21 May Breaking the Corona Trance
Here’s a simple but profound truth that bears repeating to friends and neighbors across the country:
if Americans knew back on March 1 what Americans know now about the coronavirus, there would not have been any shut down of the economy; there would not have been any effort to quarantine the healthy; and neither masks nor social distancing would have been introduced as a new way of life in America.
Lethality rates[1] and treatment options, unknown at the outset of the ‘pandemic’, are now known; and they shout to anyone paying attention: extraordinary, nationwide disease mitigation steps of the type taken were never necessary. Not in the name of ‘science’; not in the name of public health; not even in the name of general caution. (There’s a whole lot of accountability still to be explored and assigned as to why there was a complete whiff at the outset, but that can be left to another day).
- With that simple truth, why on earth is there any part of America still acting as if we don’t know this? America doesn’t do ‘stuck on stupid’.
- Why the pretentious, oh-so-sophisticated, phased easing of lockdowns if there never should have been lockdowns in the first place?
- Why is hydroxychloroquine considered a political pinata, instead of a globally affirmed efficacious treatment for coronavirus, the very presence of which would dissolve general societal fear?
- Why are we treating the disease as if it were still as mysterious and super-deadly as was feared at the beginning, when it is manifestly not mysterious or super-deadly now?
- To be more specific, why is any level of government—federal, state, county or city—launching enormously expensive, intrusive, and medically ineffective ‘track and trace’ programs for tracking and tracing a mysterious and super-deadly disease that is not mysterious or super-deadly?
There are no good, honest, based-on-fact-and-science answers to any of these questions. Which is why the whole situation looks and feels like a trance.
The not-good answers to these questions are of course mostly grounded in the realities of politics in 2020. “Hate Trump” is a way of life for the radical left and the MSM, and right now they apparently believe their only inkling of hope of putting Joe Biden in the White House is to somehow extend and magnify the economic misery in a way they imagine can be attached to Trump, whereupon the deplorables will desert him and mail-in ballots can open up enough fraud potential to enable them to win the necessary swing states.
And the only way for the left to extend and magnify the economic misery is to leverage the MSM to peddle fear of outbreak or second wave at every chance; portray dark and suffering deaths from coronavirus; discredit hydroxychloroquine and all other remedies except a yearend vaccine, and probably even fabricate anecdotes of suffering or falsify ‘cause of death’ determinations to keep the ‘blue state fearful’ in a state of paralysis.
So what can break the corona trance?
If there is anyone capable of delivering a thunderclap of truth, it is President Trump.
And what would that thunderclap consist of? It could be a public statement by President Trump:
“After careful and thorough review of expert medical opinion formulated upon review of the most up to date actual data across the country and the world, I can comfortably state the simple truth (that opened this posting): if we knew back on March 1 what we know now, we would not have pursued any aspect of the lockdown.
Accordingly, any Task Force or CDC recommendation of track and trace programs as an aid to re-opening was and is a gigantic mistake, an idea totally unfitted to the actual data accumulated as to this virus, and is hereby removed as a recommendation, and all such programs in any and every state should be deep-sixed immediately and completely.”
That would do it. That would be a giant common-sense puncture of the fear balloon. Millions of decent, apolitical Americans who have patiently trusted and followed their government into near financial oblivion (with masks on and socially distanced from their friends and neighbors) would be gratified and energized to see their government finally able to admit a mistake, acknowledge learning from it, and set people free from a falsely induced panic.
The vulnerable and infected would continue to be the focus of care (and much more knowledgeable care at that). Even the hyper-fearful would feel major relief, but for those who just can’t shake the fear—they would be welcome to stay self-quarantined. They would not be under government-imposed house arrest.
Will President Trump deliver the thunderclap?
With every passing day, he’s got to be getting closer to doing so. The continued blue state lockdowns are 100% political; there is no ‘science’ behind any of them—and Trump knows it. And for a President more than willing to act on the instinct to deregulate, nothing would be more ‘deregulating’ in the public health arena than a decision to cancel track and trace programs everywhere—to effectively call an end to the ‘pandemic’.
Mr. President, stop prolonging the unfounded and unhealthy national obsession with this virus. Let Americans get back to being Americans. Break the corona trance, right now.
[1] Not one comment here or anywhere about low lethality rates associated with the coronavirus should be distorted into a false characterization as indifference to anyone’s death; that is a disgusting canard that ought be dismissed from public discourse permanently.
Eric Georgatos blogs at America Can We Talk?