Nashville authorities cover up proof bars & restaurants do not spread COVID-19

Local authorities in the mayor’s office and health department in Nashville, rather than release the data and open things up, kept secret evidence that showed there was no reason to close bars or restaurants. [The quote below comes from a local Fox TV news story that has since been taken down.]

Emails between the mayor’s senior advisor and the health department reveal only a partial picture. But what they reveal is disturbing. The discussion involves the low number of coronavirus cases emerging from bars and restaurants and how to handle that and most disturbingly, how to keep it from the public.

On June 30th, contact tracing was giving a small view of coronavirus clusters. Construction and nursing homes causing problems more than a thousand cases traced to each category, but bars and restaurants reported just 22 cases.

Leslie Waller from the health department asks “This isn’t going to be publicly released, right? Just info for Mayor’s Office?”

“Correct, not for public consumption.” Writes senior advisor Benjamin Eagles. [emphasis mine]

In other words, these corrupt officials, who appear quite typical of today’s government rank and file, had found in June that closing bars and restaurants was pointless, that their focus should be nursing homes and construction (though I suspect a deeper dive in the data would discount construction as well). Instead, they kept this data secret so that the lockdown of bars and restaurants could continue, putting thousands out of work.

The fact that they should have been focusing on nursing homes once again confirms the nature of this virus. Like the flu, it attacks the sick elderly, with everyone else barely noticing their symptoms, or if they do, recovering without serious harm.

A family struggles to complete a Knoxville to Nashville trip using an electric car

An exercise in absurdity: A family struggles to complete the 180 mile trip from Knoxville to Nashville using an electric car.

The Blink fast-charge station was on the blink. Efforts to use the two available plugs yielded nothing for Stephen Smith when he and his family arrived in Lebanon in their electric vehicle.

But all was not lost as the Smiths closed in on their destination – a brother’s house only 22 miles away in Antioch. With ten miles of available power left on their car, they could take advantage of a slower charger next to the other at the Blink station at Cracker Barrel. It took about an hour, but the boost gave enough energy for a total of 30 miles.

They also had to pay attention to whether the route was flat or hilly, as any hills significantly reduced their range of about 75 miles. In addition, they found that even that number was unreliable, and that often the maximum range the car could travel was far less.

Even the fast-charge station still needed about 30 minutes to charge up the car. Imagine having to wait 30 minutes every time you needed to fill up, and imagine having to do it every 70 miles.

There is a reason electric cars can’t compete with gasoline, and this journey illustrates it.