Coronavirus: Thread

[grarpamp]

Government Lockdowns, corrupt narratives...


US Suffers Explosion In Urgent Mental-Health Cases As COVID Recedes

https://www.wsj.com/articles/americans-seek-urgent-mental-health-support-as-covid-19-crisis-ebbs-11624786203

The latest indication that the COVID-19 pandemic (and the heavy-handed
lockdowns imposed in the US and elsewhere) is leading to a relatively
quiet, but still severe, mental health crisis appeared in Monday's
Wall Street Journal via a report about the surge in urgent
mental-health-related cases clogging up emergency rooms and
psychiatric hospitals around the country.

And as the US increasingly moves to reopen, the whiff of newfound
freedom is apparently pushing more people over the edge.

WSJ begins its story at Pittsburgh's largest psychiatric hospital,
where one doctor working the overnight shift has seen the average
number of daily  cases double to nearly two dozen from nearly a dozen.

    "It seems like everyone has been holding their breath for a year,
and now, it’s just a total explosion of everything, both in terms of
high volume but also the severity of cases," Dr. Sparks said. "You see
a lot more people who were, pre-pandemic, kind of overwhelmed and
stressed, and now they have full-on anxiety disorders or depression."

The wave of mental-health cases has "grown into a tsunami", flooding
an already overtaxed health-care system. Emergency departments say
they are being overwhelmed by patients who either deferred care, or
simply couldn’t access it, during the pandemic, or whose symptoms were
exacerbated or aggravated by the lockdowns.

Some doctors fear this is only the beginning, and that the full impact
of the pandemic on mental health won't be ascertainable for years.
Here's a breakdown of some of the other key information from the WSJ
story:

    Children have been hit particularly hard. School closures have led
to serious mental-health issues going unnoticed because teachers and
school psychologists are a primary source of referrals. Even before
the pandemic, the country faced a shortage of mental-health
professionals serving juveniles: the American Academy of Pediatrics
last year estimated the need for child psychiatrists at 47/100K
people, roughly 4x the number in practice. Emergency-room visits for
mental-health crises among 12- to 17-year-olds increased 31% between
2019 and 2020 according to the CDC. At the University of Pittsburgh
Medical Center, pediatric-outpatient volume surged 30% in the first
four months of 2021 compared with the year earlier. "We have more kids
waiting for care than we ever have before," said Abigail Schlesinger,
the hospital’s chief of child and adolescent psychiatry. "We’re in the
mental-health emergency phase of this pandemic."
    Suicides have risen among minors. Emergency-room visits for
suspected suicide among kids 12-17 rose 22% last summer compared with
the previous year, and 39% this past winter compared with the previous
winter.
    More mental-health crises are ending up in emergency rooms in part
because outpatient facilities, including private psychiatrists'
offices, therapy practices and crisis centers, are simply overwhelmed.
"For us, it’s definitely a lot of people who either had pre-existing
conditions or have neglected to address their new onset of emotional
imbalance," said Damir Huremovic, a psychiatrist at North Shore
University Hospital on Long Island. "Many developed anxiety or
insomnia, and they tried to see a provider but no one was taking new
patients, and then things sort of just snowballed."
    Crisis hotlines are bumping. Overall volume at Resolve, a crisis
hotline serving an impoverished slice of Pittsburgh, saw rates of
calls between January and April surge 27% compared with the
year-earlier period. For the past six months, Resolve has been
handling hundreds of phone calls a day, with as many as 50 of them
serious enough to require a home visit by trained clinicians. That's
2x to 3x the level from two years ago. "Isolation is the overarching
theme," said Jeff McFadden, a phone crisis clinician at the center who
says the volume of calls is the highest he has seen in his 13 years at
Resolve. "It’s everything from ‘I’m lonely’ or ‘my girlfriend broke up
with me,’ to ‘I’ve got a gun right next to me, give me a reason to
live’…There’s this perfect storm where people feel trapped in their
own houses and alone. We’re seeing it more and more."
    Delays in finding care are also a problem. "Clinics that used to
be able to get people in within a couple of days, it now takes a
couple of weeks or months," one doctor said. The past year has "broken
all the paradigms" for how to treat mental-health cases in the
community.

Increasingly, the doctors and nurses who care for patients seeking
urgent care for psychiatric issues are feeling job-related stressors
like burnout intensify. "You can only take so much when you’re
sleep-deprived, exhausted, and juggling other people’s problems like
balls on fire for so many nights in a row," one doctor said.

And another an epidemic of health-care workers taking leave or
quitting due to burnout is the last time the health-care system needs.




Sudden Shift In COVID-19 Lab Leak Narrative ‘Mysterious’: Bret Weinstein

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_breakingnews/sudden-shift-in-covid-19-lab-leak-narrative-mysterious-evolutionary-biologist_3884058.html

The sudden shift in narrative over the possibility that COVID-19 could
have emerged from a lab in Wuhan, China, is mysterious and contingent
to “just how corrupt our system has become,” according to evolutionary
biologist Bret Weinstein.

Weinstein, biologist and co-host of the DarkHorse Podcast, has since
last year explored the possibility that COVID-19 could have emerged
from a laboratory. He told Epoch TV’s “American Thought Leaders”
program (episode premiering on Sat. July 3) that the fact that the
hypothesis is now receiving widespread recognition from the
international community is “completely mysterious.”

“My channel was very early on this topic, and it was quite clear to
many of us, starting with the tremendous coincidence of this virus
having emerged first in Wuhan, where there is a biosafety level four
lab studying these very viruses and enhancing them,” said Weinstein.
“It was quite clear that there was at least a viable hypothesis that
needed to be discussed."

Weinstein, a visiting fellow at the James Madison Program at Princeton
University, said that before the narrative surrounding the COVID-19
lab leak theory gained traction, those who did discuss it were
stigmatized, demonized and “portrayed as everything from racist to
reactionary.”

“All we were doing was following the evidence,” Weinstein continued.
“The change in that story was, I have to say, completely mysterious.”

While the theory that the virus was the result of a leak from the
Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) was labeled a “conspiracy theory”
last year, it has recently gained traction as a growing number of
scientists and officials have lent credence to the hypothesis.

COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party)
virus, was first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

A January State Department fact sheet raised questions about whether
the outbreak could have been the result of a lab accident at WIV. It
said the United States has “reason to believe” that several WIV
researchers became sick with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19
and common seasonal illnesses in autumn 2019. The department also said
the lab had been conducting secret military experiments on animals
since at least 2017, and that it has a history of conducting
gain-of-function research on viruses. Such research involves modifying
viruses to have new or enhanced capabilities.

President Joe Biden on May 26 ordered the intelligence community to
produce a report in 90 days on the origins of the virus, saying that
intelligence agencies are looking at rival theories, including the
possibility of a laboratory accident in China.

Weinstein criticized the explanations provided in recent weeks by “all
of those who had gotten the story wrong” after the lab leak theory
gained wider recognition.

PolitiFact, for example, on May 24 quietly retracted a September 2020
fact check that labeled a Hong Kong virologist’s claim that COVID-19
originated in a lab as inaccurate and a “debunked conspiracy theory.”

“The claim is inaccurate and ridiculous,” the now-archived fact check
previously said. “We rate it Pants on Fire!”

In an updated editor’s note, PolitiFact explained why it removed the label.

“When this fact-check was first published in September 2020,
PolitiFact’s sources included researchers who asserted the SARS-CoV-2
virus could not have been manipulated. That assertion is now more
widely disputed,” the note said. “For that reason, we are removing
this fact-check from our database pending a more thorough review.
Currently, we consider the claim to be unsupported by evidence and in
dispute.”

Separately, the Washington Post quietly walked back its claims
regarding the COVID-19 lab leak theory.

The paper in February 2020 published an article claiming the idea was
a “conspiracy theory” that had been “debunked.” The article attacked
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who called for an investigation into the
origins of the CCP virus.

Some reporters have said that they disregarded the lab leak theory
because Republicans were largely the ones promoting the idea.

Weinstein described the phenomenon as “a headlong rush, by all of
those who had gotten the story wrong to explain themselves—and their
explanations made less than no sense.”

He said that certain journalists or media outlets “seemed to center on
the fact that because [former President] Donald Trump had been
favorable to the idea that this might have emerged from a lab, that
that made it not true.”

“Which, of course, is such an illogical conclusion that it’s hard to
imagine how anybody who considers himself a journalist could for a
moment have been misled,” he continued. “I mean, at worst, if you
thought everything that Donald Trump said was a lie—at worst, you
would have to take it as no evidence either way.

“But that’s not how people treated it. They treated it almost as if
the truth was always the opposite of what he said.”

Other outlets have also corrected or quietly updated stories,
including Vox, while Facebook stopped banning posts suggesting the
virus was man-made.

Weinstein said that he believes it eventually became “impossible to
maintain the public lie that a laboratory version was somehow in
conflict with the evidence.”

“And we now know from Dr. Fauci, his emails, that behind the scenes,
the top people didn’t believe it either. They were just simply feeding
the public a line that they had their own reasons for wanting the
public to believe,” he said.

“It is contingent on the several different stories that surround
COVID-19, revealing to us just how corrupt our system has become.”





http://endoftheamericandream.com/what-is-your-plan-as-major-u-s-cities-devolve-into-lawless-wastelands-dominated-by-violent-criminals/
Our cities are filled with extreme violence, and the blood of the
innocent flows in our streets, and yet most Americans still seem to be
in denial about what is happening.  This isn’t just a momentary spike
in violent crime that we are witnessing.  The increase in violent
crime that we experienced in 2020 was unprecedented, and things have
been even worse in 2021.

If you are not familiar with those numbers, here is a reminder…

    Police and public reported data details that from January through
March of 2021, the homicide rate rose by 28% from the same period last
year in 20 major cities across the country. Homicides had already
previously risen by 30% in 2020.

Everyone should be able to agree that we are very rapidly going in the
wrong direction.

But many on the left assured us that things would “return to normal”
and the violence in the streets would subside once Joe Biden was in
the White House.

Obviously, that hasn’t happened.  In fact, the violence in New York
City over the weekend made headlines all over the nation…

    New York City is officially back: almost 30 people were shot in
New York City this past weekend – and that number was only up until
about 2PM on Sunday.

    29 victims in total had been struck by gunfire by early evening
Sunday, according to the New York Post, with one reported fatality.

    “These kids are having running gun battles and innocents are
getting shot,” one veteran NYPD officer told the Post.

Do you remember when New York City was one of the safest big cities in
the United States?

Those days are now gone, and violent criminals are having a field day
as the Big Apple slowly but surely descends into madness.

Of course New York City still has some catching up to do in order to
get to Chicago’s level.  During the weekend before last, 48 people
were shot, and five of those that were shot ended up dying…

    Chicago police are planning to target 15 areas of the city this
summer in the battle to combat violence and keep people safe.

    The plan comes after a particularly violent weekend in which
police say five people were killed and 48 people were shot, including
two police officers and six juveniles.

Authorities in Chicago have promised that they will work very hard to
implement their plan to fight violent crime, but things certainly
didn’t get any better this past weekend.

In fact, they got even worse.

Over the weekend, 55 more people were shot, and 11 more people were killed.

What a nightmare.

But if you want to see a city that is quickly becoming even more
violent than Chicago, just check out Minneapolis.  Violent crime in
the city spiked dramatically in 2020, and the numbers have surged even
higher in 2021…

    The city has seen a 222 percent increase in carjackings this year
compared with this point in 2020, averaging 1.27 incidents per day,
according to police data. Homicides are up 108 percent from a year
earlier, while shootings have risen 153 percent.

If you are running a city and carjackings, shootings and murders are
all up by triple digit percentages, you are definitely not on the
right track.

Minneapolis had been the epicenter for the “defund the police”
movement, but now that violent crime has started to spiral out of
control, the city has decided to bring in outside law enforcement
help…

    Minneapolis police are bringing in outside help as they try to
temper weekend violence that killed a least four people, including a
college senior who was out celebrating graduation.

    Mayor Jacob Frey, speaking a day after a mass shooting downtown,
said the city has asked state and federal agencies for assistance, as
Minneapolis police face a shortage of officers.

Is anyone surprised that Minneapolis is now facing a “shortage of officers”?

What did they think was going to happen when city officials endlessly
demonized the police?

On the west coast, authorities are facing other sorts of problems.
The number of people that died from drug overdoses in San Francisco
was twice as high as the number of people that died from COVID last
year, and addicts continue to litter the streets with thousands upon
thousands of used drug needles.  Street crime is completely out of
control as addicts endlessly search for money for their next hits, but
city politicians keep insisting that they can handle this crisis.

Crime is on the rise from coast to coast, but before I end this
article I would like to discuss one more type of violence that we have
seen in recent days that is especially chilling.

Israel’s conflict with Hamas sparked a huge wave of anti-Jewish
attacks, and many of these incidents made international news…

    There were a series of street attacks that authorities are
investigating as anti-Semitic attacks in the wake of Israel’s 11-day
war with Hamas.

    The list includes a Jewish man who was attacked by a
pro-Palestinian activist in Times Square, a Jewish teenager was also
put in a chokehold outside a Brooklyn synagogue over the weekend, and
a rabbi was hounded with abuse in Hallandale Beach, Florida.

The incident in Hallandale Beach was particularly alarming.  After
yelling “Jews should die”, an unidentified man later returned to that
same location and dumped a bag of human feces right in front of a
Jewish synagogue…

    A man yelled antisemitic remarks at a rabbi in front of a South
Florida synagogue, before returning and dumping a bag of human feces
in front of the building.

    Cellphone video captured the unidentified man as he shouted ‘Jews
should die’ at a rabbi outside the Chabad of South Broward on Friday.

    The man left and returned a short time later, carrying a bag that
contained human feces, said Hallandale Beach Police Capt. RaShana
Dabney-Donovan.

There is so much hatred for Jewish people out there right now, and the
recent military conflict in the Middle East brought much of it to the
surface.

In Brooklyn, a man named Ali Alaheri was arrested after he purposely
set fire to a synagogue and a Jewish school…

    A New York man was charged Saturday with setting fire to a
synagogue and Jewish school in Brooklyn earlier in the week.

    Ali Alaheri, 29, is accused of torching the Jewish center near
Borough Park at around 4am on Wednesday.

    The building suffered some damage before firefighters put the fire out.

I keep telling my readers that I have never seen more hate in America
as I am seeing right now, and these are yet more examples that prove
my point.

Sadly, the level of hatred is likely to go even higher as our society
comes apart at the seams in the months and years ahead.

As our major cities devolve into lawless wastelands, what are you and
your family going to do?

Do you plan to stick it out, hoping that things will eventually
“return to normal”?

That will be the choice for a lot of people, and many of them will
deeply regret going that route.

Others anticipate that they will just rely on their “survival skills”
if things get crazy enough, but one new survey has found that most
Americans are severely lacking in such skills…

    Are you ready for life as a “Mountain Man” (or woman)? Apparently,
the average American thinks they are, even if most can’t even start a
fire! A new study finds the average American thinks they can survive
for 16 days alone in the wilderness.

    The survey of 2,000 people reveals Americans feel quite at ease
with the idea of surviving in the wild. However, only 17 percent feel
“very confident” in their ability to start a fire with flint.
Moreover, just 14 percent feel the same about their ability to
identify edible plants or berries in nature.

The truth is that most people don’t have any sort of a detailed plan
for what is ahead, because most people still believe that everything
is going to work out just fine somehow.

Meanwhile, our cities are becoming more lawless by the day, and the
last 12 months have clearly demonstrated that it doesn’t take much to
push the restless populations of those cities over the edge and into
violence.