A Dissenting COVID-19 Opinion
In the modern media climate, you either agree with the government or you’re a conspiracy theorist. If you say “Hey, wait a minute – a novel coronavirus is spreading throughout the world and killing thousands of people. That’s alarming. But, we know for sure who is most likely to die from COVID-19. We know the telltale symptoms. We know what medical equipment we need to combat it. So, why are billions of people virtually locked inside their homes by their own governments? That seems suspicious.”
Governments across the globe issued lockdowns and stay-at-home orders to their citizens. They acted under the guidance of the World Health Organization (WHO), who advised that the only way to curb the spread of this novel coronavirus was to minimize contact between people. Some people contract the virus but don’t experience severe symptoms, such as children, but locking them up was deemed necessary to prevent the virus from ravaging more vulnerable groups, such as the elderly.
If you say (or, God forbid, publish) anything along the lines of “Well, shouldn’t we keep sending the kids to school, but cancel field trips to the nursing home? Maybe prohibit visits to Grandma, screen visitors upon entering the assisted living facilities, and disinfect the floors and doorknobs a few extra times each day?”
But if a person expresses this type of sentiment, oh boy – he or she is labeled as a cruel, heartless individual who hates Grandpa. I love my grandpa, and he isn’t concerned about catching the coronavirus. He lives in southern California, so he probably should be cautious, but the man is 82 years old. The love of his life died 30 years ago. He is retired and legally deaf. My grandpa lived a long life. He drove logging trucks on primitive mountain roads, served as a volunteer firefighter, raised three kids, drank a lot of Coors, told a lot of tall tales, and took his grandkids fishing. He refuses to live the last part of his life in fear of the coronavirus or anything else that will cause his demise. I hope Grandpa is washing his hands and wiping down the cart handle at the grocery store, but I respect his decision to not take extra precautions.
My grandfather’s opinion seems to be shared by many others is his age group. The Punching Bag’s Larry Horist is a few years younger, but his writings show that this generation seems confounded by the extreme measures taken to stamp out the coronavirus. Overall, they don’t support widespread business closures and think they should be allowed – along with all other Americans – to make personal decisions regarding the extent they wish to protect themselves from this disease or any other.
I sure wish politicians embraced this line of thinking. It’s a fact that 80% of people recover completely from COVID-19 without hospitalization. It’s a fact that the majority of people who die from it are not children or young adults. It’s a fact that the new virus will always be with us at some level, and it’s a fact that repercussions from this global shutdown will negatively impact people mentally, socially, and economically for years.
All these facts make me want to find a brick wall and beat my head against it. I’m sure the liberals are hoping I will, because then there will be one less dissenting voice to oppose their strategy of global lockdown and fear-based federal obedience.
What a crock of shit!
There are no grandpas out there saying “I’ve had a good life, I’m ready to die now to help the economy”. You’re using made-up facts to verify a fake conclusion. You’ve been listening to Trump too long!
The truth is (and that’s what the scientists say, not the quacks and idiots on Trump’s pandemic team) that separating people as much as possible slows transmission of the virus. That, in turn, keeps hospitals from getting overwhelmed and decreases mortality rates. Trying to rev the economy by letting more people die is like throwing gasoline on a fire to put it out.
A half million people have COVID-19 in the US, and the death rate is almost 4%, twice what was it was in China and most of the world. There are mass graves in New York because of the death toll. Trump wants the economy to recover quickly to help his re-election prospects (like he’s got a chance!). He doesn’t care about the 21,000 people that have died so far, just wants to distract from his mismanagement and botched handling of the pandemic.
Don’t make up fake excuses for our fake President. He’s been a grifter and a swindler his whole life, his entire term of office has been a disaster, and his incompetent reponse to the COVID-19 pandemic is nothing short of criminal.
Joe S. Bruder: Am not a grandpa, but a great-grandmother who has lived a good, long life. Due to my faith and relationship with my LORD Christ Jesus I do not fear this nor any other disease. My husband went home to heaven to his Father 9 years ago.
My fear is due to our government shutting everything down and telling me what I can/cannot do; and where I can go. THIS IS WRONG and not very constitutional. We have a constitutional republic, if we can keep it.
Amen to you! great answer!
I agree that we are over-reacting. Let Americans Work Again!!
Stop with the shaming! Over 7,000 people in America died EVERY DAY before the coronavirus hit. Where is your outrage about that? I personally know several people in their 70’s, 80’s, and even one in her 90’s that are taking NO extra precautions because, well, you know….they have had a good life. They feel that when it is “their time” then it’s their time. It’s amazing that you know ALL the older people and know that none think this way so the author is lying. I am in my 60’s and not ready to voluntarily give up my life. I am also not ready to voluntarily give up my freedoms either. I tell you what…..those of you who are afraid and will pander to the governments’ fear mongering can stay home and hide under your beds. The rest of us will go to the store, enjoy the spring weather, and do drive-by waving to our grandkids. Since those who fear are under their beds then they won’t catch anything from us, and we won’t catch anything from them.
I am 73 and in no way am I ready to give up my life or that of my wife to doing something stupid at our age. Doing the Chinesehunkerdown is not a problem it just gets old after while but I do have to admit have done a lot of jobs around the house had been putting off. I even got both work benches cleaned off and am building another model. We get groceries delivered to us and except for the cold stuff we leave the groceries in he garage for 3 days and still wipe them down. We wash our hands more, and are more careful around neighbors and keep our distances. Perhaps this is these habits are good ones to start but it takes significant emotional event to change the way we do our every day business, this is probably it. I have no problem with that, but it is a little unnerving to be hunkered down with one person all the time. I’m sure my wife feels the same way.
Actually, thanks to a robust free enterprise health care system, the death rate is only about 2%. This is a third to a quarter of the rate in Italy Spain and most of Europe. An if China were actually telling the truth about their infection rates, we are probably lower than their as well.
Our own Larry Horist expressed the same sentiment. They are not saying “I’m ready to die”, they are saying “I’ll take the risk” if it means preserving society.
Versus the 2 million people that were projected to die, if we did nothing, Trump has saved a great many lives. He acted early, getting massive criticism from the Democrats (sleepy joe said he was “xenophobic”, but now he has changed his mind). And he would have been able to act earlier except that China lied about it, and the WHO backed them up.
Trump has done the best that could be done in a difficult situation. He is a true leader.
Thanks to our “robust free enterprise health system” where 20% of the population is not insured, and another 30 or 40% of the population could be bankrupted by a 2 week hospital stay, and our “robust free market system” that doesn’t provide a safety net or paid sick leave for workers, most workers have to go into work whether they’re healthy or sick. They have no choice. They spread the virus to their coworkers, who pass it to their children, who spread it at school (or it happens in the opposite direction).
As far as Trump “doing his best in a difficult situation”, that’s a load of horse-hockey. His economic/trade advisor warned him about the cost and consequences of coronavirus in JANUARY. He golfed. He was getting security warnings about the spread of the virus in China also in January. Trump ignored warnings about corona virus in 2017, disbanded the National Security Council’s pandemic response team in May of 2018, and has spent his whole presidency cutting budgets to weaken the CDC and disaster management offices. Indeed, he’s already been tested and failed in his response to hurricanes in American territories and southern states, as well as wildfires burning out of control in western states. His response to this epidemic has been a disaster in itself – first, telling people everything was under control and all was well until mid-March, and absolutely zero planning or response to the epidemic before then. He has ignored infrastructure needs for the virus, and has undercut states’ abilities to buy protective equipment and ventilators on their own. He demands that states be “appreciative” of his efforts, while doing nothing.
Trump has not saved lives, his mismanagement has killed many more than would have died normally. Forget repeating how many people die every day from accidents and illnesses – it’s a false comparison and not relevant. In a country of 300+ million, a couple of million people die of something every year. But so far, more than 20,000 have died of corona virus BECAUSE TRUMP DID NOTHING, who would not have died otherwise – not all were old and sick, and to think that the elderly would affect the economy either from lack of working or lack of spending really ignores that fact that most of them are retired and/or on a fixed income. And many elderly serve as a safety net for children and grandchildren, and that is lost by their early deaths.
The first cases in the US and South Korea were reported on the same day – we’ve already got the most cases and most deaths of any country in the world (rapidly approaching half of the world totals), the mortality rate (deaths per million) is about 15th in the world, and the death rate vs. known cases is 4%, double (or more) than most other countries. Your statement above is just plain demonstrably false. Compare to South Korea, who had vigorous (and mobile) testing programs, isolation of sick people, and instituted social isolation early on – 4 deaths per million people, 215 deaths out of 10,500 cases = 2%). You can look all of this up at https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/.
Trump is not a true leader, he is a disaster for this country.
You are trying to re-write history? Trump cut off travel to China in January, based on information that had just come to light. Before that he was getting BS information from China and the WHO. He was widely criticized by the Democrats for acting as early as he did. And our robust healthcare system has saved a lot of lives over the past few weeks.
And acting as early as he did, when the information as to the extent of the danger was still being evaluated, do you blame him for trying to keep the nation calm? That’s what good leaders do.
Then he found out that Obama and Biden had not properly maintained the stockpile of medical response supplies and had to start over. I’d say he did a pretty decent job at that.
And it still appears that you are math challenged, our death rate is about 2%.
You are pretty much like the rest of liberals, attacking Trump because you hate him, and hating him because he is undoing all of the crap that Obama did that severely damaged our country. You hate him because he is successful where Obama was a failure. It has become a sport and almost a religion, making up new criticisms and ignoring his substantial accomplishments.
well its sure nice to see another informed person! this guy is just another liberal hater…theyre so angry, cuz they know theyre on the losing side..thats why they criticize everything our great POTUS has done…talking to them is worse than talking to a cement wall! he needs to just stay hiding in his toilet paper fort, curled in the fetal position, sucking his thumb…he’ll never “get it”!
Honestly if you count the number of people who had the disease and didn’t know it, our death rate is .67%.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/apr/12/coronavirus-hits-italy-spain-france-harder-us/
you are completely lying the president was the only one who did anything by shutting down china all of your cronies said no need to fear
Shut your fucking mouth!! you are so uninformed, it makes me sick!! really, how stupid are you??!! why dont you research some facts for yourself, “mainstream media whore”… otherwise just hide in your toilet paper fort, and stay out of issues you know nothing about! hush now…the adults are trying to read important news! ☠
So if Joe Gilbertson and his grandfather turn out to be asymptomatic, like many, it is fine for them to infect me and my family, so long as more useless widgets can be made to keep the economy going. What could be an opportunity to reassess the important things in life turns into a tantrum about the liberals. Always about the liberals.
If Gilbertson actually cared about the economy, he would support a stricter curfew to shorten the time before we can venture out again. If an absolute lockdown could somehow happen for two weeks, the virus would go extinct.
“Conservatives” have walked away from every urgent issue facing humanity because they don’t believe that humanity even exists. Pandemic? Fake news! Climate change? Faker news!! But Gilbertson’s cherry-picked facts? Not fake! And those facts somehow prove that only those who have no concept of society should be in charge. Well, they are, and as Joe S. Bruder pointed out, that team of grifters and hacks has botched the response to the epidemic and made a laughingstock of the United States.
The shriveled idea of “liberty” that people like Joe Gilbertson and Larry Horist cling to is just an infantile “I can do whatever I want!” It is mandatory, in their grotesque fantasy, that everyone should live in a world of license, even if it means injury to others — as long as that injury isn’t to the private property they worship.
Crawl back under your covers.
Just to be fair, the author on this was Ann Henry, apologies for the mistake.
But I think events speak for themselved, Conservatives value lives first, but the economy is important.
What I find interesting is that the Democrats are pounding the Trump administration saying they didn’t do anything while the virus devastated China and then came over here. Lets see that was in November through about February when it really hit us. It seems to me that the House, Senate, and POTUS were totally consumed by the baseless Impeachment brought on by Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Jerry Nader, and Chuck Schumer. I don’t care who you are but if your very heart and soul are under attack by Congress perhaps your attention is totally on not getting trashed and not looking at an unforeseen new growing monster, like you would be normally, approaching you from China who is totally lying about it. Perhaps if Congress and the Democrats had been dong their jobs instead of a nearly 4 year fight with Trump, which is still on going, we could have been more prepared or mitigated the impact. Perhaps if the NYC Mayor had not sold off all the ventilators he would have had more which were in storage, perhaps if the American Public had paid more attention and taken more care with masks etc not as many would have died. Perhaps it would be nice to have the same ability to see forward as it is to have great hind sight. Perhaps we need to start pointing the fingers where they need to be pointed for choosing and keeping political long term hacks in office who for the last 4 years at minimum, have not been doing anything they were elected to do but stuffing their pockets. Perhaps its time to push term limits even on Representatives and Senators to stop the criminal activity they seem to enjoy so much. PERHAPS we are the ones at fault as we have let the Washington Swamp to exist and get bigger each year as we vote for the person who promises us trinkets and beads for our votes.
150% correct Dave.
Right on Dave!
Oh, PUH-leeze!
Impeachment was hardly baseless, but Trump knew that McConnell would protect him, and it was over before January. Trump was ignoring and downplaying the threat of a pandemic until mid March, when it was well established and doubling every 2-3 days.
The US has the best security advisors in the world, and Trump doesn’t listen to them. He has been dismantling Obama care and the pandemic response teams since his first month in office, while he’s not out golfing.
It was pretty easy to see that China was in trouble, even based on publicly available data, back in December or at the latest early January (when China cancelled their New Year’s celebrations, which would be like cancelling Christmas here).
Trump has been hawking false miracle cures (while having ownership of companies that make them), sold off masks and equipment to foreign countries who then sent it back to the highest bidder among individual states.
Perhaps YOU are at fault, for believing Trump’s claims that he would “drain the swamp”, when he’s actually the granddaddy of all swamp monsters.
All of the impeachment “crimes” were figments of the imaginations of Democrats.
Fortunately Trump listened to his advisors and not the Democrats, and closed off travel with China in January.
Chinese New Year is in February, Trump acted before that.
Trump has not been “hawking” anything. Are you really accusing Trump of making a profit on this? How low with you go? This really is a religion for you, right?
If Joe Bruder and Brian Stewart were serious students of history, they would recognize themselves as folks deemed “useful idiots” by Josef Stalin.I am 75, in great health and take no precautions and I have the right not to. The liberal solution to this China Virus is to treat everyone like Typhoid Mary. Some liberals have suggested that everyone carry “papers” as in Nazi Germany.This is the ultimate “Big Brother” predicted by George Orwell in the classic novel “1984”. I have no doubt that misters Bruder and Stewart have never heard of George Orwell, 1984, Big Brother, Typhoid Mary or Josef Stalin.
You are seeing the slippery slope, it seems most people don’t. We had 9/11, a great tragedy, but the great one was that provisions of the Patriot Act have lingered on for almost a generation. Will we have the same kind of effect from this? I don’t want to walk down the street and be challenged for my “papers” like in Nazi Germany.
What “liberals” are suggesting papers? Sources please? And this coming from, presumably, someone who supports the Republican party that demands papers for voting or crossing the border into Canada, or even getting on an airplane for domestic flights, none of which have resulted in big scary MAJOR CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES (but do serve to make voting difficult amoung people that would more likely support Democrats)
Lots of people have suggested it.
https://punchingbagpost.com/2020/04/03/germany-considers-immunity-certificates-india-utilizes-ink-and-chalk/
Trump has already rejected requiring immunization certifications.
straight from the horses mouth…BILL GATES!! said in an interview that after he forces vaccination on everyone, they should have to carry papers or a digital print showing theyve been tested n dont have the virus!! look it up…idiot!..he doesnt even hide it..he speaks about it freely…and EVERYONE should have to show VOTER ID’S (what u meant by “papers” i presume)…to make sure theyre not here illegally!! thats the only reason u dont want them to have to show “papers” to vote…cuz u know the polls would flood with illegals who ONLY vote dem for FREE STUFF!! and as for your death count for the US….what a joke!!! its nowhere near that number..ie: 4%..!! wow…that koolaid you keep drinking must be pretty darn tasty!!
TacticalCivics is the ONLY lawful , peaceful, effective, full-spectrum solution to those who violate the Constitution with impunity. Its not a political movement;
TACTICALCIVICS is a new way of life…. Check it out.
put up or shut up. No King But JESUS
There is so much bullshit in this article and the responses I scarcely know where to begin. I’ll start with joe gilbertson, your math skills are equal to your logic. 22000/555000=4% not 2% (deaths/current cases). We are not social distancing to solely save the aged, as was pointed out we are trying to limit the number of people requiring hospitalization and protect our health care workers. How can you people be so selfish not to recognize that? And trump deserves an F+ for his handling of the crisis, the + due to the fact that he did close down the border to China flights, which I am sure did delay the virus. However, after that he sat l on his hands for 6 weeks-actually worse than that, he said there was nothing to worry about. Because of that, gatherings of people continued-Mardi Gras comes to mind, and likely many are dead because of that. Advisors attempted to warn him starting in January, they were mostly unsuccessful. Our protection for health care workers is abysmal due to lack of PPE. There are lots of reasons for this, but blame has to start at the top. So, there ‘tis, open your eyes and realize that we have a disaster in the Oval Office,
I have read all the comments posted above. Let me just say this: I am a senior citizen . I’m not ready to give up my life whether you agree or not. I still volunteer with non profit agencies where are you when they need help? Oh that’s right you have to work to support your family or yourself. You probably don’t care that some chicken don’t have the money for their school lunch. Who do you think provides that? Not
You. I do. What about the single mothers who need to work but can’t get a regular job because they have little ones they can’t leave alone. When the Red Criss needs blood do
you rush down to donate some of yours. I doubt because it’s too time consuming. Well we “0ld” folks take care of those things because you are to busy working or socializing. I could keep telling you what the “old people” do with their time instead of sponging on people like you. It probably wouldn’t mean a thing to you! Good Luck!
I agree that the country is over-reacting. LET AMERICANS WORK AGAIN!!!
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!
What is wrong with our politicians? Have they all succumbed to Socialism/Communism/Totalitarianism/Nazism? How frightening!
Poor Joe Bruder, you are STILL soiling your panties over the 2016 election. This is soooo plain to see. Hillary Clinton along with many of her lib team including that low life Comey should be in jail. I guess you would rather have that America hater and muslim Obama still around. The lying slime media and weak minded folks like you will never appreciate and commend the president for anything. You will believe anything CNN and the rest of the Trump hating media says.
You little Joey are are a sad soul.
If we could have the millions of dollars, the Socialist Democrats wasted, that they gave to the Kennedy Center and Arts, in the first stimulus package. Now Dems are delaying funds needed to save small businesses, so they haven’t taken it serious. What about the millions they wasted up until Feb. in the impeachment nonsense, that started with Joe Biden and John Kerry’s sons. Facts are there in research. Check CDC numbers of the virus in the U. S., in 2017-2018, even with a vaccine. It was 45 million cases, 810,000 hospitalizations, and 61,000 deaths, added on to the tragedies of normal living conditions. Yet, we didn’t run out of beds, and it apparently ran its course. It’s the media’s psychological, fear game enhanced by showing numbers, and using it in political strategy. Trump tried to stop travel in January, as Pelosi and her group, scoffed and said he was discriminating. Well, we’ve played the game to their Socialist strategy. There were several emotional videos played by the media that were untrue, and location was not correct. So it’s wiser to search for facts beyond the media. I’m not undermining, that it’s serious for those with health issues, but we all should protect ourselves. But surely, there are many necessary jobs, where people can work and protect themselves. We need crops harvested, the milk industry operating, truck services and valid transportation services, or we won’t have anything to put on our shelves. Think of how many people, American and the world will loose,then. If you’re in a war, then it’s necessary to stay in the battle, where needed. Our President’s team has tried their best.We may question, Hillary’s friend, Dr. Fauci, who could have kept his fear speculation to his self. Dr. Carson states that 98 % have recovered. I read that the President’s suggestion, and physician’s recommendation for hydroxychloroquine was effective. Patients have said so, too, in spite of Dr. Fauci. Stay safe, pray, and trust God’s word for wisdom and direction.
as the Congressman said re Michigan’s Tzarina after she said it’s OK to buy pot but not seeds: a better approach than the essential/nonessential criteria is to ask whether the store, office, etc. safe or unsafe.