Posted on 07/11/2024 12:28:33 PM PDT by lightman
Just to preface this post, no, I'm still not 'over' the pandemic, and various government responses to it. It seems as though a lot of people just want to put all that unpleasantness behind us as a society, and move on, but we cannot do that. 'Authoritarianism' is a word that gets tossed about with reckless abandon, typically to describe virtually anything the Left opposes, but COVID triggered an extraordinary avalanche of authoritarian edicts -- many rooted in extremely dubious science, or none at all. Bureaucrats and politicians declared that we must "follow the science," even when they had little-to-no basis for the supposed "Science" in question. Those who objected, or even asked questions, were pilloried as dangerous and selfish knuckle-draggers who were literally killing people. Some were forcibly stripped of their livelihoods. For a time (and a longer time in some places than others), we could not attend religious services. Elderly people died alone, and their families were barred from even giving them proper funerals. Wide swaths of public places were just off limits.
Mental illnesses deepened as a result of these restrictions. Substance abuse problems proliferated, as did other forms of abuse. Non-COVID-related afflictions went undetected, costing lives.The damage inflicted on children who were locked out of schools is still being quantified. I understand and acknowledge that in the early days, and even months, "fog of war" fears were rampant, and a lot of people were truly just trying to do their best to keep themselves, their loved ones, and their communities safe. But after awhile, sound science was ignored and suppressed, obedience was illegitimately demanded, control was unduly exerted, and widespread civil liberties violations ran rampant. So no, I'm not 'over it,' and I'm not sure I ever fully will be. Which is why I think you need to see this, which makes the impositions of "Science"-based power even less defensible:
Government responses to COVID-19 are among the most globally impactful events of the 21st century. The extent to which responses—such as school closures—were associated with changes in COVID-19 outcomes remains unsettled. Multiverse analyses offer a systematic approach to testing a large range of models. We used daily data on 16 government responses in 181 countries in 2020–2021, and 4 outcomes—cases, infections, COVID-19 deaths, and all-cause excess deaths—to construct 99,736 analytic models...In summary, we find no patterns in the overall set of models that suggests a clear relationship between COVID-19 government responses and outcomes. Strong claims about government responses’ impacts on COVID-19 may lack empirical support.
That's a massive, global, peer-reviewed study, using reams of data from many governments, that finds "no patterns" demonstrating a "clear relationship" between how governments responded to the pandemic and the resulting health outcomes. The authors soften the conclusion a bit by suggesting that "strong claims" about the relationship between restrictions and health outcomes "may lack empirical support." This seems like a very big deal, even if some people want to dispute the finding. It has generated very little coverage, perhaps because it rips apart narratives in which many people (very much including journalists) were invested for quite some time. Or perhaps it's because people just don't want to think or hear about this subject anymore. Maybe it's a bit of both.
I'm sure many of those suffering from pandemic fatigue are also uninterested in developments regarding COVID's origins, a topic that triggered scandalous lying and obfuscation from a cascade of "experts," including Dr. Anthony Fauci. Again, dissenters and questioners were lectured and shamed. But those who thought that the novel Coronavirus discovered around Wuhan, China may have...leaked from the dodgy novel Coronavirus lab in Wuhan, China were right. And there's even more evidence proving as much, even as the Faucis of the world continue to dissemble and mislead:
When Fauci is caught in a deception, he deflects, denies, and dives into the weeds of technicalities, designed to seem too complex for non-'experts' to understand. But here is something that we can all understand. If he's willing to say this, as the self-described embodiment of Science Itself, what isn't he willing to say, in support of an ideological cause he supports?
Yes, this was after the debate:
Former White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said in a new interview he has “no doubt” President Biden is mentally capable of serving as president, amid growing concern among Democrats about the president’s standing as the party’s presumptive nominee. “In my interactions with him, I have no doubt,” Fauci said about Biden, when asked on the CBS News podcast “The Takeout” with Major Garrett if he has any concerns about the president’s “vigor and mental capability” to continue in office...“I don’t want to comment about what happened that [debate] night, but you know, to me, it just looked like a bad night,” Fauci said.
He may say he has "no doubt" about Biden's capacity, which is why we should all have serious doubts about Fauci's veracity. Finally, on White House opacity and hypocrisy (on a matter apparently later resolved by this letter), I'll leave you with this:
They called you domestic terrorists when you demanded your kids get the education your tax dollars paid for.
They mocked you when you demanded a return to normalcy for children.
They sneer at your concern over empty shelves and exploding grocery and utility bills.
They messed with supply chains and emptied store shelves, while the elites partied on yachts and Martha’s Vineyard.
They queered women’s sports and the military, and made the citizenry pay for it.
They sexualized schoolchildren, and persecuted parents at school board meetings.
They denied you the chance to try alternative treatments for COVID.
Then they fired you for not getting the vaccine.
When you stand up for your freedom, they call you Nazis and bigots.
Do not forget what they have done.
Do not forgive them.
They are hoping that, by November, you have forgotten the nightmareof the last 2+ years.
YOU struggle to make ends meet and the best the Biden administration can do is free crack pipes for “racial equity.”
This is on top of the woke, cancel culture bull they shove down our throats, the 2020 riots, being accused of racism and bigotry because we oppose their agenda.
As the election draws closer, they’ll pretend they didn’t do any of this.
They’ll gaslight us.
Project.
Blame the GOP (like they tried to when defunding the police went south).
DO NOT give them power.
They haven’t learned a damn thing from this.
You re-elect them, and you can expect masks and lockdowns and nonsense in perpetuity.
Not just for COVID, but for whatever else they deem a “public health emergency” (guns, climate change).
(Remember, they are the very same people who ignore a pubic health emergency aka AIDS.)
They will trample your rights.
VOTE THEM OUT.
NEVER FORGET.
REMEMBER…..in NOVEMBER!
Did anyone find “Two Fresh, Inconvenient Truths About COVID” in that article?
They are in the embedded Tweets...can’t copy/paste
Perhaps if one does not have a subscription, we can only see a portion of the article.
I don’t think I’ve ever read an article from Townhall which arrives at the headline topic within three paragraphs.
People today have no idea what real fear and authoritarianism was really about. What wimps we have now, like cattle. No longer loving their country and its American unity willing to enlist and die for it (despite the Roosevelt socialism being employed everywhere with very real patriotism resisting it).
Then afterward, bringing DPs (homeless persons diaplaced by the European war effects), sending aid under the Marshall plan to our surrendered enemies rebuilding their homes, plants, and economies, taking in the Jewish and Russia-enslaved Eastern Europeans to restore them to decency in life, and much morein the initial goodness of the UN before its decline into a crazy mess.
You guys born since, having not these experiences, know nothing about enslavement to fascism, Jew-hating Naziism and their Muslim anti-freedom adherents, of Japanese Imperialism . You have turned into a bunch of slavish cream-puffs believing anything, lacking true intestinal fortitude to stand for Godly righteousness of character and manners, instead thinking that anything depriving you of sensory debilitation is wrong and not to be tolerated, a careless wasting of the spiritual and material wealth accumulated by your self-sacrificing ancestors for your benefit to be used prudently, not to be squandered.
Faugh!
When the god of this world is sent to Hell and the Lake of Fire, you're going with him, forever.
I’m not a subscriber, so I think it was just an abbreviated article that I saw
To which the answer is, "He don't. And that's why he 's so full of it."
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