Friday Morning Breakfast For The Brain

Thank God it’s Friday.

What Will Post-COVID Look Like On TV And In The History Books

Via The Ron Paul Institute

Difficult situation: There is no way the government can simply walk back from what it did with COVID-19…

It imposed draconian general-population lockdown measures, and closed down the economy, irrespective of the domestic consequences, for a viral respiratory disease that all the recent studies are convergently saying is no worse than a seasonal flu.

How will the government representatives and enablers respond when the dust settles?

They will hold onto the absurd. They will hide the harm of the lockdown (violence, economy, jobs, subservience training…). They will claim that they beat the coronavirus when it slows, and then claim that any resurgence would have been worse had they not intervened; all contrary to known science and the accumulating empirical data, of course.

And ordinary citizens who bought into the lie will continue to protect the government by going berserk when challenged that it was a lie: Surely they were right to enjoy the new circumstances at home and to police their neighbors.

If there are fewer deaths than the artificial predictions then the government will claim that it saved lives, millions of lives.

The low death count right now (even counting every possible death that is not a proven suicide or murder) and the stubbornly normal magnitude of the total mortality rate are problems for the government, since these figures suggest that there really never was a pandemic worthy of the military-scale response.

In fact, the darn thing is not particularly contagious or fatal. It is not a deathly virulent disease by usual standards. Sweden presently has far fewer confirmed COVID-19 deaths per-million-inhabitants than Belgium, Spain, Italy, France, UK, and The Netherlands, without any lockdown; and it estimates that one third of its citizens have already been infected and are now immune.

ut governments will argue that their lockdowns prevented infection and death, in time for a vaccine to save the remaining elderly and vulnerable individuals. Since the disease is no plague, their vaccine will “work”: There is no real challenge. They will be able to hide the harm from the vaccine and claim that they are vigilantly protecting humanity.

On the contrary, the government should not be allowed to take credit for anything except the mess it has made.

But they will not fund research that examines their mess. Only researchers that go along will be funded and promoted, as always.

Read the entire article HERE.

Universities team up with Facebook, Twitter to track users for coronavirus data

Via Campus Reform

Researchers at Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University are partnering with Facebook and Twitter to use location-based data to track the spread of the coronavirus and to measure the effectiveness of social distancing measures.

Harvard researchers are working in partnership with Facebook’s “Data for Good” initiative. In this partnership, they are seeking to utilize user data from the popular social media platform to inform non-profits and other public health groups about interactions and movements which may contribute to the spread of the disease.

COVID-19 patients are assisting the project by providing their data voluntarily to serve as a standard for transmission-related behaviors. This, combined with anonymous location data from Facebook users have allowed Harvard and its partners to help create “Disease Prevention Maps,” which track social interactions and travel. Those involved in the project hope that it can paint a better picture of how the virus spreads.

At Johns Hopkins University, a team of researchers led by Computer Science Professor Mark Dredze are using data from Twitter to determine the effectiveness of social distancing measures and quarantine policies. Compiling millions of “geotagged” tweets from many different users, the Hopkins scientists created an index comparing travel from January to March 16 to more recent data collected after social distancing measures took effect.

According to their findings, travel has decreased considerably throughout the United States. The researchers also note that “states that were early adopters of social distancing practices have larger reductions in travel” while the eight states which didn’t have measures in place as of April 5 have had less significant reductions in travel.

Some believe that these measures have tremendous potential to track and combat the spread of the coronavirus. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post where he touted his company’s global user base as a significant data asset in public health experts. He asserted that “Facebook can uniquely help researchers and health authorities get the information they need to respond to the outbreak and start planning for the recovery.”

Read the entire article HERE.

Warren, Levin roll out plan for coronavirus ‘containment corps’

Via The Hill

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.) introduced a plan on Thursday to create a “containment corps” that would carry out a national coronavirus contact tracing program.

The Democratic proposal would require the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop a plan within 30 days to “hire, deploy and train” individuals who would be responsible for investigating cases of the coronavirus and performing contact tracing.

“In order to keep our communities healthy and get our economy up and running, we must stand up a national contact tracing program that will stop the spread of this virus dead in its tracks,” Warren said in a statement.

Levin added that “establishing a nationwide contact tracing program is the only way we can truly know the progress we’ve made in containing the virus, and how far we have left to go before we can transition back to normal life.”

The Democratic lawmakers want to get their plan included in the next coronavirus bill passed by Congress. To help accurately scale the contact tracing, they are also calling for the CDC to step up coronavirus testing.

Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) rolled out their own plan on Wednesday that would provide $55 billion per year to hire hundreds of thousands of people to carry out testing, contact tracing and eventually vaccinating to fight the coronavirus.

Read the entire article HERE.

“Scan Your Code!”: Dystopian Post-Lockdown ‘Normal’ In Wuhan Enforced By ‘Anti-Virus Patrols’

Via Zero Hedge

he industrial hub of over eleven million people and ground zero for the global outbreak, Wuhan, has come roaring back to life but more in the way of a dystopian version of itself after the virus peaked there in February and now with almost no new infections occurring according to official numbers.

Under strict lockdown since late January as the virus ripped through the original ‘hot zone’ epicenter of Hubei province, the capital city provides a glimpse of what hard-hit urban centers in the West may look like in a new post-lockdown world.

“So far, Wuhan’s answer has been to create a version of normal that would appear utterly alien to people in London, Milan, or New York — at least for the moment,” Bloomberg writes. It’s a situation that appears ‘normal’ but with a totalitarian twist: “Bolstered by China’s powerful surveillance state, even the simplest interactions are mediated by a vast infrastructure of public and private monitoring intended to ensure that no infection goes undetected for more than a few hours.”

Just to get a major Lenovo tablet and phone factory on the outskirts of the city up and running again – previously closed for over two months – workers are first greeted by a series of four temperature checks. If flagged for even slightly higher than normal temperature (above 99.1F) they get referred to an in-house “anti-virus task force” to make determinations.

The steps the factory as well as businesses and offices across the city have taken are designed to spot any potential resurgence in infections a mere minutes after symptoms appear. And this is after returning employees have already been exhaustively tested for both the virus and antibodies before being able to go back to their place of work. And yet still, as Bloomberg describes, there’s a detailed regimen involved at every step of the day in the ‘new normal’:

Once cleared, they returned to work to find the capacity of meeting rooms built for six reduced to three and the formerly communal cafeteria tables partitioned off by vertical barriers covered in reminders to avoid conversation. Signs everywhere indicate when areas were last disinfected, and robots are deployed wherever possible to transport supplies, so as to reduce the number of people moving from place to place. Elevators, too, are an artifact of the Before Times; everyone now has to take the stairs, keeping their distance from others all the way.

Amid a surge in global demand for laptops and tablets given schools around the world have gone to remote learning, the Lenovo factory has added more than 1,000 workers since reopening operations, with over 10,000 employees on-site.

Read the entire article HERE.

Unemployment Claims Soar Over 26 Million Within Five Weeks Amid Pandemic

Via The Federalist

New data released from the Department of Labor Thursday shows unemployment claims continuing to skyrocket as nationwide lockdowns meant to curb the spread of the novel Wuhan coronavirus land millions more out of work.

According to the Labor Department, another 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week bringing the five-week total to more than 26 million new claims. More than 5.2 million had filed for unemployment the week prior and 6.6 million filed the week before that. In the first week of April, 6.9 million new claims were filed and more than 3.3 million Americans filed between March 15-21. Each week since the start of the Wuhan virus pandemic has shattered the previous record for new unemployment claims filed within a single week set in 1982 with 695,000 new filings.

The United States is now on course to hit between 15 to 20 percent unemployment when new jobs figures are revealed on May 8. The latest national unemployment rate reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics was 4.4 percent in March, before the coronavirus lockdowns had taken much of their toll.

To confront the surge in job losses tied to state and local government-mandated business closures, Congress beefed up unemployment insurance with an extra $600 a week in the roughly $2.2 trillion economic stimulus package passed in late March known as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

Congress also created the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) offering forgivable low-interest loans to small businesses to keep workers on payroll throughout the crisis. The approximately $350 billion initially set aside for the program however, was exhausted by the end of last week as lawmakers on Capitol Hill scramble to replenish the now-depleted funds.

As it looked increasingly clear that the money was drying up, Senate Republicans had proposed a clean funding bill to allocate an additional $250 billion to sustain the program, only to be blocked by congressional Democrats offering a counterproposal of their own, pushing for money directed to hospitals, local governments and minority communities.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made numerous appearances on cable news to brag about blocking small business relief in front of her $24,000 refrigerator as millions of Americans across the country continued to struggle, claiming unemployment benefits at overwhelmed state offices.

Read the entire article HERE.

 

California Bans Protests On State Property After Large ‘Shutdown’ Protest Against Gov. Newsom

Via The Daily Wire

On Monday, “Operation Gridlock” came to California’s Capitol in Sacramento, where hundreds of demonstrators demanded “data over dictators” and “freedom not Newsom.” Despite having issued the permit to the protesters, California Highway Patrol, citing some demonstrators’ decision to violate the “social distancing” requirements, announced Wednesday that they will no longer issue permits for any protests at any state properties, including the Capitol — a decision that effectively bans residents from exercising their First Amendment-protected right to peacefully protest on state property.

As was the case in Michigan’s “Operation Gridlock” protesting the “tyranny” of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s highly restrictive “stay-at-home” order, hundreds of people showed up to the event at California’s Capitol Monday, with many staying in their vehicles, while others congregated on sidewalks and state property.

The permit, The Sacramento Bee reports, was “issued with the understanding that as many as 500 people would attend, according to the website the CHP maintains listing events at the Capitol.” The outlet also notes that “a CHP officer was seen Monday morning directing an organizer where to place a lectern and speakers near the west steps of the building,” and multiple porta potties and hand-washing stations were set up for the event.

On Wednesday, CHP announced that they will no longer be allowing protests on any statement property, the state’s Capitol included.

“In the interest of public safety and the health of all Californians during the COVID-19 pandemic, effective immediately the California Highway Patrol will deny any permit requests for events or activities at all state facilities, to include the State Capitol, until public health officials have determined it is safe to gather again,” the CHP said in a statement Wednesday.

Read the entire article HERE.

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