I saw this article yesterday.

Corbella: Kenney’s COVID hesitancy driven by his fear of splintering the right | Calgary Herald

It is a column by Licia Corbella.  The point she tries to make is that Jason Kenney has been reluctant to impose restrictions because of politics.  She claims that the threat of Alberta separation and Jason Kenney’s own libertarian tendencies have made him drag his feet.  Licia Corbella is a certifiable moron.

Just exactly how is Jason Kenney dragging his feet?  Bars, restaurants, gyms, and personal services are all shut down.  Masks are mandatory and Jason decides who you can have at your house for Christmas.  If this is Jason dragging his feet, how much damage would this evil little Troll do if he was motivated?

Jason Kenney is enacting the same stupid, destructive policies as all the other Premiers in this country. Licia thinks he is different because Jason always says how much he does not like restrictions right before he implements more restrictions.  Licia thinks Jason is a libertarian because he says he is.  Unfortunately, what Jason Kenney says is always the opposite of what he does.

Jason must have read a book on libertarianism; he does know all the right things to say.  That does not make him a libertarian.  A parrot can be taught to repeat words.  Jason Kenney obviously does not believe in the core principles of libertarianism, individual rights and freedoms.  If he really were a libertarian, we would have no restrictions.  We would have spent time and money caring for the sick rather than trampling people rights.  What a radical idea that is.

Licia is correct that Jason must be concerned about his falling poll numbers, but most of the support he has lost has gone to the NDP and not the separatists.  Jason needs to be worried about the freedom crushing communists and not the freedom loving separatists.  Jason is crushing our freedoms now to woo back the people he lost to the NDP.  If he were worried about the separatists, he would be giving us more freedom not less.

The underlying theme of Licia’s column is that if Kenney had acted sooner, Albertans would be better off.  This comes from the false assumption that lockdowns and masks work.  Yesterday I showed a comparison of Alberta to Saskatchewan.   I have reproduced it below along with comparisons to BC and South Dakota.

Alberta, Saskatchewan and BC had different restrictions imposed at different times.  South Dakota had absolutely no restrictions.  Can you see any difference in any of the curves?  It does not matter what restrictions you impose or when, the arc of the infection is unchanged.  It looks like the virus and I are kindred spirits.  We both have no respect for politicians or the stupid games they play.

Licia is having trouble differentiating between good and bad public policy.  Hopefully, she learns something from the comparisons I presented.  She also seems to have a hard time identifying a libertarian.  That is not surprising since libertarians are a very rare breed.  I think I can Help her with that as well.  Licia, the picture below is of a libertarian.

These pictures below are examples of something that is abundantly common, Left-wing Tyrants.

You’re welcome.

My Brother sent me this interview with Colonel Redman a while ago and I just got around to reading it.  Colonel Redman has been involved with emergency planning for decades.  First in the Canadian military then with the Alberta government, now as a private consultant.  He would appear to be a real expert not the fake experts that the news has so much time for so I am shocked that a reporter spent time on this.  The interview is long but good.  You can find it here.

“Every Store and School Should be Open.” Confronting the Pandemic with Confidence | C2C Journal

The colonel was not impressed with our response to date.  To me the most interesting points the colonel made are as follows.

1. You do not put health care professionals in charge of a health emergency.
2. You do not throw out your plan at the beginning of the event.
3. The stand down cannot be ordered as long as the public has no confidence in your handling of the emergency.
4. Covid 19 is a ridiculously easy emergency to handle and we have failed miserably.

The first one might be counterintuitive but anyone that has been involved in a real emergency will understand.  Here is an example that should make it clearer.  If there was a large explosion and fire you definitely need the fire chief to take command of the fire but the fire is not your only problem.  People have been injured, do you want the fire department to treat them or do you want to send them to the hospital?  How do you get them to the hospital if the roads are blocked with fire equipment?  You need police to handle traffic.  What if the explosion damaged power, water, and gas lines?  Is the fire department supposed to fix all of that while they are fighting the fire?

In any emergency there is an on scene commander (the fire chief) who reports to the Incident commander who coordinates all of the others needed to assist.  The Fire chief is not put in charge of everything because his only concern is the fire.  When all you have is a hammer everything you see is a nail.  The fire chief will see a fire, the doctor will see injured people, and the police will see the access problems.

A viral outbreak is no different.  In a modern integrated economy the virus does not just produce sick people.  It also creates shortages of people and equipment.  What if everyone in the water treatment plant got sick?  A shortage of clean water would cause other much larger problems.  Do you want Theresa Tam or Deena Hinshaw running water treatment plants?

Instead of doing what they are paid to do, every Premier in Canada ran and hid behind the skirts of the chief medical officers.  They abdicated their responsibilities and handed them to the wrong person.  That is why we threw out our pandemic response plans and started adlibbing from day one of this government escalated crisis.

Alberta built a pandemic response plan in 2014.  It had 4 objectives that you can see in the list below.

1. Control the spread of disease and reduce illness and death by providing access to appropriate prevention measures, care and treatment.
2. Mitigate social disruption by ensuring continuity and recovery of critical services.
3. Minimize adverse economic impacts.
4. Support an efficient and effective recovery.

When the premiers ran away and hid their chief medical officers threw out this plan.  They had their hammer and they clearly saw their nail.  The plan became very simple it had one objective.

1. No one is ever allowed to get sick; no matter what the cost.

Not only was this a poor plan because it failed to address the larger picture, it was also completely unattainable.  They set a goal that was impossible to achieve and they had no idea how to even get close.  What resulted was rules that made no sense that changed on a whim.  I said at the beginning of this whole farce that if my company handled an emergency by shooting from the hip and ignoring our approved emergency response plan the government would shut us down.  The same people who have no idea how to handle a crisis sit in judgment of how well I handle a crisis.

The total lack of courage (and common sense) by all of the Canada’s politicians has left us where we are now.  The rules change weekly and the reason we are given is that the old rules did not produce the desired result.  This is hardly surprising when the desired result is impossible.  Every week our politicians tell us we need to do even more of what has already not worked.  They are too stupid to understand that this inspires absolutely no confidence.  The lack of confidence fuels panic which leads to demands for even more harsh measures.  The average person does not realize it but they are not afraid of the virus, they are afraid the people in charge are as incompetent as they appear.

This “crisis” is a crisis of confidence.  The general public will never let this be over until that confidence is restored.  We could get down to one new case a week with no deaths and people will still live in fear of the “third wave”.  In Sweden they clearly stated their primary goal of minimizing (not eliminating) the impact of the virus with some simple common sense rules.  They have stuck to the plan and the public has not lost faith or panicked.  On a per capita basis Sweden has had twice as many deaths as Canada but they have no masked covidiots screaming at people for standing too close or not wearing a mask.

The Swedish public understands and agrees with the plan.  They know that people will get sick and they also know that is inevitable no matter what they do.  The Swedes are behaving like adults while Canadians are behaving like frightened children.  Maybe that is because the Swedish government treats people like adults and the Canadian government treats people like children.

This gets us to the colonel’s final point.  Covid 19 should have been ridiculously easy to handle.  We have known since March that covid 19 was only a risk for elderly people managing chronic health conditions.  That should have allowed us to focus our efforts.  Instead of focusing on the 0.4% who were at risk we tried to protect everyone.  When you cannot focus your efforts you will only achieve success through sheer luck.  Our plan is the equivalent of going to Vegas and randomly putting money on every table in the hopes of coming home rich.

If you set a goal that cannot be achieved or you define your goal poorly how do you know when the crisis is over?

My brother and a couple friends sent me this link (great minds think alike I guess).

MUST-READ: Open letter from a doctor to Jason Kenney – The Western Standard (westernstandardonline.com)

It is so good I have reproduced the whole letter below.  I can only conclude that this guy is either plagiarizing from me or I am plagiarizing from him.  This blog started as an email chain.  I called the people in the chain the Rant Team.  This doctor is now an honorary member of the rant team, read and enjoy.

Dear Premier Kenney:

Many Albertans – myself included – commended you on your previous commitment to a balanced approach to protecting Albertans from COVID-19, while at the same time not completely abrogating our freedoms and rights such as free speech, peaceful assembly, association, and our ability to earn a living and care for our families.

(Tuesday) you imposed new lockdown measures which severely limit and, in some cases, shut down entirely many social, family, friendship, spiritual, recreational and entertainment pursuits that Albertans rely on for their well-being, just as you did in the spring. While you have commendably spared small businesses from suffering the complete shut-down they experienced this past spring (and your apology for this mistake is laudable and honourable), it seems that you have not learned much from the lockdown harms which Albertans experienced earlier this year.

The evidence that you provided for this lockdown is both suspect and incomplete and does a disservice to Albertans who deserve more from you.  A major tenet of the Hippocratic Oath that physicians like myself ascribe to is “First Do No Harm”, which is ignored by this imposed lockdown.

Is it too late to correct this lockdown error?  No, not if you are willing to be better informed. We have learned a great deal since the onset of this pandemic, much of which is the result of how different regions and countries have attempted to control the spread of COVID-19 and treat those infected. Now we know who is at greatest risk and have proven effective therapies for those who are seriously ill, as reported by the National Institute of Health on Dec 3, 2020; and we are on the cusp of mass immunization consequent to multiple vaccines soon to be available worldwide.  The public should be reassured, rather than locked down.

Within the last few weeks, new evidence informs a more nuanced approach to  better protect Albertans without unintended and unacceptable consequences, such as defined in the excellent recommendations of the Great Barrington Declaration, further addressed below.

I acknowledge with reverence those Albertans who have passed on from COVID-19, just as I acknowledge many others like Jerry Dunham who have died because lockdowns prevented their access to healthcare for very serious non-COVID-19 illnesses and conditions. I acknowledge the many with despair who have died from suicide and drug overdose.  We now know that lockdowns are more lethal than COVID-19, and must learn from what has transpired to ensure we do not continue to make the same mistakes.  Were you not informed of these facts, or did you simply ignore them?

Please consider the following evidence and unintended consequences that should give you the courage to retract the restrictions:

1. We are nowhere close to overwhelming our healthcare system. As of December 9, 2020 there were 654 COVID-19 patients in 8,500 beds, or 7.7 per cent of capacity. There were only 112 patients in 272 ICU beds, or 41.2 per cent of operational capacity, however, you have stated publicly that the ICU capacity can be increased to 1,081 beds. This implies that, at present, only 10.4 per cent of potential ICU beds are filled.
2. Have you evaluated what percentage of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 are actually in hospital because of COVID-19, as opposed to with COVID-19, wherein it is the underlying disease that is the actual reason for the admission?  The public deserves to know.
3. Have you evaluated the percentage of patients who died with, but not from COVID-19?  This information is extremely important to share with the public who deserve a fair and balanced presentation of the facts to both prevent fear and panic, as well as garner buy-in of government policy.
4. Are you aware that the PCR test for COVID-19 has a false positive rate of up to 50 per cent according to the CDC (USA Center for Disease Control), and up to 90 per cent by other sources?     
5. Are you aware of how many people have died or become seriously compromised because they could not access healthcare for non-COVID-19 disease, including treatments for heart disease, cancer, and other life-threatening problems? Lockdowns are more lethal than Covid-19, which cannot be over-emphasized. Do you not think that the public should know this?
6. Are you aware of how many people have committed suicide due to government-imposed lockdowns and the shuttering of businesses, schools, colleges, and universities?  Have you tried to find out?
7. Do you believe that it is ethically and morally appropriate for government to pick winners and losers by defining what is an essential versus a non-essential business, or activity such as, but not limited to, social, recreational, fitness-related, or spiritual pursuits?
8. Are you fully aware of the magnitude of the economic devastation Alberta has sustained, and that we are spiralling down rapidly to a have-not province, according to the Fraser Institute?
9. Are you aware of how many divorces have occurred consequent to lockdowns and loss of income?  What about the increase in domestic abuse, family violence and increase of substance abuse?
10. Are you aware of the short- and long-term effects on the mental health of our most vulnerable, including our children?
11. Have you been apprised of how much crime has increased due to people becoming desperate just to stay alive?
12. Finally, in the interests of transparency, please provide the information highlighted above to all Albertans on a daily or weekly basis on the AHS website, various social and other media sources available, so that we the people of Alberta can work with you, rather than question the validity of imposed interventions that are no longer required.

Your consideration to rescind the lockdown should also be based on fact. I implore you to read the Great Barrington Declaration authored by professors in medicine from Oxford, Harvard, and Stanford, who are experts in epidemiology, immunology, biostatistics, vaccine development, mathematical modelling, and public health policy.  The Declaration has been co-signed by 38,154 medical practitioners, as well as 12,717 medical and public health scientists world-wide. Please also review the section in the Declaration on Frequently Asked Questions.  You will be better informed and better able to give proper consideration to a more humane, compassionate and effective approach, rather than inflicting a multitude of harms on 4.4 million people. Please consider the following targeted recommendations:

1. All testing should stop immediately, particularly for those who are asymptomatic, except for;
   -People presenting to hospital with respiratory problems
   -Healthcare workers
   -Nursing home employees with ‘point-of-care’ testing
2. Nursing homes should have a comprehensive campaign for;
   -Staff education in infection control
   –Vitamin D daily for all inhabitants
   -Electronic audiovisual communications for loved ones wishing to stay in touch
3. There is also gathering evidence on the use of Ivermectin to prevent COVID-19, as evidenced in this Senate Testimony on December 8, 2020. The evidence for effective prophylaxis with Ivermectin is compelling
4. Everywhere – hospitals included – should open immediately with conventional pre-Covid-19 precautions.
5. Mandatory mask-wearing should cease (except for health professionals) as there is no credible scientific basis, as evidenced in the November 18, 2020 Danish randomized controlled trial reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Further, no country has reported a change in the trajectory of COVID-19 diagnosis consequent to widespread public testing of asymptomatic citizens before and after the institution of a countrywide mask mandate.
6. Interventions such as total lockdowns, social distancing, and compulsory mask use are causing more harm than good.  The genie (virus) is out of the bottle and the spread cannot realistically be controlled at all by the current interventions.
7. Contact tracing and snitching should cease immediately.
8. AHS must come clean with Albertans and provide robust information on the unintended consequences of lockdown measures which were initially well-intentioned but have now proven to be harmful to Albertans’ mental, physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual, and economic well-being; as well as lethal from suicide, drug overdose and inability to access healthcare for serious non-COVID illness and conditions.
9. Finally, as healthcare is in your purview, please ensure that decisions come from your government/AHS, and not from municipalities who do not have access to the necessary resources and expertise to justify restrictions of any kind.

In conclusion, we have learned much over the past several months. Perhaps most important is the knowledge that lockdowns are more lethal than COVID-19, which should compel you and your government to end them. Your advice and policies for the benefit of Albertans should be predicated on one important tenet of the Hippocratic Oath, “First Do No Harm”, and a focussed approach will achieve just that, as explained in the Great Barrington Declaration.

As for each of us Albertans, we must simply adapt and learn to accommodate to COVID-19, as we all did every previous year with seasonal influenza. We must all take personal responsibility for our health and take actions that are in each of our best interest, including vaccination if one is so inclined, which may well be of benefit if one is COVID-19 negative. Healthcare, like all freedoms, must and should always remain an informed choice, not a government directive.

Dennis L. Modry, BSc, MD, MSc, FRCS, FACCP, FACS
Clinical Associate Professor, Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of Alberta
Founder and Director of the Heart, Lung and Heart-Lung Transplant Program
Director of the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (1984 – 2015)

I ran across this article this morning.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/long-a-holdout-from-covid-19-restrictions-sweden-ends-its-pandemic-experiment-11607261658?mod=djemalertNEWS

I was taken back for a brief second because Sweden’s policy of not behaving like covidiots has been an unqualified success.  See below

Like many countries Sweden saw a surge in infections and deaths as winter approached.  The surge is already over.  Sweden still has a lot of cases per day but no one is dying from Covid 1984 anymore.  Sweden never bought in to the unemployment as an anti-viral.  They keep their country open with very few restrictions and some common sense guidelines.  Why on earth would Sweden change now?

The first clue that this was not true was that it came from a major mainstream media organization.  The odds of it being true where then infinitesimally low.  I went to a couple Swedish government websites to confirm that the media was lying again.  One website had an English option the other I had to use google translate for.  I found that the only change is that the Swedish government has asked people to keep social gatherings under 8 people.  There was no mention of fines or enforcement.  Bars and restaurants are still open and their guidelines have not changed.  Bars and restaurants are asked to eliminate congested areas like people standing at the bar and to avoid over-crowding.  Those are very simple guidelines that restaurateurs in Canada would kill for.

As per usual with the media they pretend they are not lying by telling half truths.  Yes Sweden added to their guidance, but to say they have joined the lunacy of the rest of the world is a lie.  There were of course other half truths in the artcle used to convince you that Sweden has finally come around.  They trotted out the old argument that Sweden did not avoid economic problems by not shutting down because their GDP dropped by 8.5%.  Think about that for a minute.  This reporter wants you to believe that shutting down businesses will not impact your GDP any more than keeping businesses open.  If that were true why don’t we just shut down every business, you know like that evil troll Jason Kenney just did.  Sweden’s GDP dropped by 8.5% because their economy depends on exports.  All of Sweden’s customers shut down their economies.  That generally makes it very difficult to export, and it is not Sweden’s fault.

The reporter pointed out that Sweden had more deaths than their neighbors.  This is correct.  The table below shows all the countries that border Sweden by land or ocean.

Sweden is the second highest and much higher than most of the others.  What the reporter failed to point out is that the second season for Covid is already over in Sweden while for some of the countries on the list is far from over.  The second season for the countries below is much harder than the first season and their death totals get closer to Sweden’s every day.

The Reporter did interview some bureaucrats that were in favor of lockdowns.  Somehow we are supposed to take that as proof Sweden was wrong for not locking down.  All it really proves is that Sweden is just as infested with left wing lunatics as Canada.  The left is a very homogenous group; regardless of what country you find them in their attitude is the same.  To the left the solution to every problem is the same, the government must eliminate rights and destroy lives.

 

Wyoming issued a mask mandate today.  It is really hard to understand why.  See the plots below.

Infections in Wyoming peaked 2 weeks ago and are now declining rapidly.  Even if masks worked mandating them now is closing the barn door after the horse has bolted.  This makes absolutely no sense, but I can guarantee you in a few weeks the governor will credit the drop in cases on his great wisdom of forcing veils masks on the population.

It is not just veils masks that government tyrants want to force on people.  3 days ago, Ontario Premier Doug Ford stated vaccines will not be mandatory 10 seconds before the health minister explained what will happen to anyone who does not get Vaccinated.

Colin D’Mello CTVNews on Twitter: “Premier Doug Ford says the COVID-19 vaccine will be optional, but urges everyone to get the vaccine. The Health Minister cautions that there could be consequences — perhaps travel restrictions she suggests — if you don’t get it. #onpoli” / Twitter

This is a kind of evil Abbot and Costello, good cop/bad cop routine.  Doug Ford may as well have said you do not have to take the vaccine but if you do not, we will not take the plastic bag off your head.  There is no doubt about it, even though Doug Ford tells you he is different, he is not.  Doug Ford is a leftist tyrant the same as every other Premier in the country.  Every one of these evil tyrants is pushing masks and vaccines on people who have no risk of dying from Covid 1984.

Evil will never change; politicians will never change.  It is not that surprising that these petty Tyrants want to intrude on our lives.  To them it is a big game.  They get excited when we show how much we will defer to them.  It is what they live for.  The truly sad thing is that we willingly defer for the illusion of safety.  In Canada 98.5% of all covid deaths have been in nursing homes.  If you do not live in a nursing home, you have a .0006% chance of dying of Covid.  99.4% of Canadians are not in nursing homes; the risk to them from covid is almost zero.  Canadians have much larger concerns than Covid yet they will line up and demand a vaccine.  Tyrants get away with evil because we do not recognize them as evil.  It is time to wake up and open our eyes.