religious freedom

Public health community put lots of effort into destroying their reputation.

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Need to catch up on discussion on devastation caused by government policies in response to the Covid pandemic. Two articles from last year are still timely because they describe the deliberate effort expended by the public health community to destroy the reputation and create severe skepticism of anything they ever say.

7/16/22 – Brownstone Institute –Dr. Birx Praises Herself While Revealing Ignorance, Treachery, and Deceit – Presumed Doctor Deborah Birx admits in her biography that she willfully lied and deceived to push harsh lockdown. She seems quite pleased with her deceptions.

Read this article a year ago and reread it today (6/19/23). I am more staggered today than a year ago at her arrogance, ignorance, willful deception of the US president, and willful deception of the US public.

Remember this is the person that completely ignored travel restrictions and size restrictions in order to travel several states away to have a four generation Thanksgiving celebration. There was a time that you want to post to leave your state and certainly not have more than 10 people of your immediate family at any gathering of any sort.

Her goal all along was complete lockdown of the entire country for an indefinite period of time. She had no concern, nary any indication of the least bit of awareness, of the economically devastating, educationally destroying, and society crushing impact of her dictatorial feelings.

(more…)
By Jim Ulvog, ago

What are the real reasons so many of our so-called leaders flagrantly ignored Covid restrictions?

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

So many of my posts during the pandemic pointed out the elite in political, public health, entertainment, and media worlds flagrantly ignored the Covid restrictions they demanded we little people follow.

In a moment I will describe conclusions by the British Parliament that former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was lying through his teeth when he spoke to them trying to rationalize away the weekly social events he held for his staff.

I’ve been wondering for two years why so many elitists were so flagrant in their covid violations. I have developed several hypothesis with increasing level of severe implications.

First possibility, all these folks are flaming hypocrites who believe they are above having to comply with the rules everyone else is forced to follow. They speak soberly of the dangers and risks of Covid along with the steps everyone must absolutely take to protect loved ones and neighbors. Yet they won’t lower themselves to follow those rules.

More seriously:

(more…)
By Jim Ulvog, ago

Some tidbits from the American Revolution.

Re-enactment of Battle of Monmouth. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

The American Revolution is a delight to study. A few tidbits from Edward Lengel and the contributing authors in The 10 Key Campaigns of the American Revolution are relevant to this blog. Some fun stuff:

  • Perseverance in face of ongoing reversals.
  • Paying Continental soldiers in specie, that means silver.

Next post will discuss What is a “militia?”

Perseverance in face of ongoing reversals.

Author points out George Washington had more losses in battle than wins. In spite of that he led the patriot forces to victory over the greatest world power of the time.

An overarching feature that shows throughout the book is perseverance in face of trials, tribulations, and battlefield defeats.

(more…)
By Jim Ulvog, ago

Stuff you can now safely say about COVID: the virus came from a lab leak.

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

There are many things you could not say in public two or three years ago, all of which are now safe to say. Here is a starting point of the list of things you can now talk about in the open:

  • The virus came from a lab leak.

As I find articles to further develop the issues now say to say, I will have further discussion.

The virus came from a lab leak.

This was crazy talk three years ago but is slowly becoming accepted: the most likely place the COVID-19 virus came from was a Chinese research laboratory. Oh, by the way, said lab was funded in part by Dr. Fauci’s department.

(more…)
By Jim Ulvog, ago

Stuff you can now safely say about COVID: natural immunity works.

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

There are many things you could not say in public two or three years ago, all of which are now safe to say. Here is a starting point of the list of things you can now talk about in the open:

A slow trickle of news reports are showing that lots of the crazy, coo-coo bird, nutzo, conspiracy theory wackiness you heard from your friends two or three years ago were actually correct. My friends deemed nuts by society who were saying these things were right.

Natural immunity works.

2/27/23 – Wall Street Journal – Three Years Late, the Lancet Recognizes Natural Immunity

Research report by Lancet has one surprise and two not-at-all-surprises. 

(more…)
By Jim Ulvog, ago

Stuff you can now safely say about COVID: masks don’t work.

Of the above five preventions, we have long known that #2 was not needed. We now know #1, #3, and #4 also had no value. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

There are many things you could not say in public two or three years ago, all of which are now safe to say. Here is a starting point of the list of things you can now talk about in the open:

  • Masks don’t work.
  • Natural immunity works. (next post)
  • The virus came from a lab leak. (upcoming post)

There is a disturbing pattern emerging, which further corrodes credibility of the entire public health sector.

A slow trickle of news reports are showing that lots of the crazy, coo-coo bird, nutzo, conspiracy theory wackiness from two or three years ago was actually correct. Turns out my wacko friends who were saying these things were right.

Masks don’t work.

Previously discussed this study as covered by a couple of other reports:

From the New York Times (!), an opinion piece from Brett Stevens:

2/21/23 – Brett Stevens opinion in The New York Times – The Mask Mandates Did Nothing. Will Any Lessons Be Learned?

Article cites a study which analyzed 78 research reports, all of which were randomized control trials. Researchers say those little paper masks we were wearing for so long made little or no difference. They can find no evidence for positive impact.

How about those expensive N-95 masks? Same thing. No impact.

What about those studies which did show masks made a difference which were cited as proof positive that anyone who disagreed mask efficacy was a Neanderthal?

(more…)
By Jim Ulvog, ago

Excess deaths – More people are dying that expected based on historical average. Why?

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Reports are now surfacing there are far more people dying then we would expect now the pandemic is mostly behind us. This discussion will bring up merely two articles calling attention to this issue.

First article points out there are excess deaths after the pandemic has wound down. Second article points out there were excess deaths in California during the pandemic.

I suggest we need to look at government policies during the pandemic as the driving force behind the excess deaths.

Normally, one can look at the five-year average of deaths and make an estimate of the number of people who will die this year.  It is called “excess deaths” when the actual deaths are above the five-year average.

Three years after the start of the pandemic there are significant excess deaths in countries with believable statistics available.

9/2/22 – Next Big Future – Unknown Cause of 1 Million Excess Deaths per Year – Article from last September points out there are widespread excess deaths, even after allowing for Covid deaths.

Article says there were 18% excess deaths in the first two years of the pandemic. Now that the deaths from Covid have dropped, the overall death rate should be back to the historical average.

Yet that is not what is happening.

Author points out that England and Wales were showing 1000 excess deaths weekly in 14 of the previous 15 weeks. None of those are from Covid.

Excess deaths are running in the 10% up to 20% level around the world.

Excess death rates are 8% in the US and 20% in Brazil.

(more…)
By Jim Ulvog, ago

Research shows no identifiable benefit from wearing masks.

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

There is a surge of articles denouncing pandemic policy along with emerging research showing the destruction caused by intentional government policy.

I have made note of many of these articles and hope to start discussing them.

In this post:

  • Metastudy of 78 randomized control experiments finds masks have no benefit.
  • Pro-mask is anti-science. Anti-mask is pro-science. (Pro-mask is actually a religion.)

Our political, public health, educational, and religious leaders have much to answer for.

2/10/23 – The Spectator – I’m pro science. That’s why I’m anti-mask – The former brand president at Levi Strauss was hounded out of her job because she had the audacity to ask, in a company that presumably doesn’t actually hire any toddlers, whether a mandatory mask for toddlers was harmful.

She was accused of being “anti-science.” Oh the horror! Off with her head!!

Research from the Cochran study, which will be discussed more later, analyzed 78 studies covering 1 million people. The conclusion?

(more…)
By Jim Ulvog, ago