Guest Post by Paul Craig Roberts
In Florida pressure to reopen beaches, vacation rentals, arcades, and restaurants is coming from the tourist industry. Nationally, oil interests are lobbying hard as the price of US crude has hit negative amounts. How can oil be sold for a negative price? Because there is no room to store it. Traders locked into delivery contracts are finding it cheaper to pay someone to take the oil than to try to secure a place to store the oil. You see, distribution works through oil contracts made in the past for future delivery. These contracts were made prior to the economic shutdown that has greatly reduced demand for oil. Apparently, it is cheaper to pay someone to take the oil than to break the contracts.
There is no doubt of the economic disruption resulting from the effort to reduce the infection rate with closedowns. The question is whether a premature reopening will undo the work so far to control the infection rate and require another shutdown. Already the reported practice in New York is not to treat anyone 80 years old or over. Will a second wave reduce the non-treated age to 70, a third to 60?
Sweden is the only country that avoided a shutdown. So far Sweden’s death rate on a per capita basis is higher than Denmark’s, although not hugely higher. The Swedes are apparently more cooperative with prevention measures and require less control in order to exercise good judgment. The question is whether Swedes are gaining “herd immunity” that will in the end produce a lower death rate as countries in lockdown experience a second wave of virus when they come out of lockdown.
The question of herd immunity remains open as there are many known instances of reinfection and a recent report from Japan that the virus mutates more rapidly than believed and that some forms of the virus are more deadly than others.
People take hard positions on both sides of the lockdown/no lockdown issue even though there is no hard evidence on either side. We just don’t know. And the virus has been unfortunately politicized in many ways. A policy determined by political partisanship is unlikely to be a good policy.
Bloomberg News
Worried that a “devastating” second wave of infections could hit America this summer if states reopen too soon, governors who have been leading the effort to combat the pandemic labeled as “delusional” and “absolutely false” claims by Vice President Mike Pence that enough testing was available to prevent such a disaster. Despite the risks, President Donald Trump, his allies and some far-right groups have demanded states lift restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of Covid-19. Medical experts warn that a flood of Americans leaving their homes without proper testing and tracing in place will trigger a new outbreak, inundating hospitals and likely causing tens of thousands of additional deaths. In response to anti-shutdown demonstrators in Denver, medical professionals staged a silent counter-protest, resulting in this widely viewed video. Will the blond in sunglasses give herself death?
The One Thing About Which Fauci Is Probably Correct
Keep in mind that Trump has a political interest in reopening the economy as he faces an election. The Democrats have a stake in keeping it closed reasoning that people with no jobs and people losing their businesses will vote against Trump, as will people deprived of their sports and entertainment venues. It is not clear whether the election should be postponed for a more normal time. Will people expose themselves to crowds in order to vote? Will it be possible to vote from home? Will the outcome merely be an outcome of which side’s propaganda was most believed? In such a case, what is the value of the election?
Divisions in the US are so great that it is almost impossible for a policy that serves a common interest to emerge.
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They have been setting the stage for a second wave since word of the first outbreak began appearing. It was baked in deliberately. If I hear herd immunity once more I’m jumping. I mean it. Don’t test me.
Flea,
Do you think it possible, at all, that the whole “wear a mask” thing is desired by the government because they believe china could at any moment throw a bio weapon at us and if many people are wearing masks at the time of detonation(?), many lives will be spared?
Silly me?
Homemade masks are like re-screening your porch with chain link fencing and expecting to keep the gnats out.
How your masks are produced…..
Donkey.
NOPE!
It wouldn’t help first of all. Secondly but much more important is the stress and fear it perpetuates wears down our immune system while also preventing us from thinking clearly and logically.
This is not a war against China or china against us or anyone else you may want to throw in the hat. It’s a war against humanity across the board. This is just one more act in a long play.
“Will the outcome merely be an outcome of which side’s propaganda was most believed? In such a case, what is the value of the election?”
……
isn’t that every election ???!?
Oh the poor opec billionaires : fuckem !
As for the petro based dollar , let’s dig the dead idiots that took us off the gold standard and the ones that cooked up the federal reserve system so we can give them a trial , tar & feather then hang what’s left
As for coronavirus and herd immunity : could be after a MILLON plus deaths in the US
Word on the street from I feel fairly reliable sources say the “Nurses” in Denver, protesting the protest aren’t nurses and that was all a big Psyop. Supposedly local news to spill that tonight or tomorrow morning.
Many Denver nurses belong to one of a couple of labor unions; strangely, SEIU has a lot of hospital workers including nurses in their ranks.
Peter Boyles a Denver Talk Show host and Julie Hayden an award winning reporter from Denver TV have exposed the male “Nurse” in the pics blocking traffic at the Denver Lockdown protest. He is an Antifa/Progress Now stooge who has been involved in other anti protests and is not a nurse but is a DJ, known as DJ Pony, at a local Strip Club. His real name is Justin Smith. This is a Progress Now Psyop.
Man plays God. God bitch smacks mankind back to the time of creation or at least pre Castro Cuba.
https://www.zerohedge.com/health/renowned-microbiologist-claims-wuhan-lab-did-absolutely-crazy-things-coronavirus
Oh my God, we’re all going to die. It is all pre planned bullshit designed to usher in a new monetary system. It is coming because the current system is unsustainable and PTB want to maintain their status. BOHICA
chart of sweden compared to its neighbors… assuming the data is legit. This shows sweden is 3x the death rate of denmark.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/total-covid-deaths-per-million?tab=chart&year=2020-04-16&country=DNK+FIN+NOR+SWE
this data will only matter in hindsight.
what if sweden is hitting it’s actual peak faster?
the initial point of flattening the curve is not to make it last forever. quite the contrary. you want to get through it as fast as possible without overloading your hospitals.
in that sense. sweden might be doing the best.
if you flatten the curve too much, your hospitals all go out of business due to extended shutdowns.
With you on hindsight, now, where do we get honest and compatible data?
This is about the only time I can remember disagreeing with Dr. Roberts. But in this case he is dead wrong. Not only is COVID-19 not a pandemic it is highly treatable and no second wave is possible based on the life cycle of corona viruses. So Governors who do not re-open soon will suffer for it at re-election time. Let’s open the economy..NOW!
https://www.kron4.com/health/coronavirus/autopsies-confirm-first-covid-19-deaths-in-santa-clara-county-were-in-february/
so really…. what we have been going through in march and april is like… wave 2 and wave 3….
hence…. it’s REALLY NOT THAT BAD. considering nobody was locked down in february.
Minutes later, the young military officer came down to the White House basement command facility and told Trump, “the virus is thirty days away”. The young military officer finally came down several days later and said to Trump, “The virus is ten days away. Do the orders still stand?” Trump told the military officer, “Of course the orders still stand! Nothing can stop what’s coming”