DAN SCHINHOFEN: How fragile it all is

If we have not agreed on or learned anything this past year, we should all agree that our freedoms are very fragile. Look at how quickly we conceded our God-given rights to freely exercise our religion, or our right to own property, as in owning a small business. With just a few words from our elected governor, and a declaration here and a directive there we were told it was not safe for us to sing in church. We were directed to close down our business that we spent money, and years of sweat building up to support our families, because we were not deemed “essential”.

The most surprising thing of all was how easily so many of us just did as we were told.

Yes, when this virus was first detected we did not know just how fatal it was, because it was in the same family as SARs and MERs with fatality rates of 10 and 30 percent it was wise to take two weeks off to get more information and to give the hospitals a chance to get prepared for what was coming. (Sadly, many hospitals were not prepared and did little to get better prepared as the year dragged on.)

After nine months of getting data, we now know that you have a better chance of dying in a non-transportation accident than you do of dying from the now named SARs-2. We also know that 95% of people that do get the virus have mild symptoms. We also know that people under 17 have a 0.002% chance of dying. (Like getting hit by lightning). Yes, I could go on and on, but we have also seemed to lose our sense of reason and perspective. (I found that our sanity is also fragile.)

Even with all the facts being available on the CDC website, all we are told about is how many people have died and how many “new cases” there are. Why is it that no one will report on the numbers that show you have a 0.02 percent chance of catching the virus IF YOU ARE face to face with someone who is infected for 10 to 30 minutes. (This is also on the CDC site.)

Passing someone in the store will not get you infected unless they are shedding virus, they sneeze or cough in your face, and you open your mouth or inhale at that moment. Of course, we have been told that you can catch it from a countertop, but no empirical data has ever been cited. If someone were to be infected and sneezed, coughed, or drooled onto a countertop and you touched it within a minute, then touched your face, and your immune system failed, you cannot really get it from a countertop, yet businesses are being made to wipe down every surface a customer may have touched.

I have been most concerned about our loss or surrender of our inalienable rights, but I am also concerned that we have ceded our own judgment now to the same governors that got the virus even though they wear their masks and are surrounded by people making sure everything is wiped down.

While some municipalities are having issues with capacity in their hospitals, many of them are still allowing elective surgeries with, as reported by the RJ, 82% of ICUs full. They are not full of Covid patients, but 30% of that 82% are “classified” as Covid patients. To be classified as a Covid patient you do not need a test and positive result because, as the CDC shows, any respiratory illness is lumped into those numbers of people that have died from Covid.

I was taught by my mother before I turned five that you should cover your cough and sleeve your sneeze, but since the governor does not trust us to practice what our mothers taught us, everyone must now wear a mask… everywhere. (This is not what the CDC recommends but never mind, they only follow the “experts” when they think it helps their narrative.)

We have been warned by the Democrats for the past four years that our elections are not secure and were hacked in 2016, but now we are told that this election was the most secure ever. (Wonder if Trump had won the way Biden did, with so many unanswered questions, if they would still say that.) Don’t question anything, just do as you’re told is now the mantra.

Anyway, 2020 will be history by the time you all read this and my faith in our Republic and our God-given rights will have waned.

I know that all of this is gloomy and that many people believe that this is the zombie apocalypse but the numbers, from the CDC’s own site, tell a different story. I guess if the numbers do not fit your narrative of doom and gloom you simply tell everyone that what you are doing is for their own good and like good “children” they expect us all to shut up and thank them.

Last thing, isn’t it strange that the masks they demand we wear, for our protection, make me think of two things. They make us unidentifiable, so we all are the same, and it is symbolic of the fact that they have taken our free speech away. No speech is allowed now on social media that does not adhere to the official narrative of the government.

So, what makes us different than China?

How can I look my grandchildren in the eye and tell them that if you follow the rules and work hard, you can still succeed in our republic when a governor, with a stroke of a pen, can now take it all away from you.

Dan Schinhofen is a former Nye County commissioner and a longtime Pahrump resident.