Tom Riggins: The mask is off

This is being written prior to Election Day, so I chose another topic. For months we have been subjected to constant media reports of the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic. The onslaught has been overwhelming, with dire forecasts of hospitals being overrun by coronavirus cases. So much so that by order of President Trump military hospital ships were anchored offshore of major cities. They were barely utilized. We were supposed to have a shortage of ventilators but American ingenuity combined with Trump removing government shackles solved that problem. Despite that, governors in several states, especially Democrat run states, put their government boot on the throats of constituents by imposing lockdowns and mask mandates.

A massive death toll worldwide was projected. When that didn’t happen despite fudged mortality numbers, the media shifted to number of cases. Number of cases has been reported non-stop, often in breathless tones, since. What they usually don’t report is the ratio of symptomatic versus asymptomatic cases. Through all of this there is a surprisingly large number of people that believe contracting coronavirus is a death sentence.

Then the unthinkable happened that upset the narrative. Trump contracted coronavirus. And then recovered. A 74-year-old overweight man with no underlying conditions contracted the dreaded virus and recovered, upsetting a carefully constructed narrative that has been used as an excuse to ruin economies, inflict misery on workers, and radically change how we conduct elections.

Trump said, “Don’t be afraid of COVID. Don’t let it dominate your life.” The media went nuts over this. USA Today reported on the reaction to Trump’s tweet on returning to the White House from the Walter Reed Medical Center: “Celebrities, political pundits, and critics responded to President Donald Trump’s tweet to not ‘be afraid of COVID,’ calling the message “preposterous” and “dangerous.” And The New York Times reported, “Scientists, ethicists and doctors were outraged by the president’s comments about a disease that has killed nearly 210,000 people in the United States.”

There has been a lot of misinformation around COVID-19. One would think all Americans and the media would be working to find the best possible solutions. Unfortunately that does not appear to be the logic of today. It has become obvious that the media, social media, and certain health authorities have colluded to control the health narrative. If you say anything contrary to that narrative, you will be derided, ridiculed, and even silenced. Videos on YouTube and posts on Facebook have been banned because they dared to suggest that potential treatments for COVID-19 was being studied. Even the President has been attacked for suggesting that we should look at a possible treatment.

The vitriolic response to hydroxychloroquine and oleandrin and anything outside a big-Pharma response seems insane, even “anti-science” according to a respected Yale professor of epidemiology. But if you look behind the pushback on promising treatments, you realize that there are two powerful forces at work. The first is corrosive politics, wanting President Trump to look bad at any cost. The second is greed, wherein there are hundreds of billions of dollars allocated to vaccine makers to develop a “cure,” treatment or preventative.

Those are also some underlying causes of many of the published statistics being suspect. The focus was on “deaths from COVID” despite the actual morality rate being overstated for political and financial reasons. Then the CDC released data stating just six percent of the COVID-19 deaths listed COVID-19 as the only cause of death. For deaths “with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death.”

When mortality rate stabilized, the emphasis shifted to “total cases.” This is a self-fulfilling dataset because at the same time testing ramped up with better test procedures. Of course you will get more cases with more testing. The World Health Organization just asked world leaders to stop using lockdowns to control coronavirus. And a CDC study just found that 85 percent of COVID cases were of people who “often or always wore masks.” So much for the mask mandate.

Despite this, Democrats are full speed ahead on total control. I wouldn’t be surprised to find a new CDC “health police” requiring temperature checks or COVID tests before entering a public building, even though they did nothing to stop the virus in the White House. Or worse, jailing non-compliant citizens. Stay vigilant. This is a high-stakes game and your liberty, our economy, our nation’s health, and your future are at stake.