Coronavirus: Thread

[grarpamp]

https://www.aier.org/article/absolute-power-is-no-covid-safety-net/

Absolute Power Is No COVID Safety Net

https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2021/08/18/do-not-talk-to-your-neighbors-new-zealand-back-on-lockdown-n409653
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/covid-new-zealand-lockdown-ardern/2021/08/17/c92dc658-ff11-11eb-87e0-7e07bd9ce270_story.html
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/there-will-be-no-more-drinking-alcohol-your-mask-melbourne-la-compete-least-scientific
https://twitter.com/funinoca/status/1418974520032043025
https://twitter.com/stinchfield1776/status/1426536668115374085
https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-joe-biden-business-health-travel-caae4c9b16be16c4ad43500fb240b801
https://viewfromthewing.com/obama-homeland-security-official-wants-unvaxxed-put-on-no-fly-list/
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/nih-director-worried-about-epidemic-of-misinformation-disinformation-distrust-that-is-tearing-us-apart/
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/nih-director-parents-should-wear%20masks-at-home
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/jul/22/joe-biden/biden-exaggerates-efficacy-covid-19-vaccines/
https://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/2108/05/sitroom.02.html
https://dailycaller.com/2021/07/20/psaki-confirms-white-house-breakthrough-infections-vaccinated-aide-tests-positive-covid-19/
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/09/america-is-flying-blind-when-it-comes-to-the-delta-variant
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/08/18/cdc-data-delay-delta-variant/
https://www.dhs.gov/ntas/advisory/national-terrorism-advisory-system-bulletin-august-13-2021
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2021/08/10/fauci_says_covid-19_is_so_serious_he_now_supports_local_vaccine_mandates.html
https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/vinay-prasad/93803
https://archive.org/details/greatinfluenzaep00barr
https://www.phillyvoice.com/100-years-ago-spanish-flu-philadelphia-killed-thousands-influenza-epidemic-libery-loan-parade/

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, lockdown champions have
perennially invoked “science and data” to sanctify any mandate
politicians impose. Hard facts have recently shown that neither
vaccines nor face masks provide surefire protection against the virus.
But no amount of evidence has yet shaken faith in the magic of
absolute power.

Covid policies are increasingly degenerating to the equivalent of
sacrificing virgins to appease angry viral gods. New Zealand on
Tuesday imposed a nationwide lockdown in response to a single Covid
case in the capital city. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ordered her
captive citizenry: “Do not congregate, don’t talk to your neighbors.
Please keep to your bubble.” Arden asserted that “complying with these
rules, making sure we do all we can to stamp it out, still remains the
best strategy in the world right now.” Ardern did not deign to explain
why almost no place else in the world, including places with vastly
more Covid cases, sought to outlaw everyday conversations.

In Australia, the military is patrolling city streets to enforce the
latest lockdown. Daniel Andrews, the Premier of the state of Victoria,
recently decreed: “There will be no removal of masks to consume
alcohol outdoors.” One Aussie lamented, “My business has been forcibly
closed. Everyone has been sent home without pay. We are banned from
leaving our homes except for the 5 reasons given by the Government.”

There is no “science” to justify prohibiting Australians from going
more than 2 miles from their home. But New Zealand and Australia
presume that no one will be safe unless government officials have
jurisdiction over every breath that citizens take.

In the United States, many of the same pundits and activists who
howled about the evils of “microaggressions” are now cheering for the
government to forcibly inject everyone with a Covid vaccine. Biden
publicly declared that he is checking to see if he has the power to
force everyone to get injected.

Biden endorsed the vaccination passports that some cities have already
imposed. Radio host Grant Stinchfield commented, in Los Angeles “you
can [defecate] on the street, shoot drugs in crack tent on the
sidewalk and even steal anything less then (sic) 900 bucks but now you
have to show papers to get in a restaurant or gym!?!?” New York City’s
passport regime effectively bans the majority of blacks from many
activities of daily life, since they have a much lower vaccination
rate than other groups.

Far greater restrictions may be on the horizon. The Associated Press
reported that the Biden administration is considering “mandating
vaccines for interstate travel” but is delaying any such decree until
“Americans were ready for the strong-arming from the federal
government.” A top former Homeland Security official has called for
placing anyone who is not fully vaccinated on the No Fly list, thereby
expanding the list to scores of millions of people and creating new
havoc for air travel. Biden administration officials have offered no
evidence that such restrictions would end the pandemic but it would
permit the president to demonstrate the same machismo that President
Nixon showed with his illegal invasion of Cambodia in 1970.

Politicians’ anti-Covid recommendations increasingly resemble
frightened soldiers shooting at any noise they hear in the dark. NIH
Director Francis Collins recently condemned the “epidemic of
misinformation, disinformation, distrust that is tearing us apart.”
But much of the misinformation has stemmed directly from the Biden
administration’s flip-flops and fearmongering. On August 3, Collins
announced during a CNN interview that “parents of unvaccinated kids
should… wear masks” in their own homes. He conceded: “I know that’s
uncomfortable, I know it seems weird, but it is the best way to
protect your kids.” A few hours later, Collins recanted on Twitter,
perhaps after other political appointees persuaded him to stop
sounding like a blithering idiot.

Covid misinformation started at the top. In a CNN Town Hall last
month, Biden declared, “You’re not going to get COVID if you have
these vaccinations.” Biden administration officials kept reciting the
“pandemic of the unvaccinated” refrain long after it became clear that
vaccines were rapidly failing to prevent the spread of Covid. On
August 8, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky finally admitted: “What
[COVID vaccines] can’t do any more is prevent transmission.” Helluva
asterisk. Prior to that, the Biden administration even refused to
disclose the number of “breakthrough” infections that had occurred
among White House staff. Prof. Eric Topol complained that the CDC’s
false statements on Covid risks was a “blatant failure putting
millions of vaccinated Americans at unnecessary risk for breakthrough
infections.”

On Thursday, a front page Washington Post article castigated the CDC
for withholding Covid information from the public, noting that its
“overly rosy assessments of the vaccines’ effectiveness against delta
may have lulled Americans into a false sense of security.” Tom
Frieden, former CDC director under Obama, suggested that the long
delays in disclosure led some people to “wonder if the CDC is hiding
results.” CDC Director Walensky responded to the debacle by promising
“to develop a new forecasting and outbreak analytics center to analyze
data in real time,” the Post reported. The CDC apparently did not
previously consider it worthwhile to spend any of its $8 billion
annual budget on such a project.

The Biden administration has sought to blame the resurgence of Covid
on scofflaws who did not submit to every revised command. The Official
Enemies List has expanded from those not wearing a mask to those
resisting getting vaccinated, and it will soon include those who balk
at getting a third (and fourth? fifth?) injection.

The biggest expansion of the Enemies List occurred on August 13, when
the Department of Homeland Security issued a terrorist alert, warning
law enforcement agencies that “anti-government/anti-authority violent
extremists could exploit… potential re-establishment of public health
restrictions across the United States as a rationale to conduct
attacks.” Anyone who loudly objects to being locked back under house
arrest will be the moral equivalent of the Taliban, or maybe
Hezbollah. Previous federal driftnets for potential troublemakers
expanded far beyond individuals who threatened violence. The feds may
already be compiling vast lists of Covid critics that could come in
handy at some future point.

But at least government officials now recognize the real enemy. Covid
Czar Tony Fauci recently declared, “I know people must like to have
their individual freedom… but I think that we’re in such a serious
situation now, that… mandates should be done.” Fauci predicts that
once the FDA rushes its formal approval of the Covid vaccines, there
will be far more mandates imposed on Americans.  The fact that the
efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine has fallen to 42% is irrelevant. A
vaccine isn’t a failure as long as the government can force everyone
to get additional injections.

The primary “evidence” for most Covid policies is the job title of the
government official issuing the decree. As University of California
San Francisco professor of medicine Vinay Prasad wrote last month,
“When it comes to non-pharmacologic interventions such as mandatory
business closures, mask mandates, and countless other interventions,
the shocking conclusion of the last 18 months is this: We have learned
next to nothing.” Prasad slammed his colleagues for failing to do
reliable research on key issues of the pandemic: “Anyone who considers
themselves a scientist should be embarrassed by our collective failure
to generate knowledge, and this failure is once again looming large.”

For bureaucrats and politicians, gaining power and compelling
submission are victory enough, even when their policies fail to
vanquish a virus. Citizens are obliged to assume “government knows
best, even when it knows little or nothing.” People won’t get infected
as long as they are groveling to federal commands, right?
Unfortunately, the government has no liability for the injections it
approves or the freedoms it destroys.

Faith in absolute power is not “science” – regardless of how many
scientists pledge allegiance to Washington in return for federal
funding. As historian John M. Barry, author of The Great Influenza,
observed, “When you mix politics and science, you get politics.” There
is no safety in submission to damn fools, regardless of their pompous
titles.