The Great Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020--7 Critical Lessons

As of January 28, 2020 there were more than 4500 confirmed cases (98% in China) of a new virus that originated in the City of Wuhan, China and more than 100 deaths according to Lawrence O. Gostin, J.D., global health expert at Georgetown University (and now an advisor to Biden). On January 30, 2020, when the U.S. had not yet reported a single death, President Trump closed travel into the U.S. from China. Powerful Democrats like Biden, Pelosi, and DeBlasio predictably called him racist and xenophobic. Since Trump is not a doctor, lawyer, or experienced in public health, he created a team and listened to advice from well established experts, with credentials just as good as Dr. Gostin. For weeks he was on TV with his advisers, but because he was hopeful and positive, the Democrat run media stomped their feet and insisted on gloom and doom (which we still get with the nightly news).
In JAMA Forum article Nov. 10, 2020 (v. 324, no. 18) Dr. Gostin published "The Great Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020--7 Critical Lessons." He's a lawyer who advises organizations like UN, WHO, and now Biden, and holds multiple international academic professorial appointments. If I were to criticize his lessons, I would be waved away like a gnat.

With distain he refers to "populist political leadership" right after acknowledging the remarkable development of clinical trials for a vaccine within 6 months of the virus being sequenced. He credits personal hygiene, physical distancing and masks to control virus particles so tiny that so far, no mask has been able to stop. Still, lesson 2 is a nation needs great leadership and public trust to beat such a challenge. Imagine public trust when 95% of the media report negatively or lie about dear "leader." Gostin seems to mean, any leader other than Trump could raise the public trust. Like someone who says, "Hey man, I'm here for ya."

And no article could be complete these days without a mea culpa for health inequities. When this article was in a first draft in the fall he knew, we all knew, old age and comorbidities were factors in death rates. Now I think the figure is about 50% elderly and 80% overweight or obese. Blacks and Hispanics have a higher rate of overweight and obesity than whites, who are obese, but less so. Life style strongly influences health--smoking, drinking, drugs, poor nutrition/too many calories, lack of exercise and sexual promiscuity. Dr. Michael Rosen of the Cleveland Clinic says 75% of chronic illnesses can be improved or cured by changing our lifestyles. The medical profession has not yet found a way to control our lifestyles, despite all the articles, TV ads, billboards, organizations and lectures. It's easier to just blame societal inequities.

In lesson 6 he mentions the horrifying disaster of the uneven lockdowns through the sweeping powers of local and state governments. He warns of usurpation of power under the pretext of a health crisis which threatens to erode democratic freedoms. Yet his only solution seems to be "the rule of law," by which I think he means federal, or even global. If you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail, and his area of expertise is global law and institutions. So he really was unhappy when President Trump thought WHO mishandled or mislead other countries.

So his recommendations are choose "science," the rule of law, and equity. That would be transformational, he says.

The irony of Obama’s speech in the former East Germany—behind a very thick wall

From the east side of the Brandenburg Gate, President Obama gave an extraordinary speech today sketching out his plans for a new global order in which traditional national security interests will be replaced by a collective approach to everything from global warming to nuclear weapon capability.

The irony, of course, is that President Obama was free to stand on the formerly-Soviet side of the Brandenburg Gate and opine about global peace with justice because of the strength of the very nuclear arsenal he now proposes to dismantle. While the President claimed today that at the end of the Cold War, “Openness won. Tolerance won. And freedom won here in Berlin,” the reality is that the United States of America won. The Berlin wall did not come down simply because the German people dreamed of freedom. The Berlin came wall down because an American President distilled his policy towards the Soviet Union into a simple formula: “We win, they lose.”

If history be our guide, although the notion of “peace with justice” that the President mentioned ten times in his speech may sound appealing, we will be far better served by President Reagan’s policy of “peace through strength,” which cannot be achieved by appeasement or yet another round of nuclear cuts by the Obama administration.

Climate politics

My thoughts exactly. From a letter to the WSJ

"The politics of global warming is an updated version of colonialism by the developed nations, which want to impose regulations on the "primitives" through the threat of denial of finances. This is to be done while ignoring the more pressing needs of the subjugated people under the guise of saving the planet, and it is really no different from previous colonial powers that also ignored humanitarian needs with the theological rubric of saving souls. Now it will be the United Nations that is the colonial monarch that dictates to the developed nations and takes ransom via global taxation.

Zev Joseph

Charleston, W.V."

Mr. President, there is no consensus

Why does he keep smacking us with the global warming myth? Calling us names like naysayers and cynics. Defeatists. Living in the past. Pretending that most people believe it? Any thinking person can see where we're going with the cap and trade bills and agreements--not to protecting future generations, not to lower energy costs, not to saving glaciers and polar bears. Not only do we know the temperature hasn't risen in a decade, but we're on to his one world, global control scheme. It's just an opinion but considering what a bad country he believes he's heading, I think our president, hopes soon to be ruler of the world. (Look out Norway, he's got his eye on you!)

“There are those who will suggest that moving toward clean energy will destroy our economy — when it’s the system we currently have that endangers our prosperity and prevents us from creating millions of new jobs. There are going to be those who cynically claim — make cynical claims that contradict the overwhelming scientific evidence when it comes to climate change, claims whose only purpose is to defeat or delay the change that we know is necessary.” Obama's remarks at MIT, Friday

If anyone bought into this, it would be the building trades, architects in particular. Their livelihood depends on it--they're wetting themselves over the thought of tearing down the clunkers and getting government money to build green. And yet the cover story of Architect says 46% believe in climate change, 34% believe it isn't caused by humans, 13% believe global warming is a myth perpetuated by the media, and 7% aren't sure that building green will help when China and India are expanding so rapidly. So let's see, that's 46% for, and 54% who either don't believe it's man made, or it's a myth, or that there aren't political solutions. Does that sound like a consensus to you?

And how about Pew Research Center? According to the New York Times

The decline in the belief in solid evidence of global warming has come across the political spectrum, but has been particularly pronounced among independents. Just 53% of independents now see solid evidence of global warming, compared with 75% who did so in April 2008. Republicans, who already were highly skeptical of the evidence of global warming, have become even more so: just 35% of Republicans now see solid evidence of rising global temperatures, down from 49% in 2008 and 62% in 2007. Fewer Democrats also express this view – 75% today compared with 83% last year.

Obama and Waxman are losing ground on this, even among their own people. No wonder he wants to rush it through. The biggest drop of support is in the Mountain States. Hmmm. Do you suppose they are figuring out what cap and trade will do to their economy?

What's the hurry, Mr. President? "Never waste a [man made, trumped up, media engorged, one-world government] crisis."

Obama just wants the world

"If there were ever a question about Barack Obama’s dedication to the concept of global governance, it has now been answered fully. His track record to date points toward his commitment to global governance; his speech to the United Nations removes all doubt." Canada Free Press To be fair, a world government that was NOT representative of any peoples or voters, but propped up by rules and regulations thought up by government officials, was not Obama's idea--it was our own President Woodrow Wilson and then embraced and tweaked by FDR.