Reflections on a Century of Junk Science

American Thinker ^ | March 24, 2020 | Jack Cashill

[Kaslin]

On Saturday evening I drove to a local pizza joint to pick up a pizza. This was the only way to get pizza. In Kansas City, all bars and restaurants have been closed for a week.

During the last few weeks, I had made a point of not watching or following the news. I trusted none of it. A TV at the pizza place, however, was tuned to CNN. It showed the Coronavirus death toll: 12,000-plus worldwide and 285 in the United States.

The numbers stunned me. Not following the news closely, I presumed, based on the hysteria in the air, that the numbers had to be at least ten times that high both nationally and internationally.

285? According to the Centers for Disease Control 185 Americans died of drug overdoses every day in 2018. According to the CDC, 315 people died of the flu every day during the six-month 2018-2019 flu season. And if protecting life is the goal, we could save about 400 young lives every work hour by shutting down America’s abortion clinics.

That is not about to happen. Most political jurisdictions seem to be exempting abortion clinics from shutdown orders. “During this public health crisis, pregnancy care, including abortion care, remains an essential health service,” insists the National Abortion Federation. “The NAF calls on leaders to ensure that outpatient abortion clinics can remain open and urges hospitals to continue to provide abortion care.”

[marktwain]

Jack Cashill does a good job here. Progressives have used scare "science" as a club to rule us and get what they want.

The Wuhan Flu scare may, or may not be warranted.

But Cashill is correct in his history.

[wastoute]

He said he was surprised. That surprises me. I thought he was more intelligent than that.

[brownsfan]

“Jack Cashill does a good job here. Progressives have used scare “science” as a club to rule us and get what they want. “

The ruling class has long used religion to control us. Remember, religion is the opiate of the masses? Well, now it’s scare science.

[Brookhaven]

And, what would the death toll been had we taken no precautions and just gone on with our daily lives?

Buyer’s remorse is a real thing. You always wonder what would have happened had you made the other choice; taken the other path.

If we had done nothing, we’d be seeing articles asking: what if we had taken strong precautions instead of doing nothing?

[IrishBrigade]

‘If we had done nothing, we’d be seeing articles asking: what if we had taken strong precautions instead of doing nothing?’

that’s the same discredited argument used by the climate change bunch; ‘but you may be wrong, therefore we must take action, so we don’t have to wonder...’

[allendale]

In 1994 Clinton gave Federal credence to “alternative medicine”. Junk science was eventually embraced by scientifically illiterate Americans. It is very appealing to politicians and other snake oil salesmen.

[Madam Theophilus]

Military Trucks Convey Coffins Away From Italian Hospitals

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8129959/Military-trucks-transport-Italian-coronavirus-victims-coffins-cremated.html

Scare science? The low numbers of American deaths is very deceptive at this point. The epidemic is only just starting. There is every indication NYC, DC, LA and Chicago will see a similar out of control outbreak as Italy and Spain. The positive tests already show there is widespread infection and people are not heeding the social distancing instructions. It’s a combination of just simple logic based on the science of this type of viral pneumonia. Use this formula:

3x contagion rate to normal flu + high population density of high risk individuals = high number patients requiring hospitalization

Furthermore, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand if there will be more patients requiring hospitalization than you have hospital beds, you will have people not able to get medical help and significant death rates.

[Alberta's Child]

If New York City can’t even shut down its subways while this “crisis” is unfolding, then there’s no reason for anyone living in real America to abide by these ridiculous restrictions. There’s a reason why NYC will probably end up with more COVID-19 fatalities than the rest of the U.S. combined. It’s because NYC is a crowded, festering dump run by corrupt, incompetent @ssholes.

[jurroppi1]

“If New York City can’t even shut down its subways while this “crisis” is unfolding, then there’s no reason for anyone living in real America to abide by these ridiculous restrictions.”

That is the crux of the issue right there!

If this is so damned serious, then why aren’t we collectively acting in concert with the seriousness of the issue in mind? So many actions taken to this point don’t track with the claims of what could happen if we don’t take the half-measures being prescribed by our “leaders”.

I put leaders in quotes because we are being ruled by hysteria (emotion) and not governed or led by reason.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

There were many things he could have added such as “evil science”, like the Tuskegee syphilis experiment.

American eugenics had compulsory sterilization laws adopted by over 30 states that led to more than 60,000 sterilizations of disabled individuals.

While the Germans actually led the eugenics movement, mostly studying things like separated at birth identical twins, the American laws directly influenced the much larger National Socialist compulsory sterilization program, which between 1934 and 1945 led to approximately 350,000 compulsory sterilizations and was a stepping stone to the Holocaust. Even after the details of the Nazi sterilization program (as well as its role as a precursor to the “Euthanasia” murders) became more widely known after World War II (and which the New York Times had reported on extensively and in great detail even before its implementation in 1934), sterilizations in some American states did not stop. Some states continued to sterilize residents into the 1970s.

The U.S. Government led a program that forcibly sterilized thousands of Peruvian women. The program is said to have led to the forced sterilization of over 200,000 women in the late 1990s. Most were indigenous. “Family planning”.

The Nazis also adopted the “concentration camp” terminology used by the FDR administration against the Japanese and some Italians.

Progressives are also responsible for alcohol prohibition, the “great experiment”.

And it could be noted that Paul R. Ehrlich’s “Population Bomb” hoax was blatantly oriented to one-world government socialist totalitarianism. The solution to overpopulation being forced control over reproduction and the introduction of birth control drugs into the food supply. And the rationing of all resources.

He was never disavowed by the left, who still periodically give him honorary awards for his “humanitarianism”.

Special mention should be made of Soviet pseudo-scientist Trofim Lysenko, for his efforts to make the science of genetics conform to Soviet socialist doctrines.

Also to Al “Nimrod” Gore’s efforts to build another Tower of Bable, held together with slime science, that would ascend to heaven and assert that mankind controls the weather, as we are like gods.

[Junk Silver]

Great article. I’m no “Flu-bro”, I do believe this virus is going to kill a lot of older and already infirm Americans. At the same time I wasn’t born yesterday and I can tell we are being hustled with all the articles about young fatalities that don’t mention the serious underlying medical conditions present for five or so paragraphs and the Democrats trying to gin up panic to ram through their Progressive/Communist agenda.

How can anyone expect Americans to take CDC and WHO warnings seriously after we’ve been subject to decades of bullish*t about “Heterosexual AIDs” “Second-hand smoke” and “Impending Ice-Age/Global Warming/Climate Change” etc etc?

[Madam Theophilus]

Your comments underscore my point. Lombardy Italy is not a “festering dump” but one of the most wealthy regions in the country. If such a terrible epidemic can rage there, what are NYC’s chances? As a resident of the NE corridor living right off I-95, there is a significant risk to neighboring states not just NYC. The Florida governor is trying to stop NYC snow birds from flying south and bringing the virus with them. He is probably three weeks too late as all the college spring breakers already have “seeded” the state. (No pun intended.)

I applaud President Trump’s ability so far to avoid federalizing the public health response; however, I do not know how long that will last once this thing really starts going at full speed.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Prior to the Salk vaccine, the cumulative lifetime effect of polio was much, much worse than COVID-19 will ever be, and we accepted it as a fact of life. COVID-19 is different in that it is new, and the entire population is vulnerable, so cases may peak suddenly, but the potential effect on overall mortality does not appear to be great.

[Kaslin]

It will if they have pre existing conditions, but not necessary because they are old. When our time comes we will die. My husband and I are both senior citizens. He will be 83 in less than a month, and I will be 79 in August. He has COPD, but cut down his smoking to 3 cigarettes a day. I wished personally he would stop smoking completely as he did once before for 13 years after his brother, who was a heavy smoker died of Emphysema. I tried smoking when I was younger, but never inhaled. I didn't know you had to inhale. I thought you just had to blow the smoke out of your mouth. So within time I lost interest and I lit a cigarette up lesser and lesser.

We were stationed at Fort Riley and all our friends and neighbors were smoking, so I thought to myself 'might as well join them.

I had to go to the Commissary to get groceries, and while there I got me a pack of Marlboro. Than while driving home I lit a cigarette up and inhaled. As soon as I did it went 'cough' 'cough'. I said to myself ' don't need that', I took the cigarette out of my mouth and threw it out of my car window, along with the pack.

Oh btw my husband and I have been in self (whatever you call it long before virus came up. Our son, who lives with us takes me shopping when I need groceries.