Follow the Yellow Brick Road.
We learned in Chapter One that we needed to be fearful of Covid and Lockdowns and Masks. Oh, My. In Chapter Two, we will learn a few more details about the lies and power grabs going on, never reported or even confronted by the Flying Monkeys. And we will begin to explore why.a
The Coven of the Teachers didn’t want to work and refused to let public schools open. The Royal Court gave them gold, myrrh and Starbucks coupons, to no avail. They demanded more gold, but did decline more Starbucks coupons. The peasants’ children all attended public schools, which were closed because the Coven of Teachers proclaimed them deadly dangerous. But wealthy munchkins, especially rulers, got to send their own children to private schools that were allowed to stay open. Those who asked why private schools were allowed to stay open and could safely teach while public schools had to stay closed were scolded because people asking questions like that didn’t believe in science. Flying Monkeys never wrote about this except to condemn the unreasonable people giving credence to “conspiracy theory.”
The Who, after first declaring it unnecessary that one wear masks – because science was the standard – decided that science now demanded the use of masks by everyone at every time. Even most libertarians concede that the state must have extraordinary powers to protect the public health in times of great peril. The first question, then, is whether this is a time of great peril. The answer is that it indeed is a time of great peril, but not from any virus. The perils were primarily those of authoritarian rule and a confluence of interests that appears to have led many scientists to lie brazenly.
The Ancient One told us we had to wear masks indoors and outdoors. The outdoors part was questioned by practicing physicians, but they were all obvious supporters of the Evil Wizard and should be ignored, fired, and burned at the stake. Because science. Dissenting opinions were forbidden, which is not how science works. Forbes summarized the science a year ago: Taken together, the science suggests that you probably don't need a face mask when going outdoors.
Becoming infected had different outcomes based on age. The CDC reported that taking the very low rate for five-to-seventeen-year-olds as the reference set, eighteen-to-twenty-nine-year-olds were six times as likely to be hospitalized. This may be impressive, but six times nearly zero is not a large number. Those aged younger than fifty have little chance of hospitalization. This is as of February 18, 2021, at a time when we were still only testing those who were symptomatic. The Center for Evidence-Based Medicine announced early that children and young adults are overwhelmingly asymptomatic when infected. The largest differences come in deaths, where those over 65 have a highly-elevated risk of hospitalization compared to the reference range, and those over 85 have an 8,700 times the risk of death of the reference group. And, that is only about 13%.
Was there a medical peril? No. The average age at death from COVID19 was the same as the average age of death from all causes. One could use a supercomputer for hours crunching data, but Occam’s Razor tells us that COVID19 primarily brought forward inevitable deaths from comorbidities by a few weeks or months. The graph below summarizes the numbers:
Even before a pandemic had been declared, practicing physicians were trying to warn people that those infected with viruses were better off outdoors. Sweden is a case in point. It stretches from fifty-five degrees North to sixty-nine degrees North, significantly reducing the benefit of sunlight. Yet, even with reduced advantage from sunlight, Sweden never suggested a “stay indoors” policy until the thirteenth month of the pandemic, and then only in a single region (Uppsala); it lifted the suggestion the following month. Italy stretches from thirty-seven to forty-seven degrees North, and imposed a “stay indoors” order during the first month of the pandemic; it was changed, lifted, changed, reimposed repeatedly at least through month 14. The COVID19 outcomes for severe lockdown versus little lockdown, and masks versus no masks, were similar, although Sweden’s results were better than Italy’s in every category.
When peasants began to suspect that “obey or face mass death” just might not be supported by empirical evidence, a few of them demonstrated in WWOE’s capitol of Lansing. They showed their low class by driving pickup trucks and waving flags, and the Flying Monkeys labeled them selfish for wanting to undertake seditious actions such as get a haircut and go to work. The Flying Monkeys universally declared that all peasants were selfish and seditious.
If there was no medical peril, why did scientists repeatedly lie to us? Great question. I’m fairly certain that the Ancient One lied to hide his embarrassment and preserve his privileged position. Once he had begun to lie, he couldn’t back out without suffering humiliation. Also, he was onstage with the Enchantress Deborah, a potential competitor. She distrusted the Establishment and said so. She was taken out behind the woodshed and forced to burn her two favorite shawls. She was distressed that another healer, who actually treated patients, was gaining influence on COVID19 with blatant lies such as the lab leak hypothesis, distrust of Who, and claiming that masks were unnecessary outdoors, especially for children. That healer had the chutzpah to name himself after a Greek Titan.
The remaining scientists who lied were caught in a trap. The Flying Monkeys all revered the Ancient One, and his opinion was accepted as ex cathedra. He had great influence on the international stage with many other healers and experts and scientists who looked down on peasants, especially peasant healers who were treating patients and thus couldn’t be experts on anything. And, the Flying Monkeys decided that it was time to get rid of the Evil Wizard. Some of the Flying Monkeys owned things called “platforms,” and would toss overboard anyone insufficiently zealous in expressing hatred for the Evil Wizard. Others were in government, all union members, who were loyal to the party of government, the part of the WWOW. They made sure that anyone disagreeing with them was rescinded.
The Evil Wizard wanted more help for the munchkins and peasants, but the WWOW knew that things had to stay bad so the people would all vote for munchkins, especially for Mister Magoo, who wanted to replace the Wizard. She refused to allow any help for small businesses or unemployed peasants until “we have a new Wizard.” And then, everything changed.
After a few months a munchkin was reported using false coins of the realm, and the constabulary attempted to arrest him. He didn’t want to be arrested and said “No.” After twenty minutes of struggling with the constabulary he was subdued and a constable knelt on his neck to keep the man in place. The man died. His death was filmed and shown on television, and all the citizens of the realm were united in horror at his death, and condemned the constable. The leading munchkins saw a major problem with this: if the citizenry was united, it was likely to vote for the Wizard and not Mister Magoo, so when some of the dead man’s fellow Squamish Team (who wore dark brown hats) complained that dark-hatted Squamish players were treated unfairly by the constabulary, they burned down their city. Soon dark brown hat-wearing Squamish Team members were shooting people, destroying businesses and burning cities all across the land. And all of this was the outcome of intentionally-generated fear, supported by lies from the Ancient One and other charlatans in positions of power.
I wish more people would use Occam’s Razor. Am in an area where the children did not miss one day of public school adjacent to an area that shut down. Different school board philosophy. It was difficult to avoid the Ancient One but we did. Also the enchantress who made no sense. But I'm here reading this and most people didn't.