Tweet [1]
Ethan Yang wonders if Americans have the will to remain free [2]. A slice:
Look no further than the common narrative that selfish Americans won’t wear their masks and that’s why the virus is spreading. Not only are masks ineffective at stopping Covid-19 [3] in the way they are advertised, but the United States actually has some of the highest reported mask wearing rates [4] in North America and Europe. An article published by Forbes warned against “doing your own research” [5] when it comes to Covid-19 and parroted the tired “listen to the experts line.” Not only is this an attack on the very notion of the scientific method [6] as well as an informed citizenry, but such a strategy would have clearly led us down the road to technocracy, and a misinformed one at that.
Such uninformed hysteria around Covid sounds less like a concern for stopping the virus and more of a cultural wedge against traditional American ideas of individual liberty. Sadly, it seems that many members of the public are either afraid or apathetic when it comes to preserving and reclaiming the free society that is our birthright.
TANSTAFPFC – There Ain’t No Such Thing As Free Protection From Covid [7].
The Wall Street Journal‘s Editorial Board reports on more collateral damage from Covid hysteria and the lockdowns [8]. A slice:
Congress is still working on its $1.9 trillion spending bill, and Democrats are already floating a sequel. “Our No. 1 lodestar is going to be helping the American people and if they need more help, we’ll do another bill,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Saturday after Democrats passed the bill 50-49.
Only a small part of what Democrats passed is for pandemic or economic relief. It’s mainly a way station on their high-speed train to a cradle-to-grave welfare-entitlement state. Most of the $1.9 trillion will flow to government unions or supposedly temporary income transfers that Democrats intend to make permanent later this year.
Patrick McGinnity decries the passport to slavery [9]. A slice:
It is extraordinary how easily people in the West embraced authoritarian lockdown measures. Governments must have been shocked how little resistance there was to their new laws. In his infamous interview in the Times, Professor Neil Ferguson said they didn’t think they could implement a lockdown in the democratic West. Referring to China, he said: ‘It’s a communist one-party state, we said. We couldn’t get away with it in Europe, we thought . . . And then Italy did it. And we realised we could.’ [10]
If the democratic West would accept a Chinese-style lockdown, why would they not accept health passports? Obviously the makers of such passports think they will, otherwise they wouldn’t pour so much money into the idea. They are not doing this as a temporary measure; they’re in it for the long haul. ‘Digital certificates’ may be introduced, but that will be the foot in the door.
In this podcast, Tom Woods calls for resistance to the Fauci administration [11].
Phil Magness asks an important question [12]:
Why do none of the studies claiming the effectiveness of mask mandates consider data from the fall+winter second wave?
Every single one I’ve seen relies on data from the spring (when covid was still highly regionalized) or from the summer (when we were in a seasonality-induced trough), but nothing from the fall onward.
This is not for want of data, which are abundant and better than the spring due to improved testing. Nor is it for want of research design, since it woulr only require updating the spring and summer studies. And neither is it for want of a counterfacual to use as a baseline, since the fall provided numerous examples of locales that eschewed a mask mandate or that had subtle differences in mask adoption patterns (see: South Dakota and Sweden). And yet we have no empirical studies of what should be an obvious question.
The cynic in me would suggest that this is because they know the results won’t support the political case for mask mandates.