Posted on 03/18/2020 9:36:20 AM PDT by Kaslin
PARIS -- Greetings, fellow quarantined, from the exclusion zone previously known as France!
It would be interesting to hear governments explain why the flu has never justified the kind of freedom-killing measures that are taking hold around the world. The coronavirus has killed far fewer people than the conventional flu kills each year. The World Health Organization estimates that the flu is responsible for 290,000 to 650,000 deaths a year. As of Tuesday morning, there had been 185,067 confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide and 7,330 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center.
A week ago, there were 1,412 confirmed cases of coronavirus in France, and 30 people had died. As of this writing, there have been 6,633 cases in France and 148 deaths. We're still a long way from the numbers attributed to the flu, which kills far more people annually despite a vaccine being available and ubiquitous. Why have we been subjected to a daily coronavirus death count when we don't ever see one for the flu?
Governments are taking drastic measures with little logical explanation for the discrepancy between coronavirus policies and (nonexistent) flu policies. Last week in France we were enjoying movies, restaurants and public parks. Even French President Emmanuel Macron was spotted at the theater with his wife on March 6. The theater owner said Macron told him that despite coronavirus, life should continue and, with the exception of at-risk individuals, daily routines shouldn't be modified.
A few days later, home printers all across France are churning out forms labeled "Certificate for Personal Trips." Unless you want to run into trouble with French authorities, who are now locking down every square inch of the country, this paper must be presented to them at checkpoints.
Filled out with one's identifying information and signed, the personal-trip certificate entitles the bearer to leave home for one of a few select reasons. Either you're performing a professional activity that can't be done remotely, going to a grocery store (where lineups outside are mandated to ensure social distancing inside), going to the doctor or attending to an urgent family matter. You can also go out for brief individual exercise (with or without a dog), but it must be within close proximity of your home.
The negative reaction to this document in online comments suggests that many people in France still vividly recall the ambiance here during World War II.
Macron said multiple times in an address to the nation Monday night that France is now at war -- against a virus. Anyone who questions the proportionality of the coronavirus measures being taken is typically met with the same rhetoric being issued by the government.
Dissenting voices are needed in every crisis, if only to keep government powers in check. Basic freedoms are being taken away under the guise of a national emergency, despite very little consistency in the words and actions of the leaders who declared it.
For example, the day before ordering total confinement of 67 million French under military watch, Macron insisted that everyone get out to the voting booths en masse for municipal elections. Why wasn't this virus considered serious enough to cancel local elections, yet hours later people needed a permission slip from the government to let their dogs relieve themselves at the end of the block?
There is no logical answer to such inconsistencies, nor to why governments apparently feel no need to offer one. People here in France haven't been panicking or waiting for the government to save them. They're personally balancing their individual freedoms with the risk of infecting themselves or others. Knowing that "zero risk" doesn't exist, is the price of zero freedoms worth paying -- in ANY instance?
After being told to get out and vote, Parisians headed to open-air parks later in the day. Macron was reportedly upset by images of people out in the fresh air, touching each other. What's next -- the government peeking into bedrooms to ensure that you keep an appropriate social distance from your spouse?
We aren't being told what the measurable criteria will be for the return of freedoms that have been suspended. And how dare you ask when people are dying. In previous national emergencies here, such as terror attacks, people were more skeptical about relinquishing personal freedoms for the sake of the nation's collective security. In this case, you risk being treated as a delinquent or misanthrope if you're one of the few voices questioning it. And that's a scary carte blanche to give any government for any reason.
Be thankful Donald Trump is president as opposed to Hillary.
I’d like to hear that explanation as well.
Is this to be the new normal every time someone sniffles?
Meanwhile it’s back to work and normal life in Wuhan!
Live cams:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf-4zQADLS8&feature=youtu.be
Right now I think it doesn’t matter. The people who are advising Trump like that Fauci and Birx are longtime DEEP STATERS! I can’t believe what has happened to our economy in such a short time! This will lead to a depression and President Trump needs to quit saying it will end quickly. The only thing that is going to end quickly is his Presidency. It is so sad that is has came to this. I think this is Plan C The dems and deep staters don’t care if they ruin the country or the economy They just want to get rid of Trump! BTW....the virus numbers aren’t that high. The negative number in PA are 1187 and positive are 133! You would think they would be opposite is this virus is so infectious. Just my observation!
Kinda curious about that myself. SNEEZE! LOCK THE DOORWAYS! SHELTER IN THE BATHROOM STALLS!
Every damn day!
But I've been referring to her as "Mrs. Bill Clinton" but now I've decided to refer to her as "Comrade Clinton".
“Be thankful Donald Trump is president as opposed to Hillary.”
If it was Hilary, you wouldn’t hear a thing unless she did something about it. Proof is that you hear about the Trump time starting in results from 2016. And the information has been changed in 2018 by the CDC. It didn’t get changed during the Obama time.
According to the CDC:
2010-2011 - 37,000 flu-associated deaths
2011-2012 - 12,000 flu-associated deaths
2012-2013 - 43,000 flu-associated deaths
2013-2014 - 38,000 flu-associated deaths
2014-2015 - 51,000 flu-associated deaths
2015-2016 - 23,000 flu-associated deaths
How come this is such a big thing during an election year for Trump when it was not even mentioned during the entire Obama presidentcy? And obviously it was just as big, if not bigger as during his time we lost 204,000 people. That’s more people than Salt Lake City, UT, Grand Rapids, MI, or Little Rock, AR.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population
Saul Alisky’s Rules for Radicals:
RULE 9: “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.”
RULE 10: “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.”
RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”
Saul Alinsky”s Doctrine: 8 steps to topple a nation and create a socialist state
1) Healthcare — Control healthcare and you control the people
2) Poverty — Increase the Poverty level as high as possible, poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live.
3) Debt — Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way you are able to increase taxes, and this will produce more poverty.
4) Gun Control — Remove the ability to defend themselves from the Government. That way you are able to create a police state.
5) Welfare — Take control of every aspect of their lives (Food, Housing, and Income).
Every aspect of this has been touched upon. Very easy to understand.
rwood
If Hitlery™ was President the stats about COVID-19 being way less deadly overall than a garden variety seasonal flu would be dutifully parroted by talking heads 24x7 , and we would take in a few thousand medical refugees from Wuhan to prove how unxenophobic a Commander in Chief with two X chromosomes can be.
Make no mistake, the cause of all of this COVID-19 insanity is a global elite using this outbreak as an excuse to punish the US for electing Trump, the UK for leaving the EU, and anyone else who dares to question them ...
Because of people who criticize the government for whatever action it takes or doesn’t take. If they had done nothing, the author of this piece would have criticized them for that.
Government is winning. Government is ready made for crisis. This virus is a political bio weapon.
There are only 2 logical explanations.
1) They know something about this germ that we don’t.
2) They’re doing it to slow the spread of the virus and quell mass hysteria fomented by the media.
3) They’re doing it because they can.
#2 seems to be the popular choice and is the least scary of the 3.
# -— logical explanations... DOH!
A Biden moment...
Whether this is the real deal or not is difficult to say. This is the stuff that so many movies are made about but usually it is the American military establishment's fault. But it's rather difficult for governments to say, "China goofed and failed to safe guard a highly deadly bioterrorist weapon and now it's released into the atmosphere." It doesn't instill confidence.
Oddly enough, when the "crises" pass, the regulations remain in one form or another. "For the public good," of course.
Yes.
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