A MUST READ
BY ROB BOGINOCVIC
THIS “NEW NORMAL” SUCKS
C.S. Lewis said “When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind.” These days, it seems that the whole world is running towards a cliff, demonstrating a collective madness that is really quite stunning – and anyone who voices any concerns regarding the data and the justification for what is happening quickly runs afoul of cancel culture and the bigotry of the Left.
Much of the current madness is being propelled by our media institutions. I teach Social Justice and Social Studies at Chilliwack Secondary. In that capacity I have to guide my students through some of the most controversial issues of the day – and I try to help students see why there is a controversy by presenting different sides of an issue. In my experience, the media rarely does this.
Sometimes, when the media becomes overly myopic in the presentation of just one side of an issue, I invest extra energy in ensuring that the other side can be heard. The right to present a contrary opinion is essential to our democracy, to our culture and society, to our well-being, and we must never surrender that right no matter how much slander is hurled at us by media pundits and the outrage mob. Increasingly, though, that right is being destroyed.
When George Floyd died, the media rushed to present a narrative that was never well-supported by the facts, and as typically happens, as more information has become available, more and more people can see how the media manipulated their reporting to stoke racial-discord and violence, and how little of what they have said aligns with objective reality.
The same is true regarding the media’s reporting on Covid-19. When we started locking down our economy and our society, the media presented a clear goal – flattening the curve. The purpose of flattening the curve was to prevent our hospitals being overrun. The idea was that eventually everyone would be exposed to Covid-19, but if we delayed exposure we’d save lives because hospitals would not have to make triage decisions. Flatten the curve – that is how they sold us on the lockdown.
By May we no longer heard this justification. Suddenly, new cases of Covid, and new deaths, resulted in media calls to keep it all locked down – even if the worst had clearly passed and the curve had clearly flattened. In B.C. (Canada) there are currently 9 people hospitalized due to Covid-19, and six of them have been admitted to the ICU. We flattened the curve, our hospitals were never overrun, but the media never stopped pushing fear, hysteria, the continuation of lockdown measures – and the need for everyone to wear masks – which we were initially told did not work.
B.C. never locked down as hard as most other jurisdictions in North America, and what is interesting is that B.C.’s more moderate approach produced the lowest deaths per capita of any North American jurisdiction with a population exceeding five million people. It makes me wonder if the more severe measures have done more harm than good. It makes me wonder whether Ontario and Quebec would have been better off not “locking down” – adopting a less extreme approach.
When we all went into our lockdowns, we were told that we shouldn’t wear a mask. Today many jurisdictions are mandating them. Some wonder why anyone would protest these precautionary measures that are just trying to protect people. We should do it, we are told, even if the science is really not settled on whether masks work.
The science is also not settled on the link between masks and migraines, or the detrimental effect wearing one has upon one’s own immune system.
On August 1st, Nova Scotia mandated masks. Nova Scotia has had 1,071 Covid cases resulting in 64 deaths with 1005 cases resolved – leaving the province with 2 active cases. Since June 6th there have only been 12 new cases in the province – and yet Nova Scotia felt the need to mandate masks. The curve can’t get much flatter than Nova Scotia’s, yet that somehow never enters into the equation.
I have stood in the protest lines asking that the lockdown be lifted. I have talked with many of those in Chilliwack who share my concerns. Our common belief is that the measures enacted did not need to be so severe, and should be eased ASAP. Our common desire is for the “new normal” to become a thing of the past, with the “old normal” returning us all to a brighter future.
People wonder what it is that we oppose – as though it isn’t fairly obvious. We oppose a media narrative that has urged hysteria to justify power grabs by politicians. We oppose the WHO and their handling of this pandemic. We wonder why they seem to have priorities other than saving lives. We oppose the big-tech censorship of doctors and nurses who are trying to present a different narrative; doctors and nurses who expose the practices that are getting people killed, and who oppose the suppression of information concerning treatment options. We oppose the erosion of our civil rights and we oppose the economic devastation these lockdown measures have unleashed, and in doing so we have been told that we value money over lives – but that is a lie. We want to end these lockdown measures because in the long term that will save lives – many lives – thousands of lives.
We are told that the lockdown averted the deaths of millions – but where is the evidence of that? Sweden never locked down. Sweden never mandated masks. They never closed their borders. They never closed their schools for ages 16 and under. They never closed their restaurants and bars. Sweden refused to trample on the rights of their citizens.
Dr. Anders Tegnell – a specialist in infectious disease – urged his government to trust the public’s capacity to act responsibly, and urged those over 70 to self-isolate. He said that Sweden’s strategy was rooted in a “long tradition” of respecting “free will”, that “closing borders … is ridiculous”, that “closing schools is meaningless at this stage”, and that “we need to learn to live with this disease”.
Disastrous death tolls were predicted for Sweden, but they never materialized. To date Sweden has had around 5,800 deaths – out of a population of just over 10 million people.
To put that figure into perspective, Quebec has had around 5,700 deaths – out of a population of 8.5 million people, and New York City has had 23,000 deaths – out of a population of 8.4 million people. New York sent Covid positive patients into nursing homes as part of their efforts to lockdown. New York City experienced 5 times as many deaths/capita as Sweden.
So – what did the lockdown measures actually achieve? In Canada these measures achieved the bankruptcy of thousands of businesses, the loss of over 2 million jobs, and dramatically higher rates of drug-overdoses and suicides. Over 400,000 surgeries were postponed, and we dramatically reduced the number of cancer-screenings. Furthermore, with gyms closed and Canadians ordered to stay indoors for weeks and months, more than a few of us have packed on our Covid-19s – which long term will result in higher rates of heart disease and diabetes. Our schools were closed, which will have a lasting impact on our children’s education. Our parks were closed – which never made any sense. Our churches were closed – and most remain closed. Ultimately, our young people will suffer the long-term economic fallout – on top of the developmental and psychological damage caused by isolating them from friends and family.
We’re told these measures were necessary to save lives – and we are supposed to believe that many lives were saved – though don’t look too closely at Sweden. We’re told we must maintain these measures and bring in new ones – like mandatory masks – or there will be a second wave – though again, don’t look too closely at Sweden.
In B.C. we have suffered 195 deaths due to Covid-19. Even assuming that number is accurate and none of these victims would have died from some other comorbidity, that works out to 1 death per 25,000 citizens. One death. One would typically expect 100 deaths per 25,000 citizens during a 4 month stretch, so that means that during this pandemic, for every B.C. citizen who has died of Covid, a hundred people died from something else: suicides, drug overdoses, diabetes, heart disease, cancer – common killers which were all made worse by our lockdown measures.
And if you try to tell people about any of this – you are a Covidiot. If you say – as I have said – that the “cure” is worse than the virus – you are a Covidiot. And if you look to the new recommendations – which contradict so many of the old recommendations – and you ask why we should believe “the experts” and the “media pundits” who have already been caught lying or making things up as they go along – you are a Covidiot.
A few weeks ago, mass-testing for Covid was the goal, yet a week ago Ontario’s Associate Chief Medical Officer of Health – Dr. Barbara Yaffe – warned against mass testing for Covid-19. Yaffe declared, “if you’re testing in a population that doesn’t have very much Covid, you’ll get false positives almost half the time. That is the person actually doesn’t have Covid, they have something else, they may have nothing. Uh, so it will just complicate the picture.” False positives – almost half the time. If true, then we really don’t have any idea how many people have Covid, and if false, we really have no reason to trust our Chief Medical Officers or the other government officials who have destroyed their credibility by telling us so many obvious lies.
But question any part of their ridiculous narrative and you are a Covidiot.
Hellen Keller was born blind and deaf, yet she still saw many things more clearly than most members of the mob. She said: “Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.”
Rudyard Kipling said, “Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears.”
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