By Kathy Sands, Editor
The Villagers' Voice online
On the national scene and in the state of Illinois, most news reporting in the past few months has been only about the rising numbers of positive Covid-19 infection cases and the number of deaths. Governor Pritzker continues to move regions of the state back into strict mitigation where cases have been rising above a certain level. Rising cases is all that is ever talked about. There has been little to no reporting on the ever decreasing death and hospitalization rates. The constant drumbeat is the infection rate.
In fact, reporting on Covid-19 has given the public little to rejoice about, but handing them much to fear. Governors in some states continue to use their legislatively derived 28 to 30-day emergency powers over and over again to “stop the spread” of Covid-19. In the meantime, it still spreads. Also in the meantime, two state supreme courts (PA and MI) have now ruled their governors (Tom Wolf and Gretchen Whitmer) have overreached their constitutional authority, and should have consulted the other branch of government that represents the people. Should the challenges to his authority ever move to the Supreme Court level, Illinois Governor Pritzker may find himself in the same illegal position, as one Clay County Circuit court judge has already ruled the same on that issue on July 2, 2020. But Judge Michael McHaney’s decision has been ignored by those who wish it away, although it has not been appealed, but instead moved to another county...and another judge. (See complete order here.)
To add insult to injury to these overreach scenarios being played out by many Democrat state administrations, the CDC , on September 10 updated the estimated infection fatality rates for COVID…and the survival rates. Here are the updated survival rates by age group, and herein lies the good news that no one ever talks about. These are the RECOVERY RATES:
Ages 0-19: 99.997%
Ages 20-49: 99.98%
Ages 50-69: 99.5%
Ages 70+: 94.6% https://t.co/9RRLgsBHta
Yes, I think Americans are very much aware that Covid-19 is nothing to sneeze at (no pun intended), but to deny that it has been over-hyped and politicized far above any previous flu season where thousands ( corrected) have contracted and even died of flu, is intellectually dishonest. Has this nation seen anything like it before? The cost of the lockdowns to the economic health of the nation is still being weighed and calculated. Many small businesses have suffered immensely, including their respective communities and labor force. Many, if forced into a second lockdown under resurgence mitigation protocols, will simply never re-open. (The state’s own pandemic plan does not recommend lockdowns, stating they don’t work and instead destroy the economy. IDPH Pandemic Plan, pg. 67, see here.)
I quote from page 67 of the plan: "Quarantine (a period of isolation to prevent disease spread) is not effective in controlling multiple influenza outbreaks in large, immunologically naïve populations, because the disease spreads too rapidly to identify and to control chains of transmission. Even if quarantine were somewhat effective in controlling influenza in large populations, it would not be feasible to implement and enforce with available resources, and would damage the economy by reducing the workforce. Most people will voluntarily quarantine themselves in their home.
• Quarantine may be of limited use in slowing the spread of disease during the earliest stages of influenza outbreaks, only if special circumstances apply. For example, were a case of influenza-like illness to be identified in an isolated group, such as the passengers and crew of an airplane, public health officials could prevent or slow the spread of disease to other groups by:
- Quarantining all passengers and crew members for several days - Transferring all who become ill to isolation wards for treatment - Treating all influenza-like illness in the wider community with suspicion The probability of this scenario is low in all circumstances, but diminishes over time as an influenza pandemic spreads. Quarantine should not be confused with methods used to prevent outbreaks of illness in health care facilities, such as patient segregation, or with methods used to slow disease spread in large populations, such as school closures."
The year 2020 will most likely be remembered as a turning point in the country’s history. America has experienced impeachment of a president charged with nothing illegal, a pandemic virus put upon it by a foreign country, all out media and political war on a drug with anecdotal evidence claiming to assist recovery from said virus, stringent lockdowns of “non essential” businesses (who gets to decide what’s “essential”?) and daily life, public schooling closed down and forced to go “remote,” mask wearing mandates four months into the pandemic after being told it wasn’t necessary, mixed messages from the medical community, harassment, arrests and even tasing of citizens not wearing a mask while outdoors. And who can forget the BLM protests, being joined by most likely Antifa professional rioters, who looted and burned businesses in Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Kenosha and other cities and attacked federal buildings and police, all while reporters, flanked by burning buildings, claimed they were “mostly” peaceful protests, the death of a Supreme Court Justice and the appointment of a new candidate by the current administration, and a President and First Lady contracting Covid-19?
For some, 2020 can’t end soon enough. And there is a highly controversial presidential election yet to get through…with ballots in some states freely mailed to everyone dead or alive who has ever filled out a voter registration form. What could possibly go wrong?
