Closing Which Border?

Yesterday The Washington Examiner posted an article about the border policies of the Biden administration.

The article reports:

Members of President Joe Biden’s party are upset about his decision not to allow Canadians into the United States despite Canada’s plan to begin admitting Americans in the coming weeks.

“As Canada prepares to further open the border next month, the United States is failing to reciprocate, jeopardizing an already tenuous recovery for thousands of businesses, families and communities across Upstate New York,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, in a statement. “It is critical for the United States to level the playing field and create a uniform system, following the science and data, to safely — and finally — reopen the border for those vaccinated.”

In Washington state, Democratic Rep. Suzan DelBene said the move would prompt “further suffering in our border communities.” Rep. Brian Higgins, a New York Democrat, agreed, adding the negative impact would be felt across the 5,500-mile border between the continental U.S. and Canada.

Since March 21, 2020, the government has not allowed foreigners on “nonessential” travel to enter the U.S. at a land port of entry as a pandemic measure. However, people from outside the U.S. are often permitted to fly into the country from abroad.

Why are we closing our northern border to Canadian citizens while allowing illegal immigrants to flow freely into America at our southern border?

The article continues:

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas defended the decision as being based on a “specific threat to human life or national interests” as the COVID-19 delta variant spreads worldwide and cases spike in the U.S. and Mexico.

More than 75 members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to Biden earlier this month asking him to reinstate international travel fully because the closure cost $125 billion in export profits last year.

While land ports of entry remain closed on the southern and northern borders, hundreds of thousands of migrants have illegally crossed the southern border since February. Tens of thousands of migrants have been allowed to go deeper into the U.S., even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended in 2020 all migrants be turned away at the border and not detained or released into the U.S.

Migrants are not given coronavirus vaccines before they’re released from federal custody.

So I guess illegal immigrants are going to be allowed to spread the coronavirus while the Canadians who have been vaccinated and probably won’t spread the coronavirus are kept out of America. In what world does this make sense?

Interesting

The New York Post is reporting today that three of the Texas Democrats who fled the state rather than vote on the voting regulations bill have tested positive for the coronavirus. All three of them were vaccinated.

The article reports:

Chris Turner, chairman of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said Saturday that the three unnamed members, who tested positive on Friday night and Saturday morning, would self-isolate for 10 days. One of the three is experiencing mild symptoms of COVID-19.

All three members had been fully vaccinated before they and nearly 60 other representatives crowded onto buses and chartered planes Tuesday to deny a quorum in a special legislative session called by Gov. Greg Abbott.

In the days since, the group has made the rounds on Capitol Hill to lobby for passage of the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, Democrat-pushed bills that would federalize elections and override GOP state laws targeting voter fraud.

The runaway Dems held a non-socially-distanced meeting with Vice President Harris, visited Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in his office, and crowded together to sing an off-key version of “We Shall Overcome” for the press.

The article concludes:

The coronavirus cases drew mockery on social media.

“This is a group of people who said Greg Abbott was going to kill Texans by reopening the state and tossing the mask mandate,” conservative commentator Erick Erickson tweeted. “Then they went to DC and didn’t wear masks.”

I am sorry that they have come down with the coronavirus, but this raises more questions than answers. They were all vaccinated. If the vaccine does not protect you, why is there such a push to get it? How many people did they spread the virus to while they were in Washington?

Leadership Matters

The New York Sun posted an article today by Larry Kudlow about the contrast between California and Florida.

The article reports:

Call it the Tale of Two States — the best of times and the worst of times. Apologies to Charles Dickens, but there’s no better way to glimpse the fight for the soul of our great country than to compare the ultra-blue state of California with the ultra-red state of Florida. They are completely different cultures and policies.

You could also think of it as Donald Trump versus Kamala Harris — or maybe we should think of it as Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi versus Donald Trump. I don’t mean to shortchange, or disrespect, President Biden by choosing his veep, but I see his political future as late afternoon or well into the evening.

Or you could think of it as a presidential race between Florida’s governor, Ron Desantis, and California’s governor, Gavin Newsom. The current California governor and former San Francisco mayor first has to survive a gubernatorial recall.

Kudos to New York Post columnist Kyle Smith who laid out the battle between California and Florida in a compelling way.

“Those differences,” Kyle writes, “are growing into a chasm of philosophical and practical contrasts between two basic models for the American future. Call them the California way and the Florida way.”

Kyle highlights the extraordinary differences and contrasts between the two states: California public schools teach critical race theory, Florida does not; California hates fossil fuels and worships at the shrine of global warming, with sky-high gas prices. Florida does not; California had some of the harshest Covid lockdown measures, while Florida was among one of the first states to reopen, way back in May of 2020.

It should be noted that Florida has one of the highest percentages of elderly in the nation. The elderly were the people most vulnerable to the coronavirus. As of July 11th, there were 2,406,727 coronavirus cases in Florida, 38,157 deaths, and 2,240,417 people who recovered. In contrast, California had 3,724,833 cases and 63,376 deaths. In Florida 20.1 percent of the population is over 65 years of age. In California 14 percent of the population is over 65 years of age (According to Consumer Affairs). Obviously, Florida did a better job of handling the coronavirus.

The article also notes:

California’s economy has an unemployment rate of 7.9%, Florida is below 5%. California has a 13.3% top income tax rate, while Florida does not have an income tax. California has only 12% of America’s population and a quarter of America’s homeless.

That includes sanctioned encampments that are tax-payer funded. Los Angeles spends $2,700 a tent — a month. California pays homeless people to put up the tents and provide other services. So it’s kind of a cottage industry there. California has the second highest income tax rate in the country, bowing only to New York

The article concludes:

Florida is an example of how legal immigration can be successfully assimilated into community and business life. California is an example of the failure of woke ideology implemented by massively big government and state central planning. Florida is an example of traditional values supported by frugal government and free enterprise.

Miami is the cultural business and financial center of Latin America and South America. It’s not far-fetched to imagine that Miami and South Florida will replace New York as the financial center of the country. Not only does Florida love traditional values, but Florida loves business — and the people businesses employ.

In everything it does, California now opposes traditional values. With massive over-regulation and tax burdens on businesses, it is likely to lose its tech supremacy. Joe Biden wants to take California nationwide. But Florida works. California does not.

Leadership matters.

 

 

 

Something That Just Doesn’t Add Up

Yesterday PJ Media posted an article titled, “If New COVID-19 Variants Need to Be Taken Very Seriously, Why Isn’t Biden Closing the Border?” That is a very good question.

The article notes:

Last week, it was all about the Delta variant of COVID-19. Health experts tell us this variant is more transmissible than other variants, but vaccines still appear to prevent severe disease and death effectively. It also does not appear to be causing severe illness in children any more than the other variants have, which is excellent news. Researchers earlier in the pandemic felt exposure to COVID-19 in childhood could help build long-term immune responses, making the virus far less virulent over time.

Currently, the Delta variant is raging in the UK. Yet Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that all COVID-19 restrictions will be lifted in the country on July 19, including masks, social distancing, and smartphone apps. The government will make the final decision on July 12, but Johnson said the country needs to move to a philosophy of personal responsibility and learn to live with the virus. It seems even he is not held captive by rising case numbers anymore in the absence of significant severe illness.

New information from Israel could be why. Israel, which has been dealing with the Delta variant for a while, indicates that the new COVID-19 variant is not making people seriously ill as often as previous waves…

The article continues:

And a new variant, lambda, is on the horizon. We seem to have skipped quite a few Greek letters here, but this is another COVID-19 “variant of interest.” Jairo Mendez-Rico, a WHO virologist, told the German outlet Deutsche Welle the following about the new variant:

“So far we have seen no indication that the lambda variant is more aggressive,” the WHO virologist Jairo Mendez-Rico told DW. “It is possible that it may exhibit higher infection rates, but we don’t yet have enough reliable data to compare it to gamma or delta.”

“Although it is possible, currently there is no indication that variants are more dangerous and lead to increased mortality,” Mendez-Rico said. “It is likely that SARS-CoV-2 will become more transmissible throughout the course of its evolution but not necessarily more damaging to the host.”

Lambda originated in Peru and now accounts for 82% of cases in the country. It is present as far north as Mexico.

Meanwhile our southern border is wide open.

The article concludes:

However, they can’t have it both ways. Because of a more contagious virus that appears to be less virulent, according to Israeli data, Los Angeles residents are required to mask again. Dr. Fauci is telling vaccinated people to mask again because of the Delta variant of COVID-19. All the while, illegal immigrants from Latin America pour over our southern border, potentially bringing new variants with them. The administration is giving some wildly mixed messages on how seriously we should take variants with the lax border policies. It is no small wonder many Americans are no longer listening.

Elections Matter In Economics

Townhall posted an article today about the economic recovery in America after the coronavirus.

The article reports:

The U.S. economy added 850,000 jobs in June while the unemployment rate rose to 5.9 percent according to the latest data released Friday morning from the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Among the industries with the most notable growth — as more states lift restrictions put in place due to the Wuhan coronavirus — were leisure and hospitality, public and private education, and professional and business services.

The article notes the impact of the increased unemployment benefits:

The stronger-than-expected job growth is due in part to states that have ended expanded or extended federal unemployment benefits that often incentivized citizens to stay out of the workforce. As the Wall Street Journal noted recently, the number of Americans taking unemployment benefits is “falling at a faster rate in Missouri and 21 other states canceling enhanced and extended payments this month, suggesting that ending the aid could push more people to take jobs.”

As June’s employment data demonstrates, ending the extended benefits did push more people to enter the workforce because, for some, it was no longer more financially beneficial to avoid returning to work. 

The article concludes:

These states, unsurprisingly, are almost all led by Republicans. Even Politico noted that, when it comes to the 15 states that have already returned to pre-Wuhan coronavirus economic activity, “12 are led by Republican governors.” On the flip side, “the 10 states reporting the lowest levels of activity since January 2020, seven — including New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois — are run by Democratic governors.”

The data from these states, along with today’s jobs report for June, suggest conservative leadership and policies are a significant predictor of a strong economic recovery.

The Republican National Committee recently heralded the economic growth in GOP-led states based on Labor Department data that found 18 of the top 20 states for jobs recovered since COVID hit have Republican-controlled legislatures, as do 17 of the 20 states with the lowest unemployment. 

The workforce participation rate is unchanged from May–it is holding at 61.6 percent.

The Mystery Of The Wuhan Flu

Yesterday NewsMax reported the following:

Details of the genetic makeup of some of the earliest samples of coronavirus in China were removed from an American database where they were initially stored at the request of Chinese researchers, U.S. officials confirmed, adding to concerns over secrecy surrounding the outbreak and its origins.

The data, first submitted to the U.S.-based Sequence Read Archive in March 2020, were “requested to be withdrawn” by the same researcher three months later in June, the U.S. National Institutes of Health said in a statement Wednesday. The genetic sequences came from the Chinese city of Wuhan where the COVID-19 outbreak was initially concentrated.

The reason cited at the time for withdrawal was the sequence information had been updated and was being submitted to another database, the agency said. The researcher asked the data be removed “to avoid version control issues,” it said.

The article notes:

“Submitting investigators hold the rights to their data and can request withdrawal of the data,” the agency said. “NIH can’t speculate on motive beyond the investigator’s stated intentions.”

The disappearance of the genetic sequences from the database raises questions about what else from the Wuhan outbreak has been shielded, said American virologist Jesse Bloom, who publicized his discovery they were missing earlier this week. Bloom, who subsequently recovered the information, said it did not provide definitive details on where or how the virus originated.

Politicians and scientists from around the world have grown increasingly frustrated by China’s efforts to deflect an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, especially the possibility it leaked from a Wuhan laboratory. Though a World Health Organization expert team visited China earlier this year for an investigation, they were not allowed access to raw data and their conclusion – the virus likely crossed over from animals – has been criticized as being premature.

Is anyone surprised that the data has disappeared? As scientists begin to suspect that it is very unlikely that the virus jumped from animals to man naturally, those early sequences could prove that theory. The Chinese and those who worked closely with them on developing this virus have a vested interest in keeping information about the virus away from those who would correctly analyze it. Expect to see more vital information for investigating the coronavirus to disappear without an explanation.

Strange Things Happened At The End Of The Obama Administration

There were a number of odd things that happened toward the end of the Obama administration. There was the Susan Rice memo about the January 5, 2017, meeting (story here), the large number of unmasking requests (story here), but there is another odd thing that has just been discovered.

On Saturday The Conservative Treehouse posted an article about the ban on gain-of-function research.

The article reports:

…Eleven Days before leaving office President Obama’s administration re-authorized funding for the creation of biological weapons using SARS viruses. However, essentially this re-authorization was only kickstarting funding within the U.S. because the funding of weaponization of SARS-CoV-2 never actually stopped in 2014. The media reporting on this is misleading, if not downright false.

The article continues:

The article includes a summary of events:

SUMMARY: President Obama (not Trump) started the reauthorization of SARS-CoV-2 Virus experimentation in 2017.  The funding of the Wuhan Lab for the creation of SARS-CoV-2 was originated during the Obama administration and continued during the Trump administration.  The scientific community, the Obama White House and National Security Team, and the Pentagon knew the dangers of funding the weaponization of a biological weapon from SARS.  The COVID-19 pandemic was an outcome of these originating decisions.

…. and yes, there are political and ideological benefits from the perspective of Obama’s ideological group for unleashing the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic as an opportunistic “crisis” to create totalitarian government solutions regardless of who was in office.  However, the timing of the subsequent biological release is very suspicious in relation to the 2020 presidential election and the downstream benefits of manipulating the election via mail-in ballots.

Perhaps not a smoking gun of intent, but definitely bloody footprints walking out the door – in Obama’s size.

Something to consider as you listen to the news.

When Politics Interferes With Science

Yesterday The U.K. Daily Mail posted an article about the search for the origins of the coronavirus. It seems as if not everyone wanted to uncover the truth.

The article reports:

Career staffers at the State Department ‘warned’ officials not to investigate the possibility that COVID-19 leaked from a Wuhan lab, fearing it would expose U.S. funding for gain-of-function research there, according to a new report.

Thomas DiNanno, former acting assistant secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance raised the concern in a memo reported by Vanity Fair on Thursday. 

DiNanno wrote that staff from two bureaus, his own and the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, ‘warned’ leaders ‘not to pursue an investigation into the origin of COVID-19’ because it would ‘open a can of worms’ if it continued. 

In one State Department meeting, officials say colleagues explicitly told them not to explore the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s (WIV) gain-of-function research, because it would bring unwelcome attention to the U.S. taxpayer funds that were supporting the work.

The article continues:

It’s unclear exactly much U.S. government funding was going to the WIV, but at least some of it was being routed through a nonprofit called EcoHealth Alliance.

By 2018, EcoHealth Alliance was pulling in up to $15 million a year in grant money from an array of federal agencies, including the Defense Department, Homeland Security, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to tax filings.

EcoHealth Alliance and its founder Peter Daszak have been working with Shi Zhengli, the WIV virologist known as the ‘bat lady’, for more than 15 years. 

British-born Daszak, 55, is the president of EcoHealth Alliance — and in the early days of the pandemic, he was key in establishing the veneer of a ‘scientific consensus’ that the lab-leak origin was impossible.

Daszak not only signed but spearheaded a letter signed by 27 scientists rejecting the lab leak hypothesis, which was published on February 19, 2020 in the medical journal The Lancet.

Leaked emails later revealed that he encouraged colleagues who do gain-of-function research on coronaviruses not to sign the letter, in order to obscure the connection.

The letter declared that the scientists had ‘no competing interests’ — but it seems clear that Daszak did, as a lab leak origin would likely derail his entire field, but an animal origin would justify his life’s work.  

I don’t know whether or not knowing the origin of the coronavirus would have been helpful in finding a cure or a vaccine, but it bothers me that we have people in our government working against the interests of American citizens.

 

We Need To Add The Concept Of Ethics Back Into Our Scientific Work

Hot Air posted an article today related to the origins of the coronavirus. However, there is some very troubling information about some other research carried out by the Chinese in the article. It is quite possible that the coronavirus pandemic was the result of a laboratory leak at the Wuhan Laboratory, but the question remains as to exactly what was being studied during the time of the leak.

The article reports:

Ed (Morrissey)  grabbed the big takeaway from the splashy new Vanity Fair piece this morning, that federal efforts to investigate the lab-leak theory were hamstrung by numerous conflicts of interest within the public-health bureaucracy.

But here’s a provocative bit of news buried deeper in the story that’s worth some attention.

There’s no smoking gun of wrongdoing, just an … interesting coincidence.

As the NSC tracked these disparate clues, U.S. government virologists advising them flagged one study first submitted in April 2020. Eleven of its 23 coauthors worked for the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, the Chinese army’s medical research institute. Using the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR, the researchers had engineered mice with humanized lungs, then studied their susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2. As the NSC officials worked backward from the date of publication to establish a timeline for the study, it became clear that the mice had been engineered sometime in the summer of 2019, before the pandemic even started. The NSC officials were left wondering: Had the Chinese military been running viruses through humanized mouse models, to see which might be infectious to humans?

Believing they had uncovered important evidence in favor of the lab-leak hypothesis, the NSC investigators began reaching out to other agencies. That’s when the hammer came down. “We were dismissed,” said Anthony Ruggiero, the NSC’s senior director for counterproliferation and biodefense. “The response was very negative.”

Please follow the link above to read the entire article and the related article. There seems to be a lot more to Chinese gain-of-function research than previously noted. Hopefully the truth of what was going on will be  uncovered in the near future.

Is There A Cure?

The American Thinker posted an article today about a change in the severity of the Covid-19 outbreak in India.

The article reports:

India has been suffering horrendously from COVID of late, and the complete death toll may never be known. But in the capital city of Delhi, mass distribution of ivermectin began and the results have been stunning.

The article includes the following graph of Covid cases in India:

The article notes:

In poorer countries, where vaccines are unavailable to too expensive for mass use, they have been forced to resort to ivermectin. This has had the effect of conducting a mass experiment (albeit not with the double-blind, randomized, controlled conditions that “gold standard” medical research requires. Maybe that will enable the ivermectin deniers to maintain their posture of self-righteousness.

Note that the emergency use authorization under which the experimental mRNA vaccines have been approved for mass use would not be given if there were an accepted effective alternative therapy. Billions of dollars flowing into the hands of vaccine makers would not have happened.

Meanwhile on May 1st, Mountain Home Magazine posted an article about ivermectin.

The article reports:

An earlier Australian study, reported in the journal Antiviral Research, showed that Ivermectin, which blocked other RNA viruses like Dengue virus, yellow fever virus, Zika virus, West Nile virus, influenza, the Avian flu, and HIV1/AIDS in vitro, decimated the coronavirus in vitro, wiping out “essentially all viral material by 48 hours.” But more research was needed in human beings.

But by October Marik’s concerns were answered. The studies were well-designed university trials that showed amazing anti-COVID-19 activity at the normal doses used to treat parasites. Though small and endlessly diverse by large, Western big pharma “one-size-fits all” random control trials, the Ivermectin studies were a mosaic of hundreds of scientists and many thousands of patients in trials all over the world, all showing the same remarkable efficacy against all phases of COVID-19 no matter what dose or age or severity of the patient. “Penicillin never was randomized,” Marik says. “It just obviously worked. Ivermectin obviously works.”

Marik was astonished. “If you were to say, tell me the characteristics of a perfect drug to treat COVID-19, what would you ask for?” he said. “I think you would ask firstly for something that’s safe, that’s cheap, that’s readily available, and has anti-viral and anti-inflammatory properties. People would say, “That’s ridiculous. There could not possibly be a drug that has all of those characteristics. That’s just unreasonable. But we do have such a drug. The drug is called Ivermectin.”

If it was universally distributed at a dose that costs ten American cents in India and about the cost of a Big Mac in the United States, he said, Ivermectin would save countless lives, crush variants, eliminate the need for endless big pharma booster shots, and end the pandemic all over the world.

There were no effective, lifesaving, approved COVID-19 treatments that doctors had used to slow down or stop the coronavirus in the history of the pandemic, in any phase of the disease, except the one, corticosteroids, that Marik and company had discovered.

Now they had discovered another treatment, even more powerful, that could save the world.

Please follow the link to read the entire article in Mountain Home Magazine. It details the legal hoops a family had to go through to get the ivermectin treatment for their mother that saved her life. At some point we are going to have to look at whether or not there is a financial aspect of pushing the coronavirus vaccine rather than focusing on the treatment of the virus. I truly believe people have died due to conflicting financial interests.

Following The Money Trail

I have previously noted that Dr. Fauci has stated that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has not ever and does not now fund gain of function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Well, this is one of those statements that may not tell the whole story.

The U.K. Daily Mail reported the following yesterday (updated today):

Anthony Fauci has defended the United States’ ‘modest’ and ‘very respectable’ funding of the Wuhan laboratory – which is now at the center of speculation as a possible source of the COVID-19 virus.

Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), appeared before a Congressional budget committee on Tuesday.

He defended allocating $600,000 to a group called EcoHealth Alliance, which then paid the Wuhan Institute of Virology to study the risk that bat coronaviruses could infect humans.

Under the terms of the funding, the money could not be spend on ‘gain of function’ research – a controversial practice which explores how viruses mutate and become more transmissible or more dangerous.

Fauci said the research was essential, pointing out that the SARS outbreak in the early 2000s was eventually traced back to bats.

‘I would have been almost a dereliction of our duty if we didn’t study this, and the only way you can study these things is you’ve got to go where the action is,’ he said.

Considering the events of the past year or so, does anyone actually believe that the money was not spent on ‘gain of function’ research?

Please follow the link above to the article–it chronicles the misreporting during the past year about the coronavirus. All of us remember that anyone early in the year who suggested that the virus was the result of a laboratory leak was accused of presenting a conspiracy theory. It is interesting to see how much of what the mainstream media chose not to report in the past year has turned out to be true.

Slowly The Light Dawns

I am not a scientist or a doctor, but occasionally I have a grasp of the obvious. There are two very interesting articles about the coronavirus on the internet right now concerning the beginnings of the virus.

Scott Johnson posted the following at Power Line Blog today:

It will not come as a great shock to Power Line readers to learn, as the Wall Street Journal reports from previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence: “Intelligence on Sick Staff at Wuhan Lab Fuels Debate on Covid-19 Origin.” Subhead: “Report says researchers went to hospital in November 2019, shortly before confirmed outbreak; adds to calls for probe of whether virus escaped lab.”

With a New York Times-style byline listing three reporters, the story relates from previously undisclosed intelligence that the reporters themselves have not seen: “Three researchers from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick enough in November 2019 that they sought hospital care[.]”

Alright, it may shock you that U.S. intelligence has the information, but the substance of it will shock only the willfully blind, whose numbers should not be underestimated.

The Power Line Blog article continues:

The Journal story is laughable with its gingerly handling of the sensitivities involved. We don’t want to be too rash. However, we do have this from happier days:

David Asher, a former U.S. official who led a State Department task force on the origins of the virus for then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, told a Hudson Institute seminar in March that he doubted that the lab researchers became sick because of the ordinary flu.

“I’m very doubtful that three people in highly protected circumstances in a level three laboratory working on coronaviruses would all get sick with influenza that put them in the hospital or in severe conditions all in the same week, and it didn’t have anything to do with the coronavirus,” he said, adding that the researchers’ illness may represent “the first known cluster” of Covid-19 cases.

Long characterized by skeptics as a conspiracy theory, the hypothesis that the pandemic could have begun with a lab accident has attracted more interest from scientists who have complained about the lack of transparency by Chinese authorities or conclusive proof for the alternate hypothesis: that the virus was contracted by humans from a bat or other infected animal outside a lab.

Meanwhile The New York Post reported yesterday:

Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top adviser to President Biden on the coronavirus pandemic, said he’s “not convinced” the deadly virus developed naturally and has called for further investigations into where it emerged.

Fauci was asked during a Poynter event, “United Facts of America: A Festival of Fact-Checking,” earlier this month about whether he was confident that COVID-19 developed naturally.

“No actually. I am not convinced about that. I think we should continue to investigate what went on in China until we continue to find out to the best of our ability what happened,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, said, according to Fox News.

“Certainly, the people who investigated it say it likely was the emergence from an animal reservoir that then infected individuals, but it could have been something else, and we need to find that out. So, you know, that’s the reason why I said I’m perfectly in favor of any investigation that looks into the origin of the virus,” he added.

I guess the facts change (even about diseases) when you get a new President.

Cooperation Isn’t Always A Good Thing

Yesterday The Epoch Times posted an article which contains more questions than answers about the coronavirus.

The article reports:

The Chinese regime has said its controversial virology institute had no relationship with the military, but the institute worked with military leaders on a government-sponsored project for almost a decade.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) participated in a project, sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)—a regime-funded scientific research institution—from 2012 to 2018. The project was comprised of a team of five military and civil experts, who conducted research at WIV labs, military labs, and other civil labs leading to “the discovery of animal pathogens [biological agents that causes disease] in wild animals.”

The WIV is located in central China’s Wuhan City, the COVID-19 pandemic ground zero. As an advanced virology institution, the WIV has the only P4 lab—the highest biosafety level lab—in China and the biggest repository of bat coronaviruses in Asia. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, is “96 percent identical at the whole-genome level to a bat coronavirus,” Chinese researchers wrote in a research article (pdf) published in February 2020.

In recent months, the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry and Shi Zhengli, the WIV virologist nicknamed “Bat Woman” for her research on coronaviruses of bat origin, denied there is a connection between the WIV and military, and said that no WIV researchers were infected with COVID-19.

However, according to an investigation conducted by the U.S. State Department, “several researchers inside the WIV became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses.”

“The WIV has engaged in classified research, including laboratory animal experiments, on behalf of the Chinese military since at least 2017,” states a State Department fact sheet.

However, Shi denied that the WIV engaged in research with the Chinese military. “I don’t know of any military work at the WIV. That information is incorrect,” Shi said at a public webinar on March 23. Shi didn’t mention that the WIV was used by a Chinese military medical team in early 2020 for developing COVID-19 vaccines.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. What we do know is that the Chinese Communist government has not been forthcoming with information about the virus, how it is spread, or any information that would help in the development of a vaccine. It is entirely  possible that the coronavirus is a planned biological weapon that was released accidentally. I am not sure whether we will ever be able to confirm that or rule it out.

This Is The Goal

Freedom in America has been seriously limited over the past year because of the coronavirus. Some of the rules imposed have made sense, and some have not. Now we are hearing rumbles about a ‘vaccine passport,’ truly one of the worst ideas ever. Reminiscent of totalitarian governments saying, “Papers, please.” So what is the end game here? Well, someone accidentally gave that away.

Yesterday Red State reported the following:

Sometimes tyrants just come right out and say what they mean. Last night was one of those nights.

Chris Cuomo and Leana Wen appeared together to bat around an absolutely insane idea, and it shows just how far the left in this country are willing to go to exact their will. In this case, Wen says that vaccinations should be tied to “freedoms,” denying them to those who haven’t yet gotten the shot.

The article continues:

There’s a lot of irony in a “my body, my choice” proponent saying this. Remember, Wen is the former head of Planned Parenthood. Her entire schtick is that people should have such bodily autonomy that they can kill their own child if they want. Yet, now she wants to force people into lockdowns and punish them if they don’t inject their bodies with a specific substance. Makes sense, right?

It’s also scientifically illiterate. Those in age groups that are not at any real statistical risk of death have no reason to be prioritized for vaccination right now, and it would be tyrannical and asinine to force them to stay locked up until then. That also slows our path to herd immunity down.

And what about the tens of millions of people who have already had the virus in the United States? Science continues to show that anti-body immunity is effective and we’ve yet to see any large number of re-infections, even going back to those who had it over a year ago. The proof of that can be found in a complete lack of reporting of such incidents. The occasional anecdote will be shared, but that only drives the statistical case home harder. If immunity for those previously infected wasn’t long-lasting, we’d have seen huge spikes among those people by now.

I have had the virus and have no intention of getting the shot. I will be tested for antibodies to make sure that I am protected. However, that may not be enough for those pushing the vaccine. Already I am getting notices from places I would normally attend to discourage me from attending because I have not had the vaccine. That is truly discouraging to me. I wonder when I will be forced to wear a label that identifies me as not vaccinated.

 

Why Border Security Matters

Yesterday The Epoch Times posted an article about what is happening at our southern border.

The article reports:

A Border Patrol section chief reported that in recent days, more than 861 criminals have been encountered at the border, including 92 sex offenders and 63 gang members.

“Within the copious amounts of groups being encountered in” the Rio Grande Valley sector in Texas, “a Salvadoran man with a prior conviction for murder was discovered” along with 862 criminal aliens, Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings wrote on Twitter Saturday.

Hastings wrote that recently, agents encountered five large groups of illegal immigrant families, unaccompanied minors, and some adults—totalling 539.

The article concludes:

“The administration is doing the right thing because the law requires that we process unaccompanied minors,” Rep. Filemon Vela (D-Texas) said in a statement on March 24. “However, we are in the middle of a pandemic and our systems are being overwhelmed.”

Vela, citing Border Patrol data, said that 13 percent of unaccompanied minors encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border are under the age of 12, while the majority are aged 13 or older.

“One logical approach to this situation would be to return the older teenagers to their home country and provide funding for an effort supervised by the United Nations to properly care for those teenagers upon their return,” Vela said. “Then, once the pandemic is under control you could phase the program back in so that there would be some semblance of control over the process. I think that this would help relieve the current burden.”

At the same time, the White House has faced pushback from members of the media, who have decried a lack of transparency surrounding facilities being used to hold children and other illegal migrants.

People are dying because they believe they can get into America. Americans are locked down while our southern border is allowing people who may have the coronavirus to come into our country. This is an extreme form of cruelty and insanity.

Great News–But It Was Not An Easy Trip

Yesterday The U.K. Daily Mail reported that the Amish community in New Holland Borough, Pennsylvania, has achieved herd immunity to the coronavirus.

The article reports:

The administrator of a medical center in the heart of the Amish community in New Holland Borough estimates as many as 90 per cent of Plain families have since had at least one family member infected, and that this religious enclave achieved what no other community in the country has: herd immunity. 

‘So, you would think if COVID was as contagious as they say, it would go through like a tsunami; and it did,’ said Allen Hoover, an Old Order Mennonite and administrator of the Parochial Medical Center, a clinic that primarily serves the Plain community.

The article also notes:

By late April, when Pennsylvania was still under stay-at-home orders, the Plain community had resumed worship services, where they shared communion cups and holy kisses, a church greeting among believers.

Infections quickly followed.

‘It was bad here in the spring; one patient right after another,’ said Pam Cooper, a physician’s assistant at the Parochial Medical Center.

Just how deep into the community the infections spread is impossible to know. Hoover speculated that among those displaying symptoms, fewer than 10% consented to be tested.

In late April and early May, when Hoover said the virus ran unimpeded through the Plain community, the county’s positivity rate — the percent of positive tests — exceeded 20%, its highest of the pandemic, according to Covid Act Now, a nonprofit that provides local disease data. (Last year, the World Health Organization recommended governments use a rate of 5% or lower for two weeks as the threshold for reopening.)

If Hoover’s assessment is accurate, and if more Plain patients had been tested, the positivity rate could very well have been higher.

While so few were tested, many exhibited all the symptoms that have become so emblematic of the disease.

Cooper estimated the medical center saw — on average — nearly a dozen infections a day, or roughly 15% of the patients it serves daily.

The disease, as has been true in the wider community, knew no boundaries. Hoover became infected in November; at least one of his children was infected twice.

‘It really went through pretty quick, in a few weeks,’ Cooper said.

The number of patients ebbed in the summer before picking up again in the fall, although not at nearly the rate as was seen in the spring.

Cases now are rare. Hoover said Tuesday that the center hasn’t had a patient present with COVID-19 symptoms in roughly six weeks.

Please note how reluctant the medical types in the article are to admit that this community might actually be done with the coronavirus. The article also fails to note how many people died from the coronavirus during the time it was going through the community.

The Control Tightens

Hot Air posted an article today about something called the “Excelsior Pass” which will be making its debut in New York shortly.

The article reports:

We were warned at the beginning of the month that New York State was working to implement a system of immunity passports for people who wish to reenter most “normal” aspects of society. The state had clearly made up its mind already and had people working on the project because the “Excelsior Pass” is already in production and will be required for many social activities starting on April 2nd. Large venues in New York City are already using it, but most other “arts, entertainment and event venues” will require the pass shortly thereafter. People who have either been vaccinated or have received a negative COVID test in the previous few days will be able to obtain the pass, which can either be printed out on paper or displayed via an app on your phone. (New York Post)

The article also notes:

The first thing to point out here is that New York State has thus far vaccinated roughly half of its eligible citizens. That means that the other half of the state will now be shut out of nearly all nonessential activities unless they can find someplace to be tested and “verified” every few days. And if you think this only applies to things like basketball games, guess again. The state has specifically listed wedding receptions as events that will require a scanner at the door and an immunity passport to gain entrance. As of this morning, CNN is saying that 14.7 percent of adults in the United States are fully vaccinated at this point, so the disparity is vastly greater if a plan like this shows up at the national level.

While it won’t be part of the initial rollout, large retail chains and even grocery stores are reportedly studying how this system could be put into effect at their establishments. You can’t be barred from shopping for food and other essentials entirely, but some stores are considering setting up separate entrances for those with and without the passport or having some shopping hours restricted for only those who pass muster.

I’ve gone through the Post’s “explainer” of how the system operates and I don’t see any exceptions listed for people with comorbidities or other underlying conditions that could lead their doctors to recommend that they avoid the vaccine. So if you either choose not to be vaccinated or are medically disqualified from receiving it, at least in New York, you will officially be a second-class citizen on April 2nd. Without the pass, you will be part of a new class of pariahs who are barred from mingling with the new, upper class of people with immunity, or those who purchase a few days of “normalcy” by showing a negative COVID test result.

How long before this insanity begins in every state?

The Impact Of The Year Long Lockdowns

We recently celebrated the anniversary of the ‘two-weeks-to-flatten-the-curve lockdown’ that began last March. So what has been the impact of that year-long lockdown? There have been a number of articles written about the negative impact on school children, but there were also people who profited from the lockdown.

The American Thinker posted an article today about some of the people who profited from the lockdown.

The article reports:

A year after “15 days to flatten the curve” began our lockdowns, we have enough data to answer the classic question about lockdowns (which still exist a year later in many places, including much of California): cui bono?  (Who benefits?)

The answer is, as an individual, Jeff Bezos.  His stock in Amazon, the single biggest beneficiary of lockdowns, is worth billions of dollars more than before the lockdown.  As a group: educated professionals, able to work from home via Zoom and other internet-based services and able to afford home delivery.

…Small businesses, the bedrock base of the GOP, have been severely damaged and even bankrupted in mass numbers.  Government workers, the base of the Democrats, have not missed any paychecks for the most part.

Unionized teachers in public schools, members of the lower-income tier of educated professionals, still have not gone to work in schools in many places, as their unions scheme to use taxpayer relief dollars to pay them bonuses for trips to Hawaii and other goodies, while supermarket and other retail clerks have labored unceasingly, interacting with adult members of the public who are a far greater health risk than children.

The coronavirus lockdown undid a lot of the good things the Trump administration had done for lower-income Americans. Unfortunately the policies of the Biden administration do not favor people in the lower-income brackets. Some of the Biden administration policies that will have a negative impact on working Americans are higher gasoline prices, which impact everyone and result in higher prices across the board; a significant increase in the minimum wage,which will result in job losses and higher prices; and higher taxes on corporations, which will send jobs overseas and increase American unemployment. The major consequence of the Biden administration will be the shrinking of the middle class and a shrinking American economy. Under President Trump, the middle class shrank because people moved into the upper income classes. Under President Bide, the middle class will shrink because people moved into the lower income classes. This is not good for America.

Papers, Please

Yesterday Breitbart posted an article about a new restrictions on Britons traveling abroad.

The article reports:

From Monday, Britons travelling overseas will have to fill out a government form explaining why they are exempt from coronavirus lockdown restrictions and can leave the country. They must present the declaration for inspection when required, and if unable to could be fined £200.

It is currently illegal to travel abroad for holidays or non-essential purposes, and likely until at least May 17th.

Home Secretary Priti Patel announced on January 27th the introduction of the declaration form, and the measures will come into force on Monday, March 8th. Britain’s Department of Transport said on Friday that airline carriers will be checking the forms either at check-in or the departure gate, according to Sky News, and that those without the form or a valid reason listed on it could be denied leave to depart.

The three-page declaration form for international travel, found on the government website, states that “you must complete this form to confirm that you are outside of your home to travel abroad for a legally permitted reason.”

“Legally permitted reasons” for travelling overseas include work, volunteering or educational purposes, medical reasons, on compassionate grounds, and weddings, funerals, and other similar events.

The article notes:

Other governments have also been working on covid-related documentation for international travel, specifically the ‘vaccine passport’, which proves vaccination against the Chinese virus.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced on Monday that it was working on producing a vaccine passport, dubbing it the “Digital Green Pass”, which the Eurocrat said would “gradually enable [EU citizens] to move safely in the European Union or abroad – for work or tourism”.

Number 10 Downing Street indicated that it was talking with the EU about the vaccine passports, with a spokesman saying, according to The Telegraph: “We have said that we are looking at the issue of vaccine passports. As you can expect, DfT (the Department for Transport) will work and do speak to countries across the world in terms of how they may look to introduce passports.”

“Of course you can expect us to speak to the EU and other countries on how they may implement any similar sorts of policies,” he added.

The coronavirus is being used by governments all over the world to make us less free. We have treatments for the virus,and we have a vaccine. In spite of that, we are rapidly losing our freedom.

Just To Make You Aware…

There is a website called Budesonide Works. It explains a treatment for the coronavirus that is both effective and reasonably priced. The website includes the protocols for the use of the drug, proof of its effectiveness, and other useful information. I am including this website to make the point that we have all been snookered. The coronavirus would have been a lot less scary if it were known that there was an effective treatment for anyone who contracted it. The money paid to big pharma to develop vaccines might have been considerable less if there had been a reliable treatment. Fear is an excellent vehicle to control a population. Take a look at what has happened within the last year.

First of all, the lockdown was only supposed to last for two weeks (until we flattened the curve). What were the results of that lockdown? The roaring economy took a break, impacting the presidential campaign of President Trump. Small businesses were closed, many permanently, while big business–Amazon, Walmart, Lowes, etc., thrived. I know it is just an incredible coincidence that those business I just named are major contributors to Democrat party campaigns. Scientists will tell you that masks don’t work–the coronavirus particles are small enough to go between the fabric. However, a lot of people made a lot of money selling masks. Also, if this was really about the virus, why are we letting illegal aliens who have tested positive for the coronavirus to travel freely about the country (article here)?

Here are a few quotes from the article at Budesonide Works:

Quotes about Budesonide and Covid …

“…I am heartened that a relatively safe, widely available and well studied medicine such as an inhaled steroid [budesonide] could have an impact on the pressures we are experiencing during the pandemic.”
Professor Mona Bafadhel of Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford

“It’s enough for me to know that I’m not putting tubes in people’s throats, knowing that they might not ever get them out.”  
Andrea Malcolm, Critical Care Provider, Frio Regional Hospital 

“…but if we keep 60 percent of people out of hospital (using budesonide), then, well, that’s the kind of thing we throw a barbecue over.”
Dr. Dan Nicolau, Covid researcher, University of Oxford

“For days I thought I was going to pass. Within hours of taking the budesonide treatments from home, I knew I was going to pull through. Second day I felt better. Third day I felt much better. On the eighth day I felt fabulous. On the tenth day, I tested negative. And now I have been able to help others.”
Francisco Bejarano, Covid survivor

“If I had not seen the video of Dr. Bartlett‘s success and if I had not had the wherewithal to fight, to advocate, and finally to demand that I be prescribed the budesonide, I believe that I would have been in the hospital on a ventilator and probably would not be writing this letter.”
James Lloyd, Covid survivor

We have been played.

President Biden Needs To Watch His Words

President Biden, who ran on a promise to re-unite the country has not been doing a very good job of keeping that promise. Some of the remarks he has recently made are totally unacceptable. Townhall posted an article on March 4th about Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s response to some recent remarks by President Biden.

The article reports:

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has been taking heat from Democrats and progressives after he announced the state will be completely reopening and the mask mandate will be lifted. His actions have caused such a stir that it prompted criticism from President Joe Biden.

Biden, referring to both Texas and Mississippi, said lifting the COVID-19 lockdowns was “neanderthal thinking” and a “big mistake.”

Abbott was asked to respond to Biden’s comments during his interview on “Fox & Friends” on Thursday.

“Two things, Brian, first, obviously it is not the type of thing that a president should be saying, but second, he kind of said it on the worst day he could have. Because the same day he said that, in Texas, the Biden administration was releasing illegal immigrants into our communities who had COVID,” Abbott said.

“The Biden administration was spreading COVID in south Texas yesterday because of their lack of constraint of testing and quarantining, people come across the border illegally. The Biden administration was exposing Texas to COVID,” Abbott continued. “That is a neanderthal type approach dealing with the COVID situation.”

Americans are required to quarantine, wear masks, social distance, etc., while illegal aliens are allowed to freely roam about the country??!! There is something seriously wrong with that picture.

 

Seeding The Epidemic

America’s two-week lockdown to flatten the curve has lasted for more than a year now. Some states are now opening up. That’s good news. However, some federal policies are putting Americans at risk.

Yesterday NBC News reporting the following:

Miriam Izaguirre, a 35-year-old asylum-seeker from Honduras, crossed the Rio Grande at dawn Monday with her young son and turned herself in to the authorities.

A few hours later she was released, and the first thing she did was take a rapid test for Covid-19 at the Brownsville bus station. They told her her test came out positive.

“Right now we were tested for Covid and they separated about eight of us because we were positive,” she told Noticias Telemundo Investiga. “We are waiting right now.” She was waiting to catch a bus to Houston.

Other migrant families who also said they had tested positive were waiting to go to other destinations: North Carolina, Maryland and New Jersey.

The city of Brownsville administers these rapid tests at the bus station, after migrant families are released by the Border Patrol. A spokesperson for Brownsville confirmed that, since they began doing these tests Jan. 25, 108 migrants have tested positive for Covid-19, which is 6.3 percent of those who took the test.

In response to Noticias Telemundo Investiga, a spokesperson for the city said in an email that Brownsville does not have the authority to retain these migrants who plan to travel to dozens of cities throughout the country. The city assured that municipal workers recommend to those who test positive to keep quarantine as indicated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The city employees suggest to families they go to nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and nonprofits in the the border area who can take them in and isolate them in order to keep quarantine.

This is ridiculous. If the people testing positive were Americans, they would be quarantined. This ridiculous policy will spread the coronavirus throughout the nation. What insanity is this?

Learning From Statistics

The two-week lockdown of the economy to flatten the curve of the coronavirus has now lasted almost a year. In some cases when the lockdown was lifted, the cases spiked, and the lockdown was reinstated. However, in other cases, when the lockdown ended quickly, there was no spike in the number of cases.

Yesterday The Federalist posted an article about the success of Florida in dealing with the coronavirus crisis. The article contains a number of graphs, so I strongly suggest you follow the link to read the entire article.

Here are a few highlights from the article:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis started lifting lockdown restrictions back in May, allowing stores and restaurants to begin reopening in all but three counties in South Florida. The stay-at-home order also ended at the beginning of May. Unlike New York and California, Florida never tried to bar people from going to religious services.

At the end of September, DeSantis lifted all remaining statewide COVID-19 restrictions. Traveling back and forth from COVID-conscientious Northern Virginia to Florida, I could notice a difference. In Florida, kids were going to school, wedding parties were throwing receptions, young people were studying at coffee shops, and families were taking Christmas pictures downtown on the square.

…Since April, Florida’s unemployment rate has remained better than New York’s and California’s.

Schools in Florida are open too, and have been since August. My brother goes to one of them. I’ve seen kids playing at recess.

Amid all this, Florida ranks 33rd in pediatric cases per capita, better than California, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The state of New York has not released its numbers on pediatric cases.

…Not only is Florida’s economy enduring the effects of COVID-19 much better than locked-down states, its death rates are below the national average. At the beginning of February, the Heritage Foundation reported that Florida’s death rate was 123.3 per 100,000 residents — a tragic number, but below the national average of 132 people per 100,000.

Florida’s experience is consistent with epidemiological experience and research, as the infectious disease experts who authored the Great Barrington Declaration pointed out last October: “Basic epidemiological theory indicates that lockdowns do not reduce the total number of cases in the long run and have never in history led to the eradication of a disease.  At best, lockdowns delay the increase of cases for a finite period and at great cost. ”

This is also consistent with recent, peer-reviewed research done on COVID spread in different countries that finds lockdowns and their severity have no ultimate effect. Numerous other recent studies make this conclusion.

Florida was also below the national average rise in total deaths per capita, which would include deaths caused by lockdowns in other states. As early as July, CDC Director Robert Redfield said of young people: “We’re seeing, sadly, far greater suicides now than we are deaths from COVID.”

Nationally, there was a 16.9 percent increase in total deaths, regardless of cause. Florida’s increase was lower at 14.8 percent. Meanwhile, New York saw a 30.1 percent spike and California’s deaths increased by 18.6 percent.

If the states are considered laboratories to experiment with programs to see if they are successful, the rest of the nation should be following the example of Florida. That would be ‘following the science’ or at least ‘following the statistics.’

This Really Does Not Seem Smart

Every day the news tells us how many people are hospitalized or have died from the coronavirus. We are told to wear masks, social distance, stay home, avoid family gatherings, get the vaccine, and generally avoid anything that may involve having fun. Small businesses are being destroyed as rich corporations prosper. Restaurants are going out of business. Some small businesses will never reopen. With all of this going on, we should at least be able to expect some common sense from our government. Nope.

Yesterday Breitbart reported the following:

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is not requiring all border crossers to get tested for the Chinese coronavirus before releasing them into the United States, the agency confirmed to Breitbart News.

A DHS spokesperson responded to a question from Breitbart News about whether President Joe Biden supported mandatory coronavirus testing for border crossers released into the U.S. interior.

“As Customs and Border Protection always has, it adjusts resources as needed to meet the demand at the border and regularly screens individuals for signs of health issues when they are encountered, including COVID-19,” the spokesperson told Breitbart News. “Anyone who shows signs of illness receives the appropriate medical treatment.”

The response confirms that untested border crossers are continuing to be released into the U.S. interior as long as they are not exhibiting coronavirus symptoms.

On the other hand, DHS officials have said that migrants enrolled in the now-defunct Remain in Mexico program, set to be released into the U.S. interior this month, will have to undergo coronavirus testing. Internal communications reviewed by Breitbart News, though, show no mentions of this requirement.

“Individuals processed through this program will be tested for COVID-19 before entering the United States,” the administration confirmed.

Most border crossers apprehended and released at the southern border also appear to enjoy a less stringent testing standard that even foreign travelers to the U.S. experience.

Shortly after he was inaugurated, President Joe Biden signed an executive order requiring foreign travelers to the U.S. “to the extent feasible” to produce a negative test for the coronavirus prior to entry and to either isolate or quarantine themselves for several days after they arrive.

This week, Breitbart News reported that 25,600 migrants enrolled in the Remain in Mexico program are to be released into communities in El Paso and Brownsville, Texas, and San Diego, California. The mass release effort comes after Biden ended the program despite its effectiveness in drastically reducing asylum fraud.

If we are currently in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic as the government continually tells us, these policies not only do not make sense, they put Americans at risk.

The Real Numbers From New York

The New York Post posted an article today about the actual number of coronavirus deaths in nursing homes in the state.

The article reports:

The state Department of Health quietly updated its chart of nursing-home deaths to include those who died at hospitals as well as in the facilities. The update added more than 4,000 deaths to the state tally as of Thursday.

The Upper East Side Rehabilitation and Nursing Center had 29 deaths at the home, and another 51 in a hospital.

Information for the Bronxcare Special Care Center had previously showed only eight COVID-19 deaths. But there were 20 additional deaths in the hospital, according to the new data.

At the Boropark Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare, an additional 41 people died in the hospital on top of 32 at the home.

The article notes:

The state Department of Health had refused for months to provide the information until it was forced to by a judge Thursday.

Acting Albany Supreme Court Justice Kimberly O’Connor blasted the DOH for claiming it could not produce the data, and ordered the stats released within five days. The Empire Center for Public Policy had sought the information under a Freedom of Information Law request.

State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker finally released the total number of nursing home deaths on Jan. 28, putting the figure at 12,743 with the hospital fatalities, instead of 8,740. The disclosure came after Attorney General Letitia James produced a damning report saying the number of deaths could be as much as 50 percent higher than officials claimed.

The state has been criticized for early directives that mandated ill-equipped and understaffed nursing homes accept COVID-19 patients, knowing the elderly population was most at risk for the virus.

It is obscene that the courts had to be called into action to get this data. The number of nursing home deaths in New York was covered up to protect the reputation of Governor Cuomo. Now the facts are out, and it is up to the residents of the state to decide in the next election whether he will remain Governor. It is criminal that with a hospital ship, a hospital set up in Central Park, and the Javits Center equipped to handle coronavirus patients, patients were sent into nursing homes where the most vulnerable lived.