Tuesday Morning Breakfast For The Brain

Good morning Deplorables!

Are COVID-19 Deaths Being Overreported?

Via American Greatness

Playing loose with the number of fatalities or giving local officials the greenlight to inflate those figures is inimical to the public’s need to get a firm grasp on the danger of the disease.

According to some tracking sites, the U.S. death toll from the novel coronavirus reached 10,000 victims on Monday. Grim reapers on social media noted the “grim milestone” and forecast more grim days ahead for Americans now trapped by government-imposed house arrest as they helplessly watch their savings and livelihoods and freedom implode in real-time.

The U.S. surgeon general warned that this week’s catastrophic death toll will rival those not seen since the most horrific attacks on American soil. Jerome Adams said that the next several days will be “our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment. Only, it’s not going to be localized, it’s going to be happening all over the country.” President Trump and his closest medical advisors also have reiterated that terrifying scenario.

But there is little information available as to what qualifies as a coronavirus fatality for official counts. And there is good reason to approach such tallies with skepticism since reporting from states like New York is suspiciously vague.

If Americans are to believe that COVID-19 poses a mortal risk to the general population and therefore requires the most intrusive measures ever invoked to stop the spread of the deadly virus, then government officials must clarify the classification. Health officials have confirmed that older people and those with underlying medical issues such as heart disease or diabetes are most at-risk; the concern, however, is that fatalities in such cases are always attributed to coronavirus as the main cause of death instead of just noting it as a contributing factor.

Questionable Guidance

Guidelines recently released by the Centers for Disease Control bolster concerns that the death toll is being rigged to show a higher fatality rate.

“In cases where a definite diagnosis of COVID–19 cannot be made, but it is suspected or likely (e.g., the circumstances are compelling within a reasonable degree of certainty), it is acceptable to report COVID–19 on a death certificate as ‘probable’ or ‘presumed’,” the agency advises. “In these instances, certifiers should use their best clinical judgment in determining if a COVID–19 infection was likely.”

That clinical judgment, alarmingly, does not require administering a test to confirm the presence of the virus.

“Ideally, testing for COVID–19 should be conducted, but it is acceptable to report COVID–19 on a death certificate without this confirmation if the circumstances are compelling within a reasonable degree of certainty,” the guidelines state.

The CDC provided three examples to help officials determine how to properly document the cause of death. One scenario described an 86-year-old female nonambulatory stroke victim who developed a fever and cough days after being exposed to a sick family member later diagnosed with COVID-19. Even though the decedent wasn’t tested, the coroner nonetheless determined that the woman’s underlying cause of death was COVID–19, “given the patient’s symptoms and exposure to an infected individual.”

Let’s just say that kind of bureaucratic guesswork is unacceptable while the economy is in chaos, tens of millions are suddenly out of work, and power-hungry government tyrants arrest surfers and pastors for daring to violate “social distancing” decrees handed down to their local authorities by Beltway lifers.

But even with such leeway, the death toll tallied by the CDC isn’t close to the number of COVID-19 fatalities reported by sites such as the New York Times or Worldometers.

As of April 4, the CDC confirmed 1,889 deaths due to COVID-19; 1,073 fatalities have occurred in New York City alone. The provisional count, the agency explained, could lag other tracking sites because of a delay between “the time the death occurred and when the death certificate is completed, submitted to [CDC] and processed for reporting purposes. This delay can range from 1 week to 8 weeks or more.”

A separate post at the CDC claims 8,910 people have died from COVID-19 but doesn’t properly explain the discrepancy, except to say that “data reported by states should be considered the most up to date.”

Read the entire article HERE.

The Lockdown in the West Also Comes From China

Via The Duran

Though most governments in the West have progressively over the last century gained ever more control over people’s lives, there is a Western tradition, though some would call it a pretense, of valuing individual freedom.

The Western reaction to the Coronavirus pandemic has been nothing short of hysterical. Most of the populations in the West have been confined to their homes and whole countries have been locked down, at an economic cost that goes beyond belief. It is difficult to find historical examples of such draconian measures being adopted by Western nations anywhere and anytime, even during war.

So what is going on? The full picture will only become clear with time. Nevertheless, it is already possible to mention a key point: the virus came from China. The Chinese origin of the pandemic is important to keep in mind in order to understand the political reaction in the West.
Had it started in almost any other place on Earth, the Western policies might have been milder and more respectful of fundamental human freedoms. During the 2009 Swine flu pandemic, for instance, no lockdown of society was even contemplated, although that virus contaminated almost a billion people and killed hundreds of thousands globally. But that pandemic started in the West, not in China.

Though most governments in the West have progressively over the last century gained ever more control over people’s lives, there is a Western tradition, though some would call it a pretense, of valuing individual freedom. If such an ideal still means anything at all, no natural disaster, no matter how serious, would be reason enough to make an exception and allow the State to dramatically curtail the basic freedom of millions of citizens to go about their business, as long as their respect the law. In fact, if a pandemic were so dangerous as to threaten to wipe out a substantial part of humanity, no government directives would be necessary anyway, in order for panicked individuals to restrict their movements and self-isolate, to wear masks and to practice “social distancing”, provided such measures could evidently limit contagion. Many people would then naturally take such actions by themselves, without any central State with a bullhorn telling them what to do.

But the Covid-19 is not that dangerous by far. Its harmfulness to the entire population has been wildly exaggerated, though its impact to healthcare systems is real. The Western governments’ willingness to do anything, however devastating to the economy, in order to “flatten the curve“, must then be seen as a way for politicians to belatedly cover themselves, at the expense of society as a whole; to avoid the political blowback from the mostly public healthcare systems’ incapability of handling a severe flu pandemic. Indeed, the Covid-19 mortality rate has been shown in both China and Italy to largely depend on the availability of Intensive Care Units (ICUs), making the reaction to the pandemic a political and economic question, not a health one.

Read the entire article HERE.

The Government Wants to Decide What Items Are Essential Purchases and What Things You’re Not Allowed to Buy

By Daisy Luther

Living under lockdown restrictions, prevalent in nearly every state, is about to get a whole lot worse. The government in the United States and Canada has decided to take away the guesswork in the stores that are still open and decide for you what’s “essential” and what’s not.

When I have gone to the store to pick up groceries (I’m still getting fresh produce while I can), I also like to pick up a couple of things that are pleasant diversions: magazines, a crossword puzzle book, coloring pencils, some craft supplies. It’s nice to have some things that are enjoyable on hand to keep lockdown from feeling so grim and torturous. If the store is already open, getting a sunny yellow pillow for the living room is a pick-me-up, not a frivolous jaunt to a place I wasn’t already going. When we had a birthday in the family, we even picked up a few small gifts on our regular trip to the grocery store to provide a sense of normalcy.

But the days of getting a random item to brighten a family member’s day may be numbered. The government (at least in some places) wants to make this already unpleasant time as dismal as possible for us all.

Vermont has started a worrisome trend.

Vermont has decided to choose for you what is essential and what is not, banning the sale of non-essential items at stores like Target, Walmart, and Costco.

The Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD) is directing large “big box” retailers, such as Walmart, Target and Costco, with in-store sales of food, beverage and pharmacy, as well as electronics, toys, clothing, and the like to cease in-person sales of non-essential items in order to reduce the number of people coming into the stores.

“Large ‘big box’ retailers generate significant shopping traffic by virtue of their size and the variety of goods offered in a single location,” said Agency of Commerce and Community Development Secretary Lindsay Kurrle.  “This volume of shopping traffic significantly increases the risk of further spread of this dangerous virus to Vermonters and the viability of Vermont’s health care system. We are directing these stores to put public health first and help us reduce the number of shoppers by requiring on-line ordering, delivery and curbside pickup whenever possible, and by stopping the sale of non-essential items.” (source)

Retailers are asked to close certain areas of the stores, rope them off to deny access, or pull non-essentials from their shelves.

Read the entire article HERE.

We Cannot Destroy The Country For The Sake Of New York City

Via The Federalist

New York City is being ravaged by the Wuhan coronavirus, but the rest of the country is being destroyed by a generation of economic collapse.

The entire country, experts I trust tell us, must be shut down. Businesses shuttered, many with little hope of opening again. Ten million people unemployed in two weeks. Ten million. In that world beyond that Hudson River, an economic hammer is falling faster than the virus can spread. Who can think of money at a time like this? we are told. How callous. But it’s not just money. In its own way it’s lives, it is a way of life.

Jack Kerouac — who danced and played and was educated in New York City but found his literary and intellectual fortune in the forgotten America — once said he didn’t want a living, he wanted a life. But where is the difference? What is life if not the ability to sustain it? We are embarking upon the devastation of an entire nation when it is becoming clearer and clearer that the gravest threat lies in megacities. And no city is more mega than Gotham.

The counter point is that the virus will eventually spread from New York and inevitably infect the suburbs, exurbs, and rural areas. But in Europe and here at home that isn’t what has happened. In Washington state, where the first-recorded American cases occurred in Seattle, the number of cases has flattened. Why? Well, as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has pointed out, the population density and public transit usage in New York City makes us violently susceptible to this plague.

New York City is the center of the universe; by definition the center of the universe is an anomaly. We cannot base an entire national policy on an anomaly. Err on the side of caution, many say, but is it cautious to destroy entire communities through economic collapse that may not recover for a generation?

“If we can save one life then it’s worth it.” Is it? David Mamet in the movie “Wag the Dog” asked why nations go to war. The answer was to defend our way of life. Four hundred thousand Americans died in World War Two to defend the American way of life. Should we have handed the world to the Nazis to save American lives? Although far from perfect, the point of this analogy is that we cannot base public policy on the basis of total fear of death. We never have, and we never should.

Let’s be clear: what we are sacrificing by a policy of total lockdown for God knows how long is the livelihoods, dignity, and yes, in many cases lives of hundreds of millions of Americans. Platitudes don’t cut it. A crisis is a crisis specifically because it is a situation with no good answers. If there were an easy answer it wouldn’t be a crisis.

Read the entire article HERE.

Bill Gates is the Greatest Threat to Your Future

By Martin Armstrong

Bill Gates is the single greatest threat to your future. His entire agenda is to outlaw all gatherings until you are vaccinated and chipped so they know you are vaccinated. This man is conspiring to take down Western culture. The Left has jumped on his band-wagon so rapidly, this is an unquestionable coup with the VERY SAME objective of the Global Warming he also has been pushing. We are in a very battle for our own freedom. He is wiping out the economy and all jobs unless you accept his agenda. He has destroyed small businesses and pushed his personal agenda to deprive people of their livelihoods and he has suppressed the poor even the worst. They were living pay-check to pay-check.

This is exactly the approach of Adolf Hitler took before he turned against the Jews. He was systematically killing invalids and war veterans who had been handicapped during World War I. They were inferior and this is what Gates is proposing with his vaccines that you are inferior without it. You either accept his chips, or you will be permanently confined to your house and starved to death I suppose because you will be unable to hold a job.

Hitler took the physically and mentally handicapped and viewed them as a threat to his Aryan race and these people were deemed as “useless” to society, and, ultimately, unworthy of life. There are countries already considering bans on entering the public unless you have been vaccinated. It is one thing if we were facing the Black Death with 50% death rates. We are running 10% of the death rate of the flu. So what is going on? This makes no sense for a virus. There will be many more so do we need a chip for every disease? Refuse and we are a threat to his great society? Sounds very Aryan race to me.

Hitler rose to power PRECISELY on the Pi Target – 1932.89. Bill Gates has unleashed his conspiracy against the people precisely on the turn of the ECM on January 18, 2020. There was a meeting in Switzerland where select people were told this virus would crash everything so get out of your stocks and bonds (this is not speculation or a guess).

We are looking at an authoritarian government coming to the West by 2024. Bill Gates is openly destroying the Industrial Revolution and proposing to imprison us unless we accept his dogma. When like minds such as his and Soros end up at the end place, it is called a conspiracy. Socialist politicians are far too eager to accept this simply because they know their systems are collapsing.

Read the entire article HERE.

‘I’m Mad as Hell, and I’m Not Going to Take This Anymore’

By Wayne Allyn Root

“I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore.”

Remember that line from the famous American movie “Network”? It’s time for a rebellion. Every out-of-work American and every out-of-business American business owner needs to open their windows and shout it, shout it so loud it reaches President Donald Trump, Congress and every swamp politician from Washington D.C., to New York to Boston to Beverly Hills, California.

It’s time for this madness to stop. Mr. President, do you understand how many suicides of prominent business owners are going to start piling up?

Here in Las Vegas, a business owner closed his business, laid off his 45 employees (with tears in his eyes) and then went home and committed suicide. Did you see that in the news?

It’s happening across America.

Do you understand the pain of the employees? People can’t even get through to file for unemployment benefits. The websites have been down for days on end. No one answers the phones.

Do you understand how many lives are being ruined, how many jobs are being killed, how many great businesses will never reopen? The people are getting desperate and despondent. They have no money for food, rent, gas or survival.

We can’t stay closed. We have to open up the U.S. economy. There is no more time for debate. There is no more room for caution. I have ideas and compromise below.

First, these coronavirus “death counts” have to stop. You’re scaring people half to death. I suggest new kinds of death counts be put up on the screens to compete:

— JOBS KILLED by this complete business shutdown.

— BUSINESSES CLOSED.

— AMERICAN DREAMS DESTROYED.

— SUICIDES.

Another Great Depression will destroy this great nation. And we’re on the way, unless you open this economy again.

Read the entire article HERE.

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