COVID Quick Hits – December 21, 2021

The best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep! – W. C. Fields
We’re goin’ with the abundantly sharp wit of the great Mr. Fields today because if there is a theme to this Quick Hits edition, it’s that political cures predictably turn out to be far worse than the disease. So, without further ado…

No more mitigations?

Ain’t it funny that, with Illinois reporting a 12,328 new daily 2021 COVID case record this week, and with 88 percent of our ICU beds fully occupied, Governor Pointless and his Mini-Me minion, Mayor Lightweight, have been pointedly avoiding uttering any word that even begins with the letter “m.”

That certainly wasn’t the case last year when the Governor went into conniptions over any infection rate uptick and our Little Napoleon sicced Chicago’s Finest on a slew of not-at-risk beachgoers.

But now, with the plague raging out of control as a result of patently poor political decisions, all they’re saying is they’re “carefully watching the situation.” So, what could possibly be the catalyst for this sudden anti-nanny state shift?

Could it be that they’re finally paying attention to the science? Could they have recognized that capriciously closing bars and restaurants almost killed them off? Could they have finally recognized that the damage remote learning has done to our not-at-risk children has created a lost generation that will haunt us for decades to come? Could it be, like the Grinch, their tiny hearts grew three times their size right before Christmas?

Or could it be that Governor Pritzker, having already fired his opening reelection campaign salvos, knows damn well that even mentioning the “m” word will doom his political career faster than Ben Affleck can commit box office suicide. I’m sure he also understands that, with surly Illinois Billionaire Ken Griffin steadfastly aligned against him, his money won’t save his ample ass this time.

Fuckin’ Democratic hypocrites! And some folks still refuse to belief the pandemic response isn’t political pandering at its worst!

I told you so!

In what can only be described as a rather strange turn of events for that preposterous pandemic panic porn prone newspaper, on Monday (12/20), the Chicago Tribune ran this stellar story, COVID-19 hardships fuel increase in violent student behavior and threats in K-12 schools.

Though it pains me to see these kids suffer so much, it’s gratifying that another publication is finally beginning to admit that the COVID “cure” has been so much worse than the disease. Since you can read that piece for yourself, I won’t cover it in great detail, but suffice it to say that the non-school shooting highlights include:

• A teacher wearing shin guards because a student kicks her every day
• A huge increase in students fight other students
• A huge increase in assaults on teachers
• A huge increase in verbally abusing teachers
• And much worse

St. Charles D303 elementary school music teacher Joe Blomquist told the Tribune that the number of incidents requiring crisis intervention in their elementary schools this fall have already doubled over the entire pre-pandemic 2019 school year.

But as bad as the violence is, it’s the developmental damage that terrifies me. Algonquin District 300 teacher Michael Williamson lamented, “We’re seeing this whole big gap in social maturity that only happens when children grow together in person in the classroom. Some teachers are reporting their students are arriving at school ‘angry, stressed and aggressive.’”

Really? Who could’ve possibly predicted that?

A lost generation

Unlike the plague, which is clearly on the brink of running its course, we’re looking at a lost generation that will demand a disproportionate amount of mental health, social service, and criminal justice system resources for decades to come. And this killing them with “protection” kindness damnation was a wholly avoidable fate.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again! Children are NOT at risk!

Two years into the plague and the number of juvenile deaths doesn’t begin to amount to a statistical blip. Of course, any child death is tragic, but the 655 17-and-under COVID deaths doesn’t even come close to that age group’s 1,161 2012-13 flu season deaths.

And remember! the 2012 virus exacted that toll in five short months. Imagine what it would’ve done if it lingered for two years.

So, who’s responsible for sentencing our children to a lifetime of despair, or worse? Our school board presidents and school boards! They’ve refused to follow the science, they’ve refused to see the folly in remote “learning,” and they still refuse to admit that 90 percent of the masks children wear to school don’t work.

Then they go home to play with their unmasked friends in poorly ventilated houses.

If the State Board of Education hadn’t mandated a return to the classroom, our children would still be sitting at home and falling even further behind. Remember! School boards set the policy and the administration simply carries it out.

So, if Tri-Cities School Board Presidents Taylor Egan, Jillian Barker, and Cathy Dremel believe in a Christian God, considering the pointless damage they’ve so gleefully thrust upon our children, it’s clearly not gonna work out too terribly well for them in the end.

Let’s just say that, when it comes to meeting St. Peter, I’d be packing summer clothes.

The Chinese built a hospital in six days!

Per my recent column contending our hospitals have utterly failed to adapt to any plague reality because it doesn’t pay to treat the sick, a friend reached out to tell me the problem goes a bit beyond those halcyon institutions.

Apparently, there’s an Illinois statute that dictates, before any new hospital breaks ground, they have to mathematically justify each and every proposed bed. And if they can’t do it, it’s hasta la vista, baby!

Considering how the Chinese reacted to the plague outset, I’ve been kinda surprised that we didn’t somewhat follow suit. The best we could do is create temporary facilities that quickly disappeared. But now I know that, while the Chinese can build an entire hospital in six days, Illinois couldn’t build one in six years!

And who’s behind this monopolistic law? Why, it’s Illinois hospitals, of course! Since those medical enterprises have become a license to print money, they wanted to eliminate any potential competition. And as you might imagine, those bought-and-paid-for Illinois legislators happily went along with it.

And ain’t it funny how Governor Pointless, who has a knack for repealing laws, hasn’t uttered a word about this one?

How are the mitigations workin’ out for ya?

Gird your loins because you’re about to get blasted with even more I-told-you-so’s! I suppose I’ll never win that Mr. Congeniality award.

Now, I’d like to think that the reason Governor Pointless and Mayor Lightfoot haven’t fallen back on their fascist ways is they’ve finally grasped the concept that were two years into this thing and essentially back to square one. But that’s the kind of wishful thinking that always gets me in trouble.

At the plague’s outset, based on a thoroughly researched understanding of pandemic history, I consistently explained that the mitigations might slow it down, but despite any glorious Democratic proclamations, they’d never stop it. The only answer to any pandemic has been, is, and will be herd immunity.

I further noted that the longer we let this thing fester, particularly by concentrating the truly sick in ICUs where the worst strains could “mingle” and evolve, we’d only make it that much worse. The more contagious and lethal delta variant is all the proof you need of that.

But I also said this! It is a vast evolutionary maladaptation for any virus to kill it’s host because it’s the equivalent of viral suicide. If the host dies, the disease goes with it! That’s why pathogens have tendency to mutationally drift into more contagious, but less lethal variants.

Survival of the fittest, right?

To wit, as I also repeatedly declared, had we moved to protect the sick, obese, and elderly early on, it would’ve allowed the plague to dilute itself in healthier young people (remember all those asymptomatic cases?), and we’d be celebrating the first anniversary of the pandemic’s demise right now.

But because God foolishly protects fools, the omicron variant is good news! It’s far more contagious and less lethal propensities will quickly wipe out its predecessors and force the herd immunity our “experts” have so stridently cursed and doubted. Put more simply, it will accomplish what we’ve failed to accomplish.

Better yet, according to this Newsweek story, a recent study found that if the fully immunized do develop a breakthrough COVID case, not only will it be mild or asymptomatic, but those fine folks will develop a plague “super immunity.” The study author said, “You can’t get a better immune response than this.” So, instead of fearing this variant, let’s embrace it and the likely end of the plague.

Of course, the key to that immunity is getting vaccinated. And with Europe already issuing more lockdown orders…