Vaccine Passports, Weeping CDC Lady & More! — Coronavirus Update LIX

There’s got to be a big market for fake vaccine passports.

Flu is “gone” because they don’t care about it anymore. It’s still there. The government just calls the flu “covid” (and encourages doctors to do so) because it doesn’t elicit the same panic.

Show up with flu-like symptoms and they’ll order a (faulty) covid test first and if that comes back positive they don’t even bother testing for flu. It’s automatically the most holy covid.

Also, I’m quickly becoming convinced from the data – however uncontrolled and anecdotal it may be – that masks make things worse in some way, or at least prolong it.

The states that ended their mask mandates are all doing better than the states that are clinging to them. All of these charts are very clear.

It’s almost as if forcing a person to breathe through the same dirty cloth over and over doesn’t block or filter out the pathogens, it concentrates them instead.

The Host tweeted, ”What a clown show this country has become.”

People love clowns. They like life in Krazy Klown Town. Not only can you sin all you please without punishment in Klown Town but sin is proof of moral superiority. So, send in the clowns. Do you want to see who rules us? Type, “evil clown” into your search engine, select “images”, and behold — our Overlords.

God help us.

1-
“Flu is “gone” because they don’t care about it anymore. It’s still there. The government just calls the flu “covid” (and encourages doctors to do so) because it doesn’t elicit the same panic…”?
2-
“…Show up with flu-like symptoms and they’ll order a (faulty) covid test first and if that comes back positive they don’t even bother testing for flu. It’s automatically the most holy covid.”?
The above is false:
1-
Flu is still with us. It is less transmissible than covid. This means that when drastic measures are take to cut or reduce a respiratory virus, ALL respiratory airborne viruses are effected by those measures.

Nobody is claiming that there must be non pharmaceutical intervention must be done every year for flu. This is because a certain amount of risk is accepted by society regarding flu. In the UK, seven to nine thousand or so, in the US thirty six thousand deaths occur every year due to flu, on average.
Flu kills more younger people than covid! That is one of the differences in this disease and (for me), was suspicious. That children are spared when normally their immune systems have similar vulnerability as elderly and Men!
(With regards to the cytokine storm effect.)
2-
With regards to not bothering to test for flu:
Flu tests aren’t carried out routine in any year.
Hence the jokes about “I’ve got flu”
“NO you haven’t you’ve got a cold, wimp”
“Man flu” (which is a real thing) and so on.
Thee may very well be a difference in testing for flu in a private based system such as in the US.
Her, NHS policy and best practice is, with all testing and diagnostics, if it is not going to alter the decision made, or information known, consider whether testing is appropriate. Not just to save money but to save patient’s undue alarm, dependency and invasive procedure.

Friend needed cataract surgery. You can’t have your surgery unless you get a COVID test first. That’s another way they’re fanning the panic. A testing operation is set up in a large parking lot nearby. I drive friend over. An orange cone maze with checkpoints manned by… person-ed by the local National Guard in camo fatigues. The National Guard looks to be all foreigners and women. They stand in front of the car holding signs with various instructions, “Keep Your Windows Up”, “Fear COVID”, “Obey Evil Clowns”, and such like… okay, they didn’t sign those last two, but I’m reading between the lines. Three checkpoints later you crack the window and get a swab stuck up your… nose. All this for someone who is not sick but in good health, and didn’t want the test but was forced to take it if they wanted medical care. The Medical Industrial Complex is sick, and complicit in the Overlord’s evil klown plot.

“The states that ended their mask mandates are all doing better than the states that are clinging to them. All of these charts are very clear.”

Cause and effect is not clear in that example at all.
One could equally say that most places where they have had a bad epidemic of covid, they did not start by mandating masks and switched. to it later, or started recommending them. That would also leave the same pattern as you are describing as “very clear”.

Wearing masks is a hamer to crack a nut, when it’s a brzil nut and everything else has failed.

JR-

Face diapers are indeed an excellent growth medium for all kinds of fun bacteria, like those that cause staph infections.

As for this giant new digital control grid, how are the controllers going to implement the databases and algos with bottom dollar H-1B programmers and roll out all the new hardware in the midst of a global semiconductor shortage?

HamMer. The full stop wasn’t me, though.

The lady saying she felt a sense impending doom made me think of Briggs doom posts.

That sense of impending doom where there is not a problem is one potential sign of clinical depression.

The left hand does not know what the left hand is saying.

In an Ontario, the government has produced an interactive website…if you can find it and use the simple controls:

https://covid-19.ontario.ca/data

You can check out Peterborough Health Region for how deathly things aren’t.

And, yes, do snitch:

https://www.peterboroughpublichealth.ca/for-professionals/health-professionals/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-professionals/reporting-complaints/

Annnnnd, the deadliest of them all, The Third Wave, is hitting Ontario. I was ticked that they, whoever they are, used terminology borrowed from warfare theory:

http://www.iwar.org.uk/iwar/resources/airchronicles/jenson.htm

https://globalnews.ca/news/7727931/third-covid-wave-ontario-hospitals/

Dean,
“you can’t discharge your patient to our care home unless she’s had a covid test’?
Same principle of infection control.

I suppose if you don’t even think it needs controlling , then that’s where the contention is.

Good news
Yesterday it was announced in England that there is a test for antibodies that is reliable enough for individual use.

Regarding the vaccination of people who have contracted the disease already this last year:
An antibody test will show if you have had the disease and so have some protection.
It does not show if you are one of the ones who HAS the disease and so are infectious right now.

The two together are going to give people the opportunity to make informed decisions about whether they need to isolate or not. Since people c an’t even be trusted to wear masks though, or isolate when they’re told to, there’s still going to be an ongoing community spread problem.

Crying women. You men should NEVER have let women vote and run things. Now you have hell to pay. I have zero sympathy.

The oligarchs love crying men, too. They love crybaby losers. Easy to control. Oligarchs are weak by nature so they need weak minions.

No one who understands math, science or data is allowed to work for oligarchs. EVER. Only the truly stupid and worthless are employed.

The mark of the beast has nothing to do with passports, but keep pushing that lie. It keeps you from seeing the truth and that’s the goal.

Vaccine passports will occur only because THE SECOND AMENDMENT MEANS NOTHING AND AMERICANS ARE WEAK CRYBABIES. Blame the right people. The COWARDS who did nothing to stop this but brag about guns they are too damn weak and cowardly to lose. Forget that second amendment. WEAKNESS RULES.

I’m thinking “The Price of Stupidity” would have been a better title. Probably not as sellable, but far greater accuracy. And accuracy is what we are going for, right? Except when it’s easier to sell by being less accurate…….

No, masks don’t work, but try to get into your posterior-kissing doctor without one. The medical community sold out in a flash, like they always will. The higher your degree and income, the faster Satan gets your soul.

Michael D: Oh, yeah, a HUGE one market for fakes and growing as talk of Covid passports increases.

Dean E: Agreed. People love this clown show.

Joy: “Not just to save money but to save patient’s undue alarm, dependency and invasive procedure.” I thought it was to preserve government control. The British seem to have shown more alarm and much more drama than much of the USA did concerning Covid, if you get out of the blue hell zones here.

“A leading British molecular virology expert has urged people to refrain from hugging their loved ones, even as lockdowns restrictions are eased in Britain, as contact may enable the virus to mutate and build up resistance to vaccines.” Breitbart today

Didn’t matter with flu shots, will never matter with AIDS (it could mutate into a planet killer and no one would have said a thing nor will they ever say a thing), didn’t matter with most illnesses. ALL viruses can mutate and build up resistance. So the what is really being said is “NO VACCINES AND ETERNAL LOCKDOWNS”. There’s no intention of ever allowing humans to live again, just be cage animals for the Overlords amusements.

@Joy — the flu death numbers are highly questionable for any year. Validation of the numbers takes the form of 10 people sitting around a table and waving the magic pen.

@Sheri — I tried to look for a Ruger 10/22 yesterday. What do I find… Sold out..

Passports — Blockchain baby… Your NFT is your passport… It is an app on your phone. Except it is a QR code on your phone. It bothers me greatly that 1 bitcoin can be held by everyone on the planet at the same time. Suddenly I am having visions of 1 electron to rule them all… or there is really just 1 electron in the universe. The probability function is what makes it work.

Those are crocodile tears (psychopath tears). Zero shame.

A speculation:
The CDC decided (at least as far back as Oct 2020) to lump pneumonia, influenza, and COVID-19 as one, calling it PIC. After looking at the first CDC chart in this linked doc, I am forced to wonder if Flu has gone missing because reporting Flu doesn’t pay. When deciding between P, I, and C as the primary cause, which one would a hospital choose if the government was going to pay you for reporting C?
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjzrbvMl9jvAhVtEFkFHRWqDfAQFjAAegQIAhAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fcovid-data%2Fpdf%2Fcovidview-02-05-2021.pdf&usg=AOvVaw31WI6JR1cpb_VNtPqAbXzT

JR Ewing –

Yes. I would, on a bet, consider drinking a spoonful of water from a fish tank. However, under no circumstances would I entertain taking a spoonful of liquid squeezed from the filter of a fish tank. Yet, most folks are drinking, so to speak, those squeezings all day long.

The easily faked cardstock jab cards are only a temporary measure. Think of them as the first simple strands of the spider’s web.

The, “Excelsior Pass,” app that has been rolled out in NY state is a preview of the what the controllers intend for everyone. That type of system will be far harder to mimic.

Mr. Briggs, the following paper is being used as evidence that the eviction moratorium saves lives. Do you have any thoughts on the study it describes?

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3739576

Brad, thank you for the clarification,
Since I normally agree with what you say and you are normally pretty practical in your approach.
I would just say that maybe you are right about the US flu number. you’e th e first person who’s been prepared to take that point up on direct questioning.

However, much time is taken up with these flu numbers o=ver here, or initially until it was automated by software.
Since our number is roughly a fifth of yours I assumed it wasn’t out of the bounds of reasonable.

My number comes from Chris Whitty who quotes the CDC, I believe.They were numbers prior to the knowledge of this disease, so no goalposts have been changed there.

Will central planning bureaucracy gov go full CCCP and declare anyone who refuses the depop shot mentally ill? (rhetorical)
Maybe comrade kommissar (?) Levine will make the announcement at drag queen story hour.
Only a feminized dumbed down doped up society of safety über alles dullard telescreen addict hivemind mediocrity would fall for any of this.

England and Wales all-cause death rates lowest in 5 years last week (week 11):

https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/covid-19-florence-nightingales-daigrams-for-deaths/

This is “date of registration” so does not suffer from the retrospective increases “date of death” data does. Bottom line, most people who died were already old and sick and probably only lost 6-12 months. Very sad, but not a cause for the massive societal damage caused by the response.

Just a sickening performance from the new CDC director. I’d rather have known medical fraudster Redfield back. Clown country indeed.

As every update proves, the numbers simply don’t matter. The fact are there, but if the regime and a supine population (and regime complicit judges like that scum in Austin) want to perpetuate the myth that we are in the midst of a grave “pandemic” that’s an enormous health threat to all, they will find a way, facts be damned.

The increasing push for “vaccine passports” by the left in order for people to be allowed any kind of life (which, as Briggs noted, will inevitably be extended to other things than a banal virus 99.98% of people survive – nothing will ever be rolled back, just look at TSA inanity 20 years on), is especially ominous (as is their embrace of ever more restrictions on free speech, de-platforming, etc.). Very dark times ahead. I hope I won’t be around for much of it. Screw this sick world.

Well someone should put the grocery and department stores on notice:

If we are not allowed to legitimately shop, then we will SIMPLY WALK IN AND TAKE WHATEVER WE WANT. And we are willing to BE VIOLENT.

As the previous months demonstrated, the only passport we need to have carte blanche is a BLM Sign.

Store can look forward to an increase in violent angry looters from both the left and right.

That is the ‘New Normal’ they can look forward to if they sign on.

Just a reminder the the infection fatality rate (IFR) is still minuscule.

https://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/99/1/20-265892/en/

“Most locations probably have an infection fatality rate less than 0.20% and with appropriate, precise non-pharmacological measures that selectively try to protect high-risk vulnerable populations and settings, the infection fatality rate may be brought even lower.”

The arguments about vaccine passports represent yet another emergence of a fundamental difference in opinion between those who hold to Christian/American ideals about individual responsibility and those who hold to fascist/feudalist ideas about their own roles in society.

The last big go-round on this was the international push to develop and implement national id cards circa 2005 during and after which governments worldwide collectively spent several hundred billion dollars on solutions that didn’t work. See my zdnet columns on this for Dec 12/13/14 2005 – preserved on my winface.com site at
https://winface.com/oldwin/zdnet/2005/dec12_05.html – and dec13_05.html and dec14_05.html (you have to enter each url)

I still like the solution I suggested then – and the tech we didn’t have then, we do now..

It’s funny how the same people who get apoplectic at the idea of election integrity measures to prevent vote fraud, like showing ID at the polls or signature matching on absentee/mail-in ballots (absurdly denigrating them as “voter suppression” or “dis-enfranchisement” measures) are also generally the same people most gung-ho about forced face muzzling and vaccine ID/passports. One sees where their perverse priorities lie.

Even though the official line is that “the flu is gone because masks are just so darned effective” there has never been anything proving this. In fact there is much evidence against this conclusion, including:

-That masks have not been shown to be effective in preventing transmissions of airborne diseases in studies performed prior to the COVID pandemic.
-That countries, such as many in Asia, where mask usage has historically been much higher have not had correspondingly low flu numbers.
-That today we do not see larger flu numbers in regions without mask mandates; it’s vanished (for whatever reason) everywhere.
-Building off the last point, the excuse for why COVID-19 is still spreading is usually that it’s so much more incredibly infectious than the flu that even with the miraculous masks slowing it down it still has a high degree of spread. But if this were the case regions without mask mandates should be absolutely overrun with COVID-19 in comparison to similar regions with mandates, but this is not the case.

Because of these and other factors it’s hard to take seriously the idea that masks and the like have vanquished the flu, a disease which has been with mankind for all of recorded history and which has killed hundreds of thousands of people every year in the modern world; until now (apparently). But people who advocate for this argument start with the assumption that masks and social distancing work and use that to get to their conclusion. There’s no need for them to actually sift through the data to determine effectiveness, it is an axiom or article of faith that their measures are incredibly effective.

Providentially enough, there was a recent story about a global shortage of computer chips that might put a mighty big dent on whatever grand schemes these guys have in mind.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/21/global-shortage-in-computer-chips-reaches-crisis-point

Apparently it’s at a crisis point… meaning the scarcity of parts will see prices shoot up for consumer electronics, which in turn means that it’s possible all this fancy-schmancy Mark of the Beast systems will either face a slow-down or will hopefully be completely un-feasible.

Not that they can’t go to an old-fashioned “papers please” approach, but the big tech industry that is pushing this may see no financial incentive and have to weigh which is more profitable for them… servicing the government insanity? Or selling more iPhones and PlayStations?

If the financial incentive is taken away from them then that could hopefully result in a collapse of this evil stupidity as their lobbyists pull back and the parasitic creatures that infest government look for something new to remain relevant.

Make no mistake, this ‘passport’ thing is all money for Big Tech, no different than the maw that is the military industrial complex. None of it serves any purpose. It’s existence is the purpose in itself.

Since people c an’t even be trusted to wear masks though, or isolate when they’re told to, there’s still going to be an ongoing community spread problem.

Give people a break Joy. According to your own narrative they are wearing masks and isolating effectively enough to have practically vanquished influenza, even though all other efforts to slow the flu have failed for years and years.

“Give people a break Joy. According to your own narrative they are wearing masks and isolating effectively enough to have practically vanquished influenza, even though all other efforts to slow the flu have failed for years and years.”

Rudolph,

Here’s the point;
There is no such thing as zero covid or zero flu, zero any other disease which has caused a pandemic, with the exception of small Pox. It’s one of the fallacious claims made by the ignorant leaders and those claiming that’s what scientists recommend, when they do not.
So many false claims and so many misapprehensions on the part of people who are power hungry.

I made the point that masks are a hammer to crack a nut. They are a necessary evil and a. Temporary fitting. Should the authorities attempt ay kind of permanent change in that direction, there will be mass civil disobedience e. So it’s nasty medicine which most of us need not really take since most of us are covid free, however:
Everybody “joins in” to show a united front and to set an example.
As well as the prevention of the asymptomatic spread, which is the demon in this disease and which accounts for its infectiousness being grater than flu.

Similarly to border closures, track and trace, pubic mask use is most effective when transmission reaches a certain point in the population.

Actions taken at different times have different effects. Just like putting a fire out with a bowl of water or bailing out with a bowl in a sinking boat. Different actions have different affects depending on the situation.

Can’t be “trusted” to wear a mask.

How patronizing.

Rob,
The figure was published on national TV on Monday in England and all over the UK, there are no secrets or revelations.

At least you’re honest in your attitude to the value of life.
Old ones don’t matter and they’re going to die anyway!
I wish more would just admit this is really their entire point.
If that is the case then there’s nothing wrong with objecting “ON principle”.

Everybody has a different set of premises and how they value life and quality of life (which includes freedom, amongst other things) are the real discussion.
Not statistics. That’s a fig leaf.

KGB. You bit!
It’s true!
As my Dad always says,
“you can’t make everybody go to church”.

Double take Rudolph, did you read my comment properly?

“even though all other efforts to slow the flu have failed for years and years.”’
There have never been ‘efforts” like the world has made in varying degrees until last year.
As I said, nobody is suggesting that they do so for flu.
Do you know the rationale as to Why? Even if you disagree?

Sheri,
Joy: “Not just to save money but to save patient’s undue alarm, dependency and invasive procedure.” I thought it was to preserve government control. The British seem to have shown more alarm and much more drama than much of the USA did concerning Covid, if you get out of the blue hell zones here.”

Nah, you didn’t think it but you wanted an excuse to say it!
Them’s the facts. Take it or leave it. It is your leaders who are standing on podiums trying to frighten everybody.

Our country per population has had a very bad epidemic of covid.
It is still too early to start making international comparisons but media and sports stats types can’t resist, it’s like snail racing for them.

I have been watching your state and wish you well for it.
I watch Uncle Mike’s Dav’s and Johby’s Not certain where everybody else is.

Right now, the US has done as well or as badly as the UK. It’s a silly comparison though.
There are a lot of variables and unknowns, obviously and when people don’t even agree on the basics, it’s a non starter.

When I look at WOM one starts to think it’s a measure of a country’s honesty too! Or ability to collect data or care and a whole lot of other things.

Joy,

In your narrative why weren’t there lockdown measures to prevent the flu in previous years?

After all, its apparently pretty easy to eliminate it nearly completely, if we believe that masks and “social distancing” have done the trick.

If that’s all it took, why not do it earlier. Do you not care about the tens of thousands that died of the flu in the US each year, or the hundreds of thousands that died worldwide?

As far as I can see you only have three possible responses here:

1.) That we shouldn’t care about all those who died of the flu year after year when their deaths were apparently preventable.
2.) That medical science had no idea that these obvious prevention measures would have any significant effect on the spread of the flu… which then raises serious questions about why we should trust claims about how the flu or COVID is being spread, or prevented from being spread, now.
3.) That taking these measures in previous years wouldn’t have worked, which requires you abandoning your claim that the flu had disappeared due to the current preventative measures.

I also note that despite your huge number of posts you still haven’t given a shred of evidence that masks, social distancing, etc. are responsible for eliminating the flu.

“Deaths are way down from what we’d expect this time of year. ”

I keep waiting for the weekly death counts to form some sort of a ‘shelf’ in the plot, but every week it’s still the same steep decline. How does one distinguish the drop-off in the curve due to late counts from an actual drop-off in deaths? It would be interesting to see an animation of the weekly death count curve over time, to get a feel for how the late-counts are converging.

As far as the disappearance of the flu, I thought the claim was that flu has disappeared everywhere, even in countries that didn’t have any lock-downs or mask mandates. Can lock-downs and mask mandates in just some countries so effectively suppress flu world-wide?

I was talking to a gentlemen the other day about masks. He noted that when he vapes and blows out through the mask, the ‘smoke’ goes right though the mask like it wasn’t there, so he figured that the mask must be useless, because certainly a virus particle is smaller than a vape smoke particle (or tiny water droplet, or whatever it is). I don’t vape, so I haven’t run my own experiment on the matter.

Rudolph,

I just set Joy to ignore. It becomes apparent very quickly that she isn’t really capable of discussion on the COVID topic, and honestly she seems genuinely confused as to why we think that. Like I’ve tried quoting her own words in the past back at her and was met with the internet equivalent of a dead-eyed stare.

It isn’t worth discussing with her. She is literally incapable of hearing herself.

Milton Hathaway,
“As far as the disappearance of the flu, I thought the claim was that flu has disappeared everywhere, even in countries that didn’t have any lock-downs or mask mandates. Can lock-downs and mask mandates in just some countries so effectively suppress flu world-wide?”
Yes flu is down everywhere according to both “sides” to keep it brief.
However it is not at zero.
The reason you suggested albeit maybe incredulously, is not outside to the bounds of reason. That simply reducing international travel and movement in general along with all the other measures, one WOUL expect flu to reduce.
The reason given is that the flu is far less infectious although still airborne, than the current virus in question. So to impact the vulnerabilities of one of these types of Virus, the action is similar. Some requiring more stringent measures to have an impact.
So with flu, it is relatively easy to isolate, know those infected, control the spread, even if it’s a new strain. It has different clinical features.
Same for TB…..far more deadly but harder to catch than covid.
We built TB hospitals in England years back and we’ve all worked in many of them. My school in Worcester was an old TB hospital.

So if a place where there has been little or no covid is effectively isolated from the rest of the world that IS mitigating and taking drastic measures, so flu is affect everywhere.
Regarding the vain.
What kind of masks are we talking about? Of course if the mask stopped water you wouldn’t be able to breathe out. You’d be breathing into a bag, effectively.
Masks are designed to filter and trap. oBviously shields are designed as a physical impermeable barrier. It takes a combination of these to be certain. However we are talking about slowing the spread and reducing the viral load in the air.
Also, the point which people don’t like to think about are those who cough openly into other’s faces when in public, such as on trains. These bikes exist with or without a pandemic and I’m afraid to some extent it is the lowest kind of behaviour that is being managed along with that asymptomatic element, which makes everybody a potential “spreader”.

NOTICE: If any of you see the “horrifying” picture of the 74 year old vet with the peeling red skin, THIS IS NOT THE FAULT OF THE VACCINE, NOR A COMMENT ON THE SAFETY OF IT. It’s called Steven Johnson Syndrome and it’s HIS immune system that is the problem, not the vaccine. I had a milder version for two months in response to an antibiotic and yes, it’s horrible, but it MY system, not the drug. It’s similar to allergies.

NOW, if you think we should outlaw or avoid the vaccine because of this, YOU HAVE TO GET RID OF EVERY SINGLE DRUG OUT THERE. Aleve and ibuprofen can cause this. Herbal remedies can cause it. (And herbal remedies cannot cure it when 10% of your skin peels. A milder case will work itself through and you can be tricked into believing the herbal “remedy” helped.) AGAIN, THIS IS THE MAN’S SYSTEM CAUSING THIS REACTION, not a sign that the vaccine is evil or bad or wrong or anything else.

People are very SUPERSTITIOUS when it comes to cause and effect and that’s why so much stupid sells in this world.

Milton Hathaway,
Here’s a fair copy. The other one sounded Greek.

Milton Hathaway,
“As far as the disappearance of the flu, I thought the claim was that flu has disappeared everywhere, even in countries that didn’t have any lock-downs or mask mandates. Can lock-downs and mask mandates in just some countries so effectively suppress flu world-wide?”
Yes flu is down everywhere according to both “sides” to keep it brief.
However it is not at zero.
The reason you suggested albeit maybe incredulously, is not outside of the bounds of reason. That simply reducing international travel and movement in general along with all the other measures, one WOULD expect flu to reduce.
The reason given is that the flu is far less infectious although still airborne, than the current virus in question. So to impact the vulnerabilities of one of these types of disease, the action is similar. Some requiring more stringent measures to have an impact.
So with flu, it is relatively easy to isolate, know those infected, control the spread, even if it’s a new strain. It has different clinical features.
Same for TB…..far more deadly but harder to catch than covid.
We built TB hospitals in England years back and we’ve all worked in many of them. My school in Worcester was an old TB hospital.
So if a place where there has been little or no covid is effectively isolated from the rest of the world that IS mitigating, with drastic measures, so flu is affected everywhere.
Regarding the vaping.
What kind of masks are we talking about? Of course if the mask stopped water you wouldn’t be able to breathe out. You’d be breathing into a bag, effectively.
Masks are designed to filter and trap. Clear shields are designed as a physical impermeable barrier. It takes a combination of these to be more certain. However we are talking about slowing the spread and reducing the viral quantity hanging in the air.
The point which people don’t like to think about are those who cough openly into other’s faces when in public, such as on trains. These ‘oykes’ exist with or without an epidemic and I’m afraid to some extent it is the lowest kind of behaviour that is being managed… along with that asymptomatic element, which makes everybody a potential “spreader”.

Sheri,
My school friend had Steven Johnson’s. Life changing injuries and pain resulted from it.

He has a. asters in English though and is now doing “stand up”
I expect he’s going to have a vaccine.

an arsters in English.

Be careful what you wish for Rudolph! – I’ve heard people actually saying we should in fact keep these restrictions in place every flu season (though it seems just simply for every season at this point) precisely because they think they’ve magically eliminated flu (of course, these same mask cultists also seem to think, despite all evidence to the contrary, that they have had an effect on Covid as well. Facts are meaningless – Covid is the new default religion of the Left now).

Saw some stats yesterday that 80% of people in the US admitted to hospital with suspected Covid qualify as “obese,” the real epidemic plaguing this country’s health. If this lard ass country were serious about public health, there’d be a war on processed junk food, efforts to promote proper exercise and fitness, etc. If people think Vaccine Passports are ok, how about adding Non-Obese Passports as well or get denied various food and services? (They’d do more for overall public health, anyway!), but that’s not PC or “body positive” so that’ll never happen (so-called “health & lifestyle” magazines in this dumb country now routinely feature morbidly obese people on their covers with lying headlines like “This is healthy!”) .

The regime wants you fat, lazy, and stupid, sitting on the couch inhaling processed corporate junk food, mind-numbed by trash Hollywood garbage and regime promoted propaganda, and taking lots of Big Pharma jabs and pills. Sadly, most people seem happy to oblige.

Joy – ok, now you got me thinking. Viruses compete with each other, right? I believe this to be true, based on literature I’ve read over the years, and personal observations on people getting multiple diseases at once (or rather, the lack of such observations). Besides, all organisms compete on some level, so its easier to believe that a virus isn’t an exception.

Anyway, assume it’s true. So maybe the flu is gone because it can’t compete effectively with Covid. Now take this a step further – maybe our actions, lock-downs and masks, have tilted the playing field in favor of Covid? If not for the lock-downs and masking, maybe we would have had a normal flu season and Covid would have disappeared earlier?

The flu virus has had years to adapt to our societal organization, and suddenly we pull the rug out from under it. Perhaps the flu, as bad as it can get, actually serves a protective purpose as well, keeping other viruses at bay? As a society, perhaps our biggest Achilles Heel is unintended consequences.

Hey, did I just solve the disappearing flu mystery?

Dennis, it’s so much easier to jerk ordinary people around, violate their rights than it is to take on powerful interests, and develop well thought out policies that will actually make a positive difference. The years long security theater at airports is one example. All the while they scan people violating their privacy, they refuse to even check cargo containers for materials that could be used to kill a lot of Americans. Also, I saw recently that cargo that is loaded onto commercial jetliners is also not screened the way passengers are screened. Security theater is what it is, just like masks, social distancing and lockdowns.

“Security theater is what it is, just like masks, social distancing and lockdowns.”

Yes, and just as the supposed “emergency” security rules (largely a theatrical joke anyway) in the wake of 9/11 have now become permanent 20 years later, I fear the worst for the future when it comes to various Covid-rules. People have come to love Big Brother, and “Covid safety” has become a big industry in its own right.

The claim that flu disappeared because it cannot compete with covid is ridiculous bullshit.

Joy: I have sympathy for the person. I was one step below and it took years for my skin to heal. Even now, my hands sometimes have problems. It’s scary when one’s own body turns on itself.

Milton: Interesting thoughts. No matter what Hun thinks.

Hun: “The claim that flu disappeared because it cannot compete with covid is ridiculous bullshit.”

No, it’s genius. Just model it and see for yourself.

Late, but related:
https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_breakingnews/over-100-fully-vaccinated-people-in-washington-state-test-positive-for-covid-19_3757218.html

There is a reason why nobody ever bothered to make a vaccine for a cold before.

Milton, nearly but not quite.

Consider viruses like little programmes. *excuse me for telling you what you know, Im just expanding):

They interact in ways that cannot always be predicted,

It is true that due to the measures taken around the world the flu is reduced. It hasn’t disappeared. That’s the important distinction. Think dandelions!

So for example what is hoped is that covid may develop a less virulent version, perhaps more infectious? That would have the effect that would “please” the virus AND please us. Given enough time, doing the thought experiment this seems almost inevitable. Bad viruses run out of hosts. The problem is its newness to our immune systems. Hence vaccinating with lookalikes.

I Think about how viruses have an inevitable spreading capability. They’re dastardly things. The Norovirus, for example, has the physiological effect of causing Projectile vomit and explosive D^^^. This causes aerosols to form (yep!), which aid the spread. Purely by chance and repetition, as per evolution. Same happens every time you flush a toilet! This aerosol business doesn’t only happen with diseases that are spread by inhalation.

So it’s not competing like humans or even race horses, compete but it’s automated and without intent. That’s why we will always have the upper hand, eventually.

I understand your point about taking out the competition but both are being suppressed. We don’t rely on flu to reduce other diseases unless we’re leaving evolution to do it’s worst. Flu IS controlled / managed appropriately to levels which society accepts, with vaccines and proper infection control. If flu could be eliminated it would be. Even given the chance of unintended consequences.

It’s also important that people, particularly the very young and arguably some of the older ones, not all, are exposed to normal circulating bugs.
The immune system needs training like some computer programmes.

Fresh air and sunshine are the best way forward, for everybody. The immune system is also affected by how we “feel”. The whole damn thing’s a big spirograph drawn by a monkey.

Excuse me for telling you what you know.
Unintended consequences are always difficult to predict!!! There’s definitely a place for it in all discussions of managing complex systems.

Sheri,
I understand.

McChuck: Could be the vaccine, could be the lying government, could be the “test”. I’m leaning toward the latter, though I do agree there are things that cannot be vaccinated against.

In my rambles across the unterweb came across this excellent comment at Unz:

”A one-paragraph synopsis of today’s mass hysteria:

“Lock down”, deny human rights, devastate – psychologically, emotionally, and financially – hundreds of millions, perhaps billions – of people while coercively or forcibly injecting the entire world population with semi-effective, unproven, poorly tested, potentially cataclysmal, rushed vaccines and experimental genetic injections that stop neither infection nor transmission, supplied and promoted by profiteering multinationals provided exemption from liability, on the orders of corrupt, power-tripping politicians and petty-tyrant bureaucrats, all based upon ridiculously loose statistics borne of not-fit-for-purpose testing, and no agreement even on what constitutes a “case”, for what is for the great majority an asymptomatic or mild disease that responds to cheap, safe, nutritional supplements, medicines, and sunshine.”

That about sums it up.

I suspect that all assaults against human auto-immune functioning have cumulative negative impacts on the robustness of these systems. This is a key part of my ‘scientific’ rationale for not submitting (or ‘consenting’) to any mRNA anti-viral inoculation [no matter the levels of social coercion]. One representative case of auto-immune systems impact which I personally observed – was when a family member received a non-matched blood transfusion, and was simultaneously treated with a standard antibiotic to which they had a violent allergic response. Although the individual fully recovered from their initial trauma (automobile accident resulting in extensive loss of blood at age 35) their general health took a precipitous path over the remaining 15 years of their life. The primary pathology of their condition was early onset of rheumatoid arthritis in all extremities (unknown in their family history) along with severe sun exposure sensitivity and consequent seasonal skin disorders. Siblings with matching blood types had normal healthy lifespans well past four score. Although this happened a good fifty years ago ~ observing the rapid regression of this individual’s condition without any whiff of mea culpa by the medical community damaged my trust in ‘those people’ irreparably. If you don’t know how and why specific Antibodies are functionally different from Leukocytes then you cannot give proper informed consent to any mRNA inoculation as a prophylactic against any VIRUSes. That is minimum essential knowledge of your auto-immunity biology if you take responsibility for your own health. Trust The Science in this regard.

Dean,
RE:
“…that responds to cheap, safe, nutritional supplements, medicines, and sunshine.”
Except supplementation is only useful where there is insufficiency or deficiency.

Prevention is, always has been, better than cure.
Prevention isn’t the cure once the disease has already occurred, in most instances.
The disease is not a vitamin deficiency, nor is it caused by insufficient sunlight.

It’s a combination of factors that aren’t mutually exclusive or even necessary in all cases.

The sentiment reveals a tendency to ignore the whole truth, or all of the evidence.

Never mind, it’ll soon be over and people can start worrying about something else the media can control

“…promoted by profiteering multinationals…”

I found out yesterday that Google apparently has a large stake in Astra Zeneca (and wouldn’t surprised if the same goes for Pfizer and Gates’ Moderna).

Any wonder then that they and other Big Tech companies are trying desperately to remove any “anti-vax” info from the web and social media?

Everything everywhere these days is corrupt, fake, or just plain BS.

Briggs,
Although you may be correct in how little mitigation efforts against The Covid work, our Canadian government has linked those efforts in destroying influenza:

“Rather, the abrupt end to the influenza season at the end of March 2020 corresponds with the implementation of stringent and coordinated public health measures across the country to limit the spread of COVID-19, which included widespread public health recommendations for hand washing, mandated mask wearing, social distancing, provincial school closures and stay-at-home orders.”

https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/diseases-conditions/fluwatch/2019-2020/annual-report.html

Any one with expertise feel free to explain how mitigation efforts against one virus are effective, but not another…

The CDC seems to be claiming that there about 15.9% more deaths in 2020 than there were in 2019 and that SARS-CoV-2 was the cause.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7014e1.htm

Is there any independent verification of that data?

Many reasons why the “Flu has disappeared”

First, COVID “cases” are not just positive PCR test results, but also include COVID like symptoms, which are basically the same as flu symptoms.

Second, even though many state/countries have “re-opened”, they are not back to normal circa 2019. Remember the 3 C’s; Crowded Places, Close Contact Settings, Confined, poorly ventilated spaces.
Most are still closed or greatly modified. Nightclubs with crowded dance floors and still closed or at greatly diminished occupancy. Elementary schools don’t let kids play on top of each other as before. Public transportation is way down.

The basic reproduction number, R0, for a community is a function of the virus and social interaction. So, if this year’s flu virus had a relatively low R (let’s say 1.2) the closing of the places that disregard all 3 C’s will drop the R0 below 1.