We have, as a country, been under virtual house arrest for weeks because of the COVID-19 virus. It originated in the Wuhan Province of China, possibly in a Wet Market where exotic animals are slaughtered upon demand under unsanitary conditions, or, as more and more intelligence reports suggest, from a lab in Wuhan that was working with coronaviruses and allowed a worker to become infected and pass the virus on to others. Whichever the immediate origin, it became apparent it had begun in China, but not until sometime later since the Communist Chinese government silenced those who were reporting the new virus, and ordered all lab work on the virus to be destroyed.
At first, no one in the U.S. realized how easily spread the virus would be, and travelers to China were only cautioned that it existed. Then the first case appeared in Washington state and was quickly spread to a nursing home there. Ten days after the first reported case on U.S. soil, President Trump banned all flights from China. Americans returning from there and other Asian countries were put into quarantine for two weeks. Suddenly Italy, with an aging population, became a hotbed of the virus and it spread quickly into the rest of Europe because of the European Union’s open borders. President Trump banned flights from Europe, as well, but it was too late. Infected people had already landed at JFK and Newark airports and passed the virus to those they encountered on the planes, in the airports, and in the subways and buses of New York City.
As more and more people became ill, the NYC health commissioner informed Mayor de Blasio that they were in a health crisis and suggested protocols for keeping people apart to slow the spread of the disease. But Mayor de Blasio refused, instead, urging New Yorkers to continue riding the crowded buses and subways, eat in restaurants, go to concerts, bars, and nightclubs. And they did. And they became ill. And some of them, who had been only visiting New York City, went home to Florida, Arizona, Oklahoma, and other states, carrying the COVID-19 virus with them. Finally, Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo acted, but because they had sold needed items like ventilators and N95 masks, they had to ask the President to supply those for them, which he quickly did.
Soon the entire country, with the exception of a few states like South Dakota, were closed for business. Congress passed stimulus package after stimulus package to help keep Americans afloat, but millions have yet to get their stimulus checks and countless small businesses have yet to be able to get small business loans. Red states, those governed by Republicans, have begun to open up businesses, but Democrat-controlled blue states continue to suffer under draconian edicts from their governors. State after state has seen governors and even city mayors casually deny citizens their constitutional rights in order to “save the lives” of others in the community. Some states closed gun stores, preventing citizens from protecting themselves, even though they had released inmates into the communities so that they wouldn’t get the virus in prison or jail. Police arrested a man for going for a drive alone in his car in one state. A surfer was fined though he was the only one in the ocean or on the beach. Yet, despite “lockdowns” or “stay at home” orders in their states, Mayor de Blasio and his wife went out for a stroll in the empty park and the mayor was caught going to the gym “to remain fit enough to carry out his duties as mayor,” he explained. In Illinois, billionaire governor J.B. Pritzker’s family flew to their estate in Florida, something he pretty much refused to discuss when asked about it by a reporter.
Some are frightened by the high death tolls reported daily on the news media, but some understand that all of those deaths are probably not actually COVID-19 deaths. The CDC told doctors to put that down as the cause of death if there was a possibility that the patient had the virus. Anyone dying from something else who also had the virus at the time was also counted. Thus, the numbers are greatly inflated and no one particularly cares. In New York, where funeral directors claim every body they see now says “COVID-19” as cause of death, a well-connected relative of one “COVID-19 victim” demanded and got an autopsy. No, the diseased did not have and had not died of COVID-19. But most bodies are not tested or autopsied. The label is simply attached and the COVID-19 fatality number inflated. And we out here in Edgar County, Illinois, which has yet to have a single confirmed case, have people on the verge of losing their businesses or starving because of the lockdown.
And now, most Americans have had enough. State after state has seen demonstrations. None have been violent, but a recent demonstration in Michigan where Governor Whitmer has been one of the worst dictators, consisted of a group of armed protestors. No one drew a gun. No shots were fired. But they made it plain that they were armed and angry. A hairdresser in Texas was arrested last week for opening her salon. In court, the judge offered to just fine her instead of giving her jail time if she would only apologize to the court. Her answer was that she could not apologize for trying to feed her children. She was sent to jail for a week, but quickly released by the Texas Supreme Court after national outrage and the intervention of the Texas Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, and the Attorney General. The Lieutenant Governor even offered to pay her fine and serve her jail sentence for her. A go-fund-me page was started which garnered thousands of dollars, including the $7000 for her fine from the Lieutenant Governor and another contribution of over $4000.
In Paris, a local hairdresser just announced she would reopen with only one customer in the business at a time and other stringent measures in place to keep clients safe. Despite Governor Pritzker’s order that we all wear masks in public, half the people in Walmart are not wearing them, nor are those walking the park, jogging on the sidewalks, or the groups of kids on bikes. As for all of the social distancing and the wearing of masks, keeping 6 feet apart will not help if someone sneezes or coughs. The droplets from either of those can travel as far as 27 feet and remain suspended in the air for up to 10 minutes according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Nor is there any proof that wearing a mask will prevent a healthy person from contracting a viral infection. The reason the CDC has suggested masks is so that an asymptomatic person with COVID-19 would not pass the disease on to others.
It is time, now, for the Democrat governors to give it up. Businesses must open for a number of reasons.
- Not opening the economy may well cause more deaths than the COVID virus: The global economic crisis of 2008 was linked to over 260,000 additional cancer deaths, according to a study that appeared in The Lancet 25 May, 2016. Unemployment, reduced public-sector health spending, and stress were associated with the increased cancer mortality. The U.S. sustained 4,750 more suicides following the 2008 economic crash, mostly among men who had lost jobs and homes. Some suicides have already occurred because of business closings, and to leave them closed will undoubtedly lead to even more. In addition, depression and feelings of anxiety have increased which could lead to an increase in drug and alcohol addiction as people search for a way to escape their worries.
- Wendy’s, for example, is closing some restaurants because there is currently a meat shortage. More and more drive in restaurants will face the same and meat counters in grocery stores will become bare (some already are). Fear of the virus is closing some meat processing plants and farmers who cannot afford to continue feeding the animals they had intended to sell are having to slaughter them. Food that could be eaten is thus being wasted and from farmers to consumers everyone is feeling the pain.
- Although controversial, there are many doctors who hold with the “herd” theory. That being that if we open back up, many of us may contract the virus, but as a very light case or even an asymptomatic one. We will thus gradually build a society with antibodies to fight off the virus should a second wave appear next winter. As of May 4, the United States ranked 7th among the countries with the most COVID-19 deaths with 27 per 100,000 inhabitants. However, we must remember again that the numbers in the U.S. are inflated, and that about half of those deaths occurred in New York. It might also be mentioned that a high percentage of those who have died were patients in nursing homes, which makes it criminally insane for Governor Cuomo of New York to force nursing homes to take in COVID-19 patients as he has done. The percentages vary from state to state, of course, but as of 4 days ago, about 60% of Connecticut’s COVID-19 deaths have been nursing home patients — similar numbers to Massachusetts and New Jersey. In Rhode Island the death rate is nearly 70%. We can protect the most vulnerable because we know who they are. And we can still go back to work and school.
- Business owners who can no longer pay their mortgage or feed their families are going to defy state restrictions at a growing rate. While some police, like those who took down license plate numbers at a drive-in Easter service in Kentucky, will go after those who break the edicts, many police chiefs and sheriffs have already said that they will not arrest citizens for trying to feed their families. Governors will find themselves hard pressed to force their rebellious citizens into continuing the lockdowns, especially as more and more states begin to open up.
- Despite the dismissal of the news media, there are some treatments for the COVID-19 virus which are having great success. The combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin and zinc has cured thousands of COVID patients world-wide, despite the much touted but poorly run “study” by the VA. Another drug for treating COVID-19, remdesivir, is currently in a clinical trial. And researchers at Cedars-Sinai Hospital have extensively tested using UV-A rays inside the body to successfully kill both bacteria and viruses including the COVID-19 virus, without damaging healthy cells.
We Americans have never been afraid to take risks. And certainly, there is a risk to opening the economy again. Some people will contract the virus and some may die. But the risk of not opening it is to plunge millions of Americans into poverty and devastate the economy for years to come. I speak as one who is among the vulnerable age group and my husband is still recuperating from a critical illness in January. We will try to be as safe as we can be, but the economy must open and open soon.