The spring economic shutdown “to slow the spread” of COVID-19 almost destroyed us. But the United States is resilient, and the country is slowly—if sometimes shakily—getting back on its feet. Millions have returned to work and the unemployment rate is ticking back down. The stock market has regained much of its lost value. It isn’t a straight road back, to be sure, but there seems good cause for optimism.
But not everyone is cheering.
Because COVID-19 cases have also increased as the country opened, as we knew they would, some of the nation’s health care and other “experts” want to shut us back down again. And this time, they want to impose a harder, and perhaps longer, societal lockdown.
Obamacare architect, bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel is the most influential voice urging a return to the bad old days of April. We shouldn’t be surprised. Back when the country was closed for business, Emanuel—who, it’s worth noting, is now Joe Biden’s lead COVID-19 health care adviser—urged that the country be kept in that artificially induced coma for 18 months, the time it was expected then for a COVID-19 vaccine to be found. Thankfully, President Donald Trump paid no heed.
Now, Emanuel is back, again calling for a shutdown as the lead signatory of an open letter to “Decision Makers” signed by some 150 other “experts” in health care. From the letter:
“Non-essential businesses should be closed. Restaurant service should be limited to take-out. People should stay home, going out only to get food and medicine or to exercise and get fresh air. Masks should be mandatory in all situations, indoors and outdoors, where we interact with others.
“You should bar non-essential interstate travel. … If you don’t take these actions, the consequences will be measured in widespread suffering and death.”
Bar most interstate travel? That’s never been done in our history; not during the Civil War, the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic—which was much worse than COVID-19 because it primarily killed the young—or during periodic polio epidemics.
Media Campaign
Emanuel and his fellow letter signers aren’t alone. Infectious disease expert Dr. Michael T. Osterholm of the University of Minnesota, along with the head of the Minnesota Federal Bank and former Obama administration member Neel Kashkari, have launched a joint media campaign to convince America to return into societal hibernation.
Their most recent call for panicked self-destruction came in the form of a New York Times op-ed, in which they write:
“To successfully drive down our case rate to less than one per 100,000 people per day, we should mandate sheltering in place for everyone but the truly essential workers. By that, we mean people must stay at home and leave only for essential reasons: food shopping and visits to doctors and pharmacies while wearing masks and washing hands frequently.”
Didn’t we already do that at great economic cost to tens of millions of Americans—but not, it is worth noting, the technocratic and chattering classes? According to Oserhgolm and Kashkari, the former lockdown failed because it wasn’t nearly harsh enough:
“According to the Economic Policy Institute, 39 percent of workers in the United States are in essential categories. The problem with the March-to-May lockdown was that it was not uniformly stringent across the country. For example, Minnesota deemed 78 percent of its workers essential. To be effective, the lockdown has to be as comprehensive and strict as possible.”
Funny, Sweden didn’t impose a hard lock down. Its economy certainly took a hit, but not as bad as many EU countries. And while its mortality rate has been worse than some of its European neighbors that did shut down, it’s also better than others.
Besides, we’ve been told that universal masking holds the key! One study found that 80 percent mask compliance would do more to stop the spread than another lockdown.
Oh, pshaw, write Osterholm and Kashkari:
“Some have claimed that the widespread use of masks is enough to control the pandemic, but let us face reality: Gov. Gavin Newsom of California issued a public masking mandate on June 18, a day when 3,700 cases were reported in the state. On July 25, the seven-day daily case average was 10,231. We support the wearing of masks by all Americans, but masking mandates and soft limitations on indoor crowds in places such as bars and restaurants are not enough to control this pandemic.”
Good grief, our nation’s “experts” need to get their stories straight.
Second Great Depression
Snark aside, consider the consequences of reimposing another Draconian lockdown: The country would plummet into a second Great Depression (just in time for the election) that could take a decade or more to overcome. Millions of restaurants and shops would be shuttered, never to reopen. Life savings would be lost. The real estate market would plummet. We would add many trillions more to the national debt than we are already are incurring now, as half the country would become totally dependent on government checks. Millions of children would be kept out of school, forever stunting their education.
The predictable results: increased suicides, increased opioid deaths, increased domestic violence, increased political divisions, and increased loss of trust in our political institutions. In short, another lockdown would cause a cultural catastrophe.
No, no, the authors write. Totally shutting down will be better for the economy. If we don’t shut down, they write, “the path of the virus will determine the path of the economy. There won’t be a robust economic recovery until we get control of the virus.”
I find this abject terror among our technocratic class very odd. The Wuhan virus isn’t smallpox, after all. Most people who contract the infection experience relatively mild symptoms and fully recover.
Yes, of course, it can also be a wicked, and sometimes unpredictable disease. But we know who are most acutely in danger of serious illness and death (people like me), and we can take strong steps to protect them. Surely, we can accomplish that important public health goal without destroying the country to save it.
Which leads us to the one intractable problem that Emanuel, Osterholm, Kashkari, and their ilk fail to consider. If the government did again order a total lockdown, I believe that millions of Americans would simply refuse to obey. Indeed, it would take tyrannical measures of the kind imposed by China on its imprisoned people—perhaps even soldiers in the streets—to effectively impose house arrest on us all.
I cannot imagine that happening. Trump and most governors would surely never go along. But if they did, it would tear the country apart.
Award-winning author Wesley J. Smith is the chairman of the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism and author of “Culture of Death: The Age of ‘Do Harm’ Medicine.”
The amount of deaths caused by this Pandemic is very low and now somewhat predictable as to being more dangerous to anybody with preexisting conditions especially the Senior population. To shutdown the economy is so stupid many states run by these Progressively Communist Democrats will suffer the most and will take much longer to recover. And of course, they will try to put the blame on President Trump when anybody with half a brain knows better! I live in sunny CaliMexico and I expect the worst! Please people, influence everyone you know to vote and re-elect President Trump or this country is dead!
not surprized the commies want to destroy the country and make a paradise only they can live why dont they just go to china or north korea or better still russia like bernie did on his honeymoon!!!!
When you say experts an expert is a has-been that never was. If you believe these lying asses that are being funded and supported by the communist Democrats and the communist government in China then you’re dumber than the idiot that’s never been educated. Masks do not work because if they did why would they released all these prisoners they could have just given them all mass but no the Communist Democrats in this country wanted to make sure that could cause as much havoc and division is a can. Seattle and Minneapolis are two of the prime examples of lost causes in this country best thing we can do drop a nuke on both of them and clean the house afterwards
We cant do another lockdown, NO.
Everyone who has sense says its Bad for Health & Bad Econ wise.
No.
All politics like wearing masks.
Note do the elite wear masks?
Only on TV , NO celebs do.
Fair for YOU & me or=?
Tired of random lockdowns for NO reason unless show tie to virus, otherwise No
If Ezekiel Emanuel is related to Rahm, then it makes sense that “you never let a good tragedy go to waste”.
The blue state governors and mayors would love to see our economy close down again. They don’t worry about their budgets being busted, because they turn to the ATM in Washington DC for more money.
They also love the clean air and water when we aren’t out driving our cars and living our lives.
Notice all of the “experts” that are tied to the b.o. regime? This has morphed into the most ludicrous kabuki theater imaginable. This is nothing more than a leftist attempt to re-cripple the economy and thus influence the 2020 election…period.
The sheeple of murika had better wake up fast !
I have had it with these so-called experts. These new faces that want us to stay in, I notice, are obama people. Tells me where all this is originating. If they want to stay home for 18 months, do it, but enough of forcing the rest of the country to comply. All they want is control.
Forced to wear mask even outside is stupid Everything they are doing is nothing but a way to control we, the people. It’s time we tell these “experts” to back off.
Yes, Indeed!!! Many, most of us would NOT “obey!!!” We’ve had enough!!! Force the troublemakers on the streets to get lost. They are probably a large part of the problem, in addition to all their destruction!!!
We’re talking Minnesota here, folks. Consider the source!
How long must we tolerate these anarchists and these treasonous activities? Since when are those elected to represent “We, the people” above the law? Round them up and throw away the key!
Rushing headlong to defeat all republicans, especially the president, democrats are upfront about how horrific their winning would be. Anyone who listens closely and has enough experience to know what makes sense will not choose them to lead the country forward.
Are we going to continue to not live? Are freedoms are under attach the beginning to how far they will and can take us. The Democrats want control and power and to take our country in a direction of socialism and control. There is no point to hiding and watch our livelihood taken jobs, health, family, investments, and freedoms of choice. Wake up and fight!
Everyone will have to wear a mask the rest of their lives because there will be many whom will not get vaccinated, plus vaccinations are not always effective – Is that really what we want? NO to any more shutdowns, NO to masks, NO to vaccines. Yes to America First, Yes to Buy American, Yes to Hire American(USA), Yes to Trump/Pence. AND Yes to get this place opened back up and stop being afraid of everything—
I have to believe that the shutdown of our economy reduced the number of COVID-19 deaths.
However, it’s beginning to look like “they” used a shotgun against a mosquito. Some state governments mandated strict measures to limit the spread of this disease, while others were more lenient.
Nobody wants the elderly, and those with an existing morbidity to die from this Chinese flu, but badly damaging the economy is becoming too high a price to pay. Viruses will always threaten human beings, but those with strong immune systems can fight them off. Let the people who might severely suffer from COVID-19 take the appropriate measures, while the rest of us get back to work at keeping America as the exceptional country in the world.
Another Emanuel, who is practicing the theory of never letting a crisis go to waste. Need I say more.
To even think about shutting down the country again is absurb. Hasn’t the economy suffered enough? Businesses and familes cannot recover if this is done. So many small business owners have already had to close their doors because of the stupidity of some of the governors and mayors in some cities. Families need to get back to life as much like before as possible, children need to go to school and parents need to go to work. Praying that people will get out and vote and reelect Trump to get back on track.
Thanks to the YELLOW DOGS we have lost many of our loved seniors. They MUST be “paid back” for this and brought to their knees. I am totally intolerant. I will buy NOTHING ‘made in china.’ They all can go to hell and burn for all eternity.
Dr. Fauci and his ilk are ham-stringing the front line doctors who KNOW how to treat their patients, and can get treatment started early enough when symptoms are mild – thus avoiding hospitalizations and CURING THE PATIENT! The “left” does not want that. This satanically-driven party WANTS a complete economic collapse so they can then “be in charge” and implement communist/socialist practices. Even “republican” governors like Greg Abbott of TX have turned out to be RINO’s – they are falling prey to the $$s being paid out by Soros. We MUST get out the Christian vote, as well as others. For some reason, millions of “christians” think they are too good to vote. WRONG. Let’s give Trump 4 more years to finish fixing this mess he uncovered!
After bunco Biden loses in November… he, Hunter, Pelosi, Shummer, Feinstein, Schiff, Nadler, Hirono, Bernie Sanders, AOC and the Squad and all their Commie Socialist comrades should be given one-way tickets to China and charge the bill to George Soros. I would have added Obamboozle to the list but his term in Leavenworth with Comey and the cabal clique will delay their departure. That leaves Bill & Killary… but their connections to the Epstein trial and appeals will probably take decades to resolve. Hopefully, we can then drain the swamp without polluting the ocean.
I am not smart enough to find CORRECT numbers comparing 2019 total deaths for January thru July to the 2020 numbers. I am wondering if we really have 160,000 more deaths for this year.
And then we see morons online posting comments blaming the president for the unemployment and the virus itself. This is all political, a tactic to be used by dishonest people against a very effective president intended to affect the election outcome. The Democrats don’t give a rip who they hurt or how much damage is done to the nation because they, along with their comrades in the media, will blame the opposition for all of it. I do my best to prevent them from succeeding but it’s only one tiny voice in the wilderness.
Notice, all these so-called experts are intellectuals, the Elite, who consider themselves superior to those with common sense.
Intellects serve a prideful nature while common sense serves the common good. Trump is not an intellectual. He is blessed with common sense that has served the country so well. We need four more years with our great President.
Marxists pushing the path of death for the mostly clueless masses. History just keeps repeating.
Emanuel was and is a dishonorable person, who lies, who has no empathy, and is filled with his wicked self. Adults cannot be shut down, business lost, nor the loss of income and other associated “musts” – for that is a political crap shoot, and one where the left seeks to destroy America. We need to stand up, face them down, and kick them off the grid.
As a conservative parent of liberal adult children, who own a business still under lock down, I’m observing their growing resistance to imposed restrictions. They struggle with economic hardship, while still buying the COVID rhetoric; but today they are going to a protest in the State Capitol to support re-opening businesses. That is progress. We are in a blue state, where my views and opinions are unwelcome, so I work under the radar to combat another shut down. God Bless Donald Trump.
We, as free Americans cannot allow further violations of our Bill of Rights and further destruction of our nation.
If the current restrictions do not come to an end soon or if another big shutdown is announced, we have only one option massive non-compliance.
In my opinion, the “experts” are more like the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. Notice that these “Experts” are Obamacrats. Where were they during H1/N1(hope I got that correct.)?? They want and need another shutdown. They are weaponizing the Covid to try to get their desired shift in the balance of Congress. Our pool of experts have so many opinions it boggles the mind. How about 3 hours of pounding brewskis at a local watering hole? Conversation is great. No great solutions except another round. Idea?
Another case of over educated people with no common sense. These “experts” all live in a utopian bubble surrounded by others just like themselves, void of any opposing viewpoints. Their interpretation of science is wrong but it is their god and they worship it whether it works or not.
I know Emmanuel goes by the name “ethicist” but for someone who supports infanticide it hardly applies. He has NO ethics–just like his brother “Dead Fish” Emmanuel! Ask the hundreds of dead blacks from Chicago!
The goal post is now out of the stadium. The hospital bed curve has been flattened for some time. This is just a ploy to put the American people in a funk so they will vote for a change in leadership, which would be a horrible mistake.
Mask mandates and shutdowns are actually enabling the spread of this SCAMDEMIC! The virus is real, make no mistake. But the methods of dealing with it are as much scam as they are useful.
I must disagree with the writer on this point, that “Most people who contract the infection experience relatively mild symptoms and fully recover.” When I caught it, I had a relatively ‘mild’ case, and it really kicked my butt! Now, I’m 67 years old, and have some pretty bad health issues, including a new case of ‘Chronic Micro vascular Disease’, triggered by the Wuhan. My 70 year old wife was close to death when we got her to go to a hospital, where she was inundated with antibiotics for 7 days, and my live-in daughter, who also had a mild case, and pulled me thru it.No, this is a pretty broad statement, and not necessarily correct.
The biggest cause of death is suicide.
We are being lied to and manipulated. Covid is real, however I am not convinced it meets the definition of a pandemic. This is nothing more than a communist take over. Psychological warfare. We need focus. The liberal media needs to be shut down and disbanded just like the liberal dems. This money being donated to support Antifa and BLM needs to be confiscated to prevent the money from being used to finance this violent overthrow of our government and those funding these violent uprisings should be prosecuted. Any politician not willing to defend/support our constitution and the USA should be defunded! When their actions and speech are destructive they need to go. The World needs to go after China for this act of war in its attempt to take over world dominance. As hopeless as this situation is remember: “with God all things are possible” Mark 10:27 Please pray and draw close to God.
The Democrat Party is the Communist Party!! Stand-up for America!! Remove Every Democrat!!!!!
The Democrat Party is being funded by the “One World Government”!! Stand-up for America!! Remove Every Democrat!!!!!
We are in the middle of a Communist Revolution!! Become a Counter-Revolutionary! Stand-up for America!! Remove Every Democrat!!!!!
Google, Facebook, Instagram, etc. are all Communist Collaborators and are Anti-American!! Stand-up for America!!!! Stop using Google, Facebook, and Instagram!!!!!
IF YOU LOVE YOUR CHILDREN, find an alternative to Public Education. It destroys individual thinking!! Charter and Parochial Schools can be OK but Home Education is best although it may require lifestyle changes. EACH OF US MUST CHOOSE! “IF YOU LOVE YOUR CHILDREN…”
This is another attempt to overthrow our government and replace it with a communist globalist one world order. I don’t think millions of Americans will go down fighting first.
These so-called medical experts are NOT experts on economics and have NO BUSINESS advising anyone on what they DON”T KNOW! There are TOO many medical folks all over the place on this COVID-19 virus and that’s the problem! Conflicting info floats everywhere and most folks hate the chaos all this is producing. And what happens the next time a virus comes around? These so-called medical experts are instilling FEAR in folks that is unwarranted and destructive to humanity and don’t seem to care! They are the uncompassionate, just greedy for fame, power, and control! I wish they would just SHUT UP!
Would Emanuel, Osterholm, Kashkari, and their ilk, include BLM and Antifa to lock down? Protestors? If not, this is complete BS!!
No shutdown!! Its a Democrat plot to turn this country to socialism!!
This communist hoax is so transparent, yes the Chinese virus can cause death in those with chronic illness and the immuno-compromised, especially when the only super effective drug that cures it, Hydroxychloroquine, with a proven safe track record of over 65 years fighting malaria, is bedeviled by the DNC propaganda arm left stream media, but it does not reach the death toll of the flu, TB, or malaria, and we don’t shut down the country, or the global economy for these. Now Ezekiel Emanuel, Rahm “Dead Fish” Emanuel’s brother, another of Obama’s “fundamentally transforming” unholy crew of America destroying organizers wants to give the U.S. the Chinese assisted coup de grace, quickly, and before the next election because they know Joe Biden has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning without an epic scale of voter fraud, from every cemetery in the nation voting Democrat, to voting machines and mail in ballots being rigged, to now shipments of 20,000 fake U.S. driver’s licenses from China which can be used by illegals to vote.The DNC is an organized crime syndicate, when is AG Barr going to finally indict them under the RICO act?
Let us say for the sake of argument that these depraved communists succeed in their goal to “shut down” the country. What system do they plan to replace it with?
Communist never built anything of value, they attack an existing system and destroy it.
Look at the examples of their paradise ; Communist China, the former Soviet Union, Cuba and Venezuela, oppressive “progressive” concentration camps, they are literally a Culture of Death run by the likes of a satanist bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel who cannot justify his existence.
Stupidity and fear mongering, thy name is Democrat/ Communist/ Socialist.
This is the guy, that during the Obamacare discussions, said that rather than give older people health care it would be cheaper tp give grandma a pill.
We need to stop listening to these “experts” whose only aim is to cripple America! Stop giving them air and ink time! If their voices aren’t heard, no one will follow!
The only reason this chinaflu is so widespread is because elitist, socialist/dems REFUSED TO COOPERATE with anything PRESIDENT TRUMP SUGGESTED, same thing with the RIOTS, the dem state and city officials refused to do anything UNTIL the looters hit the rich then all of a sudden they took notice and now “threaten” to take action, unless the thugs go back to the working class nieghborhoods then they again will not care anymore. VOTE REPUBLICAN, VOTE TRUMP.
To Ezekiel Emanuel and all of his ilk, there is nothing stopping you from quarantining yourself and hiding in your basement for the next 18 months. So please, be like Joe and let the rest of us continue with our lives.