KATHERINE writes: Thanks so much for your great posts on the coronavirus. My apartment house is on a fairly busy street in Olde Towne, Portsmouth, Virginia.  On a typical day, there used to be on my street at least two or three ambulances (and fire trucks) with sirens blasting. There have been none for the past week anyway – and I’m home almost all the time now.  Hmmm . . . seems strange to me, given that a lot of elderly people live in this neighborhood. This morning I ran into my downstairs neighbor – she is an RN and works the night shift at Norfolk General/Sentara Hospital in Norfolk.  She said that their patient load is so low that medical personnel are being sent home!  She said they are all puzzled by our governor’s recent call for volunteers to help with the “Coronavirus crisis” (I did not know he said that). Her parting words to me:  “Don’t believe what you hear on TV!” I hope and pray this ends soon!  It’s all insane.  Everyone is treating other people as bioweapons!  

“SOCIETY will develop a new kind of servitude which covers the surface of society with a network of complicated rules, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate. It does not tyrannise but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.” ---- Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America  

  "IF there had been no intervention, the epidemic would have been over" by now in the United States, says Professor Knut Wittkowski, for twenty years head of The Rockefeller University's Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design. The elderly should have avoided social contact and stayed home, he says, but the rest of the population should have gone about their business. That way, what is called "herd immunity" would have been achieved more quickly. Universal social distancing is an unscientific and harmful practice. It is a medical superstition promoted by powerful political forces. It has brought untold financial and psychological harm to America. It will leave shuttered businesses, suicide, alcoholism, despair and marital breakdown in its wake. It has enabled extreme financial plunder. It has left millions of people in circumstances of dire isolation and left many others demoralized and confused. The fact that some have undoubtedly enjoyed the break from routine and the chance to spend more time with their families does not offset its many negative consequences for the vulnerable. Update: States that didn't shut down their economies have lower death rates from corona than states that did. Is there any better proof that at the very least social distancing was not necessary?    

  DEL Bigtree explains clearly why the figures for the coronavirus death toll are highly unreliable, as discussed in a previous post. Talk about "flattening the curve" is meaningless if the curve is inaccurate in the first place. Bigtree doesn't mention that hospitals have a huge financial incentive to list COVID as the cause of death. The federal government is paying for treatment for all uninsured patients who have the virus. By suggesting that the death figures are not reliable, I am not saying that people are not dying from a serious respiratory condition.  

  RON PAUL continues to be a voice of common sense on the coronavirus. I'm not a supporter of libertarianism, but when you have dictatorial government over-reach, it sure is nice to have a few libertarians around. In this latest video, he looks at some of the resistance to the economic shutdown.

THE Occidental Observer has a translation of an interview with Dr. Stefano Montanari, an Italian nano-pathologist. He has strong views about the current manufactured crisis. Here is a sample. On gloves: We have on our skin various bacteria, fungi and viruses that are there to contrast and counteract pathogenic bacteria and fungi, meaning carriers of illness. In fact when we wear gloves to combat the coronavirus, we are not helping because we do not allow our bacteria, fungi and viruses present on the skin to interact with the pathogenic ones. Then with gloves-covered hands we touch our clothes, we touch the money handed by the cashiers from the stores still open — the same gloves on which the viruses came to rest. Hence those gloves are distinctly worse than non-gloves.  On masks: Viruses exist in enormous quantities and can enter in enormous quantities inside the cells, which are a few thousandths of a millimeter wide. Wearing a mask compares with raising a gate to prevent mosquitoes from entering your house. On vaccinating for COVID-19: For only an incompetent can imagine a vaccine against a virus that does not give immunity and has no chance of being effective. We are talking about a virus that mutates at very fast speed and we cannot possibly run after it (i.e., its mutations). You can’t vaccinate against the common cold because the common cold does not give immunity. In the course of a life, a person can…

  AMERICANS have been fed many lies in the past 100 years. The official narrative of the COVID-19 lockdown, despite the reality of the virus, will surely rank high among them years from now. Some lies are too big to be disbelieved. I cannot vouch for everything in this professionally-produced video and I know nothing about its creator, but it provides important statistics. Don't miss the end with its brief look at the situation in Brazil and Mexico, which have defied the lockdown.  

SEE the Center for Disease Control's guidelines for determining a death by "Covid-19." A key excerpt: When determining whether COVID–19 played a role in the cause of death, follow the CDC clinical criteria for evaluating a person under investigation for COVID–19 and, where possible, conduct appropriate laboratory testing using guidance provided by CDC or local health authorities. More information on CDC recommendations for reporting, testing, and specimen collection, including postmortem testing, is available from: https://www. cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/hcp/clinical-criteria.html and https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/guidancepostmortem-specimens.html. It is important to remember that death certificate reporting may not meet mandatory reporting requirements for reportable diseases; contact the local health department regarding regulations specific to the jurisdiction. In cases where a definite diagnosis of COVID–19 cannot be made, but it is suspected or likely (e.g., the circumstances are compelling within a reasonable degree of certainty), it is acceptable to report COVID–19 on a death certificate as “probable” or “presumed.” In these instances, certifiers should use their best clinical judgement in determining if a COVID–19 infection was likely. However, please note that testing for COVID–19 should be conducted whenever possible. (bold added) Here's another potentially huge factor in inflating COVID numbers: The federal government has agreed to pay for treatment for all uninsured COVID patients. This could mean tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars for COVID-diagnosed patients that hospitals would otherwise not receive. Hospitals are known to focus on diagnoses that will result in higher insurance payments, which is only…

  A MAINE sheriff publicly refused to threaten residents who are not following stay-at-home orders. "We will not be setting up a Police State. PERIOD," he wrote. Who is this guy? Doesn't he know this is America?  

NEW YORK CITY is currently the capital of lies and scheming propaganda. Don't trust anything that comes out of that place. And please, keep six feet away from tigers! By the way, when was the last time you gave your cat or dog the flu? Just askin'.  

THE Babylon Bee has this late-breaking scoop: U.S.—After state governments across the country directed their citizens to shut down their businesses and just kinda hope things worked out, a new order has been issued: everyone is to jump off a bridge immediately. A government official issued the order to solve our current crisis, and everyone immediately complied. "Everyone jump off a bridge," said a representative of the government. "OK," said everyone. "If the government says so, it's probably a good idea. Besides, what can we do? It's the government. They definitely have the best people working on it."  

(more…)