Posted on 06/08/2020 6:19:55 AM PDT by karpov
How would our leaders get through this pandemic without “the science”?
It’s never been obvious just what “the science” is, or why anyone would speak of science as a single truth, but the role it plays is quite clear. It’s the modern equivalent of the Oracle of Delphi, that mysterious font of guidance that Greek leaders consulted during wars and other crises. However foolish or sensible the advice may be, the oracle gives leaders an excuse to duck responsibility for decisions—and their consequences.
Why, for instance, was the upstate New York economy shut down for more than two months, despite the small number of cases of Covid-19 in rural counties? Why, as some offices and barber shops and other upstate businesses were finally about to reopen at the end of May, did Governor Andrew Cuomo infuriate local officials by suddenly announcing that this decision could not be made by them—or even by himself?
“We’ll give the experts all the data,” he explained. “And if they say we should move forward, we move forward.” Everyone’s fate now rests with the new oracles.
By “the experts,” Cuomo meant the consultants brought in to oversee the state’s reopening: an epidemiologist from the University of Minnesota and a statistician from Imperial College in London. When he introduced them at a press conference in mid-May, he explained that reopening was “not a political exercise.”
“This is about facts and science and data,” he said. “It’s math and there’s a liberation in that.”
It may be liberating for politicians to blame economic devastation on someone else, but it’s ridiculous to pretend that epidemiologists and statisticians have magical formulae for determining the costs and benefits of the shutdown.
(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...
The majority of our politicians failed ninth-grade biology.
They basically proved that the virus science has never been settled, and we ought to worry now about this stupid chatter of global warming and badly that science is being presented.
Trump stepped in it big time when he put his trust in the Fauci/Birx show. Hope it doesn’t cost him come November.
And they have enormously powerful levers to stifle dissent or the expression of any genuine truth from within their ranks.
These controlling fools and shills actually have no power. Power means the ability to make choices. Ever see one of them chose doing the right thing over the thing the deep-staters want? No? Well then, they have no power. Just position from which derives their ability to stop any productive efforts and the perqs derived from acting so on behalf of the deep state.
The Democrat/Left governors, covered by the Democrat/Left media, will continue to shift blame for the severe and continuing damage to our economy, to our society and to tens of millions of Americans, blaming these horrific results on “the virus” rather than on the lockdowns the Democrat/Left governors deliberately imposed by edict.
The word “science” once meant a branch of philosophy utilizing objective analysis to validate subjective hypothesis; now it means “any word that issues from the mouth of a scientist.”
Alex Berenson’s coronavirus booklet hits #1 top spot on Amazon after the online retailer initially rejected it!
Alex Berenson’s booklet on coronavirus, “Unreported Truths about COVID-19 and Lockdowns: Part 1,” became the No. 1 best seller in Amazon’s Kindle Store on Saturday.
Former New York Times reporter and prominent lockdown critic Alex Berenson provides a counterweight to media hysteria about coronavirus in this series of short booklets answering crucial questions about COVID.
Drawing on primary sources from all over the world - including state and national-level government data, Centers for Disease Control reports, and papers in prominent scientific journals - the Essential Guide offers clear, concise, and measured answers to some of the most important questions around the coronavirus:
How are COVID deaths counted?
How many Americans are likely to die in a worst-case scenario?
What is the evidence that lockdowns do or do not help reduce the spread of the illness?
Are masks an effective way to reduce the spread?
Why did the forecasts for coronavirus hospitalizations prove so wrong?
Are children at serious risk from coronavirus?
What has the mental health impact of lockdowns been?
Whether you have been skeptical of the media’s panicked reporting all along or are just starting to wonder why the predictions of doom from March and April have not come to pass, the Essential Guide will provide you with the factual, accurate, and impeccably sourced information you need.
Please note: the Essential Guide will be published in multiple sections. Part 1 includes an introduction, an examination of the way COVID deaths are counted, and a forecast for a potential worst-case scenario of coronavirus deaths in the United States.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/alex-no-1
Available via Kindle, now!
Defining a disease by symptoms as FauXi has done
is NOT science. it is outrageous.
it is a POLITICAL diagnosis - made to coverup
an Atrocity virus designed by the CDC-FauXi-Xi-Soros
to murder through the ACE-2 receptor and release
of iron from hemoglobin.
This has been a crime against humanity.
And yet they rejected, in fact attacked, the mathematician who showed that the virus wouldn’t last much beyond 70 days.
Recent events have proven his theory correct.
Everything about this article screams that the author does not understand even rudimentary epidemiology or how and why the preventive measures that were put into place worked to prevent disease transmission. His understanding ranks up there with the reporter who wrote that despite the crime rate being at record lows, prison populations are soaring.
The science of disease transmission and control has been very well developed over the course of centuries. While there were specifics about Covid-19 that are still being investigated, the fundamental principles of controlling disease transmission still apply.
Yes, there was an economic impact to the shut down. Businesses had to find ways to adapt or fail. I have seen that businesses all over have, in fact, adopted new ways to conduct business. (I wonder if the economic impacts have been overstated in order to make points such as the ones this author has made in his article.)
But do any of those complaining about the economic impacts and inconvenience of a shot down stop for one minute to consider the costs of doing nothing to stop the pandemic? Without taking any measures to stop the pandemic, we would now be approaching 1 billion cases. What does that do to the healthcare system? The current death rate is 5.7%, but that's with adequate hospital capacity; once the healthcare system is swamped, the death rate would go even higher. What happens to the economy when 5.7% (or more, the peak death rate was 7.137% on May 1) of the population suddenly is dead? That means a lot of empty businesses, empty houses, loss of work force, orphans, etc., etc. And the economic impact of a deadly disease does not end any time soon. Throughout most of our history, infectious disease kept lifespans short, and we did not make much technological progress.
I could go on. I am just amazed at the number of people who assume that our relatively disease free lives are just the natural way of being, and have no clue that it takes a continuing effort to keep killer diseases at bay. They haven't studied history or biology, I suppose.
I knew the Blinded by Science song would raise its head — it was just a question of how. Congratulations.
That’s why every time he speaks Trump doubles-down on the “we did the right thing” line. Personally I don’t think he believes that anymore. But letting on that he got schookered by Fauci & Co. would be more politically damaging.
Every politician with the exception Donald Trump can use the Science Get Out of Jail Free card.
In the matter of the economic catastrophe that is government’s response to COVID =19 Trump’s Desk is where the Buck stops as far as Democrat politicians and opinion makers are concerned.
A conspiracy theorist would make the argument that the government response to the Wuhan Flu was engineered to kill the US economy going in to the 2020 election just to harm Trump’s reelection campaign.
Yes Trump KNOWS he screwed up...but can’t admit it.
Idiots like DannyTN are still marching around in here claiming that Trump & Fauci saved 2 million American lives! Stunningly retarded.
WHEN SCIENTISTS BECOME POLITICIANS, THEY ARE NOT SCIENTISTS ANY LONGER.
Trump simply had no choice. Would have been political suicide at the time, he knew it.
We’ll see how it works out for him in November. Some of those still unemployed won’t forget.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.