Tag: Bonfire of COVID Masks

Best Title of the Month – Approximately Zero

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That’s the title of this article in City Journal.  It’s about a report that came out on a study done by the Cochrane Collaboration which is described thus:

“The gold standard for medical evidence is the randomized clinical trial, and the gold standard for analyzing this evidence is Cochrane (formerly the Cochrane Collaboration), the world’s largest and most respected organization for evaluating health interventions. Funded by the National Institutes of Health and other nations’ health agencies, it’s an international network of reviewers, based in London, that has partnerships with the WHO and Wikipedia. Medical journals have hailed it for being “the best single resource for methodologic research” and for being “recognized worldwide as the highest standard in evidence-based healthcare.””

And here comes the result:

“We now have the most authoritative estimate of the value provided by wearing masks during the pandemic: approximately zero. The most rigorous and extensive review of the scientific literature concludes that neither surgical masks nor N95 masks have been shown to make a difference in reducing the spread of Covid-19 and other respiratory illnesses.”

But now the bad news:

“This verdict ought to be the death knell for mask mandates, but that would require the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the rest of the public-health establishment to forsake “the science”—and unfortunately, these leaders and their acolytes in the media seem as determined as ever to ignore actual science. Before the pandemic, clinical trials repeatedly showed little or no benefit from wearing masks in preventing the spread of respiratory illnesses like flu and colds. That was why, in their pre-2020 plans for dealing with a viral pandemic, the World Health Organization, the CDC, and other national public-health agencies did not recommend masking the public. But once Covid-19 arrived, magical thinking prevailed. Officials ignored the previous findings and plans, instead touting crude and easily debunked studies purporting to show that masks worked.”

So there you go.  None of this is news.  But now we see that “science” is just a magical incantation the Left uses to get their followers to raise their banner and start marching.  Maybe it’ll be good for starting fights with crazy relatives at holidays.

Howie Carr Gloats at Impotent Rage of Boston Maskers

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Howie Carr is one of a very few sane New England journalists.  He loves tweaking the Left in Boston.  I just had to quote from an article he posted mocking the anger and fear expressed by commenters on the Boston Globe over the judge ending air travel masking.

“I’ve had two vaccines, and two boosters, and have already booked my fifth, sixth and seventh shots. Whenever I step outside my mansion in Lincoln, which I haven’t done since February 2020, I wear 17 masks, all N95’s, but now I am terrified that I will be infected by a MAGA supporter in the tourist section of my next flight to Martha’s Vineyard. P.S. When will Trump be tried as a war criminal?”

Now obviously he’s exaggerating what he read in the Globe comments section.  But based on what I know of these people it’s pretty close to reality.

Kudos to Howie.

Hat Tip To the Conservative Treehouse, The Airlines Are Ending the Mask Mandate

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Hallelujah, Hallelujah!  Fantastic news.  Enough is enough.  Kudos to that judge for making this happen just as the CDC decided to extend the mandate again.  I can imagine the anger and even rage as the flying Karens are forced to sit next to normal people with naked faces.

I’ll tell you, this is great news for me.  I’m flying in July and wearing a mask would have been an enormous pain in the butt.  Well, let’s hope this is the final nail in the coffin for the COVID-nazis.  And may we get the chance to show them our thanks in November.

The COVID Wall is About to Topple

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A crack here and a crack there and pretty soon the whole rotten wall is about to fall.

When the Atlantic has an article entitled “Open Everything: End Covid Mandates Now” on the same day that the Spectator has “Are Dems Finally Waking Up–or Are They Just Scared?” then even an idiot knows the jig is up.  But COVID true believers aren’t regular idiots they are zealots.  They are gonna howl and spit and throw a fit.

Any day now Dementia Joe is going to discover that the pandemic is over and the great pivot will occur.  Suddenly he’ll be responsible for freeing the COVID slaves.  Never mind that he fought tooth and claw to institute vax mandates and passports.  He will be our savior.  He’ll probably declare a day of Thanksgiving, “Thank Heaven for Dopey Joe” Day.  Parades will wind between the barbed wire walls of DC and bureaucrats will line the streets (still wearing their masks by the way) and cheering the conquering hero standing tall in his Depends.

The question is will it be enough to get the country to forgive the Dems for ripping a couple of years out of our lives and especially the lives of our children and grandchildren?  I’m guessing not.  The midterms are very close and masked or unmasked, America still “looks like Yucca Flats after the blast.”  Empty store shelves food and fuel at double the price of a year ago.  The surveillance state investigating our every move.  No, I don’t think the people will be in the mood to forgive and forget.

But Joe will give us one of his stuttering stem-winders that goes on for an hour about how great he is and how lucky we are to have him around.  Probably they’ll start another round of arm-twisting Manchin and Sinema into supporting Build Back Better and kill the filibuster and the Steal Elections Bill.  They’re not very original but they are persistent.

So, the Democrats can learn.  It only takes six months of ghastly poll numbers for them to completely reverse “the science.”  They’ll replace the old lies with new lies and turn on a dime.  Fine, I guess if they’re also willing to unleash petroleum drilling and allow us to have reasonably priced fuel then the economy would revive.  But that’s a bridge too far.  They really believe in the Green Economy.  It probably would be a leap of faith to believe that battery cars and solar panels are the cause of all their problems.

Good.  That blind spot is perfectly positioned to lose them the mid-terms and with any luck well beyond that.  But for today I’ll just enjoy the fact that the COVID madness is finally being called off.  The stupidity and dishonesty have been maddening but even the Democrats finally recognized that they were holding back the ocean with a butterfly net.  I’ll start making my plans for summer.  I’ve been invited to go up to Yellowstone.  It’s a bit of a stretch but I can only imagine the great photos I’ll take, unless I get eaten by a grizzly on day one. Well, that would be exciting!

Enjoy the day.

Even Deep Blue NJ is Dropping the School Mask Mandate

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After almost losing his job last November as governor, Phil Murphy has announced that he will lift the school mask mandate in March in New Jersey.  Of course the school boards can keep the farce going if they dare but then they will risk being thrown out of office when they come up for re-election.  The article noted this will put pressure on New York State and City to end their school mask mandates also.

So for my money this is one of the biggest cracks in the COVID wall.  March seems to be the month that makes sense.  Spring begins and flu season comes to an end.  Let me tell you it can’t end soon enough for me.  New England is even worse than New York and New Jersey so they’ll drag it out as long as they possibly can here.  But it will happen.

The important thing is for all of us to remind the voters in November who tortured us for the last two plus years and who deserves to lose their jobs for it.

The Revolt Against Left Wing School Boards and Schools Continues

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Even in purple Colorado parents are fed up with COVID restrictions and with CRT being forced on their children.

“In November, four seats on Douglas County’s school board in Colorado were up for grabs in an election, and a quartet of conservative candidates raised hundreds of thousands of dollars more than their competition.  The four individuals — Mike Peterson, Becky Meyers, Christy Williams, and Kaylee Winegar — all now sit on the seven-person board.

The Douglas County Federation spokesperson told Insider that one particular grievance the union had with the new school board members was the decision made by the conservative-majority in late January to weaken the district’s educational equity policy.

The spokesperson also said that two new conservative school board members tried to fire the district’s superintendent Corey Wise, and they along with the two other new conservative members decided they would give Wise an ultimatum to either resign or be fired.

The school board also struck down a COVID-19 mask mandate late last year, the spokesperson said.

Fundraising for Douglas County’s 2021 elections shattered contributions made during the district’s 2017 elections.

In last year’s elections, the quartet was supported by the conservative 1776 Project PAC, a national group that launched in May that says it’s actively trying to stop critical race theory from being taught in classrooms.

All the Colorado school board candidates backed by the PAC swept their races in local elections in November.

The election in Douglas County came at the heels of a heated school board meeting that saw parents lash out against the board over COVID-19 safety policies and the supposed teaching of critical race theory.

It’s a microcosm of a general trend, where school boards and districts have become battlegrounds for culture war topics.”

Another One Bites the Dust – Denmark Ends COVID Restrictions

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Denmark plans to end COVID restrictions on February 1st. Britain, Ireland, Denmark are all returning to sanity.  And this is even in the face of the enormous number of cases from the current “omicron variant.”  Now, Dementia Joe is obviously slow on the uptake but even a dope like he is will catch up eventually.  Let’s say middle of March.  Hang in there folks.

Post Covid

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As we continue along the painfully slow awakening from the COVID fever dream I guess it’s time to start wondering what will be the result of this whole thing. One of the things I’ve been debating is what percentage of people will continue to believe that all of this was justified. Another thing that I think about is will anyone go back and try to sort through all the lies and misleading information that were used to justify so many harmful actions.
For instance, for two years, we’ve handled statistics for hospitalizations and deaths that substituted cases that included COVID for cases caused by COVID. If this one thing were clarified it might enrage most of the country at the obvious dishonesty perpetrated. Another example is the refusal to admit that anyone who had COVID either asymptomatically or otherwise was just as immune (or more so) as someone who had been vaccinated and therefore shouldn’t have to be vaccinated.
One thing that seems clear is that someone like Fauci needs to be fired immediately. I’ve seen a video clip of his various pronouncements on masks, vaccines, boosters, mandates and other things. He has contradicted himself on almost every position and yet somehow, he claims he’s always following the science. This little troll is a pathological liar and is probably responsible for half of the anger afflicting Americans today. A doctor is supposed to, “first, do no harm.” That seems to be the opposite of what he does. The fact that he is one of the highest paid bureaucrats in the country is an affront to every tax payer living.
Another aspect of all that’s happened that needs daylight shed on it is the actual safety of the vaccines. The death and injury caused by these vaccines has never been tracked for the public beyond incidental news stories of unusual occurrences like teenagers and twenty-somethings dying of heart attacks and strokes. What needs to be aired is just how high the injuries and deaths are from these vaccines as compared to other vaccines like a flu shot. Without an honest appraisal of these injuries, doubt and anger will live on for decades and will hamper any subsequent vaccine effort, no matter how necessary it might be.
And finally, a law needs to be put in place to absolutely prohibit forcing Americans to submit to medication. Even if COVID really had been the bioweapon it was meant to be, people in the United States are supposed to be free. Forcing them to be used as guinea pigs for a biological agent whose efficacy and safety are wholly unknown is a crime that should disqualify those politicians from ever holding office again.
But the truth is nothing will be done. Our politicians are cowards and they bow before the might of the all-powerful administrative state. Fauci will be there as long as he wants. Morons in California and New York will continue to vote for creatures like Gavin Newsom and Andrew Cuomo. The only good that has come from this whole fiasco is that some of us now see who the few leaders were who stood between us and the bureaucracy that wanted to treat us like cattle and trample on our rights. I guess the best example was DeSantis. He stood single-handedly against the Biden administration and the school boards and represented us and our children. And now it can be seen clearly that Florida has continued to live normally while every blue state is only now slowly staggering toward the light and realizing what they sacrificed.

Update

Chemist –

I’m a numbers guy.
Let’s put some numbers to this, shall we?
The number of Covid deaths over the past 2 years is about 800,000.
The director of the CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, is on record telling us that 75% of those deaths were to people with four or more comorbidities!
FOUR OR MORE!
How many with 3? 2? 1?
How many people died from Covid and Covid alone? I don’t know, but since 25% of 800,000 is 200,000 we know that the number is less than that – so less than 100,000 per year.
In a year with a particularly deadly flu season, 50,000 people die from the flu.
It is safe to say that the Covid death toll is about on a par with a bad flu season and we don’t shut down the economy, make people wear useless masks, and inject them with untried vaccines for that!

Another number – again from the CDC: Natural immunity is six times more effective than artificial immunity from the “Vaccines.”
SIX TIMES!
Why then are we screaming that “Everyone mush get the jab!” when people who already had the disease are far better protected than the vaccinated?
Is it because the bureaucrats are lazy and don’t want to be bothered with the effort of tracking natural immunity?
Is it because its hard to say who has natural immunity? (Its not – a simple blood test will do.)
Or is it because the pharma companies got tens of billions of dollars from the federal government?
You decide. Corruption or sloth?
I know: “Embrace the power of and”.

 

I think if we had competent national health officials they would have embraced the idea of providing the elderly and chronically ill with isolation and treatments like anti-virals and other agents for pneumonia instead of locking down healthy adults and unaffected children.  Instead we got Fauci banging the cash register for Pfizer and Moderna.  I hate that man.

Update

Neil:

This is a twitter thread with videos from Canada about 50,000 trucks and 500,000 people heading
to Ottawa to protest the COVID mandate, etc. I found this very encouraging.

https://twitter.com/QuigginReport/status/1485422780015329281?s=20

 

Guest Contributor – TomD – 24JAN2022 – COVID

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Tom | Flickr

Even in Florida, if I’m in a medical establishment, it’s mask on. At least in the waiting room, once I’m make it back to the examination room I say (truthfully), “I don’t hear well, can we dispense with these?” The Dr will inevitably say “sure!”

But this morning in the waiting room with about 15 others, all dutifully masked, I went into a slow steam. I really wanted to take my mask off and tell the rest, “Don’t you know even the CDC admits that the masks are 100% useless. Why are we being forced to wear them?”

I hate the masks for multiples of reasons, even on others, because I wasn’t kidding, I do have hearing problems. The combination of the USMC, many decades of competitive and recreational shooting plus Deep Purple concerts has dropped my threshold for hearing in the 2 kHz-4 kHz range to 90 dB. Add a mask to that to that and I can’t make out doodly-squat.

Other than medical buildings, there are no masks down here other than the maybe 2% who choose to mask for whatever private reason. I’ve no problem with that, but I hate coerced actions. My sister wore masks before she died a couple of months ago, but that was because chemo had reduced her immune system to junk.

Update:

Chemist – 

I feel your pain. I work in a very technical field with technical people. Corporate has dictated masks for all. I get it. They don’t want to get sued. So they enforce the mask rule and dutifully report the number of Covid cases per week at our site.
I recently went on a rant about the uselessness of the mask and that even the CDC admits they are useless.
People in the vicinity of my cube defended the mandate. I pointed out the size of a virus and the mesh size of cloth masks. It fell on deaf ears.
Finally, one senior person stood up and said: “Its worth it if it saves even one life” and the rest agreed.
I doubt masking has saved a single life over the past 2 years around the entire planet.
Even if it has, that’s a crappy way to determine policy.
But I gave up. I sat down. Took off my mask (Yes, we can take off the masks when sitting inside our cubicals) and went back to work.

The COVID Cult Continues to Crumble

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Even an imbecilic inhabitant of Quebec secretly yearns to live like a Floridian even though his programming battle against reality in the freedom of Miami that surrounded him on his visit there.

It’s easy to spot Canadians at restaurants, as we’re the ones properly masked and nervously sitting on the terrace, even in the rain.

You can see the difference in the media, too. In Quebec, COVID totally dominates the news, because there’s almost nothing else happening.

In Florida, entire conversations happen without the C-word mentioned, unless you bring it up — which, of course, I did. I asked a group of seven 60-somethings I met at a restaurant terrace how they felt about Florida’s non-existent pandemic rules.

Every last one said they loved how Florida handles things. In the words of one woman “Our philosophy here is: I look after myself and you look after yourself. If you want to wear a mask indoors, you should. If you don’t want to go to a restaurant, you shouldn’t.”

When I asked about our collective responsibility to protect others she shrugged and said: “That’s just not how we think here.”

I mentioned Quebec’s recent curfew, but they all just laughed, dismissing it as “Canadian communism.” Many others obviously agree as more people moved to Florida during the pandemic than any other state .

Thousands of Quebecers have also looked into moving there since the pandemic.

It’s a tale of two worlds. Like most Canadians, I still think collective safety trumps some individual rights. But I’d prefer something between the cowboy individualism of Florida and the heavy-handed paternalistic rules of Quebec during this fifth wave.

You can hear both the sneer of superiority based on his alleged moral superiority and the wail of misery because he lives in a lifeless isolation ward of a country.  Canadians are just New Englanders with even more snow.  Misery is their natural element.  God bless Ron DeSantis for showing the world that the COVID emperor has no clothes.

I read Ireland is following Britain in eliminating the COVID mandates.  Who’s next?