Further Evidence That Lockdowns, Closures, Masks, Vaccine Mandates, and NPIs Were Worse Than Useless

Still more evidence just keeps on piling up, from New York to Taiwan to Australia to Cornell University, that lockdowns, closures, masks, vaccine mandates, and NPIs have been utterly useless or worse than useless, as the ever-insightful Ian Miller (author of Unmasked) has noted recently.   It is so bleeding obvious now that no sane person can possibly deny it any longer.  Of course, as the old adage goes, people tend to go mad in crowds, but only recover one by one.

And school closures turned out to be even worse than we thought, per the latest evidence from Brazil, a country that famously eschewed lockdowns and most types of NPIs for the most part, but bizarrely had some of the longest school closures in the world, making it possible to readily tease out the costs and benefits of this one particular NPI.  One new study, which dovetails nicely with other studies in both rich and poor countries around the world, found that remote learning resulted in truly MASSIVE learning losses and increased dropout rates compared to in-person education.  And yet another Brazilian study found that it was ultimately all for naught, as the overall Covid death rates in communities who reopened schools earlier were not significantly different from those in communities who kept schools closed longer.  This was notably true even for high schools, which were once thought to be so much riskier than middle and elementary schools in terms of spreading the virus that even Sweden felt the need to close them during most of the first wave and again briefly at the very height of the second wave.  Thus, we can conclude that school closures at any age or grade level were basically all pain and no gain overall, at least for prolonged closures, and that remote learning simply does not work well.

(And of course there is plenty of evidence from the USA, UK, and elsewhere that not only are school closures exceedingly harmful to children, but also opening them encumbered with worse-than-useless dystopian restrictions like antisocial distancing and mask mandates is really not that much better either.)

In other news, study finds that water is wet, and that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.

UPDATE:  Oh yeah, and about those jabs?  Well, those on balance also seem to be worse than useless as well for most people, and especially for kids.  Wonder no more where all those formerly rare but now ubiquitous reinfections are coming from these days.  That's not us just saying that, that is actually taken straight from Pf*zer's very own clinical trial of children under age 5.  Looks like Sweden, who never forced them on anyone and currently refuses to give these jabs to children under 12, and Florida, who also never forced them and currently refuses to purchase it for children under 5, are vindicated yet again.

And if you think Long Covid is bad, just wait till you hear about Long Lockdown and Long Jab Injury!  The data are piling up and increasingly showing exactly which side of the debate is on the right side of history.

As for efficacy, the Chinese inactivated whole virus vaccines (that is, actual vaccines) Sinovac and Sinopharm, really don't seem to be much better either, as evident in excess death rates in Chile, a country that largely preferred those ones at least three to one over the mRNA jabs.  And India's Covaxin, which is also made the same way as the Chinese ones, also seems to be quite lackluster as well.  Kinda like regular flu shots, in fact.  Same thing, different virus.

And once again, the ever-insightful Ian Miller thoroughly debunks, debones, slices, dices, and juliennes the pro-mask arguments, and lays waste to their utterly scorched remains for good.  And check out the latest new study from Josh Stevenson about masks for kids as well, likely the very best one yet.  Spoiler alert:  masks STILL don't work.

A recent Australian study confirmed via experiment that surgical masks (and by extension, cloth masks as well) are utterly useless against aerosolized viruses, as are even N95s unless they are properly fit-tested and NO mistakes are made.  The latter, of course, does NOT apply to the general population, as Germany unfortunately learned the hard way when their general N95 mandate failed so spectacularly to contain or control their Covid outbreak.

Are you listening, New Zealand?  Because the "clue phone" is ringing louder than ever now.

AUGUST UPDATE:  We see yet another strike against the jabs now.  As the late Bill Sardi predicted, it looks like the century-old BCG vaccine (against tuberculosis) does in fact seem to work at least as well against Covid as the gene therapy jabs do, according to the latest research.  And perhaps other unrelated diseases as well.  Not only because some of what is labeled as Covid is simply misdiagnosed TB or co-infection with both (which is likely true too, as also likely happened in 1918), but more likely due to the BCG's general effect on training the innate immune system to be more effective.  And it is indeed fascinating what they found.  Note as well that this same nonspecific "trained immunity" can also be promoted with beta-glucan supplements (from yeast) and/or thymus gland extract supplements as well, no jabs needed, which Bill Sardi also discussed.  

Perhaps they finally cracked the code of the holy grail that is a truly universal vaccine?

The Next Plandemic?

Just as the COVID-19 pandemic is basically over now as the virus and its descendents has transitioned to one degree or another of endemicity after reaching a level of functional herd immunity from mass infection (largely no thanks to the jabs!), no sooner does another potential one appear seemingly out of nowhere.  And that virus is.....MONKEYPOX! 

Monkeypox is mainly found in wild animals in parts of Africa where it is endemic at a low level, and related to smallpox but much milder and far less contagious between humans, hence it being quite rare in humans.  It generally requires VERY close contact to transmit it, and it is not known to spread in the absence of symptoms either.  But very recently there has been a rash (pun intended) of cases in several countries where it is not normally found among people with no history of travel to Africa, such as the UK, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Sweden, Australia, Canada, and now the USA.  The numbers remain quite small, less than 100 confirmed cases total and no deaths yet, but it is being closely monitored.

The ever-insightful Michael P. Senger (author of Snake Oil:  How Xi Jinping Shut Down The World) points out that, just like the COVID-19 pandemic was preceded by just a few months by a tabletop simulation of a SARS-like viral pandemic called "Event 201", so too was this monkeypox outbreak preceded just a year ago by another tabletop simulation of, and he quotes, a "global pandemic involving an unusual strain of monkeypox beginning in May 2022".  In fact, it takes place as beginning on May 15, 2022, accurate almost to the DAY.  Now, that is one eerie coincidence if there ever was one!  Or is it really a coincidence at all?  Things that really should make you go, hmmmm....

And Senger also points out that, at the center of both simulations is....George Fu Gao, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control.  Yes, really.  And he and his colleagues have been awfully quiet lately.

But don't worry, they have plenty of vaccines ready now--smallpox vaccines to be exact, which supposedly also work on this related virus as well.  Bill Gates must be salivating like a Pavlov's dog as we speak!

Meanwhile, the NYC Health Department is currently a world outlier among public health agencies in recommending that people wear masks again (!) to protect against monkeypox.  Yes, really.  Not even the CDC is saying that, and there is really no hard evidence that masks work against monkeypox in the general population.  But that didn't stop NYC from advocating it, because reasons.  Or something. 

We at the TSAP do NOT believe that this will actually become a real pandemic, rather, this outbreak will most likely fizzle out on its own as a mere flash in the pan.  But as the past two and a half years has so painfully shown us all, we must never, ever underestimate what sorts of evil machinations the global oligarchy is capable of, both in terms of deliberate or "accidental" release of natural or manmade bioweapons, as well as collateral damage from illiberal and totalitarian responses to same.

And all this just as the infamous WHO pandemic treaty is being revised in an increasingly illiberal direction and being actively debated as we speak....

Either way, whether it is a hoax, a real threat, somewhere in between, or some combination of both, this has the fingerprints of the oligarchy all over it.

No More Excess Deaths!

While we officially crossed the grim 1 million threshold for cumulative Covid deaths in the USA since the beginning of the pandemic just the other day (based on official CDC numbers of course, which count all deaths "with Covid" and not necessarily "from Covid"), we also reached another significant milestone at the same time that the mainstream media did not seem to acknowledge.  According to the CDC's own data, there have not been any excess all-cause deaths at all since the week of March 12, 2022, despite "cases" rising significantly since then (especially in the Northeast) for the past two months thanks to both seasonality and the BA.2 subvariants.  Of course, it can take several weeks for excess deaths to be fully counted, but this is the longest stretch of time since March 2020 that we have gone without excess deaths.  In fact, deaths are currently running below normal, as the proverbial ferryman already got more than his fair share of money by now.

So what does this all mean?   It means that the virus is currently endemic, and that the pandemic is essentially over now.  It is basically the new seasonal flu and the new common cold rolled into one.  In fact, just before the different-enough Omicron variant hit, actual influenza made a comeback already before being temporarily suppressed by Omicron's viral interference.  And with no new major variants detectable on the horizon (only subvariants and sub-subvariants), it is unlikely that the resulting endemic equilibrium will be disrupted enough to create another major death and hospitalization wave anytime soon.  Even if there is a "casedemic" wave from time to time, herd immunity will prevail overall.

It is thus no wonder that even some top FDA officials are now finally saying that Americans should treat Covid like the flu.  What we at Team Reality have already been saying for a while now, in other words.

Bottom line:  Covid is endemic, Zero Covid is a pipe dream, and lockdowns, masks, and NPIs are useless or worse than useless.  The vast, vast majority of Americans, including children, have already had the virus at least once by now.  We know how to treat it effectively, and the largely failed "vaccines" have been around and available more than long enough to know that they weren't exactly worth waiting for.  It is long past time to adopt the "flu strategy" and move on.

UPDATE:  We are still learning more and more about how lockdowns, masks, and NPIs have done far more harm than good, especially for children, and also that "immunity debt" is in fact a real thing after all.  All for naught.  Hindsight is indeed, well, 2020.  Future generations will all surely look back with absolute horror and disbelief at the conduct of our "leaders" and their sheeple followers over the past two years!

We at Team Reality hate to say we told you so, but....

(Fortunately, the unusual spike in non-Covid excess deaths (read: mostly jab deaths plus numerous collateral deaths from lockdowns, closures, and NPIs) in the second half of 2021 and into very early 2022 now seems to have also since receded by now as well, though alas the damage is already done.)

Meanwhile, in Australia....

And for any natural immunity deniers still out there, particularly as regards to Omicron, this rebuttal is just for you.  Seriously, just take the L and move on.

Why A Cashless Society Is A Terrible Idea That Must Be Resisted At All Costs

In recent months, there has been more and more talk about phasing out cash in favor of a purely digital currency, especially a central bank digital currency (CBDC).  While the idea does have its benefits, such as making banking maneuvers and electronic transactions of all kinds simpler and almost completely frictionless, there is nonetheless one major, outweighing, and inescapable design flaw to such an otherwise promising idea that should make any reasonably sane and liberty-loving society reject the idea absolutely.   So what is this fatal flaw?

In a nutshell:  a purely digital currency would be controlled completely by whoever is in power, which generally means the greater oligarchy of government, central banks, and of course the elite "shadow government" who runs both.  It can be turned on and off at will by whoever controls it, which means that your bank account, credit cards, and stuff like that would effectively be turned on and off at will by these same oligarchs and technocrats.  Next up would be social credit scoring, and so on.  All of this would be a very effective way to control We the People in ways that the dictators of old could not have ever dreamed of!  And without physical cash as an alternative, there is no way to get around such a scheme (especially once they ban cryptocurrencies next on their agenda).

That more than outweighs any potential benefits of CBDCs.  It is inherently totalitarian, and one need look no further than China to see its rotten fruits in action.  Or Canada, when they cracked down on the Freedom Convoy and froze the bank accounts of them and their supporters, for an earlier stage of this.  Imagine what they could have done if cash no longer existed!

For the record, the TSAP fully supports a Universal Basic Income (UBI), provided it really is done with NO strings attached.  Done properly, contrary to the naysayers it will increase the bargaining power of the working class and will actually reduce perverse incentives and dependence on the government compared to the utterly broken status quo.  But we will NEVER, EVER support a CBDC or anything else that leads to the elimination of physical cash, period.

The oligarchs may be able control We the People to one degree or another regardless of the monetary system in place.  But they cannot control us 100% as long as physical cash exists as an alternative to digital currency.  Once cash is gone, all bets really are off!

A cashless society is, at best, a solution in search of a problem.  At worst, it is a sure gateway to an unprecedented level of irreversible dystopian totalitarianism.  We ignore all of this at our own peril.

Will Roe v. Wade Be Overturned?

A recent leak from the US Supreme Court, which currently has a conservative majority, reveals that the nearly half-century old precedent of Roe v. Wade is likely to be overturned in the near future.  This, especially on the heels of one red state after another recently imposing more and more restrictions and bans on abortion, would be a disaster for women's reproductive rights, and slopes are FAR slipperier than they appear.  If a woman loses her reproductive rights, who knows what rights she can lose next?  This is one of the first of several steps towards Margaret Atwood's worst nightmare, at least in the red states.

This further drives home the point that we cannot afford to be complacent at all, even for major victories that were thought to be settled long ago.

If it does actually get overturned, women may want to go on a Lysistrata-style sex strike until either the SCOTUS reverses and restores Roe, and/or a federal law codifying Roe and/or a new constitutional amendment is passed guaranteeing reproductive rights to women.  Because otherwise, with the coming red wave (thanks in part to two years of the Democrats' self-sabotaging and illiberal Covid restrictions, and many years of silly performative wokeness), it really doesn't look very good at all.

UPDATE:  It should really go without saying, but we do NOT support, condone, or tolerate anyone vandalizing churches or places of worship of any kind, period.  That kind of behavior is grossly unethical, and also does nothing to address what governments are doing in regards to reproductive rights.  KNOCK IT OFF!

Also, here's another good piece exposing the rank hypocrisy of "pro-life" (anti-choice) zealots.