Scene 1: Fall, 2020.

Us:  “Eventually, Covid is going to be endemic.  We’ll never eliminate it.  Masks are public health theater.  Shutdowns will make things worse. Vaccines are great news, but let’s be cautious about the claims.   We need to protect the vulnerable, and learn to live with it.  Eventually, between herd immunity and mutation,  this is going to be just like the flu. 

Them:  Hah!  Just like the flu, he says!  Hundreds of thousands have died!  Masks are effective! IF we could only lock down for six weeks, we’d destroy the virus, just like the Germans!  Mask up, Minnesota!

Scene 2: Today.

Them: The experts say Covid is going to be with us for good. Masks maybe useless. The economy needs to breathe! Vaccines are really more like flu shots than smallpox or polio shots. This is going to be like the flu, eventually.

Us: Ummm…

Them: Becasue shut up.

(And SCENE).

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

“SCIENCE! CNN finally admits cloth mask don’t stop Covid!”

The late stages of this pandemic have seen, and will see more, of what used to be as accepted as heresy by Big Karen quietly being proclaimed as gospel.

There’s been a steady stream: it’s not spread by surface contact; It’s spread by nontrivial contact in confined spaces; acquired immunity works.

And masks might be perfectly adequate personal infection control under the right circumstances, but they are a useless public health measure.

And I will be in particular gratified to see cloth masks recognized as better landfill than infection control.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Liberals claim Minnesota hospitals are being overwhelmed with Covid patients.  I have questions about that.

This Minnesota Department of Health chart says we only have about 1,000 total ICU beds in the state.  What happened to the 3,000 Governor Walz said we had available on 72 hours’ notice, when he extended the lockdown last Spring?  That same chart shows we almost always have 1,000 ICU beds in use and presently only 366 of the ICU beds are being used by Covid patients.  Who’s using all the other ICU beds and if we need more ICU beds, why don’t we ramp up more ICU beds to handle all the patients?

Curiously, look at the map of Minnesota located below the chart.  It shows “Staffed ICU beds.”  Why “Staffed” and not just “Beds?”  Because “ICU bed” isn’t a physical thing.  The bed itself has no therapeutic properties.  “ICU bed” is a billing code that entitles the hospital to higher reimbursement because the patient in an ICU bed is being attended by staff qualified to monitor the patient using special equipment such as a heart monitor or ventilator.  That’s why we can set up ICU beds in tents or on a ship – it’s not about the beds, it’s about the staff and ancillary equipment. 

The chart says “Staffed” because you can’t bill it as an “ICU Bed” if you don’t have enough staff.  And why aren’t there enough staff?  What happened to all the caregivers?  Burnout?  Generous unemployment benefits? 

Ask it quietly: vaccine mandates?  But don’t expect an answer.  Liberals don’t want to talk about that.

Joe Doakes

When you have to be a lawyer to decipher the law, that’s annoying.

When you have to be a lawyer to decipher the news, that’s a bureaucracy run amok.

Campaign Time: “Trump has no plan for Coronavirus!”

Not quite campaign time: “We have no plan for Coronavirus“.

Joe Doakes from Como park emails:

There is no proof that Ivermectin does anything for Covid. None at all. And when I say ‘none,’ I mean there is some, more than we’re prepared to admit, so we simply deny any proof exists.

That’s not proof, that’s just anecdotal gossipy rumor.

That’s not proof either. Everybody knows you can’t trust those dark-skinned savages to count correctly. It’s not as if they invented a new number or something.

Proof consists of a double-blind study performed by medical experts. Unless it’s the Pfizer vaccine being tested, then it would be unconscionable to deny half the patients the real medicine. In that case, give it to all and ignore the results.

This is SCIENCE. You must trust the SCIENCE. You’re not a SCIENCE denier, are you?

Joe Doakes

The biggest casualty of Covid – and of modern progressivism – is actual science.

Colorado’s Democrat governor has basically declared the pandemic – or at least, state government’s heavy-handed response to it – over.

Is it because they’re listening to the science, accepting that Covid is a highly mutable virus that will be with us pretty much forever (in forms that are more contagious and less lethal over time)?

Or is it because mid-terms are looking that bad in this very purple state?

The answer: either way, more of this.

Theory: As mutation-prone viruses evolve, natural selection favors strains that are more contagious, and less lethal to their hosts.

It’s basic natural selection. Dead hosts = viruses that reproduce less,.

Evidence?

While it’s early, there have so far been no confirmed deaths attributed to Omicron, according to those Anti-Vaxxer tools, the WHO and the Guardian.

Of course, we don’t get that until paragraph six – but we get it.

Fearless prediction: Omicron will be more contagious than Delta, and less lethal.

Pi, Rho and Sigma will be more contagious still – and the death rates per case will drop.

By the time we get near Psi and Omega, it’ll be nearly as contagious as the common flu, and about as deadly.

And Karen will need to find another purpose in life.

I don’t believe the doomsayers. In reply, they call me a science denier. Actually, I’m practicing a different kind of science – pattern recognition – which informs my analysis.

Most political hoaxes are based on the logical fallacy “Appeal to Authority.” The hoax follows a familiar pattern. Once you recognize the pattern, the hoax is obvious.

“There are only a few years left to save the planet from global climate change. No, you can’t see my data, you aren’t capable of understanding it. I am a climate scientist. You must trust me and do as I say.”

“The Second Amendment does not protect a personal right to bear arms. We know this because hardly anybody owned guns in colonial America. No, you can’t see my probate court data, you aren’t capable of understanding it. I am a historian. You must trust me and do as I say.”

“There is no evidence the election was stolen. No, you can’t see the ballot counting software, you’re not capable of understanding it. I am an election official. You must trust me and do as I say.”

It never works, of course. The truth leaks out eventually. Michael Mann’s climate change “hockey stick” graph has been thoroughly discredited. Michael Bellesiles’ probate court research was simply made up. Statistical analysis shows significant election fraud occurred. These were not cases of “science” being challenged or denied, they were cases of “science” being manipulated and distorted to promote a specific political agenda. Once it became clear the “science” didn’t say what the proponents claimed it said, the hoax was laid bare for all to see – all who were willing to see. Not everybody is willing to see.

And now this: “The Covid virus is deadly to everyone of all ages. Only the Pfizer vaccine can save you from it. No, you can’t see my data, you aren’t capable of understanding it. I am a medical doctor. You must trust me and do as I say.”

The funding and origin of the virus is shrouded in lies. Mortality statistics are inflated even as breakthrough cases are undercounted and vaccine adverse reactions are downplayed. Policies of lockdown, masks, social distance, mandatory vaccination are based on assertions, not evidence, backed by threat of prosecution and financial ruin, but only for those who lack political privilege.

The existence of the Covid virus is not a hoax. The panic response to the Covid virus is the hoax. This is not a medical problem. This is a political problem. We must begin treating it as one.

Joe Doakes

I hope the actual science finds a way to recover from this past two years.