World War II had ended four years earlier and the U.S. was trying to return to peace and prosperity. Price controls and rationing were ended. Trade was opening. People were returning to normal life. The economy started humming again. Optimism for the future was growing. Harry Truman became the symbol of a new normalcy. From Depression and war, society was on the mend. As if … [Read more...] about The Polio Pandemic of 1949-52: No Closures, No Restrictions
Racial Segregation and Vaccine Passports: Ominous Parallels
There are periods in American history when a scientifically based frenzy sweeps all other considerations before it. Values like equality, democracy, and freedom give way toward a new theory of how society should be managed to account for some new consideration that trumps all others. Often, the concern is an issue of public health, with experts telling everyone else what … [Read more...] about Racial Segregation and Vaccine Passports: Ominous Parallels
The World Health Organization Oversold the Vaccine and Deprecated Natural Immunity
A strange feature of rhetoric during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic that came to public notice in early 2020 was the odd silence about the immune system. Whereas in the past, vaccines and natural exposure were regarded as partners in disease mitigation, this time they were set up in competition, with all respectable voices pushing vaccines and shouting down anyone who dared break the … [Read more...] about The World Health Organization Oversold the Vaccine and Deprecated Natural Immunity
Comedy and Tragedy in Two Americas
In Dallas, Texas, life on the weekend felt completely normal, even better than ever. The city was booming with life, bands playing in bars, people shopping in boutiques doing great business, parking lots full end to end, happy people in parks, restaurants packed. And the amusement park Six Flags Over Texas had long lines, lengthy wait times at the rollercoasters, and smiles … [Read more...] about Comedy and Tragedy in Two Americas
The Totalitarian Ideology of Lockdownism
Every political ideology has three elements: a vision of hell with an enemy that needs to be crushed, a vision of a more perfect world, and a plan for transitioning from one to the other. The means of transition usually involve the takeover and deployment of society’s most powerful tool: the state. For this reason, political ideologies trend totalitarian. They depend … [Read more...] about The Totalitarian Ideology of Lockdownism
“Half the Population Could Die!”: The Great Disease Panic of 2005-06
People might think that disease panic plus extreme actions by governments are new, perhaps because the virus in question is new. The lockdowns in practice certainly were. Nothing like lockdowns in the face of a new virus has ever been attempted on this scale. It has been an experiment, one that growing numbers of people are willing to admit has been a failure. However, the … [Read more...] about “Half the Population Could Die!”: The Great Disease Panic of 2005-06
A Caste System Threatens the West
If you test positive or refuse to be tested at all in New Zealand, prepare to be shipped out to a quarantine camp recently established by the government. Shocking, yes, but we have an analogous system in the US. If you test positive (which is not the same as actually being sick), you will be removed from school or forbidden from coming into the office. You could lose your job – … [Read more...] about A Caste System Threatens the West
The CDC Alone Is Regulating Rental Markets
So much went wrong last year that it was hard to keep up. It was like being pounded daily by waves of new edicts, most of which felt completely contrary to everything we had come to expect from a civilized country that operates according to stable rules and a presumption that people are generally free. One of the more bizarre among many policies, one that intervened … [Read more...] about The CDC Alone Is Regulating Rental Markets
Forced Medicine: The New Frontier in Coercion
If you want an interesting encounter with human fury, hop on over to your local pharmacy. Hang out in the area where people are lined up for scheduled or walk-in Covid vaccines on this August 3, 2021, as the pressure to get the jab reaches a fevered pitch and the noncompliant are being blamed for the very existence of SARS-CoV-2. In a friendly way, ask what they are up to and … [Read more...] about Forced Medicine: The New Frontier in Coercion
The New Segregationism
Walking through several airports to catch planes this season – they are packed with people – I stepped on hundreds of stickers with the exhortation “Keep a Safe Distance. Stay 6 Feet Apart.” It’s just a silly sticker at this point, an embarrassing relic of the great 2020 disease panic during which our usual sensibility that people have inherent dignity and rights was … [Read more...] about The New Segregationism
They Considered and Rejected Pandemic Closures in 1957
The Asian flu of 1957-58 was a deadly pandemic with a broader reach for severe outcomes than Covid-19 of 2020. It killed between 1 and 4 million people worldwide, and 116,000 in the US in a time with half the population. It was a leading contributor to a year in which the US saw 62,000 excess deaths. Globally, it might have been five times as deadly as Covid-19, as measured … [Read more...] about They Considered and Rejected Pandemic Closures in 1957
The CDC Is a Threat to Science
I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the astonishing shift from the CDC on Tuesday, July 27, 2021. It is not just that the CDC is re-recommending masks for people indoors in many parts of the country, which could include your neighborhood or not, and this could change tomorrow. (Hint: right now, it disproportionately affects red states.) Whether and to what extent you … [Read more...] about The CDC Is a Threat to Science
What Were Lockdowners Thinking? A Review of Jeremy Farrar
I’ve heard the following question seemingly thousands of times over the last year: “Why did they do this to us?” It’s still the burning question about lockdowns: the school, business, and church closures, the banning of events, the stay-at-home orders, the travel restrictions, the wildly desperate central plan enforced by the police somehow to keep people apart from each … [Read more...] about What Were Lockdowners Thinking? A Review of Jeremy Farrar
How to Account for the CDC’s New Mask Advisory?
The crazy, convoluted, mixed up messaging from the CDC – it’s been this way from the beginning of the pandemic until now – has taken yet another turn. Now the CDC is recommending masks not just for the unvaccinated but for the vaccinated too. This is supposedly because of the discovery that the variant known as Delta is making an end-run around the vaccines, causing not only … [Read more...] about How to Account for the CDC’s New Mask Advisory?
