“Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.”, Richard Feynman
George Rebane
Almost everything you’ve heard about Covid-19 (here also C19) from politicians, the media, and publicized scientists and clinicians is wrong. Here at RR, early on I started looking at the pandemic with a gimlet eye. I did this as a science professional and a longtime student of how politics and scientification have been illicitly cohabiting for decades, to the point that today it’s difficult to tell which is the john and which is whore. The C19 pandemic has brought it all together, and now invites serious review of the disease, its hysterical public response policies, and the real prophylaxis and collateral damage that has resulted from the variously implemented policies.
For the better part of this year we have been subjected to pronouncements delivered from on high about C19's sacrosanct ‘science’, and the irrevocable wisdom of ‘following the science’. All this as if science was a singular, unitary, and all-illuminating oracle speaking to us from Olympus in a clear and unambiguous voice. Nothing could be further from the truth, and over the months more and more serious and credible people are beginning to find their voice and speak out against such specious beliefs. For openers, I suggest that readers begin with ‘What the pandemic has taught us about science’ by Matt Ridley, MP in the House of Lords, that appears in the 9oct20 WSJ.
The levels of clinical, scientific, and political fraud launched at global populations is of historical proportions. It may be argued that never before have so many billions of humans been so thoroughly bamboozled by their political leaders, abetted by a willing media citing grant-sucking scientists, go-along healthcare professionals, and profit-motivated pharma. This has reached levels which have invited a German-based investigative committee headed by Dr Reiner Fuellmich to launch a multi-national class action suit, making the case that such cynically enforced policies have caused enough death and destruction worldwide to amount to a ‘crime against humanity’, a charge last litigated in Nuremberg in 1946. (H/T to reader)
Fuellmich gives an extensive presentation of cited data and information about the advent of C19, its history, and reactions to this corona virus. In it he presents data and information (prepared for the lawsuit) about the characteristics and progress of the disease that I venture few of us know. The video of the presentation takes a better part of an hour, but the educational takeaway is well worth it for those concerned about our governments’ reactions, and the continuing diktats of its truly insane response policies.
One of the strong points Fuellmich brings out is the testing scam based on the widely used PCR-based diagnostic test that produces essentially worthless results as it is applied here and abroad. For a broader look at how our FDA views the C19 tests and testing landscape, you can visit their website here.
Finally, of the hundreds of clinicians, scientists, and public health professionals who have looked askance at the governments’ dealings with the C19 pandemic, three internationally prominent scientists in the field gathered last weekend in Great Barrington, Massachusetts to draft a declaration and give interviews (here) on the planet’s misguided responses to the virus. Drs Martin Kuldorff, Sumetra Gupta, and Jay Bhattacharya, professors respectively at Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford Universities, came together to put their appeal to sanity out in the public with their ‘Great Barrington Declaration’ which I reproduce in its entirety below.
They point out that more children die of the annual flu, and have again done so than they do of C19. The risk of death between kids and the elderly varies by more than three orders of magnitude (i.e. the risk of death for the elderly is already low – about 1/20 - and for kids it's thousands of times lower). They point out from data that lockdowns don’t impact the response stats as best witnessed by the same population-wide results obtained by locked down Great Britain and remain open Sweden. They prescribe letting people “practice informed freedom” rather than being forced to endure “myopic” one-size-fits-all enforced sabbaticals for entire populations of millions.
I know it’s hard to digest all this in the face of our lamestream’s strident and loud repetitions of the Left’s C19 talking points that have only the political purpose of launching the fundamental transformation of America this November. Below you can read the declaration in its entirety and then, if you wish, go to its website to add your signature to the thousands who have already signed.
The Great Barrington Declaration
Great Barrington, Massachusetts - 4 October 2020
As infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists we have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies, and recommend an approach we call Focused Protection.
Coming from both the left and right, and around the world, we have devoted our careers to protecting people. Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health. The results (to name a few) include lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health – leading to greater excess mortality in years to come, with the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden. Keeping students out of school is a grave injustice.
Keeping these measures in place until a vaccine is available will cause irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed.
Fortunately, our understanding of the virus is growing. We know that vulnerability to death from COVID-19 is more than a thousand-fold higher in the old and infirm than the young. Indeed, for children, COVID-19 is less dangerous than many other harms, including influenza.
As immunity builds in the population, the risk of infection to all – including the vulnerable – falls. We know that all populations will eventually reach herd immunity – i.e. the point at which the rate of new infections is stable – and that this can be assisted by (but is not dependent upon) a vaccine. Our goal should therefore be to minimize mortality and social harm until we reach herd immunity.
The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits of reaching herd immunity, is to allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection, while better protecting those who are at highest risk. We call this Focused Protection.
Adopting measures to protect the vulnerable should be the central aim of public health responses to COVID-19. By way of example, nursing homes should use staff with acquired immunity and perform frequent PCR testing of other staff and all visitors. Staff rotation should be minimized. Retired people living at home should have groceries and other essentials delivered to their home. When possible, they should meet family members outside rather than inside. A comprehensive and detailed list of measures, including approaches to multi-generational households, can be implemented, and is well within the scope and capability of public health professionals.
Those who are not vulnerable should immediately be allowed to resume life as normal. Simple hygiene measures, such as hand washing and staying home when sick should be practiced by everyone to reduce the herd immunity threshold. Schools and universities should be open for in-person teaching. Extracurricular activities, such as sports, should be resumed. Young low-risk adults should work normally, rather than from home. Restaurants and other businesses should open. Arts, music, sport and other cultural activities should resume. People who are more at risk may participate if they wish, while society as a whole enjoys the protection conferred upon the vulnerable by those who have built up herd immunity.
[11oct20 update] The travesty of wrongheaded and drastically harmful response policies being imposed by both ignorant and power hungry politicians around the world is now even opposed by the UN’s World Health Organization. The WHO has come out strongly against continuing lockdowns like the insane regimen the Democrats are imposing on Californians, and that lackey-minded local jurisdictions like Nevada County are following without uttering a peep. Dr David Nabarro, WHO’s special envoy on Covid-19, has “pointed to the devastating economic side-effects of the lockdown as evidence for why world leaders should not enact further lockdowns.” Nabarro added that “This is a terrible, ghastly, global catastrophe, actually, and so we really do appeal to all world leaders: Stop using lockdown as you primary control method. Develop better systems for doing it. Remember, lockdowns have just one consequence that you must never ever belittle, and that is making poor people and awful lot poorer.” (more here)
No problem George. Canada seems to have figgered it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzWLlfwfD4Y
Posted by: scenes | 09 October 2020 at 07:06 PM
scenes 7:06 - re the YTube vid. We notice the complete dodge of the question. He basically refused to answer, which makes the topic of the question even more chilling.
Posted by: Scott O | 09 October 2020 at 07:32 PM
I'm only buying this if it comes with a nose-scratching stick.
https://microclimate.com/
Posted by: scenes | 09 October 2020 at 08:44 PM
The Democratic candidate appears to have this mask thing licked.
https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1314728962854023168
Posted by: scenes | 10 October 2020 at 07:11 AM
Dr John Campbell, is a Brit, who has made numerous videos on his interpretations of this Wuhan virus tournament, from its beginning. He commented on the GBD (Great Barrington...) on 10/8 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lSmSWx6kjA.
He is guarded on accepting all of the recommendations in GBD. A main objection is the lack of references on the GBD website to support their talking points. The signatories may well have published papers, but it would have been better had they pointed to a list of references.
There are uncertainties with the future of the virus, and of its effects on those who get it and recover. But the one thing of which I am certain, many politicians have been super-quick to acquire the crown of despot. Possibly they intend to be the winners in this tournament. But on the bright side, maybe they'll let me clean the stables.
Posted by: The Estonian Fox | 10 October 2020 at 08:01 AM
Efox 801am - Yes, they've published and spoken a lot on the C19 response topic, and I guess it was a trade-off between making their declaration short and readable, and going into another well-documented harangue on why our response policies are dumb.
Posted by: George Rebane | 10 October 2020 at 09:44 AM
"many politicians have been super-quick to acquire the crown of despot."
Amen Brotha.
Luckily, the modern US Left has a two-step plan:
. Have the government acquire more power via fiat and finance.
. Acquire the government.
It might be considered Communism except that they have no intention of providing useful work to anyone. There needs to be a good term for Communism minus Labor that isn't simply 'Authoritarianism', which is too broad a concept.
The current Blue Mob tool set simply leads you down the road of society constructed as a large version of a private prison, complete with guards, owners, staff, and (mostly) inmates who don't dare sit at the wrong table in the cafeteria. If you're an owner, the details really don't matter.
Posted by: scenes | 10 October 2020 at 11:58 AM
The latest from the WHO - it looks like a lot more people have or have had the Woo-Hoo virus. Remember - it's all settled science!
https://off-guardian.org/2020/10/08/who-accidentally-confirms-covid-is-no-more-dangerous-than-flu/
One of my favorite songs by the WHO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHhrZgojY1Q
Posted by: Scott O | 10 October 2020 at 12:37 PM
This year to date: way more kids have died from the flu than because of C-19. Tell me why we are closing down schools. Because of the flu?
Posted by: Bill Tozer | 10 October 2020 at 01:01 PM
I was thinking about the weaponization of medicine this afternoon.
Two articles:
"In this double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial that included 132 participants and was terminated early, there was not a significant difference in reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction–confirmed SARS-CoV-2 incidence between hydroxychloroquine and placebo cohorts."
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2771265
"Early treatment with HCQ on the first day of admission is associated with a reduced risk of 53% in transfer to the ICU for mechanical ventilation."
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1201971220321755
Guess which paper is directly or indirectly referenced in 100's of MSM news articles. If you guess the one that sez hydroxychloroquine is ineffective, you'd be right. It isn't that they care one whit about the subtleties in the matter, it's just another front in the holy war against Trump.
We even have our own Sgt. Schultz from this war regularly showing up on George's page, so it's not like there's anything new here.
Posted by: scenes | 10 October 2020 at 01:44 PM
Has anyone asked our Board of Supervisors what their knowledge about the above is and what inputs they are using to make C19 response policy for the county? I am also guilty, but I did send the link to this post to Sup Dan Miller and CEO Alison Lehman.
Posted by: George Rebane | 10 October 2020 at 02:46 PM
Dr.Rebane @ 9:44 am in response to E. Fox, extraordinaire
“and I guess it was a trade-off between making their declaration short and readable, and going into another well-documented harangue on why our response policies are dumb.”
Yep. It does appear to be an exercise in fritillary. Don’t fit on a bumper sticker. The blind blindly following ‘science’ . Science worshippers. The Holy Grail. Don’t dis the Scared Cow. The science is settled, you flat Earthers. Whew, glad I got that off my chest. Bra was too tight.
Suffer me the indulgence to waste my time and post ‘science’.
Five Charts Showing Sweden’s Strategy Worked
https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/five-charts-showing-sweden-s-strategy-worked/
—
‘Lab Coat Tyranny’
California is using “public health” as a rationale to push progressive political goals.
https://www.city-journal.org/california-race-coding-criteria-for-reopening
——
‘Most Parents Have No Idea How Badly Online Schooling Is Hurting Their Kids’
Parents need to persuade educational and political leaders to fully reopen schools before the negative effects on their children leave permanent scars
https://thefederalist.com/2020/09/30/most-parents-have-no-idea-how-badly-online-schooling-is-hurting-their-kids/
—————
Oh, I could go on, but I selfishly feel better now. Still have this California Problem to deal with. One step at a time.
‘No Outbreak at Disney World Three Months After Reopening’
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/no-outbreak-at-disney-world-three-months-after-reopening/
Disneyland still closed near the Big A, 28,000 people got pink slips. Or was that 30+ thousand?
The silver lining to all this is this very morning I went to small town, USA. A gentleman was wearing mask that made me smile. It was a larger style in patriotic colors that read boldly, “This mask is as worthless as our government”.
Now, Dr.Rebane, there is your bumper sticker slogan on this complex topic of science co-mingling with politics (and policy). Always A silver lining, even in the contamination of science.
Posted by: Bill Tozer | 10 October 2020 at 03:23 PM
lol. This figures.
"WATCH: Dr David Nabarro, the WHO's Special Envoy on Covid-19, tells Andrew Neil: 'We really do appeal to all world leaders: stop using lockdown as your primary control method'. Watch the full interview here: "
https://twitter.com/spectator/status/1314573157827858434?s=20
Posted by: scenes | 11 October 2020 at 09:18 AM
I did like the first paragraph from the City Journal article:
"Public health authorities in California have unveiled a “Blueprint for a Safer Economy” that requires counties to meet new “health equity metrics” in order to emerge from the current Covid-19 lockdowns. It’s a broad experiment in social justice. Under the plan, counties must reduce “disparities in levels of transmission” in “low-income, Black, Latino, [and] Pacific Islander” communities before they can move forward with reopening. In effect, local businesses must remain closed until local bureaucrats are satisfied that ill-defined racial quotas have been met."
So basically the .gov holds everyone's economic life hostage until some sort of equity thing happens. Said equity thing is whatever you want it to be.
They really have lost their minds
Posted by: scenes | 11 October 2020 at 09:23 AM
scenes 923am - "...lost their minds."? Another interpretation is that their taste of power during this pandemic has brought out the true intents of their evil plans for America. I think it behooves the rest of us to react to such diktats as if they are meticulously planned. See also my latest 'Ruminations'.
Posted by: George Rebane | 11 October 2020 at 11:06 AM
re the latest from the WHO - apparently they realized that not being productive leads to poverty.
Gee - what happened to the leftys shrieking about "dollars over lives"?
and the ever famous - "I follow science"?
And now they'll claim they were correct all along.
Posted by: Scott O | 13 October 2020 at 09:03 AM
"The WHO has come out and said lockdowns are bad" - Doug LaMalfa Oct. 14, 2020.
Sorry Doug, wrong again.
Posted by: D | 15 October 2020 at 08:42 AM
re D 842am - Here is the latest in the growing set of Exhibits A demonstrating that progressives are totally inured from anything, no matter how obvious or available, which contradicts their party's narrative.
Posted by: George Rebane | 15 October 2020 at 11:02 AM