Posted on 03/20/2024 7:44:40 PM PDT by lightman
Four years ago, government officials told us, "Stay home!" We have "15 days to slow the spread."
Days turned into months and then years, while officials chipped away at our freedoms.
I have long been wary of politicians, but even I was surprised at how authoritarian many were eager to be.
Some demanded police to go after people surfing. They took down the rims of basketball hoops. Children's playgrounds were taped up like crime scenes. They told people in rural Utah and Wyoming to stay in their homes.
In the name of safety, politicians did many things that diminished our lives, without making us safer.
They complied with teachers unions' demand to keep schools closed. Kids' learning has been set back by years.
Politicians destroyed jobs by closing businesses. Some shutdown orders were ridiculous. Landscaping businesses and private campgrounds were forced to shut down.
Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden sharply increased government spending. Trump's $2.2 trillion "stimulus" package, followed by Biden's $1.9 trillion "American Rescue Plan," led to so much money-printing that inflation doubled and then tripled.
This week, the fourth-year anniversary of "15 days to stop the spread," my new video looks back at politicians' incompetence.
First, government probably killed people with its endless red tape.
At least the Trump administration broke FDA rules to speed vaccine approvals. But FDA rules kept perfectly good American Covid test kits off the market because they hadn't gone through its multiyear approval process. Recommended Too Dumb for Harvard? Lemon's Too Dumb for Twitter Ann Coulter
Michigan's Gov. Gretchen Whitmer banned "public and private gatherings of any size." Residents were told they could not see friends or relatives.
Many of her rules seemed random. She banned motorboats and jet skis, but allowed kayaks and canoes. She closed small businesses, but exempted big-box stores if they blocked off aisles offering plant nurseries and paint. Why?
Even the CDC's "six-foot rule" under Trump was arbitrary, says former FDA commissioner, Dr. Scott Gottlieb. Covid travels in aerosols that flow much farther than six feet.
When some Americans became fed up and protested, they were vilified for "threatening the public." Some were fined. A few were arrested.
It's clear now that restrictive rules were not the best way to protect people.
Sweden took a near opposite approach. They mostly left people alone.
Swedish officials encouraged the elderly and other at-risk people to stay home.
But beyond that, they let life carry on as normal. Sweden didn't impose lockdowns, school closures or mask mandates.
They followed standard pre-Covid wisdom that the best protection is what epidemiologists call "herd" or "collective" immunity. Once a critical mass of people are infected and recover, collective immunity will reduce the total number of infections.
Arrogant American politicians and media "experts" sneered at Sweden's approach.
NBC "reported" on what it called, "Sweden's failed experiment. How their dangerous Covid gamble went wrong."
CBS confidently stated, "Sweden becomes an example of how not to handle COVID."
Time Magazine headlined: "Swedish COVID-19 Response Is a Disaster."
But the media's experts were just wrong. Swedish health officials were right.
Yes, at the beginning of the pandemic, Sweden suffered high numbers of Covid deaths, but as predicted, over time, herd immunity protected people. Sweden's excess death rate was the lowest in Europe.
Sweden's economy got through the pandemic much healthier than other countries. Because Swedish schools never closed, Swedish students didn't suffer the learning losses that American kids did.
Four years later, have media blowhards who were wrong apologized? Corrected their stories? No.
Have American politicians apologized and begged forgiveness for their arrogance, for destroying jobs, restricting our freedom and needlessly pushing us around? No.
Let's not give politicians power like that again.
Our veterinarian followed the ridiculous mandates. Waiting room was closed. Wait in the car. They come to the car and talk to you; you can’t go in. Except they did let us go in when my favorite cat had to be euthanized.
The last thing poor Fiona saw in her life was us in scary masks; she was terrified as she died.
Damn them!
.
Giving “friends” or relatives that same power unraveled a few families along the way, too, John.
Great article; TREMENDOUS thread. Thanks to every poster. Nuremberg 2.0. R.I.P. DG
It was like living in an HOA.....
The little hitlers came out to play
They told people in rural Utah and Wyoming to stay in their homes.
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Seems rather silly, however The justification by public officials might be because of the shortage of hospital beds out west. Here is an interesting article from Becker Hospital Review mentioning how many hospital beds states have per 1K of the population. Wyoming actually has a good number. Utah and Idaho are at the bottom of the list. Believe it or not, California is at the bottom of the list..
There is North America, Central America and South America if you wish to be more specific.
Make a copy of it and then post it everywhere you can near a polling place.
I’m writing a Strongly worded letter!
I remember pulling up to a red light and noticing a young woman in the car next to mine. We both had our windows rolled up. I sneezed: my sneezes have always been loud. She looked at me in horror and quickly put on her cloth mask. 😷
Oh the Humanity!!
I remember a construction worker putting a case of beer in the back of his work truck then grabbing a spray bottle of Disinfectant and drenching the entire case .... I Laughed——!!!
.
The Fear was evident.
Like cancer, the appropriately named “progressive” movement is indeed a progressive disease. Metastisizing into healthy parts of our Republic, this progressive cancer will ultimately kill the healthy areas unless it is stopped ... unless it is destroyed.
Pandemic paranoia protocol.
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