Blindsight is 2020

I'm reading "Blindsight is 2020; Reflections on Covid policies from dissident scientists, philosophers, artists, and more" by Gabrielle Bauer, Brownstone Institute, 2022. It begins with two stories we've lived through the last almost four years. And I'm guessing it's not over.

 
Story one is the one all the media agencies, tech and pharma giants, politicians, local, state, and federal governments insisted we believe. And I did, and maybe you did, for about the first month after which not much made sense if you knew anything about economics or social sciences. It had the momentum of a patriotic war--if you didn't go along or found it fantastical, you were the enemy of the people. You weren't saving lard or scraps of aluminum to help our boys in Europe and the Far East.  And miraculously, it turned out to be just the crisis that the Democrat Party dreams about to turn to their favor. Demonize the incumbent and change the rules for voting,

Story two is the one that moved underground--it is told in this book by 46 epidemiologists, public health experts, doctors, psychologists, cognitive scientists, historians, novelists, mathematicians, lawyers, comedians, and musicians. They all took issue with the way the people in Story one were trying to stamp out a virus using unproven and dangerous methods, including lockdowns, experimental vaccines, masking and destruction of our basic liberties.

A lot of Democrats and liberals have been "red pilled" by this health crisis and trauma, even though they still don't like President Trump (who also got suckered by some of the "believe the science" deep state). I hope there are some answers in this book. I'm still in chapter one.

Blindsight Is 2020: Reflections on Covid Policies from Dissident Scientists, Philosophers, Artists, and More: The Independent Review: The Independent Institute

Blindsight is 2020: Perspectives on COVID Policies from Dissident Scientists, Philosophers, Artists, and More (freethepeople.org)

https://youtu.be/whIn3vCpspI?si=bIQ-pcu_JhMJlmhb

More on Masking

Cochrane, the gold standard, has twice (2020 and 2023) shown that masks are not effective in stopping the transmission of the virus SARS-CoV-2. Progressives/socialists/Democrats still can't let go. So, what's up with that? They want to believe they can control the virus (although they've done a very poor job) and thus control people. These people are obsessed.

 
"In his recent City Journal piece on the 2023 Cochrane review, John Tierney asks, “Can anything persuade the maskaholics in the public-health establishment and the public to give up their obsession?” The answer, plainly, is no. Their faith transcends reason." https://www.city-journal.org/the-mask-of-ignorance?

Opinion | The Mask Mandates Did Nothing. Will Any Lessons Be Learned? - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Here is the editor of Cochrane back peddling so she won't have her career cancelled. Cochrane Says Review Does Not Show That ‘Face Masks Don’t Work’ Against Covid-19 (forbes.com)

In 2020 I searched every 2 weeks or so, and never found a single study that supported the idea that mask could prevent the spread of Covid.  So did Cochrane, but the 2023 article is an update. Do Masks Work? What the Cochrane Review Can and Can’t Tell Us (health.com)

Masks Cochrane review: There’s still not strong evidence for masks’ effectiveness. (slate.com)

I know only two people personally who died of Covid. I'd say 99.99% of the ones who have had Covid I even know remotely or only by name, have survived, and most of those were vaxxed and boosted, but still got the disease. Of the two I did know one was 84 and one was 82. That's the highest risk factor--age.  I don't know if they had other conditions that might have contributed to respiratory problems.  One was fully vaxxed and boosted and very careful about exposure, usually masked.  The other was not vaxxed or boosted, but was careful in the common-sense ways--like crowds, hand washing, etc. I think the one thing they had in common was their medical care--both treated at small community hospitals. The websites and media that won't discuss or consider the failure of masks are also predominantly left of center and will interpret the article and research in that light.  No, with this disease, you can't follow the science, because in the last decade, science has been politicized. This disease has put a lot of power into the hands of a few, and huge fortunes have been made both in government and private industry.   It may take years to straighten it all out, but if these mandates aren't removed our freedoms will always be threatened,

Mask compliance and outcomes

"A new peer-reviewed study entitled: "Correlation Between Mask Compliance and COVID-19 Outcomes in Europe" has demonstrated that use of face masks, even widespread, did not correlate with better outcomes during the COVID epidemic, based on data from 35 European countries with populations of over one million people each, encompassing a total of 602 million people."

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/326734

Think of the people who were terrorized, insulted and cancelled because they spoke out against masks, mandates, and monsters under the bed.

The mask mandates--they didn't work

The graph tracks the results of a natural experiment that occurred nationwide during the pandemic. Eleven states never mandated masks, while the other 39 states enforced mandates. The mandates typically began early in the pandemic in 2020 and remained until at least the summer of 2021, with some extending into 2022. The black line on the graph shows the weekly rate of Covid cases in all the states with mask mandates that week, while the orange line shows the rate in all the states without mandates. As you can see from the lines’ similar trajectories, the mask mandates hardly controlled the virus. . . If you add up all the numbers on those two lines, you find that the mask mandates made zero difference. The cumulative rate of infection over the course of the pandemic was about 24 percent in the mandate states as well as in the non-mandate states. Their cumulative rates of Covid mortality were virtually identical, too (in fact, there were slightly more deaths per capita in the states with mask mandates).

  

But now we have people addicted to and dependent on masks.  Sigh.

https://www.city-journal.org/the-failed-covid-policy-of-mask-mandates

Mask mandates--do not reduce deaths

In a government study mask mandates did not reduce deaths, patients hospitalized in either intensive care or regular hospital beds or ventilator use nor do mandates reduce number of Covid-19 positive patients.
The study was conducted by scientists from the US Army Institute of Surgical Research and the Brooke Army Medical Center, JBSA Fort Sam Houston, Texas, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, the Madigan Army Medical Center, Joint Base Lewis McChord, Washington, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colorado, and the 121st Field Hospital, Camp Humphreys, Republic of Korea.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8395971/

Trust the science. All you need to do is figure out which science pushed by which politician and lobbyist.