Dan Crenshaw introduces bill preventing future national lockdowns and tying state relief funds to reopening plans



A Republican congressman has proposed a bill to end coronavirus lockdowns nationwide and prevent the president of the United States from imposing a national lockdown or placing bans on interstate travel.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) introduced legislation Monday that would end "disastrous economic lockdowns that were imposed unilaterally largely by local Democrat leaders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic."

His bill, the End Lockdowns Now Act, would require state and local governments to establish plans for reopening their economies as a condition for receiving federal coronavirus relief funds.

"I'm sick of lockdowns and so are you. They don't work, the data proves it," Crenshaw tweeted Wednesday. "So I introduced a bill that would prevent national lockdowns and require states to provide a reopening plan before they get bailout money for state governments."

According to a press release from Crenshaw's office, the bill would pressure state and local governments to submit plans to the federal government outlining how they plan to reopen with input from community leaders and small businesses as a condition to receive recovery fund assistance. The plans must include details on how schools will open for in-person learning, how restrictions on business activity will be lifted, how religious services and public social gatherings will be permitted, and how families and small businesses will receive economic assistance for recovery.

The bill would also empower the Treasury Department inspector general to recover funds if the disclosure requirements are not met.

Additionally, the bill would clarify that the president, "nor any executive branch official, shall not take any action to issue a blanket ban on interstate travel or impose a national lockdown order or nationwide quarantine."

"Unscientific, unconstitutional economic lockdowns have destroyed millions of lives and countless small businesses. They have zero benefit to public health, but massive costs to local economies and livelihoods. That's why we need to end lockdowns for good," Crenshaw said. "My bill requires that states and localities — with the input of small businesses and communities — submit reopening plans in order to qualify for recovery fund assistance. My bill also clarifies federal law to deny the President authority to issue a nationwide lockdown or impose blanket bans on interstate travel. The American people have suffered long enough under authoritarian lockdowns. We must end them now and work to ensure they never happen again. That's exactly what my bill does."

An international study published in January found that state-mandated coronavirus lockdowns were no better at stopping the spread of coronavirus than less restrictive measures like social distancing or reduced travel.

According to the study, "There is no evidence that more restrictive non-pharmaceutical interventions ('lockdowns') contributed substantially to bending the curve of new cases" in countries that imposed lockdowns.

Other studies that compared the recorded number of coronavirus deaths to estimated deaths based on projections from mathematical models claimed that 3.1 million deaths were averted because of lockdown policies in several countries. However, critics have accused early coronavirus models of overestimating the projected casualties from the virus, which if true would throw into question conclusions about lockdowns drawn from mathematical modeling.

Texas drops coronavirus restrictions, opens all businesses 100%, ends statewide mask mandate



Texas is fully reopening and the statewide mask mandate will be rescinded this week, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced Tuesday.

"Effective next Wednesday, all businesses of any type are allowed to open 100%," the governor said at a news conference announcing an end to restrictions imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19. Abbott said declining hospitalization rates across the state and increased distribution of virus vaccines were reasons to end the coronavirus restrictions.

@PatrickSvitek @GovAbbott Here is Gov. Abbott's announcement to open Texas and end the mask mandate https://t.co/3RyGdMVXvD
— The Recount (@The Recount)1614715696.0

"Texas is in a far better position now than when I issued my last executive order back in October," Abbott explained.

He indicated that if a private business still wishes to limit its capacity or enforce other virus safety precautions, the business would be free to do so without a government mandate.

"It is their business, and they get to choose to operate their business the way they want to," Abbott said. "At this time, however, people and businesses don't need the state telling them how to operate."

NEW: Issuing an executive order to lift the mask mandate and open Texas to 100 percent. https://t.co/P4UywmWeuN
— Gov. Greg Abbott (@Gov. Greg Abbott)1614715821.0

Earlier Tuesday, Abbott reported a new record number of 216,000 Texans were vaccinated against COVID-19 in a single day, noting that Texas is now distributing more than 1 million vaccine doses per week.

"This is a big reason why hospitalizations are at the lowest level in four months," the governor tweeted.

Today Texas will report a new one day record for the number of people receiving vaccines—more than 216,000.We are… https://t.co/yZ7PhvCecj
— Greg Abbott (@Greg Abbott)1614702993.0

Under Abbott's previous executive orders, Texas businesses were required to keep their occupancy at or below 75%. In areas where 15% of available hospital bed occupancy were taken up by coronavirus patients, legal max occupancy was reduced to 50%.

The new executive order will permit businesses to open at 100% occupancy, though it gives local officials in areas where COVID-19 cases are high the ability to implement "COVID mitigation strategies" at the local level.

"If COVID hospitalizations in any of the 22 hospital regions in TX rise above 15% of the hospital bed capacity in that region for 7 straight days, then a county judge in that region may use COVID mitigation strategies in their county," Abbott said.

"However, under no circumstance can a county judge put anybody in jail for not following COVID orders," he added. "And no penalties can be imposed for failing to wear a mask."

As Texas moves to reopen, federal health officials are warning states that it is still too early to lift coronavirus restrictions as new variants of the contagious disease are not fully understood by health experts.

"Please hear me clearly: At this level of cases with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained," U.S. Centers for Disease Control Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Monday. "I am really worried about reports that more states are rolling back the exact public health measures we have recommended to protect people from Covid-19."

According to the Austin American-Statesman, more than 3.5 million Texans have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, amounting to about 12.7% of the state's total population. Nearly 1.9 million people are fully vaccinated.

State Democrats are begging the governor to keep the statewide mask mandate in place.

"To prevent additional struggles and suffering, we need consistency and clarity, not carelessness and confusion," said state Rep. Richard Peña Raymond in a letter addressed to Abbott. "If we all do our part to wear face coverings, we can ultimately get back to business and realize a return to normalcy."

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) applauded the governor's decision.

"With greater access to vaccinations, better treatment options, and decreasing hospitalizations rates, the Texas approach empower citizens to exercise personal responsibility about their health in the fight against COVID-19," Phelan said in a statement.

DeSantis: Florida is a 'beacon of light to those who yearn to live in freedom'



Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) touted his state's success in managing the coronavirus pandemic, keeping schools open, and protecting businesses from closing in his annual state of the state address Tuesday.

Speaking ahead of the start of the next Florida legislative session, DeSantis thanked COVID-19 first responders and legislators for their handling of the pandemic and drew a contrast between Florida and other states that imposed strict lockdowns to stop the spread of the virus.

"I see, in many parts of our country, a sad state of affairs: Schools closed, businesses shuttered, and millions of lives destroyed. This calamitous reality is just the beginning of what will likely be long-term damage to children, their families, and this society. Sow the wind, and you reap the whirlwind," DeSantis said.

"While so many other states kept locking people down, Florida lifted people up," he continued.

DeSantis highlighted that every parent in Florida currently has the right to send their children to school for in-person instruction and that businesses were permitted to remain open as well, resulting in an unemployment rate of 6.1% for last December, below the national rate of 6.7%.

"Friends, legislators, and Floridians, lend me your ears: We will not let anybody close your schools, we will not let anybody close your businesses, and we will not let anybody take your jobs!" he declared.

Turning to the state's handling of the pandemic, DeSantis emphasized Florida's efforts to protect senior citizens, who are the most vulnerable to health complications from the coronavirus. He noted that Florida's per capita COVID mortality rate is below the national average.

"From the outset, Florida has been steadfast in focusing efforts on the protection of our elderly population," DeSantis said, taking a veiled shot at New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo's nursing home scandal. "We rejected the policy of sending contagious COVID patients back into nursing homes; indeed, we prohibited the practice. Florida also established COVID-only nursing facilities so that infections in long-term care facilities could be more effectively contained."

Florida adopted a "Seniors First" strategy of prioritizing the elderly to receive coronavirus vaccines, for which DeSantis was accused by NBC News of "playing politics with COVID vaccine" by making the vaccine available to groups more likely to be Republican voters. DeSantis did not address the NBC News narrative, instead remarking that "40 states have suffered higher COVID mortality for seniors aged 65+ on a per capita basis than Florida" and noting "hospitalizations for seniors in Florida have plummeted as vaccinations have increased."

"Florida was right to prioritize the elderly. Seniors First works," he said.

After discussing the old, DeSantis shifted to the young, praising Florida for being one of only four states to offer in-person instruction to 100% of its schoolchildren. He blasted other states for keeping schools closed despite evidence that suggests it is safe to reopen.

"Across the nation, millions of students have been locked out of the classroom for nearly a year – and for many there is no end in sight," DeSantis lamented. "These students have fallen behind on academics, have been denied the opportunity to participate in activities such as athletics, and have seen their social development stunted."

"The consequences of shutting kids out of school for a year, a year and a half, and heck, in some places, it will likely be two years, those consequences will be catastrophic and long-lasting," he warned. "The failure of so many places outside of Florida to open schools at the beginning of the school year will go down as one of the biggest policy blunders of our time."

DeSantis also slammed "economic lockdowns" as "a luxury of the largely affluent Zoom class," praising state lawmakers for allowing businesses to remain open. The governor shared a video of Florida residents sharing their stories of how Florida's policies throughout the pandemic have impacted their lives.

This is who we are fighting for ⬇️ https://t.co/zrJeC1kcuY
— Ron DeSantis (@Ron DeSantis)1614705895.0

The evidence for Florida's success, DeSantis said, is in how people are voting with their feet.

"There are not a whole lot of Floridians who are itching to move from Florida to lockdown states, but there are thousands and thousands of people who are seeking to leave the lockdowns behind for the greener pastures here in the state of Florida," he said.

"We have long been known as the Sunshine State – but, given the unprecedented lockdowns we have witnessed in other states, I think the Florida sun now serves as a beacon of light to those who yearn to live in freedom."

The governor also reiterated his support for legislative proposals to enact anti-rioting legislation, crack down on Big Tech censorship, and strengthen the integrity of Florida elections.

Support for Biden's handling of the pandemic falls by 5% from the beginning of his term



Support among Americans for President Joe Biden's actions relating to the coronavirus pandemic has dropped by 5% according to a new poll on Friday.

The Hill-HarrisX poll found that 64% of registered voters supported the efforts by the Biden administration to stop the pandemic, a 5 point drop from the 69% support Biden had at the beginning of his term.

The poll was conducted between Feb. 12 and 15, while the earlier comparison poll was conducted between Jan. 21 and 24.

Biden fared better in general support among those registered voters. 59% said they approved of his overall job as president, whereas 60% said they approved a week ago.

While some may have soured on the administration's response to the coronavirus, the pandemic has significantly lessened in recent weeks. Just in the last two weeks coronavirus cases have fallen by 40%, and since January they have dropped by 70%.

Biden has faced some criticism for his administration's claims that the vaccine program they inherited from the former Trump administration was "non-existent." Some journalists and even his own coronavirus task force chief Dr. Anthony Fauci contradicted the claim but they have persisted in repeating the debunked accusation.

In another embarrassing episode for the Biden administration, the president snapped at a reporter when he pointed out that their not-so-ambitious goal for vaccinations was likely to be met by the rate of vaccinations achieved by the Trump administration.

"When I announced it, you all said it was not possible. C'mon, give me a break man!" said Biden before stomping away.

Despite the relatively large drop in approval from Americans for Biden's pandemic response, the Hill-HarrisX pollsters noted that even the lower metric was higher than support for Trump's coronavirus response at any time of his presidency.

Here's the latest on the pandemic:

COVID-19 Cases Drop Amid New Concerns About Variant Strains | TODAYwww.youtube.com

High school football player bashes Newsom in viral rant against lockdowns: 'What a wasted final year of school'



A California high school football player went viral for his compelling rant against Gov. Gavin Newsom's restrictive COVID-19 lockdowns that have shut down team sports. Isaiah Navarro, who attends Paraclete High School in Lancaster, voiced his frustrations on all of the paramount life experiences that he was robbed of in his "wasted final year of school."

"Zero offers, zero looks, zero commitments, zero time on campus, zero homecoming, zero prom, zero traditional graduation," Navarro tweeted this week. "What a wasted final year of school."

"Worked hard and dedicated for absolutely ZERO. Big shout out to @GavinNewsom! You got what you wanted," the young man wrote, and tagged the Democratic governor of California.

After the tweet went viral with over 12,000 retweets and nearly 60,000 likes, Navarro remarked that he was "honestly humbled by the retweets and positive comments."

"I know there are thousands in my shoes across this State," the football player stated. "I do not want anything given to me, just a chance to show my value and be an asset. Gray shirt, red shirt, grass, turf or dirt. I will play anywhere, God willing."

Honestly humbled by the retweets and positive comments. I know there are thousands in my shoes across this State.… https://t.co/KpsNxeBXCV
— Isaiah J. Navarro (@Isaiah J. Navarro)1612414273.0

Navarro was invited to appear on "Fox & Friends," where he said his plans for this fall are "working on myself" since the future of high school sports is in question in the Golden State.

His previous plans for his senior year during football were to win another defensive lineman of the year award and to be named MVP.

Navarro called out Newsom's double standard coronavirus lockdowns that allow private schools to participate in sports, but public schools are barred from athletics — putting kids at a disadvantage in being awarded athletic scholarships.

When asked if Newsom hurt him financially by costing him a scholarship, Navarro responded by saying, "Yeah, he did, with a lot of opportunities that could have come along with the process of going towards offers and scholarships. With that being taken away was a huge thing taken away from high school students. It's a big thing for us student athletes."

"This is our only chance to help our family," Navarro stated. "We want to support our family and relatives."

"We love the sport, but being that taken away is a huge part of our lives," he said.

Navarro said the reaction to his viral tweet has been "ridiculous."

"I didn't think I'd get this big of an audience to side with me and get this out," Navarro said.

High school football star @IsaiahJNavarro1 calls out California‘s governor for keeping student athletes off the fie… https://t.co/ngJIWpKheJ
— Fox & Friends First (@Fox & Friends First)1612532106.0

Newsom lifted the mandatory stay-at-home orders on Jan. 25, which allowed certain sports to return: cross country, golf, tennis, swimming, and diving.

However, time is running out on the 2021 high school football season. The California Interscholastic Federation said football's end date this spring can be as late as May 1, but leagues around the state say the final date is April 17, according to CBS Sports.

"You go from the end date and work backwards," Junipero Serra High School's football coach Patrick Walsh said. "If we can start sometime in early March that gives us 5-8 games. I think all reasonable players and coaches would be happy with that."

On Wednesday, Newsom defended his position.

"As I said, I not only have four kids who want to be educated, but they love sports," Newsom stated. "So I recognize all of the benefits — physical and mental — as well as the benefits to teachers and parents who have kids who are engaged in physical activities in terms of our responsibility to support those children as well. We want to see this happen."

"We want to do it safely and a lot of great data has been provided by the same groups that are suing us," the governor said. "If I was concerned about lawsuits, I would have collapsed a year ago. We receive dozens of them every week. And some of them are from folks who are very close to us. It's clarifying. It allows for focus. Some are specious, political. Others like this I think are quite legitimate in terms of what they ultimately want to achieve."

Only School Choice Can Solve Education Lockdowns | Guest: Corey DeAngelis | Ep 106

Only School Choice Can Solve Education Lockdowns | Guest: Corey DeAngelis | Ep 106

Horowitz: GOP to sign on to trillion-dollar COVID bill to ‘stimulate’ lockdowns



If we are going to enslave our children with incorrigible debt by spending endless trillions of dollars on a stimulus bill, why won't Republicans at least ensure the funding stimulates growth rather than facilitating more lockdowns?

The mayor of Los Angeles has now essentially criminalized basic physical and economic activity outside one's home. Nearly every state is doubling down on eight months of failed policies that dangerously violate our core liberties and crush our lives and our economy. Republicans are now prepared to underwrite yet another bill that will enable them to continue this nuclear winter on America's economy rather than at least using the funds as a carrot and stick to end the lockdowns and violations of civil liberties.

Last week, a bipartisan group of liberal senators unveiled a draft bill to throw another $908 billion at the COVID economic crisis they helped create. The group of senators includes Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Angus King (I-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and Mark Warner (D-Va.). In addition, Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) indicated they would support the broad framework.

Undoubtedly, our politicians owe small business owners reparations for shutting down their businesses. But who should bear the burden for those policies? The ones who perpetrated them: the state and local governments. Let them be forced to either raise taxes to pay for them or to end the lockdowns altogether. I'm not against the $288 billion in the bill for small businesses, but it should come with strings attached to the states.

Also, the bill spends another $180 billion on unemployment benefits. A stimulus bill should stimulate employment, not unemployment. It should offer tax and regulatory incentives to business owners and perhaps certain employees to work – not to stay locked down.

Moreover, the bill gives state and local governments another $180 billion. Yes, the very people who are shutting down our lives, who belong in jail for their abuse of power, are being rewarded by Republicans with a massive slush fund to pay off special interests and further spy on us and enforce COVID fascism.

To add insult to injury, the proposed "stimulus" would throw another $80 billion at the education system. But for what? Zoom classes? More mask mandates and social isolation of our children? The evidence is now clear that children should be left alone to live their lives normally, yet this bill would not even pretend to use the funding to incentivize school districts to end the child abuse.

Almost every other line item of this bill fuels the counterproductive nature of the status quo from these states. The draft plan will basically underwrite every lockdown goal of the local fascists. Not only would Congress hand money to schools without conditioning it on full reopening, but the bill spends another $10 billion on child care. The premise of this funding is to help parents stay employed while their children are out of school. But again, how about a bill incentivizing more schooling, thereby obviating the need for childcare funding to begin with?

Likewise, the bill throws more money at "opioid treatment." However, the reason why there is a massive increase in drug abuse is because of the depression brought on by the lockdowns and school closures that this bill helps stimulate and perpetuate. The proposal would further fund food and nutrition programs to the tune of $26 billion, but we already spend an enormous sum through the school systems. Reopen the schools and you will solve that problem.

The most tragic and ironic outcome of these "stimulus" bills, which help ensure cowardly governors can keep kids out of school without suffering the consequences, is that the children are the ones who will pay for this unfunded liability. They are paying for the destruction wrought by lockdowns, and they will pay all the debt on the bills that are allowing these governors to virtue-signal on the taxpayer dime.

The bill also offers billions in additional funding for contact tracing, aka spying on the American people. How can Republicans sign off on this without first fixing the problem with overly sensitive PCR testing that ensures the contact tracing and quarantines are locking down the wrong people?

The proposal further bails out the airlines with another $45 billion, after they received hundreds of billions earlier this year. Airlines are abusing passengers (even more than usual) with draconian mask mandates. It's time for them to own their miserable travel accommodations, which were terrible even before COVID, and suffer the consequences.

Republicans, especially those running in the Georgia Senate runoffs, incessantly accuse Democrats of promoting socialism. But when it comes to the most expensive market-distorting bills, they are pushing them right alongside the Democrats. If this is not socialism, then what is?

Horowitz: The Constitution is immune to coronavirus power-grabs



In a matter of 244 years, we have gone from the understanding that "governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed" to "shut up, mask up, and obey your governors."

Amid the reams of debate written on the data, science, math, and policies undergirding the unprecedented governmental response to coronavirus, there is shockingly very little discussion about the legality of crushing the most foundational rights imaginable. Can executive officials merely tout "COVID" in a sentence at a press conference and rule over our lives in any way they want for as long as they want? This is the discussion that was needed eight months ago, but there's no time like the present to embark on it.

Imagine if Joe Biden delivered a prime-time speech at a press conference and announced that because of the emergent times in which we live, allowing Trump to remain president was simply not an option and that for our safety he rigged the election to ensure Trump's defeat. Obviously, we would all be shocked by such a statement and would all move to counter his hypothetical play.

Well, this has actually happened, but with much more severe consequences than even stealing an election. What is worse than election fraud is governing fraud. What's worse than someone illegally obtaining office is for someone to use that office to crush civil liberties and life itself, even if legitimately elected. Yet, for eight months, governors and mayors have been able to publicly announce a press conference and rule over our lives via press statements or tweets without any pushback.

The normally mild-mannered Justice Alito warned last month at the Federalist Society convention (which, of course, had to be remote) that "we have never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive and prolonged" and that these executive orders have produced "previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty."

Alito noted, as I did in May, that the smallpox vaccine case of Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905), which is being used by lower court judges to greenlight coronavirus fascism, affected "a local measure that targeted a problem of limited scope." On the other hand, "it did not involve sweeping restrictions imposed across the country for an extended emergency."

He warned of a crisis of executive power-grabs indefinitely. "All sorts of things can be called an emergency or disaster of major proportions," Alito reminded the audience. "Simply slapping on that label cannot provide the ground for abrogating our most fundamental rights. And whenever fundamental rights are restricted, the Supreme Court and other courts cannot close their eyes."

In a constitutional republic, elections aren't even that important. There are limits on what an elected official can do. Thus, the collateral damage from a stolen election, if one believes this election was stolen, is not even that impactful, assuming we are following the rule of law on every other issue. Even when you legitimately win an election, you don't get to rule over the lives, liberty, property, and even bodily integrity of the mouths and noses of those you defeat. We've had this systemic governing fraud all year, and few Republicans or even self-described conservatives have rigorously fought back the way anyone would if someone openly admitted to stealing the election.

It's important that, just like an abused wife, the American people understand that this is not OK. It's not OK for a husband to abuse a wife even if he feels he has valid grievances with her or that it's for her own good. The first step to evacuating someone from that relationship is to make them realize they are indeed being abused.

Likewise, Americans must understand this not part of the contract document we signed with government. Certain things are off-limits. Take a look at this chart from the Workplace Mental Health Institute showing 15 signs of an abusive relationship and ask yourself how many of them don't apply to our current relationship with government vis-à-vis this virus.

Stops you from seeing friends and won't let you go out without permission? Check

Tells you what to wear, monitors your communications? Big-time!

Won't let you work? Like never before!

Controls what you watch, read, say, and won't allow you to question anything? Censorship galore!

Punishes you for not keeping those rules and tell you it's for your own good? That's the whole point!

Calls you names and blames you for everything? That's the name of the game!

In fact, I can't think of a single warning sign that doesn't perfectly describe the relationship of government and its elite allies with the American people. This chart should serve as a gut-punch and a wake-up call to evacuate from this "new normal" before it's too late.

We've all forgotten that aside from habeas corpus during a rebellion, no other fundamental right can be abrogated even during a time of emergency. As it states in Art. 44 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights: "That the provisions of the Constitution of the United States, and of this State, apply, as well in time of war, as in time of peace; and any departure therefrom, or violation thereof, under the plea of necessity, or any other plea, is subversive of good Government, and tends to anarchy and despotism."

In other words, the following usurpations are null and void:

  • Open-ended curfews
  • Shutting down or restricting businesses and private schools
  • Restricting even small personal gatherings
  • Forced quarantine even of people who don't have the virus or using faulty or no due process to push quarantine
  • Treating an uncovered mouth and nose like nudity
  • Interstate travel bans

Republicans will have the trifecta of control in 24 state governments this year. In 31 states, they will hold both chambers of the legislature. Where is the effort to push a declaration of rights reaffirming these principles?

Likewise, at the federal level, Republicans are close to passing another "stimulus" to bail out the states from the deleterious effects of their unconstitutional lockdowns. But before throwing more money at them, why not attach a set of conditions to that money to protect civil liberties?

Why not empower the DOJ to better enforce U.S. Code Title 18, Sec 242, which prohibits any elected official from using "law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom" to deprive any person of "any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution"?

Where are the Republican Senate candidates in Georgia? Have you heard them speak truth to power on this issue? Where is the political party that represents the people during the greatest period of authoritarian rule since the settlement of this continent?

Let us never forget the warning of C.S. Lewis: "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
Press Sec. Has to Remind Reporter That Americans Still Have Freedoms

Press Sec. Has to Remind Reporter That Americans Still Have Freedoms

Horowitz: While Fauci tells US to ‘hunker down,’ Sweden’s no-lockdown coronavirus results speak for themselves



The more we observe and learn about SARS-CoV-2, the more it becomes clear that this virus is not really that novel. It's only the governmental and societal response to it that is novel. Sweden, the only major country to treat this virus more as a typical viral pathogen, has been ridiculed as the country taking the dangerous and novel approach by shielding the vulnerable and letting the rest achieve herd immunity quickly. Who was right?

Well, the continued panic of all the governments that have been mandating lockdowns, masking, and fearmongering restrictions for six months speaks for itself. Dr. Fauci is now warning that Americans need to "hunker down" for the fall and winter and prepare for the doom of coronavirus alongside the flu, which will now become the new inflection point for panic. But it's becoming increasingly clear every day that one country doesn't even have to fear an intensification of the virus. Those who counted Sweden out in the first half of the game are going to watch them win it in the second half.

Here is Sweden's epidemiological curve of cases and deaths, from COVID-19 Data Visualization:

Image source: University of Oklahoma screenshot

Remember the abandoned trope of "flatten the curve"? Well, it looks like the country that did the best job of that is the one that did the opposite of what we were told would achieve that goal. Sweden is now averaging about one death per day in the entire country, and that is based on a very liberal definition of a COVID-19 death. In fact, Sweden has been over this epidemic for a long time. The country hasn't had a day of double-digit deaths since July 19.

Even as cases begin to increase in countries that previously thought they dodged the bullet with minimal cases, Sweden appears to have achieved de facto herd immunity.

The latest Covid map of Europe. Note Sweden. Blue indicates no infection. https://t.co/DEyKdLp4Zs
— David Quinn (@David Quinn)1599737495.0

While Sweden always had a better result than Europe's larger countries, such as England, France, Spain, and Italy, the Swedes took heat for having a higher death rate earlier on than other Nordic countries. But Sweden's death rate is now under that of the U.S., and cases are increasing in other Nordic countries while Sweden's are flatlining. Norway is also seeing an increase in cases. Denmark, which was one of the earliest countries to close down, now has the most cases since April, rendering its "prudent" early lockdown meaningless. Clearly, there is no right way to do a lockdown, because human intervention like this can only harm but will never improve the net result.

While everyone focuses on the early death rate in Sweden, the point that is missed is that Sweden avoided all the lockdown deaths, economic destruction, and mental health crisis that are incalculable in other countries. We have some states where clinical depression has reached nearly half the population and where suicides and drug overdoses are skyrocketing. According to one study published in JAMA Network, just as of mid-April, just one month into the national panic, "prevalence of depression symptoms was more than 3-fold higher during COVID-19 compared with the most recent population-based estimates of mental health in the US." That is a crushing cost to a society that will reverberate here and in similar countries for years to come, but not in Sweden.

Moreover, how many people in Sweden really died of the virus? When you look at the excess deaths, despite having no lockdown, Sweden's all-cause deaths so far this year are actually unremarkable.

@RitaPanahi Can't you see how dangerous "COVID-19" is? https://t.co/88wTxkUStO
— Hans im Glück (@Hans im Glück)1599709893.0

The country experienced a worse year of excess deaths just five years ago. It has not experienced a week with any excess deaths relative to the average from the past five years since late May.

As much as other countries' leaders hate eating crow and admitting their mistakes, they will all eventually realize that Sweden took the right path. The mainstreaming of the Swedish approach is already occurring. Earlier this month, Johan Giesecke, one of the masterminds of Sweden's "herd immunity" strategy, was promoted by the World Health Organization to vice chair of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Infectious Hazards. In other words, he will be advising WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on pandemic response. If Sweden were really the pariah country our media makes it out to be, a guy like Giesecke would be banished from a dog-catcher position at the WHO, much less a position of authority, in response to this very pandemic.

According to Newsweek, Giesecke, who served as Sweden's top epidemiologist between 1995 and 2005, mentored Anders Tegnell, the current epidemiologist, in the brave but lone approach to the pandemic. He wrote a paper in early May arguing that "everyone will be exposed" to the virus at some point and that "most people will become infected" — but that most of the people spreading it will have "no or weak symptoms."

"There is very little we can do to prevent this spread: a lockdown might delay severe cases for a while, but once restrictions are eased, cases will reappear," wrote Giesecke in his prophetic piece in the Lancet. "I expect that when we count the number of deaths from COVID-19 in each country in one year from now, the figures will be similar, regardless of measures taken."

Was it prophecy or just plain prudence? Either way, he got it right.

In March, the Guardian posted a frantic quote from a Swedish immunology researcher warning, "They are leading us to catastrophe." Well, if that is what catastrophe looks like, then how would you describe some of the other countries that now have shattered societies due to lockdown, plus increasing cases?