While America protests, Canada remains passive under the command to shelter in place.
If the experts at NASA were as wrong about their numbers as the experts have been on Covid19, not only would there be no man on the moon, no rocket would have left the launch pad.
There is no doubt that the medical experts were wrong about the CHINESE VIRUS. I await their apology. If we allow experts to tell us that we cannot go back to normal until there is a vaccine, we will never get out of our homes. There will always be an influenza. Always. And the next one will come again from China. But we cannot fold up like a cheap tent every time a new virus makes its way. To our shores. That is no life.
When will our leaders develop cojones to stand up and say “Enough?”
A little history.
America broke away from the overbearing reach of Britain. It was a painful birth that led to America’s motto: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is Rights oriented: The Bill of Rights, including the right to assemble, the right to petition government, the right to speak. Protests is in the blood.
Canada was birthed through C-section. The country was gently removed from the mother, the cord was cut and a baby Britain was born, with a side order of France. Canada’s motto; peace, order and good government. Nice quiet people. Don’t like to make a fuss. Always apologizing.
Both countries are now facing government making demands on all citizens-to shut down their lives, their livelihood, and their countries because of a new virus. Another Chinese Virus: Covid19.
We were told that millions of people could die in America and hundreds of thousands in Canada. It has turned out that our experts are better at fear-mongering than anything else; approximately 98 percent of people under 65 who get the coronavirus, survive it.
The numbers are down; way down. In America On April 18, Dr. Fauci announced a flat figure of “more like 60,000,” the same number the CDC says died of flu two years ago. Probably not coincidentally, until quite recently the agency said there were 80,000 flu victims that year, before lowering it to 61,000 – presumably because people were using that figure to compare to COVID-19 deaths. In any event, the 1968-1969 “Hong Kong flu” killed an estimated 100,000 Americans, or 165,000 adjusted to today’s population. In Canada there have been 1560 deaths. Initial estimates were as high as 300,000. In both Canada and America the deadliest places have been long term care facilities for the elderly. A pattern we saw in Europe.
Yet, we shut down our countries. And at this time our countries are still closed; Canada more than America. And this shutdown is destroying our social fabric. Our families are suffering because of the increased strains from the rise in poverty, and along with it a rise mental illness, sexual, physical and emotional abuse. Our children are missing school and the great outdoors. We are denied the right to share in community; the good news and the bad news. We are denied the comfort of friends and family when a loved one dies and is buried or when a new life comes into the world. We are standing by while small business is going bankrupt and hard -working people are told to accept this.
How did our governments decide how many deaths are too many and that we must shut down a country to prevent deaths? What are the criteria? How many is too many? What is that magic number?
And our social contract, the contract upon which our freedoms sit is being abused. In 1762 Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote in Of The Social Contract, Or Principles of Political Right, that one of the building blocks of a healthy society is the agreement with which a person enters into civil society. “The contract essentially binds people into a community that exists for mutual preservation. In entering into civil society, people sacrifice the physical freedom of being able to do whatever they please, but they gain the civil freedom of being able to think and act rationally and morally.” It seems that many no longer believe that the lock-down is in the best interests for our mutual preservation. Yet, protesters are attacked by politicians and media who seem to have forgotten about rights; not only rights, but the obligation to protest and speak up and share concerns and question, question, question. In Judaism it is said that nothing is more important than asking a good question. Well Canadians and American are asking excellent questions and the answers are wanting.
I leave you with these facts. You decide if you want to stay at home or protest.
While L.A. County reports total of 13,816 coronavirus cases, antibody study shows hundreds of thousands more could have had COVID-19 in the past.
According to Dr. Barbara Ferrer, L.A. County’s public health director, based on serology testing, an estimated 221,000 adults to 442,000 adults at the high end may have been infected at some point before April 9 with COVID-19, suggesting that the number of total people in the county with a past or current infection is 28 to 55 times higher than the number of reported positive cases. But having up to that many people who may have already had the illness means that the fatality rate from the virus is much lower than originally believed, stated Neeraj Sood, the USC scientist leading the study.
February 28, 2020 (published online), the lead author editorialist of a New England Journal of Medicine op-ed entitled, “Covid-19—Navigating the Uncharted”, referencing the 1957-58 H2N2 influenza pandemic, observed:
“If one assumes that the number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic cases is several times as high as the number of reported cases, the case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%. This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%) or a pandemic influenza (similar to those in 1957 and 1968)…”
That lead editorialist was Dr. Anthony Fauci. Let me repeat the date:FEB 28 2020
And yet we agreed with our leaders to shut down our countries. We listened as they told us it could be months before we return to normal while others tell us we will never go back to normal. It seems hand shaking may be a thing of the past. All based on the experts and their numbers.
Our experts are still taking their information from the WHO-an organization that we know is under the control of China. Right now the only country benefiting from the shut-down of our countries is China.
Perhaps are leaders are afraid to open our countries. Fear of making an error despite the fact that the health experts have made many. Perhaps we need to help them make that decision. Protesting the lock-down tells our leaders that we are not afraid. That we will not be paralyzed by fear of the unknown. That we are ready to take a chance on life and live it rather than live in fear based on numbers that change daily. We know the weakest amongst us, and we must continue to be a compassionate society protecting and defending them.
But we are not obligated to commit suicide.
From the Ethics of the Fathers: “Rabbi Tarfon used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it.”
