Let’s talk more about the wearing of masks and the lockdowns imposed upon us in a supposed attempt to stop the spread of COVID-19. First of all, neither the mask mandates nor the lockdowns are observed by our Democrat “betters.” Dr. Anthony Fauci was video-tapped, unmasked, chatting with friends at a ball game. Governor Newsom of California dined indoors in a French restaurant with a group of colleagues (including two medical professionals) celebrating the birthday of a well-known lobbyist in contradiction to his own lockdown rules. Illinois Governor Pritzker’s family vacationed in Florida during the lockdown and later traveled back and forth from their horse farm in Wisconsin. The Canadian Minister of Health Patty Hajdu was spotted at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, maskless and smiling. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham was caught purchasing jewelry at a store after warning New Mexico residents only to shop at stores for groceries or other vital items. Denver’s mayor flew to Mississippi to spend Thanksgiving with his family after urging others to stay home. A Pennsylvania mayor banned indoor dining then went to Maryland to eat in a restaurant there. Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago had her hair done in a salon when she had ordered beauty salons closed. Governor Cuomo of New York planned to host his 89 year-old mother and two of his children at his home for Thanksgiving while he cautioned other New Yorkers to stay at home during the holiday, but changed his plans after widespread outrage. Austin mayor Steve Adler told his city residents to stay home . . . from a beach in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico only a day after hosting a wedding for his daughter at a prominent Austin hotel. Even Dr. Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator had warned that anyone traveling over Thanksgiving should assume they had caught the virus and self-quarantine. Then she joined three generations of her family from two different households and flew to a vacation home in Delaware for the holiday.
Do we begrudge a mother and grandmother wanting to celebrate Thanksgiving with her family, a father wanting a beautiful wedding for his daughter, or a son wishing to spend Thanksgiving with his 89-year-old mother? Of course not, except when they do these things while telling us that we can’t, and after they have caused millions of people to be without work because of businesses that they ordered to be closed. They truly are Neros, fiddling while their economies burn! Texas Tech professor Gilbert Berdine concludes “After taking the unprecedented economic depression into account, history will likely judge these lockdowns to be the greatest policy error of this generation” (qtd. by David Solway).
But why would these people endanger themselves in such a way? Perhaps because they know what the media has been loath to tell us: According to Klaus Schwab, the Director of the World Economic Forum, COVID is “one of the least deadly pandemics the world has experienced in the last 2000 years.” IT professional Alexander Scipio writes that the devastation we are experiencing is not caused by this virus “with a survival rate of well over 99%,” but by a political and financial class of international oligarchs seeking absolute power over their individual countries. These oligarchs include the Newsoms, the Cuomos, the Adlers, the Lightfoots, the Grishams, and all the others like them. Why are no Republicans among this group? Because by and large, Republican leaders have been far more lenient in their rules than the draconian Democrats. In fact, South Dakota never locked down at all, and despite a winter surge in cases, Florida’s Governor DeSantis refuses to issue mask mandates, close schools, or lockdown businesses. Republicans tend to follow the science, which, as I showed in my last blog on mask mandates, demonstrates that neither masks nor lockdowns stop the spread of the virus. They simply destroy the economy and through isolation and depression, have led to far more drug use, physical abuse, suicides and other deaths than the disease they are purporting to prevent.
Articles and studies attesting to my claims can be found by simply searching internet sources such as the Great Barrington Declaration, the Truth Over Fear Summit, Medical News Today, the Journal of the American Medical Association, The Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, The American Institute for Economic Research, and yes, even The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whose own site contains many articles proving the wrong-mindedness of the CDC’s current guidelines.
Columnist Scott Moreland decided to take a look at figures in his own state of Tennessee. He looked only at 17 contiguous counties in eastern Tennessee, during the time period from October 1 to December 22. Nine of the counties had no mask mandate while the other 8 did. What he found was that the counties with mask mandates saw 4.7% of their population infected during that time while the counties without mask mandates saw only 4.6% of their population infected. The use of masks showed a slight increase in infection, but generally the infection rate was pretty similar. Two counties with nearly identical populations caught his attention. Hawkins County had had a mask mandate in place but had let it expire at the end of September, thus placing it in his study as a no mask county. Carter County, on the other hand, maintained a mask mandate throughout the time period. In Hawkins County only 4.3% of the unmasked population was infected from October to December 22, while the masked population of Carter County had an infection rate of 5.1% of their population. Again, the use of masks, as shown in the many studies I quoted in “To Mask or Not To Mask,” either raises the risk of infection or shows no difference from the rate of infection in unmasked areas!
In all, the American Institute for Economic Research concludes that “everything we’ve done over the months — the mask wearing, the grasshopper dance not to be next to people, the canceling of everything, the wild paranoia and premodern confusions— has been a calamitous and destructive waste of time, energy, and money” (qtd. by David Solway). But it has been far more than that. A new study found that the anxiety from the lockdowns and the total destruction of normal life might cost far more in terms of years of life lost than the lockdowns might have saved. James Agresti and Andrew Glen write in their study, “The anxiety from reactions to Covid-19— such as business shutdowns, stay-at-home orders, media exaggerations, and legitimate concerns about the virus—will extinguish at least seven times more years of life than can possibly be saved by the lockdown” (Just Facts).
In their study, which was reviewed by psychiatrist and professor Joseph P. Damore Jr., MD, they looked at many studies of the stress of the lockdowns and the health damage caused by that stress world-wide., comparing them to studies of Scandinavian countries such as Sweden who had a different approach to combatting the virus. They also looked at studies done in the U.S. The American Psychiatric Association discovered that 36% of adults felt the anxiety caused by the lockdowns had had a serious impact on their mental health. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey in late March reported 19% of people who had suffered major psychological harm from reactions to the coronavirus and lockdowns. Just Facts figured in the 2.2% margin of error in the Kaiser survey and concluded that 16.8% of American adults, or 42,873,663 individuals, have suffered major mental harm.
The media hype about the danger of dying from the virus (despite the over 99% survival rate), the depression caused by isolation and by the death of loved ones, the economic damage to individuals—these have all contributed to the massive anxiety that Americans feel. The researchers then looked at a number of studies which all showed that there is a direct correlation between mental disorders including depression and anxiety and an increased risk of death. In 2015, in a meta-data analysis, the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry concluded that anxiety increases the risk of death by 43% and depression increased the risk of death by 71%! In 2016, the journal Social Science & Medicine found that the unemployed have a 63% higher risk of death than those who are employed.
Years of life were looked at by Just Facts instead of actual deaths, since the CDC has argued that while the death of a child is not a greater tragedy that the death of an adult, a 10-year-old who dies loses a potential of 70-80 years of life compared to a 60-year-old adult who would only lose 20-30 potential years of life. This, they suggest, gives a better view of what is actually lost in a death. Just Facts looked at the years of live lost in several studies dealing with anxiety and chose to use the lowest estimate, that of a 2012 analysis in the British Medical Journal that found that anxiety cost about 1.3 years of life per person. Applying this to the 16.8% of Americans suffering major anxiety from the lockdowns, this means a loss of 55.7 million years of life for Americans.
Looking at the number of COVID deaths in Scandinavian countries and the worst case projection for COVID deaths in the U.S. and the estimation that COVID robs an individual of an average of 12 years of life, Just Facts worked out that COVID-19 will cost about 7.4 million years of life, far less that the 55.7 million years of life projected to be lost due to anxiety and depression.
This was all a bit complicated since we are dealing with “years of life” rather than actual deaths, but here is some actual data.
“In March-July of 2020 compared to the same period for 2019 and 2018, there was a sharp increase in calls activated by drug overdoses and deaths, mental and behavioral issues, and the need for naloxone, and in refusals to go to the hospitals by overdose victims. While the NEMSIS (National EMS Information System) data only covers a fraction of actual deaths, it is collected in real time, allowing us to follow changing trends. EMS calls for opioid-related activities, for example, increased from roughly 2,000 per week in February and March 2019 to almost 5,000 per week in the same time period for 2020. Calls for mental and behavioral problems increased from just under 35,000 per week in the same time period for 2019 to almost 45,000 per week in 2020” (Brookings Institute).
The lockdowns, the isolation, the mask mandates—these must come to an end. Two vaccines are now available, although each state determines who will get them and when. Added to the herd immunity being created by those who have survived COVID-19, these should eventually let us return to normal. The problem, however, is that with Democrats in power, mask mandates and social distancing may be with us as long as they are. They are loath to relinquish their power over us, and until we lose our fear and fight back, we will become more and more like the citizens of a socialistic society, told what to do and when to do it. Let’s hope that there remains within many of us the same yearning for freedom that rebelled against a king during the Revolutionary War and defeated Santa Ana in the Texas war for independence. Be smart, but be informed. Masks don’t protect you from the virus. Lockdowns are equally ineffective. Protect the vulnerable, but don’t live your life in fear!
Works Cited
Graham, Carol. “The Human Costs of the Pandemic: Is It Time to Prioritize Well-being?” Brookings Institute, 17 Nov. 2020, https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-human-costs-of-the-pandemic-is-it-time-to-prioritize-well-being/.
Morefield, Scott. “This Tennessee Data for Masked vs. Unmasked Counties Would Be on Every Front Page, if Results Were Different” Townhall.com.
O’Neil, Peter. “Coronavirus Anxiety Costs More Lives Than the Lockdowns Save From Covid-19, Study Finds.” PJMedia. 6 May 2020.
Solway, David. “Why Do We Continue to Follow Nonsensical COVID Rules?” PJMedia. 23 Dec. 2020.