Civil Defense Perspectives May
2020 (vol. 35 #3)
A virus is not exactly alive itself. It
is a bundle of chemicals so arranged that they attach to a living host’s cell
membranes and are transported into the cell. The cell’s own metabolic machinery
then begins to use the viral genetic blueprint to make more viruses. The raw
materials, the chemical energy, the milieu that permits the synthesis of viral
components to occur (such as pH and temperature) are all supplied by the host
cell, bringing about its own destruction. The virus released into the environment
can then repeat the cycle in other hosts, until there are no more receptive
hosts because they are isolated, immune, or dead.
As viruses are replicated, many errors
(mutations) occur, especially in RNA viruses, so that progeny may be more or
less effective in causing infection.
All viral pandemics have come to an end, even those that have been far
more devastating than the current COVID-19.
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The world is full of pathogenic organisms. Animals survive only because
their immune defense mechanisms rid them of the invaders or keep them in check.
At times, an over-exuberant immune reaction, instead of the virus itself, kills
the host.
Many
deaths in COVID-19 are attributed to a cytokine storm, a term coined in the
context of graft-versus-host disease and popularized for avian H5N1 influenza
virus infection. It applies in many infectious and noninfectious diseases (e.g.
pancreatitis). Cytokines are proteins serving as hormone-like messengers that
coordinate the immune response. They can be pro- or anti-inflammatory.
Infiltration of excess inflammatory cells can cause acute respiratory distress
syndrome and multi-organ failure in COVID-19 (tinyurl.com/y9hd7n5m).
Balance in the coagulation system is also disturbed; many die with microthrombi
blocking capillaries or clots in major vessels (tinyurl.com/yapo24xv).
The
incidence of blood clotting problems in seriously ill COVID-19 patients is
remarkably high. A series of 12 autopsies from Hamburg, Germany, showed that
58% had unsuspected deep vein thrombosis, and in four patients, pulmonary
emboli were the direct cause of death (https://tinyurl.com/ybaqfjno).
Lockdown
Nation
Initially, when an extraordinarily lethal virus was thought to have
arrived recently and to be confined to a few hotspots, restrictions for the
duration of the incubation period made sense. But when the computer projections of lethality were found to be wildly
inaccurate, and the virus had in fact been widely circulating, probably at
least since November, the unprecedented quarantine appeared to be both unnecessary
and futile. Rather than lifting the restrictions and protecting those at
greatest risk—tacitly admitting to an egregious error, government kept
extending the lockdowns, month after month.
The
healthy parts of the population were attacked, their livelihoods destroyed, and
the arteries of commerce were clotted off, with wreckage up and down the whole
supply chain. Has their oxygen been cut off too long to permit resuscitation?
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Good citizens have complied with very little resistance, if
not out of fear for themselves, out of a wish to protect others in case they
were asymptomatic carriers. Those who dared to venture out, especially without
a mask, have been shamed for being “no better than a serial killer.” Snitch
lines to report noncompliance have lighted up.
As
re-opening is being “phased in,” the “suspension” of personal liberty may
become permanent. A massive surveillance system is being developed, using
smartphone and Bluetooth technology. It could alert everyone who pinged within
range of an infected person during the contagious period—and tell that person
to self-isolate. A huge army of up to 100,000 “contact tracers” is proposed;
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced plans to hire 17,000. Texas signed a $295
million contract with the MTX Group, which soon plans to staff up with 4,000
Texas employees, including case investigators, epidemiologists, and contact
tracers. Applicants will need to pass a six-hour-long online training course
offered by an authorized organization such as Johns Hopkins University. Such a
person might be empowered to make a quarantine decision for an exposed
individual deemed incapable of “voluntarily” deciding that for himself, writes
Larry Bell (https://tinyurl.com/ybd8ulxd).
Who
Decided?
Governments did not have an open discussion that included economists,
biologists and epidemiologists, writes Kurt Wittkowski, who for 20 years was
the head of biostatistics, epidemiology, and research design at the Rockefeller
University Center for Clinical and Translational Science. “In Britain, it was
the voice of one person—Neil Ferguson.” His fundamental flaw was “the
assumption that one per cent of all people who became infected would die. There
is no justification anywhere for that.”
If
governments claim they are “following the science,” why didn’t scientists speak
out? Wittkowski notes that
most depend on government for funding (https://tinyurl.com/y83jh4sh).
Policy
has been dictated by technocratic planners, “self-appointed tyranny experts,”
writes Douglas Wilson. If the results are disastrous, they claim things would
have been much worse without their interventions (tinyurl.com/y8v9hmgp).
As Thomas Sowell writes, “No matter what happens, the vision of the anointed
always succeeds, if not by the original criteria, then by criteria extemporized
later—and if not by empirical criteria, then by criteria sufficiently
subjective to escape even the possibility of refutation. Evidence becomes irrelevant” [emphasis added].
The
Last Battle?
O'Donnel,
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“The shutdown’s goal was not
eradicating the [corona]virus. That’s not possible,” writes Betsy
McCaughey. “Shutting down won’t stop the virus, but it will destroy our
rights and the nation we love” (https://tinyurl.com/ybr2tn8s).
Czech
physicist Luboš Motl asks whether freedom and prosperity can return at all (tinyurl.com/yaaxlyh5).
There is no exit strategy from the extreme measures. If a society is ready to
switch to martial law or a similar type of heavily centrally regulated regime
“because of such numbers of infections that are still a tiny
percentage of the population,…then it means that the switch to these de facto
totalitarian regimes is basically unavoidable.”
Now that the totalitarian virus
nurtured in our system has become visible to all, will we develop immunity—or
succumb?
For Memorial Day
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the
poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on
row,
That mark our place; and in
the sky
The larks, still bravely
singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns
below.
We are the Dead. Short days
ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw
sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now
we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the
foe:
To you from failing hands we
throw
The torch; be yours to hold
it high.
If ye break faith with us who
die
We
shall not sleep, though poppies growStrittmatter, KaiBuy
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In Flanders fields.
John McCrae (1872-1918)
Quarantine
Enforcement
In
Saxony, Germany, rooms in psychiatric hospitals are being freed up to confine,
under police supervision, persons who resist home-quarantine orders. It is
supposed to be a last resort, when all other measures have failed (tinyurl.com/utdf5q8).
Dress Rehearsal for a Police
State
We
are not yet a totalitarian state, writes Dennis Prager (tinyurl.com/yd8gon39);
if we were his articles (and this newsletter) could not be published. But we
are “living with all four of the key hallmarks of a police state”:
(1) Draconian
laws depriving citizens of elementary civil rights. (2) A mass media supportive
of the state’s messaging and deprivation of rights. “In fact, there is almost
no more dissent in The New York Times than
there was in Pravda. And the Big Tech platforms
are removing posts about the virus and potential treatments they deem
‘misinformation.’” (3) Use of police. The police must respond to every
dispatch, and they are dispatched to the scene of persons jogging on the beach
by (4) Snitches.
“On the CNN website…, Bill
Weir, CNN chief climate correspondent, wrote an open letter to his new born
son, [describing] his idealized future for America: ‘completely new forms
of power, food, construction, transportation, economics, and politics.’
“You cannot get there without
a police state.”
The
‘Control Knobs’
It is
asserted that the “lockdowns worked”—despite evidence that the progress of the
epidemic was about the same in nations that did and did not impose them (https://wmbriggs.com/post/30833/)—but
how do we get to shore from our “life raft”? University of Hong Kong modeler
Gabriel Leung states: “Governments will have to realize that there are
basically three control knobs on the dashboard”: isolating patients and tracing
their contacts, border restrictions, and social distancing. Admittedly, there
are huge costs and no controlled experiments. A “suppress and lift” strategy
is proposed to “ease discontent and economic damage” (Science 4/17/20).
The
‘Pandemic Drone’
According to its website, the
Draganfly™ unmanned aerial vehicle can detect fever, heart and respiratory
rate, and coughing and sneezing from a distance of 190 ft. Drones are the
“go-to technology for reaching the most remote areas with little to no manpower
needed.” It also guides officers’ decision-making. It was to be tested in
cooperation with the Westport, Conn., police force to monitor social distancing
(tinyurl.com/y8pblp7s), but the plan was dropped because of popular resistance.
About 1,100 law enforcement agencies have acquired drones over the past few
years. At least 18 states require law enforcement agencies to get a search
warrant to use a drone for surveillance or to conduct a search (https://tinyurl.com/yb7ffgyv).
Worldwide
Destruction of Rights
·
Canada: About 48 hours after its introduction, Alberta Bill 10, the
Public Health (Emergency Powers) Amendment Act, was passed 14-7, a quorum being
20. This allows cabinet ministers to unilaterally create new laws (https://tinyurl.com/yax4wv5e).
·
Germany: According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung (tinyurl.com/y9gg57cv),
the federal government plans to introduce a coronavirus “immunity card” as part
of its “Infection Protection Law,” which will grant the authorities the power
to round up anyone “suspected to be contagious” and “forbid them from entering
certain public places” (https://tinyurl.com/y72jgu3j).
·
U.S.: Policymakers, invoking “science” and “data,” have written
themselves the same letter that Cardinal Richelieu purportedly gave to his
agents in 17th century France: “The Bearer of This Letter Has Acted Under My
Orders and for the Good of the State.” This placed murders and other crimes
above the law and beyond reproach (https://tinyurl.com/ya5jctwl).
Some
Mass Gatherings Are “Essential”
Religious services, political
campaign events, and protests against lockdowns—as well as playing outside even
alone—can be suppressed with full force of the law. However, if the cause is
protesting racism or social injustice, or the funeral is for a black man who
died while being arrested rather than for your mother, the rules are suspended.
Large crowds can stand shoulder to shoulder and sing, shout, or chant, with or
without masks. For 10 days, Anthony Fauci said nothing (tinyurl.com/y938cwez).
A letter signed by 1,200 health professionals said that protests should not be
shut down over fears of COVID-19 transmission. Since “systemic racism” harms
people’s health, “protest is a profound public health intervention”
(tinyurl.com/yakzonyx). “White supremacy is a lethal public health threat that
predates and contributes to COVID-19.”
The
“four stages of ideological subversion” are well underway: (1) demoralization
(guilt); (2) destabilization of the economy, political system, and culture; (3)
crisis; (4) “normalization”—a cynical Soviet propaganda term (tinyurl.com/yb8xaz4d).
“Socialism
is precisely the religion that must overwhelm Christianity…. In the new order,
Socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture via infiltration of
schools, universities, churches and the media by transforming the consciousness
of society.”Antonio Gramsci
This
originally appeared on Physicians for Civil Defense.
Jane Orient, MD,[send her mail] is executive director of the
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, and an internist in solo
private practice.
Copyright © Physicians for Civil Defense
Copyright © Physicians for Civil Defense