Pondering – Outrun Change

Oh great. The mask foolishness is back.

Go ahead and wear your mask that way.
Given that it won’t work, doesn’t matter how you wear it.
Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Alleged health care experts are at it again in California.

11/1/23 – Fox 2 KTVU – Masks required in certain settings again in California – Several counties in the San Francisco Bay Area will start requiring masks in hospitals and skilled nursing facilities.

Everyone going into any medical facility in Marin County and Santa Clara counties now has to have a mask. The diktat in Alameda, Sonoma, San Mateo, and Contra Costa counties only demand healthcare workers be masked up when there are around patients.

Destruction from lockdowns is becoming more obvious, education impact – part 4

Earlier post reported chronic absenteeism rate for students in California tripled as a result of the pandemic shutdowns.

Two more articles describe the skyrocketing rate of chronic absenteeism in Minnesota and across the nation.

What could possibly be driving this? On twitter, Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) said:

“We told the kids that school wasn’t essential. They listened.”

That’s about right. Schools were shuttered anywhere from six to eighteen months in most places around the country.

In terms of the so-called remote learning, there wasn’t much teaching going on. In one district near me in California, teaching time during the pandemic was 45 minutes in the morning and then 45 minutes in the afternoon. Class time was merely 90 minutes a day.

Yeah, our education leaders, political leaders, religious leaders, and public health leaders all said school wasn’t important. A whole bunch of kids got the message: school is optional.

I hope against hope that the allegedly educated educators someday will be held accountable for the destruction they willfully caused.

New reports describe widespread chronic absenteeism:

9/15/23 – Washington Examiner – Chronic absenteeism skyrockets in Minnesota public schools – Before the pandemic, chronic absenteeism in Minnesota public schools was 15%. That is the number of students who were missing 10 or more days in the school year.

The most recent data for 2022?

Updates of efforts by California county to crush local church and the church’s efforts to stand up for the rights of all Christians.

…closed due to government violation of First Amendment. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Santa Clara County in California has been putting pressure on Calvary Chapel San Jose for daring to hold worship services during the pandemic.

We now know the efforts to suppress Christian worship were a flagrant violation of the First Amendment, as determined by the Supreme Court in multiple rulings. See end of this discussion for list of posts describing the rebukes from the Supreme Court. (If you want to see the results when ideologues write feeble legal briefs, I heartily encourage you to read the dissents from the Supreme Court’s rulings.)

The county levied plenty of fines and a temporary injunction against the church. Previous article describing Calvary Chapel San Jose’s efforts to exercise their first amendment right to free expression of religion:

11/13/20 – Continued pressure on churches in California to restrict worship as strip clubs open their doors in San Diego under protection of First Amendment.

Since my post back in November 2020, we have learned the county was allegedly conducting surreptitious surveillance on the church during the pandemic. A neighboring church allegedly assisted with the surveillance. Fines issued by the county have been dismissed at the appellate level.

Now the church has filed suit against the county for their surveillance. They are standing up for the rights of all Christians to gather in worship.

This discussion is posted here on Nonprofit Update blog, as well as Outrun Change, because this affects the freedom of many in this audience.

By the way, if you see an above average amount of ridicule and sarcasm in this post, it is here in the hope that out-loud, belly laughter directed at officials will encourage said officials to reconsider their foolish ways. Supreme Court rulings don’t seem to have had that effect yet.

3/16/23 – The Christian Post – California church denies working with gov’t officials to surveil lockdown-defying Calvary Chapel

9/11: Never Forget

For my remembrance of the 9/11 attacks during which 2,996 Americans were slaughtered by 19 terrorists, my family watched 9/11: The Filmmakers’ Commemorative Edition.

The movie started as a documentary following one rookie New York firefighter through training and his nine months of probation. In doing so, the two filmmakers were following an engine company on a call when the first hijacked airplane hit. The strike was on camera.

Destruction from lockdowns is becoming more obvious – part 3

Visual illustration of what lockdowns did to our health, perception of time, and our children’s education. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

The destruction caused by government imposed pandemic restrictions, especially lockdowns is becoming more obvious as researchers look at the damage.

Articles discussed below:

Increased illness from alcohol abuse.
Chronic absenteeism in California schools tripled after the pandemic shutdowns.
High portions of colleges that are closed since the pandemic are Christian.
The lockdowns actually did affect your perception of time.

8/3/23 – SciTechDaily – Lockdowns and Liquor: Surging Severe, Alcohol-Related Liver Injury During Covid Pandemic – One study quantifies what was obvious at the time of the government ordered shutdowns. Sales of booze accelerated and abuse of alcohol skyrocketed.

Getting a Covid booster shot makes you more likely to get sick. Imagine that.

As our alleged experts in the so-called public health sector lay groundwork to impose another round of Covid restrictions, it might be worth paying attention to the research demonstrating ineffectiveness of the vaccinations.

In fact, looks like the bivalent booster is dangerous because it increases your risk of infection.

Destruction from lockdowns is becoming more obvious – part 2 – Did government policies drive up the number of deaths during the pandemic?

When the negatives outweigh the positives, it was not a good decision. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

The damage caused by government imposed Covid restrictions and lockdowns is beginning to be quantified.

The following pair of studies suggest restrictions caused far more deaths than lives saved. If this research holds after further study, government policies increased the number of deaths during the pandemic.

Destruction from lockdowns is becoming more obvious – part 1

The economic, educational, medical, and social costs caused by the government lockdown during Covid are becoming more obvious. A flood of reports is describing the damage that is increasingly visible.

Hopefully this will be first in a series of posts describing government imposed destruction.

A few articles describing the devastation in education:

6/21/23 – Wall Street Journal – Pandemic Learning Slide Continues for 13-Year-Olds, Making Full Recovery Unlikely – The destruction of learning for a generation of students is becoming visible in test scores. The National Assessment of Educational Progress report for testing during the last half of 2022 shows the willful devastation imposed by the educational and political world.

Math scores for seventh and eighth graders dropped to the lowest point since 1990, while average reading scores only dropped to the lowest level since 2004. There is a loss of 32 years progress in math and 19 years progress in reading.

What are the real reasons so many of our so-called leaders flagrantly ignored Covid restrictions?

So many of my posts during the pandemic pointed out the elite in political, public health, entertainment, and media worlds flagrantly ignored the Covid restrictions they demanded we little people follow.

In a moment I will describe conclusions by the British Parliament that former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was lying through his teeth when he spoke to them trying to rationalize away the weekly social events he held for his staff.

I’ve been wondering for two years why so many elitists were so flagrant in their covid violations. I have developed several hypothesis with increasing level of severe implications.

First possibility, all these folks are flaming hypocrites who believe they are above having to comply with the rules everyone else is forced to follow. They speak soberly of the dangers and risks of Covid along with the steps everyone must absolutely take to protect loved ones and neighbors. Yet they won’t lower themselves to follow those rules.

More seriously:

Stuff you can now safely say about COVID: the virus came from a lab leak.

There are many things you could not say in public two or three years ago, all of which are now safe to say. Here is a starting point of the list of things you can now talk about in the open:

The virus came from a lab leak.

As I find articles to further develop the issues now say to say, I will have further discussion.

The virus came from a lab leak.

This was crazy talk three years ago but is slowly becoming accepted: the most likely place the COVID-19 virus came from was a Chinese research laboratory. Oh, by the way, said lab was funded in part by Dr. Fauci’s department.

Stuff you can now safely say about COVID: natural immunity works.

There are many things you could not say in public two or three years ago, all of which are now safe to say. Here is a starting point of the list of things you can now talk about in the open:

Natural immunity works.
Masks don’t work.
The virus came from a lab leak. (next post)

A slow trickle of news reports are showing that lots of the crazy, coo-coo bird, nutzo, conspiracy theory wackiness you heard from your friends two or three years ago were actually correct. My friends deemed nuts by society who were saying these things were right.

Natural immunity works.

2/27/23 – Wall Street Journal – Three Years Late, the Lancet Recognizes Natural Immunity

Research report by Lancet has one surprise and two not-at-all-surprises.

Stuff you can now safely say about COVID: masks don’t work.

Of the above five preventions, we have long known that #2 was not needed. We now know #1, #3, and #4 also had no value. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

There are many things you could not say in public two or three years ago, all of which are now safe to say. Here is a starting point of the list of things you can now talk about in the open:

Masks don’t work.
Natural immunity works. (next post)
The virus came from a lab leak. (upcoming post)

There is a disturbing pattern emerging, which further corrodes credibility of the entire public health sector.

A slow trickle of news reports are showing that lots of the crazy, coo-coo bird, nutzo, conspiracy theory wackiness from two or three years ago was actually correct. Turns out my wacko friends who were saying these things were right.

Masks don’t work.

Previously discussed this study as covered by a couple of other reports:

2/12/23 – Research shows no identifiable benefit from wearing masks.

From the New York Times (!), an opinion piece from Brett Stevens:

2/21/23 – Brett Stevens opinion in The New York Times – The Mask Mandates Did Nothing. Will Any Lessons Be Learned?

Article cites a study which analyzed 78 research reports, all of which were randomized control trials. Researchers say those little paper masks we were wearing for so long made little or no difference. They can find no evidence for positive impact.

How about those expensive N-95 masks? Same thing. No impact.

What about those studies which did show masks made a difference which were cited as proof positive that anyone who disagreed mask efficacy was a Neanderthal?

Excess deaths – More people are dying that expected based on historical average. Why?

Reports are now surfacing there are far more people dying then we would expect now the pandemic is mostly behind us. This discussion will bring up merely two articles calling attention to this issue.

First article points out there are excess deaths after the pandemic has wound down. Second article points out there were excess deaths in California during the pandemic.

I suggest we need to look at government policies during the pandemic as the driving force behind the excess deaths.

Normally, one can look at the five-year average of deaths and make an estimate of the number of people who will die this year. It is called “excess deaths” when the actual deaths are above the five-year average.

Three years after the start of the pandemic there are significant excess deaths in countries with believable statistics available.

9/2/22 – Next Big Future – Unknown Cause of 1 Million Excess Deaths per Year – Article from last September points out there are widespread excess deaths, even after allowing for Covid deaths.

Article says there were 18% excess deaths in the first two years of the pandemic. Now that the deaths from Covid have dropped, the overall death rate should be back to the historical average.

Yet that is not what is happening.

Author points out that England and Wales were showing 1000 excess deaths weekly in 14 of the previous 15 weeks. None of those are from Covid.

Excess deaths are running in the 10% up to 20% level around the world.

Excess death rates are 8% in the US and 20% in Brazil.

Research shows no identifiable benefit from wearing masks.

There is a surge of articles denouncing pandemic policy along with emerging research showing the destruction caused by intentional government policy.

I have made note of many of these articles and hope to start discussing them.

In this post:

Metastudy of 78 randomized control experiments finds masks have no benefit.
Pro-mask is anti-science. Anti-mask is pro-science. (Pro-mask is actually a religion.)

Our political, public health, educational, and religious leaders have much to answer for.

2/10/23 – The Spectator – I’m pro science. That’s why I’m anti-mask – The former brand president at Levi Strauss was hounded out of her job because she had the audacity to ask, in a company that presumably doesn’t actually hire any toddlers, whether a mandatory mask for toddlers was harmful.

She was accused of being “anti-science.” Oh the horror! Off with her head!!

Research from the Cochran study, which will be discussed more later, analyzed 78 studies covering 1 million people. The conclusion?

Dear Veterans, I accepted a thank you on your behalf.

To all veterans pulling alert today, standing watch, filling supply orders, or who have not gotten a “thank you” lately, please know your service and sacrifice is appreciated. I again accepted a thank you on your behalf.

This summer, my cousin Sonia and her quilting group honored me with the gift of a gorgeous quilt. They gave it to me in appreciation for my service in the U.S. Air Force so many years ago. I pulled underground alert on the plains of South Dakota to keep the Evil Empire at bay. I had a small part holding back the Soviet bear.

Photos here don’t do full justice to the quilt, which I shall long cherish. My wife and I recently moved into our new home, so I have not yet be able to properly hang in on a wall.

For all those who have served, please know this lovely quilt expresses the appreciation felt by a group of quilters in Minnesota for all those who have stood on the front lines, kept the supplies moving, preparing those going to line service, or otherwise helped keep the U.S. military machine working.

To all of you, I say thank you.

A hearty thank you to all of you from my cousin, her group, and many more grateful Americans you will never meet.

I extend a hearty thank you to my cousin and her group.