Coronavirus and elite hypocrisy: it’s about control

meme via Sundance

Amy Johnston at Lifezette reports:

This entire coronavirus crisis has been a study of “for me, but not for thee.” Throughout the crisis, global elites have been dictating to us what we “must” do – much of which is centered around forcing us to stay home. Simultaneously, many of these same elites have elected to go on about their usual business in complete contradiction to the very disquisitions they prescribe to the masses.

While Michelle Obama told us to stay home, Obama was duffing around the golf course. As Chicago’s Mayor Lori Lightfoot was threatening to arrest citizens for violating lockdown rules, she chose to have her hair done by a salon stylist. A Texas mayor, who locked her citizens down, subsequently went to a nail salon to get her nails done. In another Texas town, salon owner Shelley Luther refused to close down her salon – and on Tuesday was ordered by a judge to spend 7 days in jail in addition to paying a hefty fine.

These stories have been commonplace during the coronavirus chaos and just serve to show how we, the peasants, are mere pawns in this illegitimate power grab.

The global elites really do think they’re better than us. They’re riding high and mighty, collecting their paychecks and visiting their mistresses, as they lecture to us from their golden pedestals. Meanwhile, small business owners are watching what they’ve toiled and sacrificed for years to build crumble, as they and others deemed “non-essential” wonder how they’ll feed their families tonight.

. . .

Read the full article here. 

# # #

The Unnecessary Lockdown

art credit: clipart

"Salons And Barbershops Across America Are About To Show How Unnecessary This Lockdown Was" --  Scott Morefield at Townhall :

In the eyes of many, Dallas salon owner Shelley Luther has become the latest face of justified resistance against governmental tyranny for her steadfast refusal to back down on keeping her business open despite the prospect of going to jail.

Luther’s Salon a la Mode opened for business last Friday, then promptly got slapped with a court order to close because of coronavirus restrictions. Instead of meekly complying, as most others doubtless would have, Luther stood outside her salon and literally ripped the thing to shreds. Indeed, it was a moment that would have made Patrick Henry proud. (I’m also pretty sure it would have made another person with the surname “Luther” proud too.) The salon owner told media she has “had enough” of stupid, nonsensical restrictions on her livelihood and that of her employees, and is more than willing to go to jail to make her point.

“Essential, non-essential,” Luther said. “That’s ridiculous what has been deemed essential and non-essential because right now the pet groomer next door has been essential this whole time. So pets can get their hair done but someone can’t walk in my salon and get their hair cut? So why is a pet getting essentials?”

Good on her. The continued enforced closure of hairdressers, barbershops, salons, and the like are one of the most ridiculous in a sea of ridiculous aspects of the current coronavirus lockdown insanity. Turns out, while the generally solid GOP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has finally signed off on allowing some types of businesses to open, salons and barbershops inexplicably aren’t yet among them. They are “nonessential,” don’t you know, and the people who work in them apparently don’t deserve the same chance to feed their families that others do.

Insisting that salons are still not “safe,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins ripped Luther and other like-minded business owners as supposedly “putting their own need to make money ahead of public health.”

But Luther disagrees: “It’s pretty ridiculous to think that our place would be unsafe. The second part of that is we’re all grown adults. We decide where we want to go and if someone does not want to come in the salon, I respect that decision.”

Truly, is there any logical reason to think salons and barbershops are any less safe than most any other public place, particularly if owners and employees utilize masks, gloves, and regularly sanitize between customers? 

. . .

The full article is here.  It’s frightening to think that going to work or getting your hair cut is now civil disobedience.

RELATED:  Tyler O'Neil at PJ Media:

Early estimates of the COVID-19 death rate, cited to justify the lockdowns, have proven far too pessimistic. In March, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated a 3.4 percent fatality rate and Dr. Anthony Fauci estimated that the fatality rate of the coronavirus was about 2 percent. As PJ Media’s Matt Margolis reported, at least five studies have placed the death rate below 1 percent, confirming President Donald Trump’s hunch.

Recent studies have found that far more people than expected have COVID-19 antibodies — meaning the virus has spread faster than previously thought, but also proving that it is far less deadly than previously thought.

# # #

Is this about Gov DeWine?

Babylon Bee headline:

Governor Unveils Innovative 37-Step Plan

To Reopen State Over The Next 10 Years

Satire – or is it?

# # #

Censorship at Fox News

Photo credit: Boingboing.net

Joey Morona at Cleveland.com reports on blatant censorship at Fox News. The headline: 

Fox News cuts ties with Diamond & Silk 

after duo spreads coronavirus misinformation, report says

These two delightful ladies have been axed for telling the truth. Here’s an example of their dastardly crimes:

Their apparent banishment comes as the duo continues to make dubious claims about the coronavirus. On their March 30 live stream, for example, they suggested the number of deaths from COVID-19 was being exaggerated to make Trump look bad.

“What I need to know is: Who has the bodies?” Diamond asked.

A week later, their Twitter account was locked for violating the platform’s rules about spreading coronavirus misinformation, Politico reported.

“The only way we can become immune to the environment; we must be out in the environment. Quarantining people inside of their houses for extended periods will make people sick!” the offending tweet said.

On Monday, Diamond and Silk called the pandemic and resulting economic shutdown a “Deep State experiment that we’ve all been suckered into.”

Read the rest of the report here.  Diamond and Silk are right on the money.

Fox News has been gradually falling in line with the mainstream media propaganda pedlars, and this latest muzzling of two champions of truth and common sense is shameful and scary.  Those who want to hear and read both sides of an issue will have to seek it out on radio or online.  

# # #

Gov. DeWine slow-walks re-opening Ohio

WLWT5 reports (h/t Instapundit):

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine unveiled the first phase of his plan to reopen the state’s economy, laying out hard dates when certain businesses may resume.

The state's stay-at-home order, which was slated to expire May 1, will remain in place as the state begins to reopen, the governor said. The extent of the stay-at-home order was not provided.

The state will begin to reopen on May 1 with health care procedures. Manufacturing, distribution, construction and general business environments will follow on May 4, and all retailers can resume business on May 12.

Reopening dates for other businesses – including restaurants, gyms, bars and hair salons – were not provided, as the governor said additional monitoring needs to be done.

The full report is here.  May 1?  May 4?  May 12?  These dates seem arbitrary.  Why not re-open everything today?  And what "additional monitoring" is he thinking of? You can register your support of or displeasure with DeWine’s announcements:

Contact Gov. Mike DeWine: (614) 644-4357 or by email here

https://governor.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/governor/contact

# # #

The costs of the COVID-19 lockdown

Heather Mac Donald at American Greatness asks all the right questions:

More than a dozen governors extended their economic shutdown orders recently into May and beyond. Those officials should have publicly addressed the following questions first:

• How many coronavirus deaths do you expect to avert by the shut-down extension?
• What will your state’s economy look like after another month of enforced stasis?
• How many workers will have lost their jobs?
• How many businesses will have closed for good?
• How many of your state’s young residents, seeking employment for the first time, will be unable to find it?

Instead, the announcements of the prolonged shutdown were representative of government decision-making during the coronavirus crisis: opaque, lacking in criteria for measuring success and failure, and bereft of any attempt to measure the benefits of mitigating one particular health problem against the costs—including other health problems. . . . 

She concludes:

The focus on saving “just one life” from the coronavirus, as Cuomo put it in March, to the exclusion of all other considerations likely will prove a catastrophic failure of policymaking. The devastation to individuals’ ability to flourish or even survive may soon become irreversible. Every scientific model used to justify these economic death sentences has been discredited. But even if those models were proven reliable, government decision-making must turn toward opening up. Officials must be made to justify, through a transparent analysis of costs and benefits, all further mandates to prevent people from working. Otherwise, there may be nothing recognizable as our economy to return to, with a resulting cost in human life and well-being that will match anything the coronavirus could inflict.

Ms. Mac Donald’s full article (“The Deadly Costs of Extended Shutdown Orders”) is here.  All good reasons to Open Ohio Now.

Details of the Open Ohio Now rally in Columbus 

on Saturday, April 25, are here.

# # #

Open Ohio Now rally

 

From our friends at Ohio Liberty Coalition:

You are invited to the OPEN OHIO NOW rally happening this Saturday, April 25, at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus.  There will be guest speakers from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. on the West side of the building.  

What:  Open Ohio Now Rally

Where:  Ohio Statehouse (West side)

Address:  1 Capitol Square, Columbus, Ohio  MAP

Parking:  Click here for information.

When: Saturday, April 25, 1:00 p.m. There will be a great lineup of speakers 1:00 to 2:30 p.m.

What to bring:  Your signs, your flags and your friends.  Dress for the weather.

Stay up-to-date at the Free Ohio Now Facebook page.

Car Option:  You can also circle the capitol in your car.  Here is a sign to print & put on your car windows.

Don't let the cure be worse than the disease.  Coach Dave Daubenmire puts it well:  

"Look folks, no government can guarantee a person's safety.   Risk is the Siamese twin of liberty.  You cannot save the one without killing the other.  The whole idea of liberty is that we are all free to make individual choices.  Hopefully our laws go a long way in mitigating calamity, but there is no such thing as a guarantee of freedom from non-preventive risk.

Drunken driving laws did not eliminate drunken driving, laws against texting and driving did not prevent texting and driving, drug laws did not prevent drug use, and wearing masks did not prevent the spread of a virus.  Laws simply PUNISH behavior, not prevent it.

The issue is not whether the draconian efforts to stop the spread of the virus is a good thing, but rather, does the government have the AUTHORITY to DEMAND the people comply.  We are seeing citizens being arrested for simply violating a health order, even if there is no evidence that that person even HAD, let alone SPREAD, the virus to someone else."

The Coach will be one of the rally speakers.

# # #

COVID-19 and propaganda

"Stay At Home. Save Lives."

At the American Thinker, Dex Bahr reminds us all that the propaganda never stops:

As we go through yet another week of Wuhan virus restriction in the United States, do you find yourself becoming annoyed at the daily sloganeering?  We see these messages on television, hear them on radio and flashed before us while driving.  I, for one, am beginning to tire of this "we're all in this together" claptrap, along with "flattening (or bending) the curve"; social distancing; and "stay safe, stay strong."  However, the one slogan that is most irritating is "stay at home...save lives."

Let's not forget that original reason for sheltering at home was to prevent hospital emergency rooms from becoming overrun by slowing the spread of the virus.  The mandate was never to save lives, but to slow the spread and by default prolong the extent of the virus.  Again, staying at home was for the purpose of lessening the burden on hospitals, not saving lives.

Read the rest here.

# # #

The COVID-19 Crisis Un-masked

image credit: michiganradio.org

Today’s Must Read: “Well, That Unraveled Fast” by Jeffrey A. Tucker at the American Institute for Economic Research, which begins:

Thinking back to February 28, 2020, and the New England Journal of Medicine. It published an article called “Covid-19 — Navigating the Uncharted” signed by Anthony S. Fauci (THE Fauci), Clifford Lane, and Robert R. Redfield.  

It reported an existing COVID-19 case fatality rate of 2% but further pointed out that infections show “a wide spectrum of disease severity.” “If one assumes that the number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic cases is several times as high as the number of reported cases, the case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%” or perhaps as high as the flu seasons of 1957 and 1968, but is nowhere near “a disease similar to SARS or MERS, which have had case fatality rates of 9 to 10% and 36%, respectively.” To be sure, they said, mitigating the disease could require “isolating ill persons (including voluntary isolation at home), school closures, and telecommuting where possible.”

Now, what precisely happened between February 28 and two weeks later? This will be studied for many years to find out precisely how governors and mayors, through a series of unscientific, panicked, unjustified, and morally egregious actions, crushed under foot the world’s strongest economy while the media cheered. We’ll be discussing the whys and whats for a generation. 

The point is that it is all unraveling as fast as it came. 

. . .

In this case, it made the U.S Constitution and human rights generally null and void for a full thirty days. And we had no choice but to comply. It was a grotesque experiment in totalitarianism. Families ripped apart, people’s businesses and jobs destroyed, essential surgeries delayed, despair spread throughout society. 

Now we know. Never again. 

Mr. Tucker’s full article is here. 

# # #

The Coronavirus Scream

Matson cartoon credit: www.truthdig.com

Here are the official Coronavirus guidelines as seen on Facebook (satire, or is it?):

1. Basically, you can't leave the house for any reason, but if you have to, then you can.

2. Masks are useless, but maybe you have to wear one, it can save you, it is useless, but maybe it is mandatory as well.

3. Stores are closed, except those that are open.

4. You should not go to hospitals unless you have to go there. Same applies to doctors, you should only go there in case of emergency, provided you are not too sick.

5. This virus is deadly but still not too scary, except that sometimes it actually leads to a global disaster.

6. Gloves won't help, but they can still help.

7. Everyone needs to stay HOME, but it's important to GO OUT.

8. There is no shortage of groceries in the supermarket, but there are many things missing when you go there in the evening, but not in the morning. Sometimes.

9. The virus has no effect on children except those it affects.

10. Animals are not affected, but there is still a cat that tested positive in Belgium in February when no one had been tested, plus a few tigers here and there…

11. You will have many symptoms when you are sick, but you can also get sick without symptoms, have symptoms without being sick, or be contagious without having symptoms. Oh, my...

12. In order not to get sick, you have to eat well and exercise, but eat whatever you have on hand and it's better not to go out, well, but no…

13. It's better to get some fresh air, but you get looked at very wrong when you get some fresh air, and most importantly, you don't go to parks or walk. But don’t sit down, except that you can do that now if you are old, but not for too long or if you are pregnant (but not too old).

14. You can't go to retirement homes, but you have to take care of the elderly and bring food and medication.

15. If you are sick, you can't go out, but you can go to the pharmacy.

16. You can get restaurant food delivered to the house, which may have been prepared by people who didn't wear masks or gloves. But you have to have your groceries decontaminated outside for 3 hours. Pizza too?

17. Every disturbing article or disturbing interview starts with "I don't want to trigger panic, but…"

18. You can't see your older mother or grandmother, but you can take a taxi and meet an older taxi driver.

19. You can walk around with a friend but not with your family if they don't live under the same roof.

20. You are safe if you maintain the appropriate social distance, but you can’t go out with friends or strangers at the safe social distance.

21. The virus remains active on different surfaces for two hours, no, four, no, six, no, we didn't say hours, maybe days? But it takes a damp environment. Oh no, not necessarily.

22. The virus stays in the air - well no, or yes, maybe, especially in a closed room, in one hour a sick person can infect ten, so if it falls, all our children were already infected at school before it was closed. But remember, if you stay at the recommended social distance, however in certain circumstances you should maintain a greater distance, which, studies show, the virus can travel further, maybe.

23. We count the number of deaths but we don't know how many people are infected as we have only tested so far those who were "almost dead" to find out if that's what they will die of…

24. We have no treatment, except that there may be one that apparently is not dangerous unless you take too much (which is the case with all medications).

25. We should stay locked up until the virus disappears, but it will only disappear if we achieve collective immunity, so when it circulates… but we must no longer be locked up for that?

# # #

Sen. John Kennedy: open the US economy soon or it will collapse.

Sen. John Kennedy made such good sense on Tucker Carlson last night. Via FoxNews:

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Wednesday that deciding when to reopen the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic is like choosing between "cancer and a heart attack."

"The American people are not morons. They understand what I'm about to say," Kennedy said Wednesday. "We've got to open this economy. If we don't, it's gonna collapse. And if the U.S. economy collapses, the world economy collapses. And trying to burn down the village to save it is foolish. That's our cold, hard truth."

Kennedy went on to say that most Americans know the virus is still spreading and understand it will spread faster whenever states and cities loosen their restrictions. As a result, he said, officials will have to be smart about the situation.

"Don't open up in the middle of a hot spot," Kennedy said. "Encourage your elderly and those with preexisting conditions to stay quarantined and provide them financial support. Wear masks, try to socially distance.

"Use technology without violating privacy to try to track the hot spots and track people who have been exposed," Kennedy said. "Test as much as we can. Make sure that we got health care capacity."

Kennedy also reacted to reports that Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is eyeing July as the target for an economic opening.

"He's talking about leaving the economy closed until July. Do you really believe the American people are going to stand for that? They're not," Kennedy said. "This economy is going to collapse."

It was important for Sen. Kennedy to point out that when the economy re-opens for business, new cases of the virus will increase. The supposed purpose of the shut-down was to postpone some of the infections so as to not overwhelm the healthcare system. Plenty of debate going on as to whether that was ever a viable strategy, or even whether that purpose is behind all this.  (Sundance has a good analysis of the ideological aspects in his coverage of the New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy's interview on Tucker Carlson here.  UPDATE: Here's another at Issues and Insights.)

And if you or someone you know contracts COVID-19 / Wuhan virus, you know to ask your doctor if you are a candidate for a hydroxychloroquine cocktail.  Here's a quick look at the risks of taking hydroxychloroquine. 

# # #

Who Will Get Blamed?

image credit: poynter.org

Who Will Get Blamed 

If Coronavirus Shutdown Turns Out To Be 

A Massive Overreaction?

The editorial at Issues and Insights asks the big questions:

As the Trump administration tries to figure out when to reopen the economy, and Democrats try to blame President Donald Trump for every coronavirus death, there’s another question lurking in the background. What if we learn that trillions of dollars in economic costs from the coronavirus shutdown bought us little or nothing in terms of public health?

As the disease progresses and our understanding of it increases, that possibility grows.

The editorial then expands on the following topics:

• Death projections were wildly exaggerated. 
• Reports of overwhelmed health care were exaggerated. 
• Death counts are likely inflated.
• The death rate is magnitudes lower than it appears.
• There are clear at-risk groups. 
• It’s not entirely clear how well isolation works.
• Ventilators might be causing deaths.

The editorial concludes:

We are the first to admit that, because this coronavirus is new and early signs about its lethality were worrisome, extra precaution was warranted as coronavirus spread. But not everyone was hitting the panic button, it’s just that voices of calm were ignored. If it turns out that the risks were far less dire, and the disease far more manageable without draconian restrictions, how will the public react? Who will they blame for needlessly crashing the economy?

We know who Democrats will blame, of course. But if the evidence shows that massive shutdowns weren’t needed, there must be a reckoning. And it should start with the public health “experts” who brought them about.

The full editorial is here.

RELATED:  At PJ Media, Dennis Prager came to the same conclusion (“Has The Lockdown Worked?).

# # #

Ohio cases of COVID-19: Amy Acton guessed wrong

Jeffrey C. Barefoot at the American Thinker blogsite reports:

On March 12, Amy Acton, director of the Ohio Department of Health, and Governor Mike DeWine told Ohioans that there were already 100,000 of us infected with the virus.  The next day, Amy clarified that this number was her "guesstimate." 

. . .

Yes, people in Ohio are getting infected.  Does infection mean automatic admission to the hospital?  Hardly, and numbers don't have to be guesstimated.  Of the 4,043 confirmed Ohio cases, only 27% (1,104) have required hospitalization.  So what percentage of Ohio's population have gotten the virus and required hospital admission?  Less than 1/100 of 1%.  Yes, but what if we haven't peaked?  Even if the hospitalization rate triples in two weeks, the percentage would be less than 3/100 of 1%.  For this, the lockdown has pushed 468,414 Ohioans on to welfare, slammed shut our small businesses and closed our churches for the highest Holy Week of the year.

Amy Acton guessed wrong.  The guess has damaged many lives.  Reason and prudence require an immediate adjustment to Ohio's lockdown. 

Full article is here.  

Contact Gov. Mike DeWine: (614) 644-4357 or by email here

https://governor.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/governor/contact

# # #

Doctors and Doctored Numbers

image credit: powertaylor.com

At American Greatness, Conrad Black zeroes in on why this lock-down is due to both misdiagnoses (e.g., on the projected fatality rate of COVID-19) and bureaucratic over-reach:

the number of “confirmed cases”—meaning cases that have come to the attention of the medical profession—tells us nothing about the number of people infected. Nor does that number tell us what happens to the gamut of those infected. Nor is the number of deaths “hard,” because it does not distinguish between those who die of the virus and those who die merely with it (that is, they might have died even without it).

. . .

The most important fact about COVID-19, its true mortality rate, is the number who die of the virus divided by the number infected by it. No algorithms. Simple arithmetic.

In short, [Dr. Anthony] Fauci, et al., are showing themselves to be typical of our bureaucracy: over-credentialed, entrusted with too much power, and dangerously incompetent.

Learning the true figures about precisely what danger the virus poses to whom must begin by taking into account one thing we know for sure about COVID-19: that many, if not most, of those infected by this unusually contagious virus show few or no symptoms. This suggests eventual near-universal contagion.

. . .

Fauci showed how thoroughly he and his cohorts have subordinated common sense to bureaucratic authority. Having strenuously campaigned to deny the usefulness of hydroxychloroquine, having been confronted by the fact that physicians on the front lines of the battle against the virus are using it themselves, and having been asked whether he—were he to come down with illness from the virus—would use it, he weakly conceded that he would but only as part of an approved study. He cared less about describing what the drug can do and cannot do than about affirming his agency’s and the FDA’s prerogatives.

Backed by the media, Fauci and company have contended that actions by anybody, ordinary citizens, elected officials, or physicians that do not follow proper bureaucratic procedures are illegitimate. Who the hell do they think they are? We belong to ourselves. Not to them.

Black's article is here.

But maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  Headline at Breitbart:  

Donald Trump Thinking of 2nd Coronavirus Task Force 

Focused on Reopening Country

# # #

Time for a Second Opinion

William J. Bennett and Seth Leibsohn at Real Clear Politics have a better prescription (h/t Instapundit):

We are trying to stave off and arrest a pandemic. Given what is being recommended, we think we need some second or third opinions. This pandemic, now that it has reached America, has taken 3,173 lives here.  This, from a tested population of 164,359 cases. That’s a mortality rate of 1.9%.  But immediately, questions must be asked. We record every case of death from the coronavirus, but we have no idea how many people have had the coronavirus. Clearly, there are more than 164,359 cases because not everyone has been tested. That would put the mortality rate at less than 1.9%. That rate could be far, far less. 

. . .

We truly are shutting down America and harming a great many Americans, based on the worst fears that have not been true and are not on the horizon.  We are scaring the hell out of the citizenry.  A few additional statistics help counsel a lowering of our national temperature:  The vast majority of deaths from the virus are of people over the age of 70 with underlying frailties.  The focus on New York where, of course, most of the media is based, is also flooding and distorting the picture for the rest of the country. Of course we need to pay attention to ground zero, which is New York.  But what happens there is not what is happening everywhere. 

Read the rest here.

# # #

coronavirus: treatment options

Ruth Papazian is “a Bronx-based health and medical writer, and a political junkie.”    She reports on the medical options available to those diagnosed with COVID-19, a/k/a  Wuhan virus, in a report at American Greatness titled “Fauci’s Folly.” Here’s a brief extract:

. . . a clinician’s job is to save lives. And in the midst of a burgeoning global pandemic when speed is of the essence, field experience with two drugs whose safety profiles are well understood suffices to treat patients who are likely to die. For this reason, the FDA-approved chloroquine and remdesivir, an Ebola treatment, for “compassionate use.” Both drugs can be administered immediately to patients who have serious or life-threatening cases of coronavirus.

The combination of HCQ+AZ could cause abnormal heart rhythms and would not be given to patients with known atrial flutter or atrial fibrillation. Research suggests one alternative for these patients: The combination of chloroquine and zinc, which can stop the virus from replicating.

Read the entire article here. If you or someone you know tests positive for COVID-19, this information would be extremely useful to take to the doctor’s office or hospital.  Ms. Papazian does not have a high opinion of Dr. Anthony Fauci.

# # #

Is Gov. Mike DeWine a pessimist?

photo credit: businessinsider.com

President Trump has been suggesting that the various restrictions recommended to slow the spread of the coronavirus could be lifted as early as Easter (April 12).  He has referenced the economic health of the US, and the other day I quoted Mike Rowe:

. . .we’re treating a virus that MIGHT have devastating consequences, in a way that will GUARANTEE devastating consequences.

. . .

. . . I also know that Safety First is no way to live indefinitely. We are at base, a Safety Third nation. We can’t remain in the air raid shelter indefinitely – if we do, they’ll be no country left, when we finally emerge.

In response to Trump’s optimism and intention to balance the health of people with the financial health (and security) of the country, the markets started to rebound. 

Cleveland.com reported yesterday:

Gov. Mike DeWine also insisted he wasn’t that far apart from President Donald Trump on their approach to the coronavirus. Trump wants America to get back to business around Easter, about two weeks from now. 

But now The Hill reports that 

Democratic and Republican governors, as well as local officials, are pushing back against President Trump’s signals that he wants to restart the economy by Easter, warning that ending strict social distancing practices could put millions of lives at risk.

Governors have ordered residents to practice those distancing procedures, to varying degrees. Many have ordered residents to stay at home, ordered nonessential businesses closed and banned gatherings of all but a few people.

And several say they will keep those orders in place even if Trump rolls back the few national restrictions he has put in place.

Among those governors is Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine:

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said “people are dying and people don’t feel safe,” therefore the economy would not come back.

“We have to #FlattenTheCurve so that when the wave comes, it’s not as big as it would have been and we are prepared for it. We are going to get our economy back, but we have to get through it, protect as many lives as we can, and then move forward. I’m looking forward to that day, but it’s not here yet,” DeWine tweeted.

Meantime, we’ve been to the grocery store, been patronizing our local bistros by ordering take-out, comparing notes with family and friends, etc.  So far, everyone we’ve talked to is looking forward to getting back to normal.  They're concerned but not scared.  We’re optimistic.

# # #

Mike Rowe on the coronavirus quarantines

photo credit: cnn.com 

Mike Rowe of “Dirty Jobs” fame has a FB post that offers his usual commonsense take on the ongoing quarantines. Here’s an extract:

According to Dr. Ioannidis, we’re treating a virus that MIGHT have devastating consequences, in a way that will GUARANTEE devastating consequences.

Personally, as an avowed non-expert with a large Facebook following, I do think a temporary shutdown makes sense, while we gather more information and answer some pressing questions. Who exactly does this affect? How exactly is it passed? Can you develop an immunity? Does it mutate and if so, how often? And of course, it's worth repeating that the lockdown won’t work unless everyone participates, which is easier to do in Wuhan than it is during Spring Break in this country. 

Consequently, people are arguing over which is worse - hundreds of thousands of dead Americans, or another Great Depression. Unfortunately, I think that misses the point. I think the worst-case scenario, is both.

Consider this from Dr. Michael Osterholm, who’s quickly becoming one of the most respected voices in this space.

“This is not going to be like a blizzard,” he said, “this is a “coronavirus winter. It will last for months and months. A lot of people have made a decision to cancel events, large meetings, schools, etc., but what they haven't thought about is what it means if they make the decision to do this now. Tens of thousands of healthcare workers have kids in school. What will that do to their ability to care for the sick? Who will watch their kids?”

Remember, this is the man whose been telling us for years exactly what’s coming. And he’s been right at every turn. But he’s also telling us that shutting down the whole country for long periods of time is not the answer.

. . .

. . . I also know that Safety First is no way to live indefinitely. We are at base, a Safety Third nation. We can’t remain in the air raid shelter indefinitely – if we do, there’ll be no country left, when we finally emerge.

Full posting is here.

# # #

Panic over a cold?

cartoon credit: depositphotos.com

Mike Konrad at American Thinker asks some good questions:

Is Western civilization going to collapse over a cold?

. . .

Is COVID-19 a bit worse than most coronavirus strains?  Maybe so.  But it looks to still be a variation on a cold.

The real question is, why is the world panicking so?

With the common flu killing 18,000 annually, why are we panicking over these much smaller numbers from the coronavirus?  Worse yet, why is this panic worldwide?

I may be wrong, but this global panic seems to have been engineered.  For a number of reasons:

A) To get rid of Trump

... Democrats 'hoping' to 'destroy Trump and the economy' as coronavirus spreads

B) To get rid of cash

. . . Fungible currency is one of the last arenas of personal autonomy.

. . .

C) To get people used to infringements on civil liberties

. . .

And a frightening precedent will have been set up to enforce totalitarian measures for the slightest of reasons — in this case, a common cold with an attitude.

If this is not a global conspiracy, it sure looks like a dress rehearsal for a global dictatorship. 

The complete article is here.

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