Showing posts with label pandemic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pandemic. Show all posts

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Hindsight Is Literally 2020

Hindsight is quite literally 2020.

Four years ago (roughly) today, the world lost its marbles and began to shut down.  And as we have noted before, it was effectively all for naught.  In the end, the lockdowns, masks, and jabs did more harm than good on balance. 

From the ever-insightful Dr. Steve Kirsch's recent Substack article last year, in a nutshell:

"Special mention for the fact that the entire pandemic was completely unnecessary. 3 supplements work better than vaccines and are safe and cheap. All the lockdowns, masking, vaccines, mandates, social distancing, etc. were all unnecessary. And even though this is now known, nobody will pay attention since it will make them look bad.

"Uptake of vitamin C, vitamin D and zinc were significantly associated with the reduced risk of infection and severity of COVID-19 (OR: 0.006 (95% CI: 0.03–0.11) (p = 0.004)) and (OR: 0.03 (95% CI: 0.01–0.22) (p = 0.005))... this study was conducted before the start of mass vaccination against COVID-19 in Bangladesh."

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/23/5029

That's over 150x decreased risk just from taking these 3 dirt-cheap supplements that everyone has known to be safe + effective for decades! And it was all pre-vax, it was for the original Wuhan strain that was most dangerous!"

Read that again, and again, and again and let it sink in.  Vitamin C, Vitamin D, and Zinc.  Those three things alone would have largely defanged and declawed this overall already relatively humdrum virus to begin with, which was basically a classic super-flu at worst, and never an existential threat.


And especially for Vitamin D, but the others too, this was confirmed time and again.  And again and again.


Oh, and one of the other thing that we at the TSAP have long advocated, the humble xylitol nasal spray, has also been confirmed yet again as prophylaxis.


It gets even worse still for the powers that be, apparently, when one also notes that the standard of care for patients with post-viral pneumonia was abruptly changed worldwide, at or before the beginning of the pandemic.  And not for the better, either. The change was to no longer give antibiotics for pneumonia if Covid was thought to be the cause, even though it was very likely that many if not most of such deaths were from secondary bacterial infections.  And antibiotics would have been given had they not been inexplicably removed from the protocols, and thus deliberately withheld from patients for political reasons.  A good chunk of excess deaths could thus easily be attributed to that alone.  


Just #3tablets of azithromycin or doxycycline would often have been enough to save their lives.

What should have been done?  "Letting it rip", that is, "adopting the flu strategy", ultimately would have in fact been the least-worst alternative in the long run, all things considered.  That is precisely what a properly right-brain dominant person would have advocated from the get-go, at least if they were properly informed and NOT bombarded 24/7 with fearporn news media.

Looks like "Stockholm Syndrome" should really be renamed "Melbourne Syndrome" because #SwedenGotItRight.  The verdict is in.  In terms of cumulative all-cause excess mortality, Sweden, who famously eschewed lockdowns and masks and such, actually came out as one of the best in Europe, and not very different from their much stricter neighbors in the long run.  Ditto for other countries and US states that largely ignored the plandemic, but did similarly or better than their stricter neighbors.  Lockdowns, masks, and jab mandates were thus worse than useless.

On March 12, 2020, interestingly enough, the band The Killers released the song "Caution".  The song, while not about the virus, is nonetheless basically about the theme of "throwing caution to the wind".  And in hindsight, that is ironically pretty much what should have been done in regards to the virus, at least for the vast majority of the population who was at relatively low risk overall, whose resulting "herd immunity" would have thus ultimately protected those who were truly vulnerable to the virus.  Lockdowns, on the other hand, merely dragged things out and ultimately put the genuinely vulnerable at greater risk.  The science of epidemiology and public health didn't really change, but the politics sure did.

And failing that, once those who were genuinely fooled (including myself somewhat as well, regrettably) had wised up early on, the second least-worst policy would have been to, as the same song says, "go straight from zero to the Fourth of July" in terms of reopening and ending all restrictions at once.  That's right, ALL at once, all the way back to 2019 normal, period, and don't look back. 

But instead, the unholy "public health" trinity of collective action problems, prevention paradox, and precautionary principle had all been turned on their heads and weaponized against We the People.  Benjamin Franklin spins in his grave.

Moral of the story:  NEVER give up any rights "temporarily", that you are not willing to say goodbye to forever.  Or at the very least, you will not get them back without a fight. 

Indeed, hindsight is 2020, in more ways than one.

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

Case Closed: Masks STILL Don't Work

(This is a repost of an article from February 2023, as we thought the reader might need a reminder now in light of current events involving mask zealots.)

A major new gold standard Cochrane review study has come to a conclusion that only the utterly brainwashed would consider at all shocking at this point:  masks don't really work to stop the spread of respiratory viruses.  Never did, and never will.  Not even the vaunted N95.  Handwashing is likely modestly effective, but masks are basically a joke overall, and not a very funny one either.

This concurs with over a century of research that came out overwhelmingly in support of the anti-mask side of the debate.  In fact, by 1919 it was practically settled science that these devices aren't anywhere near what they were cracked up to be, a consensus which prevailed until March 2020.  Then the pandemic narrative took over and turned the science upside down for nearly three years straight, while any studies were to the contrary were systematically file-drawered for far longer than those supporting the narrative.  And now the entire pandemic narrative has collapsed faster than formerly healthy young athletes on the field after being jabbed.

We recently noted how the ever-insightful Ian Miller has so thoroughly debunked, deboned, sliced, diced, and julienned the pro-mask arguments, and laid waste to their utterly scorched remains for good.  And be sure check out the excellent Fargo study from Josh Stevenson et al. about masks for kids as well, likely the very best one yet, with the very least biases or confounding.  Spoiler alert:  masks STILL don't work.  Not for kids, not for adults, not for no one.

Oh, and let's not forget the dreaded Foegen Effect as well.  And other harms as well, see here.  That literally makes masks WORSE than useless.  Jettison them!

To the anti-mask side:  you are now hereby overwhelmingly vindicated, and really always have been in fact.  You have literally passed the biggest functional IQ test in all of modern history.  To the pro-mask side:  we are still waiting for you to apologize.  Yesterday.  And to those who switched jerseys anytime after February 2022 (that is, only when it became socially acceptable to do so), you are fooling no one.

QED

UPDATE:  Some may pedantically point out that "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence", therefore "no one can really say" that masks don't work.  True, you cannot (definitively) prove a negative.  But given the totality of the research and real-world evidence, it would be slothful induction (if not magical thinking as well) to still believe that masks have any sort of net benefit at all. If they did have a net benefit, it would have been self-evident long ago.  We need to see the forest for the trees.

"But...but...they worked in Japan!" See here for a good debunking of that myth as well.

And in case the pro-masker zealots pathetically trot out the fatally flawed Boston school mask study in desperation, rest assured that Ian Miller has successfully laid waste to that one as well.  And so has the ever-insightful Emily Burns, as well as Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg, one of the authors of the Fargo study

Oh, and another study found that masks in HOSPITALS make no difference to infection rates.  Thus, if they don't even work in hospitals with all of their universal multilayered precautionary measures, they simply don't work at all, period.

UPDATE 2:  A re-analysis of the infamous Boston mask study has now thoroughly debunked it.

UPDATE 3:  For more on the harms of masks, see here.

UPDATE 4:  And another school masking study can be found here as well, co-authored by the aforementioned Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg.  Again, surprise surprise, masks STILL don't work.  Period. 

UPDATE 5:  And that's before we get into the toxins that can be emitted from some types of masks, including the vaunted N95.

UPDATE 6:  Pushback works.  Contrary to Carl Jung's famous saying, what you resist does NOT persist, as long as you resist enough.  DO NOT COMPLY!

UPDATE 7:  Looks like masks are even more harmful than we thought, especially for children

And finally, see here about the ultimate success of one of the most anti-mask (and anti-lockdown) countries in the world, Sweden.  As a result, we think "Stockholm Syndrome" should really be called "Melbourne Syndrome", because #SwedenGotItRight.

(Mic drop)

Wednesday, August 3, 2022

Latest Mask Study Reaches A New Low (Which We Didn't Even Think Was Possible At This Point)

Just when you thought that The Science (TM) couldn't get any lower, it reached a new low today.  The latest pro-mask study, a preprint which has yet to even be peer-reviewed (though will probably be pal-reviewed at some point), is a classic example of cherry-picked junk science not even worth the paper it is printed on.

The ever-insightful Ian Miller of Unmasked does an excellent job of taking it down here.  In a nutshell, the so-called "systematic review" study took 1732 mask studies, and only looked at a whopping....13 of them.  That is less than 1% of all of the studies done to date, so why did they disregard over 99% of the evidence that they found?  Probably because it wasn't exactly flattering to the pro-mask side, that's why.  And the 13 studies they did include, with a combined sample size of only 243 people, of course yielded implausibly (and laughably) high estimates of mask effectiveness.  This clearly has "cherry picking" written all over it.

And that's before we even get into the obvious fatal flaws in at least some if not all of those 13 studies (lack of generalizability, not done in real world conditions, no comparison group, and of course small sample size).  Also, all studies after July 2020 (!) were arbitrarily excluded, because reasons.  This is apparently what passes for The Science (TM) these days, and it has gotten increasingly desperate now as the narrative has thoroughly collapsed by now.  We are now seeing naked Lysenkoism without so much as even the pretense of scientific integrity anymore.

We recently noted how the same Ian Miller so 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.

Masks didn't work in 1918, and they clearly didn't work in 2020 or 2021 either.  So anyone who thinks they will somehow work in 2022 or beyond, clearly has their head in an anatomically impossible position.  Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is a functional definition of either insanity or Lysenkoism (same difference).

UPDATE:  Looks like masks may be even worse than we thought.  From the Foegen Effect to the various questionable chemicals and microplastics in the masks (as well as in the Covid tests and disinfectants too), these things may very well be exacerbating, perpetuating, or even causing Long Covid as well (to say nothing of the jabs).  Plus there is also the issue of bacteria and mold growing on the masks, as well as impaired O2/CO2 exchange.  An excellent article that makes such a case can be found here.  For all of the times that the TSAP had ever foolishly advocated masks to any extent back in 2020 before belatedly changing our stance, we certainly do apologize.

2023 UPDATE:  Still further evidence against masks, especially for kids, can be found here as well.

Saturday, May 21, 2022

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 Worldpoints 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.

Sunday, December 12, 2021

Over 400 Studies On Our Side

BREAKING NEWS:  According to Dr. Paul Alexander, here are now over 400 studies that expose the utter failure of all of the COVID-related mandates and compulsory restrictions in the real world, and ZERO studies of even halfway-decent quality that show the opposite with any real confidence.  Once you exclude all of the fatally-flawed and poorest quality studies, and look at enough real-world data points, one can firmly conclude that all of these measures have done far more harm than good on balance.  And they should NEVER, EVER, EVER be repeated.  Like, ever.

Dr. Alexander's article discusses compulsory non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) such as lockdowns, shelter-in-place, school closures, masks and mask mandates, etc. and essentially debunks them all.  Scratch that, he debones, fillets, slices, dices, and juliennes each and every one of these sacred cows, and pretty much lays waste to their remains.  However, his article does not touch on the most recent addition to the mix:  the now ubiquitous "vaccines" and the disgustingly tyrannical mandates and passports of same.  That is where the ever-insightful Steve Kirsch comes in, noting that these jabs literally kill more people than they save, and a fortiori for children to the tune of 117 to 1.  And that data was largely before the boosters became widely used, so that is most likely a lower bound for the adverse effects going forward if we continue on the path we are on.  They are also known to be very "leaky" (i.e. they don't stop transmission), and are thus NOT fit for the purpose of mass vaccination even if they were somehow perfectly safe (which they're not).

Thus, to put it in medical terminology, "the therapeutic window is closed" for all of these mandates and restrictions, period.  We must scrap the whole lot of them, cold turkey, never to repeat them again.  And the same is clearly true for these "vaccines" themselves, with maybe the exception of some extremely vulnerable and high risk individuals who still have yet to receive them for whatever reason.  Plenty of early treatments and prophylactics exist that completely obviate any need for these jabs, we just need to stop denying and censoring them, and start using them.  And yesterday is NOT soon enough!

FINAL THOUGHT:  If anyone still thinks that vaccine mandates or passports are somehow necessary OR sufficient to prevent another lockdown, well, we've got a nice bridge over the Danube River we'd like to sell you.  As they are now learning the hard way in Europe, you cannot bargain with the devil and hope to come out in one piece!  Cold turkey is the only way out of this mess for good, period.  When you try to meet insanity and tyranny in the middle, you will always lose, each and every single time.

UPDATE:  Looks like Sweden, who famously eschewed lockdowns, mask mandates, and vaccine mandates, has ultimately been vindicated after all.  Their cumulative all-cause excess mortality per capita (by far the best indicator of all) was well below the European average, and believe it or not, not very different from their neighbors when you include all of their neighbors.  And Brazil, who had a reputation for being lax, and even Belarus, Nicaragua, and Tanzania, who largely ignored the pandemic, also fared quite similarly to their much stricter neighbors as well in terms of excess deaths.  And here in the USA, we see that Florida's excess death rate was roughly equivalent to California's despite the latter being much, much stricter overall than the former, AND despite the former also having a much older and fatter population as well.  Game. Set. Match.

Another study finds that babies born during the pandemic have stunted development compared to babies born before the pandemic.  Interestingly, no significant difference was seen between babies born to mothers who contracted the virus during pregnancy and those who did not.  Rather, it was the mothers' stress from all of the panic and lockdowns that had a toxic effect on the babies across regardless of the virus itself.  Let that sink in for a moment.  Now add in all the ubiquitous antisocial distancing and masks they experienced during early childhood as well, and it gets even worse still.

As for the Nu Xi Omicron variant, it is looking more and more like an intellectual checkmate for the purveyors of the official narrative.  Both "Team Vaccine" and "Team Zero Covid" are about to eat some serious crow, while the inevitable transition from pandemic to endemic has been greatly accelerated.

And now, the CDC has finally decided to pull the plug on the fraudulent PCR test, effectively December 31, 2021.  Because they know that the gig is up, the narrative has been completely laid waste, and effectively ending PCR testing is literally the only way they can declare "victory" over Covid at this point.

Don't forget to check out this deep dive by the ever-insightful Julius Ruechel too.

Friday, November 26, 2021

WTF Happened To The Left ?

That is the trillion-dollar question we should all have been asking all along.  From the moderate liberal left to the progressive left to the socialist far left, we saw far too many were either silent or went along with the neoliberal pseudo-left in pushing these illiberal, authoritarian, totalitarian, dystopian, and technocratic restrictions--lockdowns, shutdowns, school closures, mass quarantines, mask mandates, travel restrictions, gathering restrictions, and now even vaccine mandates and "passports".  That was one of the most shocking observations in history. 

There is literally nothing progressive or "woke" about these draconian measures that arbitrarily revoke individual human rights and civil liberties, destroy economies, destroy family and community cohesion, disproportionately harm the poor and people of color, disproportionately harm women and children, and quite frankly don't even work to stop the virus in the long run.  Up until March 2020, it was largely a consensus even in the medical community that doing these worse-than-useless things would do far more harm than good on balance, thus blatantly violating the Hippocratic oath of "first do no harm", and the left generally felt the same way.  So what changed?

From the ACLU to Vox to Noam Chomsky to the UN to the WSWS to Jacobin to Ms. Magazine to the AMA to the AAP to the AARP to nearly every left-wing or left-leaning political party in the world (outside of Sweden, Belarus, and Nicaragua), some of the last people one would expect to carry water for such a horrible agenda of the oligarchy and Big Pharma ended up doing exactly that.  Was it simply fear?  Was it generous payola from the oligarchy and Big Pharma?  Was it manipulation and coercion from them?  Was it blindly taking orders from Beijing, like the WHO is known to do?  Was it activation of some latent (or not-so-latent) authoritarian tendencies estimated to be present in 20% of the general population?  Was it what started as a merely silly "Orange Man Bad" political take that simply metastasized throughout the entire body politic?  Or perhaps a deep-seated desire to destroy capitalism (and/or industrial civilization) once and for all at any cost, regardless of the collateral damage?  

Most likely, it was all of the above.  Either way, the vast majority of the Left has SOLD OUT.  

The Democratic Party is beyond repair now.  News Flash:  The ubiquitous hashtag #DemExit is trending, and going viral.  Somebody needs to answer the Clue Phone, and fast!  Otherwise, 2022 and 2024 will thus be a bloodbath at the polls for the Dems.

Meanwhile, the ever-insightful British organization Left Lockdown Sceptics has consistently been a prinicipled beacon of sanity and reason on the genuine Left, no matter how far off the rails and utterly unhinged the rest of the self-proclaimed "Left" (whether (neo)liberal, progressive, or radical) have become lately.  They have truly stood the test of time, and their integrity will not be forgotten.

The time for the increasingly compromised and increasingly phony "Left" to genuinely repent cold turkey and make amends is yesterday.  Scratch that, the best time was 21 months ago.  The second best time is RIGHT NOW!  What are they waiting for?

UPDATE:  We would be remiss if we did not also note how egregiously ableist (in addition to being racist, sexist, ageist, adultist, eltist, and classist) these draconian measures have been, and still are in the places that continue to impose them.  People with disabilities and chronic illnesses have clearly gotten the brief end of the stick in countless ways, from worsening isolation to denial of services to interference with communication to denial of freedom of movement and more.  And it created a truly massive and persistent mental health crisis on top of it all.  All while the zealots who promote these measures have cynically and disgustingly used such vulnerable members of society as a fig leaf for these measures, with all of their empty rhetoric about "protecting the vulnerable", a promise that has been utterly broken time and again.  Thus, the overall intersectionally oppressive system known as the kyriarchy has clearly only gained strength all the more since from the very same "woke" pseudo-left who hypocritically claims to be dismantling it.

Also, it seems that organized labor (which has historically been quite left-leaning) has sold out as well, or at least some unions in the USA and UK, alas.  Particularly the teachers' unions, from the start.

Thursday, November 18, 2021

What "Learning To Live With It" Really Means

As it becomes increasingly obvious that COVID-19 is becoming endemic if it isn't already, and that, try as we may, we clearly cannot eradicate this virus, there has been some confusion on what it really means when we say we need to "learn to live with the virus".  When we at the TSAP say that, this is what we mean:

What it does NOT include, in theory or practice:

  • Lockdowns of any degree or kind
  • Business restrictions of any kind
  • Mask mandates of any kind anywhere
  • Curfews of any kind
  • Antisocial distancing 
  • Gathering restrictions of any kind
  • Travel restrictions of any kind
  • School or university closures
  • Healthcare restrictions or denials
  • Red zones and green zones
  • Mass testing of asymptomatic people
  • Quarantine of asymptomatic people
  • Contact tracing, or test-and-trace apps
  • Vaccine mandates or coercion of any kind, anywhere 
  • COVID or health "passports" of any kind
  • Anything even remotely dystopian

What it includes:

  • Common sense
  • Early treatment and prophylaxis
  • General health and wellness 
  • Honesty and integrity 
  • Empathy and compassion 
  • Human rights
  • Liberty 
  • Personal responsibility 
  • Live and let live
In other words, we simply go cold turkey from all pandemic-related restrictions, adopt the "flu model", live our lives to the fullest, and move on.  Capisce?

And the best moral learned in the past two years?  NEVER, EVER, EVER try to meet insanity or tyranny in the middle!  You will ALWAYS lose when attempting to compromise with the purveyors of the official narrative.  Give them an inch, and they will take a mile every single time.  Lesson learned, the hard way.

UPDATE:  Yet another study finds that lockdowns did far more harm than good, and we should NEVER, EVER, EVER attempt to repeated it.  Like, ever.  In other news, water is wet and the sun rises in the east.

Monday, November 8, 2021

Pfizermectin To The Rescue!

The latest impressive announcement of Pfizer's new anti-Covid pill, Paxlovid, is generating headlines everywhere.  The end of the pandemic is near!  Nearly 90% in preventing hospitalization and death! Hallelujah, let's pop the champagne!

Of course, if it really pans out, they literally just made their own failing "vaccine" (and those of their competitors) completely obsolete.  Very convenient damage control on their part.  And given how their new drug is a protease inhibitor, that it means it shares one of several mechanisms of action that Ivermectin utilizes against the virus, hence the nickname #Pfizermectin trending now.  And Ivermectin, best when taken along with zinc and/or doxycycline as famously done in India, also apparently does other things against the virus as well.  But Ivermectin is much cheaper as it is off-patent and generic now, so Big Pharma obviously can't profit from that.  Hence all the censorship.

And it's not just Ivermectin that acts as an already existing protease inhibitor to inhibit viral replication.  Various nutrients like resveratrol (from grapes), fisetin (from strawberries), and turmeric also act as natural protease inhibitors, while quercetin also inhibits cell entry of the virus and acts as a zinc ionophore to carry zinc into cells (zinc inhibits viral replication via a different mechanism).  Throw in some Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Niacin, Melatonin, Thiamine, and B12, along with Selenium and Vitamin E, and the virus will not stand a chance.  Thus, these increasingly failing and questionable "vaccines" were basically always obsolete, and no need to wait for Pfizer's (or Merck's) new magic pill.  Back to 2019 normal yesterday!

Even plain old aspirin seems to be beneficial in reducing Covid death rates, as long as you don't overdo it and take plenty of Vitamin C as well (as too much aspirin can deplete Vitamin C).  Any "survival kit" that does not contain aspirin and the aforementioned vitamins is not really a survival kit.

For further prophylaxis and very early treatment, throw in some xylitol/GSE (Xlear) or carageenan (Betadine Cold Defence) nasal sprays, and mouthwashes containing either alcohol or cetylpyridinium chloride, and you really got it made!  

(There is also a povidone-iodine based spray called ImmuneMist, in both oral and nasal formulas as well.)

The wisdom of the ages is crystal clear:  DO NOT mass vaccinate with leaky and questionable "vaccines" during a pandemic of any kind, as it ends up being gasoline on the fire.  Early treatment and prophylaxis make far more sense, and should have been done instead.  So what are we waiting for?

DECEMBER UPDATE:   On December 22, 2021, Pfizer's game-changing anti-Covid pill was finally authorized by the FDA.  A pill that you can take at home early on, so you can stay out of the hospital.  Hallelujah!  Of course, we know that the aforementioned natural (resveratrol, quercetin, fisetin, turmeric, etc.) and generic (Ivermectin plus zinc and doxycycline) protease inhibitors also work as well.  We know that plain old zinc itself, as well as amino acid lysine, inhibit viral replication as well, while arginine (counterintuitively) appears to improve outcomes if taken when already sick.  This is especially true when also taken with the aforementioned vitamins, herbs, nasal sprays, and mouthwashes.  And even SSRIs like Fluvoxamine have shown promise against the virus, albeit by a different mechanism.  And yet the powers that be have ignored, censored, and suppressed these things, as these would quickly render the "vaccines" and patented pills obsolete.

(Ivermectin, however, has 20 different mechanisms of action, while Pfizermectin only shares one of these 20 mechanisms, even if it is more potent for that one.)

Had the Fareed-Tyson protocol or the Zelenko protocol been followed for early treatment and prophylaxis, there would be almost no hospitalizations or deaths from Covid at all.

Looks like Bill Sardi's prediction, "by the end of the year", was right on the money!

JANUARY 2022 UPDATE:  A large Brazilian study of over 200,000 people confirms that Ivermectin actually does work as prophylaxis against the virus.  People who took 0.2 mg/kg/day on two consecutive days every 15 days saw much lower case, hospitalization, and death rates compared to those who did not, even after adjusting for numerous potential confounders.  The data were notably from 2020, before the vaccines and when a good chunk of the population was still naive to the virus.  And of course, the results were not released until January 15, 2022, over a year after the last data points were gathered.  Had the results been published widely a year earlier, it literally could have changed the course of the pandemic, if not history.

Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Time For A Moratorium On Experimental Gene Therapies

With the latest data coming in implying that the Covid "vaccines", or rather experimental gene therapies (whether mRNA or DNA/adenovirus), are 1) not fit for purpose for general use, if at all, 2) wane rapidly in what meager effectiveness they do possess, 3) have FAR worse safety and adverse effect profiles than previous, conventional vaccines as per VAERS (USA) and Yellow Card (UK) reports, 4) have unknown long-term effects, especially for children and young people, and 5) have some, shall we say, quality control issues that have recently been uncovered with the vial contents in terms of foreign material, we at the TSAP hereby resolve to call for an immediate moratorium on all Covid vaccines (or anything claiming to be such) for a minimum of two weeks pending a thorough and independent investigation of the contents of these vials.  To wit:



Manufacturers should clearly welcome such an investigation if they really are on the up and up.  Even if just to "debunk" the "conspiracy theorists" and lift any cloud hanging over their products.  If they balk, it kind of implies otherwise, doesn't it?  If they have nothing to hide, why hide it?

And of course, by definition, ALL mandates, passports, and discrimination relating to these jabs must also be lifted immediately, and permanently, period.  There is obviously ZERO justification now for these measures, and there never really was any.

After the minimum two week moratorium, if they ever decide to resume any of these jabs at all, they should only be resumed for adults at the very highest risk for complications from the virus (over age 70, morbidly obese (i.e. BMI of 35 or higher), and/or severely immuncompromised), or who work in very high-risk jobs, and even then only voluntarily with full and informed consent, ideally in consultation with one's doctor.  But since nearly everyone who is highly vulnerable or working high-risk jobs who truly wanted to receive them already has, any new takers will be very, very few in number.  

Even for those who are high-risk, it is best NOT to resume these jabs for anyone who has already had the virus (whether through previous diagnosis, or current positive antibody or T-cell test results), or anyone who is under 18, pregnant, or planning to become pregnant in the near future.

And a fortiori for children under 12, the next "market" for the industry.  There is NO good reason whatsoever for them to get these jabs, period.  That has to be an absolute bright RED LINE, and if there was ever a hill to die on, this is the one, people!

Additionally, they should also launch an investigation into the vials of other vaccines while we are at it, including, but not limited to, flu shots.  Again, if they have nothing to hide, why hide it?

So what are we waiting for?

UPDATE:  On October 26, 2021, the FDA panel recommended Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the Pfizer "vaccine" for children ages 5-11.  All of the members of the panel voted yes, except for one coward who abstained.  Not even one person there had the courage to vote no, even though, as one of them said the quiet part out loud, "We're never gonna learn about how safe the vaccine is until we start giving it.  That's the way it goes."  Let that sink in.

And we just found yet another damning and incriminating video that will easily be the "smoking gun" to get these jabs off the market completely within a matter of HOURS if the FDA were to actually heed them, followed by legal action against the companies that make then.  Starting with Pfizer, and quickly followed by the others as well.  Anyone with access to a microscope, blood samples, saline, and vials of the "vaccines" can easily replicate them.  On the basis of quality control alone, the obvious questionable foreign material (quite appropriately called "garbage") found in the Pfizer vials in the video is enough to not only take these things off the market, but also break through the EUA liability shield, as this very basic quality control failure becomes a strict liability issue that even Big Pharma is NOT immune from.  Add in the apparent detrimental effects on red blood cells observed under the microscope, not to mention the obvious epic failures of the "vaccines" to live up to the companies' claims in the real world and it is game, set, and match.  Share far and wide!

There also seems to be quite a lot of heterogeneity and variation of adverse effects by lot number of these jabs too.

Oh, and don't forget this video too.  The plot thickens, even thicker than the blood of someone who got the clot shot!

Please be sure to see here for damage control advice.  Stay healthy, everyone!

DECEMBER UPDATE:  Google "died suddenly" and click News.  Then look at the surprisingly young ages of those who died.  Then look at the Google Trends curve for "died suddenly", it practically looks like a hockey stick.  Then look at how the supposed lifesaving effect of the jabs is largely an artifact of deliberately ignoring the first two weeks of data after the first dose (and probably the second and third dose as well), and looking only at virus deaths.  Negative efficacy (by the jabs suppressing the immune system, ironically) in the first two weeks basically pulls forward and front-loads many infections and thus deaths that would have otherwise occurred a bit later, in addition to the jab injury excess deaths on top of it.

JANUARY 2022 UPDATE:  The insurance industry has recently reported a 40% increase in overall death rates among 18-64 year olds in Indiana in 2021 compared to pre-pandemic levels.  That is huge!  Normally, overall death rates don't change anywhere near that much from year to year.  And it was worst in the third and possibly fourth quarters of 2021.  The official press release seems to insinuate that it was the virus that caused all (or nearly all) of the increase, but they are clearly ignoring the massive elephant in the room--the jabs.  And given the timing and the age group, the jabs are the largest and most likely culprit of all.  Notice they didn't compare 2021 (virus and vaccine) specifically with 2020 (virus but no vaccine), as that would have been too obvious, of course.  

If that is not a screaming loud safety signal, the largest in all of recorded history in fact, we really don't know what is!  (Over 1000 studies concur.)

And for those who are still not convinced, the Department of Defense data on death rates in the US military (one of the most vaccinated institutions in the nation, and known for keeping excellent records in general) are also quite disturbing as well.

MARCH UPDATE:  Some may claim that all or nearly all of these excess premature deaths are actually Covid, or perhaps longer-term sequelae of Covid, deaths disguised as non-Covid deaths.  But New Zealand had barely any Covid or flu in 2021, not getting their first real wave in earnest until February 2022.  And yet, they still had excess deaths in the latter half of 2021, coinciding almost perfectly with their extensive "vaccine" rollout.  So either 1) the New Zealand government has been lying through their teeth all along about their Covid numbers, or more likely, 2) the "vaccines" are in fact at least as deadly as the skeptics feared (and, at least for those under age 70 and reasonably healthy, significantly deadlier than the virus itself).  Neither of which is flattering to either Team Vaccine OR Team Zero Covid.

And embalmers in the USA have seen some pretty scary stuff recently as well.  Put it all together and apply Occam's Razor.  The conclusion is obvious.

P.S.  If at this point you still feel that you absolutely must get vaccinated (or boosted) against Covid for whatever reason, at the very least, wait for Novavax!  While the TSAP does NOT actually endorse that one or any other jab, we should note that Novavax seems so far to be safer than the current mRNA (Pfizer and Moderna) and DNA/AAV (J&J and AZ) jabs, and at least somewhat more effective against newer variants like Omicron.  And while it still has the spike protein, at least it delivers only a finite amount of it, like a more traditional vaccine would, rather than genes that transfect the body's cells to produce ludicrous amounts of it.  It's very, very telling how the powers that be have not exactly been eager to approve it, while all too eager to not only approve the experimental gene therapies, but force them on the masses and keep doubling, tripling, and quadrupling down on them.  (As of February 2022, the WHO has approved Novavax, along with the EU, Canada, and several other counties, but not the USA yet.)

Sunday, October 24, 2021

Cold Turkey Is The Only Way Out

We at the TSAP have said it before, and we will say it again, shouting it from the rooftops.  The ONLY way out of this madness is to go cold turkey from all of these restrictions and mandates.  Period.  And yesterday is not soon enough!

That means, effective immediately:

  • No more lockdowns, hard or soft
  • No more curfews 
  • No more business closures or capacity restrictions (unless voluntarily)
  • No more closures of anything 
  • No more mask mandates, anywhere
  • No bans or restrictions on gatherings or events, public or private
  • No restrictions on places of worship
  • No more travel restrictions, whether international or domestic 
  • All schools fully open, in-person, no antisocial distancing, masks optional
  • All colleges fully open, in-person, no antisocial distancing, masks optional
  • No more mass testing of anyone without symptoms.  Otherwise, use rapid testing first.  For the PCR test, reduce the cycle threshold to 25
  • No more quarantines of anyone without symptoms 
  • No vaccine mandates, coercion, discrimination, or Covid "passports" of any kind, anywhere, period
And never again, no matter how bad it gets.  Really.  The TSAP will accept nothing less than 2019 true normal going forward, with NO more compromises.

And as long as there is no major outbreak locally, hospitals and nursing homes should also return to normal as well 100%.  It is LONG past time to stop denying visitors, and stop artificially and arbitrarily delaying and cancelling so-called "elective" procedures and treatments.  And with the proper early treatment and prophylaxis, hospitals will NOT be overwhelmed anymore than during a typical flu season.  As for the staff, aggressive rapid testing should be done regularly regardless of vaccination status (as vaccinated people can still catch and spread the virus), and preference should be given to staff who are naturally immune because they have already had the virus and recovered (and are thus the very least likely to catch and spread the virus).  That's it.

Heresy, I know.  But it has been nearly two years now, and for better or worse, the virus is here to stay.  It cannot be eradicated at this point, as that train has left the station long ago.  We really only have two choices now and forever:  1) learn to live with the virus, and be honest about it, or 2) learn to live with the virus, and pretend otherwise. 

It has been observed that it is historically extremely rare for any respiratory viral pandemic to last longer than 18 months.  And they seldom have more than two major waves, three tops.  Yet here we are.  So all of our trying in vain to outsmart the virus, and/or hide from it, only served to drag it out that much longer, more painfully, and with out-of-season waves as well.  And plenty of collateral damage on top of all that as well.

This only ends when We the People finally stop complying with these mandates, cold turkey.  Or at least when a critical mass of people do so.  

So what are we waiting for?

Friday, October 8, 2021

The Only Way To Whip Inflation Now

Inflation is still heating up.  And while Jim Cramer is blaming it on the virus, history has shown that pandemics usually lead to LESS inflation, not more.  So it has to be something else, but what could it be?

Let's see:  Global energy price hikes, global supply chain problems, labor shortages, and things like that have been years in the making, but our lopsided pandemic response has only exacerbated these imbalances.  Lockdowns, business restrictions, travel restrictions, mask mandates, and now vaccine mandates have really poured gasoline on the fire.  And while 18 months of over-generous unemployment benefits likely exacerbated labor shortages to some extent, yanking these benefits recently has really not reduced inflationary pressures at all, not even in the states that did it sooner.

The labor shortage is really a wage shortage, and is easy to solve by simply paying employees more.

The FERAL Reserve has been backstopping the entire economy all this time with rock-bottom interest rates and firehosing the economy with unprecedented amounts of newly-keystroked money.  Which has certainly prevented a full-blown depression from occurring, but when done too much for too long in a lopsided fashion (too much for Wall Street and too little for Main Street), it can certainly create distortions in the economy.

So what is the best thing that can be done?

  1. Go "cold turkey" and end all remaining  mandates and restrictions, yesterday.  Reinstate immediately anyone who was fired or quit due to the vaccine mandates, and compensate them for their losses.  It may or may not be too late to rectify this man-made staffing crisis, particularly in healthcare.
  2. The Fed should gradually taper off all QE and pandemic-related stabilization programs over the next couple of months, immediately raise interest rates to 0.5% or 1.0% now, and keep raising from there if inflation persists.  Then gradually switch to Quantitative Tightening as well as needed if it still persists.
  3. Raise the federal minimum wage to $15/hour for all business with more than 500 employees within six months, then gradually for all employees with more than 10 employees within two years.  And no more subminimum wage for tipped employees either. 
  4. Implement Universal Basic Income (UBI) for all of $1000/month for adults and $500/month for children under 18.
  5. Redirect federal funds towards incentivizing improving supply chains, especially for energy and other critical sectors experiencing shortages.  That includes the government hiring temporary truckers, dockworkers, etc. for more than what the market demands.
And notice that we are NOT calling for austerity, in fact quite the opposite.  Fiscal austerity (tax hikes and spending cuts) would be recessionary and would basically cause stagflation at this point, while in contrast, raising interest rates would increase the value the dollar without shrinking the number of dollars in circulation.  The only taxes that should be hiked now are taxes on the top 1% (especially the top 0.1%) and mega-corporations, Pigouvian taxes, and perhaps vice taxes, and the only spending that should be cut (if any) is that which is harmful and counterproductive, and then redirected to more beneficial and productive spending.  There is no good reason to give up on the priorities of the genuine progressive agenda (Medicare For All, expanding Social Security, free college, free or affordable childcare, paid family leave, affordable housing, Green New Deal, etc.) at all.  As for the "debt ceiling", it is a fiction that serves no useful purpose, and it should be abolished completely, yesterday.

So what are we waiting for?

UPDATE:  As for how high to raise interest rates (i.e. the Fed Funds Rate), there is a science to it.  To quickly quash inflation without exacerbating it in the long run, the Fed Funds Rate should be raised and, if raising rates by one percentage point doesn't do the trick right away, keep raising it quickly until the interest rate exceeds the inflation rate by at least one percentage point, hold it there until inflation drops, and then quickly but gradually lower it (while still keeping it higher than the inflation rate) until the inflation rate drops below 3%.  Then drop the Fed Funds Rate to below the inflation rate and park it there as long as inflation remains low.  And as Rodger Malcolm Mitchell notes, the best way to cure and prevent stagflation is to quickly raise interest rates to cure the inflation, while simultaneously spending more federal money (and/or cutting taxes) and running higher federal "deficits" to cure the stagnation/recession as well.  Problem solved, all within four quarters. Otherwise, it remains an endless cycle that will feed on itself indefinitely as alleviating inflation would exacerbate stagnation and vice-versa.

China's rolling local and regional lockdowns in pursuit of the Zero COVID pipe dream are a big part of the problem as far as shipping.  Not much we can do about that, aside from taking our business elsewhere.

And if labor shortages are still a problem even after repealing all of those mandates, the federal government should implement wage subsidies (reverse payroll taxes) to top up workers' paychecks, and/or paying one-off sign-on bonuses of a few thousand dollars per new employee.  Problem solved.

UPDATE:  Another take on this can be found here.   Basically, it's not a supply chain problem or even an inflation problem, but rather a central planning problem.  Which is basically what is going on now, and has been going on to one degree or another since March 2020.  And it needs to end yesterday.

Sunday, October 3, 2021

The Two Faces Of The Branch Covidians

The Branch Covidian cult is really two cults in one:  Team Zero COVID, and their sometimes-rival, sometimes-ally, Team Vaccine.  They can easily be confused for one another by the uninitiated.  Both vehemently deny natural immunity, deny and dislike the use of early treatment and prophylaxis, grossly exaggerate the risks of the virus particularly to children and young people, and believe that only their own technocratic solutions possibly can save us.  Both reek of authoritarianism no matter how much they deny it.  Both luuurrrve to move the goalposts, cherry-pick data, shift the burden of proof, and indulge in other ridiculous logical fallacies routinely and often disingenuously.  Both have plenty of true believers along with the consummate liars and phonies in charge.  And like doctors and thieves, they both wear masks as part of their uniform (at least when the cameras are rolling).  So far, they seem like they would be natural allies.

But the similarity of the two cults ends with the differences in their eschatology, soteriology, and sometimes even cosmology at times.  Here they go from allies to rivals.  In a nutshell, Team Zero COVID believes that complete global eradication of the virus is not only still possible, but it is the only morally acceptable outcome no matter the cost (as long as someone else pays it), while Team Vaccine believes that while eradication is unlikely, the only way we can learn to live with the virus and go back to something approaching normal is if everyone in the world gets vaccinated as the ultimate endgame. 

And while neither team opposes lockdowns, mask mandates, or vaccine mandates, Team Zero COVID supports the first two the most while Team Vaccine supports the latter the most, even though many prefer a "layered" approach.  Both support achieving their own goals by any means necessary, while individual civil and human rights, economic well-being, overall community well-being, child development, or any other consideration are essentially worth zilch to them.  Even public health itself is to be ruthlessly sacrificed on the altar of the Branch Covidians, insofar is it not directly related to the virus that they slavishly fear so much to the point of idolatry.

It is now becoming very clear that vaccines alone will not eradicate the virus even if 100% of the world gets vaccinated over and over again, as these vaccines are far too "leaky" to do the job.  And there are animal reservoirs as well.  So what about the Zero COVID strategy?  Well, the therapeutic window has closed on that one long ago, as the horse has bolted and the genie is out of the bottle.  The virus SARS-CoV-2 is quickly becoming endemic (if it isn't already) and will be with us forever, no matter how many lockdowns, closures, masks, or vaccines we throw at it.  It will still be here in 2030, 2040, 2050, and beyond.  So we literally have two choices, basically: 1) learn to live with the virus, and be honest about it, or 2) learn to live with the virus, and pretend otherwise. Yes, those are literally the only choices now, regardless of any wishful thinking to the contrary.  And to still pretend otherwise now, after 18 months of clear evidence, is to bear false witness and to worship false idols.

And the best way to defeat both of the two cults is to do what they are doing to the rest of us:  divide-and-conquer.  Play the two faces of them against each other, and refuse to comply with their increasingly insane, draconian, and totalitarian edicts.

Zero COVID is a pipe dream, vaccines are nowhere near as good as advertised, and lockdowns and NPIs are basically useless.  The only thing that actually works, aside from natural herd immunity, is early treatment and prophylaxis.  It's long past time to be honest about that, live our lives, and move on.

Team Reality for the win!

UPDATE:  Now that more and more of the chattering classes and MSM are finally, if grudgingly, coming around to accepting the inevitable endemicity of the virus and learning to live with it, and the mRNA vaccines are clearly crashing through the basement in terms of efficacy, Team Vaccine is basically washed up and is now quickly being absorbed by their very last refuge, Team Zero COVID.  The latter of which seems to be more hysterical than ever lately--and that REALLY says something!--since they know they are on the wrong (and losing) side of history.  They have been trotting out the same old fuzzy math combined with exaggerations, half-truths, and omissions about the supposed unacceptable dystopia that endemic COVID would entail, while in reality the real dystopia would be if TZC actually gets their way.  Look no further than Australia and New Zealand, not to mention China, to see what sort of totalitarian police state would inevitably--and permanently--result sooner or later, and it would still be an exercise in futility in the long run.  Because short of putting all 8 billion people of the world each in solitary confinement indefinitely, which would obviously be unacceptable on humanitarian grounds, it is mathematically impossible for TZC to actually achieve their pipe dream of complete virus eradication.

And now even New Zealand, the crown jewel of the Zero COVID movement, has finally thrown in the towel and abandoned the impossible and Sisyphean goal of eliminating the virus completely.  Delta managed to chin-check them just hard enough to sober them up somewhat.  Unfortunately, lest you think they finally joined Team Reality for good, despite recent easing the Prime Minister noted that they will still have some flavor of lockdown restrictions until they can get a whopping 90% of the eligible population vaccinated, meaning they are squarely part of Team Vaccine for the time being.  They are at 48% of the eligible population already fully vaccinated as of October 5, so that is still a pretty tall order for New Zealand.  In contrast, Team Reality (that is, people like us at the TSAP) would much rather just go cold turkey and simply end all restrictions yesterday and go back to true normal regardless of anything, period, and NOT cajole anyone to get vaccinated.  What better time than now?

Thursday, September 9, 2021

The TSAP Denounces Vaccine Mandates

With President Biden's latest disturbing executive orders issued today, we at the TSAP hereby reaffirm our opposition to any vaccine mandates or "passports" or coercion of any kind, period.  As we have noted before, these vaccines are not only experimental (regardless of the recent federal quickie rubber-stamping of the Pfizer vaccine), but they are also revealed to be about as "leaky" as the flu shots, meaning that one can still catch and spread the virus even if fully vaccinated (while natural immunity seems to be far superior).  Either one or both of these two facts (and we have both) is sufficient to demolish the case for any such mandates and passports, since the rug is completely pulled out from under the argument that the vaccines are to "protect others".  Thus, these vaccines are best thought of as a means of self-protection, especially for vulnerable people, and therefore should be strictly voluntary.  You know, kinda like how flu shots have historically been.

And that's before we delve into all of the emerging safety concerns of these vaccines, especially for children, teens, and young adults.  When they ultimately try to force these things on your kids (and they will if we let them), that has to be a real hard red line for We the People, and fast!  If not, the inevitable agony of regret will be the least of our problems. 

If there was ever a hill to die on, this is it!

But on a more fundamental level, it ultimately comes down to the basic human rights of bodily autonomy and integrity.  Seriously, whatever happened to "my body, my choice"?  (Notice how that very concept is under attack in more ways than one these days.)

Imagine it is 2030 now, and you are looking back at what you did or failed to do in 2020 and 2021.  Would you be proud or ashamed of yourself?  When in doubt, ask yourself that question every single day.

UPDATE:  Looks like the ACLU finally broke their silence a few days ago on this very pressing issue--and not in a good way.  They basically reversed their pre-2020 stance against vaccine mandates and coercion, and are now acquiescing to these demands.  Thus, they can now be officially said to have SOLD OUT to the medical-fascist establishment once and for all.  

Also, it seems that the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine (and remember, this is the "gold standard" of COVID vaccines, no less) plummets much more rapidly than anyone predicted.  One study in Qatar found that it drops from a peak of 72% (not 95% like originally claimed) down to essentially ZERO infection protection within a mere five months after the second dose, waning slowly at first, and then collapsing all at once.  For severe, critical, or fatal COVID, the effectiveness (fortunately) drops much more gradually from a peak of an actual 95% down to about 72% or so at six months, with very wide variation.

Israeli data for Pfizer are not much better, and their current experience with giving a third booster dose to the masses willy-nilly seems to actually be backfiring and spiking the curve even further (much like what happens during the break-in phase after the first dose), so booster shots are hardly a real solution to the problem of rapidly waning vaccines, except maybe for those folks who are extremely vulnerable or immunocompromised.  For the masses, it would seem that, ironically, the very best booster of all would actually be--wait for it--natural infection with the virus itself, as according to the Israeli data, that provides a whopping 27 times better infection protection than vaccination alone.  In other words, it seems that that the only way to true and robust "herd immunity" was the ultimately inevitable natural infection of healthy people all along.  Just like practically every other pandemic in history.

Meanwhile, these vaccines seem to be "the leading cause of coincidences" these days...

Friday, September 3, 2021

The Progressive Case For Mask-Free Kids And Schools

WARNING:  You may wanna sit down when reading this, as this article will slaughter so many sacred cows that it will lead to the mother of all barbecues!


It's September 2021, back to school time for millions of children and teens, and if your thought we would not still be having this inane and insane masks for kids debate 18 months after the start of the pandemic, you would unfortunately be very wrong indeed.  The debate is greater than ever before, and largely split along party lines (Republicans against forced masking, Democrats in favor) because reasons.  I mean, you KNOW things are bad when Ron and Rand Paul end up sounding like the voice of reason!

The progressive left is VERY foolish to cede the moral high ground to the right on this issue.  And it WILL come back to bite them, perhaps as soon as the 2022 midterms.  Just like it always does eventually.  

There are of course some genuine progressive voices desperately shouting into the wilderness to "Unmask Our Kids" yesterday, but they keep on getting silenced and censored by the thought police.  A prime example is this excellent article (preserved in archive on the Wayback Machine) in Forbes online magazine by a progressive teacher (and founder of Zigazoo) named Zak Ringlestein.  He notes how traumatic and toxic it is to children's mental health to subject them to prolonged forced masking, antisocial distancing, and the whole New Abnormal agenda in general.  And he also notes how utterly classist it is in its effects towards poorer children, if not its intent.  The cowards over at Forbes abruptly took the article down, of course, because well, you already know why.

As we have noted before in previous articles, there is absolutely NO scientific reason to support forcing anyone to wear face masks in general, and that applies a fortiori for children.  Not as PPE, not as source control, not as anything at all beyond mere symbolic window dressing and placebos, since we know now that the COVID virus is truly airborne just like cold and flu viruses.  Not only have mask mandates (in schools or in the community) not done a LICK of good in stopping the virus or even making a noticeable dent in the epidemic curves for anyone in the real world, but for children (who are at less risk from COVID than they are from the flu, and are statistically unlikely to be COVID superspreaders either), masks are likely to be more harmful to their physical and mental health and social development when used regularly for prolonged periods of time.

You really want to reduce airborne virus transmission in schools?  Ventilate, ventilate, ventilate!  If you lack high-tech air system upgrades, don't wait, just open the damn windows and doors.  Problem solved.  Next.

"But we can't do that!  What if there might be an active shooter at some undefined point in the future?" Well, unless all windows and doors are literally bulletproof, which they usually are not, keeping them closed 24/7 is really just security theater.  Kinda like how masks are really just public health theater.  And neither one sees the forest for the trees.

Friendly reminder to adults who are still scared:  N95 or greater masks are currently abundantly available for self-protection, and are at least somewhat effective in that regard if fit-tested and used properly.  And any adults who still feel the need to use them as an extra layer of protection when around children are perfectly free to do so.  Voluntarily.

Clearly, all of these mandates fail the Martian test:  that is, could you explain it to a Martian without sounding like an idiot? (You can't.)  And they also fail the 2030 test:  that is, would you still be willing to follow these mandates in 2030, since the virus is endemic and will almost certainly still be around in 2030, 2040, 2050, and beyond?  And given the long-term health, developmental and economic consequences already baked into the cake from the past 18 months of restrictions, all of these mandates also fail the Iroquois seven generations test as well.

There is nothing at all even remotely leftist or progressive about forcing masks on anyone, especially children.  Unless by "leftist" you really mean totalitarian, and by "progressive" you really mean technocratic, of course.  Nor is it even particularly communitarian either, given how utterly corrosive it is to genuine community, unless of course by "communitarian" you really mean communist or antisocial. And it is certainly not in any sense utopian, unless by "utopian" you really mean, well, dystopian.

There is nothing green either about producing billions or trillions of disposable "paper" (actually, polypropylene plastic) masks only to see a good chunk of them end up in the Earth's oceans.  Unless by "green" you really mean greenwashing and ecocidal.

And contrary to a very poorly written article in Ms. Magazine of all places a year ago, there is certainly nothing at all feminist about forcing anyone to cover their faces.  Unless by "feminist" you really mean "inadvertently emulating certain countries and groups that one claims to dislike, to one degree or another", and not seeing the irony of it all.

And finally, take a look at the rest of the world.  The USA is one of a very few countries that forces masks on children under the age of 12, let alone as young as two!  And many of those few other countries that did at some point have now since relented (and hopefully repented!), making the USA a rather lonely country in that regard.  But in one way that is sadly not a surprise, given the great American pastime of scapegoating children and teens for adult problems.  And yes, that even includes Florida at the local school district level, with "rebel without a clue" teachers and administrators openly defying their governor, Ron DeSantis, who is doing his very best to put an end to this complete and utter madness once and for all.

Make no mistake, at this point, no one can intellectually honestly say that these mandates are really about science.  They are all about power and control above all else.  And worse, they are ultimately a convenient segway into COVID vaccine mandates for kids as well.  And that, ladies and gentlemen, is truly scary indeed, given how woefully undertested these experimental gene therapy "vaccines" really are, particularly for children.  If there was ever a hill to die on, this absolutely has to be the one!

UPDATE:  When the pro-mask crowd inevitably trots out this slanted review of their favorite cherry-picked studies, be sure to point out that those studies are either 1) modeling studies and not real-world studies, 2) look only at adults and say literally nothing at all about children or schools, 3) have very weak effect sizes and/or low-quality, 4) have not been consistently replicated, 5) conflict with literally decades of research evidence to the contrary, 6) short-term studies that found short-term effects that did not really pan out in the real world in the long run, 7) do not address the potential long-term harms of prolonged forced masking, or 8) all of the above. 

Take a look instead at this excellent article that sums up the latest actual science on the matter of masks for kids.  Spoiler alert:  it does NOT make the pro-mask side look like winners at all, to put it mildly. 

As for the latest cherry-picking CDC "study" of the effects of mask mandates in schools, well, let's just say that if you torture the data enough, they will confess to anything.  There are so many confounding variables not controlled for, not least of which are contact tracing (or lack thereof) and virus testing rates, since according to the CDC's own rules, if both people were wearing masks at the time, that is not considered an "exposure" and thus not automatically tested.  Yes, really.  And more tests generally means more "cases", particularly if there are no symptoms.  

This is what passes for "The Science" these days.

Also see here as well.  And lest you still think masks somehow work for and eradicated the common flu (!), see here as well.  We really got a nice bridge we'd like to sell you.

FEBRUARY 2022 UPDATE:  Seriously, this needs to end, and yesterday is not soon enough!  To any teachers and staff reading this who are still worried, there are indeed some very cheap and low-tech ways to fight airborne viruses in classrooms that do NOT depend on masks or antisocial distancing.  Build a DIY Corsi-Rosenthal box air purifier, open the windows/doors for fresh air, and relax and take a chill pill already!  (And UV air disinfection also works well too, which has been known for over 80 years now.)

Oh, and now we see that the actual data from the updated version of the widely-acclaimed Bangladesh mask study shows that masks simply don't work at all in the real world, period.  That, plus the Danish mask study, plus the past 100+ years of research are enough to conclude that any perceived benefits were basically spurious all along.  We already knew they didn't work in 1918, and they sure as hell don't work now.