The following is commentary intended for discussion. Add your comments.
Throughout time, there have been commonsense observations about health and medicine that turned out to be correct -- even though they were contrary to what prevailing scientific opinion was.
Sometimes, it's almost as if very smart medical experts don't see the forest for the trees. It's as if their noses are stuck in the books studying estimates and theories, and they are missing what is really going on right in front of their eyes.
How many times have our health officials had to correct and amend what they said or thought, not only on Covid-19 but on other health threats?
Of course, that's to be expected when we're learning new things. On the front end of the Covid-19 pandemic, everything was pretty theoretical.
Yet, a year later, we need to open our eyes and be willing to see around us to be sure we are learning from our actual experiences.
Looking at Covid measures as I've travelled extensively around the U.S. the past year, I've been to many places that didn't do lockdowns after March. Yet they reported no surges.
In numerous places I visited, there were not many people wearing masks. In several places I visited, they started school as usual last fall and kept churches and businesses open (with most people not wearing masks there, either).
No surges or remarkable spikes.
Meantime, we hear or see on the news many other places that have been very restricted for a year and cannot seem to escape their spikes.
If I ran one of those cities, I would want to know if something we were doing could be making matters worse instead of better. Is it time to consider changing approaches? I would want to know more about the experiences of the places that lived more normal lives and fared better in term of illness.
It could very well be that different types and sizes of cities and towns require different approaches. Even that acknowledgment would seem to be important.
What do you think?
It's not hard to imagine in a nation of thumb sucking narcissists that there are a significant number of highly educated elites actually hoping for death and pestilence to sweep through those ignorant red states that did not lock down. This is the level of divisiveness we have been stretched to by media and social media., the same that sputter, gasp and swoon should anyone suggest they are enemies of the people.
The traditional Socialist approach is for government to blame and scold the people for not trying hard enough when the government plan fails, but with Federalism some states created a de facto double armed clinical trial and publicly proved the experts wrong. When you sting the pride of the elite they hate you without reserve.
Excellent. The mishandling of the 1918 Great Influenza laid the foundation for the economic calamities and horrific war to follow. What awaits us? This
country is no longer United, as you’ve noted above with your comments about divisiveness. It is exactly what our enemies have wished for and worked hard to achieve: our strength has always been in our unity in the face of crises and our freedoms. The former is gone. The latter is fading away at breathtaking speed.
As a guy with a full beard (which no mask is going to seal well), I wish they kept stats on infection rates for bearded folk :-^)
I’ve always thought that 50 united States present a great opportunity for 50 different “experiments”, and we could and should be working together and learning from each other. The federal government ought to operate only in the realm proscribed to it by the Constitution. Other than that, it could facilitate the transmissions of knowledge gained from the 50 States. Perhaps we will learn along the way that there is not always a one-size-fits-all solution to every problem!
Well, where I live, it seems like the County Health Department is only looking at numbers in our own county and CDC guidelines. They're not even bothering to look into other counties or parts of the country that are faring better. I think that's a big part of the problem. Health departments need to look at other areas that have been more successful and see how those areas have done better.
Excellent. The mishandling of the 1918 Great Influenza laid the foundation for the economic calamities and horrific war to follow. What awaits us? This
country is no longer United, as you’ve noted above with your comments about divisiveness. It is exactly what our enemies have wished for and worked hard to achieve: our strength has always been in our unity in the face of crises and our freedoms. The former is gone. The latter is fading away at breathtaking speed.
Agree with some of your points, but it is also important to recall that roughly
675,000 Americans out of a population of about 104 million people died from the "Great Influenza" in 1918. Today, we have lost about 550,000 people out of a population of about 333 million. Fortunately, our per-capita losses are much lighter, though no less tragic.
Do you live in a red or blue state?
I think the questions you are asking deserve a lot more discussion. We should be looking at the real data and discussing the real costs vs the actual benefits of various policies. What disturbs me is how even attempting the discussion in most forums gets you shutdown and canceled. The shutdown of the discussion is not conducive to robust scientific debate or to determining the truth. The silencing of debate is far more dangerous than any other Coronavirus policy.
The data at this point seems to confirm that the strict lockdowns do not make much of a difference in the spread of Covid. A comparison of Florida and California is pretty stark. Why do many of our leaders continue to push them? It’s maddening that people who say “follow the science” do not, in real life, follow the science. And it’s also maddening how many people can be controlled by fear. The more they say “the vaccines are perfectly safe,” the less I trust them because of their track record to date. And all of this erosion of trust could have long term negative consequence.
Do/should we rely on people with a vested interest in their salary and pensions and jobs?
This RN thinks this was never about health or science
I agree with you, Nurse Janine. This was about control. And fear. I initially thought all the fear-mongering was due to it being an election year, in a cynical attempt to sway voters against all things Trump. Yet here we still are!
Here in California the ‘elect’ work from home and bemoan the social injustice that those who must work will contract the virus. Counties opening on the endless color spectrum (red tier, green tier, Newsom control by fear) must achieve “equity” targets before being ‘allowed’ to open another smidgen of their businesses. It’s insane.
And why? That’s the real question I have. Why are we doing this when all data point to the ineffectiveness of lockdowns as making a whit of difference...when masks do not prevent covid particles from passing through...when the case fatality rate falls...when asymptotic transmission rates are erroneously used to push policy...when health bureaucrats profit from their 15 minutes of fame...when teachers unions flex their power with cynical disregard for the welfare of children....and on and on.
I just want to know why.
I read somewhere that there was a secret document in, I think, Germany, on methods of controlling the public through fear.
Niall Ferguson never paid the price for his ludicrous modeling that has been completely disproven.
They were wrong. They can’t admit they are wrong.
No one-size-fits-all approach
One problem is the top medical operative deified by Pelosi, Schumer, & their ilk has his nose stuck in front of a TV camera,
Initially named SARS-19, rename before the public was notified of a possible pandemic. Some one did not want another SARS emanating from Communist China.
COVID-19 was politicized from the onset.
If the government hadn't stepped in to fund hospitals $49 g per intubated patient, and the insurance companies would have had to encourage the less expensive treatments hydroxychloriquine and ivermectin fewer people would died.
It's not surprising the comments here are one sided. I could add mine, but it wouldn't be different. I'm a native American but I now live in a different country. It's the same here and I'm convinced the political response to the virus is not about public health.
I wonder how many of us there are who believe it's about control? At this point it's not a majority yet, but it's easy to imagine the political elites everywhere are desperate to prevent this growing realization from becoming widespread. What will happen if it does? What will happen when millions of people come to understand that our leaders have crushed the economies of dozens of countries, causing millions of lost jobs and bankrupt businesses?
I suspect it won't be pretty.
Unfortunately government officials today are unwilling to admit when they are wrong. When a person of authority makes a mistake they will apologize when caught and point their fingers at others to deflect. Money and power trump reason and integrity. It was obvious early that lockdown's didn't work but the blue states were unwilling to change their narrative which cost lives and made the cure worse than the virus.