Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Day 140: COVID-19 I Can See No Way Out but Through
Len says one steady pull more ought to do it.
He says the best way out is always through.
And I agree to that, or in so far
As that I can see no way out but through–
Leastways for me…— From A Servant To Servants poem by Robert Frost
Our keepers have proven feckless. The ones who inveighed us over the risk of illness and chased us indoors, and who have only lately said we could come out, cautiously and differently, have now demonstrated no stomach for critical civic control. If the masses can assemble for social justice, why not for worship? For drinking? For shows?
It is demonstrable that if the people still restricted from working just go about it anyway, the officials will not do anything. Even before the riots, politicians were running to get ahead of where the public was going. Governor DeWine of Ohio was an early surrenderer. Most other Red State governors moved quickly. California has been moving to make moot the legal challenges. Governor Newsom always wants to lead the parade.
Is the epidemic over? Probably, but the virus has not gone away. Getting weaker, they say. But infections will continue to occur so testing activities will generate new cases and the cumulative total will continue to climb. Hospitalizations are generally down with an occasional uptick. Death will take its tithe.
The media has moved on, but we will all take our chances going forward. Few will get ill; some of those that do will suffer greatly. But there will be no more lockdowns: “I can see no way out but through.”
[Note 1: I will be arbitrarily ending the daily COVID-19 posts on Day 150. It is clear now more than ever that this is not a public health crisis, it is a public policy crisis dressed in whatever garb best suits those that promote government control over our lives. That will be the constant battle of the remainder of my life. But it has nothing to do with the disease we labeled COVID-19.]
[Note 2: Links to all my COVID-19 posts can be found here.]
Published in General
Dude, I have loved your work on this since the start but making yourself continue to day 150 is just an exercise in self-flagellation.
Do 4 more days – to 144 or a Gross – then call it even.
You could even call the last one “A Gross of COVID” and detail all you learned, both epidemiological, social, as well as political.
Truthfully, after 144 days of this, the flagship podcast should have you on for an in-depth discussion. It could actually be a pretty decent book with all the details and comments.
Amen and amen.
Wasn’t there some old guy whose every pronouncement had to be followed a little while ago? Whatever happened to him? I think he was a Dr…….uh Faustus or Fauci or something. I could be wrong.
I agree with @instugator; you have done an outstanding job on this issue, and I think you deserve to let it finally die. The virus deserves no more commitment from you, and we Ricochettis, although extremely grateful, would be more than willing to have you move on. At least I think most of us would.
It has always been “no way out but through”. I think my predictions from 100 days ago have played out, except for the lack of new viral treatments. I am aghast that there is no official Tamiflu-like treatment. I think the big three failures of “science” are: (1) modeling/cost analysis (2) lack of treatments (3) failure to differentiate recommendations based on age/risk. These mistakes happened, despite this pandemic being similar to past respiratory pandemics. Perhaps the “experts” will adjust their next Event201 simulation to include a massive global disinformation campaign by globalists/socialists.
Rodin, thank you for your work these many days!!
Whereas I’ve become a Rodin super fan and would be happy to see those daily posts keep coming until Day 150! Thanks so much for your tremendous effort these past few months, @rodin. Your posts helped me stay (mostly) sane as we seriously social distanced by staying at home this spring. Crazy times.
You have to be pretty nimble to follow Dr. Fauci’s expert conclusions and directions; they seem to change daily.
I like that saying, “There’s no way out but through.” For years I’ve said that to myself when facing something I didn’t want to do.
I’m just disappointed to discover that I didn’t make it up.
Woo Woo! Rodin!
If you believe you need to continue to 150 on my account, I concur with Instugator. Call it at 144. (90 in hex)\
Any person who states that protesting against the lockdown is a health hazard, and then states that protesting against the police is awesome and not a health hazard, is absolutely and totally full of crap, and should be considered an activist, not a medical professional or a scientist. This is “We have always been at war with EastAsia” level doublespeak. They betrayed the public trust in their expertise.
As someone who is actually in the public health / safety field, it utterly infuriates me. Just like former Officer Chauvin is used to paint all police, I get to be painted as all of these social justice chuckleheads. Fortunately, a number of epidemiologists haven’t completely sold out, and mostly keeping their heads down. I do think Dr. Fauci should be more vocal that there is no social justice exceptions to epidemiology – he’s got a solid career, and Trump will have his back.
I am concerned about the lack of jobs and recreational activities for middle and high school students. I’m afraid that the lack of structure for them will see them get into trouble and end up with a criminal record.
So many youth programs, including jobs for teenagers, are funded with the idea that the jobs will keep them out of trouble when school is out. These programs are an excellent preventive strategy for teenagers. A friend of mine was the local district attorney, and we were talking about teenagers and crime. He told me that almost all of the crime Cape Cod was committed by teenagers. That’s why my school district on Cape Cod was one of the first in country to put a “resource officer” in the middle and high schools. It was a presence to warn the kids away from petty and more serious crimes. Our officer got to know the kids, and they liked having him there, actually. But we learned a lot being “on the scene,” so to speak. Many jobs programs were instituted in response. The “school-to-work” programs were very successful.
Kids need human contact.
I hope someone is keeping track of these far-flung impacts, to borrow a term from the environmentalists, of the onerous social-distance regulations. I hope we’re looking far and wide and into the future to gauge the full effect of the “lockdown.”
Rodin,
I will applaud you going to 150 days so that you can catch the second wave, or observe its absence. I think 10 more days ought to more than cover what went on with the lockdown protests, the racial protests and the BLM looting and burning.
You have helped us to understand better, and to be confident that so much of what we’ve been told was only partially true. You’ve helped us interpret the actual facts and separate that from the evil agenda.
On a personal note, your posts help me move from abject fear to empowered incredulity. For that I am grateful.
Thank you.
@rodin
I just wish someone would make up their f’ing mind…
This was in a Google search back-to-back:
Figures.
GA’s Brian Kemp was a great hero of the Covid story. One governor of a populous, relatively hard-hit state had to be the first to aggressively buck the political incentives that rewarded staying hunkered down, especially with the federal gov’t picking up so much of the tab. Gov. Kemp did it, took the heat (even from Trump, shamefully), and when disaster didn’t follow, a parade of others mustered the courage to do the same.
Bravo, Kemp. Bravo, Rodin.
Now everyone is being gas-lit.
Completely agree with this statement on its face. However, I think the received wisdom, per that open letter that 1200 alleged “experts” signed a few days ago is that protesting against the lockdown is a sign of white nationalism and disrespect for Black lives at least as much as it is a health hazard. Regarding their support for demonstrations and protests against “systemic racism,” they had this to say:
Thus, lockdown protestors can be dismissed as a bunch of White nationalists and racists.
And they are not saying that the protests aren’t a health hazard. What they’re saying is that it is worth risking the health hazard of getting, or passing along, cases of Covid-19, by gathering together, cheek-to-cheek, in groups of tens of thousands, in order to protest “systemic racism,” and that “infectious disease and public health narratives adjacent to demonstrations against racism must be consciously anti-racist, and infectious disease experts must be clear and consistent in prioritizing an anti-racist message. “
They don’t care if these gatherings are “risky for COVID-19” transmission. They think it’s worth it, no matter how many additional people die from Covid-19. (And let’s be clear, none of us knows what the effects of the protests, in the way of spikes or curves will or won’t be.)
Meanwhile anyone who wants to protest the fact that he or she can’t bury bury a beloved relative, or attend church, or visit a loved one nearing the end of his days in a hospital, or get married surrounded by family and friends is a horrible, racist, supremacist pig.
Simple as that.