There’s a lot of chatter about “the numbers” in the era of the Wuhan virus — numbers indicating test-positives, hospitalizations, ICU admissions, death tolls, death rates, international comparisons of all the numbers, etc. Many folks put a great deal of stock in all these numbers, believing without question that scientists are all, by definition, apolitical (an odd assertion, inasmuch as the vast majority of scientific studies are funded by governments, each with a vested interest in generating studies producing numbers that bolster the party line). These folks will routinely mutter such boilerplate catch-phrases as, “The science is in” and “The numbers are consistent.”
Well, I happen to disagree that the numbers are at all consistent. There’s of course the “official” CDC numbers, but they’ve been cooked to a pulp. For an opposing view, here’s an interview with a Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Stanford University professor of medicine (if I wanted to spend the time linking to the many videos I’ve seen from other prominent health care workers expressing similar views, I’d be here all day):
Death tolls, death rates and official death certificates are particularly problematic. Testing for the bug is required these days before cause of death can be determined. The problem lies in the fact that if corona is at all present, then the “authorities” have dictated that the official cause of death be attributed to Covid, regardless of the primary underlying issue that brought about the death.
I’m no statistician, but I’ve seen evidence indicating the numbers of folks having already been exposed is, shall we say, way up there, given the bug’s enhanced virulence. The vast numbers of healthy people are asymptomatic, and develop antibodies and herd immunity. It’s my hunch that pretty much everybody in the world will be, if not already has been, exposed to the bug. Limiting exposure to any significant degree seems unlikely at this point, thanks to China letting the cat out of the bag and trying to hide it.
Look, every death is tragic to their family and friends, so I’m obviously not against people taking precautions, and if they feel personally at risk, taking whatever steps they want to sequester themselves. Wear the mask, do the social distancing, voluntarily quarantine, whatever. My objection is the devastating economic impact a near-total lockdown is having on the economy, which is the lifeblood of the entire country that must sustain us all as we move past this infestation.
The governmental overreach has been astounding. The governor of Michigan banned the sale of plants and seeds during a severe breakdown in the food chain, when gardening should be, if anything, encouraged. People in the streets not wearing a mask have been physically accosted by jack-boot police officers, beaten severely for their transgression. Thank God it’s beginning to lighten up, but there was precious little room given for voluntary compliance with recommendations, we were being forced under threat of violence to submit.
And before anyone accuses me of being a greedy prick who wants to kill grandma, I’ll just say grandma has already lived a long life, and God bless her. But following her are generations of healthy folks who deserve a shot at creating a self-sufficient, maybe even prosperous life in the decades to come, when grandma will have inevitably become a fond memory in any case. The longer we keep the economy at a standstill, the harder it will be and the longer it will take to recover, and today’s young people may be denied their opportunity to reach their potential in life… to thrive as we old farts did.
It took a devastating world war to finally trigger our recovery from the Great Depression, and the scale of this current situation is far larger than what existed in the late 1920s. I’d think letting the country go back to work, and accepting the relatively few deaths that may cause, is preferable to an eventual WWIII. A little courage and common sense is called for here, in my view.
I could go on and on about what I see as a draconian, big-brother insurgence into our freedoms, but I have actual work to do today.
Here’s to your health. 🍷😎👍🏼
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