Weaponizing the virus

The Wuhan virus, a/k/a COVID-19, has been weaponized by the Progressive left. More masks, more lockdowns – all driven by politics.  And telling the truth can be hazardous to your health.  Tyler O’Neil at PJ Media reports: 

Minnesota State Sen. Scott Jensen (R-Carver County), a doctor who was named the Family Physician of the Year in 2016, now faces an investigation for alleged “misinformation” and “recklessness” in his public statements about the coronavirus pandemic. The Minnesota Board of Medical Practice is investigating him for warning that coronavirus deaths may be inflated due to financial incentives to put “COVID-19” on death certificates and for comparing COVID-19 to the common flu.

“Less than a week ago, I was notified by the Board of Medical Practice in Minnesota that I was being investigated because of public statements I’ve made,” Jensen announced in a video posted Sunday. He said the complaints were anonymous, so he will not be able to face his accusers.

. . .

. . . “Hospital administrators might well want to see COVID-19 attached to a discharge summary or a death certificate. Why? Because if it’s a straightforward, garden-variety pneumonia that a person is admitted to the hospital for – if they’re Medicare – typically, the diagnosis-related group lump sum payment would be $5,000,” Jensen wrote on Facebook. “But if it’s COVID-19 pneumonia, then it’s $13,000, and if that COVID-19 pneumonia patient ends up on a ventilator, it goes up to $39,000.”

On April 21, FactCheck.org concluded, “The figures cited by Jensen generally square with estimated Medicare payments for COVID-19 hospitalizations, based on average Medicare payments for patients with similar diagnoses.”

Later that month, New York funeral directors told Project Veritas that they had seen “COVID-19” marked as a cause of death on death certificates even when the patient had not tested positive for coronavirus. The funeral directors said there was a financial incentive to twist the facts. When The New York Times named 1,000 coronavirus victims on its front page in May, it included a man whose death police are investigating as a homicide.

. . .

In his video, Dr. Jensen claims, “I’ve got the Department of Health in Illinois where one of the directors says, ‘Just because we put COVID-19 on the death certificate as the cause of death, that doesn’t mean the patient died of COVID-19.'”

As for the claim that Jensen engaged in “recklessness” by comparing COVID-19 to the common flu, the doctor and state senator quoted Dr. Anthony Fauci in an editorial published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“If one assumes that the number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic cases [for COVID-19] is several times as high as the number of reported cases, the case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%. This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of COVID-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%),” Fauci wrote.

The rest of the report is here.  And I do not trust Gov. DeWine's "orders."

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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.

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Ohio Governor candidates at CAIR event

Tyler O’Neil at PJ Media reported this (I did not find this story at Cleveland.com); O'Neil linked to Progress Ohio which categorized this event under “Progressive Organizations”:

On Sunday, three Democrats running in the Ohio governor's race, including former Congressman Dennis Kucinich, spoke at an event hosted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim group with ties to the terror organization Hamas and involved in a terror-funding scheme.

"Join CAIR-Columbus for a Governor Candidate Forum starting at 2:00 PM at the Dublin Community Recreation Center on Sunday Feb. 11th! Doors will open at 1:30," read an announcement at Progress Ohio.

The event included three candidates for governor: state Sen. Joe Schiavoni, former state Rep. Connie Pillich, and former Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Former Congresswoman Betty Sutton represented former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray. Sutton is his running-mate.

CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror-funding case by the Justice Department. CAIR officials have repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist groups. Several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to radical Islamist terror.

It is still early in the race, but Cordray holds an early lead. In a January poll conducted by Fallon Research, Cordray, who recently resigned as head of the Consumer Products Safety Commission, led with 23 percent, and Kucinich took second place with 16 percent. Schiavoni took four percent, and Pillich two percent. Bill O'Neill, former justice of the Ohio Supreme Court who recently resigned to run for governor, took three percent. A whopping 52 percent remained undecided.

. . .

Full report is here (h/t Stephen Green at Instapundit).

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Hillary's Medical Problems

photo credit: tvbio.net

Over at PJ Media a few weeks ago, Tyler O’Neil compiled a list of Hillary’s medical issues over the past 18 years. The report includes photos, timeline and text on medications and public episodes, and videos (including her collapse at the 9/11 memorial event in New York).

Here are his bullet points:

1. A "potentially fatal" blood clot in 1998.

2. February 1, 2005: Clinton faints during campaign speech.

3. June 17, 2009: A massive elbow fracture.

4. 2009: A second blood clot, "deep vein thrombosis."

5. January 12, 2011: Clinton stumbles boarding plane.

6. December 15, 2012: The concussion.

7. December 31, 2012: The third blood clot.

8. January 24, 2013: Fresnel lenses to prevent "seeing double."

9. May 14, 2014: Bill says the recovery took six months.

10. July 31, 2015: Bardack's letter and statement.

11. October 22, 2015: A coughing fit at the Benghazi hearing.

12. February 16, 2016: Coughing fit in New York.

13. July 21, 2016: A seizure on camera?!

14. September 5, 2016: Another coughing fit on stage.

15. September 9, 2016: Diagnosed with pneumonia.

16. September 11, 2016: The fainting and final release of information.

The full report is here. As O’Neil wrote, “Ultimately, the voters must decide whether or not these threaten her suitability for the presidency.”

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