Vincent J. Curtis
28 May 20
The People's Daily today published an op-ed written by two M.D.s and one Ph.D. that argued for making the wearing of face masks mandatory.
Progressivism
believes in rule-by-expert and the moral equivalent of war. But success
depends upon the expert chosen to be the ruler. The trifecta of doctors
who wrote “Evidence based case for making face masks mandatory” should not be
on the short list for Emperor-expert because they advocate for face-mask
fascism.
The
eminence of Dr. Theresa Tam and Dr. Anthony Fauci needs no introduction.
They were and are the expert-rulers. Both are on record as saying that
face masks are unnecessary and perhaps even harmful, and these facts are
acknowledged by the three blind mice. (Health authorities have changed
their position) Tam and Fauci have since changed their minds and are now
on board the face mask train. “Scientific data shows that [home-made face
masks] provide a significant benefit in reducing transmissibility,” squeak the
mice. “Science tells us that universal masking is one piece of the
solution, so what are we waiting for?” they urge at the top of their voices.
Actually,
common sense says that, and said that back when Tam and Fauci were
scientifically advising against them, but never mind. The real issue with
the blessed trinity has to do with the compulsion aspect so beloved by
progressivism. If you believe you can bring about Utopia, what would you
not do, and what could justify opposition? The mice advocate for face
mask fascism, and that is why they shouldn’t be trusted as expert-Imperator.
We need to
“internalize”, advise the mice, the loving benefits of mask-wearing, “my mask
protects you, and yours protects me,” or some such hooey. Health
authorities have “fallen short of the mark of requiring the wearing of masks in
public be mandatory.” But heroic others have stepped up in their place,
so goes the fascist narrative.
“What is
desperately needed are laws and penalties to ensure compliance.” Never
mind pushback from those who advocate for civil rights for we are assured from
another authority that a pandemic is the just kind of thing that warrants the
overriding of civil rights. (the moral equivalent of war.)
“Time is of
the essence!” they squeak; we can’t rush into stupidity fast enough!
If the
credentialed triumvirate offered common sense advice, that would be fine.
But inside every progressive is a tiny fascist waiting to command, and what was
sensible as advice became a call for fascist rule.
I don’t
believe in fascism, and if the three wise guys think laws and penalties should
be enacted to enforce their views, I invite them to be the first to enforce
such an edict personally.
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Vincent J. Curtis
27 May 20
The Hamilton People's Daily ran an article by an instructor of "numeracy" for journalists. The piece was an eye-glazer, and what became apparent was that the facts and figures he was discussing had nothing to do with what was important in respect to the pandemic in Canada and to the response to it.
Here are a
few figures the J-School math tutor didn’t mention in his article.
Approximately 260,000 people die each year in Canada from all causes: 79,000
from cancer, 51,000 from heart disease, 13,000 by accidental causes, 6.000 from
influenza and pneumonia, and 4,000 by suicide, to name a few. This means
that in the 75 days since the beginning of the lockdown, over 53,000 people
have died from all causes in Canada, while Covid-19 deaths number 5,000.
Given the
shutdown and the turning over of the health care system to the treatment of
Covid-19, there is no telling how many cancers went undiagnosed, heart attacks
and strokes not treated due to fear of going to hospital, how many additional
suicides, drug addiction, and alcoholism were caused by the lockdown itself.
Of the
5,000 Covid-19 deaths in Canada, 4,000 occurred among the elderly, primarily in
nursing homes in Quebec. Practically no one under 40 has died as a result
of Covid-19, while those under 70 have a 99.9 percent chance of surviving an
infection.
The
geographical distribution of deaths is also peculiar. More than half of
Canada’s deaths occurred in Quebec, and the overwhelming number of those
occurred in Montreal. The hot spot in Ontario is Toronto, and Toronto is
far better off than Montreal. The rest of Canada has microscopic numbers
of cases, the third largest province is B.C. with 160 deaths, followed by
Alberta with 130. For this, the entire country was shut down. I
assure you that if Edmonton was the center of the storm, Toronto would not be
shutting down its parks and beaches and Quebec would take no notice.
The special
hazard the virus posed for those over 70 was known at the beginning of March,
before the lockdown began. Instead of isolating seniors and focussing
protective efforts on them, the country, the media and the politicians, went
into full panic mode and shut down the entire economy, and made a farce of
civil rights and democratic government in doing so.
It’s time
to recognize the mistake and re-open the economy and everything else
immediately. Get normal now! We can save the recriminations for
later, but the death caused from keeping the economy closed now outweigh any
benefit it may have in respect of Covid-19.
(Funny that
J-School has a math tutor; math and science programs don’t have tutors in basic
grammar.)
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Vincent J. Curtis
26 May 20
The
pandemic is giving Canada and much of the rest of the world a belly-full of
progressivism. Progressivism believes in rule-by-expert and the moral
equivalent of war. Progressives believe that they can bring about a
Utopia on earth with the right legal structure and a sufficient exertion of
government power.
Progressives
can be ruthless. Since they believe they can bring about Utopia, what
would they refrain from doing to bring it about? What could possibly
justify opposition to their aims and methods? Snobbery is a natural outlook of
the progressive.
One of the
tactics of progressivism is denormalization. Opponents aren’t just
wrong, they’re not normal. They deserve nothing. When people get tired of
the lockdown and protest absurd and arbitrary rules, they are denormalized:
they’re denounced as “selfish,” and “irresponsible,” and associated with a
“rise in the number of cases” - without proof. The media denormalizes
part of their audience, and politicians, their constituents
President
Donald Trump is routinely denormalized both as a president and as a human
being. His supporters are likewise denormalized (you ain’t black unless
you support Biden. Sarah Palin wasn’t a real woman.).
The
coronavirus pandemic gave progressivism a glittering opportunity. The
country is now governed upon the opinion of medical “experts.” The
national lockdown is enforced with the moral urgency of a war.
This
pandemic won’t last forever, however hard the government and all the tiny
tyrants try to milk it. People are getting used to the method, and after
it happens to you, you are no longer intimidated so easily by
denormalizing. It’s happened to a lot of people.
If
enough
people get denormalzied, by news media and politicians, progressivism will have
lost its most powerful psychological weapon.
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Vincent J. Curtis
21 May 20
I see the People’s
Daily published the latest dispatch from the planet Neptune, where it has
its very own correspondent, a retired professor of Neptune-studies.
Conditions on Neptune resemble a dystopian hell and, luckily for us on planet
earth, the only place anything like Neptune is New York State. There, its
bully-governor sent patients still infectious with Covid-19 back into
retirement homes because that was his rule. The consequences were as
disastrous as they were predictable, and the unapologetic governor now blames
his rule on the Trump Administration’s CDC. He acknowledged being
surprised that two-thirds of all Covid-19 deaths in his state were from people
who had followed his lock-down orders to the letter. Being progressive
means never saying you’re sorry.
A bright,
shining example lies further south, in Florida, governed by Trump-protégé Ron
DeSantis. In a state with lots of seniors, DeSantis focussed protective
efforts on them, making hospitals keep seniors with Covid-19 until they were
completely free of the virus. DeSantis never shut down the state, and
today Florida’s death toll is, like, two percent of the national total, with
New York State having fifty percent. DeSantis looked at South Korea,
Europe, studied the numbers and the treatments, and then acted empirically.
Young people on sunny Florida beaches posed no danger to public health.
Luckily,
viruses from the planet Neptune have little chance of infecting anyone here on
earth.
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Vincent J. Curtis
20 May 20
Once again,
the basket-weaving drop-outs who type editorials for the People’s Daily
are barking about science. Specifically, they condemn President Donald
Trump for taking hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic against a Covid-19
infection. “It’s dangerous!” “There’s no science” proclaim the croakers.
Donald
Trump is walking the walk; he’s recommended it, and he is taking it. This
is unlike progressives who are exempt from the ramifications of their own
ideology, such as Professor Neil Ferguson, but I digress.
Actually
there is plenty of science around hydroxychloroquine. It was developed in
the 1930s, and has long been used as an anti-malarial prophylactic. It
also is used to treat some auto-immune disorders like lupus and rheumatoid
arthritis. Its safety profile is well documented, and anyone who has
visited climes where malaria is prevalent has probably been prescribed it.
Covid-19 is
too new for there to be much reliable science concerning treating it.
There is simply too much anecdotal evidence of benefit from hydroxychloroquine
to dismiss it as a treatment. Its known benefit of moderating immune
response gives it theoretical respectability, since fatality from Covid-19
often occurs as a result of the extreme immune response it generates in the
body. The absolute, condemnatory reports, allegedly scientific, against
the effectiveness of the drug makes me suspicious, given the prevalence of
Trump-hatred. Thousands of front-line health care workers take it
prophylactically.
Trump is
walking the walk. The drug is safe, and was prescribed by a physician.
Basket-weaving majors:
shut-up
about “science!”
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Vincent J. Curtis
18 May 20
I
understand why American media want to keep people scared and in line about
coronavirus - why they want to keep everybody at home and away from work.
If the economy stays flat, Trump loses in November. And if, contrary to
their advice, the economy is reopened and the number of deaths “spikes”, they
can blame Trump for those deaths.
But I don’t
understand why the same thing is being done in Canada.
One of the
things Dr. Theresa Tam failed to explain to the Arts majors, J-school types, and basket-weaving drop-outs at her press conference when she showed all those bell curves, is that the
areas under the curves were the same. Tall and narrow or low and broad,
the areas under the curves were equal, meaning the number of deaths they represented
were the same. When Tam spoke of ‘flattening the curve’, she didn’t mean
that fewer people would die, she meant that fewer people would die all at
once. The health care system wouldn’t get overwhelmed with
hospitalizations: sickness and deaths would be spread out over time.
But, drunk with power, and seeing the curve flatten, Tam and other tiny tyrants changed the objective to killing
the virus, no matter how long it took. This simply isn’t
sustainable. If, on reopening, deaths “spike,” it is only the curve
asserting what is already baked in. We can’t stop it. We can’t
delay the inevitable forever; we might as well reopen so we can get to the
other side of this thing.
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Vincent J. Curtis
17 May 20
When this
pandemic panic finally subsides, the progressive project will lie in
ruins. Progressivism believes in rule by expert, and the moral equivalent
of war. It contains a heavy dose of moral narcissism, since, if you
believe you can bring about Utopia, what would you not do, and what could justify
opposition?
The
skeptical few who understood how science really works were silenced by a mob
shouting, “follow the science,” and “listen to the experts!” Well, let’s
see how that worked out.
Professor
Neil Ferguson of Imperial College, London, was the modeler epidemiologist who
forecasted catastrophe: 2.2 million deaths in America, and 500,000 in the
U.K. His numbers justified the lockdowns. However, peer reviewers
at the University of Edinburgh tested Ferguson’s program and found it “a buggy
mess” and “totally unreliable.” Ferguson himself was disgraced when it
was discovered he continued his affair with a married woman despite his call
for social lockdown. Meanwhile, the U.S. won’t reach 100,000 deaths
despite the best efforts of New York State.
Canada has
had 5,000 deaths attributed to coronavirus, of which 4,000 occurred in the
vulnerable 80+ demographic. That leaves 1,000 for everyone else, and none
under 20. Meanwhile, Canada had 7,000 deaths from influence and
pneumonia, routine numbers.
That Canada
destroyed the livelihood of millions for the sake of a thousand, when 7,000 by
influenza is considered unremarkable testifies to a bizarre moral outlook: it
is better to die of anything but coronavirus.
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