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POLITICS
By
William J. Dodwell
THE VACCINE HYPE RESUMES. The CDC just announced its approval of the updated Covid booster adjusted to combat the original virus and its variants. The vaccine was tested on only eight mice and no humans but some experts say pre-existing knowledge incorporated in the trials permits this limited study. Others are skeptical.
So get ready for the hype again, to include President Biden’s incessant mantra, “Get vaccinated.” Is another booster needed? Is it safe?
The majority of the population has contracted Covid by now and is therefore protected by natural immunity which is provably superior to the vaccine. The virus will always be with us like the flu. So what!
Covid variants have been successively less severe even to the equivalent of a cold. As such, mere infection is innocuous, except for possibly the elderly and immuno-suppressed.
The Covid vaccine is still experimental. Adverse long-term effects are unknown. However, there have been suppressed reports of tens of thousands of serious afflictions and deaths, orders of magnitude more than other vaccines, including that for the flu. God knows what the inoculated face in the years to come, especially children, all of whom honest scientists say are at no risk to the virus.
Why the hype? Politics and money. The Democrat push for the next booster will be about sales, like before. Follow the money: Democrat government subsidies to pharmaceutical firms, and mandates to maximize demand; revenue kickbacks to the Democrat National Committee (DNC), to scaremongers, and other operatives who facilitate the ruse. And the gravy train will continue indefinitely as the public acquiesces to ongoing booster updates broadly promoted by Democrat government and its allies but needed only by a limited vulnerable population.
Covid has never been the threat that government and media have portrayed, and we now know that mandated mitigation protocols are inherently ineffective. Furthermore, the one million recorded U.S. deaths are exaggerated by the fact that 94% of them involved four or more co-morbidities. In addition, many deaths have been fraudulently misclassified so that hospitals can collect a $5,000 government stipend for each. Doctors and nurses have reported immense pressure on them to categorize deaths falsely. Where are the mass media on this? It is called corruption.
It is incumbent on the truly vulnerable, i.e., the elderly and immune-suppressed, to self-quarantine as they deem necessary. The general population should not be encumbered.
Fortunately, people are finally getting wise to Covid reality as many balk at getting the latest vaccine. 9/2/22
NAVIGATING TRUTH AMID LEFTIST PROPAGANDA. The Covid pandemic is particularly instructive in demonstrating the power of leftist propaganda over truth. Political disputes derive from different subjective world-views and may be speculative. But Covid mistruths fly in the face of objective reality in hard science and thus can be conclusively disproved. The Democrat Party and mainstream media have propagated those fallacies concerning the disease’s threat, transmissibility and prevention. At the same time, they suppress genuine science resulting in a misinformed and hysterical public.
One can establish Covid truth easily through a simple Google search that contrasts politically motivated mass media positions against pronouncements of eminent scientists, such as Scott Atlas, Martin Kulldorff, Jay Bhattacharya, and Robert Malone. Their empirical knowledge founded on scientific method belies media representations about the severity of the virus, the significance of mere infection, the populations at risk, and the effectiveness of contact tracing and mitigation protocols. Scientific evidence also proves the primacy of natural immunity, the effectiveness of certain treatments denied the public, and the limitations of vaccination, while narrowly circumscribing the elderly as most vulnerable.
Yet the propagandists prevail, helping governments control the citizenry through scare mongering and mandates. Crying wolf compels compliance and predisposes the public toward further acquiescence as needed. Denying science also leads to trillions of dollars of government spending under the guise of Covid relief, most of which is actually directed to left-wing special interests. The Left also enrich themselves in concert with pharmaceutical firms by pushing vaccine sales, even on children who are at zero risk. Indeed, only Democrat governors and operatives imposed severe Covid austerity to achieve those ends. Thus, they have every incentive to ignore science. Who says partisan politics is not involved?
Why is the public so duped about Covid? Mainly because mainstream media suppress contrarian scientists. Some are skeptical of lay criticism, suspecting intractable political bias with an unwillingness to consider independent sources of information. But a firm benchmark for Covid truth exists in objective science. In addition, many are gullible and susceptible to the scare tactics. Consider the bozos still wearing masks even though the partisan CDC has relaxed restrictions.
Furthermore, many medical professionals who only concentrate on their specialties also are misinformed about Covid, and convey that ignorance to their patients. Amid a dwindling number of private medical practices, some professionals who know better are forced to go along with their corporate superiors who are themselves under pressure to pedal Covid politics.
Follow the science for Covid truth. Google the aforementioned scientists. 8/15/22
SPARKS FLY AT THE DINER OVER COVID MASK. I have been critical of Covid mask-wearing since the beginning of the pandemic. In fact, early on I posted a commentary with the headline, “Get That Mask Off Your Face”. I have believed that people with masks symbolize a cowardly acquiescence to government tyranny and media anti-science propaganda that is antithetical to the very recalcitrance needed to counteract internal communist forces in our midst. Indeed, these lemmings are largely representative of the gullible simpletons who gave us Democratic control in Washington, in particular the demented fool in the White House. They must be shamed.
So, imagine how I feel when I see a mask today, two years into the Covid charade. Even after authorities have lifted restrictions, and acknowledge the ineffectiveness of the face rag, some people still wear it. But I discovered a new way to react to female fanatics of this sort.
While recently waiting on line at the diner to pay my bill, a masked waitress standing next to me sparked my ire. In order to discourage her mindless hygienic practice, I told her she looked like a brainwashed government dupe still falling for a hoax. Then I gave her an inducement. I told her that if she removes the mask I could give her a kiss.
Immediately, she tore the covering off, and I sprang into action. I planted a nice buss on her lips and gave her a deep dip, you know, like the iconic front-page photo of the sailor in Times Square amid a mass celebration of the end of World War II. I hope the prospect of future kisses will ensure she is always maskless.
But then the unexpected. When I finished, three other waitresses were waiting for the same treatment, and they already had given up masks.
It’s tough being the Comprehensive Conservative LINK. 3/14/22
SCOTUS DECISION ON VACCINE MANDATE IS NO PANACEA. While the Supreme Court blocked President Biden’s vaccine, testing and mask mandate for large companies, relief is quite limited. The Court exempted mandates of health care companies, as they are supported by legislative authority granted Medicare and Medicaid. It also allows state and local government mandates, as well as voluntary company mandates on employees. As such, the decision will not fully relieve labor shortages resulting from related firings and resignations, nor dispel misgivings about authoritarian governments and businesses who mandate on their own.
The Court’s decision centered only on whether OSHA has statutory authority to mandate private employer policy outside the agency’s intended purpose, workplace safety. Accordingly, it ruled that only Congress and the states may decide on that right. The Court did not address the freedom of individuals to opt out of the vaccine; nor did it much consider the true scientific basis of the viral threat, which should be the only justification for public restraints. Lower courts are adjudicating those merits brought by lawsuits against mandates of state and local governments, and businesses.
The Covid virus has been limited in that symptoms are absent or only mild in most cases, especially Omicron. Also, pre-diagnosed Omicron hospitalizations are not excessive, yielding only one reported death in the U.S. Reports of overtaxed hospitals mainly arise from staff shortages attributable to firings and resignations over vaccine mandates.
As such, a cost-benefit analysis does not support mass vaccine, testing and mask mandates with their economically and socially damaging mitigation protocols. Restricting the well for the benefit of the small vulnerable population of elderly and immuno-suppressed is not justified. Indeed, the severity of the virus does not warrant universal sacrifice.
By contrast, for example, Ebola, having a 90% death rate, would justify draconian government intervention. The Court did not incorporate that distinction, which would protect against imperious health mandates in the future.
The Court did not contemplate one’s right to decline the experimental Covid vaccine based on: 1) Individual concern for unknown long-term effects, 2) The natural immunity of the infected, 3) Religious reservation. The minority opinion considers the opt-out question beyond the purview of the Court because it lacks the expertise inherent in OSHA regulation. The majority opinion highlights the need for Congress to ensure sufficient clarity in its laws to prevent overly expansive interpretation by regulators in their application, a longstanding problem. In particular, congressional precision protects against agency liberties invoked as pretexts under conditions of emergency, such as the Covid pandemic.
Some companies, such as Citibank, will mandate vaccination on their own to avoid possible legal liability to infected employees. 1/17/22
OMICRON: DOUBLING DOWN ON STUPID. Why are people standing in long lines to test for Omicron? Even conservatives bemoan the shortage of home test kits. From the beginning, we have known that, except for the elderly and immuno-suppressed (the “vulnerable”), majority of infections are asymptomatic, and most others produce relatively mild illness that does not require hospitalization. What’s more, children are unscathed by the virus. Moreover, the Omicron variant is considerably less threatening than previous Covid incarnations, to date having caused no deaths in the U.S. These are facts.
This means the non-vulnerable infected need not be concerned about infection, nor worry about spreading it to others, notwithstanding its extreme transmissibility. In fact, the virus now is more akin to a cold than even the flu. As such, government and media obsession over case counts is political misdirection.
So, why get tested? If symptoms appear, one can treat them like a cold. If they persist, the sick may take the test and, if positive, seek Covid-specific therapeutics, which the authorities only now allow for general distribution. They include monoclonal antibodies, and shortly, a Pfizer antiviral pill. But many of those seeking tests today are without symptoms and motivated only by media-induced fear of infection.
Those testing positive unnecessarily subject themselves and their contacts to onerous quarantine and intrusive tracking protocols. Why do this, unless to qualify for Covid therapeutics, which may not be needed? Those not tested can avoid this imposition without consequence, except for the vulnerable who may self-quarantine for their safety. Since Covid positivity does not endanger the non-vulnerable, why get tested, except for misguided employer mandates?
But mere case counts are driving public hysteria and a stampede to testing centers. Just what the government and Pharma want in order to turbo-charge the sale of lucrative “vaccines” that do not prevent infection, but only mitigate its severity - for a while.
As some posited at the beginning of the pandemic, including this writer, doing nothing, allowing the virus to run its course, fosters superior natural herd immunity that does prevent further infection. This realization, in consideration of the weakness of Omicron and the now established ineffectiveness of lockdowns, social distancing and masks, should bring us full circle back to that age-old epidemiological reality. Yet many are still gullible to media fear mongering, as governments and businesses reinstate mask mandates in reaction to a current raft of relatively harmless infection cases.
Even Dr. Fauci now concedes the dire economic and social costs of his warnings, albeit probably out of political expediency. Until recently, Democrat-imposed Covid restrictions were abating, although some vaccine mandates remain. Increasingly, people are getting wise to the charade. But not most of those standing on line for testing. 1/5/22
CAN YOU TRUST YOUR DOCTOR FOR TRUTHFUL COVID ADVICE? Advocates of personal choice regarding Covid vaccination say individuals should have the freedom to decide for themselves in consultation with their doctor. But many doctors and nurses seem ill informed or politically compromised concerning the pandemic.
Like all professions, medical practitioners operate within their specialties with little reading or concern about issues outside their expertise. Hence, they may be as uninformed as laymen about COVID. For example, I questioned an internist about certain realities of the virus vis a vis the surrounding propaganda. He replied dismissively, “Do you have a Ph.D. in epidemiology?”. I told him that I do not have to be so trained because I listen to dissidents who are. I added that the public does not hear their views because the mass media suppress them.
I also debated a nurse while she administered my booster shot. I told herthe authorities and the liberal media obsess over cases, which are not important because most infected are asymptomatic or only mildly ill. I said the focus should center only on the vulnerable, i.e., the elderly and those with immuno-suppressing conditions. Metrics should concentrate on (genuine) hospitalizations and deaths, not cases. She replied she had Covid and became very sick, but not hospitalized. What’s more, she was deathly afraid of infecting her grandson, not knowing that children are virtually immune to the virus. Then the shocker: The nurse said her only solace throughout her ordeal was Dr. Fauci’s comments!
And there is politics. Today most medical practices, and many hospitals, operate as corporations following their consolidation through acquisition. As such, formerly independent doctors follow orders from superiors who themselves are directed by the highly politicized American Medical Association (AMA). There is evidence the AMA and Big Pharma work in concert to spread propaganda and hysteria aimed at achieving maximal vaccine sales, with full support from the media. Only until recently, they ignored treatment possibilities that interfere with that end.
The AMA has even issued a letter to members on how to craft misleading language to encourage vaccination compliance, irrespective of science. Here is one opinion. https://www.citizensjournal.us/busted-scripted-covid-propaganda-reveals-how-nearly-all-american-doctors-are-just-puppets-of-the-corrupt-american-medical-association-and-the-vaccine-industrial-complex/ . Dissenting medical personnel commonly face vilification and firing.
Thus, do not expect the complete truth from your doctor. The medical community and Democrat operatives are complicit in the fraud as they do the bidding for the pharmaceutical firms, likely in exchange for payoffs from their Covid revenues.
At the same time, the Democrat Party and its media allies promote this exercise in public deception and submission as an analog to their effort to impose an authoritarian socialist state on a docile society. Also, they want to perpetuate Covid fear to justify mail-in voting in November as a means of rigging elections once again. 1/3/22
THE LEFT’S REAL MOTIVE BEHIND ITS OBSESSION WITH COVID VACCINATION. Many conservatives believe government Covid mandates help the Left amass incremental power to effect the ultimate destruction of America and the substitution of a new socialist order.
In my opinion, an additional ulterior motive of the Left likely underlies its obsession with mass vaccination: Pharmaceutical kickbacks to Democrats from vaccine sales in exchange for their hype in a symbiosis of government, Big Pharma, and media. A share of potentially hundreds of billions of dollars of pharmaceutical profits is at stake. More vaccinations beget more cash to fund liberal election campaigns and their Marxist agendas for years to come.
The recent emergence of the Covid variant, Omicron, may introduce yet another emergency ruse that further justifies both mitigation and vaccine mandates facilitated by new public hysteria.
The Fauci fraud
Throughout the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci has become rich as a faux scientific authority and corrupt propagandist. A research employee of his reported first-hand that Fauci, during drinks with staff at a Maryland bar called “The Barking Dog”, displayed his 2020 tax return to the group sporting a $9 million income. He also bragged he expects to double that in 2021. Those “earnings” likely reflect compensation from Big Pharma for lying about Covid to boost vaccine sales. What else could it be, given his $434,000 government salary, investments?
Science is ignored
The money grab by the Left explains why Democratic governments and liberal media exaggerate the Covid threat by continuing to fixate on mere Covid infections and mass testing, rather than set policy based on genuine hospitalizations and deaths. They ignore, indeed suppress, the science that has shown since inception that only the elderly and those with compromised immunity systems are at risk to serious illness or death from Covid.
In fact, to date, the vast majority of those infected have experienced no symptoms, or have suffered relatively mild sickness. The average Covid decedent is 77 and children are virtually unaffected. Yet, now government urges or requires those over five to get inoculated. Of course, Covid mandates and hype are irrational and the Left knows it. But what a boon for the vaccine makers and their kickback beneficiaries, as well as their shareholders.
The Left pushes universal vaccination, masks, lockdowns and school closings despite no scientific support for their necessity. It also ignores the effectiveness of superior natural immunity as a substitute for vaccination. In addition, the Left and its stooges have vigorously resisted proven cheap therapeutics, such as Hydroxychloroquine and Remdesivir. In fact, the scientific community curiously has demonstrated little interest in developing new therapeutics.
What’s more, the media suppress the relatively high rate of deaths and serious side-effects from the vaccine. The Left dismisses natural immunity, therapeutics, and vaccine side-effects because they undermine pharmaceutical vaccine sales and kickbacks to Democrats in my opinion. Furthermore, the authorities inflate the already infinitesimal Covid death rate by all manner of co-morbidities, that reportedly affect 94% of official deaths, to justify ongoing government intervention.
The gullible public
The disturbing gullibility and ignorance of the public accommodate the Left’s corrupt political and monetary ends, which involve compromised scientists. It is astonishing how many people still voluntarily wear useless masks, even outdoors, and despite vaccination. Sadly, the mask has become a badge of acquiescence to tyrannical government and its allies. Its appearance encourages more intransigence and inspires greater unfounded public alarm in a vicious cycle of mandate and compliance. Even many conservatives fall for the gambit about infection cases and testing. To modify James Carville’s caveat about the economy, it’s about those profiles vulnerable to serious illness and death, stupid. The other Covid subjects can bear infection with little or no consequence, just like the flu. The Left seeks to eradicate the virus. It knows this is impossible and unnecessary, but the goal assures empowering mitigation and enriching vaccine mandates in perpetuity.
The Omicron variant
With the arrival of the Omicron variant, Democrat governments and media are doubtless salivating at the opportunity to declare a new emergency and mindlessly reinstate feckless lockdowns and unnecessary testing under the guise of protecting the people. New York Governor Kathy Hochul already is doubling down on past failure without any knowledge of the virus’ severity or the ability of existing vaccines to thwart it. I can hear other liberal governors now, “Out of an abundance of caution, blah, blah, blah … “ What’s more, the pharmaceutical firms and their kickback payees fantasize over the possibility of having to produce new mandated vaccines. What a bonanza! But if Omicron is a bust, as I suspect, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth all over the Left. It would be about time.
The new Covid variant also presents Democrats with another opportunity to tank the economy and dispense unrelated fiscal stimulus to operatives of the Left. Consider the teachers’ unions, a huge Democrat bastion, received some $200 billion in federal fiscal Covid aid, obviously many, many multiples of what is required for general education purposes, much less just Covid protection. Rather, the largesse is ammunition for fighting the internal war on America as the leftist onslaught toward socialism advances. One has to wonder whether successive Covid variants are the latest deception for perpetuating the destruction. 11/29/21
THE MASK FREAKS PERSIST. Leftist NJ Governor Murphy lifted all Covid restrictions May 19th. (He is up for reelection in November.) But many continue to wear masks even though statistics suggest the pandemic is virtually over. What is wrong with these people? Some do it out of sheer ignorance about the real danger of the China virus. Others wear a mask because of irrational fear rooted in emotional instability. Perhaps the unvaccinated are just extra cautious. The vaccinated ones are real idiots.
These weaklings personify the apathy that feeds the socialism now visible in government, media, academe, corporations, Big Tech and even the military. Unmandated mask-wearing is emblematic of leftist brainwashing that encourages yet more intransigence. This mindlessness is a big reason why a demented blathering fool (nominally) won the Whitehouse last November. The mask brigade plays right into the hands of the propagandists.
It is time to shame the mask freaks who embolden the government tyrants. Visibly frown and snicker at them. Ask them why they still don the cloth. Make them feel like fools. Maybe this treatment will make some of them realize their stupidity and motivate them to think rationally when they cast their ballots. 6/3/21
THE COVID-19 AGENDA: FOLLOW THE MONEY. Why does the coronavirus shindig continue? Consider the monetary incentives.
Democrat politicians: They suppress the economy through austere mandates and then promote massive unrelated federal spending as relief. The payouts ingratiate individuals to the party at the ballot box and foster government dependence. The largess also garners campaign donations from lobbying corporations and institutions, especially the teachers’ unions. Lockdowns empower Democrat leaders to prolong the malaise to justify more monetary remediation.
PPE manufacturers: Protracted restrictions enrich the manufacturers of masks, gloves, plexiglass, etc. While the pandemic is well on the wane, ads for masks abound.
Vaccine manufacturers: A powerful cabal torpedoed cheap therapeutics, including hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin, to benefit pharmaceuticals through the production of lucrative new vaccines. The current move to maximize inoculation, including naturally immune children, ensures optimal dollar sales and campaign donations.
Teachers’ unions: They shamefully leveraged school openings for some $200 billion of COVID-19 “relief” to the serious detriment of children. They earmark some of the cash for campaigns of far-left Democrats well into the future. 3/29/21
THE HOAX EVOLVES IN THE FORM OF “LONG COVID”. For a year, the media have reported fabricated rates of COVID-19 infection, hospitalization and death. The left also has deceived the public about the efficacy of mitigation protocols, and the duration of the acute viral threat. Now a new phase emerges called “long COVID” which refers to the supposed long-term effects of the disease. According to The Wall Street Journal, this scope creep creates more opportunities to cash in. Medical and patient activist groups attribute all manner of ailments to COVID a year or more after its onset, in the quest for yet more federal monies for research and treatment.
Reports of long COVID are initially alarming as patients claim maladies including chronic brain fog, severe fatigue, and even paralysis. But on closer analysis, health authorities have found that many illnesses derive from psychogenic comorbidities unrelated to COVID-19 (like the exaggerated death rates). In fact, some researchers attribute long COVID to subjects who never had the virus and to those who tested negative. So much for science.
The pseudoscience is working inasmuch as the National Institute of Health (NIH) announced a $1.15 billion commitment to long COVID research. Will the COVID charade ever end? 3/24/21
THE COVID RUSE. The corrupt Democrat Party and its media allies have achieved their COVID-19 goal: to establish a pretext to expand the welfare state and consolidate federal control toward creating a socialist country. The left, with a PR assist from its dishonest pawn, Dr. Fauci, has protracted the malaise for a year and continues to exaggerate concern even after vaccinations are available. Indeed, through manipulated COVID statistics and false alarm they have deceived and scared the public. Accordingly, the left contrived justification for $6 trillion of government “relief” spending, a small fraction of which is COVID related. The latest installment of $1.9 trillion was only 9% relevant.
In the process, the national debt has mushroomed to $28 trillion, while the Federal Reserve has amassed a $7.5 trillion balance sheet from the purchase of Treasury bonds that fund the spending. Meanwhile, inflationary fears brew.
Most significant are hundreds of billions to bail out profligate Democrat state and local governments, and to enrich the nefarious teachers’ unions under the guise of school aid, much of which will be siphoned to Democrat campaigns for years. Additional monies will target leftist social programs that benefit illegal aliens and support sanctuary cities. 3/15/21
DR. ROGER HODKINSON: THE COVID-19 RESPONSE IS A HOAX. An impeccably credentialed expert, Dr. Roger Hodkinson, gratifyingly corroborates my many commentaries about COVID-19 propaganda at https://www.bitchute.com/video/hWPjDdXOWkOo/?utm_source=BenchmarkEmail&utm_campaign=Top_Pathologist_Claims_COVID-19_Is_%22The_Greatest_Hoax_Ever_Perpetrated_On_An_Unsuspecting_Public%22&utm_medium=email
He laments with open exasperation the unfounded hysteria whipped up by politicians and media. He says nothing can control the virus. All mitigation practices are futile, including lockdowns, social distancing and masks. Testing is ineffective, misleading and useless. The real COVID-19 death rate for those under 70 is one in three hundred thousand. Victims should treat the virus on their own like the flu, while the relatively few vulnerable exercise caution. Government should lift all restrictions permanently.
In my opinion, the pharmaceutical industry is lobbying government to create an environment that demands a vaccine that will enrich drug firms and cooperating politicians. Hysteria and public gullibility ensure that demand. The media assist as an ally of big government and its leftist politics. Consistent with this scenario is the outright rejection of cheap time-proven Hydroxychloroquine, despite its demonstrated effectiveness when used early. Another manifestation of the fraud is the mass suppression of naysayers like Dr. Hodkinson. 11/23/20
PUBLIC HYSTERIA FROM COVID-19 PROPAGANDA MUST END. The continued widespread fear of COVID-19 is a greater deterrent to normalcy than government restrictions. Despite the lifting of mandates, office buildings are nearly empty as employees still work from home. Restaurants face similar public avoidance. Schools are closed to virtually immune children. And severely limited in-person voting threatens democracy. Indeed, people wear masks outdoors, practice social distancing, and engage in all manner of sanitization - all probably futile.
Almost never reported is the significantly diminished severity of the Chinese virus. This natural viral attenuation has reduced an already miniscule mortality rate to that of the seasonal flu. In addition, new infections now skew to more resistant or resilient younger people, making an even larger majority of cases asymptomatic or less than serious.
But because of anti-Trump inspired media propaganda, public hysteria continues. The left obsesses over new infections, engendered by massive needless testing, that are inconsequential except for potentially the relatively few immuno-deficient elderly. The public must embrace the real science and stop fearing infection, as it is not a death sentence, and likely not even an inconvenience. 10/30/20
TRUMP MUST FIRE FAUCI NOW. I refer to my July 3rd commentary headlined, “Dr. Fauci Is A COVID-19 Fraud”
If there was any doubt that Dr. Fauci is complicit with the left in the effort to defeat President Trump in November, it is now clear in view of his appearance before Congress last week. His wholly hypocritical refusal to acknowledge the spread of COVID-19 amid the ongoing mass protests of anarchists while warning of the risks of all other congregant activity certifies his rank dishonesty. His new status as darling of the left affirms his anti-Trump bona fides and compels his immediate termination. Dr. Birx should go as well. Has she disagreed with Fauci on anything?
The president seems wary of the media backlash from this action because of their firm alliance with the left now. At the very least, he should hire reopening advocates from the medical community, give them immense visibility, and let Fauci and Birx resign on their own. The new spokespersons will shift focus from unimportant new cases in the general population to infection prevention and treatment among the vulnerable immuno-deficient, the majority of whom are elderly, especially those in nursing homes. 8/3/20
COVID-19 HITS HOME. The manager of my local diner told me the business is “on the brink of collapse” because of ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. Closure would end seventy years of family ownership. The diner was going to start limited indoor service two weeks ago but Democrat New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy rescinded the Phase II reopening indefinitely because of an uptick in new cases in the SUNBELT.
Of course, the increase in coronavirus cases is primarily due to greatly expanded testing. And COVID-19 infections are serious only for those with immuno-deficient conditions, mostly affecting the elderly, especially in nursing homes. Virtually everyone else is either asymptomatic, only mildly ill, or in the case of children, immune. Deaths, the critical metric, are now down to flu rates and heavily concentrated among the aged. But governments and media continue to ignore this science and instead obsess about new cases. Democrat states do it to defeat Trump in November. Republicans fear the reaction of constituents whom fear-mongering media have duped about the significance of new cases.
My diner’s fate is a microcosm of what is about to permeate the country as small businesses face unsustainable revenue shortfalls. This does not have to happen. Damn the politicians and the media. 7/13/20
GET THAT MASK OFF YOUR FACE!
It’s time to fight back. The COVID-19 mask is just a badge of compliance with the left’s program to defeat President Trump in the November election. It is a Democrat propaganda tool to create fear and solidarity over what is a minimal health threat, but for a small sliver of the population. The mask is neither effective nor necessary, and even harmful. It is wholly unsupported by science.
Starting immediately, challenge the government mandate by going maskless. Force places of business that require a mask for entry to command you to wear one. Carry a mask in your pocket in case this happens. In time, more and more people will be seen without a mask until critical mass is reached and victory is won. Another tactic is to wear the mask hanging from one ear as hapless Joe Biden does. Make the enforcer call a technical foul.
COVID-19 is not about infection cases. It is about severity as measured by genuine hospitalizations and deaths after correcting for fraudulent statistical manipulation. The relatively few immuno-deficient, mostly among the elderly, should self-quarantine according to their risk tolerance. The rest of us must rebel against mask tyranny now and demand our lives back. Don't be a sucker! 7/6/20
THE MASK HAS BECOME THE COVID-19 FLAG
Suddenly mask mandates proliferate everywhere. Pelosi and her lackeys grandstand with one around their necks all the time now. Dr. Fauci, who mocked the effectiveness of masks initially, now wears one. And Biden now says that as president he would order everyone to wear a mask in public.
The impetus behind the drumbeat is to promote the mask as a symbol of the leftist COVID-19 movement to derail Trump in November through renewed mass hysteria and continued economic sclerosis. The mask has become the rallying flag. It is also a meme by which to condition the public to ongoing obeisance to imperious government, a signature of the new Democrat Party.
In any case, the mask is unhealthy as it traps harmful carbon dioxide and bacteria that has caused pleurisy. The mask is also ineffective as it contains pores that are hundreds of times larger than the virus that escapes through them. Once a sign of virtue signaling for good heath, the mask is now a political statement. What’s needed is a standard stenciled image. How about a government jackboot on the people’s neck? 6/29/20
BEWARE THE HYPE ABOUT A COVID-19 SECOND WAVE
The left has exploited the Wuhan coronavirus to destroy the economy. Now it tries to sabotage the reopening phase by hyping a second wave on the basis of reported upticks in infections. The left hopes to extend the malaise closer to the November election to hurt Trump.
Increased infection mainly reflects greatly expanded testing that exposes pre-existing cases not previously identified. Many originate in high-risk nursing homes and Native American reservations. And, that testing reveals a radical drop in the infection rate to under 7% as the virus self-attenuates. In any case, infections are not a primary metric because the vast majority of victims have been non-contagious asymptomatic or only mildly ill. Greater hospitalizations are more concerning, but now ample capacity and plenty of ventilators ensure a better capability to handle a spike. Most importantly, the falling death rate, now at .4%, is de minimis.
We now know a serious second wave can be contained by isolating the elderly and others with underlying immuno-deficiencies. Therefore, lockdowns are unnecessary.
The left promotes a second wave to stifle the economy further by scaring people into staying home and by restoring lockdowns to sabotage Trump's reelection.
HE COVID-19 RESPONSE: THE GREATEST BLUNDER IN HUMAN HISTORY
Relying on an extremely erroneous UK statistical model that projected 2.2 million U.S. deaths from the Wuhan novel coronavirus, scientists and governments committed an unprecedented blunder. Concomitantly, nefarious Democrats and liberal media seek to level the economy to remake it in their socialist image, and sabotage President Trump’s reelection as a catalyst. Accordingly, the left promotes damaging lockdowns and other unproven restrictions costing trillions of lost revenue, tens of millions of jobs, and untold damaged lives.
The left stokes public fear to foster acquiescence to state mandates, even apropos of riskless children. Leftists also capitalize on multitrillion-dollar Treasury stimulus to advance an unrelated redistributionist agenda, and to bail out profligate debt-ridden blue states.
ALARMISTS WRONGLY FOCUS ON INFECTIONS INSTEAD OF DEATHS. CONTRACTING THE VIRUS IS LARGELY INNOCUOUS, EXCEPT FOR THE ELDERLY WITH UNDERLYING IMMUNO-DEFICIENCIES. ALL OTHERS ARE ASYMPTOMATIC OR RECOVER. MEANWHILE, THE MORTALITY RATE IS A FRACTION OF 1%, AS THE VIRUS ATTENUATES ON ITS OWN. AS SUCH, GOVERNMENT SHOULD ABOLISH ALL RESTRICTIONS NOW, WHILE ENCOURAGING THE VOLUNTARY QUARANTINE OF THE ELDERLY. 5/27/20
I WANT MY DINER BACK
Everyone yearns to return to a favorite activity when COVID-19 passes. For me, it’s Saturday morning breakfast at my local diner. I pine for the bacon and eggs with assorted accessories as I sit for four hours at the end of the counter in a packed room. With Fox News on the television before me in closed captions (at my insistence), I pour through several publications - I’m sure to the wonderment of thousands of patrons who have seen me there over the years.
But now, still longing to get out of the house, I have to eat take-out in my car with the steering wheel in my lap. Instead of television news, I listen to successive radio broadcasts of NY Governor Cuomo and NJ Governor Murphy giving coronavirus updates. Dropping food, spilling coffee, and clumsily maneuvering newspapers, it’s not the same experience.
When I get home, I spend another four hours at the grand piano, relishing the thought that, unlike breakfast, the government can’t take this away. But I had a scare. Last week while playing, the doorbell rang. Answering it, my wife said, “There’s a federal official here.” For what?, I asked worriedly. “It’s the census taker.” Whew! 5/26/20
THE LEFT’S DREAM: COVID-19 IN PERPETUITY
Democrats and their media allies pursue their dream of a permanent COVID-19 pandemic to justify ongoing control, government stimulus and other unrelated spending. Officials repeatedly extend mitigation protocols to condition a fearful public to a false enduring coronavirus threat. Governments mandate continued lockdown, social distancing and mask-wearing despite no scientific basis for their efficacy. And nothing is ever mentioned of the natural dissipation of the disease, already in progress, that renders mitigation and testing superfluous. Indeed, any possible near-term fix is anathema, such as herd immunity and hydroxychloroquine.
The gradual reopening of the economy is underway with continued mask and social distancing mandates that preclude normalcy. In fact, authorities tout a "new normal" that will institutionalize those practices. Accordingly, businesses operating at fractional capacity could mean long lines to get in and a stopwatch atmosphere to prevent lingering inside. And, of course, smaller profits threaten their viability.
But failed commerce is part of the left’s game plan, which is to hurt Trump’s reelection bid, and continually shift societal reliance from the private sector to government. 5/18/20
IS A COVID-19 SOCIAL REVOLUTION BREWING?
Growing disaffection with COVID-19 lockdown mandates has bred animosity toward elected officials that yield increasing incidents of civil disobedience. Tyrannical governance could set the stage for massive backlash, as austerity breaks the orderly interaction between employee and employer, consumer and business, citizen and government. Political strife intensifies as nefarious leftist forces sow distrust for government as it uses the economic shutdown and authoritarian tactics to forge a new socialist order, and derail President Trump’s reelection.
The citizenry has become increasingly suspicious of scientific pronouncements based on bad models and manipulated death statistics. In particular, doubts grow about the assertions, contradictions and possible political motives of one Dr. Fauci. Is he in bed with the leftist enemy?
Could mass social angst flowing from lost freedoms and ruined livelihoods spur a revolution akin to the Vietnam War protests of the 1960s? Today’s authoritarian COVID-19 intervention seriously undermines the individual's enterprising legacy that undergirds the nation's prosperity. The response evidenced in protestations and acts of defiance can escalate quickly amid resistance. Is that on the horizon? 5/14/20
LEFTIST BASTIONS SEEK COVID-19 STIMULUS MONEY
It is so satisfying to see ultra-rich Marxist universities and well-off publicly-traded companies shamed into returning coronavirus stimulus funds. Waiting for the next round of handouts are media companies, and state and local governments.
The media industry seeks aid to compensate for ad revenues decimated by COVID-19. It laughably justifies the help by their (selective) stewardship of the First Amendment. Ninety-percent of journalists are avowed liberals. All local papers today are owned by large leftist media organizations that mime the politics of the New York Times. That gold standard has become a vapid hodgepodge of climate-change, diversity, inequality, #Metoo , and LGBT. The only honest content in local papers are the obituaries. Taxpayers must not fund these propagandists.
Spendthrift Democratic state and local governments also arrive at the federal trough. They too need to cover tax revenue shortfalls resulting from coronavirus-related unemployment and business shutdowns. If successful, they don’t have to cut bloated payrolls and outsize unfunded pension liabilities, or worry about raising taxes on a shrinking tax base.
Republicans in Congress must not cave to these pillars of the left. Let them eat cake! 4/24/20
THE LEFT WANTS TO DESTROY THE ECONOMY
The left wants to prolong the Chinese coronavirus lockdowns to maximize economic damage they hope will kill the president’s reelection bid. Indeed, mass media are in lockstep in opposition to re-opening the economy.
Leftists work to inflate death rates by ignoring comorbidity factors, thus justifying continued mitigation. The left also is united in opposing the promising hydroxochloroquine which possibly could end the pandemic almost overnight. In addition, the left is monolithically critical of Trump's every move, while trying to drive a wedge between the president and his health advisers. The current mantra claims Trump did not act soon enough, even though mass media dismissed the threat early on. Democrats try to exploit the crisis by forcing into aid packages liberal policies that failed in past legislation.
Leftists dream of continuing austerity right up to the election, preventing Trump’s effective rallies in the process. But there are indications the virus is abating. In fact, a new Israeli report claims it has only a six to eight week life span regardless of mitigation measures. This means all restrictions could be lifted soon allowing for significant economic recovery before the election, and for plenty of Trump rallies.
GOOD PROSPECTS FOR ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Once the COVID-19 threat is over, the stage may be set for a robust economic recovery that could restore pre-crisis prosperity fairly shortly, albeit not without fits and starts. Unlike past recessions, the current malaise occurred on the heels of good economic fundamentals in respect of employment, consumption, production, housing and inflation. And unprecedented government assistance will sustain workers and small businesses through the storm.
Some expect massive pent up demand to fuel a full recovery. However, there is some uncertainty about the timing of demand and supply coming into balance. This will depend on coordinated re-hiring, spending, and business investment amid renewed consumer and business confidence.
The price is unexpected trillions added to the national debt and tens of billions of unrelated wasteful spending, some of which will be baked into the budget baseline for years. What’s more, already overleveraged companies will be further indebted from government credit facilities. In addition, a possible doubling of the Fed’s inflated balance sheet from new crisis lending and additional quantitative easing will further complicate a normalization of ultra-low interest rates still distorted from the Great Financial Crisis.
CAN WE TRUST THE COVID-19 SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY? The Wall Street Journal and others reported that the main impetus for President Trump’s social-distancing and lockdown strategy was a report published by Imperial College London. Shockingly, it projected 2.2 million coronavirus deaths in the U.S. absent a rigorous containment and mitigation policy. To date about 1,000 have died. Does this study pass the smell test? Apparently not for Trump anymore as he anticipates ending his lockdown by Easter.
Scientists and business people fundamentally differ in how they perceive problems. Scientists tend to seek clinical near-certainty according to rigid protocols to validate conclusions. Oftentimes risk-taking is tempered by a fear of failure because human life hangs in the balance. Business people rely on a less empirical risk-reward calculus that may entail uncertain tradeoffs of human, economic and political variables. Hence, the apparent divide between commercial-minded Trump and his COVID-19 health advisers regarding the resumption of normal business activity amid the still extant coronavirus.
Of course, politics by its nature inevitably pervades all aspects of life inasmuch as selfish motives always loom. COVID-19 medical experts may honestly recommend action according to their clinical findings that ignore massive economic consequences. But in view of the dubious outcome projected by the Imperial College London study, one might suspect an anti-Trump political agenda, even outside the U.S. Prescribing a strategy that would destroy the U.S. economy and unseat Trump in November could be just what the (dishonest) doctor ordered. Or not. Has the scientific community politicized the coronavirus against Trump?
This speculation about using the coronavirus as a tool to influence the 2020 presidential election has become as politically sensitive as questioning Obama’s birthplace. In fact, even conservative Fox News suspended (fired?) host Trish Regan for passionately opining on it. Indeed, the left has intimidated the right into shunning conspiracy theories regardless of merit.
A COVID-19 cabal would not be the first special interest to compromise the scientific community. Recall bogus statistical extrapolations in the 1980s that projected AIDS would wipe out much of the American population. Propagandists democratized the disease by scaring the public into believing the general population was at risk, including children. This was to hide the fact that, with scant exception, only gays and drug addicts contracted the disease, then and now. What’s more, some health officials expanded the definition of AIDS to inflate reported infections to inspire more donations for research.
And consider the climate-change Cassandras in media. They pressure compliant scientists who fear losing their research money and jobs if they stray from green orthodoxy. Predictions of widespread temperature extremes, receding Arctic ice and underwater cities never materialized. Researchers manipulated data to skew results for political benefit as exposed in the University of East Anglia’s bombshell revelations in 2011. How many scientists support the canard that we have only 12 years to save the planet?
I’m not ready to impugn the integrity of the COVID-19 scientists. But history shows that when the political stakes are sufficiently high, there are few saints, even in the laboratory. Is the intense, even worldwide, hatred for President Trump enough for science and media to join forces once again? 3/26/20
FREE THE CORONAVIRUS
It's time to consider the economic side of the COVID-19 equation. After a 15 day commitment to a health policy of social distancing involving lockdown restrictions, President Trump is ready to end the austerity and permit all business activity. This is particularly fitting in view of the Democrat attempt to hold the economy hostage in order to extort Republicans into caving to unrelated concessions in the coronavirus economic stimulus bill. They include such sops as more union representation on corporate boards and higher airlines emission standards.
The new approach should let the coronavirus spread naturally and then taper off like all other diseases. Meantime, the elderly and others with autoimmune deficiencies may be voluntarily sequestered and fully accommodated for needed amenities. Experience shows that the vast majority of non-elderly likely will manifest little or no symptoms. Hospitalizations should be reevaluated for a home care alternative. On this basis all economic activity would be restored while monitoring the tradeoff against the death rate.
If successful, this plan would restore prosperity and save taxpayers trillions of dollars as it renders the economic stimulus bill largely unnecessary, much to the Democrats’ dismay. 3/24/20
ARE COVID-19 SCIENTISTS SELFISHLY AVOIDING A BETTER WAY?
Can health policy arrest the coronavirus without requiring economically devastating mitigation measures? Since the vast majority of non-elderly carriers suffer little or no symptoms, why the disruptive restrictions? Officially, they are to suppress ALL infection so it does not spread to the immunity-compromised elderly (and non-elderly). Alternatively, why not consensually sequester that group for the duration of the outbreak and lift restrictions on everyone else? This would relieve the current economic and social upheaval.
Officials assert that since COVID-19 is more contagious and deadly than predecessor viruses, illness and morbidity among the vulnerable elderly would increase exponentially without lockdowns. Is this necessarily true? Permitting the unfettered spread of the coronavirus (while quarantining the vulnerable) could result in a blanket natural immunity that could radically reduce infection. The policy would render lockdowns unnecessary. This is under consideration in the UK. Why not here?
Resistance might stem from fear of a greater outbreak and attendant reputational damage, absent an ameliorative vaccine. But don’t the mammoth economic and social costs of mass lockdown warrant that risk? 3/23/20
THE MEDIA COVER UP THE INNOCUOUSNESS OF THE CORONAVIRUS
The media seem to avoid reporting about the severity of the Chinese coronavirus. There’s copious coverage about containing it, and about hospitals operating at overcapacity. But how sick are the infected? In most cases, probably not much. But the media act like the COVID-19 were equivalent to the universally fatal Ebola virus.
The coronavirus is relatively innocuous for victims not having underlying respiratory and autoimmune problems. And rarely mentioned is the fact that victims who die are on average 80 years old who might have passed from other ailments, or natural causes. One wonders if most victims could nurse themselves at home with OTC medications as with the flu. How many are hospitalized, not for suffering, but as a containment measure to perpetuate the obsession with contagion?
A cost-benefit analysis that weighs the economic and social consequences of containment against the benefit of avoiding or recovering from the common flu highlights the gross overreaction of government-mandated lockdowns.
Why are the media concealing the relative innocuousness of the coronavirus? Because that revelation would nullify the justification for the lockdowns that tank the economy and threaten Trump’s reelection. 3/20
CORONAVIRUS AND AIDS
The hysteria over the COVID-19 virus is reminiscent of the AIDS scare spread throughout the 1980s when mass media terrorized the public into believing the general population was at risk. But in fact, only two risk groups have ever existed: male homosexuals and intravenous drug users. Some alarmists extrapolated current infection rates ad infinitum as to project the eradication of half the U.S. population. “Safe sex” was the analogue of today’s lockdowns. Propagandists also expanded the definition of AIDS to elevate the infection rate.
The aim of the sensationalism was to dispel the opprobrium that befell the gay community as a source of the disease, and to create mass fear to attract research money. Well into the 1990s people finally got wise to the lies, and even some AIDS activists had to confess their fraud.
Politics suffuses the coronavirus coverage as well. Anything that projects government power appeals to the left. Government lockdown mandates and bloated government stimulus programs make liberals smile. The left exaggerates the severity of the coronavirus to maximize hysteria. They hope that will destroy the economy and derail Trump’s reelection. For the same reason, the left continually discredits Trump’
STOP THE MADNESS!
Government mandated lockdowns in reaction to the COVID-19 virus unnecessarily destroy a beautiful economy and a record stock market. 95% of the population sacrifices for the benefit of the 5%, that being the sickly elderly. As I previously suggested, resources ought to be concentrated on protecting the vulnerable elderly to include their quarantine, and let the rest of the country get on with their lives.
Contracting the Chinese novel coronavirus among the non-elderly is no big deal. For the vast majority, it’s less serious than the seasonal flu, notwithstanding the coronavirus’ higher contagion rate. Some medical people have said half the population will get the virus anyway. What’s more, the reported low death rate for the coronavirus is actually even lower because of the inability to establish the true number infected. It is distorted because of the absence of sufficient testing kits, and a current selection bias toward the infected who are sick and thus more likely to die. The unknown is the number of infected who have not been tested, and those infected without symptoms who will likely never be tested.
At some point the austerity will create a backlash if the coronavirus continues. The overkill will become apparent and cries of protest will ensue.
END THE CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWN
The economic cost of arresting the COVID-19 virus through blanket closures that devastate the quality of life is too disruptive. The focus should center on isolating the elderly having underlying immune-compromising conditions. After all, the average age of death from the virus is 80. No need to shutter schools and businesses.
The perennial flu afflicts and kills far more than the coronavirus without massive economic dislocation. Like the flu, the coronavirus should be allowed to spread organically and run its course while concentrating resources on the sickly elderly. It is reported 85% of those infected experience little or no symptoms.
Indeed, the coronavirus spreads much faster than the flu and kills at a considerably higher rate. As such, mass containment aims to minimize the number of infected and thus limit the spread to the defenseless elderly. Can’t a program insulate the elderly while the rest of the population functions normally, except for the temporary debilitation of some of those infected? How about quarantine of the vulnerable elderly?
The severe economic and social impact of massive lockdown, as well as the cost of remediation, are too much for a policy that may not be necessary or even effective.
©2020 - 2022 William J. Dodwell
COVID-19 FINANCE: A REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT
By William J. Dodwell April 13, 2020
The 2008 financial crisis centered principally on the housing and financial sectors that spawned the subprime loan debacle in all its ramifications. By contrast, the novel coronavirus crisis cuts across all economic sectors that produce and consume goods and services. What’s more, the economic impact is more extensively global than the Great Financial Crisis. Hence, the historical scale and scope of the fiscal and monetary stimulus implemented by the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve Bank.
The genesis
Government-mandated lockdowns to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus have frozen the national economy. As a consequence, businesses, as well as states and municipalities, have to frantically raise cash to cover operating losses and debt service in the face of dramatic revenue shortfalls. And in the process, tens of millions of furloughed workers lose their income. What’s more, investors, besides liquidating stocks, initially generated a massive sell-off of Treasuries that led to serious illiquidity throughout the credit markets shutting off desperate borrowers.
Then the Federal Reserve rode to the rescue with a mammoth liquidity infusion that has stabilized the credit markets, and might have started a growing investor rotation from bonds back to stocks. In addition, ultra-low interest rates attendant to the new liquidity prompt extensive business borrowing to raise cash.
The Fed stimulus
The Fed, with the help of a $30 billion equity investment from the Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund, has provided a $2.3 trillion package of loans in response to the economic ravages of the coronavirus crisis. All loans are issued by banks which can sell them to the Fed while retaining a required 5% interest. Fed accommodations include the following:
- A 1% cut in the benchmark interest rate to near zero.
- Additional lending to the financial sector through more reverse repurchase agreements.
- Expanded securities purchases (quantitative easing) beyond traditional Treasuries and agency mortgage-backed securities, now to include municipal bonds, as well as below-investment grade corporate bonds and ETFs.
- Loans to businesses with up to 10,000 employees and less than $2.5 billion of 2019 revenue, along with a one-year deferral of principal and interest payments.
- Purchases of corporate commercial paper to backstop inadequate market participation.
- Loans to finance investor purchases of AAA rated asset-backed securities through the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF). This program, revived from the 2008 crisis, supports the securitization of auto loans, credit card receivables, trade receivables, leases and student loans affecting a cross-section of economic activity. The facility also finances the purchase of AAA commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) and collateralized loan obligations (CLOs).
- Temporary relaxation of a regulatory capital requirement; banks may omit Treasuries and central bank deposits from the leverage ratio (core capital/assets).
The Treasury stimulus
At the same time, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES), a $2.2 trillion initial spending and loan package for individuals, municipalities, and businesses of all sizes to reignite consumption and production. It includes the following:
- A one-time cash payment of up to $1,200 to workers and retirees.
- Bank loans to small businesses to finance payroll that are forgiven if employees are retained..
- Bank loans guaranteed by the SBA to shore up operations.
- Payroll assistance and loans to the hard-hit airline industry, partially in consideration of disputed stock warrants.
- Loans to states and local governments serving populations over 500,000.
- Expanded unemployment benefits, some of which match or exceed lost salaries.
And more is coming, subject to Democratic extortion to add sundry unrelated special-interest spending. President Trump has proposed an additional $250 billion for small business. Also under discussion is a proposal for guaranteed private company paychecks. The Treasury, that is taxpayers, will absorb defaults of its loan, as well as those of the Fed. But even with government aid, companies face a liquidity squeeze from radical revenue declines. CFOs are issuing bonds, extending credit lines and cutting costs to get by.
How is so much government debt affordable? Financial markets presume that the historical good faith and credit of the U.S. government always will attract global investment in Treasuries and thus enable federal borrowing on demand at reasonable cost. In addition, the Fed has always been able to create money by fiat to ensure currency with which to buy the debt while usually avoiding serious inflation through robust economic growth. Witness the dramatic rise in federal debt to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis. While the COVID-19 emergency may justify the current government extravagance, and the inherent power of the economy permits certain excess, there is a limit to a nation’s means and the ability to live beyond it. Too much moral hazard is dangerous in a free market economy.
Inflation
At some point the new liquidity could unleash dangerous inflation. Surprisingly, it did not materialize from the monetary stimulus following the 2008 financial crisis. That is because that money redounded to the financial sector creating inflated financial assets instead of overpriced goods and services in the real economy as investors sought to escape near-zero interest rates. (Also tempering inflation have been global competition and productivity from technological advances and deregulation.) But in the long-term that capital will migrate from the financial sector to the real economy, perhaps to create inflationary pressures.
But the multi-trillion dollar coronavirus monetary and fiscal stimulus is more targeted to industry and impacts all sectors of the real economy making eventual goods inflation seemingly compelling. In the extreme, this would engender growth-stifling taxes and interest rate hikes that could lead to government and corporate ratings downgrades and more burdensome debt service. Highly indebted companies that cannot roll over coronavirus debt could precipitate widespread defaults and bankruptcies that further suppress the economy. On the other hand, some additional inflation would be salutary in that it eventually forces up interest rates to normal levels. That outcome has eluded the Fed for over a decade.
Recovery
The coronavirus bailout and GDP decline will likely raise the federal debt to GDP ratio to approximately 120%, up from about 40% before the Great Financial Crisis. At the same time, demands on Social Security and Medicare escalate sharply as legions of baby-boomers retire. One has to wonder how much all this fiscal drag will affect future growth. And conservatives worry about the increasing interventions of the Fed and Treasury in the private sector that foster growing dependence on government, and perhaps a societal appetite for socialist policy.
Pre-crisis prosperity and the government backstop against coronavirus losses during the downturn suggest the economy’s ability to rebound fairly quickly in the short-term in a V-shaped or U-shaped recovery. But, while pent up demand will create an initial spark, some consumers may hold back until they make up lost income. Likewise, some employers may not rehire all employees as a cost-saving measure. In addition, depleted investment portfolios may have a reverse wealth-effect that deters normal spending. If these factors combine with a recurrent coronavirus outbreak, a longer term W-shaped recovery is more likely.
More importantly, the long-term outlook could be plagued by growth-sapping deficits and debt, taxes, suppressed corporate earnings and muted stock valuations that preclude a return to normalcy that was the Trump economy. The solution is a strong pro-growth agenda that supports investment and innovation, principally through tax incentives and regulatory relief. But that prospect is doomed if President Trump is not reelected in November. In any case, government spending has to be reigned in significantly to generate the growth that can enable meaningful debt reduction. No president has been inclined to do that for some time
©2020 William J. Dodwell
NEW STUDY: COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS ARE NOT EFFECTIVE
By William J. Dodwell April 20, 2020
Last week Professor Yitzhak Ben-Israel of Tel Aviv University and advisory board member for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries released a study that negates the need for COVID-19 business shutdowns and home shut-ins.
Here’s my analysis.
Challenge to the conventional wisdom
If Ben-Israel is right, government mandated stay-at-home orders and economic closures have been a colossal waste and inconvenience. His findings reveal that the Chinese novel coronavirus infections in the U.S., UK, Sweden, Italy, Israel, Switzerland, France, Germany and Spain display the same pattern in which they peak in the sixth week, subside sharply in the eighth week, and then fade away thereafter REGARDLESS OF QUARANTINE POLICY.
This flies in the face of Dr. Fauci’s and Dr. Birx’s mantra of “mitigate, mitigate, mitigate” and renews some credence to the “do nothing” approach. The study shows the coronavirus has its own life cycle that plays out independently of disruptive interventions, such as lockdowns. Apparently, this means infections rise, peak and fall on their own, even in the absence of human assemblages. Until now, experts have claimed infection denouement occurs because of improved mitigation. Is it really improved? Ben-Israel’s study indicates the decline in infections is entirely inherent in the DNA of the virus according to a fixed timetable. Lockdowns do not “bend the curve”. However, he does recommend moderate mitigation through social distancing, masks and hygiene to prevent contagion, apparently where the virus is in proximity to human clusters. He notes this practice has minimal economic impact, unlike massive lockdowns.
COVID-19 death toll does not warrant the cost of massive lockdowns
If the coronavirus mainly abates on its own, why not let it run its course unimpeded like flu viruses, despite the absence of a vaccine? Yes, the coronavirus is more contagious and virulent, and it requires more hospitalizations that threaten capacity. These have been the reasons for unprecedented mitigation through coronavirus lockdowns not considered for SARS, West Nile, H1N1 and seasonal flu. But, although the coronavirus may be more severe, the number of deaths from COVID-19 generally is not higher than for seasonal flu. So, why incur such a huge cost for COVID-19 mitigation through economic closures that have no effect on the life of the coronavirus? The coronavirus morbidity rate as a percent of cases is unknown until testing determines the total number of coronavirus infections (the denominator). That result will truly establish the comparative severity of the virus. When that denominator is quantified, the coronavirus death rate is expected to compare with that of other pathogens, which is much lower than currently reported rates.
Ultimately, the tradeoff consists of the incremental deaths resulting from no lockdown over deaths occurring during lockdown. Those extra deaths should be assessed as a percentage of the population as compared with that of other pathogen outbreaks. De minimis results do not justify the severity of mass economic shutdown, especially considering the short life cycle of the virus which limits damage. At the same time, the burden is on the vulnerable populations to self-quarantine or risk death while everyone else returns to normalcy, except for soft mitigation practices while the virus lasts.
I submit the fear of contagion, regardless of high case numbers, also does not warrant national lockdowns any more than the flu does. This is true especially considering the vast majority of coronavirus infections are asymptomatic or only mildly uncomfortable. More importantly, morbidity is relatively low and, according to Ben-Israel, infections stop on their own after about eight weeks. As such, even if lockdowns are effective, infections do not warrant lockdowns. If lockdowns are feckless, as the study finds, they are moot and a quasi-do nothing approach seems a reasonable option. What’s more, this laissez faire strategy permits herd immunity to set in to complement the natural expiration of the virus. No lockdown necessary.
Trump’s lockdown relied on a grossly flawed UK model of projected U.S. deaths
Neil Ferguson, a researcher with Imperial University London developed a model that indicated doing nothing about the coronavirus would have resulted in 2.2 million U.S. deaths. On this basis, President Trump, in concurrence with his medical team, decided to put the nation in lockdown mode. But experts subsequently rejected that figure out of hand. I too reported it suspect by the fact it is about 100 times Ferguson’s death projection for the UK, despite the U.S having only five times the population. (Ferguson lowered his initial UK death estimate by 96%.) So, President Trump’s lockdown is not only unjustified on the basis of Ben-Israel’s study, it also is unwarranted because it was predicated on a terribly erroneous statistical model.
Nonetheless, the 2.2 million projected deaths have become a political straw man by which to tout the faux effectiveness of mitigation by citing the difference between that wildly inflated figure and actual deaths, that are currently projected to be only about 60,000. But whatever the number of lives saved through mitigation, lockdown did not contribute to it, according to Ben-Israel. Therefore, he calls for quickly getting back to work en masse while continuing non-economic mitigation practices, such as social distancing, the wearing of masks, and hygene.
No “new normal”
If Dr. Ben-Israel’s thesis is valid, speculation about a “new normal” characterized by government-mandated sacrifice and economic destruction is misguided. The uniform independent genetic course of the Chinese novel coronavirus over an eight week life cycle renders lockdowns unnecessary. The need for moderate mitigation practices in the future would depend on the recurrence of the virus, which may not happen. In any case, never again should the nation have to endure undue government intrusion on individual freedoms, or suffer ineffective economic closures. Other pandemics such as SARS did not require that interference, and those pathogens have not recurred. Quite possibly, the coronavirus will not return either. Life went on after 9/11 and again after the 2008 financial crisis. It should continue unchanged in the aftermath of COVID-19. The people must see to it.
To be sure, COVID-19 is a serious blight. Those who fear it have the choice to self-quarantine. But any collective remedy must be risk-proportional and selectively focus on the vulnerable. Even Dr. Ben-Israel’s study aside, mass lockdowns that derail nearly the entire populace and severely damage the economy in reaction to deaths that likely constitute a small sliver of the population are not justified. Now, in view of Dr. Ben-Israel’s evidence documenting the lockdown’s irrelevance to the duration of the virus, avoidance is a compelling option.
Hysteria and politics have created much wrong-headed thinking. Fortunately, a backlash against abuse has emerged. Eventually, a likely vaccine and cure will render the issue academic.
©2020 William J. Dodwell
COVID-19 ABATES ON ITS OWN, SO HOW IMPORTANT IS MITIGATION?
By William J. Dodwell April 28, 2020
·As new Chinese coronavirus infections decline, Democrat governors take victory laps for their successful containment policies. But in a recent essay I cited an Israeli study that concluded that lockdowns are not effective because the virus independently and instinctively infects according to a genetically determined eight-week life cycle. Seehttps://lnkd.in/geDmhWj This might suggest the current tapering off of the virus is occurring largely on its own as it approaches natural expiration. Does this mean the virus is unresponsive to social distancing and masks as well, thus rendering them unnecessary, like lockdowns? Or, how effective is mitigation in light of the inherent behavior of the virus? Also ignored by media is a recent article in The Wall Street Journal about a study that documents the ineffectiveness of lockdowns. See https://www.wsj.com/articles/do-lockdowns-save-many-lives-is-most-places-the-data-say-no-11587930911
Misguided decisions
If the coronavirus independently runs its course in only about eight weeks, the severe economic and social consequences of mitigation have been for naught. This is because the virus is not responsive to lockdown, and because infection abates and stops fairly shortly anyway. The same applies to the current effort to test and contact-trace as many as possible to detect and isolate the infected in order to curb the spread of a waning virus. Nonetheless, many support continuing lockdown until far-reaching testing, and even re-testing, show a sustained decline in all infections, not just symptomatic ones recorded thus far.
Besides controlling the spread of the virus, the testing is done to establish the number of total infections (the denominator) and thereby the real death rate that enables a determination of the seriousness of the coronavirus relative to other pandemics. If the true COVID-19 morbidity rate is comparable to that of other pathogens, a do-nothing approach that relies on herd immunity would have be justified. However, conditioning the re-start of the economy on this testing is unnecessary as it can be conducted independently of mitigation. In fact, it can continue after the virus passes.
Additional testing to identify antibodies from the infected with which to immune others is also independent of mitigation protocol. So why delay re-opening the economy? The effects of a possible resurgence do not outweigh the costs of lockdown, which studies show is ineffectual anyway.
The coronavirus expires naturally
Both new infections and hospitalizations, grossly overestimated at the outset, are declining as the coronavirus nears the end of its life cycle. This suggests that both its quantity and severity are attenuating, consistent with any dying organism. Is this diminution independent of mitigation? If so, restrictions should end. A possible new outbreak that may ensue might just be a last DNA-driven gasp rather than a response to renewed human activity. If not, re-starting the economy is worth the risk.
Lessons learned
In the final analysis, government has mandated extensive mitigation that ruined the economy in order to safeguard against a death rate that tests indicate is likely a fraction of 1%, comparable to the seasonal flu and other pandemics. What’s more, among those infected, some 80% displayed no symptoms. This relative innocuousness could justify a do-nothing response to an outbreak with its benefit of herd immunity, as originally entertained in some quarters. Also buttressing inaction is a better understanding of the nature of the coronavirus in respect of its reported independence from mitigation practices.
In any case, the onus is on the vulnerable population to self-quarantine with accommodations from government, or risk infection on their own. Those at risk are mainly the elderly, especially those in nursing homes. One should not expect other populations to sacrifice on their behalf through unnecessary mitigation that devastates the economy and quality of life.
The left is determined to hurt Trump and government tightens the noose
The limits of mitigation notwithstanding, Democrats and the media are hellbent on promoting hysteria aimed at garnering support for prolonged lockdown and social distancing. The object is to ensure that resultant economic damage and social discord hurt President Trump’s reelection chances. Mainstream media have ignored studies that document the ineffectiveness of lockdowns because they undermine their anti-Trump objective. The left conditions the lifting of restrictions on the completion of overly extensive testing and impracticable contact-tracing as a means to prolong the shutdown.
Liberals uniformly have downplayed the promising curative prospects of hydroxychloroquine, as that might end the crisis a little too soon. And one has to wonder about the motive for expanding the definition of a coronavirus death. Accordingly, in some quarters health officials inflate the body count by ignoring comorbidity factors and classifying death on the basis of symptoms without a positive test result. And many talk about a “new normal” by which certain mitigation will continue indefinitely beyond the life of the virus. Why would COVID-19 be a permanent threat?
The newfound power of governors to control lives through mandates at the expense of constitutional rights marks a godsend to leftist Democrats and their media allies. Many acquiesce to their tyranny out of hysteria conjured by media. In addition, generous economic stimulus programs ingratiate the public to the federal government. These policies set the stage for further intrusion as people accept behavior modification directives, and become inured to growing dependency on government. This incrementalist move toward socialism is another reason why the left wants to sustain state lockdowns.
The path forward
Austere mitigation was predicated initially on highly erroneous projections of infections, hospitalizations and deaths. But as a result, the country is well stocked with supplies for the next pandemic and higher on the learning curve. But now that reality is becoming clear, it is time for serious adjustments. The coronavirus life cycle is nearing a natural terminus, its potency diminished. Prolonged restrictions are not necessary, if ever effective in the first place. Re-open the economy now.
©2020 William J. Dodwell
AMERICA, START YOUR ENGINES. END COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS NOW
By William J. Dodwell May 11, 2020
Liberal delay tactics
The left is trying to prolong COVID-19 lockdowns as much as possible to hurt President Trump in the November election. Leftist celebrities en masse promote staying indoors. Democrats and the liberal media ignore studies that challenge the efficacy of lockdowns. They also vigorously oppose the very promising prospects of hydroxychloroquine that might inconveniently end the pathogen quickly. Mysteriously, even Dr. Fauci is a naysayer, despite his past praises for the drug as a treatment for corona viruses. Governors move the goalposts for reopening the economy from bending the curve, to fourteen days of consecutive declines in deaths, to maximum testing for infection, to completion of contact tracing, to waiting for a supposedly imminent vaccine. Lockdown advocates emphasize the danger of a second outbreak which inhibits austerity relaxation. With no scientific basis liberals even speak of a “new normal” to condition the citizenry to a permanent pall over social and economic life that lends itself to ongoing government control. This socialist mindset underlies the Democrat craving for evermore government stimulus to further the left’s agenda, virus related or not.
Liberals carp about President Trump’s mismanagement of the pandemic, particularly the testing programs. In fact, impracticable universal testing and associated contact tracing as a condition for restarting the economy conveniently deter a return to normality. The media promote fear mongering about the danger of prematurely reopening the economy, even saying Trump will kill people by taking that risk. Anything to delay economic recovery before the election and otherwise tarnish Trump to influence the vote. Fortunately, continued lockdowns are producing a growing backlash to the detriment of Democrat governors.
Inflated death counts
Death tolls are inflated by expanded definitional criteria, including co-morbidity factors, which exaggerate the impact of the disease. Media mislead the public by reporting a mortality rate of about 7% of infections, ignoring valid extrapolations to account for the untested that suggest a real rate of just a fraction of 1%, comparable to seasonal flu. Media rarely report about inflated deaths caused by deliberate misclassifications by hospitals induced by extra Medicare payments that slow the flattening of the curve and the reopening of the economy. Hospitals get $13,000 for each COVID-19 related death and an additional $39,000 for use of a ventilator, which sports an 80% fatality rate.
The cure is worse than the disease
The economic and social costs of lockdown far exceed the dubious benefit of risk mitigation, especially considering exaggerated death rates. At this point the virus is waning on its own and probably becoming less potent. What’s more, it may have been resistant to mitigation all along. Nonetheless, the most vulnerable population must be protected, i.e., the elderly, especially those in nursing homes. In addition, certain precautions are still warranted in the New York metropolitan epicenter. Officials can closely monitor signs of a second wave of infections and act upon it immediately given appropriate preparations.
With that caveat, largely politically motivated restrictions should be lifted now and everyone should be allowed to act according to his risk appetite. People will continue to die, albeit at a declining rate, as the virus is powerful to be sure. But now we know the price of the disease is consistent with past scourges and that expectations of Armageddon are unfounded. America, start your engines.
©2020 William J. Dodwell
PERMANENT COVID-19 SOCIAL-DISTANCING AND MASKING: A LEFTIST RUSE
By William J. Dodwell
May 21, 2020
As the nation transitions from lockdown to reopening the economy, one has to question the need and effectiveness of continued social-distancing and masking to contain the spread of the Wuhan virus. Given the miniscule statistical risk of serious illness or death in the non-vulnerable population, the economic and social costs of these practices far exceed the health risks. As such, governments may reasonably eliminate these mitigation mandates while protecting the vulnerable elderly population, especially those in nursing homes. What’s more, the novel coronavirus is likely approaching the end of its natural lifecycle, perhaps irrespective of mitigation, as some studies indicate, especially amid warmer weather.
The cost-benefit calculus
Like sheltering-in-place, the effectiveness of masking has been challenged. See
https://www-theblaze-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.theblaze.com/news/2020/05/15/former-neurosurgeon-masks-ineffective/amp In fact, the CDC, the Surgeon General and Dr. Anthony Fauci himself had declared face masks ineffective before reversing themselves later when the politics intensified.
Unlike lockdowns and masking, scientific evidence supports the effectiveness of social-distancing. But the practice does not stand up to a cost-benefit analysis because the risk to the non-vulnerable population is so low. The relatively few deaths and serious illnesses that occur without social-distancing do not justify the mandated economic and social sacrifices of reduced capacity in all businesses and public venues.
Ongoing post-lockdown restrictions imposed on the non-vulnerable population will continue to throttle economic activity and suppress the quality of life unnecessarily. Also, government mandated social-distancing and masking foster public fear that inhibits a return to normalcy by creating the perception of a disease that is more serious than it is. The healthy should have the option to resume normal lives with no restrictions. This would contribute to a herd immunity that eventually can ward off future infection without the severe costs of mitigation measures.
The government ruse
Outdoor mitigation protocols and the closing of schools, whose young occupants are at virtually no risk, lack scientific validation. But that fact flies in the face of the left’s strategy to create the impression that everyone is at serious risk forevermore. That pretext justifies continued government mandates aimed at suppressing the economy in the hope of harming Trump’s reelection chances. In addition, exaggerating the danger facilitates long-term efforts to expand authoritarian control by which to advance the left’s socialist model.
Now the left wants to protract mitigation until a vaccine exists. But that will be no panacea. Like flu vaccines, half the population won’t get inoculated, and it likely will be ineffective for a substantial portion of those who do. When the vaccine is available the left will doubtless point out this limitation as an excuse to continue mitigation until a cure is discovered, as long as it is not the very promising Trump-endorsed hydroxychloroquine.
The return to normalcy
Restoring the pre-coronavirus economy requires removing all restrictions while protecting the elderly, in conjunction with their personal responsibility. Universal mitigation is unwarranted given that singular risk group. Continued mitigation mandates will prolong recovery indefinitely to the long-term detriment of the economy and the quality of life, and to the benefit of the left’s destructive agenda.
Mass refusal to comply with social-distancing and masking orders, considerably more than seen in reaction to lockdown directives, could be the solution. Ultimately, political pressure would force government to relent, as it did to ubiquitous civil disobedience during Prohibition.
©2020 William J. Dodwell
CORRUPTION IN THE COVID-19 COMMUNITY
By William J. Dodwell June 18, 2020
· In March I wrote an article entitled “Can We Trust the COVID-19 Scientific Community?”
Although skeptical, I was not ready to impugn that group’s integrity. But less than three months later, I conclude that, like climate-change and the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, the COVID-19 community is seriously compromised. This charge applies to certain scientists, hospitals, researchers, elected Democrat officials, medical literature, pharmaceutical firms, and health experts who have politicized or otherwise exploited COVID-19. How so? Let us count the ways.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) consorted with China to conceal the initial impact of the Wuhan coronavirus. Properly, President Trump withdrew U.S. membership costing the organization some $440 million annually.
- Many American epidemiologists openly support China’s prohibition against investigations into the Wuhan origin of the COVID-19 virus out of solidarity with the profession. This pandering to China undermines the search for a vaccine and adds to the death count. Could payoffs be at play here?
- The U.S. inaugurated nationwide lockdowns based on a now discredited 2.2 million U.S. coronavirus deaths projected by researcher Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London. But oddly, that was 100 times his projection for the UK, even though the U.S. has only five times the UK population. That error, on which President Trump relied with concurrence of Dr. Fauci, led to national alarm and grossly overestimated hospital capacity, equipment and supply requirements.
- Leading COVID-19 expert, Dr. Fauci, and Democrat governors kept moving the goal posts for a return to normalcy. Starting with just “bending the curve”, mass mitigation continued according to various timetables, including a wait for a vaccine in some quarters. The apparent attempt to delay economic recovery until November to hurt Trump’s reelection became increasingly transparent.
- Two prestigious medical journals, The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine, published articles about COVID-19 based on fraudulent data that bypassed the standard peer review process. Following objections raised by the medical community, the authors withdrew their works when they could not get the cooperation they needed from their data provider to respond to critics.
- Inflated death rates make the disease seem more serious than it is. They encourage longer and more draconian mitigation practices that suppress the economy to the detriment of President Trump’s reelection. Health officials redefined death to include comorbidities coincident with COVID-19. Some doctors said hospital authorities forced them to classify deaths as COVID-19 against their will. A particular motivation for hospitals is a government payment of $13,000 for each COVID-19 classified death, and $39,000 for each patient on a ventilator. In addition, some hospitals harboring COVID-19 patients proactively admitted and comingled non-COVID patients. What’s more, New York Governor Cuomo and other Democrat governors ordered nursing homes with non-COVID residents to accept COVID patients rather than send them to newly erected near-empty facilities. More than 5,000 deaths occurred thereafter in New York. To induce the nursing homes to comply, Cuomo surreptitiously enabled legislation that protected the owners from legal liability in exchange for a $1 million campaign contribution. What was the motive of these governors, hospitals and nursing homes? Might it be to swell the death count for political and economic purposes? Hey, they were going to die soon anyway.
- Johns Hopkins University epidemiologist, Jennifer Nuzzo, Democrat Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and others crusaded for social-distancing only to support an exception for Black Lives Matter protesters. Astonishingly, Nuzzo said the dangers of systemic racism exceed the virus. So much for science.
- Scientists, governors and media have engaged in a concerted effort to dismiss cheap hydroxachloraquine as a COVID-19 therapeutic, despite promising trials. Has the pharmaceutical industry orchestrated this cabal to permit the emergence of a new and much more lucrative substitute? What’s more, the media dismiss the drug simply because President Trump supports it. How’s that for journalism?
- Dr. Fauci and others support delaying school openings under the ruse of protecting children from infection and avoiding the spread to family members, despite evidence children are virtually immune to the virus. The political goal is to keep one parent out of work to care for a child and thus hamper the economic recovery.
- Reticence in the COVID-19 community about certain realities is suspect. Issues include: 1) The self-attenuation of the virus according to its genetic life cycle that one researcher says is about eight to ten weeks. 2) A considerable majority of cases are asymptomatic or involve only mild illness. 3) Asymptomatic cases do not transmit the disease. 4) Silence about indefinitely deferring a return to school, even though evidence shows the coronavirus does not affect children. 5) Studies show the ineffectiveness of lockdowns and masks. 6) The coronavirus does not spread efficiently in open air, especially in warm weather. 7) There's little mention of declining infection and death rates as aggressive testing programs identify undetected cases. This revelation would make the coronavirus seem too much like the seasonal flu.
- The contradictions about the effectiveness of masks. Both Dr. Fauci and Surgeon General Jerome Adams initially dismissed the need for masks only to revert to wearing them in public in response to the political winds.
- The left savors the prospect of a “new normal” founded on fear mongering and resultant acquiescence to government mandates, as well as on a new reliance on government assistance. This experience sets the stage for invoking COVID-19 again as a pretext for future malicious government interference.
- A unified force currently promotes an oncoming COVID-19 second wave to create alarm in the hope of blunting the reopening phase. In fact, certain researchers project hospitalizations and deaths that are orders of magnitude beyond both actual experience in the first wave and cases identified during a reopening. At one point, Dr. Fauci said definitively that a second wave is inevitable. He recanted later partly based on new testing results. The left misleads by reporting new cases identified from more extensive testing are actually second wave cases. In fact, they may be first wave cases that were not detected before the new testing regimen.
Mistruths and omissions about the nature of the Wuhan coronavirus, its scope, its severity, projections, mitigation protocols and therapeutics, abetted by economic and political interests, contributed to a grossly misjudged cost-benefit calculus. This has resulted in unnecessarily cratering the economy and spending several trillion dollars on stimulus. And the left continues the artifice in an effort to stall the recovery by delaying the reopening and propagating fear about a second wave to hurt President Trump in the November election. Indeed, like climate-change, and AIDS in the 1980s, much COVID-19 reporting skirts science in favor of self-interest.
©2020 William J. Dodwell
DR. FAUCI IS A COVID-19 FRAUD
By William J. Dodwell July 3, 2020
· Why does President Trump not replace Dr. Fauci with another prominent spokesperson from the scientific community who would rebut the COVID-19 propaganda aimed at sabotaging the economic reopening and undermining his reelection? Mysteriously, Dr. Fauci, who is corroborative or reticent about the misinformation, has been the only superstar speaking on behalf of the Administration. A few dissenting rank and file scientists have appeared sporadically in the media, but Trump needs the regular presence of a stellar naysayer of Fauci’s stature before he was corrupted.
An esteemed expert under the auspices of the president must expose the truth and repudiate the fallacies spread by the media to allay the fear that deters an economic recovery.
- The oft-cited number of infection cases is not important. As such, the emphasis on testing and contact tracing that multiplies the count is misguided, except for computing an accurate fatality rate. But the left promotes a current surge as a pretext to roll back economic reopenings. The virus cannot be contained substantially by its nature and even intensifies indoors such as during lockdowns. Most Americans probably have been exposed without consequence. The vast majority of confirmed cases are asymptomatic or only mildly ill. Children are virtually immune and do not spread the disease. The elderly as the principal risk group by far should be the focus. (80% of deaths have been over 65.)
- Only rates of hospitalization and deaths are significant indices of COVID-19 severity. Heretofore, fatalities are commensurate with the seasonal flu.
- COVID-19 deaths are inflated by co-morbidities and an expanded definition that now encompasses not only confirmed cases, but also those having only coronavirus symptoms, or contact with one who has tested positive. For example, one report cites a sample of seventeen cases of which only one tested positive. In addition, some have suggested that Democrat governors are incented to occasion deaths to save on Medicaid costs.
- Hospitalizations are inflated by government financial incentives to use ventilators and classify deaths as COVID-19 related. In addition, hospitals are admitting many mildly sick patients and extending their stays unnecessarily. This is to shore up profits by maximizing capacity utilization. The current faux surge in hospitalizations contributes to public hysteria the left tries to promote.
Dr. Fauci has lost credibility because of inconsistent statements and his failure to acknowledge the factors above of which he must be aware. As a liberal Democrat government bureaucrat, he is inimical to the president, regardless of his expressed objectivity. During the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s Fauci waffled over time on the question of whether heterosexuals were seriously at risk. The propaganda then preached that the general population was vulnerable when, in fact, AIDS always has been a gay disease that also afflicts intravenous drug abusers. Current CDC Director, Robert Redfield, was firmly in the propagandist camp at that time.
President Trump must appoint a prestigious truth teller to combat today’s propaganda and justify a complete return to economic and social normalcy that could save his presidency.
©2020 William J. Dodwell
The COVID-19 HOAX November 17, 2020 Dr. Roger Hodkinson
CDC withdraws fraudulent PCR testing protocol that was used to falsify covid
“positives” to push the pandemic
http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=364945
Inflated Covid hospitalizations
Government payments for Covid classified hospitalizations and death
Inflated Covid death counts
https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/514915-is-us-covid-19-death-count-inflated
People over 65 comprise seventy-eight percent of Covid deaths
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1254488/us-share-of-total-covid-deaths-by-age-group/
Large majority of Covid cases are mild or asymptomatic
AMA COVID propaganda letter to members September 8, 2021
INEFFECTIVENESS OF MASKS
DR. SCOTT ATLAS OF HOOVER INSTITUTE SPEAKS TRUTH ABOUT COVID-19
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZqGSnVt8c8 Censored by YouTube
Global Covid Summit physicians declaration October 2021
https://doctorsandscientistsdeclaration.org/
Top U.S. "Non-Profit" Hospitals & CEOs Racked Up Huge Pandemic Profits May 10, 2023
CULTURE
FINANCE & the ECONOMY