Tweet [1]
Jeffrey Tucker writes of the lockdowns’ inequity [2]. A slice:
And that is precisely what happened in 2020. In the name of all these strange new practices – ‘Nonpharmaceutical Interventions’, ‘Targeted Layered Containments’, or, in the words of Dr. Fauci “public health measures,” all of which are euphemisms for lockdowns – many governments sliced and diced the population. The ruling class cobbled together its own Medieval-style system for beating disease through an expectation that the people who do not matter much will be on the front lines while the rest stay home and stay safe.
Lockdowns are not just a brutal and failed form of disease mitigation. They were the replacement of a social system based on freedom and equality with another based on income, class, and the worthiness to stay free of, or be exposed to, disease. That is the meta analysis of what happened to us in these last 15 months, whether intended or not.
Jacob Sullum reports on efforts in Pennsylvania to rein in government-executives’ emergency powers [3].
Wise writing by Joakim Book [4]. A slice:
In the Covid-19 disaster, though, plenty of early decision-makers and academics whose models scared an entire world were off by orders of magnitude to the upside. The best and kindest thing that can be said about Imperial College London [5]’s infamous model [6] and others that confidently pronounced doom is that they were exaggerated.
For more than a year already, both Australia and New Zealand have been largely isolated from the rest of the world. Nevertheless, the Australian state of Victoria and its capital city of Melbourne have recently had to impose yet another preemptive lockdown [8] in order to suppress renewed community transmission of the coronavirus.
“Vaccination Doesn’t Add Any Protection to that Gained from Previous Infection. [9]”
TANSTAFPFC (There Ain’t No Such Thing As Free Protection From Covid.) [10]
I’m with Elle Reynolds: Shake hands and ignore any advice offered by Fauci [11]. Here’s her conclusion:
After a yearlong assault on daily life as we’ve known it and an attempt to replace it with a sterile and fearful “new normal,” the handshake is one more thing we shouldn’t let go. To do away with it is just one more way to perpetuate the suspicion, detachment, and self-centeredness we’ve seen too much of this past year.
Jay Bhattacharya says that Fauci’s “credibility is entirely shot.” [12] I agree.