Guest essay by Eric Worrall
According to Anthony Fauci, the USA has not beaten Covid-19 because the USA didn’t lock down hard enough.
Anthony Fauci Explains Why the US Still Hasn’t Beaten Covid
The director of NIAID talks about vaccines, school reopenings, hostility toward science, and the lessons we’ll learn when (yes, when) we recover.
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If baseball can’t go on, what about schools?
It’s a much more complicated situation with the schools, and I can’t give you a yes or no answer. As a broad principle, we should try as best as we possibly can to get the kids to return to school, because of the negative unintended consequences of keeping the kids out of school, like the psychological health of the children, the nutrition of kids who get breakfast or lunch at school, to working parents who may not be able to adjust their schedules. So the default position is to try.
However, while you do that, the one thing that you have to underscore—and that’s a big however—is that paramount among this has to be the safety and welfare of the children, of their teachers, and secondarily, of the families of the children. So there has to be some degree of flexibility.
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Why do you think the US has done so poorly in suppressing this pandemic compared with other rich countries?
It isn’t just one single factor. Let me give you one or two that I think are important. First of all, other countries, certainly Asian countries, and certainly the European Union, when they so-called locked down—shut down, shelter in place, whatever you want to call it—they did it to about 95 percent of their countries. So they did it in full force. Some countries got hit badly, but once they locked down and turned things around, they came down to a very low baseline—down to tens or hundreds of new cases a day, not thousands. They came down and they stayed down.
Now, in the United States, when we shut down, even though it was a stress and a strain for a lot of people, we only did it to the tune of about 50 percent of the country shutting down. Our curve goes up and starts to come down. But we never came down to a reasonable baseline. We came down to about 20,000 new infections per day, and we stayed at that level for several weeks in a row. Then we started to open up—getting America “back to normal”—and started to see the cases go from 20,000 a day to 30,000, 40,000. We even hit that one point last week of 70,000 new cases a day.
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Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/anthony-fauci-explains-why-the-us-still-hasnt-beaten-covid/
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I’m personally a fan of lockdowns, but they are not a panacea.
When President Trump closed the border to China at the start of February, against the advice of the WHO, Joe Biden accused Trump of “Xenophobia”. Nations including the USA are still struggling to find the right balance between economically damaging lockdowns and letting the disease run its course.
Before anyone sneers at worrying about “economic damage” when lives are at risk, the kind of economic damage I’m talking about is the risk of disrupting the food supply chain. Running out of food would kill far more people than Covid-19.
And there is significant evidence lockdowns don’t have a lasting impact – as Europe reaches the limit of their economic lockdown endurance, early evidence is cases are surging. Even hard lockdown Australia is struggling with a surge of cases in the high population density Victoria.
There is no doubt in my mind the Chinese government could have stopped the outbreak in its tracks, if they had thought about other people rather than their own selfish short term interests. But we cannot undo what has been done.
I don’t know the right answer, the right balance between lockdowns and economic activity, and I doubt anyone else does either. What we need to do is continue doing what we are already doing – do our very best to chart a course through the difficulties we all face.
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I’ve analyzed Fauci’s statement and put it into terms that can easily be followed:
“Ibbledy-bibbledy-bibble. Ibble-bibble. Blah, blah, blah. Covid.”
Should have asked him why do rioters, looters, arsonists and vandals get as pass form state and local governments? 155, 000 covid-19 deaths (attributed) out of a population 350 million. There is a lot of death every second of every day https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/live-world-death-totals
Due to panic and political pressure, many areas went into lock down too soon. Before the virus had reached their area in any volume.
As a result, by the time the virus did reach them, the people were already fed up with lock downs.
Thousands of doctors in the usa, and vile fauci is the only one who is allowed to tell us what to do 😐 It was the same with the absolute fool, Neil Ferguson.
I truly do not understand why a man who got it wrong with aids, is still allowed to speak on such subjects.
He gave funds to the wuhan lab, got masks wrong, first he said they are useless, and now they save lives, he said don’t stop travel, then trump did and fauci said “I told trump to stop travel from china”
From the inconsistent rubbish he talks, I do not trust fauci at all
I truly do not understand why a man who got it wrong with aids, is still allowed to speak on such subjects.
For some reason, we really seem to like “experts” who are constantly wrong. Krugman still writes about economics and he’s almost never right.
I will never understand that.
This is nonsense the whole way. The reason the US hasn’t beaten the virus is that endemic viruses can’t be beaten before they have run their course. Some viruses are so terribly infectious that we must try to slow them down so that health services don’t are overwhelmed – but that does not require stopping people working..
Sweden is over it now, in as much that daily deaths there are now practically zero. And they did not ruin their economy to the same extent because they had no enforced lock-down.
There are a lot of factors involved in Sweden’s situation. One being they were using HCQ and then they stopped using HCQ and then they resumed using HCQ again. Another being voluntarily locking themselves down. And many more.
Precisely, Tom. But we are all running around like head-less chickens – forgetting that endemic viruses simply cannot be beaten. Not all viruses become endemic – they may die off spontaneously (like SARS – and we probably don’t really know why). But Covid 19 does NOT die away.
So let us just accept it – let us ignore it. If we happen to catch it and die – so be it. But don’t let us ruin the whole world’s economy just to save people from dying natural deaths.
And don’t panic from seeing big numbers of fatalities. Luckily we die only one death each – which we all come to sooner or later. Why worry??
All of these comments are well taken. Just remember that Dr. Fauci is a eugenics believer. Follow that and study its implications. Everything else will make sense.
What a mess, no certain knowledge and no credible comparable numbers anywhere. We are repeatedly told that “Europe did better.” If the published numbers are even moderately correct, this is not a true. Europe has similar numbers to ours. Asia did better, and that seems true, in fact so much better that we ought to be studying Asia, not Europe.
As for Dr. Fauci, he does seem out of his depth. We must take advice from practicing doctors and scientists who are current in the field. We cannot take politicians and bureaucrats for experts. Dr. Fauci has been a bureaucrat for many years now.
A knowledge of history and philosophy could also help. Spanish Flu, 50-100 million deaths; 1957 flu, 1-2 million deaths; 1968 flu, 1-4 million deaths; Covid to date, using published figure, 650K deaths.
the lockdowns in EVERY country will kill tens to hundreds of thousands of people due to delayed medical procedures … mainly cancer and heart disease diagnosis … hasn’t killed them yet so nobody “counts” those deaths in the cost of the lockdowns … but like the rising of the sun each day it will happen but nobody will have screaming headlines about it … add to that increased scuicides and drug and alchohol abuse deaths and the lockdowns where a conscious decesion to kill working age people to save a some elderly people from dying this year instead of over the next 2-3 years … criminal negligence on the part of officials …
I like Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), but I must say, he really mad an ass out of himself today questioning Dr. Fauci, during the U.S. House of Representatives Coronavirus hearings.
Nothing but personal attacks from Jim Jordan aimed at Dr. Fauci. It was outrageous the way he treated Dr. Fauci. I thought Dr. Fauci handled the unwarranted attack well.
I’m disappointed in Jim Jordan. He looked more like a hate-spewing Democrat today, than a reasonable Republican.
Tom appears to have taken a slightly snowflakey view of the interview in my opinion. Jordan was tough, yes, but “hate-spewing Democrat” is hyperbolic nonsense.
Watch for yourselves:
https://trendingpolitics.com/jim-jordan-turns-dr-fauci-into-a-bumbling-mess-over-allowing-mass-protests-but-restricting-church/
You also ought to take a look at the way the Democrats treated Attorney General Bob Barr in his congressional hearing the other day. Jim Jordan looked just like one of those Democrats questioning Barr: Dripping contempt and not really wanting any answers from Barr, they just wanted to make political speeches, and badger the witness for political purposes.
Jordan asked direct questions, Fauci ducked&dodged, all he had to do was answer directly the direct questions directly asked of him. Instead he chose to play games. Fauci does not care, every day he is ramming his pockets full of our tax dollars as fast as he can. What you want to bet Fauci retires to a locale with no extradition treaty with US in the not to distant future?
I saw a good deal of it. Textbook false analogy fallacy, Tom.
I didn’t see an example in the portions I watched of AG Barr refusing to provide a direct answer to any Democrats’ question. This contrary contrary Fauci, who refused by omission to directly criticize progressive riots in questioning by Jim Jordan.
If you can point out where Barr did something . . . ANYTHING under Democrat questioning similar to Fauci’s weaseling out at Jordan’s questioning, I could believe you.
Until then, no one should believe you.
Nonsense: https://tinyurl.com/yy88lzox
It’s Fauci’s repeated manifestations of nonsensical ideas – as if he can’t figure out what is what and which one work – that has drawn my attention to him. If Jordan turned Fauci into a quivering, babbling mess, fine by me. Thanks for the link. I will review it and pass it on to others.
You betcha Sara. Hey I’d like to hear what you think after you watch it.
Is Tom right? Did I miss something?
Did Jordan “make an ass out of himself”? Was it really “[no]thing but personal attacks from Jim Jordan”? Was it “outrageous the way he treated Dr. Fauci”?
And all the rest of it?
I did watch the whole thing, on the Youtuber channel, right up to where Rep. Clyburn (D-SC) broke in and put a stop to Fauci’s blithering and babbling.
He’re’s the real problem: Jordan asked direct questions that only required a “Yes” or “No’ answer. There was no reason for Fauci to haul out his “notebook” of stuff, nor was there any reason for him to avoid a direct “Yes” or “No” to a direct question. To put it bluntly, after watching the full episode, it was easy enough to realize that Jordan’s questions only required “Yes, it is” or “No, it is not” as answers. There is/was absolutely NO reason for Fauci to quibble about it or try to change the subject, none at all.
Now you have to rightfully ask what is he hiding under his lab coat, or what is he hiding from? And since he’s the one in charge when those Chinese “researchers” infiltrated the NIH on HIS watch, what is the connection to that, if any?
No, Jordan’s questions were legitimate and direct. There was/is no reason at all for Fauci to avoid answering with a “Yes” or “No’, and all he did was piss off Rep. Jordan by not giving those simple answers. That’s the reason that Rep. Clyburn broke in and ended it. Fauci’s on some kind of power trip there. So it is legitimate to ask why he refused to answer Jordan’s direct, simple questions.
It’s entirely possible that Fauci is afraid of losing his current power trip position as dTrump’s adviser in all things Covid, but I think there is more to it than just that. That bout with Jordan says “something is very wrong here”.
I think there may be more to come on this subject.
Thanks for weighing in Sara!
“No, Jordan’s questions were legitimate and direct.”
What’s legitimate about asking Fauci about restricting the number of people that can attend church at one time, when it is State govenors who have implemented that rule? Fauci had nothing to do with those decisions, but Jordan is badgering him about them anyway.
They are doing so after Fauci established those guidelines, that is what being “the expert” means, he is the one telling governors et al what they should do, then they do it. Andrew The Insane shipped highly contagious patients to nursing homes full of elderly people because “the expert” said that is what should be done, as did Wolfe, Murphy, Newsom, Northam etc etc. Thats how that works, “the expert” says it and they do it, and they are off the hook legally because “the expert” said it.
Fauci’s plenty willing to expressly call out churches, but not progressive protests, that’s why:
“But you’re right, crowds in church are important and every time I get a chance to say it, I mention it. I can’t really criticize them strongly for that at all. When you say less than 10, it makes common sense that it involves the church. I say it publicly and even the vice president has said it publicly.”
https://tinyurl.com/vhjntsb
Consistency, Tom, a demand to consistency (i.e., your lack of it when it comes to Fauci’s public policy statements) is what causes you to err. If you were objective in your judgment, you could see that. But instead, you choose to be an (un)objective Fauci apologist.
Dr. Fauci is morphing into the male equivalent of Gloria Allred–he never met a camera he didn’t like.
To me the scariest news about the “vaccine” is that it is not a vaccine.
A vaccine gives a non-lethal dose of the virus. The immune system, recognizing an attack, generates antibodies.
The “vaccine” being developed works differently.
Our DNA gets transcribed to mRNA (messenger RNA) which gets converted (by a transcriptase) to a protein. Viruses invade a cell and use the same transcription mechanism, acting like mRNA, to create a special transcriptase of its own. This viral transcriptase (which is inhibited by zinc) then generates infective virus particles.
The “vaccine” is a genetically engineered mRNA, and uses our transcriptase to generate a protein, much like a virus does. I am doubtful that genetic engineering is advanced enough to guarantee any sane degree of safety.
Moderna’s dangerous mRNA “vaccine” is only one project. The one which looks the safest and most effective right now is from Oxford’s Jenner Institute, based upon a weakened chimp adenovirus, with WuWHOFlu viral spike proteins attacjed. AZN is already making 400 million doses, before it’s even out of human trial.
How much better is europe doing?
deaths per million population
Spain 608
italy 581
UK 679
France 463
US 470 and the us is almost certainly counting more liberally than the european countries.
All these countries have immigration problems and the US also has the highest use of AC anywhere in the world. This is as likely the reason the hot spots are happening where they are, cross boarder issues with Mexico and Air Conditioners, if you question this than why is southern California a hot spot but not northern?
Not long ago some folks, including a certain president, were saying that higher temperatures would kill the virus. Guess they forgot to factor in AC?
I don’t disagree with you Bob but…
Living in AZ, there does seem to be some correlation between the onset of hot weather and the uptick in cases. That would imply that AC has a significant impact on spreading the virus. However, the majority of people in AZ have their AC systems running by end of March and start of April. By the end of April, nearly all AC systems are in use within the lower elevation areas of our state, aka. Phoenix and Tucson metro areas, since temperatures are already well into the 90’s and even into triple digits by then. So makes you wonder why our spike happened nearly four weeks after we began to reopen again.
Now consider that approximately two weeks after our soft open, the protests broke out around the end of May and continued for some time. Even today, there are still ‘protests’ going on in Tempe and Phoenix. Coincidentally, the cases began to spike around the end of week one and the start of week two in June. The vast majority of reported cases early on during the spike has been in the age population between 18 and 40. Hmmm…Seems that this age group is also the vast majority of the demographic where protests have taken place. Correlation much?
Now take into account that these same young protesters go home with the virus, visit mom, dad, grandma and grandpa, best friend and hang out at the local restaurant talking about the protests from the previous few days. They sit in the nice, cold AC only to have the virus they caught now circulate throughout the house, building or facility they just entered and exposing countless others to this virus.
So, yes…AC does play a part but I would lay the blame at the feet of these protestors, agitators, rioters, looters and anarchists. The AC is just doing its job of keeping people cool and comfortable.
That is a very good observation, Romeo. If you have something more detailed about the correspondence between CV19 and air conditioning, statistics or otherwise, could you add that to this?
I wonder if I should be glad I didn’t get the A/C recharged for this summer. There really is something strange going on here.
Don’t think it’s the AC per say, I think it’s the staying in and being closed places with other people.
There’s that, too, Bob, but Legionella also is transmitted by poorly maintained A/C systems, so is it the A/C or the crowded quarters? Or is it both?
In the Midwest we did all of the precautions as though we were NY and NJ with their timing as one nation and then started to open up when the viral tsunami wave finally (actually) made it to our area. But we continue to generalize about continental scale countries and blocks of countries instead of the local vectors. This is the first pandemic with HIPPA privacy rules blocking useful information about the true vectors of infections at airports, food processing plants, hospitals, rotating nursing home staffs, under-reported local group gatherings, and immigrant multi-family households working in food processing. We make a lot of noise now while the same wave rolls on to new areas.
He just said the other day COVID was never going away…
He maybe right. Even if a vaccine works, the virus is out the in the world. Animals can carry it. The virus may also mutate so that existing vaccines (if any), no longer work.
We need to be mentally prepared for the possibility of need a new inoculation every year.
The influenza vaccine changes every year because the flu bug is a clever little soul that shifts its antigens and combines with other flu viruses to create one that humans may not be immune to. Hence, the annual flu shot. Sometimes, the CDC trips over its results – remember the Swine Flu panic? And the Bird Flu ditto? Those are good examples of misinformation by the press people, even though the idea of a new flu vaxx every fall has been here for decades.
This bug may be like that – shifting its antigens at will – and that may mean a new CV vaxx will be necessary every year. Hope I”m wrong. With something like this, I would GLADLY be wrong.
Enemy action.
COVID 19 and all the restrictive measures will disappear the day after Biden wins the election–the day he is inaugurated Fauci will get a raise.
I find it simply amazing that, right now, all-cause mortality in the United States is about average. It is simply amazing how there are fewer deaths because of motorcycle accidents, gunshot wounds, stroke, and cancer.
It is also amazing how the media always uses the word “cases”, never “people”. Why is that? There is an easy explanation. If I go in the hospital for a knee replacement, the hospital tests me every day for COVID-19. Every positive test counts as a case. Some hospitals have admitted to that.
And it is amazing how the goalposts keep moving. In March, “flatten the curve” and “wash your hands, don’t touch your face”. Now, “cases cases cases!” and “facemasks!”
I can guarantee you the goalpost will keep moving until after the November election. Journalists around the world listen to the New York Times as if their content was gospel truth. (Source: https://twitter.com/AlexBerenson/status/1288817155660709893 ) The New York Times would gladly put 8 billion people into poverty if it meant President Trump lost the election. I am quite certain Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Amazon would do the same. So, the New York Times is doing everything in their power to damage Donald Trump, and that panic is parroted around the world. Once the election is over and with the very likely chance Trump will win, the New York Times will need to find another thing to try and get rid of the President. And that means they will stop talking about what didn’t work, COVID-19.
I don’t know whether its possible to re-analyze death certificates effectively but it is no secret that the left padded Covid death numbers with thousands of deaths from other causes for political reasons.
There were a large number of reports on this that came out early on, but, predictably, this triggered a flood of lefty articles to drown these out and, true to Alinsky’s rules for lefty activists, they went Full Monty and claimed the deaths were greatly underestimated.
Also statistics on the disease have been shoddy around the world (maybe Taiwan an exception) and essentially unfit for use in fully assessing the disease. In this day and age, this is malfeasance with an agenda. I guess we should simply use Taiwan’s medical data to have the best there is.
During a town hall on CNN on Thursday, White House Coronavirus Task Force member Dr. Anthony Fauci stated that he doesn’t think “we need to go to lockdown again and shelter in place.”
Fauci said, “I don’t think we need to go to lockdown again and shelter in place. There are situations, as I’ve mentioned to you before, in multiple interviews, where, when they were trying to open up a state or a city, that there were certain guidelines that were skipped over. Maybe you’re in a phase two, and you need to pause and maybe go back to phase one. That’s entirely conceivable and may be recommended. I don’t think we need to go all the way back to lockdown. And the reason I say that is that we’re learning more and more. If you do five fundamental principles, in any situation, one, wear a mask all the time, consistently, when you’re outside, and can be exposed. Number two, keep physical distance. Number three, avoid bars or close bars if you can. Keep away from crowds, big congregations, and maintain hand hygiene. Those are five not rocket science things that one can do. And we know when you do that, and states that have done that, they’ve actually flattened the surging curve and are starting to come down. So, bottom line, right now, I don’t think we need to go to lockdown.”
This guy will get everybody banned from Twitter/Facebook/YouTube
As a professional mind reader I wanted to give you Dr. Fauxi’s latest thoughts on the Chi-Com 19 Virus and the American response:
“If these idiots will fall for lockdowns and mask mandates maybe I can make them wear goggles, too! This game of playing God is really fun, Hillary was right! Now if we can just get our new super, duper vaccine to market I’ll be rich, rich I tell you! Sure hope that Trump loses so I can relax for a while and think of ways to spend all the money I’ll be making off these sheep!”
Lockdowns don’t work, masks are unnecessary except for the infected and those around them, and the U.S. has nearly reached herd immunity threshold! This virus is pretty much over in the real world but it will play on and on in the media and politics because it is an avenue to power for the sociopaths in charge!
If you have any questions go to J.B.Handley’s site: jbhandley.com! He cites all the studies and REAL experts to show why the rest of the world is going back to work and back to school, while the U.S. politicos work to control their subjects and destroy our economy! WAKE UP!!
With regard to Fauci, the optics of him being allowed an entire stadium to himself, wife and friend was terrible and displayed for all to see his venality. That is enough for me.
I have been trying to explain to as many people as will listen, that in the past thirty years the population in the U.S. over 85 years of age has grown twice as fast as the population over all. There are 6.6 million U.S. citizens over the age of 85 and almost all have some comorbidity. This was a perfect circumstance for a pandemic in which the elderly are the most vulnerable targets. Of course, idiots respond with “but why does Japan not have the same issues?” It takes a pretty small intellect to not notice that Japan is not the U.S. and Japanese are not Americans — different lifestyles, different diet, etc. My point is that we spent a fortune over decades, to produce a perfect situation by which we would be criticized for not doing enough to stop a pandemic. At any rate, in the early stages of this pandemic in the Northern world the countries having the worst time with deaths were those whose over 65 cohort were 16% to 25% of total population, horrendous errors of judgement in management notwithstanding. At this point now countries with less than 10% over 65 cohort are rapidly catching up.
Next, what about HCQ, masks, lockdowns, etc? If we discount the utterly idiotic argument that a drug taken in a billion doses a day around the world has suddenly become deadly, the next most common argument against the use of HCQ is that it hasn’t been proven effective in a gold-standard trial. I agree; even Stella Immanuel’s results of 315 patients without a death could be the result of chance. However, if gold-standard tests are demanded, then what gold-standard test ever suggested that a lockdown of a modern, highly interconnected economy is reasonable or effective? Even worse are that randomized clinical trials showing that masks have a insignificant impact of the spread of colds and the flu are now discounted completely because everyone “knows” that masks are effective. Dr. Fauci uses the word “science” in the same way many government supported entities do, as a consensus of opinion — not as the result of learning gained through carefully designed experiments and studies.
COVID-19 seems to have made us less bright, Fauci included; but the real problem here is that we went down an ill-advised path early that we now have trouble backing away from. Post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy in reasoning has taken an exalted place in our minds.
“Why do you think the US has done so poorly in suppressing this pandemic compared with other rich countries?”
I’ll field this one. It’s because our stats are wildly inflated to keep us afraid just long enough for Fauci and Gates to bring a vaccine to market. Then the stats will be fudged in the oppostie direction to “prove” that it works so the vaccine will become a perennial waste of public money every year.
NYC was the epicenter not Wuhan.
The story as I understand it is that the novel coronavirus has spread from on infected person in China to threaten everyone on Earth. In a few months. As long as there is one infected person somewhere, relaxing the containment protocols in any way will cause an immediate resurgence of it. It was pointless to destroy the world’s economy to contain a virus that is impossible to contain.
Notice that the age to mortality graph of COVID-19 exactly parallels the age to mortality graph for heart disease. Heart disease kills far more people, and yet we accept heart disease deaths as the normal result of modern lifestyles. We’re just going to have to learn that acceptance for COVID-19, but on the way to the learning we’ll have destroyed the financial lives of tens of millions of people.
Let’s face it: It is going to get a lot worse, and the worsening is going to be abrupt and profound. National economies are going to collapse, bifurcating into the solvent and the destitute. There may be widespread violence, as people who can’t feed and house themselves and their children give way to desperation.
Just one example of the coming chaos: Airlines will have to be nationalized. There is not an airline in the world that is not hemorrhaging money. We cannot allow airlines to fail. Bailing out the airlines will be less than one percent of the expenditures needed to maintain even a pale shadow of social stability.
The only County that did something that worked well was South Korea. They had K-24 masks or what is the Korea equivalent of the N95 masks. They have been exporting masks ever since. When the CDC was saying no to masks, South Koreans were wearing the good masks en mass. I know I was watching their news clips. This pandemic has been a botched job from the beginning of the Media, The tech Censors, the WHO, CDC, NIH and many of our governors. No one is looking closely at collateral deaths….. increased suicide rate, people who did not access emergent and elective care when they needed it due to the massive panic the media unleashed on the American people….and the general broken hardheartedness of the lock down for our seniors and our business owners. Where are all the mental health counselors and social workers… those people have been on a Federally paid vacation for months….. the dentists are working, the doctors who still have jobs are working…what about the mental health people? It’s too late to do a lock down now…. stick a fork in it’s done. But it’s not too late to take the stimulus money and give us K24, N95 or equivalent masks or make the available so we can buy them…. for crying out loud. The masks we are using now are crap. Governors that ruin their states should be concerned about re-election. I am a democrat and not a fan of Trump. But sometimes the opponent needs to win to bring sanity and justice to a party who have gone astray. Trump did that to the Libertarian republicans (yeah by the way) , now maybe it’s time for him to do it to the libertarian, Liberal and/or Marxist, Anarchist Democratic party.