really the opposite of that.”

 

[naturallysweet]

This information has already been posted, but I think this is a different article.

The Danish Mask Study

A full exposition of the Danish mask study, which on close reading has even stronger findings than the headline results suggest.

healthy-skeptic.com

The Danish Mask Study
By Kevin Roche November 18, 2020Commentary

This is the fuller post.

The headline result–wearing a mask makes no difference in cases or in level of transmission in the community. It is obvious to all of us now, that this is true, as we can see the case growth in areas of the country with extremely high mask-wearing rates. Here is the cite. (Danish Mask Study) Coupled with the withdrawal of the county study which purported to show a benefit based on limited time period study, this should put an end to any Governor claiming that mask mandates are backed by science and data, but it won’t. As I noted in my flash report, people are already coming out with all kinds of BS criticisms of the trial. It is amusing in a sense, that people who just accepted all the mask modeling “research” without any quibbles or skepticism are finding all kinds of criticism directed at an actual randomized trial attempting to answer a real-life question–what is the effect of wearing a mask in the community.

Before describing the study and its findings, let me make a couple of preliminary observations. I have been reading medical research for 40 years and science papers for even longer. When you read this study and you know the history of the attempt to get it published, you are immediately struck by what the authors must have been forced to do to get any reputable journal to publish it. They were clearly forced to constantly refer to limitations and caveats about the study and there is a discussion about the confidence intervals around the results that you absolutely never see in the published reports of research. What kind of science is it that decides in advance what the results have to be and tries to suppress any research that challenges those pre-ordained results? When I complain that science has become completely politicized, what happened to this study is Exhibit A.

Unlike all the garbage modeling studies about mask mandates and mask wearing reducing cases, this was an actual randomized trial on the critical question–does wearing a mask in the community affect the level of transmission, the number of cases, in that community. It is real-life, we aren’t wearing masks in a model simulation or in some experimental room. We wear them in the community, in real life, properly, improperly, touching them, not touching them, with gaps, without gaps, changing them frequently or not, washing them or not. That is the reality of mask-wearing. That is what this study replicated.

6000 people participated in the study. 3030 were randomly assigned to the mask group and 2994 to the control arm. Out of the entire group 4862 completed the study period. These were adults who spent more than 3 hours a day outside their homes and didn’t wear masks at an occupation. Both the mask wearing arm and the non-mask wearing arm were told to follow social distancing measures. The mask-wearing group was encouraged to wear a mask outside their home and were given 50 surgical masks for this purpose. So better masks than cloth ones. The primary outcome was number of infections after one-month. 42 people got infected in the mask wearing group and 53 in the control group. Because more dropouts occurred in the mask group, there was no statistical difference in infection rate. One interesting little nugget in the characteristics of the groups is that more people in the control arm had what might be considered higher-risk occupations than in the mask wearing arm. Yet still no difference in infection rate.

Some of the criticisms are that the data on mask usage were self-reported, this only tested the effect on the mask wearer, not whether they might be less likely to infect others, and other niggling concerns. The real criticism is that it doesn’t fall in line with the orthodoxy on all of us needing a mask glued to our face 24 by 7. Self-reported adherence was good, with over 90% of the mask-wearers saying they largely complied with the recommendation and almost half saying they always did. Taking out the 7% who reported poor adherence did not change the primary finding. And very importantly, looking only at those persons who reported always complying with the mask recommendation also did not change the outcome. It appeared there was very low in-home transmission that caused the infection in either arm of the study, so most transmission was occurring in the community. Another interesting finding was no difference in infection with other respiratory viruses.
This was a well-designed study. If masks made a difference in the community, it would have been seen in this large a group. And that distinction between protecting the wearer versus others makes no logical sense. Think about it. If wearing a mask doesn’t do a better job of keeping you from getting infected, i.e. keeping the virus from coming in, why would it do a better job of keeping it from going out? In fact, you might expect the opposite, there is less pressure in the inhale than the exhale.

And if the problem is that people who are infected aren’t wearing a mask then wouldn’t we expect to see even higher levels of community spread among the non-mask wearing population–if masks worked, at least on a relative basis the masked people would be better protected from infection than the unmasked ones. Think about it logically for a minute, if lots of people aren’t wearing masks, and they weren’t at this time in Denmark, according to mask theory there is a tremendous risk of exposure in public. So there should be an even greater protective effect of a mask protecting the wearer from getting infected, because there is more opportunity for exposure to the virus. But according to this study, a mask did no better job of protecting the wearer in this hazardous environment than did not wearing a mask. If anything, this aspect of the trial strengthens the finding.

So wear them if you want to or have to, but don’t for one second think they are offering you or others any significant degree of protection. And that is my concern about the mask mandate fetish, not only are people being lied to about the science, but they are being misled into thinking they will have a level of protection they won’t.

Amazing how people can continue to set up strawman to debunk a claim that hasn't been made.
Surgical masks have never been meant to protect the wearer. Doctors have never worn surgical masks to protect the wearer.

 

[Troke]

Amazing how people can continue to set up strawman to debunk a claim that hasn't been made.
Surgical masks have never been meant to protect the wearer. Doctors have never worn surgical masks to protect the wearer.

When I was taking First Aid for the Boy Scouts in the Dark Ages (Before TEEVEE) we were taught that the mask was to keep the Doc from giving something bad to the patient not the other way around.

However, there was one occasion when the patient was required to wear a mask. Unfortunately, I cannot remember what it was but probably if the patient had a communicable disease, something Boy Scouts would probably not encounter. Thus no memory.

 

[Krayola]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Danish Study Suggests Masks Do Little To Stop COVID As Iowa Gov Insists There Is "Evidence On Both Sides"

Wed, 11/18/2020 - 11:00

Researchers in Denmark have just published a revolutionary new study which purports to offer more conclusive evidence that wearing masks actually does little to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.



Though it's certainly not the first study to suggest that masks do little to help - and, to be fair, there's plenty of research to suggest the opposite (science can sometimes be confusing) - a monthslong, nationwide study that involved thousands of Danes from a diverse range of backgrounds (in case you were curious) showed that roughly the same percentage of people were infected in the mask group as the no-mask group.

According to the report, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the "primary outcome" (i.e. infection with COVID-19) occurred in 1.8% of people in the mask group, and 2.1% of people in the control group.

Here's a table laying out the data:


While some heralded this latest data as a breakthrough, considering the scope of the study and its inclusion of experimental and control groups, it's worth noting that there's plenty of research being done on this topic, and the results are far more confusing than many in the MSM would have the public believe.

To wit, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (a Republican) was actually speaking the truth when she said the other day that there is "science on both sides" of the mask debate. Reynolds, however, still went ahead with imposing a new mask mandate in her state, along with other measures, as COVID-19 cases surge across the country, with the Midwest as the hardest-hit region.

Most media outlets that reported on those remarks noted that the governor's statement contradicted the official CDC guidelines. But it's worth remembering that at one point or another, the FDA, the CDC the Surgeon General etc have all suggested that masks do little to stop the spread of COVID-19. The CDC admitted that 80% of newly infected wore their masks in accordance with all restrictions.

The CDC released a new study last week purporting to show that masks protected both the wearer and the general public, but as the Danish researchers noted in their summary, the scientific links there actually aren't at all well-established. The researchers even cautioned that their findings are hardly conclusive, and shouldn't be relied upon by policy makers.

But given that the Danish study may represent an important step forward, we're curious to see how social media companies react to these headlines, particularly after yesterday's performance in front of the Senate Judiciary.

They are cherry picking in the piece written above. I looked over the Danish study.
ACP Journals

They clearly state the limitations of their own study. They did not determine if masks could keep the infected person from transmitting the illness to others.

Here it is from the horse's mouth, quoted from the Danish study:

Limitation:
Inconclusive results, missing data, variable adherence, patient-reported findings on home tests, no blinding, and no assessment of whether masks could decrease disease transmission from mask wearers to others.

They were specifically studying if masks would help someone when they entered an environment where they were the only one wearing the mask and others were not.
Quoted from the Danish study:

Objective:

To assess whether recommending surgical mask use outside the home reduces wearers' risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection in a setting where masks were uncommon and not among recommended public health measures.

It's dishonest for the author to claim the danish study purports to offer more conclusive evidence that wearing masks actually does little to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 because the researchers clearly admit that their study did not not assess masks as a source control.

I am so tired of the lying and the massaging of truth being conducted by both sides in this mess.

 

[marsh]

 

[marsh]

15,000 new COVID-19 cases reported in California

Cases are exploding across California.

www.kron4.com

15,000 new COVID-19 cases reported in California

by: KRON4 Staff
Posted: Nov 21, 2020 / 01:01 PM PST / Updated: Nov 21, 2020 / 01:06 PM PST

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – Cases are exploding across California.
In the last 24 hours, there were more than 15,000 new coronavirus cases and 86 deaths reported in California.

Overall, the state has 1,087,714 confirmed cases and 18,643 deaths. The 7-day positivity rate is 6.1% and the 14-day positivity rate is 5.4%.

Numbers may not represent true day-over-day change as reporting of test results can be delayed.

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Every Sheriff In LA Region Refuses To Enforce Gavin Newsom's COVID Curfew

Sat, 11/21/2020 - 21:00
Authored by Thomas Lifson via AmericanThinker.com,

Sheriffs in 5 Southern California counties with a total population of 17.25 million people – equivalent to the fifth most populous state – are defying that state’s governor. They will not arrest people for violating the statewide curfew that Governor Gavin Newsom has imposed starting today, apparently on the belief that the virus wakes up, and goes out at 10 PM.


Bill Melugin of KTTV, Fox 11 in Los Angeles (hat tip: Breitbart) contacted them about enforcing the statewide curfew:

We’ve now heard from every Sheriff in our SoCal viewing area. San Bernardino, Orange, Ventura, & Riverside Counties will not actively enforce the curfew order. LA Sheriff will take a voluntary compliance/education first approach, will not make any arrests related to order @FOXLA
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) November 20, 2020

Some city police departments are also demurring:

We’ve heard from the Sheriffs, we are now starting to hear from from city police departments about the curfew. Ontario and Laguna Beach PDs say they will NOT actively enforce the order, seeking voluntary compliance. Costa Mesa and Irvine PDs WILL take part in enforcement. @FOXLA

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) November 20, 2020

Newsom has lost all credibility for restricting activity in the name of suppressing the spread of Covid. He was caught and exposed flouting his own ridiculous strictures on eating in restaurants (put your mask back on between bites of food). Public exposure of his mask-less attendance at a party full of lobbyists at one of the fanciest restaurants in the world with no social distancing was bad enough. But his subsequent lying, smirking non-apology apology may well be the death knell for his political career.


His behavior was in utter disregard of his own guidelines for Californians observing Thanksgiving:

CA Gov’s Thxgiving insanity:
-Must be held *OUTSIDE*;
-Guests may use bathrm inside if sanitized;
-Masks on while not eating;
-Singing “strongly discouraged;”
-Max of two hours together;
-6 feet *mandated* in all directions b/twn all at table & otherwise. California Gov. Newsom's Thanksgiving rules explained as severe restrictions put in place
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) October 25, 2020

Other sheriffs in Northern California, including Sacramento County, where the Governor now lives, are also refusing to enforce the curfew.



Newsom is facing an existing recall effort, with a deadline of March 17, 2021 to collect 1,495,709 valid signatures. In practice, because some signatures will be challenged, at least 1,700,000 signatures will be required to get the recall election on the ballot. According to Rescue California, which is sponsoring the recall effort, there is already a running start:

In a telephone conversation with Paul Olson on November 18, whose company, GoCo Consulting, is doing the petition verification for the recall, he confirmed that his firm has already processed 494,000 signed petitions which have either just been turned in or are now being delivered to the county clerks around the state. Olson also confirmed that his firm is currently processing another 230,000 signatures.

When combined with the 55,000 that were turned in earlier in the year, and the ones already signed but still being delivered, conservatively estimated at 60,000, this campaign has already collected over 800,000 signed recall petitions.

Californians may go here and download hard copies of the recall petition and obtain up to 5 signatures for each copy, for submission.



Californians have already recalled one governor, Gray Davis, which ended his political career. Newsom, who long has had his sights on the Oval Office, and who is related by marriage to Nancy Pelosi, is now the focus of public resentment over arbitrary restrictions in the name of Covid. It is a status he has earned.

 

[summerthyme]

The county one of my siblings lives in;

Allegany is the only New York County with a 7-day infection rate higher than the U.S. average

wellsvilleregionalnews.blogspot.com

Allegany is the only New York County with a 7-day infection rate higher than the U.S. average

This is one county over from us. And their numbers are wildly inaccurate, because dozens (or hundreds, but I *know* of dozens personally) of Amish are SICK with COVID, but they aren't getting tested unless they need hospitalization, and most of the cases have been mild.

Summerthyme

 

[Millwright]

Have the commies retained power in CA. by voter theft?

Could conservatives actually be in the majority?

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKO4ag0Vxpc
13:49 min
COVID Vaccine Update
•Nov 22, 2020


Strong Medicine
A doctor explains the recent news regarding 3 of the most promising COVID vaccine candidates (Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca/Oxford).

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA5r_Z5s-Qs
3:05:40 min
TWiV 684: Persistence of SARS-CoV-2 immune memory
•Nov 21, 2020


Vincent Racanielli

Daniel Griffin provides a clinical report on COVID-19, and Shane Crotty explains a study of antibodies, B cells and T cells in patients which suggests that immunological memory to SARS-CoV-2 might be long-lived.

 

[marsh]

Meanwhile in CA

 

[marsh]

Californians Defy Gov. Newsom Curfew Order, Flood Streets in 16 Cities

"Curfew Crashers" protests took place up and down the state of California on Saturday in defiance of Gov. Newsom's virus stay-at-home order.

www.breitbart.com

Californians Defy Gov. Newsom Curfew Order, Flood Streets in 16 Cities

PENNY STARR22 Nov 2020129

Thousands of people in 16 California cities took to the streets on Saturday to protest Gov. Gavin Newsom’s curfew order requiring people to stay at home after 10 p.m. Carrying Trump/Pence flags and “Open up California” banners, the crowds began to gather at 10:01 p.m., including in Huntington Beach and San Clemente.

Huntington Beach,California is still supporting our President Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/umJOwEmX7e
— Jolanta Jemiola-YOLA (@JJemiola) November 22, 2020

“Governor Newsom’s sweeping edicts by moving 95 percent of California to purple tier and a curfew is an abuse of power,” Syndie Ly, who helped organize the protest and was on the ground in San Clemente, told Breitbart News. “We are all responsible adults so we can make our individual choices.”

“This movement is about us rising up for our freedom and against Governor Newsom’s overreaching edicts,” Ly said.

“This is tyrannical and government overreach on behalf of Gavin Newsom and other Democrat governors. The American people, as well as citizens of other countries need to stand up against this,” Nancy Vu-Kerr, who took part in the Huntington Beach protest, told Breitbart News. “Our freedoms are truly at risk and all we need to do is look at the history of my mother country of Vietnam, and other countries of Venezuela, Cuba, Iran and others.”


Protesters filled the streets in Huntington Beach on Saturday night to defy Gov. Gavin Newsom’s curfew order. (Photo Courtesy of Rick Brown)

Russ Taylor, who also helped organize the protests, told Breitbart News the bottom line is freedom.

“We, as citizens, should be responsible, but we shouldn’t be so fearful that we live in a bubble and lose our personal liberties,” Taylor said.

Rick Brown, who just finished running the successful campaign of Tito Ortiz for Huntington Beach City Council, told Breitbart News that people are fed up.
“The event last night was over 1,000 patriots pushing back against the undeclared “martial law” coming from Gavin Newsom, who had the audacity to declare all Californians be indoors by 10 p.m,” Brown said, “Well guess what? We will NOT play in his sandbox anymore.”


Protesters filled the streets in Huntington Beach on Saturday night to defy Gov. Gavin Newsom’s curfew order. (Photo Courtesy of Rick Brown)

“Curfew Crashers” protests were planned in San Clemente, Yorba Linda, Huntington Beach, Riverside, Temecula, Brentwood, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Patterson, Redlands, Sacramento, San Diego, La Quinta, Beverly Hills, and Brentwood, according to organizers.

“If you are a free American join us for a clear act of defiance against Newsom’s 10 p.m. stay at home order, “ the flyers for each protest said.

The flyers said some of the protests will include a “mask defiance ceremony” and in Santa Barbara a “mask burning” was planned.

As Breitbart News reported, every county sheriff in the Los Angeles region has said they will not enforce the curfew.


Protesters filled the streets in Huntington Beach on Saturday night to defy Gov. Gavin Newsom’s curfew order. (Photo Courtesy of Rick Brown)
Follow Penny Starr on Twitter

 

[marsh]

Supreme Court Judge Blasts Covid 'Control Freaks' Regulating Christmas

Lord Sumption condemned "control freaks" of the political, academic, and bureaucratic class "behaving as if our lives belonged to the state".

www.breitbart.com

[UK] Supreme Court Judge Condemns Covid ‘Control Freaks’ Regulating Christmas

171

JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images
JACK MONTGOMERY22 Nov 2020122

Lord Sumption has condemned “control freaks” of the political, academic, and bureaucratic class “behaving as if our lives belonged to the state”.

Lord Sumption, who served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom from 2011 to 2018 and is still a member of the court’s Supplementary Panel, wrote that the “debate about whether to let us have a family Christmas perfectly sums up what is wrong with this Government’s handling” of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic in an article for the Mail on Sunday.

The prominent jurist and historian said that those who wish “isolate themselves with a meal alone” should be respected, but that there are “many different answers to the dilemmas of a Covid Christmas” — and that, ultimately, the important question is not whether those who wish to connect with their families or those who wish to limit outside contact are making the more prudent choice, but “whether we should be allowed to make the choice for ourselves, instead of having it imposed on us by law.”

“But for the Jacobins of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and the control freaks in the Department of Health, theirs is the only answer,” he said, referencing the faction which took control of Revolutionary France after the monarchy was overthrown, and soon after set up a Committee of Public Safety and began terrorising all who questioned its agenda into submission.

WHO: Have Christmas Picnic in Park Instead of Family Dinner to Stop Corona Spread WHO: Have Christmas Dinner Picnic in Park Instead of Family Dinner
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) November 20, 2020

Sumption was particularly contemptuous of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose policies, he suggested, are an exercise in “public relations management” rather than an attempt at good government.

“Boris Johnson knows that restrictions over Christmas would be deeply unpopular, widely ignored and catastrophic for the retail and hospitality industries.

“So he will soon announce their temporary suspension, behaving as if our lives belonged to the state and Christmas was an act of indulgence on his part,” the judge predicted.

He further predicted, however, that the “control freaks and the rest of the sackcloth and ashes brigade will demand a payback” afterwards, claiming that some “are already pressing for two, three or even five days of extra lockdown for every day of release over Christmas. ”

Indeed, Breitbart London has previously reported how the public health establishment have suggested that the price of as little as five days of relaxed restrictions over Christmas may be as much as another full month of lockdown afterwards.

Boris Govt May Let Brits Have Five Days for Christmas – at Cost of ANOTHER Lockdown Boris Govt May Free Brits for Christmas – at Cost of ANOTHER Lockdown
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) November 19, 2020

Concluding, Lord Sumption denounced the state’s “insistence on coercing the entire population” as “morally and constitutionally indefensible in a country which is not yet a totalitarian state, like China.”

“The Government has not earned our trust. Sooner or later, people will take back control of their own lives and do the right thing, whatever Ministers say,” he added.

Some commentators, however, believe that the state is not going far enough in terms of imposing restrictions on the citizenry, arguing that any talk of relaxation over the Christmas season is irresponsible.

“So everyone gets Covid for Christmas!” exclaimed Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan, in response to a report that Johnson was considering a 24-hour relaxation of the so-called “rule of six” for Christmas Day.

“Guy’s a genius,” he added sarcastically.

Mr Morgan has not always been so committed to the cause of social distancing, however, having insisted he was “proud” of his son for attending a packed Black Lives Matter rally in London in June.

Proud of my son for attending the #BlackLivesMatter protest which he found profoundly inspiring.
He told me he maintained social distancing as best he could in the large crowd. Not easy given many others weren't, but I'm glad he tried. https://t.co/rdaIDaP9br
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 4, 2020

 

[marsh]

Congressman Tom McClintock - one of my favorites

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybcAyglcMYE
5:00 min

Governor Newsom's Covid Edicts
•Nov 19, 2020


Congressman Tom McClintock

I rise this morning in defense of Governor Gavin Newsom of California who defied his own idiotic Covid edicts as he partied at one of the few restaurants that he has not yet forced out of business. I defend him because he was doing what we all used to do in a free society: make our own decisions over what risks we are willing to run and what precautions we are willing to take according to our own circumstances to protect our own health....

 

[marsh]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

COVID Governments And Social Harmony

Sun, 11/22/2020 - 13:15
Authored by Joakim Book via The American Institute for Economic Research,

As if our societies didn’t have enough conflicts, we have added a new beautiful way of pitting one person against another: COVID-restrictions.

Instead of clamping down with the mighty force of government on some innocent behavior, politicians have outsourced the enforcement of their rules to shop-owners or workers at cafés and restaurants. All over, consumers are pitted against producers (or other consumers) in a way that’s almost entirely absent from regular market life.

It’s strange how quickly it happened and how rarely we notice.



Supermarkets are crowded ‒ not inside, as their capacity is strictly limited, but outside as annoyed shoppers have to wait to pick up their groceries. California’s Governor Gavin Newsom rightfully got ridiculed for insisting that people wear masks in between bites when eating at restaurants.

The other day I observed two friends incomprehensibly yelling at one another, unable to hear the muffled words coming through the other’s mask. Recipe for disaster, if I ever saw one.

Occupancy and capacity limits are in play everywhere. States across America limit gatherings, how many guests that commercial places may admit, how many people from different households may meet each other at the same time.

Ostensibly to combat a terrifying virus, but it doesn’t take too much conspiratorial leanings to consider that there might be a bigger play in action.

On a daily basis I now encounter conflicts between people that stem from Covid regulations ‒ conflicts that governments have engineered and political talking heads have exacerbated. Guidelines, regulations, bans, and soft rules ‒ faulty as they may be ‒ have people up in arms.

In a free society these everyday interactions are harmonious: I want you to attend my shop, and you may want some of my wares. If you find something you like, at a price you find acceptable, we can both be happy. Patrons of a restaurant are hungry, and its staff gladly supply them with food. While we may quibble about the details, incentives are well-aligned here: seller and buyer both want business transactions of mutual gain to take place.

This is what liberty-minded scholars like Ludwig von Mises meant when they talked about markets leading to social harmony.

The introduction of government changes this. Now we can politically enlist people who force you to buy my stuff, who subsidize my production, who pay for my losses, and who raise regulatory hurdles such that my competitors won’t bother me.

In those examples, the real enemy isn’t the monopolistic firm or the high prices or the hopelessly poor service, but inapt government policies pushing people’s behavior in that direction. In contrast, regular income taxes coming out of your paycheck are honest: whatever your opinion on taxes, you know who the villain is ‒ the government.

With hidden taxes, like payroll taxes for which your employer is on the hook or sales taxes that get incorporated into prices, it just looks like part of the regular market system. You blame the employer for not paying you enough, the shop-owner for charging too high prices, or the landlord for exorbitant rents; that they’re forced or incentivized to do so on a government command or bait isn’t something you observe. The seen and the unseen.

Our Covid restrictions are doing a similar thing now, with waitresses forced to uphold nonsensical rules about maximum capacity in their venues and security guards meticulously managing the number of people in their stores.

Yesterday I observed some loud-mouthed man who was upset about how the waitress had placed the guests. To “counter Covid,” he spitted out in her defenseless face, “you need these people to spread out!” Berating her with the conviction of the epidemiological expert he surely must have been, he rushed off and sat in the far corner, mumbling incomprehensibly about how irresponsible the waitress was. While mild in the cosmic Parthenon of insults that waitresses have ever endured, it’s yet another (unnecessary) conflict over human affairs. Of course, if you’re afraid of corona or somehow susceptible to the disease, you’re free to stay away from places you ‒ or others ‒ deem dangerous.

To insist that the rest of us must as well, domineering us about, deserves a special place in hell.

The day before, I entered a store, bundled up with hats and scarves and gloves against the elements, but without wearing a mask. The store-owner, the only other person inside and from a good 5 meters away, started to yell at me for not wearing one and for putting everyone in harm’s way. Every-who? Where are these people of which you speak? I promptly turned around and left.

Or take Sunday last, a family of five (two adults, three young children) looking to have a bite. Nine people in the restaurant, with a maximum Covid capacity of 10, and the family were accordingly told to wait. The annoyance gradually grew, as the kids’ restlessness was rivalled only by the parent’s frustration. There was plenty of space in the already stripped-down venue ‒ but the waitress kept turning them down as the mother politely asked if they could be seated at a table anyway. The waitress refused. Then again, what is she going to do? The family, otherwise a perfectly good customer simply looking for something to eat on a Sunday afternoon ‒ the business of which would likely support the waitress’ salary ‒ is now annoyed and inconvenienced until they give up and go home.

Even though everyone is aware of the governmental overreach into our lives, and that the source of the conflict is them, not us, it’s hard to separate those feelings. It is the waitress turning you down; it is the shop-owner yelling at me; it is the security guard refusing you entry.

Similarly, everyone knows that sales taxes aren’t revenue for the shop, but the anger of high prices still falls on the shop-owner.

We enacted political rules and chose to have them upheld by victims squeezed in the middle. We replaced police officers with waitresses, compliance officers with security guards. If there’s one too many ‒ stop, everybody halt! If we would only form an unorganized and annoyed line outside, the virus might go away.

In a free society, trading, perusing wares, socializing and enjoying the company of others are mutually beneficial, innocent and harmonious actions. In a government-mandated Covid society, these wants are now antagonistic.