Covid-19: Spoiler Alert!
Thursday, 6/18/2020 09:01
Can't wait to see how this ends...?
WHAT JOY for a cynic!
says Bill Bonner in his Diary of a Rogue Economist.
Here is proof that the human race is every bit as stupid and as cupid as he always thought it was.
Two of the biggest public policy humbugs in human history have come in the last 90 days. Today, we look at the first one.
On their own, people are passably competent and tolerably intelligent. They drive down highways at 70 mph. They balance their checkbooks. They get along with each other.
But give them "public policy" and they immediately shed 50 IQ points...becoming delusional, vainglorious, and aggressive.
Everybody knows, on his own, that if he makes a copy of a $1 bill, it is worthless. But he thinks that the feds can create trillions of them...and they will magically represent real wealth.
On his own, he realizes that he knows nothing about China, Russia, or Iran. (As for the latter, he is not even sure where it is...or what language they speak there...And he believes, vaguely, that it is full of Arabs.) But as a matter of public policy, he is sure they are up to no good.
Personally, he avoids getting into conflict with his neighbors. But let the feds and the press come up with a woebegone war – against small countries...drugs...poverty...terrorism (even though he has no idea who qualifies as a terrorist)...and now, a molecule – and his national pride is engaged; he's ready to back the war with all his heart.
On March 13, President Trump proclaimed a state of emergency. At the time, it looked like it might be the best thing to do. After all, the human race was at war with a New Plague...that, we were told, could rake through the population, killing millions.
By March 17, the "emergency" was obviously a mistake. The Italians came forward with the evidence. It was us – over 70, with pre-existing health problems – for whom Death had come a-calling, not the entire human race.
A lot of people got the disease – just as they get seasonal colds and flu – but it only kills the old and the sick. The median age of death in Italy was over 80.
And here, Dear Reader, we give you a sad "heads up". We're all going to die. The only question is when. On average, in the US, we die at age 78. Covid-19 takes us at 78, too.
Young people are almost immune. The Italian report revealed that by mid-March, no one under 30 had died from the virus there. And there had been only 17 deaths among people under 50...
...and all those under 40 who had died from the virus had pre-existing "co-morbidities." Overall, 99% of the fatalities had a previously existing ailment.
Between the young and the old is about a half a century...and a thousand times difference in mortality rates. And yet, under the Trump/Fauci internment program, the two groups were locked up together. It was like putting both a serial killer and an innocent nun in solitary confinement, regardless of their crimes.
About half of those killed by the virus in America were in nursing homes and half-way houses already...that is, lingering somewhere between the quick and the dead.
And all the evidence that has come out since then has confirmed that this is no indiscriminate killer. Instead, it merely helps those already headed to the grave to get there a little faster.
For everybody else, it is just another of life's risks. And for people under 60, it carries about the same risk as driving to work.
With these facts at hand, Dr.Fauci and the President should have immediately looked the nation in the eye, told the truth, and reversed their Universal House Arrest policy. The vulnerable should have been warned...old age homes could have been defended...and the rest of the population would have been free to use its own judgment.
Instead, the "mistake" turned into a scam. The media, the governors, the health experts, and the feds induced a war hysteria. Wearing a mask became a display of not just civic virtue, but obedience. Dissent was dismissed as "crackpot," anti-social...or treasonous. Adults challenged each other: "Why aren't you wearing a mask?"
And here's New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo:
"Not wearing a mask is not okay, and that has to be the culture and that has to be the attitude. It's not okay if you don't wear a mask. It's not okay for you to jeopardize my health. I don't think it's right for you to jeopardize your health, but that's your health. And by the way, you jeopardize your health."
Oh?
The press and the health-scolds try to pretend that there is a battle going on between the mask-wearing "science" of Dr.Fauci and the unmasked politics of Donald Trump. But where is the science?
Is there evidence that a non-mask-wearing society will be worse off than one where masks are obligatory? It doesn't exist. Some places require face masks; some don't. Some people wear them; some don't.
Even the World Health Organization now disputes the need for masks. Here's its new guideline:
"If you are healthy, you only need to wear a mask if you are taking care of a person with Covid-19."
Anthony Fauci is Donald Trump's employee. Part of the executive branch, he is a career Deep Stater, who could be fired at any time. But the two – Trump and Fauci – found each other useful, one pretending that there was a mortal threat...the other pretending to protect us from it.
The former enjoys more fame and influence than any public employee since Pontius Pilate...the latter positioned himself as a "war President", claiming power that would be off-limits in peacetime.
And then, as if to mock science as well as common sense, lunatic regulations appeared across the nation to enforce the lockdown...
You were allowed on "wet sand" but not on dry sand...
You were told that fresh air and sunshine would help keep the virus at bay...but outside sports were canceled...children (who had been shown to be immune from the disease, and did not carry it to others) were discouraged from playing outdoors...even summer camps and summer holidays had to be canceled as the health goons cracked down...
You were allowed to drive in a car with your family...but not to get into a boat...
You were allowed to buy lottery tickets, booze, and marijuana – they were "essential" – but going to church was verboten...
Restaurants, bars, sports events...all were off-limits, even to people with nearly zero chance of dying from the virus...
You could drive to the golf course with three friends...but you couldn't play golf together...
You were supposed to cry a tear for the 100,000 victims of Covid-19, but as for the 647,000 who die every year from heart disease, the 606,000 victims of cancer, and the 167,000 who die in accidents...well...tough luck...
You could be arrested and put in jail for violating the lockdown...but convicted criminals were let out, because it might be dangerous to their health to stay in prison!
The Big Covid-19 Scam has cost Americans an estimated $5 trillion. So far.
That's just the money; we can't even begin to tally the costs in lost opportunities, indignities, and inconveniences.
Email us