Politics of Covid-19

[Grumpy]

Here ya go.

New moms selling breast milk they say has COVID antibodies

Some new moms are selling their breast milk online after getting vaccinated, and advertising that their milk has COVID antibodies.

kdvr.com

 

[Kyle]

Homelander.

 

[PJay]

 

[GURPS]

Blue-state guvs like Cuomo, Whitmer in a race to the authoritarian bottom

Such are the rock-bottom expectations set by big-blue-state governors’ race to the authoritarian bottom.

“Big Gretch,” as she is called with what is apparently affection by her supporters, made national headlines last week when it was revealed that she had lied about visiting Florida in defiance of her own travel advisory. When finally confronted with her fabrication, Whitmer admitted that she had spent a few days in the Sunshine State, which in the popular liberal imagination is some kind of post-apocalyptic hillbilly wasteland, equal parts “Deliverance” and “I Am Legend.”

No one can blame Whitmer for wanting to spend time with her ailing father in Florida. But what about the untold numbers of Michiganders who found themselves unable to visit their own relations during the last year? Not long ago, a friend of our family who had been fully vaccinated watched her grandmother die through a glass partition because public-health bureaucrats decided that allowing this nonagenarian to spend her final moments with the vaccinated people she loved was too much of a risk; the woman in question wasn’t even dying of COVID.

But last week’s hypocrisy, which led Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s chief financial officer, to send Whitmer a letter Monday begging her not to “be a stranger” and wishing to “see you again soon,” is only the latest example of her contempt for the people of Michigan.

 

[GURPS]

Oregon Town Declares Emergency to Fight Gov. Brown's Lockdowns


In an interview with PJ Media, Baker City Mayor Kerry McQuisten says the proposal began as an attempt to make their town a Common Sense Sanctuary. Serving in her first term, business leaders approached her the day after her swearing-in took place in January. “It was quite a process,” she says. “After we were all sworn in back on January 12th, local businesses brought forth to [city] council an idea of a Common Sense Sanctuary City. The idea was pretty funny, actually. It was a good idea. They were asking for local businesses to be able to adhere, or not adhere to the mask mandates, the OSHA [Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division] restrictions, as they saw fit individually.”

McQuisten says the city council conducted a town hall meeting over the issue. “Business owners poured in to give testimony. Some questioned whether the city could protect them from state OSHA regulations and targeting by these agencies.”

 

[GURPS]

Declining Covid Infections, Hospitalizations, and Deaths Removing the Urgency to Vaccinate


Rapidly declining U.S. Covid infections, hospitalizations, and deaths are removing the urgency to vaccinate the nation. Vaccine demand is falling just as the U.S. is ramping up production of the vaccine. The nation is expected to have 200 million doses stockpiled before the 4th of July.

But will there be anyone left to vaccinate?

As of today, about 30 percent of the country has been fully vaccinated. Forty-three percent have received at least one dose of the Moderna or Pfizer two-dose treatment. And it’s having an effect.

Wall Street Journal:

With the U.S. recently averaging at least 50,000 new daily cases, the pandemic is far from over. But the U.S. is nearing a nationwide benchmark of having 40% of adults fully vaccinated, which many public-health experts call an important threshold where vaccinations gain an upper hand over the coronavirus, based on the experience from further-along nations such as Israel.
“When you get to somewhere between 40 and 50%, I believe you’re going to start seeing real change, the start of a precipitous drop in cases,” said Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious-disease expert, in an interview.

Israel reported zero deaths for the first time during the pandemic for the first time 5 days ago. About 58 percent of the country has received both doses of the vaccine, making Israel the world leader in vaccinations.

 

[Kyle]

 

[LightRoasted]

If I may ...

For all the fat people you know, please share.

I fix the title:
Severe Flu in people can mostly be explained by obesity – new study

Severe COVID in young people can mostly be explained by obesity – new study

Risk due to increasing BMI is particularly notable in people younger than 40 years and black people.

theconversation.com

And I'll edit this sentence: "As we age, a weaker immune system and chronic health conditions could influence the way our body responds to [any] virus."

 

[GURPS]

Nation’s Second Largest Teachers Union Influenced CDC On School Reopening Guidelines, Delayed Return To Classrooms


The CDC later admitted that “science” was not the sole driving factor in establishing its school reopening guidelines and that officials coordinated with “outside groups” to make its recommendations on the subject, per a report from The Daily Wire.

Now, the Post notes that those “outside groups” included the nation’s second-largest teachers union, which seems to have prevented the CDC from using the language it wanted: “that schools could provide in-person instruction regardless of community spread”

“’Thank you again for Friday’s rich discussion about forthcoming CDC guidance and for your openness to the suggestions made by our president, Randi Weingarten, and the AFT,’ wrote AFT senior director for health issues Kelly Trautner in a Feb 1 email — which described the union as the CDC’s ‘thought partner,'” according to the Post.

“We were able to review a copy of the draft guidance document over the weekend and were able to provide some initial feedback to several staff this morning about possible ways to strengthen the document,” Trautner continued. “We believe our experiences on the ground can inform and enrich thinking around what is practicable and prudent in future guidance documents.”

The AFT reportedly demanded that the CDC not make a blanket statement on reopening schools and that the CDC include language demanding accommodations for teachers “who have documented high-risk conditions or who are at increased risk for … COVID-19.”



CDC is a POLITICAL Organization that should be Ignored

Well so much for Science


Oh and Teachers UNIONS Should be disbanded

 

[GURPS]

YOU WILL NEVER GET YOUR FREEDOM BACK ........



Herd Immunity? Maybe Never, Experts Now Say

But now, experts are saying we may never reach herd immunity. “Instead, they are coming to the conclusion that rather than making a long-promised exit, the virus will most likely become a manageable threat that will continue to circulate in the United States for years to come, still causing hospitalizations and deaths but in much smaller numbers,” The New York Times reported on Monday.

“The virus is unlikely to go away,” Emory University evolutionary biologist Rustom Antia told the Times. “But we want to do all we can to check that it’s likely to become a mild infection.”

“We will not achieve herd immunity as a country or a state or even as a city until we have enough immunity in the population as a whole,” Lauren Ancel Meyers, the director of the Covid-19 Modeling Consortium at the University of Texas at Austin, told Times.

More than 31% of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — including nearly 70% of Americans older than 65. But according to the Times, some 30% of Americans are hesitant to get the vaccine.

 

[GURPS]

‘Shell-Shocked’: D.C. Mayor Bans Wedding Dances


Stephanie Sadowski of SRS Events said she was “completely shell-shocked” at Bowser’s order. “There’s hardly been any time to react, rather than being incredibly frustrated and angry with Washington, D.C., and Mayor Bowser for completely blindsiding us,” she said.

Bowser’s order not only bans people from dancing, but even just standing at a wedding reception. The order states:

Beginning May 1, multi-purpose facilities and venues may host events such as weddings and special non-recurring events provided that there may be no more than twenty five percent (25%) of capacity in any room or up to two hundred fifty (250) persons, not including facility staff, whichever is fewer. A waiver is needed for attendance greater than two hundred fifty (250) persons. Attendees and guests must remain seated and socially distanced from each other or other household groups. If these events include dining, facilities and venues shall adhere to the rules established for restaurants and licensed food establishments. Standing and dancing receptions are not allowed.

 

[TPD]

‘Shell-Shocked’: D.C. Mayor Bans Wedding Dances


Stephanie Sadowski of SRS Events said she was “completely shell-shocked” at Bowser’s order. “There’s hardly been any time to react, rather than being incredibly frustrated and angry with Washington, D.C., and Mayor Bowser for completely blindsiding us,” she said.

Bowser’s order not only bans people from dancing, but even just standing at a wedding reception. The order states:

@Bann

 

[Bann]

@Bann

Stupid people!

They can't stop people from dancing for very long!

 

[Sneakers]

‘Shell-Shocked’: D.C. Mayor Bans Wedding Dances


Stephanie Sadowski of SRS Events said she was “completely shell-shocked” at Bowser’s order. “There’s hardly been any time to react, rather than being incredibly frustrated and angry with Washington, D.C., and Mayor Bowser for completely blindsiding us,” she said.

Bowser’s order not only bans people from dancing, but even just standing at a wedding reception. The order states:

This is contradictory in spirit to the lifting of other Covid restrictions, like masks if you're vaccinated. If she's looking to totally confuse people, she's doing it.

 

[PJay]

..

They can't stop people from dancing for very long!

Right

 

[GURPS]

Andrew Cuomo, Ron DeSantis Announce Major Rollbacks of Pandemic Restrictions

In Florida, Republican Ron DeSantis issued an executive order suspending all local governments' emergency pandemic orders, including mask mandates.

"I think that's the evidence-based thing to do," he said today at a news conference. "I think folks that are saying they need to be policing people at this point, if you're saying that, then you're really saying you don't believe in the vaccines."

DeSantis announced his executive order at a signing ceremony for S.B. 2006. That bill ends all local emergency orders by July 1, as well as amending Florida's laws to make it harder for both states and localities to shut down businesses and schools. The governor's order is meant to bridge the gap between now and when the bill goes into effect.

​

These moves effectively move Florida, always one of the looser states in terms of COVID restrictions, back to a pre-pandemic state of affairs, combined with a few new checks on government emergency powers.

 

[GURPS]

Study suggests lockdown costs may have outweighed benefits


Researchers from Rice University’s Baker Institute, using data from the online publication Wallethub that measures the severity of lockdowns in all 50 states, compared states with strict lockdowns to those with fewer restrictions in an attempt to measure the effect of lockdowns.

[clip]

While states that imposed stricter lockdown measures did see a decline in death rates, the researchers warn that the lockdowns themselves may not have been the determining factor in the decline.

“We cannot rule out the possibility that the local population’s fear in the early days of COVID-19 determined both the strictness of state-imposed lockdowns and subsequent COVID-19 death rates, with no direct causal link between state actions and subsequent observed deaths,” the study reads. “In fact, economists have found that legal restrictions explain only 7 percentage points of the 60 percentage point decline in foot traffic measured by cell phone activity through mid-May. The study attributes the vast majority of the decline in foot traffic to consumers choosing of their own volition to avoid commercial activity.”

The researchers concluded that responses to the COVID-19 pandemic are “complex” work that demands “nuanced and calculated responses from policymakers.”

 

[GURPS]

The Incredible Vanishing Flu



A virologist was perplexed and honest. According to the New York Times,

“We don’t really have a clue,” said Richard Webby, a virologist at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. “We’re in uncharted territory. We haven’t had an influenza season this low, I think as long as we’ve been measuring it. So what the potential implications are is a bit unclear.”

[clip]

What if influenza cases were incorrectly labeled as COVID? After all, everything now is called PIC. Perhaps the influenza numbers are much higher and COVID numbers much lower based on misclassification.

The CDC wouldn’t play numbers games like that would they? Sure they would. The CDC changed its cycle threshold for “vaccine breakthrough cases,” those cases occurring post vaccination, to 28, far below that for normal cases of 40 or higher, to reduce COVID cases numbers after the vaccine. Imagine if they had done that last year. COVID cases numbers would resemble that of a bad flu season.

The CDC was happy to let high case numbers work against President Trump last year when he was campaigning for reelection but now want to lower case numbers to favor their heralded vaccines. This is the same CDC that allowed a national teachers union to help draft school opening guidance, just as Congress lets lobbyists write legislation. Can the CDC be trusted?

The CDC director said their data, “suggests that vaccinated people do not carry the virus” yet vaccinated people are still distanced and masked. Is the CDC about public health or just another political arm of the ruling class, like the FBI and DOJ?

Are the vanishing flu cases just a numbers game, the CDC playing three-card Monte, hiding flu cases while America bets her economy on this con game, the American people coming up short and the Democrats always winning? Was it every really about the virus?

Brian C Joondeph, MD, is a physician and writer. He is on sabbatical from social media.

 

[GURPS]

Montana governor pulls out of COVID federal unemployment programs: 'We should be incenting work'


Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte argued Wednesday that there has been "a continual stream of initiatives out of Washington that disincent work," explaining that his state decided to get rid of supplemental benefits and is offering a back-to-work bonus in order to incentivize people to get back into the workforce.

Gianforte made the comments on "Cavuto: Coast to Coast" while explaining what was behind his decision to end Montana's participation in federal COVID-19 unemployment programs. He also discussed the start of the new state program to give people "Return to Work" bonuses.

"Nobody starts life hoping they’re going to grow up and become dependent on the government," Gianforte told host Neil Cavuto. "We need unemployment as a safety net for folks that find themselves in a rough spot, but it shouldn’t be a permanent status."

 

[PrchJrkr]

"Nobody starts life hoping they’re going to grow up and become dependent on the government," Gianforte told host Neil Cavuto.

He's never been to any large American inner city.