On Friday, the lockdowns end

It's time to stand up to overreaching governors, mayors, and bureaucrats. It's time to open up our businesses while adopting responsible, common-sense safety measures. And it's time to support those businesses by showing up to purchase their goods and services.

We're calling all Americans to Stand Up, Open Up, and Show Up this Friday, May 22.

For months, we've complied with lockdown and "stay-at-home" orders supposedly designed to "slow the spread" of the dangerous COVID-19 virus. But even as the infection rate slowed and rural communities saw virtually zero transmission, power-hungry and terrified governors and mayors maintained the lockdown orders.

The result has been economic devastation on a level never seen in our country. In his latest Battlecry episode, Convention of States Project President Mark Meckler told stories from around the nation of business owners and activists who have been harassed and persecuted for simply trying to earn a living.

We're pushing back in the only way we know how: by empowering the American grassroots.

If you will commit to Standing Up, Opening Up, or Showing Up, we want to tell your story, too. Here's what you can do:

Use your phone to record a short, 10-second video explaining why you're Standing Up, Opening Up, or Showing Up.

We'll use our national media reach at Convention of States to blast this message out to the entire country. We want the world to know that the American people are ready to Open the States, and you can be a part of this historic movement.

GOOD LUCK. on to the OLD NORMAL:

VIDEO REMOVED BY GOOGLE AND THEN REINSTATED:

18 May: Youtube: 31m35s: Professor Karol Sikora: fear is more deadly than the virus
posted by UnHerd
Freddie Sayers interviews Professor Karol Sikora, the Founding Dean and Professor of Medicine at the University of Buckingham Medical School and an ex-director of the WHO Cancer Programme.
Read the full accompanying article here...

Professor Karol Sikora has become something of a celebrity in the UK over the past months for his expert commentary on the pandemic, and his unusual tendency for optimism rather than pessimism.

Virus ‘getting tired’
– In the past two weeks, the virus is showing signs of petering out
– It’s as though the virus is ‘getting tired’, almost ‘getting bored’
– It’s happening across the world at the same time

Existing herd immunity
– The serology results around the world (and forthcoming in Britain) don’t necessarily reveal the percentage of people who have had the disease
– He estimates 25-30% of the UK population has had Covid-19, and higher in the group that is most susceptible
– Pockets of herd immunity help *already* explain the downturn
– Sweden’s end result will not be different to ours – lockdown versus no lockdown

Fear more deadly than the virus
– When the history books are written, the fear will have killed many more people than the virus, including large numbers of cancer and cardiological patients not being treated
– We should have got the machinery of the NHS for non-corona patients back open earlier

Masks and schools
– Evidence on masks is just not there either way so it should be an ‘individual decision’
– We should move to 1m social distancing which means restaurants and bars could reopen
– More schools should reopen in June as ‘children are not the transmitters of this virus’
– We should be getting back to the ‘old normal’ not a ‘new normal’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk2YZfnsOPg

behind paywall:

21 May: UK Telegraph: YouTube accused of ‘censorship’ for removing video claiming Covid-19 could ‘burn out’ before vaccine
YouTube insists the video was removed in error amid increasing pressure to crack down on Covid-19 misinformation
By Mike Wright
YouTube has been accused of ‘censorship’ after removing a video of a former World Health Organisation chief saying coronavirus could ‘burn out’ before a vaccine is found.
Professor Karol Sikora, the former director of the WHO Cancer Programme and Dean of Medicine at the University of Buckingham, described the decision by the tech giant to remove his ‘measured discussion’ on the Unherd podcast as a ‘worrying development’.

YouTube has since said the deletion was an error and that the video had been reinstated...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/21/youtube-accused-censorship-removing-video-claiming-covid-19/

21 May: Spiked Online UK: YouTube must stop policing the corona debate
Its censorship of Professor Karol Sikora is disgraceful.
Big Tech censorship is out of control during this pandemic. Social-media platforms’ determination to censor supposed ‘misinformation’ has morphed into policing the debate about the pandemic itself. While many platforms have been guilty of this, YouTube is in a league of its own...
Now it has taken down an interview that Professor Karol Sikora, a professor of medicine and former adviser to the World Health Organisation, gave to UnHerd.
This really is getting sinister...
All voices should be heard.

But what’s particularly concerning here is that Professor Sikora is hardly a huge dissenter. He supported the UK’s lockdown; he just thinks it should now be eased. And he is generally more optimistic about the pandemic burning itself out sooner rather than later...
The platform clearly isn’t just tackling ‘misinformation’ — it is now censoring anything that doesn’t conform to the most extreme, pessimistic, pro-lockdown line...
https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/05/21/youtube-must-stop-policing-the-corona-debate/

I love the country and I’m crushed by the economic devastation. I want everything to open yesterday.

That being said it was nice to spend five minutes on the phone with my doctor each month to get my prescriptions instead of waiting in his office for an hour and a half after a 1/2 hour drive :-)

Maybe he will continue that practice after things open.

Also the girlfriend will want to be going out to dinner and drinks and God knows where else again. I saved a fortune over 2 months :-)

But the solution to that one is a little easier :-)

I’ve been single 52 years and I’m still kicking :-) do you really call someone your girlfriend at 52? :-)

Yeah I don’t know what the heck I’m doing but thanks to de Blasio I have another month to decide at least :-)

Of course he and cuomo are jerks and many other words.

And it shouldn’t take a lock down for a grown man to get control of his spending.

But it has it made me do a lot of thinking.

In some ways this virus was one of the better things to happen a my life for quite some time. But I would trade in anything good that resulted for me to have avoided all of the suffering.

I find quite a few people saying that. I think it made us cherish our freedom more and also gave us time for introspection and to evaluate our lives and I am hoping for many Democrats to see what Democrat leaders are really like. Maybe Elon musk is leading a revolution

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.