Tag Archives: #COVID19

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Toldjah so!

We had previously noted that the Lone Star State, which had dropped its mandatory mask order on March 10th, was doing better than a lot of states which had those orders!

The so-called ‘experts’ all told us that the masks just had to be worn, but the empirical evidence, the real world results, have not borne that out.

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If you’re scared, say you’re scared!

I’ve heard this meme, if you’re scared, say you’re scared, for a long time, and it was the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw this column in The Philadelphia Inquirer:

The CDC’s new mask rules promise freedom. But to me they mean fear. | Opinion

I’m sorry to say, I don’t trust people to follow these guidelines safely.

by Alison McCook, For the Inquirer | May 14, 2021

Alison McCook, from her Twitter profile.

On Thursday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made a surprise announcement: Anyone who is fully vaccinated can now stop masking and social distancing, including often indoors.

Though many public health experts had said they thought we would need masks when indoors with strangers for at least another year, the nation’s health protection agency has declared that anyone who received the last dose of their COVID-19 vaccine at least two weeks ago can start living life the way they did before this god-awful thing began. Soon after, Pennsylvania followed suit.

To many people, this is a happy surprise: Freedom! Faces! Parties!

Not me.

I have spent the last 20-plus years as a science journalist. I believe in the vaccines, and that the CDC’s new advice is likely supported by the latest data. I believe in Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, who says he feels good about the CDC’s new decision and wants people to feel like we are approaching “normality.” But Thursday’s announcement from the CDC has filled me with fear.

Fear is a horrible emotion, and people are afraid to admit to fear; there’s a definite stigma associated with it. The Inquirer even illustrated the column with a photo of the Rocky statue outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the fictitious Rocky Balboa, played by Sylvester Stallone, is supposed to be an icon of fearlessness. We previously noted the Inquirer’s profile of murdered teenager, and basketball player, Quamir Mitchell, and how his coach, Adrian Burke said of him, “He wasn’t scared of anything.” That’s the kind of thing people want said of them.

But I have to give some credit to Alison McCook, the column author. Given the stigma that is associated with fear, it does take some courage to say, in public, that she was “filled . . . with fear.”

Miss McCook is vaccinated against COVID-19, but, under the definition that to be “fully vaccinated,” one must be 14 days past his final dose, she won’t be fully vaccinated for another nine days, on May 25th, a day she stated she has marked on her calendar.

She does have her reasons. Miss McCook has a seven-year-old daughter, one too young to qualify for a vaccine yet. The Food and Drug Administration authorized, on May 10th, use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for children 12 to 15 years of age.[1]CNN noted that “Five states — Alabama, Iowa, North Carolina, Oregon and Tennessee — either allow some ages in that group to consent for themselves or leave requirements up to … Continue reading

But her greatest fear, her “biggest concern,” is that she simply does not trust that other people will obey the CDC guidelines, and wear masks if they have not been vaccinated. How, she asked, could she know that the person who comes close to her indoors, without a mask, is really one of the vaccinated?

That’s a fear expressed by a whole bunch of people, as we have noted previously. Jill Filipovic McCormick wants you to have to carry some form of #VaccinePassport, and President Biden tried to order people to either get vaccinated or wear a mask, something that might have been better received if he had asked rather than ordered. Given that he has no authority in this matter — the various mask mandates were all issued by state governments, not the feds — all that he can do is shout impotently. The New York Times reported that:

In the informal survey, 80 percent (of epidemiol;ogists) said they thought Americans would need to wear masks in public indoor places for at least another year. Just 5 percent said people would no longer need to wear masks indoors by this summer. In large crowds outdoors, like at a concert or protest, 88 percent of the epidemiologists said it was necessary even for fully vaccinated people to wear masks. “Unless the vaccination rates increase to 80 or 90 percent over the next few months, we should wear masks in large public indoor settings,” said Vivian Towe, a program officer at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

The real problem is that too many in government, the CDC, the Democratic governors, and the political left, all used COVID-19 to stoke fear, to stoke fear to gain authoritarian control. Miss McCook’s fear is real, but it is a fear stoked by attempts to sensationalize this virus for fear’s sake, and for control. We shut down our economy, threw twenty million people out of work, restricted people’s to their homes, closed schools and churches, and millions and millions of Americans went along with it, all because of fear. Miss McCook lost her father, not to the virus itself, but because of the unreasoning fear of the virus, as the nursing home in which he was living was shut down to all visitors.

That fear struck her, and it struck her seven-year-old daughter as well:

 

For some reason, the drive-thru line at the donut shop took forever, and we inched forward for 25 minutes before it was our turn. As I approached the window with the employee handing over orders, my daughter spoke with alarm from the backseat: “Mom, he’s not wearing a mask!” Surely she must be wrong, I thought to myself.

Nope.

As I pulled up to the drive-thru window, the 20-something employee handed us her donut, smiled, and told us to have a nice day. She was right: He had no mask. It wasn’t pulled under his nose or chin, or hanging by its loop from his ear. It was totally absent. (But what if he has a medical reason for not wearing a mask? Yeah, not likely. )

I was stunned. I hadn’t seen a stranger’s teeth up close for months. Unsure what to do, I grabbed the donut bag and sped off, throwing it into the front seat and telling my daughter she couldn’t eat it.

I know that surfaces are not a major source of transmission; it was probably safe for her to eat the donut. But I was angry — I had just been assaulted by a toothy smile, and I wanted her to know that was not okay.

Assaulted? Assaulted? Miss McCook described it in terms almost as though her daughter and she had just barely escaped being raped

So we drove another 15 minutes back towards our local donut shop that has no drive-thru, dodged the indoor diners and got her donut (no sprinkles).

There’s been a lot to be angry about over the last few months. And I’ve always been bothered by people who refused to take COVID restrictions seriously. But at this stage in the pandemic, anyone’s laissez-faire approach sends me into a blind rage. I’ve been seething about that drive-thru for days.

Fear, and rage. This is what the left have been sending out through our society, and this is what Miss McCook has absorbed, and what she has transmitted to her daughter.

I get why people don’t want to abide by the recommendations anymore — believe me. But we are SO CLOSE to putting the worst of this behind us. SO CLOSE, PEOPLE! And every unvaccinated person who throws away their mask, takes a trip without quarantining, or invites friends over for dinner because they’re lonely, is making all of this harder on the rest of us. I’m dying to do those things, too — but because they are doing it, I have to wait even longer before I can. It’s like I’m stuck forever in that drive-thru line, watching cars cut in front of me and move up to the window, while I’m in the same goddamned spot.

According to the New York Times, people in my area are considered to be at a “very high risk” of exposure to COVID-19 (hospitalizations are up 42%), meaning we should avoid nonessential travel. During the five days my kid was off school, more than 4,000 Americans died of COVID. And have you heard of Michigan?

Yeah, I’ve heard of Michigan, and I wrote about it, noting that in masked up, highly restricted Michigan has a population with a higher percentage of vaccinated people, and still more than thrice the rate of new COVID infections of Texas, which had dropped its mask mandate and most other restrictions two months earlier.

I checked in with some other people I know who are mustering up the energy to continue to take COVID seriously, and they are feeling the same white-hot rage at rule-breakers that I am. One unvaccinated parent who also spent spring break at home told me some of her co-workers had recently flown to Jamaica and England. “Have you screamed recently?” she asked. When I told her my kid is always around, she suggested I lock myself in the car. “It will take a few times to let it go,” she added.

I’ll try it. In the meantime, I hope everyone enjoyed their spring break. If you aren’t vaccinated and went somewhere great, please don’t tell me about it.

In Frank Herbert’s Dune, Paul Atreides used the “litany of fear” to conquer pain:

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

I do not know Miss McCook, never met her, and the odds that I’ve even passed her on the street are vanishingly small. And perhaps some will think I’ve been harsh on her in this, but I think not. I honor her honest statements, statements of fear and of rage, statements not many would have had the courage to admit.

But Miss McCook is a victim, a victim of the propaganda spread by the fearmongers of 2020, those who were genuinely afraid, and those who wanted to use COVID-19 to push a political agenda. Fearful is no way to live, and nothing that you want to teach your children.

References

References
↑1 CNN noted that “Five states — Alabama, Iowa, North Carolina, Oregon and Tennessee — either allow some ages in that group to consent for themselves or leave requirements up to individual vaccine providers.” The other states all require parental consent for the administration of vaccines.
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Why June 11th?

We have been saying, all along, that Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) has been playing politics with his COVID-19 executive orders, planning on ending them just in time for the state Supreme Court to simply declare the cases against him moot rather than rule on them.

The state Supreme Court has consolidated the cases against the General Assembly’s new laws restricting Governor Andy Beshear’s (D-KY) ’emergency’ powers under KRS 39A, and a lawsuit against the Governor exercising those powers. The state Court then set June 10th, eight weeks after consolidating those cases, for oral arguments.

From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

‘Back to normal.’ Beshear removing almost all COVID-19 restrictions in KY on June 11.

By Alex Aquisto | May 14, 2021 | 10:58 AM | Updated 11:55 AM EDT

Kentucky will return to full capacity everywhere and fully lifts its mask mandate in less than a month, ending more than a year of COVID-19-related restrictions, Gov. Andy Beshear announced on Friday.

“We will return to 100% capacity for all venues and events in exactly one month, on June 11 . . . [and] life will be almost fully back to normal,” the governor said in a live update. That day, the state will also rescind its mask mandate for everyone, including those who are unvaccinated, “with the exceptions of places where people are the most vulnerable,” he said.

Beshear is waiting a month to fully lift those restrictions to allow time for adolescents ages 12-15 to get vaccinated. That age group was given the green light by federal health agencies earlier this week to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech shot, and most vaccination sites in Kentucky just began administering doses to those teens on Thursday.

“One months also gives notice and time to everyone else who has not yet received their [dose],” Beshear said.

So, what is so magical about June 11th? It’s a Friday, but what makes conditions different on June 11th than on June 9th? It’s four weeks from today, but who knows what will happen in four weeks?

Ahhh, but it’s one day after June 10th, the day the state Supreme Court will hear oral arguments against the Honorable Mr Beshear’s[1]Some of the commenters on Patterico’s Pontifications have complained about me referring to the Governor as Reichsstatthalter, the German title of Reich Governor, so I decided to use only decent … Continue reading illegal and unconstitutional actions, and he can argue to the Justices, ‘hey, everything’s going back to normal tomorrow, so everything is moot, there’s no case, let’s just drop it.’

But there are a couple of problems with that:

  1. If the cases are simply dropped, if our distinguished Governor decides that his edicts need to be reimposed, the legal process will start all over again, giving him yet more time, once he gets partisan Democratic Judge Phillip Shepherd to give him another injunction against enforcement of the laws.
  2. If the cases are simply dropped as moot, our noble Governor will have gotten away with restricting the constitutional rights of all Kentuckians, with no penalty.

It’s clear: with the support of too many of the sheeple, our rights will have been restricted for fifteen months, and the Governor will walk away smiling. The only thing we will be able to do is defeat him for re-election, and that won’t happen until 2023.

The voters of the Commonwealth of Kentucky gave Republicans, Republicans who were running against our well-meaning Governor’s executive decrees, fourteen additional seats in the state House of Representatives, for a 75-25 Republican advantage, and two more seats, out of just seventeen up for election, in the state Senate, for a 30-8 Republican advantage. The voters wanted to stop Governor Beshear’s actions, but a partisan judge, and an officially non-partisan but practically Democrat-controlled state Supreme Court, allowed him to escape the democratically-elected will of the people.

Yes, this makes me angry.

References

References
↑1 Some of the commenters on Patterico’s Pontifications have complained about me referring to the Governor as Reichsstatthalter, the German title of Reich Governor, so I decided to use only decent and pleasant adjectives to refer to Mr Beshear. Some readers here might think I am using such adjectives sarcastically, and I shall not disabuse them of that thought.
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Wir müssen Ihre Dokumente sehen. When the CDC say that "fully vaccinated" Americans can go maskless, does that mean states will require vaccine passports?

In an attempt to boost President Biden’s status reopen the closed economy, the Centers for Disease Control are stating that Americans can start to take off their masks. From The New York Times:

Vaccinated Americans now may go without masks in most places, the C.D.C. said.

May 13, 2021 | 2:20 PM EDT

In a sharp turnabout from previous recommendations, federal health officials on Thursday advised that Americans who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus may stop wearing masks or maintaining social distance in most indoor and outdoor settings, regardless of size.

The advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention comes as welcome news to Americans who have tired of restrictions and marks a watershed moment in the pandemic. Masks ignited controversy in communities across the United States, symbolizing a bitter partisan divide over approaches to the pandemic and a badge of political affiliation.

Permission to stop using them now offers an incentive to the many millions who are still holding out on vaccination. As of Wednesday, about 154 million people have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, but only about one-third of the nation, some 117.6 million people, have been fully vaccinated.

But the pace has slowed: Providers are administering about 2.16 million doses per day on average, about a 36 percent decrease from the peak of 3.38 million reported in mid-April.

“The science is clear: If you are fully vaccinated, you are protected, and you can start doing the things that you stopped doing because of the pandemic,” the C.D.C. said in a statement on Thursday.

The new advice comes with caveats. Even vaccinated individuals must cover their faces and physically distance when going to doctors, hospitals or long-term care facilities like nursing homes; when traveling by bus, plane, train or other modes of public transportation, or while in transportation hubs like airports and bus stations; and when in prisons, jails or homeless shelters.

In deference to local authorities, the C.D.C. said vaccinated Americans must continue to abide by existing state, local, or tribal laws and regulations, and follow local rules for businesses and workplaces. Individuals are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after the one-dose Johnson & Johnson shot or the second dose of either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine series.

Still, the changes are likely to galvanize Americans who have become unaccustomed to appearing in public unmasked — or to seeing others do so.

Note what is being said here: when the CDC say “Americans who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus may stop wearing masks,” they are talking about Americans who are completely indistinguishable from any other American. At least so far, I haven’t seen any proposals from the CDC that getting that second dose of the vaccine be accompanied by a six digit tattoo on my forearm, complete with the date that the final dose was given, so that anyone could tell that I was two weeks past receiving the second dose.

Upon receiving my second dose of the Moderna vaccine, on Cinco de Mayo, the Estill County Health Department indicated the vaccine lot number and the date I received it on a CDC-provided COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card, with a special plastic container in which to keep it, and the record-keeper told me that I should carry it with me.

Well, not just no, but Hell no! She had no real authority, of course, but she was giving me the message that the government would like us all to have: Wir müssen Ihre Dokumente sehen.[1]Ich spreche kein Deutsch. Dies war die Antwort von Google Translate auf “We need to see your documents.”

So, what will the CDC, or President Joe Biden, or Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) try to do now? Yes, I will be considered “fully vaccinated” on May 19th, which just happens to be our 42nd wedding anniversary, but I will look no different then from the way I look now, nor from the way I looked on March 31st, the day before my first dose. Will Governor Beshear order the Staatspolizei to stop everyone they see not wearing a mask, and demand to see their vaccination cards?

As we noted previously, Governor Beshear has been trying to finesse his executive orders, to try to render the legal cases against his illegal and unconstitutional executive orders moot before the state Supreme Court decides on them. He stated earlier that he would ease — not lift — his capacity restrictions on businesses on Friday, May 28st, just before the Memorial Day holiday weekend, and his most recent renewal of the mask mandate expires the day prior to that.

The Governor said that he hoped that the Bluegrass State would have no restrictions at all by July. That, of course, is designed to end all restrictions before the (probable) time the state Supreme Court would issue its rulings on the cases concerning his executive orders, so that the Court could simply dismiss the cases as moot. That would mean that the injunctions by Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd, a Democratic partisan, would expire, so the laws restricting the Governor’s executive orders would go into effect, but, without a ruling, if the Governor decided that he wanted to issue such orders again, he would still have a basis on which to file suit, again with the odious Judge Shepherd, to enjoin enforcement of those laws, and another several months of legal limbo.

Can you tell that I have exactly zero trust in either the Governor or Judge Shepherd?

While it will be a relief when all of these ridiculous restrictions are gone, we cannot forget that our constitutional rights were restricted by government orders, frequently by executive decrees only and not with the consent of state legislatures, and if this can be done once, it can be done again. If tyranny is excused, tyrants will return.
___________________________________________
Update:

From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

Beshear: Fully vaccinated Kentuckians can take off their masks in most settings

By Alex Aquisto | May 13, 2021 | 3:54 PM | Updated 4:11 PM EDT

Heralding it as a return to “normalcy” for many, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Thursday that Kentuckians who are fully vaccinated will no longer be required to wear a mask in most indoor and outdoor settings.

The announcement comes on the heels of a recommendation issued earlier Thursday by the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who says it’s safe for vaccinated people to remove their masks and not practice social distancing in most indoor public spaces. Everyone will still need to mask in crowded groups of others, like when using public transportation, in hospitals and in congregate settings such as nursing homes and correctional facilities.

“Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities — large or small — without wearing a mask or physically distancing,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at a White House briefing. “If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic.”

Beshear, in a brief video update, called the change “outstanding,” and said he would alter Kentucky’s statewide mask mandate to reflect the easing of that restriction. Nearly 1.9 million Kentuckians have received at least their initial dose of a COVID-19 vaccine — 53% of the population age 18 and older, and 43% of the total state population.

“The CDC says it is safe to take that mask off,” and Kentucky will “immediately follow that guidance,” Beshear said. “It means that we are so close to normalcy, and we’re going to be changing Kentucky’s mask mandate to be the same with those CDC guidelines.”

How interesting it is that, among the laws passed by the General Assembly, was House Bill 1, to allow businesses and other organizations to reopen as long as they followed CDC guidelines. Governor Beshear vetoed that bill, which was then passed over his veto, yet he has almost immediately followed the changes in CDC guidelines anyway. It’s almost as though his primary objective was to exercise his power, rather than allow the state legislature to do so.

References

References
↑1 Ich spreche kein Deutsch. Dies war die Antwort von Google Translate auf “We need to see your documents.”
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What evidence has there been that the #COVID19 restrictions actually reduced infections?

From my good friend — can I call him a good friend if I’ve never actually met him? — Robert Stacy McCain:

Truth or Satire? It’s Getting Harder to Tell

By Robert Stacy McCain | May 8, 2021

January headline from The Babylon Bee:

 

CNN Unveils New Format Where Hosts Just Watch Fox News And Yell At It

 

This is awfully close to describing what’s happened to CNN in recent months. Once Biden was inaugurated, the network lost its raison d’être of producing anti-Trump propaganda. Ratings for CNN have evaporated since January and, unable to excite their audience with live performances of journalistic fellatio on Biden (metaphorically speaking), they devote hours every day to critiquing whatever is on Fox News.

So the other night, Tucker Carlson raised questions about whether the number of deaths from COVID-19 vaccine are being underreported. He didn’t advance any “conspiracy theory” during that segment, or make claims that could justify Sanjay Gupta’s unhinged reaction:

“What he’s done is he’s basically looked at these open-system adverse reporting systems and said ‘hey look, this suggests that 30 people a day are dying of the vaccine.’ Absolutely not true,” Gupta said on CNN’s New Day.

“The problem is that it continues to stir up this vaccine hesitance or outright vaccine reluctance . . .

Hey, Dr. Gupta: Maybe “vaccine hesitance” doesn’t really matter, but do you really care about Fox News viewers? No, I’m pretty sure you would be very happy if they all died tomorrow. So please spare us your concern-trolling. My thought all along has been that the draconian lockdown regimes and mandatory mask-wearing orders, at best, didn’t do much to stop the pandemic and quite possibly made it worse. Anyone can examine the state-by-state per-capita death rates and see that there is no clear correlation between the severity of the lockdown regimes and the relative safety of populations. Florida is doing just fine, despite all the hate directed at Gov. DeSantis by CNN and other liberal media outlets that prophesied a catastrophe in the Sunshine State.

There’s more at the original.

While I did not look at Florida’s numbers, I have concentrated on Texas, where Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, ended the mask mandate and most other state restrictions on March 10th, to predictions of death and disease by the so-called ‘experts.’

Governor Andy Beshear’s (D-KY) latest thirty-day renewal of the illegal and repugnant mask mandate expires on Thursday, May 27th, at 5:00 PM EDT, just before his other COVID-19 restrictions are scheduled to be weakened, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him issue that one again.

Reiterating that Kentucky will not be repealing its mask mandate anytime soon, Gov. Andy Beshear announced 1,068 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky on Thursday, as well as 28 virus-related deaths.

Earlier this week, Republican governors in Texas and Mississippi lifted coronavirus restrictions, repealing their states’ mask mandates and reopening businesses to full capacity. Kentucky will not do that, Beshear said.

“We’re going to continue to lose people until we’re fully out of the woods and everybody is vaccinated,” he said in a live update. “That’s the reason we’re not going to do what Texas or Mississippi has done. Those decisions will increase casualties when we just have maybe even a matter of months to go.”

Except, of course, those decisions did not increase casualties, the seven day moving average of new cases in the Lone Star state being down to 2,651 as of May 6th, the lowest figure since June 17, 2020, while Mississippi is seeing a seven-day moving average of 182 new cases per day, a number not seen since April 14, 2020.

That much, I reported yesterday, but I’ve since done more research. Texas currently has the lowest moving seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases since June of 2020, that average having dropped precipitously since the mask mandate ended. Texas, with a seven-day moving average of 2651 new COVID cases per day, and a population of 29.15 million, has a new case rate of 9.09 new cases per 100,000 population. Texas has no mask mandate and few restrictions. Texas has 29% of the adult populate fully vaccinated, and 39% have received first shot. Kentucky, with a moving average of 581 and a population of 4048 million, is seeing new cases at a rate of 12.97 per 100,000, despite having mask mandate, more restrictions, and a higher percentage of population vaccinated, 33% fully vaccinated and 42% having received one dose. Texas has slightly higher population density, 109.9 per mi² compared to Kentucky’s 107.4 per mi². Despite what the so-called experts claimed, ending the mask mandate in Texas did not lead to unparalleled death and disease. Based on empirical evidence, the capacity restrictions and mask mandates had no positive effect on infection rate.

The scientific method is to produce an hypothesis, and then test it to see if it is true. Actual real world testing of the restrictions has not borne out the hypothesis that our freedoms needed to be restricted, our constitutional rights needed to be violated.

What about Michigan? Governor Gretchen Whitless Whitmer has imposed some of the strictest COVID-19 restrictions in the nation. On May 6, the same date as the figures reported above for Texas and Kentucky, Michigan’s seven-day moving average was 3,317 new cases per day, 666 more per day than Texas’ 2,651. Yet Texas has almost thrice Michigan’s population of 9,966,555 people. Where Texas is seeing 9.09 new cases per day per 100,000 population, Michigan’s rate is 33.28 per 100,000, more than thrice that of the Lone Star State. Michigan has seen 35% of its adult population fully vaccinated, and 44% have received their first, dose, a rate higher than that in Texas, and even slightly higher than in the Bluegrass State. Michigan does have a significantly higher population density of 174 per mi².

But one thing is clear: Governor Whitless’ Whitmer’s restrictions have not helped.

Mr McCain mentioned Florida, but the Sunshine State only lifted all mask mandates five days ago, so there isn’t much difference from Michigan. At a moving seven day average of 4,317 new cases per day, in a population of 21.48 million people, Florida’s average of 20.10 per 100,00 population is just 2/3 that of Michigan’s, despite Florida’s more than twice as great population density of 397.2 people per mi². Michigan’s restrictions have, in general, been far stricter than Florida’s, but, there it is again, Florida is seeing fewer cases on a per population basis.

Again, the empirical evidence is that the greater restrictions don’t reduce China virus infection rates![1]See this as to why I am occasionally referring to it as the China virus.

We have gone through more than a year of authoritarian governors, mostly without the consent of their state legislatures, imposing restrictions on our freedoms and our constitutional rights, because it has been claimed to be necessary to protect us from the Wuhan virus. But once a few governors, all seemingly Republicans, recovered their nerve and started paying attention to our rights, the evidence jumped out at us: the restrictions didn’t help to protect us at all.

References

References
↑1 See this as to why I am occasionally referring to it as the China virus.
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Andy Beshear tries to finesse his #COVID19 orders to escape a state Supreme Court decision

As we have previously noted, the state Supreme Court has consolidated the cases against the General Assembly’s new laws restricting Governor Andy Beshear’s (D-KY) ’emergency’ powers under KRS 39A, and a lawsuit against the Governor exercising those powers. The state Court then set June 10th, then eight weeks away and still more than a month away, to hear oral arguments in the cases. That means, in effect, that the Governor will continue to exercise authority the General Assembly denied him, for at least 3½ months after the state legislature took its action, and, in all likelihood, a couple of months after that.

Several lawsuits were filed in state courts last year to stop the Governor’s emergency decrees under KRS39A. On July 17, 2020, the state Supreme Court put a hold on all lower court orders against Mr Beshear’s orders and directed that “any lower court order, after entry, be immediately transferred to the clerk of the Supreme Court for consideration by the full court.” Three weeks later, the  Court set September 17, 2020, another five weeks later, to hear oral arguments by both sides.

The Court then waited for eight more weeks to issue its decision, until November 12, 2020, which upheld the Governor’s orders.

If the Kentucky Supreme Court, officially non-partisan but in practice controlled by liberals, follows the same pattern, a second eight week delay will mean a decision around the first week of August! Even if that decision supports the duly passed laws of the General Assembly, the state courts will have given the Governor half a year to exercise power that the General Assembly restricted.

And now? The Governor is trying to make most of the cases moot:

COVID-19 capacity restrictions lifting to 75% at most Kentucky businesses on May 28

By Alex Aquisto | May 6, 2021 4:57 PM EDT | Updated May 6, 2021 | 5:34 PM

Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY)

Indoor and outdoor businesses in Kentucky serving fewer than 1,000 people can increase capacity to 75% at the end of the month, Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday, as he announced 655 new cases of COVID-19 and six virus-related deaths.Capacity restrictions right now for these businesses are at 60%. Beshear also said people gathering indoors “for private gatherings and for business” no longer have to wear a mask, as long as “100% are fully vaccinated.” That change goes into effect immediately.

Additionally, for businesses and events serving more than 1,000 people outdoors, Beshear increased their operating capacity from 50% to 60%. Both capacity increases go into effect May 28. Beshear said he expects the state will have no coronavirus capacity restrictions by July.

Translation: by the time the state Supreme Court will probably rule, there will be far fewer restrictions in place, and the Governor will argue that makes the cases moot. The Court would like nothing better than to simply dismiss the cases as moot, and you can bet your last euro that the Court would notify the Governor before any decision is announced what it would be and when it would be issued.

Governor Beshear said that Texas decision to drop mask mandates “will increase casualties,” but COVID cases there have dramatically declined.

We noted on Thursday that Governor Tom Wolf (D-PA) was lifting his restrictions on Memorial Day, May 31st, and asked why he was going to ruin 2/3 of the holiday weekend and then suddenly declare, on the final day, that no restrictions were needed. At least Governor Beshear recognized the silliness of that!

The Governor’s latest thirty-day renewal of the illegal and repugnant mask mandate expires on Thursday, May 27th, at 5:00 PM EDT, just before his other COVID-19 restrictions are scheduled to be weakened, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him issue that one again.

Reiterating that Kentucky will not be repealing its mask mandate anytime soon, Gov. Andy Beshear announced 1,068 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky on Thursday, as well as 28 virus-related deaths.

Earlier this week, Republican governors in Texas and Mississippi lifted coronavirus restrictions, repealing their states’ mask mandates and reopening businesses to full capacity. Kentucky will not do that, Beshear said.

“We’re going to continue to lose people until we’re fully out of the woods and everybody is vaccinated,” he said in a live update. “That’s the reason we’re not going to do what Texas or Mississippi has done. Those decisions will increase casualties when we just have maybe even a matter of months to go.”

Except, of course, those decisions did not increase casualties, the seven day moving average of new cases in the Lone Star state being down to 2,651 as of May 6th, the lowest figure since June 17, 2020, while Mississippi is seeing a seven-day moving average of 182 new cases per day, a number not seen since April 14, 2020. Regardless of what the so-called ‘experts’ have told us, the empirical evidence has been that ending the mask mandates has not led to more cases, but, hey, dictators gotta dictate!

If Governor Beshear does not extend the mask mandate past July, virtually all of the cases on the laws would turn moot, so the Governor would not have a decision recorded against him; the state Supreme Court would simply dismiss everything. But that leaves open the possibility that, in a future ’emergency,’ or if COVID-19 cases suddenly increase again, that our authoritarian Governor would once again try to restrict the rights of Kentuckians.

This Governor needs to be slapped down, and slapped down hard, but the only way that will really happen is at the ballot box, in November of 2023.

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Governor Tom Wolf to lift all #COVID19 restrictions . . . except the one which pisses off people the most

The most visible symbol of compliance with State orders is the facemask, and the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania doesn’t want to let go of that!

Pennsylvania will fully reopen on Memorial Day, lifting COVID-19 rules. Philadelphia won’t follow suit — yet.

Masking requirements will remain in place until 70% of the state’s 18-and-older population is vaccinated. Philadelphia said it will review the policy.

by Erin McCarthy and Justine McDaniel | May 4, 2021

Pennsylvania will lift its coronavirus mitigation measures on Memorial Day, state officials announced Tuesday, marking a milestone in the pandemic recovery and freeing businesses and patrons to prepare to fill restaurants, bars, and stores for the first time in more than a year.

Philadelphia, however, was not yet set to follow suit: The city will said it will review the state’s policy but retain its own restrictions. Officials are working on the city’s reopening plans.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health announcement keeps in place the requirement for Pennsylvanians to wear masks in compliance with state and CDC guidelines. It also gives residents an incentive to get COVID-19 shots: Masking will be required until 70% of the state’s 18-and-older population is vaccinated.

Gene Barr, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, called the announcement “the long-awaited light at the end of the tunnel and a return to sense of ‘normalcy.’”

What, I have to ask, is so magical about Memorial Day that the restrictions can be lifted then, but not on, say, May 19th, or even today? Saying that the restrictions can be lifted on May 31st but not now, when we cannot know what the conditions will be on that day, means that the the decision was driven by politics, not science. Given that Memorial Day is the end of a three-day holiday weekend, why is Governor Tom Wolf (D-PA) waiting until the last day of those three, rather than Saturday, May 29th instead? How will conditions be different enough on the 31st from those on the 29th to justify ruining two of the three days of the holiday?

Of course, the Governor is keeping the most hated restriction in place, the mask mandate, with the threat promise that it will be lifted once 70% of the Commonwealth’s adult population has been vaccinated. He is trying to use the police power of the state to force people to take the vaccine.[1]Full disclosure: I am not an anti-vaxxer by any means, and received my second dose on Cinco de Mayo. But having chosen to take the vaccine myself does not mean that I believe that others should be … Continue reading

The state is trying to use Penn State head football coach James Franklin to push getting vaccinated, having him say, “I encourage everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated. The more people who are vaccinated, the better chance we have to get back to 107,000 strong here in Beaver Stadium.”

But the Commonwealth and the credentialed media are making it political, making it a Democrats vs Republicans issue:

As Pennsylvania pivots to a new phase of its coronavirus vaccination campaign, and focuses on persuading reluctant residents to get their shots, there’s one group that will be especially tough to win over — the scores of Republicans who say they don’t plan to ever get immunized.

Communications and public health experts say these skeptics need reassurance from the Republican elected officials they trust the most. But in Pennsylvania, all but a few GOP lawmakers are keeping quiet about the vaccine, and some of the ones speaking up are spreading misinformation or sending mixed messages about its safety and efficacy.

State Rep. Russ Diamond (R., Lebanon) falsely called the vaccine poison on social media and vowed not to get one. State Rep. Dawn Keefer (R., York) introduced legislation that would ban businesses or sports venues from requiring proof of vaccination. And State Sen. Doug Mastriano (R., Franklin) wants to block employers from forcing their workers to get the shot.

Doctors say this rhetoric could have deadly consequences.

How, I have to ask, is attempting to protect workers’ rights and individual rights, from having to carry proof of vaccination, a wrong thing?[2]After getting my second dose of the Moderna vaccine, the Estill County Health Department gave me a card, complete with the same type of plastic holder in which a lot of people get their automobile … Continue reading

At every turn, the political left have been trying to force compliance with Government Orders. Instead of asking people to wear masks, Governors across the nation, sadly including Republicans as well as Democrats, have issued orders to people to do so, and issuing orders is the surest way of which I can think to get pushback from people who will not be sheeple.

Despite the claims of the ‘experts,’ the empirical evidence is that the mask mandates do not make any difference.

The facemask is the most visible symbol of compliance, and thus is the one that Governors such as Tom Wolf and Andy Beshear (D-KY) want to keep in place the longest. But Texas, where Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, lifted the state’s mask mandate on March 10th, and despite the gloom-and-doom predictions of the experts, the number of cases in the Lone Star State have fallen dramatically. We noted, a month ago:

Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX) eliminated the mandatory mask order in the Lone Star State, effective on March 10th; on that date, Texas’ seven-day moving average of daily new cases stood at 4,909. As of April 5th, that number was down to 3,007. The New York Times noted that while the moving average was down by 19% over the past fourteen days, the number of daily tests had increased by 8%. More tests, yet far fewer cases; how about that. Hospitalizations were also down, by 18%, and COVID-19 fatalities were down 38%.

Since then, cases have continued to decline. As of May 5th, the moving seven-day average of new cases in Texas is 2,830, the lowest it has been since June 18th of last year. Pennsylvania, which has also seen cases drop, has a moving seven-day average of 2,882, higher than Texas, despite having just 43% of Texas population.[3]Texas = 29.15 million; Pennsylvania = 12.78 million.

Despite the proclamations of the ‘experts,’ the empirical evidence is that the wearing of facemasks does not make a difference. Governor Beshear, in his latest (illegal) executive order, stated that the CDC “conducted a study of all 3,141 counties in the United States and found that those counties with mask mandates experienced a statistically significant decrease in daily COVID-19 cases,” but the evidence given in real life, in current data, so not show that. Texas, with its wide open status, is showing a greater decrease than half-way-closed Pennsylvania, and, in the Bluegrass State, cases have risen slightly.[4]To be fair, in my small, rural county, I have seen a couple of businesses clearly not going along with the mask mandates. I will not disclose which businesses they are, to keep the Commonwealth from … Continue reading

The mask mandates do not help, but Democratic governors just love to exert their authority, and the continuing mask mandates are the visible symbol to them that the sheeple have complied.

References

References
↑1 Full disclosure: I am not an anti-vaxxer by any means, and received my second dose on Cinco de Mayo. But having chosen to take the vaccine myself does not mean that I believe that others should be compelled to do so.
↑2 After getting my second dose of the Moderna vaccine, the Estill County Health Department gave me a card, complete with the same type of plastic holder in which a lot of people get their automobile proof of insurance cards, and the very cute nurse told me to keep it on my person. I will not comply with vaccine ‘passport’ ideas, and removed that card from my wallet when I returned home.
↑3 Texas = 29.15 million; Pennsylvania = 12.78 million.
↑4 To be fair, in my small, rural county, I have seen a couple of businesses clearly not going along with the mask mandates. I will not disclose which businesses they are, to keep the Commonwealth from trying to take action against them.
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A probably meaningless victory for property rights

It was August 12, 2014, when my wife and I toured the property that we decided to buy for our retirement home. Great location, a livable, if nevertheless fixer-upper house, and a fantastic price. However, we were not quite ready to retire, so, rather than leave the house sitting vacant, we rented it out.

In January of 2017, we gave our renters notice that we would be taking possession of the property on July 1, 2017. That gave them six months to find someplace else to live, and enabled their children to finish out the school year to finish out the school year.

But just imagine: what if I had retired in 2020 instead of 2017. With the eviction moratoria imposed by various levels of government, if our renters had simply decided to cease paying rent in April, and not to leave the property by the end of June, we could still be stuck in Pennsylvania, still waiting to take possession of our own property.

The Washington Post has a long, feature story on what has happened to rental property owners due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the covid economy of 2021, the federal government has created an ongoing grace period for renters until at least July, banning all evictions in an effort to hold back a historic housing crisis that is already underway. More than 8 million rental properties across the country are behind on payments by an average of $5,600, according to census data. Nearly half of those rental properties are owned not by banks or big corporations but instead by what the government classifies as “small landlords” — people who manage their own rentals and depend on them for basic income, and who are now trapped between tenants who can’t pay and their own mounting bills for insurance, mortgages and property tax. According to government estimates, a third of small landlords are at risk of bankruptcy or foreclosure as the pandemic continues into its second year.

There were bills we had to pay on our rented-out property: property taxes, some repairs, and, just a couple of months before the renters were to leave, to have the septic tank pumped out. The HVAC system needed to be serviced. Fortunately, this was before the virus struck, and we were still receiving our rent payments.

The Post story details the problems through which other landlords have had to go, but so many people see landlords as all being wealthy, all being Snidely Whiplash about to tie Sweet Nell to the railroad tracks.

Now a federal judge has thrown out the nationwide eviction moratorium issued by the Centers for Disease Control:

Federal judge vacates CDC’s nationwide eviction moratorium

Court rules agency lacks legal authority to impose it

By Kyle Swenson, Staff Writer | May 5, 2021 | 3:11 PM EDT

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday ruled that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention overstepped its legal authority by issuing a nationwide eviction moratorium, a ruling that could affect millions of struggling Americans.

In a 20-page order, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich vacated the CDC order, first put in place during the coronavirus pandemic under the Trump administration and now set to expire June 30.

“It is the role of the political branches, and not the courts, to assess the merits of policy measures designed to combat the spread of disease, even during a global pandemic,” the order states. “The question for the Court is a narrow one: Does the Public Health Service Act grant the CDC the legal authority to impose a nationwide eviction moratorium? It does not.”

The Biden administration has indicated it will appeal the decision. The ruling does not affect state or local eviction moratoriums. In Washington, D.C., for example, the city government’s ban on all evictions remains in place.

Translation: the ruling is very limited in scope. But here was the line that really got to me:

After Wednesday’s decision, tenants’ rights advocates called for the Biden administration not only to defend the policy but to step up legal protections that will keep people in their homes.

No, no, no, no, no! The eviction moratoria have not kept “people in their homes,” but kept people on other people’s homes!

In the wild and unthinking reaction to the virus, governments across the country, federal, state and local, have devastated our economy and turned individual American citizens into both slaves and agents of the government. The landlord who cannot collect his rent, yet not evict the squatters who are living in his property, has been transformed into an unpaid government housing agency, and has had his property effectively seized by the government for the private benefit of others. What was his is no longer his. The Fourteenth Amendment states that the government may not seize anyone’s property without due process of law, but unless due process of law includes government edicts, that constitutional provision has simply been waved away.

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Even The Philadelphia Inquirer realizes that people are getting fed up with #COVID19 restrictions Once rights have been lost, they are very difficult to regain

Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump 3,458,229 (50.01%) to 3,377,674 (48.84%) in Pennsylvania, but in Philadelphia County, Mr Biden’s margin was 603,790 (81.44%) to 132,740 (17.90%), 471,050 votes, far greater than the 81,660 votes by which President Trump lost the Keystone State. I think it fair to say that Philadelphia is a very heavily Democratic area.

So, when I see The Philadelphia Inquirer, itself a very liberally-oriented newspaper, telling readers that Philadelphians are individually rebelling against the mask mandates of Governor Tom Wolf (D-PA) and Mayor Jim Kenney (D-Philadelphia), I take note.

After a year of pandemic, wearing masks outdoors is up for debate

Even as the city holds firm with its mask mandates, Philadelphians are making their own decisions about whether to mask or not.

by Laura McCrystal and Jason Laughlin | Earth Day, April 22, 2021

White and pink pastel blossoms frosted the trees beneath a blue sky Tuesday afternoon in Old City, the kind of spring day that makes long sleeves optional. For many, though, masks were not.

“I do it because it’s the right thing to do,” said Ellen Stroman, as she walked by the colonial columns of the Shambles near Second and Pine Streets with her husband, their daughter, and dog.

Is it? Mrs Stroman was walking with her husband and her daughter, presumably members of her own household. If any of them have the China virus, then they all have it. If “it’s the right thing to do,” then the right thing for Mrs Stroman is to signal her virtue, not somehow fight the virus.[1]See here for my explanation as to why I have started to, occasionally, call it the China virus

There is ample evidence that masks help prevent COVID-19′s spread, and their value indoors, where transmission is almost 19 times more likely than outside, isn’t disputed. The risk of infection outside, especially through passing contact, appears much lower. Researchers have found COVID-19 spreads primarily through aerosols expelled by activities like talking, singing, sneezing, or coughing, and those disperse quickly in open air. Sunlight and humidity also play roles in reducing the risk of outdoor transmission. A letter to the German government from the Association for Aerosol Research this month stated, “Transmission outdoors is extremely rare and never leads to cluster infections as can be observed indoors,” according to Germany’s international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle.

The mass protests in summer 2020 that followed George Floyd’s death didn’t appear to cause coronavirus case surges in Philadelphia, and evidence is uneven about what role, if any, protests played in transmission nationwide.

Heaven forfend! Is the Inquirer, that bastion of the #woke, telling us that the authoritarian decrees of the Governor and Mayor might not be justified?

The Atlantic published an article recently asking whether it was time to consider lifting outdoor-masking mandates, noting confirmed cases of outdoor transmission almost always include close conversation or yelling. Once a person is vaccinated, the risk of being infected outdoors is “microscopic” to “nonexistent,” the magazine reported.

The article notes what we’ve all known: mask wearing has become highly politicized.

That highlights the unusual intersection of biology and social science that health experts and the public have navigated over the last year. Masks have moved beyond a public health precaution to become variously a courtesy, an indicator of solidarity, a symbol of respect for science — or a sign of reluctant acquiescence to government control. Some are so adamant about refusing to wear them they won’t enter places where they’re required.

“In America it’s been politicized,” said Eric Zillmer, a professor of neuropsychology at Drexel. “If you’re wearing a mask, you’ve kind of bought into the idea that there is danger.”

No, it means that you have bought into the idea that the government can tell you what to do and how to live your life!

I never wear a mask outside. If I am entering someone’s private property, and they have a notification up that they will decline service if I am not wearing a mask, I will comply; it is, after all, their private property. But, several times recently, I’ve come across businesses in which they have the signs up, but once inside I note that masks are optional, at which point I immediately exercise that option.

There were several paragraphs about how different people were behaving concerning mask wearing and, as usual, the obsessive controlling nature of government officials, but this is the one that struck me:

On the streets of Philadelphia, people make their own subtle adjustments. Some were masked up on a warm afternoon this week, while others went entirely without. Some kept masks ready to quickly put on if another person came nearby.

Uhhh, if you are outside, without a mask, and someone else chooses to come nearby, that’s on them, and they have clearly decided that they are not worried or do not care.

Well, we’re having a family gathering this Sunday, on our farm, of at least three households, and I guarantee you, there won’t be any masks worn! That will put us all in violation of Governor Andy Beshear’s (D-KY) latest executive order:

3. People in Kentucky must cover their nose and mouth with a face covering when they are in the following situations that represent a high risk of COVID-19 transmission:

a. . . . any other indoor public space in which it is difficult to maintain a physical distance of at least six feet from all individuals who are not members of that person’s household;

c. While in outdoor public spaces in which the person cannot maintain a physical distance of at least six feet from all individuals who are not members of the person’s household and is not otherwise covered by previously issued guidance.

I suppose that my property might not be considered a “public space”, but I very much wish to consider my actions as defiance of our insipid Governor’s cockamamie and illegal orders. If the Governor showed up at my property — something extremely unlikely to occur — I would tell him to remove his mask or get off my land.

We must do all that we can to resist the encroachment of government on our individual rights. Once rights are lost, they are very difficult to regain.

References

References
↑1 See here for my explanation as to why I have started to, occasionally, call it the China virus