The Democrats now prove there never was any science behind their mandates
As noted by the Spirit of Christmas Present in Dickens’
The Christmas Carol, ‘This boy is ignorance, this girl is want.
Beware them both, but most of all beware this boy.’
Only months and years after most Republican Party governors and politicians had lifted or halted all mandates requiring masks or COVID shots or social distancing, in the past week Democrats in numerous places have suddenly decided that masks and COVID shots and social distancing have suddenly become unnecessary or ineffective, and have canceled almost all their government-edicts mandating such things.
- Science! Mask Mandate for Congress Lifted Just in Time for Biden’s State of the Union speech
- California, Oregon, Washington to End School Mask Mandates March 12
- New York to lift statewide school mask mandate by March 2
- NYC Mayor Eric Adams Plans to Drop Vaccine Mandate, Masks in Schools
Simultaneously, the CDC late last week finally loosened its mask recommendations, no longer demanding that Americans wear masks indoors or in many other circumstances.
What none of these announcements mentioned was any evidence of any new scientific results to justify the new recommendations or the loosening of mandates. These changes were based — not on new scientific results — but on the fear-based opinions of politicians and health bureaucrats who for the past two years have consistently based their edicts and mandates solely on emotions and politics, not scientific evidence, and were repeatedly wrong every single time.
That they happened to be correct now is not because they are basing their actions on any new”science”, but like a broken clock, even idiots can stumble on the truth once in awhile, by accident.
In this case however their stumbling is not entirely by accident. Polls have shown the public now sees through their lies and foolish mandates, and has had enough. These politicians and their minions in the CDC realized that if their mandates were not lifted now, the consequences for Democrats in future elections would be so horrible that even the worst projections appeared optimistic. To have any chance of saving their political hides in November the mandates had to end, now.
What must be emphasized again and again, however, is that in the past two years, none of the mask mandates were ever based on any science or research. Instead, these edicts were contrary to all research, which has for more than a hundred years shown that masks, even if worn properly, are ineffective in protecting you from viral infection. That research also showed that when worn improperly — which is how everyone wears their mask — masks are very unsanitary and likely to increase your chances of infection. (See my essay from July of 2020 outlining these basic and unchanged facts.)
As for the COVID shots, it has been clear since the summer of 2021 that they were not effective in protecting anyone from infection. Thus, the Democratic Party’s continuing demand that everyone get the jab for employment and for entering businesses as a customer was thus nonsensical, and has been for many months. The Democrats suddenly realized that the public now knows this, and if Democrats didn’t stop making believe the shots worked, they would find themselves very isolated and badly defeated in all future elections.
The real tragedy for our civilization however is not the last two years of economic collapse and loss of liberty, but the lost trust in science. The public no longer believes the proclamations of scientists, no matter how well based in facts those proclamations might be.
Scientists since the Renaissance had achieved an almost holy respect from the general public because for generations, scientists had put the search for truth above everything else. Every scientific “fact” had to be proven by independent research. Every theory had to be confirmed before accepted and then lauded by the scientific community. And when their theories turned out to be wrong scientists made it a point to immediately admit it.
Such honesty had built up for science an enormous reserve of trust. The public believed what scientists said because scientists were trustworthy. What they said was backed up by facts, or was rejected immediately when proven wrong.
No longer. That reserve of trust has been destroyed. It will take many years to rebuild it, if ever. The public now listens to any scientific pronouncement with great doubt.
And while skepticism and doubt is surely a healthy thing, too much skepticism can be equally bad. Should a real new deadly plague finally arrive in the coming years — something COVID never was — there is the real chance the public will not take it seriously when scientists declare its deadliness. “Nah, your just lying for power, like you did in the spring of 2020,” the public will say. “Why should we believe you?”
I can see only one way to quickly restore this trust, but that will require some cold-blooded house-cleaning in all government agencies and academic institutions and among all politicians who had falsely declared the Wuhan flu was next plague. These corrupt and incompetent individuals must be removed, quickly and quite publicly.
Only then will the scientific community begin to regain the trust it has spent more than four centuries building.
And if not, things will only grow worse as we descend into a new dark age of ignorance and superstition and fear.
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HERE IS SOMETHING TO THROW INTO THE MIX
“New Study Shows Pfizer MRNA Shot Becomes DNA In Just 6 Hours”
https://thewashingtonstandard.com/new-study-shows-pfizer-mrna-shot-becomes-dna-in-just-6-hours-video/
“Since the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was first approved under the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization on Dec. 11, 2020, the world has been told that the mRNA technology used in the vaccine would not integrate into or alter the DNA of those who took it.
There have been multiple “fact-checks” of this claim in multiple mainstream outlets like Reuters, Factcheck.org, and others. Many of them set out to debunk a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) pre-print study which made the claim that the novel coronavirus could modify human DNA but was misconstrued online by folks who claimed the vaccines altered DNA.”
Robert, the link for Cal/Or/Wa mandates should say March 12 not March 1. Even though the CDC (“science”) says we dont need masks anymore, our Despots in power say we have to endure another 11 days of them, why 11 days? who knows. And then they are still required for the health care facilities after that for the foreseeable future. So I still have to wear them if I go to a chiropractor, but I don’t need one if I go to the masseuse. Makes sense?
Kyle: Thank you. When I cut and pasted the headline I missed the last digit. Now fixed.
“What none of these announcements mentioned was any evidence of any new scientific results to justify the new recommendations or the loosening of mandates.”
It’s as if you’re unaware that since the introduction of the mandates many people have been vaccinated, many people have gained levels of immunity through being exposed, a milder strain now circulates, and better drugs are available to treat those that contract the virus.
You do understand that as circumstances change the strategies that are the best response change??
When anthropogenic global climate change hit the scene I said “When you mix politics with science, it’s not science any more.” Well, when you mix politics with medicine, it’s not medicine any more either.
I have a feeling, as more complete information becomes known to the general public, there are going to be a lot of very angry people who went out and got themselves and their children these injections and are finding out they made a terrible mistake.
t-dub:
When a company and a government agency that “Oversee” them want, no need there to be a 75 year moratorium on data / information regarding testing and a new and experimental drug, in this case an mRNA-based technology, I think it’s a good bet where that in the long term has the potential to lead.
The entire thing from beginning to end stinks to high heaven and has been a justified manipulation and a cluster collusion of and between all concerned IMO. All under the cover of a declared health emergency in the efforts to test and prove en masse this new technology, all without any legal liability.
How convenient.
https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.NitwnWutt3N5t4ujUkCWvgHaEK?w=301&h=180&c=7&r=0&o=5&dpr=1.25&pid=1.7
STRATEGY OVER MORALITY.
Short term was disease limited? I believe so, but there are some very negative long-term indicators that are still to be realized.
A reporter asks an Amish man:
Q: “Why hasn’t Covid affected you people?”
A: “Oh, we do not have TV”.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/KFMA2KCLJY2O3G2F7BKKTG3WVM.jpg&w=1440
For an outstanding summary of the real pandemic and the causes explaining it, see “United States of Fear” by Mark McDonald, MD, a practicing psychiatrist from LA. dissidentMD.com
He shows how this disaster has been brewing for a while.
I want all virology and such mandated to be done off world, to protect us and boost space launch.
The public believed what scientists said because scientists were trustworthy
And the public believed them to the point that they forgot the scientists were still human … and therefore the engagement of one’s common sense to evaluate the SCIENCE! was unnecessary and unwelcome. A prime example of how social technocracy leads us down the road to Flounderian ruin.
You do understand that as circumstances change the strategies that are the best response change??
Andrew, if our decision-makers had kept a focus on liberty AND safety, those changes would have been made a lot faster and caused much less collateral damage. Good intentions are not enough.
Never once wore a mask.
Never once got a vaccination.
Own a couple morbidities.
Still breathing.
Still Free.
GaryMike: Ditto.
Cotour
? ? ? Cheers
And as a data point, the worst mid term election loss was 1894, when the Democrats lost 116 seats out of a 356 person House of Representives. Today that would require a 148 seat debacle. The Gingrich Revolution was 63 Congress Critters replaced.
Kyle:
It appears proofreading is not extinct, thanks. Nor is correction upon new evidence, thanks Robert.
Kyle is spot on – what is different about March 1, March 12, or sometime in 2023 for that matter?
Either the [fill in the blank] mandate has been effective in achieving a reduction in the spread/severity of the virus while it has been in place or it has not been effective in that period. If effective, continue it. If not, remove it immediately.
Robert correctly points out that the most damaging effect in the long run is the credibility that the public health establishment has squandered.
One small hope I have is that the “settled science” of climate change will be re-evaluated in light of the failures in the covid modelling.
“And while skepticism and doubt is surely a healthy thing, too much skepticism can be equally bad.”
Case in point: When the administration announced they had intelligence that Russia would invade Ukraine, I immediately thought it was another lie. I thought they knew Russia was posturing in force to keep Ukraine in their sphere of influence and was getting ready to wind down training deployments. When there was no war the regime would take credit for averting it. Color me surprised when Russia actually attached.
I was doing pretty good believing the opposite of whatever the administration or their sycophants in corporate media are pushing. Next time I won’t know what to think.
The swamp has squeezed as much juice out of the “COVID WILL KILL US!” narrative as they can in implementing Venezuela style communism in the U.S., and is quietly switching to the “RUSSIA IS BAD!” narrative. That everything they’ve told us is a lie is irrelevant to their faithful followers because that is ancient history (the last news cycle).
Headline from the satire / humor site The Babylon Bee:
Putin Receives Nobel Prize In Medicine For Ending COVID Pandemic
https://babylonbee.com/news/putin-receives-nobel-prize-in-medicine-for-ending-covid-pandemic
When ‘scientist’ say ‘global warming’ they mean, let’s bankrupt USA so their influence in the world will end.
Andrew,
I think while the government may make the argument that it is responding to current circumstances in updating policies, the main point that the science never supported the strategies which were employed in the first place.
Gary,
To get useful data I go back to the Scandinavian comparison of Norway and Sweden, Norway has half of Sweden’s population but had about a tenth of the deaths and the peaks were also a tenth as high. New Zealand which used mandates to eliminate outbreaks of covid 4 times has had to date less than 60 deaths. It’s now accepted omicron is inevitable and over the next year will see what other countries experienced in 2020/21, but with a milder strain of the virus and high vaccination rates it will have a tiny fraction of the number of deaths that other countries had.
The sequence in jurisdictions that used mandates (and had them adhered to) was always 1. Case numbers rise 2. Mandates imposed 3. Case numbers start to fall. With about 3 weeks between 2 and 3.
So mandates did work, whether or not they were justified is a judgement call.
Mandates never worked. If masks don’t work and social distancing doesn’t work how could they work? Norway and Sweden are an apples to oranges comparison. Comparisons done in US directly contradict this anecdotal cherry picking, especially Florida and counties unmasked vs masked mandates.
The vaccine never protected against infection or spread of the virus. They changed the definition of the vaccine to accommodate the mrna covid vaccines.
If the Sweden Norway is enough proof for you, you must be wildly excited about HCQ and Ivermectin. The standard/evidence is many levels above what you excepted as proof.
“Mandates never worked. If masks don’t work and social distancing doesn’t work how could they work?”
Masks only reduce transmission by a moderate degree, social distancing works because covid is transmitted through the air but has a limited period of airborne viability.
Sweden and Norway are similar culturally and in terms of population density.
A lot of the criticism of mandates puts the cart in front of the horse, effectively claiming that mandates lead to high case numbers, reversing the actual sequence of mandates being imposed as a result of high and climbing case numbers.
Then we have people ignoring the different conditions that exist between dense urban environments like NY and low density more rural areas.
Sadly, I am still “Othered” by many people I know for saying at the outset of this madness that their was no way a respiratory virus like this could be contained and that eventually everyone would get it until it ran it’s natural course.
Even though the “Science has Changed”, no one is apologizing. They are even madder at me now even though I never mention it.
https://thebuzz.nz/fully-vaccinated-account-for-9-in-every-10-covid-19-deaths-in-england/
Keep in mind in the graph for the unvaccinated.
If you suddenly die within two weeks of your shot, Second shot, or booster shot… You are put into the category of the unvaccinated which most are dying from old age or natural causes like cancer and heart disease, not of covid. (“with covid” so the hospitals gets paid extra)
pawn,
RE: “Othered”
Embrace quiet solitude free from aggravating attentions for the gift that it is.
Cancellation is the assumption that the silenced won’t revolt in unknowable ways.
So certain they are, thus so predictable.
The rest of us get to be unpredictable.
Surprisingly.
Max, vaccination rates in the most vulnerable groups in the UK are well over 90%.
Some new test data in-vitro to be aware of related to Pfizer mRNA vaccine, the spike protein and liver cells that may be relevant.
https://youtu.be/cppkVOG7BVQ 6 min.
The biggest live biological experiment and proof of concept ever conducted on the human animal, ever.
And all done without any informed consent nor any liability risks.
Take it if you can get it.
To be clear:
“Take it if you can get it.”
That statement relates to the businesses concerned and not the taking of the mRNA experimental “Vaccine”.
“Where is that winter of severe illness and death? We were promised a winter of severe illness and death, to afflict the heretics!”
More evidence that the Church of Woke, in all its forms, is a fundamentalist cult where ignorant hubris begets hatred in the name of ¡¡¡SCIENCE!!!
Friedrich Nietzsche / Jordan Peterson / Akira the Don
Thus Spoke Zarathustra: Chapter 29 “Tarantulas”
https://youtu.be/7zIkUkRLJAM
7:59
“When they call themselves the Good and the Just, do not forget that they would be Pharisees… if only they had – power!”
Andrew_W, I’m with you but you’re fighting a losing battle trying to reason with this crowd. To very loosely borrow a quote from the former US president:
When Robert sends his people, he’s not sending the best. […] He’s sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing denialism. They’re bringing Dunning-Kruger. They’re selfish. And some, I assume, are good people.
General temporary mandates for wearing a mask of some sort is in certain settings worth maybe a 10 percent (?) reduction in transmission of the Covid virus. Why? Because the vast majority of the public are wearing non effective type masks and are not wearing N-95 masks which are worn by health professionals. And most wear them improperly.
And the goal? To slow down the transmission of the air born virus in order to attempt to control the numbers of people having to interact with and possibly overload the healthcare system to where it crashes and is of no use to everyone. That is the primary rationale and purpose when the government deems it reasonable to declare a health emergency which gives it the authority to temporarily interfere with the people’s Rights and freedoms. That is it.
And when government seeks to force those same citizens through mandates and several other extreme measures that include a cadre of other perverted and self-interested entities to have injected into their bodies based on shaky at best data and evidence that *IT* can control the virus is and was fraudulent and a perversion and an abuse of power. To do such a thing without full disclosure and without choice is unreasonable.
In time this will all or most of it will be revealed to the general public, and the rational among them they will be outraged. And some? I am sure some will pay with their health for the rest of their lives because of it. And some will pay with their lives because of it.
Government at its very best is a blunt instrument. And at its worst it will cost you your freedom and or your life.
There are very few absolute statements that can be made in life, but that happens to be one of them.
“And the goal? To slow down the transmission of the air born virus in order to attempt to control the numbers of people having to interact with and possibly overload the healthcare system to where it crashes and is of no use to everyone. That is the primary rationale and purpose when the government deems it reasonable to declare a health emergency which gives it the authority to temporarily interfere with the people’s Rights and freedoms. That is it.”
That is the rationale, it seems reasonable to me, I don’t see anything in your comment that refutes that rationale.
There is this:
“Government at its very best is a blunt instrument. And at its worst it will cost you your freedom and or your life.
There are very few absolute statements that can be made in life, but that happens to be one of them.”
Which I entirely agree with, but I don’t see that as a refutation of the effectiveness of government imposed measures over no government imposed measures. Unless you’re an anarchist you accept the need for government, and government though usually blunt and inefficient can get stuff done that requires the members of a society to act with uniformity and in cohesion, like fighting enemy armies and viruses.
“Which I entirely agree with, but I don’t see that as a refutation of the effectiveness of government-imposed measures over no government-imposed measures. ”
This is not an either-or equation.
This is an equation having to do with degrees.
No one here is arguing that there not be any government, where do you get that? That happens to become your default position and it is not so.
Government is necessary, but it is a necessary evil.
Government is ALWAYS a threat to your Rights and freedom, ALWAYS. And the proof of that is the actions for example that have been instituted in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, alleged Democracies.
Liberals in charge in those governments become authoritarian and know no limits to their power as they subjectively interpret it. And ultimately, if need be, to make you and everyone else concerned “safe” they will justify breaking your door down, jailing you or shooting you in order to achieve their goal.
So again, it’s not an either-or equation, it’s an equation having to do with degrees and balance.
Is this a German thing? Are you just unable to grasp these kinds of concepts?
I know you are intelligent and can be a reasonable person, we agree on much.
But these concepts related to these subjects seem to fly over your head. And I wonder why?
Nothing in your above comment I disagree with, you appear to have read things into my comment that aren’t there, obvious you’re not an anarchist, my use of “you” was illustrative not accusatory.
OK, fair enough.
Other than fast tracking development of a “vaccine”, please identify any measures the US government authorities took that were actually effective, in hind sight. It seems to me that the rush to power resulted in a lot of failure and an enormous toll both economically and socially. That bill has yet to be settled.
In contrast, see Sweden. Humm…where is our socialist buddy?
People here are talking about unrealistic ideals when expressing the need for collective action. Our US government is invested in aggregating power collectively and enriching themselves personally.
G.K. Chesterton wrote, “Saying ‘My country, right or wrong’ is like saying, ‘My mother, drunk or sober.'” Substitute country for government. Our government has failed again to be representative of the ideals that our country is based on.
“Our government has failed again to be representative of the ideals that our country is based on.”
Ah, ideals.
Ideals go out the window or can go out the window once human beings become politically empowered.
The government and its agencies under this administration has accomplished exactly what they determined they had to accomplish. Joe Biden and Kammy Harris are accomplishing what they have been tasked with accomplishing. Primarily:
1. Flood the border with illegals in order to bolster the voting system to favor the democrat party.
2. Destroy as best as you can the American energy industry in order to save the planet as per the green new deal.
3. Foster and promote racism and the destruction of the Western family model. (Ala BLM).
4. Eviscerate and feminize the military.
5. Promote everything that is anti and un-American as per its founding. I will stop here.
The point? Joe and Kammy as per their Democrat party machine assigned goals have been very successful.
And I forgot on this Covid subject:
#6. This administration has successfully forced through authoritarian mandates into the arms of a significant number of the population an experimental *NEW* technology drug in order to prove its efficacy without providing them proper information and the ability to make an informed choice for themselves and their families regarding their own health while denying them known and proven effective existing drugs and therapies.
All Strategy no Morality.
It has been coming out in dribs and drabs that the government reactions to Wuhan flu were ineffective at best and mostly counterproductive. The following link is an essay that contains further links to more evidence that we have been doing the wrong things to combat Wuhan flu, or any disease, for that matter:
https://wmbriggs.com/post/39231/
Cotour,
“Our government has failed again to be representative of the ideals that our country is based on.”
I meant it as a statement of it’s nature not a shortcoming. I meant it in the context that it’s obviously expected to happen.