Commentary by Clay Ross, Jefferson
A while back I wrote a think piece in the style of “change my mind”. It generated knee jerk reactions from some of my detractors. I think it is time to revisit the questions that I posed.
I started my piece talking about how the fear mongers that call themselves the Media have people so scared they are living under their stairs, waiting for the Rapture. So I asked for someone (anyone) to prove that Covid-19 is a bad as they say. The way to do this is using public records from the hospital, put together charts of admittance, use of breathing machines use and deaths caused by the seasonal flu, 5, 10,15 and 20 years ago and compare them to the charts in regards of CV19 in a comparable time frame. Something like January 1 to June 30 for each of the seasonal flu years compared to January 1 to June 30 of 2020 for CV-19.
To my knowledge no one has done anything close to this.
My detractors try to dismiss this idea out of hand. If they had done any form of research comparing the flu to CV-19 they would have found that they are related. The symptoms are also similar for each of them. Most importantly the death rate of CV-19 is less than 1 percent depending on demographics, where with the flu you have a death rate around 2 percent. Read that last line again. You have a greater chance of dying from the flu than you do CV-19. Here are some others things that are more deadly than CV-19: malaria, traffic accidents, HIV/AIDS, smoking, and cancer to name a few. Using the definitions from the CDC, CV-19 may no longer meet any requirements for a public health emergency.
Because my detractors did not present any (credible) evidence to support their position, they have forfeited the argument.
When the people that are hiding under the stairs need to go forage for supplies, the fear mongers have convinced these people to wear masks.
I asked the question of how effective are masks in regards to stopping the spread of CV-19. To properly research this you need to look at all the papers written on the subject. The papers funded by the government, CDC or the WHO can be discard off the top. You need to look at when it was written; something written 20 years ago may not be as relevant at something written last year. Look at the question (premise) the paper is looking at. What method are they using to test the premise? Where was this research done? Has the paper been peer reviewed? What are the conclusions?. When that is answered, then list the research paper in one of two categories, Masks have no effect on CV transmission rates or Whatever. When done reading all papers, count how many are in each side of the list. This process may take a week or two to complete fully.
My detractors choose not to do this. It appears they took a few moments to do a Google search for a pull quote that supports their position. In regards to another paper that I referenced they said it was inconclusive. They failed to say why. None of this answers the question of how many papers come down on either side of this debate.
By not doing the work, my detractors have again forfeited the argument. If you want to change my mind, present evidence that can stand up in a court of law. If they had bothered to do an in-depth look at any of these papers, they might have found some comparing Sweden’s stats, who let their people decide for themselves, to the countries around Sweden, who did the lock-downs and mask mandates. There are also studies comparing Sweden’s stats to comparable US states.
In the original piece I ended it talking about personal rights. It is your choice to hide under the stairs till the end of time. Walking around in public with a diaper on your face is also your choice. You can also exercise your First Amendment right and scream at a brick wall for being racist, ?-phobic, or just for being a brick wall. But your rights ends at the point of your nose. It is MY right just to ignore you. I have only room for one set of beliefs, fears, concerns in my life, and yours does not make the cut.
