Politicizing COVID-19 from the start

By Victor Davis Hanson, JWR

Politicizing COVID-19 from the start

From the moment COVID-19 appeared, the pandemic became inseparable from politics.

Political frenzy was inevitable since the SARS-CoV-2 virus may have escaped from a level-4 security virology lab in Wuhan, China.

The rapid-fire spread soon threatened to indict the Chinese communist government for nearly destroying the world economy and killing millions.

Western elites, in response, feared that their own lucrative investments in China would be jeopardized by such disclosures – and so acted accordingly in defending Beijing.

Nonetheless, one scenario that remains intriguing is that the escaped virus was birthed by gain-of-function research scientists, overseen by elements of the Chinese communist military. Worse, the lab was given subsidies by U.S. health authorities, routed through third parties. Hiding all of that damaging information warped government policy and media coverage.

Belatedly, a panicked China shut down all domestic travel in and out of Wuhan – but not flights abroad to Western Europe and the United States.

The rest is history.

From the outset, the World Health Organization simply spread false talking points about the outbreak from the Chinese government, delaying a robust global response.

Former President Donald Trump’s political opponents initially told Americans to shop and travel as usual – only to pivot as cases mounted and they blamed the president.

The U.S. 2020 ban on travel from China was met with charges of racism and xenophobia from presidential candidates. Ironically, many were simply channeling racist and xenophobic China’s propaganda.

Many doctors kept hammering the need for therapeutics, including taboo off-label use of cheap generic drugs. The use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin was widely ridiculed, despite continuing studies from abroad attesting to their usefulness.

Trump’s Operation Warp Speed project to develop vaccinations was also pilloried. Candidates Kamala Harris and Joe Biden did their best to talk down the safety of the impending inoculations. But once in power, they projected their own prior harmful rhetoric onto so-called “anti-vaxxers.”

Then they claimed credit for the initial success of the Trump vaccinations.

The Pfizer corporation had promised a major pre-election announcement about its likely rollout of a vaccine in October, just days before the 2020 election.

Then, mysteriously, Pfizer claimed the vaccine, in fact, would not be ready before November 3. A few days after the election of Joe Biden, the company reversed course and announced the vaccinations would soon be available.

Then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo obstructed most all federal help with Trump’s fingerprints on it. That way Cuomo became a media, Emmy-winning darling – before resigning in disgrace.

Cuomo’s policies of steering infected patients into long-term-care facilities doomed over 10,000 of the elderly. New York is now illegally using race to grant preferences in the allotments of tests and new drugs.

The rhetoric of the media-progressive nexus that mandatory, massive lockdowns were necessary all but destroyed a booming Trump economy and denied critical medical care to millions. Emphasizing therapeutics, natural herd immunity, and the resilience of the youth to the disease were all pronounced “anti-science” by the demagogues on the Left.

Various celebrities and politicos – such as California Governor Gavin Newsom and failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton – boasted the pandemic lockdown offered the perfect crisis that must not go to waste politically. Actress Jane Fonda even crowed that COVID-19 was a “gift from God to the Left” in helping to end Donald Trump.

In the waning days of the 2022 campaign, Biden went so far as to blame Trump personally for all the deaths from the virus.

Once the vaccinations had seemed to work in early 2021, an upbeat Joe Biden boasted that he would end the virus by summer 2021, by following “the science.” He went so far as to claim that no one had been vaccinated prior to his inauguration even though 17 million, including Biden himself, had been.

Then Nemesis answered such hubris.

The unforeseen delta and omicron variants hit. A new phrase, “breakthrough case,” revealed that the vaccinations often could only prevent serious illness, but not infection or infectiousness.

Suddenly the best and brightest people with three shots, who had blasted the red-state rubes as the ignorant un-vaxxed – got sick. More have now died from the virus on Biden’s than on Trump’s watch.

A warped economy amid renewed COVID-19 outbreaks helped to further destroy Biden’s waning popularity.

In reaction, the Left now calls for realism, emphasis on treatments, and acknowledgment of the value of natural immunities. It is even newly curious about the origins of the virus, and the need to “get back to normal.”

We are suddenly told that thousands had died “with” rather than “because” of COVID – the exact opposite of what we heard in the Trump era.

A skeptic might suggest terror over the impending midterms finally made the Left face reality.

Politicizing the pandemic is a euphemism. In truth, thousands of Americans have died needlessly because of weaponized disinformation about China’s culpability, vaccines, useful drugs, lockdowns, racial preferences, and long-care facilities.

January 14, 2022 | 1 Comment »

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  1. This report is from the British newspaper The Sun, dated October 9, 2022. Although ‘old news.” I think the statistics cited in this report are still relevant to the present time. What is significant about it is that the study by the Oxford University based Center for Evidence-Based Medicine found that the average age of people who died of Covid-19 was over eighty and was higher than the average age of people who died from other causes. Logically, if COVID19 was the deadly pandemic that it has been descibed as by the world’s governments, the United Nations and the international press, one would expect that people who died of COVID would be on average younger than those who died of other diseases. If people are likely to die of COVID only when they are at an age when they are likely to die in any case, or even older than that, than it has not caused an increase in the death rate, and is therefore no terrible plague, just an ordinary respiratory “bug” like the flu or even the so-called “coomon cold” which can also result in complications leading to death in the elderly.elderly.

    Data shows average age of Covid death is 82.4 years – that’s why we need to shield the vulnerable, experts warn
    Terri-Ann Williams

    ELDERLY people “should be shielded from the coronavirus” and younger generations “should be able to get on with life”, experts say.

    Data analysed by experts at the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM) has revealed that the average age of deaths from the coronavirus is 82.4 years.

    ?? Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest news & updates

    5
    It comes after a Whitehall source revealed that the government are “mulling over” plans to once again shield hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Brits.

    The government could advise clinically vulnerable people to shield as part of the top tier of a streamlined Covid lockdown system set to be announced next week.

    Some 2.2 million Brits deemed “extremely vulnerable” were advised to not to leave home and avoid all contact with others at the beginning of lockdown in late March.

    But studies have since laid bare the devastating mental health impact of the policy – with depression and anxiety twice as common among the shielded than the rest of the population.

    Analysis by the Oxford experts at the CEBM was compiled from data provided by the Office for Nation Statistics (ONS).

    It shows that the average age of people dying in England and Wales from Covid-19 is 82.4.

    This is slightly higher than deaths caused by other illnesses, which has a median age of 81.5.

    5
    We need to get people back to work and get rid of these ridiculous, unenforceable rules

    Prof Karol Sikora
    This comes as it was revealed that 1.5 million cancer procedures were cancelled during the pandemic.

    Data from NHS England also revealed yesterday that urgent cancer referrals are down 15 per cent due to the coronavirus “effect” – while NHS waiting lists reached record highs.

    The study by the CEBM revealed that around 30,000 people who contracted the coronavirus were already dying from another illness and that just six people per thousand who catch it are likely to die from it.

    The current seven day average of deaths caused by the coronavirus in the UK is 56 deaths per day.

    A record number of Brits were confirmed positive on Thursday, with 17,540 new infections – a steep increase on the 6,914 cases confirmed just a week earlier.

    NHS data also revealed more than 600 Brits were admitted to hospital on Sunday — the largest number since early June.

    5

    5
    There were also 77 coronavirus deaths reported on Thursday, the highest daily figure for more than three months.

    But data from the Oxford study revealed that deaths from other causes actually have a higher seven day average than the coronavirus.

    Cancer has an average of 450 deaths a day, while deaths caused by dementia average at 214 deaths each day.

    Heart disease has 174 and suicide has 18.

    Looking at the age of patients who are dying, the experts said that around 40 per cent of people who have died from the virus are over the age of 85.

    It also found that a further 33 per cent are between 75 and 84.

    Local lockdowns are in place across the UK and include all age groups.

    It was revealed earlier this week that more restrictions could be enforced in parts of the North and the Midlands in order to curb cases and to ease the burden on the NHS.

    Professor Karol Sikora, head of Buckingham University medical school and the medical director of Rutherford Health said we “can’t afford” to worry about the NHS being overwhelmed.

    Experts say younger generations should be allowed to get back to normal
    5
    Experts say younger generations should be allowed to get back to normalCredit: AFP
    He told the Daily Mail: “Instead we need to get people back to work and get rid of these ridiculous, unenforceable rules.

    “They are ineffective and counter-productive, and are causing unimaginable harm.”

    Looking at the age of people dying from other conditions, and the data also highlighted that barely one per cent of people dying from dementia are under the age of 44.

    The average age of people dying from other causes is 81.5 years.

    This reinforces the “Great Barrington Declaration”, which has so far been signed by over 15,000 experts in the medical profession.

    ‘Stay away from the elderly’

    The declaration calls for the end to local restrictions and instead a focus on protecting those who are most at risk.

    It also states that younger people “should be immediately allowed to get back to normal life”.

    The data shows that those who are most at risk from the virus are the elderly.

    Dr Jason Oke, a senior statistician at the Oxford centre said more young people are getting infected and that it could be the reason why the infection rate is dropping.

    He said another reason the rate of infection could be dropping is due to the fact that more treatments are now available for the virus.

    Dr Oke said the figures “reinforce the message that the illness needs to be kept away from the elderly”.

    The infection rate of the virus has dropped from 3.3 per cent in the summer to 0.5 per cent in August.

    Further studies into the links between age and the coronavirus have stated that the elderly are two and a half times more likely to die from the virus than those in a younger age group.

    Dr Kathryn McCarthy, said: “Greater awareness is needed around the concept of frailty and its use as a tool for assessment.”

    While the average age for those dying of the coronavirus is 82.4, many people who have survived the virus have been left with debilitating illnesses.

    Dubbed long-Covid, many who have recovered are still suffering months on.

    A report from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change stated that long Covid is rare in people under the age of 19 and those over the age of 65.

    There is a higher prevalence of people of a working age, women are more affected than men and the median age for someone developing long Covid is 45.

    Daniel Sleat, co-author of the report, said: “While long Covid poses a significant risk, it must be assessed alongside the wider impacts of Covid restrictions, both in economic and health terms, as governments determine their next steps on containment measures to avoid a full lockdown.”

    SAGE Professor John Edmunds on why the time is right for further strict coronavirus restrictions in North