E-2: Panic and Lockdown – have we destroyed ourselves?

As the end of the election season is nearly here, it is worth looking back. This election season, at all levels, has been warped by the novel coronavirus pandemic and the resulting panic and Lockdown. This is EXACTLY what many people predicted six months ago. Even the surge in protests, riots, looting, and more has been made greater by the Lockdown and its disasterous results.

Since March – a mere seven months – the efforts by the modern Left (the Extreme Democrats, their Street Mob, and socialist-communist cabal) to make the Fifty States over have been tremendously benefited by COVID-19. Their object is NOT just “never-Trump” or get rid of Bad Orange Man – or even to destroy every other political party. Their goal is to make these Fifty States into a more tyrannical, more totalitarian, more centralized, oppressive society. One in which there are all kinds of libertine “liberties” but in which true liberties are whittled down to mere cardboard cutouts – stage props for their fanatic and ever-more-harsh rule.

The two major POTUS candidates have made their positions clear: Trump wants to get things back to normal and is taking action to end mandates and lockdowns. He is of course doing many things wrong – making bad decisions and still trying to control too much. But Biden wants the Lockdown to turn into a deep freeze. It is the Left’s great ally to accomplish remaking the Fifty States – and the world – into their evil vision of “progressive” life and society.

Even if Biden and Harris are NOT successful in gaining the White House, they will continue to wage their counter-revolution and damage and destroy liberty.

So consider some comments, based on those made by the (in)famous George Gilder (of Laissez Faire), way back in May. We COULD have (as a people) kept this current state from happening.

1. COVID–19 is just another respiratory virus like many others. The original fearsome death rates were a function of testing biased toward acute cases and asymptomatic spread of the disease (lowering the denominator). The tests are flawed by false positives and false negatives. Asymptomatic spread is speculative in the absence of antibody surveys that measure immunity. We still don’t have antibody surveys. Although nearly a quarter-million Americans have died “because of” or “with” COVID (if we trust the test results), it is clear that COVID-19 is little different from viruses we’ve lived with for centuries. The false positives and flat lies by health-care authorities and politicians have not hidden that.
2. All respiratory viruses end through herd immunity, whether through direct exposure or artificial vaccination. Although Trump has promised a vaccine is close, and Biden is tacitly saying his nationwide Lockdown will last until there is one, this seems more and more obvious. What government has done is delay the achievement of herd immunity, while wrecking society and economy beyond belief.
3. Social distancing, closed schools, and obsessive masking prolong the epidemic and ensure a second peak comparable to the first. By flattening the curve, they widen it and thus render it more menacing to more people. This is PRECISELY what has happened. So we are now going through a second, artificial wave. And the insanity of medical authorities and politicians has them doing the same thing all over again.
4. The more young people get exposed, the better. They are the vessel of herd immunity. Closing schools delays the immunity and tends to expose vulnerably old and frail grandparents in the home. Despite the benefits to many of greatly reducing in-classroom schooling and surging homeschooling, this again has proved to be correct. Strike 4 for government.
5. By delaying herd immunity and assuring secondary peaks in the fall, school closings and other lockdowns will increase the number of deaths among the co–morbid population of vulnerable people. Yes, yet another accurate forecast: and the thugs that gave us the Lockdown are using the results of their own stupidity to justify doing the same thing all over again. It is not possible for governments – or any human institition – to totally separate us from nature, and the laws of nature.
6. As Briggs wrote back in May: “The H1N1 virus responsible for many deaths is still with us The 2020 data from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) affirms, “Nationally, influenza A(H1N1) pdm09 viruses are now the most commonly reported influenza viruses this season.” The fall flu season, now upon us, shows again, Influenza A is the most common. Oddly enough, there are FEWER deaths from Influenza A in Fall 2020 than previously: one possible explanation is that the most vulnerable already have died due to COVID-19 and a lack of proper care due to the Lockdown.
7. Given the ease with which coronavirus spreads, it’s reasonable to suppose variants of COVID–19, like common colds and other respiratory distresses will be with us for years to come. We are already seeing the mutations, enough that they can be used to trace the path of COVID-19 transmission months after the event. Another reason why vaccines are unlikely to really deal with this disease, and therefore dash hopes by both Trumpistas and Biden buddies. Assuming Biden-Harris et al. really hope that the Lockdown will end.
8. Briggs and Wittkowski agree that most testing is mischievous because of false positives, especially in initial testing. Fewer are misclassifications of deaths due to the bug but there is a tendency to suppose that deaths with the virus are caused by it. Again, a point demonstrated to be true several months ago. September and October has reinforced this point.
9. The conclusion, says Briggs, “is that it’s nuts to implement large–scale testing on a population. It will lead to huge numbers of false positives — which will be everywhere painted as true positives — and more panic.” Which is exactly what has happened and is happening today. The panic is again sweeping the world – especially here in the States – and it is driving political decisions and warping people’s judgments.
10. Although closing down the private economy may seem plausible to physicians and politicians, it is an extreme overreaction to viruses that we will always have with us and provides a dreadful precedent for future crises. Unless that is WHAT you want: another excuse for more and more government micromanagement and control of business, families, and daily life.

(The references are to William “Matt” Briggs, who earned a PhD in statistics from Cornell and taught there, and Rockefeller University and German epidemiologist Knut Wittkowski.)