Jeff Ward strikes back!

In the words of that great anchorman Howard Beale, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” So, when yet another CNN medical “expert,” Dr. Kent Sepkowitz, wrote yet another bullshit column on our likely impending return to yet more pointless COVID mitigations, because I have nothing better to do, I found his email address and fired this morning missive.

Yes! I know it’s nothing more than spitting into the wind, but I do feel better having written it. Enjoy!

Dr. Sepkowitz,

As a former suburban Sun-Time columnist who continues to write on a variety of local topics, I read your most recent CNN piece with the kind of amazement that only comes from being in the presence of a rare sheer arrogance. If you choose to read my earlier columns that applied basic statistical math to the pandemic process, you’ll quickly note that I’m no COVID denier, and in fact, I’ve correctly predicted the progress of the plague, including but not nearly limited to the mutational drift that would inevitably lead to Omicron.

But back to the arrogance on the part of yourself and so many so-called health care “experts” who abjectly refuse to see that, not only is the COVID “cure” so much worse than the disease, but by forestalling herd immunity, it’s actually made the disease worse. Had we moved to protect the elderly early on, the plague would’ve already diluted itself in younger healthy folks and we’d be celebrating our first pandemic-free year.

Put more simply, it isn’t a matter of “accurate conflicting advice” as you so obfuscatingly put it in your piece, experts like you have gotten it dead wrong from the start! That’s why the general sweaty public no longer listens to these health care “experts” and you’re never gonna get that genie back in the bottle.

So, under your plan we’re supposed to prepare for “next dangerous variant” and further economic destruction at time when inflation just hit a 40-year high, unduly affecting the least of our brothers and sisters. And Doctor, what happened the last time we slipped into an economic depression? Had the economy been any worse, Donald Trumps brand of fascism would’ve been far more dangerous than it already was.

And what about children Dr. Sepkowitz? Under your “guidance,” after stealing two years of their lives, are we going to purloin one, two, or three more when they’re not nearly at risk? It’s more than a bit shocking that a lay person has to explain the science to a medical professional. Any child’s death is tragic, but the 655 17-year and under U.S. COVID deaths as of December 2021 pale in comparison to the 1,161 2012-13 flu deaths among the same age group. Please note that influenza took its deadly toll in just five months, not two long years.

And the far-reaching effects of the developmental damage among teens and pre-teens as a result of pointless COVID mitigations will be with us for decades to come – long after COVID-19 becomes a relatively distant memory. I’m sure you’ve read that self-harm among teenagers is up 99 percent during the pandemic:

But while you’ll certainly cite how taking a mask off “may affect a stranger living in a town far, far away,” you choose to utterly ignore the deleterious effects of these ineffective mitigations that are haunting us right now. And you do this because it doesn’t fit your stilted internal narrative that would mean giving up your new power if you considered any other possibilities but your own, or day I say it, actually tell the truth!

And speaking of “masks,” if they’re nearly as effective as you claim, why is it that your CNN counterpart, Dr. Leana Wen, just advised us that “In light of omicron, cloth masks are little more that face decorations?” And didn’t that duplicitous Dr. Fauci finally admit, as anyone with half a brain already knew, “Omicron will touch just about everybody.”

Lastly, why is it that none of your medical ilk ever mentions the possibility of putting down the fork? Aside from the “sin” of old age, obesity is the CLEAREST indicator for COVID risks such as hospitalization, ventilation, and death? And isn’t that an egregious omission when you consider that 78 percent of COVID patients hospitalized in the U.S. were overweight or obese?

Apparently, the fact that someone chooses to take care of themselves has no value in your overly slanted health care world, because we healthy folks are suddenly supposed to put our lives on hold for folks in a “far, far away town” who won’t take the smallest of precautions to mitigate contracting a serious case of the disease. And the descent to the least common denominator goes on unabated with you carrying the baton. Do you ever listen to yourself talk, sir? I really don’t think you do.

With rare exception, to you and your lackeys who carry a medical hammer, everything has become a pandemic nail. And despite your furiously attacking that nail to the exclusion of all else, we’re supposed to listen to you and your errant compatriots for the 146^th time? No, sir! Fool me once…

So, let’s finally cut to the chase – the heart of the matter so to speak. Until COVID, no one listened to you and your medical cronies. The American obesity epidemic is all the proof you need of that reality. But that all changed when the plague started sweeping the country. People were suddenly paying attention and begging for solace in light of a press that binged on, as Bill Maher put it, “pandemic panic porn.” But instead of providing that science based guidance, inebriated with your newfound power and sudden celebrity status,  medical professionals everywhere chose to prey on those fears in an effort to retain the power they knew would evaporate as the number of COVID cases waned.

The problem with your utterly egocentric CNN column is that persistently fearful people will glom onto it and say, “See! We need even more mitigations” which this country cannot economically, sociologically, or psychologically afford. But as long as you can continue to enjoy your new power, that’s all that matters, right? There is a special place in hell for people who prey on other people’s fears, and when your Pearly Gates time comes – may it be in the far, far away future – I’d certainly be packing warm weather clothing.

Jeff Ward