Covid Journal, April 7, 2021

The Shotgun Knee-Jerk Reactions Don’t Work

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.

‘Lockdowns’ of the entire economy don’t work.

Doug Ford is poised to declare more regime control over the next 24 hours.

Data like this from the Province of Ontario web site proves to me that taking a ‘shotgun’ approach to Covid cases is causing more harm than good. If our governments were to zero in ‘clusters’ of cases, knee-jerk shutdowns of everything wouldn’t be needed. Also, ‘schools’ is likely universities, many of which should adapt better to a more permanent delivery of online classes. ‘Workplaces’ that don’t prevent outbreaks should be penalized severely, including covering bills for people that should be allowed to take paid sick leave.

The data shows very clearly that ‘clusters’ of Covid cases continue in the following circumstances:

1. Elderly facilities, be they retirement homes, LTC or other facilities.
2. Schools, as in universities. Shut them down and send the kids home. Stop funding them if need be and funnel the funds to elementary and secondary schools.
3. Processing facilities: these are the meat packing plants, postal operations and Amazon facilities that carry on, regardless of how many cases crop up. They are a perti dish of disaster for the entire economy and they have to be put on notice.

The rest of us are suffering to keep the above pumping out Covid cases. Should we be OK with that?

And how, pray tell, is shutting down livestreaming and other ‘in situ’ concerts going to prevent Covid when there is a small handful of people organizing an event for a much larger audience that has to stay at home. What’s next? Forcing people to cancel podcasts?

An Exhausted Public and Abuse of Police Powers

Overreach barely states what’s happening and will continue to happen as we empower the wrong people with controls over the rest of society.

23 cruisers, 40 Toronto police officers and big fucking mess.

All to evict a man and two daughters. The video is sickening and disheartening.

Welcome to the world under Ford.

Welcome to the post-Covid world where any gathering of a few people or crushing rules resulting in people unable to pay rent will yield economic and social disaster.

Corporate Pandemic Pickpockets

The pandemic has created a giant vortex of wealth from all classes except one: the top fraction of the top 1% of the world.

In Canada, companies like Bell, a whole pile of oil and gas companies, Rogers and Extendicare have all received hundreds of millions of dollars, paid dividends to shareholders and continue to issue up maximum resistance to simple concepts like paid sick leave in order to minimize the spread of Covid cases.

Thanks to North 99 for compiling a full and live list of companies that are receiving government support when they need it the least.

I have an idea: any company that is allowed to stay open and profit from the pandemic should be subject to a SUPER TAX that exists for the duration of the pandemic. The ‘Super Tax’ would go towards medical costs, paid sick leave that they refuse to pay, rent relief and, of course, the millions of small businesses and other organizations that are getting crushed by arbitrary and absurd and instantaneous changes in regulations.

‘Lockdown’ Issues

Where are we going with this?

There’s no end in sight to the stupidity behind arbitrary and increasingly challenging lockdowns.

I’ve maintained two things through all of this:

1. ‘Lockdown’ is a term that’s applied to hostile prisoners. Is that us? We need a better, less sociopathic term to define what’s being imposed on society at large.
2. ‘Stay at home’ requirements would be less necessary if we truly analyzed and acted on ‘clusters’ of cases (eg. Long-Term Care, university campuses, processing facilities, etc).

All this said, it’s a little shocking when someone like Anthony Fauci is caught on tape saying lockdowns don’t work:

Fauci, asked “what’s the science” for denying vaccinated Americans a return to travel, can’t explain.

“When you don’t have the data and you don’t have the actual evidence, you’ve got to make a judgment call.”

Ohhhh kaaaay …

That’s a pretty big ‘hunch’ driving the shut down of the entire global market.