DAN SCHINHOFEN: One year and counting

We are coming up to the one-year anniversary of the Covid-19 or SARs-2 virus and what have we learned?

When this all kicked off the “experts” did not know what to think. In late January 2020 Dr. Fauci said he did not think this would be a “big deal”. President Trump, soon after, shut down flights from China. Pelosi and other leading Democrats, like Joe Biden said he was overreacting and called him racist.

Then the “Panic-Demic” really took hold, after the first impeachment failed.

I have to say the steps taken at that time, with the information available, did seem reasonable as the former Corona viruses that we had seen, SARS and MERS had fatality rates of 10% and 30% respectively. If this new virus was as deadly as those shutting down for two weeks to allow hospitals to get ready for overwhelming numbers made sense.

Of course, as these things go, politics soon took over and the race for control of the narrative become more important than the actual facts. We were told there was no treatment for this virus and yet hydroxychloroquine had been used along with Zinc and Z Packs by some doctors with good results. When Trump started speaking about using these the narrative was set pushed by the “approved media” that hydroxychloroquine was bad and not to be used took hold. Months later, with so much data showing its effectiveness, it is now a treatment allowed.

The fatality rate for this new strain was known to be about 1% or lower by May and yet many Governors around the country had already taken complete control and continued the hysteria, along with the “approved media” and anyone who dared to contradict the narrative were branded as conspiracy nuts or discredited out of hand. Many doctors and scientists joined the “conspiracy nuts” and later in the year the Great Barrington Declaration was put forward with tens of thousands of doctors and scientists backing the plan, which flew in the face of the “accepted narrative” as case numbers began to climb.

While the fatality rate remained low and dropping the “approved media” and “experts” like Fauci started to forecast doom and gloom and the lockdowns continued. Even though the WHO and many other health organizations warned that lockdowns would lead to deaths of despair and other mental health issues, the narrative could not be shaken.

In late March of 2020, the CDC revised their method of reporting on this virus which would include pneumonia, influenza and respiratory issues which inflated the death totals. In August of the same year the CDC showed that 94% of reported deaths were with comorbidities and had they used the system for reporting on this virus that they had used since 2003 the death totals would have been at least 90% lower, but if they did that their narrative of this being the zombie apocalypse would not have held.

So, for going on a year now the “experts” and “approved media” have continued this “Panic-Demic” even though the fatality rate does not warrant the damage done with the lockdown, essential worker strategy, limited occupancy that has dominated our lives. I could go on and on with more factual numbers, taken from the CDC’s own site, but it seems that not just our State authorities, but our local ones too are content with having a dictator and his close friends running our daily lives.

To those that say wanting us to open our State is selfish, how about considering you are the selfish ones. If you are afraid of crowds and do not think it is safe to go to a live concert, why do all the rest of us have to stay away? The numbers are clear that if you are elderly with health issues you may want to take precautions before you go out to a crowded public space. As for everyone else, we should be demanding from our State and local officials to truly follow the science not just whatever the “approved media” tells us. The science tells us you have a better chance of being struck by lightning than getting this virus and dying from it.

After a year of wearing masks and believing that 70% of us are nonessential it is far past time to stand up and demand that the Emperor step down and that our State Legislators do their job, hold hearings, get ALL the science, and then decide what path forward we will take. I for one do not believe in benevolent dictators, you believe as you wish.

This is the last time I will bring this up as it seems to fall on deaf ears: IF YOU GET THE VIRUS you have a 95% chance of mild symptoms. If you are under 17 you have a greater chance of dying from the annual flu (but we never shut down schools for that.) And the survival rate is 99.98% for the overwhelming majority of people that actually get this virus.

Two weeks to “flatten he curve” has turned into a year of agony, despair, lost investments in businesses, lost jobs, and suicides. Haven’t we all had enough already? I sure as hell have.