Don's Tuesday Column

            THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson   Red Bluff Daily News   7/21/2020

  Cry “havoc” and let slip the dogs of…civil disobedience

The Shakespearean reference to “the dogs of war” and “havoc” related to the senseless confusion, destruction and pillaging of all-out war, and the terror inflicted upon enemy forces when vicious, hungry, bloodthirsty animals were loosed amidst such carnage.

Apply that to the riots, mobs, arsonists and anarchists that have unleashed themselves—often with the tacit permission of “progressive” mayors and governors, who hypocritically protest the legitimate use of federal police in their now-ungovernable areas of insurrection. “Protests” over racial justice and police violence? Nothing but pretexts for “havoc.”

“Civil disobedience”—widespread public disgust and resentment over thinly-predicated “emergency proclamations” by governors now operating only through “police state” rule—hardly compares to that called to mind by the demise of civil rights icon, John Lewis. The fight that he, Martin Luther King and many others waged was against actual laws and institutional racism.

Those advocating “civil disobedience”—over economically stifling “distancing,” onerous “lockdowns” and shutdowns of business sectors, without legislative authorization—must wonder how long elected leaders can maintain such mandates. Will citizens endure—like the frog in the warming pot that would have jumped out of boiling water—and put up with the economic suffering forced upon them?

Relevant thoughts from John Schroeder, in “Does Anybody Read Anymore?” (Hughhewitt.com, 7/14): “One, the virus is going to find a way. It is not going away. No virus ever has. All we have ever accomplished with a virus is to limit its expansion until such time as we developed a vaccine which renders it harmless to humans, or it mutated into harmlessness…

“The second level is the one where the problems really arise; trying to control the virus by controlling people is…insane. People, particularly American people, will not be controlled that tightly. The so-called “surge” is extraordinary evidence of that fact. California has been more tightly controlled, and carefully released, than virtually anywhere else in the nation and yet we surge.

“The more you try and control people this tightly, the more they will simply resent it, and thus the more likely it will be that they will defy you. Most of the people I know that simply refuse to wear a mask have no illness-based argument—it is all about, 'They can’t tell me what to do.' To try and control people this tightly is to deny them their humanity.”

“Does Anybody Read?” asks if people are really so reliant on “thin gruel” news—talking heads on the screens, reading their teleprompters and repeating words—that they don’t seek out further information that might induce doubt over said broadcast narratives. Maybe so.

“Medical Group Says ‘Little Evidence’ Lockdowns Save Lives, Urges New COVID Strategy,” by M. Peltzer, 7/14 (Townhall.com): “In a statement released Monday, AAPS (Association of American Physicians and Surgeons) had strong words for governors of states with a surge in positive tests like Arizona, Texas, and California, where governors have reinstituted lockdowns and mandated mask-wearing.

“‘These measures will destroy livelihoods, but there is little evidence that they will save lives,’ the group said. A better strategy, AAPS says, would be an offensive approach that protects demographics most at risk of exposure and infection, such as medical workers and others on the front-lines, by administering hydroxychloroquine (HCQ).” Likewise, the elderly, institutionally cared-for, at risk groups.

It also refers to “a host of peer-reviewed evidence and international studies” showing the effectiveness of HCQ “to prevent COVID-19 in exposed workers…a decline in the risk" (of infection) and “five-times fewer deaths.” It cites the Henry Ford Health System study. Only “Trump Derangement” stops it.

The following should change your perceptions: “What the Media Won’t Tell You About the U.S. Coronavirus Case Fatality Rate (CFR),” Matt Margolis (7/16 Pjmedia.com). Measuring the deaths per confirmed cases, and the deaths per capita, paints a far different picture than the one news media provide. By those metrics, the U.S. (4% CFR) does better than almost every European nation—almost 3x better than France, Belgium, the U.K. and Italy. Only Portugal has slightly better CFR. Canada’s rate (8%) is 2x America’s.

For all the talk about Sweden being a “cautionary tale” of somewhat failed policies on Coronavirus, data shows Sweden with a far better death rate compared to New York and its demographically similar neighbor, Belgium. See “Why Sweden Succeeded in ‘Flattening the Curve’ and New York Failed,” by Jon Miltimore (Fee.org, 7/15). It was accomplished without “lockdowns” and mandates, just informed people.

The U.S. deaths per million is 432, lower than most of Europe. The only states with higher rates are: New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland (and D.C.). Illinois, Louisiana and Michigan are somewhat higher but, in all cases, the urban areas drive those rates.

California is less than half (195 deaths/million) the national rate and SoCal counties drive that rate. Most of California—indeed, most states—needs no mandates or economy-strangling controls beyond voluntary mask-wearing and distancing. Reuters.com suggested a motive for Gavin Newsom’s disproportional reaction: “California’s new lockdown dims outlook for U.S. growth” (and dims Trump’s reelection odds). “And with those new restrictions, the state’s relatively meager job gains so far could stall or even reverse.” A glitch, a problem to us; a feature, a benefit to the Trump-hating left.

Data stat: if the H1N1 (swine) flu during Obama’s term (Gore/Biden/Obama staff guy Ron Klain: “We did every possible thing wrong…we just got lucky”), had the same lethality of COVID-19, 61 million infections would have resulted in about 2.6 million deaths, instead of 13,000.