With Covid the More Things Change, the More They Remain the Same
I read the Calgary Herald yesterday. As per usual the paper was full of misleading and panic inducing stories. There was this story praising New Zealand’s response to Covid 19.
It is true that New Zealand has had very few problems from Covid 19 but at what cost? New Zealand has completely closed their borders turning the island in to a concentration camp. This destroyed their tourism industry that was 8% of their economy.
Small price to pay to have outdoor festivals right? Maybe until you consider that it is now summer in New Zealand and outdoor festivals in the summer are safe even with Covid. A better question is what happens when New Zealand opens their borders? New Zealanders have developed very little in the way of herd immunity and the virus is still out there. It will always be out there.
Kiwis just have to wait for the vaccine same as us right? They will only get their borders open and their jobs back if they consent to a medical procedure. That is hardly consent. This is like a rapist telling his victim he will release them if they consent to sex. Thousands of Nazis were sentenced to death for performing medical procedures on people without their consent. Now, in 2021 we are fine with that.
There was another full page article about 2 women in Canada who are having lingering effects from Covid. The article was, of course, designed to keep us fearful of covid. We can’t have people believing you can recover from covid. People need to be panicked in to hiding forever from covid because you never really recover. There was only one small problem. The 2 women with these mysterious symptoms were never diagnosed with Covid. They must have had covid though because everything bad is caused by covid right? It would be irresponsible journalism not to link this to covid and use it to spread panic.
There was also coverage of the Prime Moron’s new travel ban. Even though cases are falling everywhere in Canada and we are exiting the traditional flus season, we still need to panic because of the new strains of covid. Here we go again, we need to keep the restrictions in place due to some future threat. How do we know these new strains will be a problem? The models say they are, that’s how.
Haven’t we been to this movie before? Our freedoms are being removed based on computer simulation of a virus that we only just discovered. You cannot simulate anything that you have not studied completely. Computer models are not evidence of anything. Haven’t we learned our lesson yet?
The strain that is mentioned most often is the UK variant so let’s take a look at it. Here is what happened in the UK.
Yes cases and deaths did peak again in the UK. But it is already over. This is also confirmed by Euromomo.
The data in these plots is 10 days old. You can see that excess deaths were already falling 10 days ago. Of even more interest is that the new variant has not yet affected Scotland or Wales. Scotland and Wales both border England and are not far. The capital of Wales is less than 200 Km from London. So this deadly new variant has not travelled 200 Km, but it is going to decimate Canada soon. Are we really that stupid?
The real point is not that there was a new strain in England or even that it came and went quickly. The only point that matters is this. England was already under lockdown when this strain hit and moved rapidly through the country. Lockdowns do not work.
Every time we see the light at the end of the tunnel we are told that it is not real. We are told that there is some new mysterious threat on the horizon. Then we are told the only thing that will save us is a lockdown. At no time do we ever discuss whether lockdowns work. We are told that we are dangerous if we question the restrictions. If lockdowns worked this would have been over last spring and it is not. How much more proof do you need? When will we just say no?
