May 25, 2020 | Economy, Healthcare, Liberty Articles
So many things are hitting us fast, hard and from all directions. It is increasingly difficult to sift through the messages to find truth as everything—even a virus—has been weaponized. So honest people have to ask, “Is this about the election or the virus?” Who benefits most?
I was a boy when the Asian Flu Pandemic, originating in Singapore, attacked America leaving 116,000 dead in 1957. I was in college when more than 100,000 people in the U.S. died of the highly contagious Hong Kong Flu in the 1968 Pandemic (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). I contracted both. Both exceeded the death rate of COVID-19.
No one spoke of shutting down the economy, businesses, schools and churches. The media did not frighten us with nightly death tallies and Congress did not rush forward with grants and loans valued at 4 trillion dollars to help ease difficult times. People were not quarantined to their homes for weeks—even months. No-one wore face masks or social distanced six feet from others. No one was arrested for going to work or being on public beaches. No governors openly violated the 1st and 4th Amendments of the Constitution. We did not stop shaking hands or attending public dances. NOBODY WAS PARANOID OF NORMAL CONTACT.
Nor did we do any of these things just two years ago when 61,000 people died of influenza in the 2017-18 flu season or last year when 34,000 died of the same. It was life. The media in modern history had never focused on the body count of flu that takes thousands each year—until now. Nobody thought to benefit politically.
Until now no country self destructed their economy over a pandemic. They came and went and the economies thereafter remained good because we let them alone. Even the Twenties were prosperous times following the Spanish Flu of 1918 that took approximately 675,000 in the United States of a much smaller population. As bad as that was, at least six times worse in death, we did not shut down the economy by governmental decree, make it unlawful to go to work and church, or violate the Bill of Rights.
So why now? Because we have been made to be afraid and stay afraid.
Death in America with the present Wuhan Coronavirus is, as of May 20, 2020, at 90,340. “Now we know that it’s likely to be closer to maybe a really aggressive flu season” (Ingram Angle, April 23, 2020). This is the number who died WITH COVID-19. The number who died FROM COVID 19 is at least 25% less—probably far less.
What we know now of the Wuhan Coronavirus is that children are only minimally affected and unlikely to pass it on and that it overwhelmingly takes those over 65 with preexisting conditions. The Journal of American Medical Association, April 22, 2020, concluded that 94% of coronavirus patients in New York City hospitals suffered from preexisting conditions.
The odds of you dying from this virus from those contracting it “can vary from, at most, eight-tenths of a percent in New York City to two-one-hundredths of a percent in Phoenix.” (“An Advantaged Disease, Indeed.” By William J. Bennett & Seth Leibsohn, April 06, 2020).
What we know now is that states like South Dakota and Georgia, without lockdowns damaged their economies least. States like Florida and Texas that protected the aged had minimal death rates next to states like New York City and New Jersey.
So again, is this about the election or the virus? In the questions below which political party benefits most from making a “somewhat normal” pandemic into the most fearful event in a century so close to an election?
How do you kill the greatest economy, the greatest unemployment records, and Trump’s gigantic rallies attended by 20% Democrats, just prior to the election? Why are blue state governors so slow to open their economies before November 3, if possible? Which party is most advantaged by an economy unable to get back to normal?
How would fear of human contact and normalcy cause the people to want mail-in voting, which is said to advantage one political party—especially in swing states?
Which is advantaged by keeping the people in fear? Why is the CDC so adamant about counting deaths WITH COVID-19 rather than only deaths FROM COVID-19? Why did Democrat governors send COVID patients to nursing homes in Washington, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey especially when, in the latter two the hospital ship Comfort was available but mostly unused? Was it to inflate the death numbers? Why is the proven and vastly effective drug hydroxychloroquine opposed by Democrat media outlets and governors?
How more easily could the Democrat media shift the narrative from the alleged Biden-Burisma-Ukraine and China Scandals and divert investigations on FBI and DOJ and alleged FISA corruption to COVID-19? Finally, how better could the media shelter Biden from past corruption, obvious cognitive problems, and coming devastating debate performance?
So, is this about the election or the virus? Given the fact that Trump has been the target of constant Coup d’etat attempts to remove him by the same media who hyped the fear on this virus, I think it fair to pose this question.
Author
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
May 19, 2020 | Globalism, Liberty Articles
There was no Trump collusion or obstruction of justice. The real Russian collusion story is, and will, take center stage the remainder of the year. Investigative reporter Sara Carter told Fox News, “Avalanche of indictments are coming. People are already turning on each other. Throwing colleagues under the bus in order to save themselves.” These coming indictments are on those who fabricated the Russian Collusion Hoax—the coup to overthrow an elected president.
As much as Robert Mueller wanted collusion and obstruction of justice to be so, so that he could assist in the removal of his hated president, he had to admit in his report that neither existed. In fact, those still purporting what has now been shown to be a hoax cannot even identify an actual crime committed by candidate or President Trump, so deceived were they by the now discredited New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, and CBS—the primary globalist news mediums. Democrats have to accept the fact that these mediums deceived them twice in three years; first with the deception that Clinton could not lose the election of 2016 and second with the Trump Russian conspiracy.
But none of this information is new to Q Anon followers who were told 18 months ago, October 2017, that Mueller knew then that he had nothing. So why was his report delayed? Q posts before the midterms made it clear that the Mueller Report would be delayed by Trump enemies until after the 2018 elections so as: to allow Democrats to retake the House, end numerous House Intelligence Committee investigations into Obama Administration FBI and DOJ efforts to deliver Hillary the presidency, and allow plenty of time to manufacture evidence to impeach Trump. All went just as Q said.
Delaying the report would make it difficult for Trump to unmask and release documents that incriminated them. It would also safeguard their base and provide fake news to keep the country divided and “riot ready” should they be exposed. The Mueller Repost was a great diversion from their coup to change an election and remove a seated president. It would also put on notice foreign governments that the “OLD GUARD,” the globalists, “still pull strings” as Q put it. The globalists won this round.
The delay of the Mueller Report findings allowed Trump enemies to feel safe, confident they could avoid detection, and in control which accentuated the possibility of their making more mistakes enabling authorities to gather evidence needed to expose the Deep State more fully. Again, this is total war and if readers do not know this they will be duped.
For those yet unfamiliar with Q posts The Washington Post, a critic, fairly accurately described the movement August 1, 2018. Q is “an anonymous user claiming to be a government agent with top security clearance, waging war against the so-called deep state in service to the 45th president. ‘Q’ feeds disciples, or ‘bakers,’ scraps of intelligence, or ‘bread crumbs,’ that they scramble to bake into an understanding of the ‘storm’ — the community’s term…— for the president’s final conquest over elites, globalists and deep-state saboteurs.” Q Anons are those attempting to decode the vague messages found on the 4chan and 8chan message boards.
Q posts are designed to provide hints or thought suggestions that lead discussions. These may include lesser known published articles or news clips that come close to the “truth.” Followers come to their own conclusions. Q is fast gaining followers because it allows those who know there exists a real war between freedom and globalist advocates (the establishment) to have hope that we can possibly overcome the grip the globalists have on the U.S. and the world society. It effectively allows the masses inclusion in what is happening to them.
Last October we introduced Q to our readers in an article, “A Ray of Hope in the present civil war on information” this followed last December in “‘Q’s Big Drop Landed, indictments to follow.” We reported that most of the corrupt members of the DOJ and FBI had by then been fired. Some of these people will now face indictments. Those who follow Q get information sometimes months before it is common to news sources. Those who include Q Anons as a news source, such as Lori Colley and Prayingmedic, find Q predictions reliable but his timing sometimes months late as in the release, for merely political purposes, of the Mueller Report.
So what does Q tell us is coming now? Q posted in early April that Rod Rosenstein will be gone soon [such was announced publicly April 29, to be May 11], that “attempts to prevent public release of the TRUTH” will continue, that OIG will release its findings, and that House intel will launch “more fake investigations in attempt to retain FALSE NARRATIVE and claim POLITICAL ATTACKS if investigated/prosecuted themselves.”
What will happen thereafter? The Mueller blockade/shield will fade followed by more “Declas[sification], Uranium One prosecution, treason/sedition prosecutions.” Remember this is total war and justice obstructionists can delay an outcome but Q tells us that coup exposure can no longer be stopped. Now that the Mueller blockade has been removed “DECLAS-DECLAS-DECLAS,” which Trump promises to do, will reveal all. Indictments and prosecutions will follow, some very big.
[I published this column last May 3, 2019. Q readers knew then, one year ago, what is now new news to America in mid May 2020. This validates Q posts. And, as Q NOW says, “Enjoy the Show!”]
Author
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
May 4, 2020 | Healthcare, Liberty Articles
Two Bakersfield California physicians, Dan Erickson and Arten Massihi, recently reported, “We've seen 1227 deaths in the state of California. That means you have a 0.03 chance of dying from COVID-19 in the state of California,” and for the state of New York,” the highest in the land, “19,410 out of 19 million people, which is a 0.1% chance of dying from COVID….” This is, of course, of those infected. But this remains less than the seasonal flu of 2017-18 when “about 62,000 deaths, or 0.13 chance of death from flu in the United States. So the lethality of COVID-19 is much less”—even in New York City. The seasonal flu even had a vaccine to limit contagion, COVID-19 did not.
The doctors explained how the immune system works and how it naturally adapts to the environment. “When you're a little child crawling on the ground, putting stuff in your mouth, viruses and bacteria come in, you form an antigen antibody complex, you form IgG, IgM, this is how your immune system is built.” Dr. Dan Erickson continued, “When you take human beings and you say go into your house, clean all your counters, wipe all of them down, you’re going to kill 99% of viruses and bacteria. Wear a mask, don't go outside. What does that do to our immune system? Our immune system is used to touching. We share bacteria, staphylococcus, streptococcal bacteria, viruses, we develop an immune response, dealing to this stuff.”
So why is sheltering in place not always good? “When you take that away from me,” Erickson continues, “My immune system drops as I shelter in place…. You keep me there for months, it drops more. Sheltering in place decreases your immune system and then as we all come out of shelter in place with a lower immune system, and start trading viruses, bacteria, what do you think's going to happen. Disease is going to spike. And then you've got disease spike amongst the hospital system.…” His answer, we “should lift this ban because the data is showing us it’s time to lift” (Physician video at https://youtu.be/xfLVxx_lBLU).
YouTube just removed the physician’s video with the message [This video has been removed for violating YouTube's Community Guidelines]. This is not the view that the Democratic news outlets are likely to allow their people to see. YouTube only censors political content they consider to be on the right side of the political spectrum. However a five minute portion of the physician’s video can be found at https://www.banned.video/watch?id=5ea5cbfb028f5600167acf89. under the title “We Are Being Set Up For The Biggest October Surprise In American History” but it too may vanish soon by YouTube censors.
Nor will we know from the doctors that the epidemic is descending at a very rapid pace. The doctors reported, “The hospitals their ICU’s are empty, essentially, and they're shutting down floors, they're furloughing patients, they're furloughing doctors because we just don't have the volume. We are busy with paperwork for COVID.” They spoke of the pressure upon them to list COVID as the cause of death when other factors could have been the cause. None of this fits the panic narrative the censors wish us to continue.
Recent studies on both coasts confirm that even under the most restrictive measures possible in New York and California, the virus slipped through. In Los Angeles where Mayor Eric Garcetti bragged about controlling 99.9% of the population through drones, licenses plate readings and cellphones and that he would “hunt down that last 1 %,” presumably for punishment, it got through.
“A new study by researcher’s at the University of SouthernCalifornia, tested large groups of people in Los Angeles County for coronavirus antibodies. They found that as of early April, up to 5.6 % of the entire county had contracted the illness. That means up to 320,000 adults in Los Angeles apparently had already had it. At the time the official number of infected people was about 8,000…. The virus had spread throughout a huge population right in the middle of the most restricted quarantine in American History” (Tucker Carlson Tonight, April 23, 2020). The lockdown did not and could not stop it.
Nor had herculean closedown measures slowed the virus in hardest hit New York. It came right through. Governor Andrew Cuomo cited a study showing antibodies to be 13.9 % of New Yorkers. He said, “That means 2.7 million people [were] infected statewide. That means with approx. 15,500 total fatalities, the death is approx. O.5% of people infected.” Again, it came right through. The immune systems of most everyone handled it fine, pretty much as it does the common flu—only 81 out of a 100,000 died. By comparison Florida’s death per 100,000 was 4. And South Dakota’s death per 100,000 was only 1 person (The Ingram Angle April 23, 2020).
Coronavirus deaths are serious, of course, even more so if you, or someone you love, was one of the fatalities. But science has not shown that shutdowns, or stay in place measures, worked and no area forced lockdown measures more than New York City and Los Angeles. It may be the worst thing we did. We should lift the ban immediately lest we spike other worse diseases as the doctors warned.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Author
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Apr 27, 2020 | Constitution, Liberty Articles
Constitutionalists watch with fear as Democratic mayors and governors openly defy the U.S. Constitution. Liberty taken in emergencies is seldom returned. Democrats heretofore have defended the Constitution’s civil liberties regardless of emergency circumstances. Today they hand deliver civil liberty to Republicans. Older Democrats are perplexed with their party’s abandonment of this emphasis and younger Democrats, now increasingly socialists, do not seem to care.
“If you see someone failing to practice social distancing, rat them out.” Mayor Bill de Blasio urged New Yorkers April 18, simply, “Snap a photo of an offending person or crowd, set the location on the image, and text it to 311-692. Action will ensue” (“De Blasio urges New Yorkers to snitch on social distance rule breakers,” by Mary Kay Linge, Georgett Roberts and Laura Italiano, New York Post, April 18, 2020).
The following day reacting to the enormity of criticism accusing him of employing Fascist and Communist tactics on his own people and reminding him that such snitching on Harriet Tubman in the Civil War and Ann Frank in Germany under Adolph Hitler would have destroyed both. The mayor doubled down adding, “This is not snitching, this is saving lives.”
He reminded them of the $1,000 fine for those that failed to heed social distancing guidelines. “We need those photos. We need those locations so we can enforce right away.” To date the “city had issued a total 244 summonses and fines of up to $1,000 thanks to ‘proactive enforcement efforts’.” They had also patrolled “restaurants, bars and supermarkets” and made two arrests. “The folks who still don’t get it are gonna have to pay a price,” the mayor said (“De Blasio: Ratting out neighbors for social distancing isn’t ‘snitching’” by Lee Brown,” NY Post, April 19, 2020).
But Mayor de Blasio was not the first to dump the Constitution encouraging snitching, Democrat Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti had already done so March 31. He ordered: “If any non-essential businesses continue to operate in violation of the stay at home order, we’re going to act to enforce the Safer at Home order and ensure their compliance.” He boasted of his “business ambassadors” having already visited 540 businesses enforcing compliance as of the end of March. He too had a hotline for snitchers. “You know the old expression about snitches, well in this case snitches get rewards,” Garcetti said. “We want to thank you for turning folks in and making sure we are all safe” (“‘Snitches Get Rewards’: Garcetti Issues New Rules For Construction Sites, Encourages Community To Report Safer At Home Violators,” Los Angeles Times, March 31, 2020). He did not explain how Angeleno’s were rewarded by losing their freedom to assemble.
But Democratic Governors are implementing other draconian unconstitutional measures. In Michigan, led by Gretchen Whitmer, “The governor’s order provides that residents cannot leave their homes except for essential services such as food or medical supplies, or engage in outdoor physical activity. It also bans travel to second homes and vacation properties. Businesses, meanwhile, cannot require workers to leave their homes unless they are necessary for basic operations or to ‘sustain or protect life,’ like grocery store and healthcare workers, and law enforcement.” When one goes to the store he may not purchase gardening or camping supplies, only essential items.
One Michigan resident complained that “he is forbidden to see his girlfriend of 14 years because they live in different homes” One resident was arrested on his own boat on his own lake for being engaged in outdoor physical activity. Businesses forcibly closed include “landscaping and gun shops, while marijuana stores, with curbside service and delivery, remain open.” One Michigan resident “complained that he can’t even use his time off to take his son fishing on Lake Charlevoix because motorboats have been banned under the order” (“Michigan residents sue Governor Whitmer over coronavirus pandemic orders,” U.S. Legal News, Reuters, April 16, 2020).
In New Jersey a man was arrested for sitting alone on the beach. Moreover, Democrat Governor Phil Murphy uses drones to spy on people searching for social distancing violators, a practice also used in New York City. He has closed church and synagog services and arrested people for attempting to attend them as have most Democratic led state governors. Governor Murphy explained, “We have to find a different way to worship” (Tucker Carlson Interviews Governor Phil Murphy on the Tucker Carlson Show April 15, 2020, Fox).
Kentucky Democrat Governor Andy Beshear ordered limited “in-person church services” and took down license plate numbers of parishioners who had gathered on Easter Sunday, and did other similar draconian measures. These caused Kentucky Senator Rand Paul to tweet, "Usually in a totalitarian state they first shut down dissent, then they shut down religion,Gov. Beshear did it backwards, but still the same result.” Demonstrators, hereafter, were ordered to remain in their cars (“Rand Paul attacks Andy Beshear for running 'totalitarian state' with protest restrictions,” by Ben Tobin, Louisville Courier Journal, April 17, 2020).
This story is much the same with other Democratic Governors: Ohio, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia. But the abandonment of civil liberties, especially the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights has been common to state Democratic Party leadership. Republicans have become the defenders and party of civil liberty and Democrats its greatest threat. Constitutionalist want both parties defending the Constitution.
Author
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Apr 20, 2020 | Liberty Articles
When man denies the existence of God, or even believes himself an agnostic he, in effect, replaces God with himself as the highest entity of intelligence. This impacts his political thinking in virtually every way.
If God does not exist then he cannot be counted on to manage the planet, thus puny man must. Without faith that God oversees everything for the benefit of man the following could not be understood: the rotation of the planets, sunsets and sunrises, the consistency of gravity, wind speeds and temperature variances—even oxygen levels. Nor could the precarious balances of nature that allows a million species of plant and animal life to cohabitate simultaneously on this earth, to eat and be eaten and still survive, every hour of every single day with little overall difference from decade to decade. If the sun refused to rise man would die in a few days, so dependent are we on an intelligence far above our own.
Without faith man would have believed in, and been frightened by, global cooling in the 1970’s, global warming in the 1990’s, and climate change in the 2010’s and be totally mystified as to why everyone else wasn’t as subject to manmade predictions and panicked as he. They must not be as intelligent. He could never have peace that God had everything under control.
If man has replaced God as God he would find himself panicked over the ever expanding population. He would look at food availability and compare it to the birthrate, as man has for thousands of years, and conclude that we have to cut the birthrate or we will eventually starve. He would not see that God feeds even the birds who do nothing for it. He would never concede that God would enable man to invent a plow, a tractor, or a combine to increase the food supply and trucks, boats, and planes to move it about.
If man has replaced God as God he would tend to favor a regimental form of government like socialism so that he could make everyone else do as he supposed was best for them. He would never allow natural law where each decide for themselves what is best for them, amplifying incentive, and in such the whole society is benefited. No never!! It would be too dangerous left without total control. Even thought, if possible, must be managed and cameras and drones placed everywhere to see that it is. Freedom dies.
If man has replaced God as God he would credit himself with his success, money, inventions and power. Thus he expects dominion over others because these things, in his mind, demonstrate his superiority.
If man has replaced God as God there could be no ultimate moral authority, translated—no evil, thus no sin, no justice, and no heaven or hell. No security of rights or property would exist. Man justifies his actions with whatever logic suits him—“might is right” has been a consistent philosophy of human existence in societies without God. Man exists only until his death, just like all life. No afterlife with friends and associates or loved ones. No reward or punishment. No sanctity of life thus abortion, infanticide and euthanasia are practiced because their space benefits those living. The weak and vulnerable are cast aside or extinguished.
If man has replaced God as God he might also feel it necessary to compete with God for authority and dominion. Jews lay claim to having been the most persecuted race on the globe the last 2,000 years, worthy only of extinction in the gas chambers of Hitler’s Third Reich. Christians were fed to the lions in Roman coliseum’s for entertainment in their early centuries under Roman authority. Today they are the most widely persecuted religion, especially in the Middle East and Africa. Moslems are the most persecuted religion in China with at least a million Uighurs, incarcerated in slave labor camps for their religion, also serving as organ donors on demand for the western world.
When man doesn’t need God he does not seek Him, consequently prayer, inspiration, and revelation also are largely muted. Creativity diminishes. Nor is faith needed or nurtured. Man becomes more basal in language and carnal in behavior, less distinguishable from animal behavior. Refinement properties like sharing, giving, sacrificing for others, forgiving others are dulled or extinguished. Darkness is allowed to dim the light of Christ. With diminished light judgement, even ability to reason, is impaired. Isn’t that what happened, by-in-large, during the so-called Dark Ages when there was little change in Europe for hundreds of years?
If man has replaced God as God he also tends to replace Lucifer as Lucifer. Ironically he denies the existence of both, even failing to recognize what he has become because he left God out. Isn’t this what happened in socialist societies under Stalin, Hitler, Mao Tse Tung, Castro, Pol Pot and so many others? Although these examples are extreme isn’t this legacy, to some degree, common to philosophies or individuals who allowed themselves to replace God as God?
The best evidence that man is not God, and that God exists, is that, man as God would have self destructed thousands of years ago. He has difficulty managing himself, let alone the planet and the universe.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Author
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Apr 13, 2020 | Economy, Healthcare, Liberty Articles
When President Donald Trump mobilized a health squad to advise him and the nation on the seriousness of the coronavirus epidemic he was given projections of death vastly exceeding the number of Americans who died in the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic. Initially these numbers were 2.2 million Americans. These later were reduced to 240,000. The latest IHME model, just out, has it at nearly 82,000 by August 1, 2020.
Now let’s be clear! All these numbers are unacceptable and involve real people: fathers, mothers grandparents and occasionally a child but always someone loved. Life matters. Any death is serious, of course, but this is only 20,000 more than death from the flu season of 2017-2018.
Why does this matter? Because it was these extreme projections of 2.2 million that were used as cause to shut down the economy and increase our indebtedness by perhaps $4 trillion dollars—an indebtedness more than all wars combined in American history.
What also concerns me is that most Democratic media outlets fed these panic inducing death counts from day one, even before evidence confirmed them. They now seem almost disappointed 1) with these new lower numbers, 2) that a drug used to treat malaria, hydroxy-chloroquine, is able to treat also the coronavirus, and 3) that this crisis is going to go away far too early. Democrats still can not give Trump a win on managing this crisis. They loaded Congress’s 2 trillion dollar relief bill with pork that had nothing to do with the virus itself, but did prolong passage of the bill designed to help millions of Americans desperately needing it.
My biggest concern, however, remains the weaponization of death projections seemingly to keep hysteria alive and well—and for what possible purpose? Who benefits from this hysteria? The media in modern history have never focused on the body count of flus that take thousands each year.
I am writing this on April 8, using the newly released death projections for April. By the time newspapers print this column on April 10 the projected death rate will be 22,239. By the time LibertyUnderFire subscribers read this April 14, deaths are projected to be 34,068. One week thereafter, April 17, it will be 43,279. By April 21 they are to be 54,857 By April 24, they are to be 62,089 and by April 28, they will be 68,938. Projections to Aug 1st will be 81,766 dead Americans. Deaths per day are to peak April 16 at 3,130 (IHME, COVID-19 Projections assuming full social distancing through May 2020, United States of America view at https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america). Readers can compare these numbers against reality as we approach these dates.
Still, the reduction of death by the panicked media is, for the rest of us, manna from heaven compared to the projections just 10 days before of 2.2 million dead Americans. The latest projected death in the United States of 82,000 in three months is unlikely to be reached. It might turn out to be even less than the 61,000 who died of influenza in the 2017-2018 season. Most of us may never know anyone who actually died from it. Body count of the deceased did not lead the news every night causing us to hunker in our homes wondering if we would be next.
So here are the facts that are underreported or ignored by the panicked press The odds of you getting this virus are much smaller than the hype, “based on the population tested, … rates can vary from, at most, eight-tenths of a percent in New York City to two-one-hundredths of a percent in Phoenix.” The few out of 330 million Americans that actually get this virus at least 98% will recover from it. There are models showing 50% of the population may have already had it, never knew they had it, and recovered (“An Advantaged Disease, Indeed.” By William J. Bennett & Seth Leibsohn, April 06, 2020). With these facts accurately reported it is unlikely that we would have shut down the economy.
They did not tell us of the 34,000 who died of influenza in last year’s 2018-2019 flu season, nor that we lose PER MONTH “about 54,000 Americans to heart disease; 50,000 to cancer; 14,000 to asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema; 12,000 to stroke; 10,000 to Alzheimer’s; 7,000 to diabetes; 5,600 to drug overdoses; and 4,700 to influenza and pneumonia.” These deaths give us over 157,000 deaths PER MONTH” and no-one shuts down the economy or cries out for a $2 Trillion stimulus package. Apparently only the coronavirus, amplified by the Democratic press, alerts the panic response.
Again all life matters and these too are horrifying unacceptable death numbers involving those we love. The media have no right to drive a panic without accurate, proportional (including the omissions noted above), supporting evidence that potentially could damage the economy beyond repair for years.
One piece of knowledge that would have helped reduce the media hysteria for young people is that only 7% of those who got it were under 50 years of age. We knew this early on. Allow them to return to work ASAP. Perhaps a better response to this epidemic would have been rather than shut down the economy, quarantine those over 65 and tell those younger not to visit them for a time.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
