COVID-19 News

[henris42]

Why should we care when it's almost all over? Aren't we sick and tired of hearing about it yet? That doesn't do justice to the literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives sent into chaos along with ruined livelihoods, suicides, and the numbers of deaths from poverty related causes for decades to come, that the lockdowns will be responsible for.

We're all tired of lockdowns surely, especially in countries that have actually had rough ones, like Australia, NZ, South Africa..

I don't know how much lockdowns you had in the US and Canada. In Finland we've been in a "loose noose", no lockdown but bars close real early and all this mask crap.

I'm sure the whole world is tired, and it will be wild when it opens.

Now its time for the western world to open - but probably not for Africa and Latin America.

 

[Randall]

We're all tired of lockdowns surely, especially in countries that have actually had rough ones, like Australia, NZ, South Africa..

I don't know how much lockdowns you had in the US and Canada. In Finland we've been in a "loose noose", no lockdown but bars close real early and all this mask crap.

I'm sure the whole world is tired, and it will be wild when it opens.

Now its time for the western world to open - but probably not for Africa and Latin America.

We finally had the lousy mask bylaw lifted today, but only for outdoor public, private homes & businesses and non-civil services. All civil services still require masking, along with certain crossover sectors like public transportation including cabs. The questionable "mask science" I've dug-up indicates that masks don't stop transmission, but are likely to lower the incidence of it, if the circumstances are like that of the experiment.

Basically, there's nothing that can stop it short of a Moon suit. Also, if you see the lab setup, it's literally a small closed box with two mannequin heads directly facing each other, with an ionizer blowing directly at the other one. How realistic is that? Honestly. I don't recall seeing any actual real-world example that fits that situation anywhere, except maybe the cone of silence on Get Smart.

 

[henris42]

We finally had the lousy mask bylaw lifted today, but only for outdoor public, private homes & businesses and non-civil services. All civil services still require masking, along with certain crossover sectors like public transportation including cabs. The questionable "mask science" I've dug-up indicates that masks don't stop transmission, but are likely to lower the incidence of it, if the circumstances are like that of the experiment.

Basically, there's nothing that can stop it short of a Moon suit. Also, if you see the lab setup, it's literally a small closed box with two mannequin heads directly facing each other, with an ionizer blowing directly at the other one. How realistic is that? Honestly. I don't recall seeing any actual real-world example that fits that situation anywhere, except maybe the cone of silence on Get Smart.

I believe you're right. Masks do not do much.

This is what is called in professional circles a "security theatre". Its same in airports with metal detectors and stuff.
There was a document in German ZDF many years back, that you can build a bomb using stuff you can buy from the airport shops.
So, the security is to weed out total idiots and give "a sense of security".

 

[Randall]

I believe you're right. Masks do not do much.

This is what is called in professional circles a "security theatre". Its same in airports with metal detectors and stuff.
There was a document in German ZDF many years back, that you can build a bomb using stuff you can buy from the airport shops.
So, the security is to weed out total idiots and give "a sense of security".

Very interesting. I've never heard that expression before. But I'm completely with you. There's a video out there someplace of a doctor giving Boris Johnson advice that masks are actually a bad idea before he goes on to speak publicly, but the politicians had to make it look like they were doing something to appease the germaphobes.

 

[henris42]

Very interesting. I've never heard that expression before. But I'm completely with you. There's a video out there someplace of a doctor giving Boris Johnson advice that masks are actually a bad idea before he goes on to speak publicly, but the politicians had to make it look like they were doing something to appease the germaphobes.

Also in here advise was against the masks, until they were cheap and plentiful. After that they made it mandatory in public transport.
(Finnish law in very strict on basic rights, they cannot regulate our lives too much. No masks in private meetings. Restaurants and especially concerts organizers are close to bankrupt)

Security theatre is what you see everytime you get a flight.

 

[Randall]

Also in here advise was against the masks, until they were cheap and plentiful. After that they made it mandatory in public transport.
(Finnish law in very strict on basic rights, they cannot regulate our lives too much. No masks in private meetings. Restaurants and especially concerts organizers are close to bankrupt)

Security theatre is what you see everytime you get a flight.

What we've tended to see overall is a middle ground between the two extremes. However there have been a lot of arrests and fines handed out as a consequence of people protesting to the restrictions, so it was getting militant, and it would be only a matter of time before enough people started getting completely sick of it to start rejecting it en-masse.

Despite the propaganda here, I was starting to see a lot of shops arbitrarily start to open and people starting to ignore the mask bylaw. If they had voted to extend it any longer, there would have been a lot of pissed-off people. Now the germaphobes are going to have to get used to the idea that they might have a problem again. Before the lockdowns this was a neurotic condition.

I'm serious. You could go look it up and there would be videos of people compulsively hand washing, and after the pandemic hit, there were videos telling people how to wash their hands, and it looked just like the neurotic germaphobe demo video. People have become programed to obey the media and authority. I'm way too much of a free thinker for that.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

Dr. Fauci is one of the most highly respected immunologists on the planet. You are paying attention to known crackpot theories, such as your GBD, which has no relevance whatever to the present situation. In the U.S. right now, serious infections are largely restricted to people who were not vaccinated.

I will not argue the point any longer. We are well past that.

As to the vaccines, they aren't perfect. There are breakthrough infections, meaning people who are vaccinated may still get sick. Same for flu vaccines by the way. There are also some more serious side effects, but out of hundreds of millions of doses, very very few, and just about all are manageable. Consider how many illnesses have been prevented.

If the anti-vaccine talk results in just one person becoming seriously ill because they believed it, who is responsible?

 

[Randall]

Dr. Fauci is one of the most highly respected immunologists on the planet. You are paying attention to known crackpot theories, such as your GBD, which has no relevance whatever to the present situation. In the U.S. right now, serious infections are largely restricted to people who were not vaccinated.

I will not argue the point any longer. We are well past that.

No, we're not "well past" the issue of pandemic management and its fallout, and your opinion that world class epidemiologists backed by literally thousands of other healthcare scientists is "crackpot" isn't reasonable. Apparently, neither you or Fauci are prepared to accept that better qualified people than both of you have valid points, and prefer instead to resort to pejoratives about them. Time for a personal confirmation bias check.

As to the vaccines, they aren't perfect. There are breakthrough infections, meaning people who are vaccinated may still get sick. Same for flu vaccines by the way. There are also some more serious side effects, but out of hundreds of millions of doses, very very few, and just about all are manageable. Consider how many illnesses have been prevented.

If the anti-vaccine talk results in just one person becoming seriously ill because they believed it, who is responsible?

I don't deny vaccine science. In fact, compared to a lot of people, I actually understand it better than they do, which is how I arrive at my personal decisions regarding vaccines, unlike those who either choose not to think for themselves, or don't have the capacity. So let's not go moving goalposts or making assumptions before taking those views into consideration.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

No, we're not "well past" the issue of pandemic management and its fallout, and your opinion that world class epidemiologists backed by literally thousands of other healthcare scientists is "crackpot" isn't reasonable. Apparently, neither you or Fauci are prepared to accept that better qualified people than both of you have valid points, and prefer instead to resort to pejoratives about them. Time for a personal confirmation bias check.

The issue of herd immunity, or modified herd immunity by just protecting old people, is not relevant anymore.

 

[Randall]

The issue of herd immunity, or modified herd immunity by just protecting old people, is not relevant anymore.

One problem is that everyone is so burnt-out from having to deal with COVID that they just want the whole thing to be irrelevant and blow away ( me included ). But the reality is that it's not actually over, and there are consequences for the past decisions that extend far beyond the end of the pandemic itself. There are many lawsuits out there, and people will be studying and debating the fallout for the political decisions for a long time.

 

[Randall]

Back in 2020 an article was published about an increase in deaths from NON-COVID causes, in theory linked to the lockdowns. I'll post it here as a reference so we can compare the numbers moving forward. Hopefully the stats will be more favorable by now than was predicted back then, when there were already significant spikes in NON-COVID deaths.

You see, the fallout from lockdowns won't go away just because survivors would prefer to forget about it and move on. A lot of people who had no contact with the virus didn't make it, and they're being swept under the rug.

Death by Lockdown

"We attempted to intimidate a virus with PhDs and political power, hoping that it would shrivel and die, and in so doing dramatically disabled human freedom and social functioning. What do we have to show for it? Massive carnage, and a virus that is still with us." ~ Jeffrey A. Tucker

www.aier.org

 

[Randall]

The Truth about Excess Deaths​

The Truth about Excess Deaths

"Ultimately, these early findings reinforce the core difficulty that policy planners face. Planners can never know enough to plan for every eventuality, nor can they accurately predict what their plans will actually do. As a result, plans often end up based on a 'pretense of knowledge' rather...

www.aier.org

 

[Randall]

What were some of the collateral effects of lockdowns?​

What were some of the collateral effects of lockdowns? | David Spiegelhalter and Anthony Masters

Hospital waiting lists rose, but traffic accidents fell – Covid-19’s consequences will emerge in time, but it’s not all quantifiable• Coronavirus – latest updates• See all our coronavirus coverage

www.theguardian.com

 

[Gene Steinberg]

And here's more about the consequences of not being vaccinated:

Five undervaccinated clusters put the entire United States at risk | CNN

A new data analysis identifies clusters of unvaccinated people, most of them in the southern United States, that are vulnerable to surges in Covid-19 cases and could become breeding grounds for even more deadly Covid-19 variants.

www.cnn.com

 

[Randall]

And here's more about the consequences of not being vaccinated:

Five undervaccinated clusters put the entire United States at risk | CNN

A new data analysis identifies clusters of unvaccinated people, most of them in the southern United States, that are vulnerable to surges in Covid-19 cases and could become breeding grounds for even more deadly Covid-19 variants.

www.cnn.com

More fear mongering. Stop being a germaphobe. Do you realize that before the pandemic, the sanitary "measures" imposed on on the general population were the same as a exhibited by those with a clinical disorder? When all this started I actually looked up germaphobia in case it was just some kind of mass-hysteria ( which a fairly good argument can be made for actually ). There are ( or at least were ) videos of clinically diagnosed germaphobes before the pandemic with their little squirt bottles doing the mask wearing and habitual hand washing.

Then the pandemic hit, and new "How To" videos came out that were exactly like the germaphobe ones before the pandemic. Howie Mandel even did his own little "How To" routine. This pandemic just pushed anyone who was already on that edge over it. The world has become pandemified, COVID-tutionalized. FACT - People have been trained to behave as if they have a personality disorder. I'm not kidding.

We don't have to wear masks here now, but you should see how many are still doing it anyway. It's mental. The chances of any of them catching a life threatening case of COVID from anyone else ( or me ) is so astronomically small that they're more likely to slip on a banana peel or get hit by a falling piano, but the fear has a hold on them, so there's no reasoning with them.

Did you notice that's exactly the same logic used by the pro manidory vaxxers? If not. Then check it out because it's the same rationale. So if it's good enough for justifying vaccinations, why isn't it good enough for justifying no masks? Silence? All I hear is silence. Notice how they put the "clusters of unvaccinated people" in big red easy to target from space zones and have pretty much already declared them a threat? They're no longer seen as perfectly healthy unvaccinated citizens. Now they're the enemy. Is any of this getting through to anyone?

Map of perfectly healthy citizens who managed to
survive the pandemic without getting a vaccination —
They are your new enemy.


Perhaps they should be fined, or reported as
unfit parents and have their children taken
away and forcibly vaccinated?

I wish that were funny — I really do.

 

[Randall]

Post-Pandemic: Coping With the Anxiety of a Changed World​

"The end of the Covid-19 pandemic is edging closer. More and more people are vaccinated each day and we're nearing herd immunity. A sense of normalcy is on the horizon. But while we spent 2020 expecting the arrival of vaccines to open the door to a carefree future, the reality is something quite different. For some people, feelings of stress and anxiety that plagued them during the pandemic have morphed into fear and anxiety about post-pandemic life."​

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[henris42]

What I've seen in the last few days in Europe, is that FUD (Fear, Uncertanity and Doubt) is again rising its ugly head.

With some new delta-variant cases, they are comfortably ignoring the vaccinations, and many are again calling for restrictions.

This is just wrong, its like vaccinations are useless, which is not the case based on statistics.

Let cooler heads prevail!

 

[Randall]

What I've seen in the last few days in Europe, is that FUD (Fear, Uncertanity and Doubt) is again rising its ugly head.

With some new delta-variant cases, they are comfortably ignoring the vaccinations, and many are again calling for restrictions.

This is just wrong, its like vaccinations are useless, which is not the case based on statistics.

Let cooler heads prevail!

If people want to get a vaccine, then that risk is up to them. If they don't, it doesn't matter to me what their reasons are. It's their bodies and nobody should be forced or coerced ( legally or otherwise ) under any "measures" to have to comply with getting a pharmaceutical injection. People died so that we could be free from that sort of tyranny, and people ( including me ) would sooner be living free and accepting the risk than living under some BS authoritarian germaphobic regime that forces, legally coerces, and shames the rest of us perfectly healthy normal people.

 

[henris42]

Oh don't misread me so that I'm enforcing vaccinations. I'm all for free choice on everything as a right-ish libertarian. Unfortunately there is no political party for likes of me. We used to have one here in the 90's, but its gone.

But is is also wrong for the gov to ignore they have been already done, if they see a new variant. That is FUD.

 

[Randall]

Asymptomatic COVID spread used to shut down the economy and close schools was false: in fact, it was a lie . . .​

Asymptomatic COVID spread used to shut down the economy and close schools was false: in fact, it was a lie

Note that views expressed in this opinion article are the writer’s personal views and not necessarily those of TrialSite.

trialsitenews.com

And remember the old "Masks Don't Hurt Anyone" argument?

"These blue surgical masks pervade our lives. “Health Canada has issued a warning about blue and gray disposable face masks, which contain an asbestos-like substance associated with “early pulmonary toxicity.” The warning is specific to potentially toxic masks distributed within schools and daycares across Quebec. Health Canada (and full praise to them)….“discovered during a preliminary risk assessment that the masks contain microscopic graphene particles that, when inhaled, could cause severe lung damage.”​

​

And that's only part of the story. The rest of the article here ( written by a PhD. epidemiologist )

The Dangers of Masks

"We are in uncharted territory and especially so with the possible implications for our children. Their immune systems are still being developed and we are forcing lockdowns, school closures, and masking on a developing child and we have no prior experience on the subsequent outcomes pertaining...

www.aier.org

So many people have been so negatively impacted by so much misinformation, politicization, fear, and authoritative enforcement that although we'd love for all this to just be over, part of me thinks the end of the pandemic is just the beginning.