Mask research by the CDC--inaccurate

"The CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which is widely cited but not externally peer-reviewed, serially exaggerated the evidence for mask-wearing among 77 such outside studies it published, according to an independent review by epidemiologists at the University of California San Francisco, the system's health sciences campus.

Just 14% of MMWR studies reached statistical significance and 30% actually studied mask effectiveness. Yet three-quarters concluded that masks were effective, authors Tracy Beth Hoeg, Alyson Haslam and Vinay Prasad wrote in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Medicine, the official journal of a consortium of five associations in academic internal medicine.

 
None of the 77 was randomized, the strongest form of evidence, and just one study each "used causal language appropriately" ("particle filtration on mannequins") or "cited conflicting evidence" (mostly about influenza), they wrote. "The level of evidence generated was low and the conclusions were most often unsupported by the data." "

This is not called science it's called an agenda.

CDC repeatedly misrepresents mask research, mask mandates worsen depression: studies | Just The News

How and why we lost confidence in the public health system

"In the end, it took some grandstanding Republicans in Congress to break the logjam of information. In July 2023, the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released a trove of emails, text messages, and other interactions between Fauci, Collins, other health officials, and leading virus experts. Other messages were leaked to independent reporters, including Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, and Michael Shellenberger. These communications reveal a stunning contrast between those experts’ confident public statements and the doubts and fears they expressed privately.

In dozens of interviews, dating to the start of the pandemic, Fauci, Collins, and others expressed bland assurances that the new virus must have spilled into the human population from a wild animal. The idea that the Wuhan Institute might have been involved was dismissed as “just a conspiracy theory,” in Fauci’s words. But the recently disclosed communications reveal that behind the scenes, many of the world’s top virologists worried that the SARS-CoV-2 virus had leaked from the Wuhan lab. Worse, some feared that its terrifying transmissibility might be due to genetic manipulation."

The Covid Cover-up | City Journal (city-journal.org)

Do masks stop the spread of viruses?

I don't see a lot of masks these days--occasionally at the grocery store, and even a woman driving alone on a nice day wearing a mask this week. This evening we went to a visitation, and one woman was wearing a mask. Perhaps she had a cold and didn't want to expose anyone, but masks don't stop the spread, according to all the studies done. Perhaps the best study hasn't yet been designed, but it's zero, zilch, nada. Of course, I said that in 2020, but I was shut down or blocked. https://www.city-journal.org/article/approximately-zero Don't expect die/dei hard government supporters to change--I looked at some of their explanations for this study, and they go by feels rather than facts. We've already given them so much power, I doubt they will give it back.

Many begin to doubt what we were told about "science"

"Little tears are forming in the fabric of belief. Many who believed that taking their shots was the only right thing to do, are noticing inconsistencies in the official story. The failure to prevent disease. The rashes and the fatigue. The cognitive deficits. The heart damage and the cancers. The sudden deaths among the young and apparently healthy. The adverse events.

These things can nag at one’s consciousness.

Most who were compliant, however, still believe on balance that it was the right choice, even if it came with risks that we were not told about.

“Because I had my shots, when I did get Covid, I was barely sick for a day or two.”

“Because” has no place in that sentence. It assumes a causality for which there is no evidence."

Read more here: https://naturalselections.substack.com/p/its-not-too-late?

Heather Heying is an evolutionary biologist and I listen to her podcast with her husband Bret Weinstein. They are life long Democrats and university faculty, now on the outside for questioning the vaccine, the blatant evil treatment of scientists who disagreed with Fauci and CDC. They are openly opposed to the current transgender hysteria of Democrats.

Where we are today

The Covid studies showed in the early months of 2020 that those over 70, obese, or with other conditions were at risk, and younger people weren't. Not enough money in that, so after a vaccine originally limited to the vulnerable in early 2021, the rest of the country was railroaded into lockdowns and vaccines. Except the low-income workers. (Even though most poor people in USA are white, we're already getting the "systemic racism" of Covid lockdown studies). They got the privilege of being the cashiers and delivery people and the restaurant employees who got to feed and clothe the wealthier classes who stayed home and worked at their computers. Even the churches bowed to the pressure of being less essential than Kroger cashiers. Masks and lockdowns have since been proven ineffective in stopping the spread. Voting rules were set aside without the people's approval further creating divisions among citizens, friends and families. Vaccines have been only partially protective--a few months. Yet many of the mandates still are in effect; the vaccines still have emergency use approval supposedly because nothing else is available (which is forbidden to even mention). Biden slapped mandates on schools, corporations and government agencies with the help of Big Pharma and Big Tech after initially creating doubt in the vaccine because Warp Speed was a Trump policy, destroying careers and the economy as he moved on to the biggest drug of all--naked, raw power. FDR even with the Great Depression and WWII didn't have the power Biden does. To keep the power, the federal government then subcontracted censorship to "non-profit" misinformation agencies, so now we are swimming in lies and censorship caused by the very people who should be protecting us.

Dr. Robert Califf, FDA and misinformation

"I strongly believe that misinformation is a leading cause of preventable death in America now." Robert Califf, FDA

I believe that too, but I believe it is the result of government misinformation and not the victims' fault.

I strongly believe that misinformation, fear, and confusing messaging begins and ends with the government. Masks don't help; masks do help; masks are mandatory; or maybe not, just kidding. Not enough ventilators; President Trump's fault; ventilators found; ventilators turned out by millions; not enough people need ventilators; President Trump's fault. The virus can live 3 days on surface; wrong, lives 15 days; wrong again, I'll get back to you on that. Pets can't get covid 19; pets can get covid 19. We need temporary hospitals and hospital ships; tent hospitals standing empty; President Trump's fault--he should have known better. Remember Biden and Harris told Americans in 2020 not to trust the vaccine because Trump had advocated for it and it was his "win". 

The lockdown of people who weren't in danger (power hungry bureaucrats at the local level), and totalitarian ideology are the primary reason for the deaths; and the vaccination itself has caused great harm to younger people. Airline pilots have been fired, athletes are refusing it, doctors aren't allowed to prescribe safe and trusted medications, and just about everyone I know who's had Covid has also had the shot and boosters. Remember what we were told in Jan-Feb 2021? Protection and efficacy--off the charts! Then we discovered protection dissipated after a few months, but even that truth was squelched and ridiculed as a conspiracy theory, then later revised to "it will be less severe but can't protect us from infection.

I said in summer 2020 (see links below) there was no peer reviewed literature on masks offering either protection for the user or the exposed, and I kept checking for months. Zip, nada, zero. Yet children have probably lost 2 years of education, especially low income who didn't have parents to fill in the gaps. Churches were closed as being "non-essential." Now Cochrane Reviews has just come out with the same information as a retired medical librarian found 2.5 years ago. No evidence that masks or distancing stopped the spread. Handwashing possibly, but even that's inconclusive.

CDC, FDA and especially Fauci became the new Lysenkoism (caused millions of deaths in the USSR in early 20th century), where only they knew the science and not the many researchers/scientists who disagreed. One had to believe the science of the day, and if not obeyed tenured, published professors were under threat of having their careers destroyed by Big Tech fact-checkers.

By far the majority of deaths from Covid were the elderly, pre-existing conditions and obesity, yet I never saw jazzy ads about weight loss from athletes and movie stars, only the necessity of getting the shot. Instead, sick people (non-covid) couldn't get in to see their doctors. I don't know Califf or his record for research or teaching, but I do know of the work and talent of many of those he's calling snake oil salesmen. Like Bret Weinstein, certainly no Trump supporter and not a Republican or Conservative by any stretch, yet the leftist media refer to him as "right wing." This is government CYA as the non-Covid deaths continue to increase. It makes no difference if one is a tenured faculty in biology, a billionaire who was on board at the beginning, or a researcher who helped develop the mRNA technology, they will be silenced by smears, threats to their income and reputation, or firing.

The strategy that the government is using is to fund their own "misinformation" campaigns with our tax dollars to silence any news agency, blog, website or platform that disagrees with the party line, and that is not only Covid, but the GreenNew Deal, CRT, the border, or billions for Ukraine. If they are successful in silencing all who disagree with them on Covid, they will silence/censor on everything else, too.
1) Hamilton 68 Saga Illustrates Scope Of America’s Institutional Rot (thefederalist.com)

2) State Department Funded Foreign Think Tank Working To Censor Americans | The Daily Caller

3) Disinformation Inc: Meet the groups hauling in cash to secretly blacklist conservative news (washingtonexaminer.com)

4) Matt Taibbi: "Twitter Files" Reveal The Structure Of The Relationship Between Social Media Companies And FBI Requests For Censorship | Video | RealClearPolitics


Collecting My Thoughts: Finding research on medical masks for the public

Collecting My Thoughts: To mask or not to mask

Collecting My Thoughts: The battle of the masks.

Collecting My Thoughts: Evidence for cloth masks? Not much

Collecting My Thoughts: No published trial on the effects of masks in Covid-19 transmission

Cochrane Reviews--still no evidence for masks stopping the spread

In the first year of the pandemic Cochrane Library which identifies, appraises and synthesizes all the empirical evidence that meets pre-specified eligibility criteria, looked at all the then known evidence for stopping the spread of Covid.

"Cochrane has responded to the crisis by gathering its community, working closely with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other stakeholders, in developing and publishing several systematic reviews on the effectiveness of behavioural public health measures for reducing COVID‐19 infection.[1] These measures include masks, handwashing, physical distancing, quarantine, contact tracing, screening, and travel restrictions. Because COVID‐19 is still so new, however, these reviews have largely summarized effects on transmission of other viruses in non‐pandemic conditions. Policy makers must act on incomplete evidence in responding to COVID‐19 | Cochrane Library (November 20, 2020)

The results were inconclusive for masks, handwashing, physical distancing, quarantine, contact tracing, screening, and travel restrictions. That didn't stop policy makers from what they do best--making policy. OK, that's what Cochrane found 2.5 years ago, but the policy makers went right ahead, especially the teachers unions which appeared to be advising the CDC.

Now, Cochrance has again published its results of more current studies (although in my opinion there are too few since some researchers were "cancelled" or were prevented from studying or publishing their results if it went against policies already put in place using no evidence). Do physical measures such as hand-washing or wearing masks stop or slow down the spread of respiratory viruses? | Cochrane (January 30, 2023)

"We are uncertain whether wearing masks or N95/P2 respirators helps to slow the spread of respiratory viruses based on the studies we assessed. Hand hygiene programmes may help to slow the spread of respiratory viruses."

I recall writing about the mask literature in summer of 2020 at my blog and Facebook. I checked every few weeks in the medical databases for evidence that masking could stop the spread of Covid-19. I never found it, and the virus continued to spread despite masks, distancing, isolation, and vaccine/boosters. I got a lot of push back from people who knew nothing except what they'd heard from the media.

I continue to believe that masks and hand washing can reduce the spread of colds and flu by blocking the air borne molecules which transport the virus, but Covid, no. Too small to block.

Environmental sustainability at Lakeside

According to one of our speakers this week at Lakeside, "Nearly half of the 300 million tons of plastics produced each year are only used a few short minutes before they are tossed away into our lakes, oceans and landfills to sit for hundreds of years."

Every person can see to it if they use plastic, it doesn't end up in the public spaces or water sources. I'm guessing 30 years of working with people to be aware of pollution was lost in the 2 years of the lockdown and forced masking. I've never seen as much trash in the environment as I've seen since March 2020. The cartons used for carry out must be uncountable. For awhile we couldn't even take reusable shopping bags into the stores. But the bigger problem is that those who are the richest among us, who have 2 or 3 homes, or drive electric cars or install solar panels on their houses--they are urging and voting for policies that really hurt those not so affluent in the name of saving something they don't know what.

 
Pick up after yourself and use less. Just like mom told you. Humans need water to live, but they survived for eons without carrying it in plastic bottles. And don't vote for people or policies that will destroy the pensions of retirees or agriculture in other countries.

Masks are gone for now

The cruelty of our states and our federal government show us their totalitarian direction these last two years and how far the USA has fallen on the freedom scale.  It's not progressive, or democratic, despite their attempt to change the language. The frenzy from the Left about Elon Musk's desire to make Twitter a free public space again is really alarming--not the freedom of speech but the Left's effort to stop it.  The battle for the minds of young children is another arena where we see evil taking over.

Maoists in the Mist by Melissa Mackenzie

"Masks are gone, for now. Biden and his totalitarians have decided to appeal the decision by a Federal judge that the CDC exceeded its authority with the Federal mask mandate. I write about the ways the totalitarians harassed Americans in big and small ways.

My biggest concern is the people who cannot see their own Maoist impulse through this public health debacle. The indifference to ruining people's careers and harming their ability to care for their families when they worked through the pandemic and took all the risk up front is astonishing.

The Keyboard Klass™ is contemptuous of nurses, for example, who worked through the pandemic. These men and women got COVID, are immune and then were FIRED for refusing to take an experimental genetic therapeutic (it's not a vaccine.) It was their choice to not get vaccinated, said the self-righteous unaffected.

Nancy Pelosi sat in a business her policies shut down and violated her own rules for her hair. 43% of small businesses in California went out of business while this woman had her hair done.

This is evil stuff.

I wrote up the indignities supposedly free people faced over the last couple of years.

Civilization is a thin veneer. Too many people would like to impose their will on their neighbors and gladly do it and feel morally superior in the process.

I hope that freedom-loving people remember what happened these last two years.

Harmful for children--and everyone else

"It has become clear that the “follow the science” narrative – which has effectively shut down reasoned democratic debate and imposed harmful, life-altering rules on our children – was a political tactic to silence dissent, not an evidence-based philosophy for our protection. Two years into this political catastrophe, parents and citizens have begun to demand a meaningful say in the democratic process and a substantive role in the decisions our children are living with every day."

https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/op-ed-mistreating-children-as-following-the-science/article_66096e20-89d5-11ec-bc13-87c5710287b2.html

Masks and dis- mal- information

It's no wonder people don't trust the "fact checkers." Anyone can read the label on the box of the masks we've all been wearing for 2 years. We can see the photo of the label which Politifact gives a "false." Then the checker does double back flips to tell us not to believe our eyes, or common sense. Or even me who told you almost 2 years ago there was no peer-reviewed research on mask efficacy and safety published before the current epidemic. I was checking every 2 weeks for anything that could justify muzzling children (aka child abuse) and loyal Americans. Zip. Nada. Zilch.

I also suggested two years ago using a mask to protect yourself if you are high risk with co-morbidities (like me), and I was ridiculed and declared a hater for not wanting to protect others. Yet, that is also now being promoted as a reason to wear flimsy masks by both the CDC and medical web sites.

Yesterday I was given a small N95 mask at Marc's, a grocery store, brand Moldex. Impossible to use and has staples next to skin. Probably meant to be stored at the workplace, but won't fit into a pocket or purse, or side tray in a car. There are 2 elastic bands for holding it to the head with collapse resistant Dura-Mesh® shell and soft foam nose cushion. It read, Warning: Misuse may result in sickness or death. IMO, if used properly you could suffocate.

Mask mandates and research

Anyone can make mistakes, but when I think of the people who had their lives and careers upended it really makes me angry. I mean, how many people would have been saved (or made worse) if those in power hadn't been so greedy and denied them therapeutics like Ivermectin and HCQ.

Read about the ten myths and misinformation that turned out to be false. 10 COVID-19 'Truths' That Weren't True (dailysignal.com)

Even today, even against their governor's orders, there are schools preventing children from attending if they don't wear masks in classroom, on the bus, on the playground. They want to punish the parents--but are hurting the kids. There's not a shred of peer reviewed research that shows masks work, and particularly not the flimsy flopsy ones made in China from fossil fuel (polypropylene) that are littering our streets, malls and yards. God only knows what's going into their lungs. Now Biden says he'll roll out 400 million N95's (because those being worn for 2 years did nothing to protect us except start fights by Karens and snowflakes). More damage to children.

Comments on masks and Covid

 From an e-mail, name withheld.

"A little more on the masks. When you look at the size of the virus and the size of mask holes and what they filter, it behaves like mosquitos flying through a mesh wire fence at the baseball diamond (this analogy came from a friend that until recently was in charge of Covid at Walter Reed and assistant Medical Director). You might catch larger droplets. Only the medical grade masks like FPP2 and FPP2 and N95 mask offer some protection because the fibers are charged to attract the virus. I was riding the German bullet train last week and the public bus and they demand that you wear these medical grade masks because it does not seem to be a big secret anymore that all other masks are not very effective if effective at all. 

On my flight over to Germany, I sat next to an interesting Belgian logistics guy who heads up the now Belgian owned for eBay Logistics Unit.

He shared with me that he was the black sheep in the family because everyone else in the family were high powered doctors, like neurosurgeons etc.

So, I asked him about their take on the masks and the vaccines. His responses were rather interesting.

He asked me, if I ever heard of COVID spreading in an airplane and infecting the passengers. He said it is the perfect environment for tracking every person, where they sit, where they are from etc. And by the way, you constantly take your mask of for every drink, meal, cookie etc. I could not recall ever hearing about such a case and neither could he. The point here, which my German doctor friends also stated, is that only people with a large viral load infect other people through the air. And with all the testing and screening for the flights, it is not likely to happen, plus the high rate of air exchange on planes seems to prevent transmission. 

The second interesting comment was on the vaccine. None of his family members would voluntarily take any of the RNA messenger vaccines only the J+J vector vaccine or one of the traditional vaccines – I believe the so nick named ‘Texas’ vaccine is a traditional vaccine, but the US government rejected it because it was too cheap at $1.50 per dose and easy to transport – likely did not allow the bureaucrats to build empires. 

Peter

Is Fauci really Dr. Evil?

I believe Fauci has led two presidents into great error, particularly Biden, but when the Wuhan virus was fresh in January 2020, he also misled Trump who was really naïve about the depth of the swamp. Fauci had retained his position after his awful record for HIV, so was really swampy. Fauci has so much power now, historians assuming the USA survives, will marvel that this Rasputin was able to lead so many to their deaths with just a fragile mask mandate and never ending flip flopping. Although Biden and many governors (even Ohio’s) call for mandates which have ruined the economy and caused many deaths, in this Covid thing he’s really the puppet of Fauci. Saying he had a solution as a candidate was probably just the usual Democrat Biden lying—he’d done it all his career so it’s not just senility like some believe.

I was researching masks as soon as they were recommended/demanded and causing fights in retail stores and airplanes, and I know there was no peer-reviewed research on this--no masks, cloth, bandana, N95 or those pink, blue, or black things spun from polystyrene, polycarbonate, polyethylene, or polyester can protect from SARS-2 and they only filter dust and large particles. 90-100 million a month are produced—mainly in China (big surprise?) Masks were originally intended to protect the health care workers, and I suspect that hasn’t changed—that’s why I wear them in crowds—to protect me. Plus, I suspect we’re breathing in particles from masks made of fossil fuel products and our lungs won’t be happy later on (the classes of the 1950s won’t live to see it).

“It is difficult to keep up with the ever-mutating scientific consensus on masks. In the early days of the pandemic, White House COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci told the public not to bother with them before abruptly adopting a wear-a-mask-any-mask stance. After vaccines became widely available last winter and spring, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the vaccinated no longer needed to wear them, and then reversed course after determining that the delta variant was much more contagious than the original strain. And the CDC's support for mask mandates in schools rests upon a study that has now been substantially debunked.

Enter Leana Wen, a medical analyst for CNN and former president of Planned Parenthood. Wen is one of cable news' most vigorous supporters of coercive COVID-19 measures: She previously suggested that the government should prohibit unvaccinated people from traveling (and, perhaps, from leaving their homes at all). During a CNN appearance on Monday, Wen made the provocative statement that the commonly used cloth masks are essentially useless at preventing the spread of the omicron variant.

"Don't wear a cloth mask," she said. "Cloth masks are little more than facial decorations. There's no place for them in light of omicron."

Huh? As Townhall's Spencer Brown points out, Wen's view of the science contradicts the guidance from the White House and the CDC, which holds that cloth masks are good enough. In fact, the CDC has specifically instructed people not to wear N95 masks.

Wen is a supporter of mandates, so perhaps she thinks the higher quality masks should be required in some settings. Yet if she's right, it means the masks that the overwhelming majority of people are wearing in order to comply with mandates—in public schools, on public transportation, in many workplaces, gyms, and even social settings—aren't doing any good. They represent another element of pandemic hygiene theater: a public health requirement that makes people feel safer without offering them much actual protection.”

CNN's Leana Wen: 'Cloth Masks Are Little More Than Facial Decorations' (reason.com)

Yes, it’s all about feeling safe. It’s the Democrat party go to—feelings instead of facts. That’s why on the news in 2020 we heard about deaths instead of cases and now we’re hearing only cases and not deaths. They are afraid someone knows math and might figure infection rate.

Masks, mandates and media

"All religions have their representatives. There are cardinals, bishops, imams and rabbi’s etc. They are perhaps the leading voices, but they aren’t the only representatives. There are envoys, missionaries, TV evangelists, religious correspondents and so on.

The State is no different. We have politicians and governmental advisers, as the leading voices, but there are also NGO spokespersons, union officials, the academic & scientific orthodoxy, lords and ladies, multinational CEO’s, central bankers, business leaders and more. Of these, the most powerful, in terms of their ability to shape public opinion are the mainstream media (MSM.)"

This article is from June 2020, when mask mandates, without a shred of science, were just being imposed. And with each mandate we've experienced more loss of freedom and the masks certainly haven't kept us safe. Even those with the 3 shots are getting Covid.

Face Masks Have Put Us In A State – OffGuardian (off-guardian.org)

The failures of fighting this virus

The lockdowns failed, the masks failed, the social distancing failed--the mandates have caused ruined careers, open rebellion among unions and trades, a lost 2 years of schooling for the most vulnerable, terrible supply chain problems, and we have more Covid deaths than in 2020 when we had no vaccine. Treatments with inexpensive and safe products have been ridiculed and kept off the market, Big Pharma and Big Tech are acting like departments of government, censoring us. Dr. Fauci is still acting like the mini-god of SCIENCE and Biden walks around mumbling conflicting advice and demands. What a way to ruin a country. Almost like it has central planning like Russia or Venezuela or Cuba.

Adrienne's trip on Spirit Airlines--a trip

Adrienne who is a writer and speaker is a frequent flyer.  Here's her recent experience with masks.

"The announcements on Spirit Airlines today got me like...really?! You almost can't help but laugh and roll your eyes--and take notes!

Some of the announcements today:

1) During the usual safety instructions at the start of the flight:
"If we lose cabin pressure, oxygen masks will drop from the ceiling. You will need to remove your face mask before putting on the oxygen mask."

Really, Spirit?! Who would have thought? So now, we've got to try to figure out two different kinds of masks while wrapping our brains around being on a plane falling from the sky! So do we take the face mask off the kid traveling with us before we take off our face mask, like we are told to put on our oxygen mask before putting the oxygen mask on said kid? Just wanna make sure I have the mask order of operations right. LOL!

2) "In a few minutes, we'll begin our descent into St. Louis. This is a good time to go to the restroom, blah, blah, blah--and to make sure your masks are securely covering your nose and mouth. You are required to have your mask on unless you are actively eating, drinking, or taking medication."
My question: Are there people IN actively eating, drinking, or taking medication?!

3) "We are making our final descent into St. Louis. Please be sure you remain seated for the duration of the flight, your personal item is stowed under your seat, the tray table is in an upright position, and your mask is fully covering your nose and mouth."

...because, of course, a safe landing is connected to one's face mask fully covering one's nose and mouth!

Can we get any more ridiculous? Shhh, Adrienne...Don't ask--because you already know the answer. Of course, we can--and that's the plan."

TB vaccine is 100 years old--and it's not 100%; and flu season is coming

 Although we have the BCG vaccine for TB, it isn't 100% and other public health measures are necessary to control the disease. Killing nearly 1.5 million people in 2019, it stood as the leading global cause of death from an infectious pathogen, according to the World Health Organization. Do not expect the Covid vaccine to be perfect or 100%.

 Bile and Potatoes, 1921 | The Scientist Magazine® (the-scientist.com)

Although masks don't provide much protection against Covid19, they really help during flu season. I plan to mask up for that. And the flu will probably be baaaack with a vengeance this fall and winter.
"In the United States alone, influenza viruses cause hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and tens of thousands of fatalities each year. During the pandemic, however, a drastic change occurred: there was a precipitous drop in infections with influenza and other respiratory viruses—and in some parts of the world, some of these pathogens are nowhere to be found.

. . . Mask wearing, social distancing, and other restrictions implemented to stave off SARS-CoV-2 are thought to be the primary culprits in the decline in other respiratory pathogens in circulation. As such measures are lifted, though, scientists are expecting the missing viruses to return—and are pondering what will happen when that occurs. " The Pandemic Crushed the Flu--What Happens When It Returns? | The Scientist Magazine® (the-scientist.com)

Those who misled us during the pandemic

"The United States suffered through two lethal waves of contagion in the past year and a half. The first was a viral pandemic that killed about one in 500 Americans—typically, a person over 75 suffering from other serious conditions. The second, and far more catastrophic, was a moral panic that swept the nation’s guiding institutions.

Instead of keeping calm and carrying on, the American elite flouted the norms of governance, journalism, academic freedom—and, worst of all, science. They misled the public about the origins of the virus and the true risk that it posed. Ignoring their own carefully prepared plans for a pandemic, they claimed unprecedented powers to impose untested strategies, with terrible collateral damage. As evidence of their mistakes mounted, they stifled debate by vilifying dissenters, censoring criticism, and suppressing scientific research."

https://www.city-journal.org/panic-pandemic

A year ago at Lakeside

A photo of our nation in a lockdown that had never been tested or proven effective, ordered by governors and low level public health officers drunk on power, wearing masks that had never been tested for this virus, while refusing to allow discussion and censoring science by the very companies who were making money hand over fist by keeping us out of libraries, churches, and schools.

 

Things are much better this year; I see only a few masks.  Usually Democrats.