Right Wing Granny

News behind the news. This picture is me (white spot) standing on the bridge connecting European and North American tectonic plates. It is located in the Reykjanes area of Iceland. By-the-way, this is a color picture.

Right Wing Granny

It’s Finally Over!

On Monday, Townhall reported that after the Easter Egg Roll, President Biden signed the bill ending the Covid national emergency.

The article reports:

“On Monday, April 10, 2023, the President signed into law: H.J.Res. 7, which terminates the national emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the White House released in a memo.

…Originally Biden planned to officially end the emergency in May after saying months ago the pandemic was over. Republicans on Capitol Hill forced his hand to do it now by authoring H.J. Res. 7.

The article notes:

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice is still fighting in federal court to reimplement mask mandates on public transportation and maintain the government’s pandemic power.  

On April 18, 2022 U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle struck down President Joe Biden’s mask mandate for air and rail transportation. The Department of Justice quickly appealed the decision after a request from the Centers for Disease Control. 

Nearly a year later, federal attorneys are still working to force masking on transportation.

DOJ continues this fight despite President Joe Biden declaring the pandemic is over and after a recent admission from White House COVID Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha that masks don’t work to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

The Washington swamp does not release power easily.

An Organization That Needs To Be Dissolved

On Wednesday, The Washington Examiner posted an article about the National Education Association’s Representative Assembly’s annual meeting in Chicago.

The article reports:

The annual meeting for the nation’s largest teachers union included votes calling for universal mask and vaccine mandates , along with further commitments to advance racial equity in the classroom.

Held this week in Chicago, the National Education Association’s Representative Assembly’s annual meeting for its 6,000 delegates featured speeches by Vice President Kamala Harris and a remote address by President Joe Biden .

The agenda for the union’s assembly contains numerous votes calling for the union to take a range of progressive and liberal positions, including a measure calling for the support of “a national policy of mandatory masking and COVID vaccines in schools.”

You can’t convince me that this organization actually has the best interests of our children at heart.

The article continues:

“More than 67 percent of the U.S. live in areas with medium or high COVID-19 community level, according to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky,” the measure says. “Mandatory masking, vaccines, and access to virtual education are necessary policy measures to reduce COVID danger.”

Other provisions in the agenda included votes denouncing the Supreme Court’s ruling last month overturning Roe v. Wade while calling for the court to be expanded, the abolition of the Senate filibuster, and the impeachment of the “justices who went against their sworn testimony to not overturn Roe v. Wade.

“The three Trump appointed Supreme Court justices constitute a far right-wing coup inside the nation’s highest judicial body,” the measure says. “The new civil rights movement must defeat these attacks through organizing mass actions to defend women and all Americans from this attack.”

The article also reports:

In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Stoops (Terry Stoops, the director of the Center for Effective Education at the North Carolina-based John Locke Foundation) said it was “unsurprising that the NEA tried to conceal their meeting documents,” noting that “they contain embarrassingly little about overcoming learning loss sustained by children attending schools that adhered to masking and reopening recommendations championed by NEA leaders during the pandemic.”

“NEA leaders claim that they remain focused on the needs of public school children and educators,” Stoops said. “Instead, meeting documents show that the NEA is nothing more than a pathetic assemblage of social justice warriors struggling to be relevant in an era of unprecedented parental empowerment.”

While it is not known which of the many provisions were adopted by the NEA assembly, the union did issue a press release Monday touting its approval of a new policy to “ensure safe, just, and equitable schools” and warning that the presence of law enforcement in schools contributed to excessive policing of students, Ed Week reported .

In a press release, the union said the NEA will “adopt a restorative justice philosophy to create a school climate that rejects the criminalization and policing of students” and “provide training and support for culturally competent instruction.”

“Cultural competency,” when used in educational settings, is a phrase that has at times been linked to critical race theory, an academic theory that posits U.S. institutions and culture are systemically racist and must be dismantled through anti-racism.

Just for the record, anti-racism is simply racism directed against white people. This is not a group that is furthering the education or critical thinking skills of the children of America.

To Mask Or Not To Mask

On Tuesday, Just the News reported that the Biden administration intends to appeal the court decision that mask mandates were unconstitutional. The statement is shrouded in ‘wiggle words,’ but that is the general direction the administration is going.

The article reports:

The Department of Justice on Tuesday announced that if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determines masks to be necessary, it will appeal the Florida judge’s decision striking down the Biden administration’s COVID-19 mask mandate on transportation.

So the administration will blame the CDC if it decides to appeal.

Scott Johnson at Power Line Blog also posted an article about mask mandates on Thursday.

The article at Power Line Blog notes:

Speaking of maskaholism, former New York Times science writer John Tierney reviews the record in the outstanding City Journal column “Maskaholics.” Tierney includes the graph below with his column. It was created by data analyst Ian Miller. Tierney comments that the graph should be required viewing for everyone still wearing a mask and every public official or journalist who still insists that mask mandates “control the spread[,]” such as Mr. Playbook above.

Tierney explains:

The graph tracks the results of a natural experiment that occurred nationwide during the pandemic. Eleven states never mandated masks, while the other 39 states enforced mandates. The mandates typically began early in the pandemic in 2020 and remained until at least the summer of 2021, with some extending into 2022. The black line on the graph shows the weekly rate of Covid cases in all the states with mask mandates that week, while the orange line shows the rate in all the states without mandates.

As you can see from the lines’ similar trajectories, the mask mandates hardly controlled the virus. By the time the mandates were introduced in New York and other states in the spring of 2020 (at the left side of the graph), infections had already been declining in those states, and the mandates didn’t prevent a surge later that year, when cases rose and fell in nearly identical trajectories regardless of states’ mask policies. The pandemic’s second year saw slight deviations in both directions, but those reflected the seasonality of the virus and the geography of mask mandates, which remained more common in northern states. Cases were higher in the non-mandate states last summer, when the seasonal surge in the South disproportionately hit Republican states without mandates, but those states went on to have fewer cases during the winter, when the seasonal surge in the North hit more Democratic states with mandates.

If you add up all the numbers on those two lines, you find that the mask mandates made zero difference. The cumulative rate of infection over the course of the pandemic was about 24 percent in the mandate states as well as in the non-mandate states. Their cumulative rates of Covid mortality were virtually identical, too (in fact, there were slightly more deaths per capita in the states with mask mandates).

Please follow the links to both articles for further information and insight into the significance of masks.

More Good News

Last night The Conservative Treehouse reported the following:

Following a federal judge vacating the federal mask mandate on transportation, the TSA responded, “TSA (Transportation Security Administration) will not enforce its Security Directives and Emergency Amendment requiring mask use on public transportation and transportation hubs at this time.”

Within hours, various airlines began notifying customers the mask mandate is gone:

♦ American Airlines – “In accordance with the Transportation Security Administration no longer enforcing the federal face mask mandate, face masks will no longer be required for our customers and team members at U.S. airports and on domestic flights.” (link)

♦ Southwest Airlines – “As a result of this development, effectively immediately, Southwest Employees and Customers will be able to choose whether they would like to wear a mask, and we encourage individuals to make the best decision to support their personal wellbeing.” (link)

♦ Delta Airlines – “Effective immediately, masks are optional for all airport employees, crew members and customers inside U.S. airports and on board all aircraft domestically, as well as on most international flights.” (link)

♦ Alaska Airlines – “Effective immediately, all Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air guests and employees have the option to wear a mask while traveling in the U.S. and at work. Masks are no longer required for travel and will be optional.” (link)

United Airlines – No press release. “Masks are no longer required on domestic flights, select international flights (dependent upon the arrival country’s requirements) or at U.S. airports. More comfortable keeping yours on? Go right ahead… the choice is yours (you look dino-mite either way)!” ~Twitter

The article concludes:

Additionally, with all the major carriers and the TSA making official statements, it would be almost impossible to reinstate the mask mandate now.

It’s over.

Now let’s see a court ruling on vaccine mandates. They also need to end.

Two More Weeks Of Masks For Public Transportation

The government does not like to give up control–even when that control is not based on science. To review a few basic facts–the corona virus is smaller than the spaces in the cloth mask–it easily gets through. Wearing a mask to protect you from Covid is like putting up a chain-link fence to protect you from mosquitoes. There is also the fact that wearing a mask has a negative impact on your immune system (my husband and I were recently told this by a pulmonary specialist). The pulmonary specialist is expecting a spike in pneumonia when the masks are permanently gone. At any rate, the Biden administration has extended the requirement for masks on public transportation for two weeks.

On April 13th, NewsMax reported:

The Biden administration will extend for two weeks the nationwide mask requirement for public transit as it monitors an uptick in COVID-19 cases, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was set to extend the order, which was to expire on April 18, by two weeks to monitor for any observable increase in severe virus outcomes as cases rise in parts of the country. The move was being made out of abundance of caution, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to preview the CDC’s action.

When the Transportation Security Administration, which enforces the rule for planes, buses, trains and transit hubs, extended the requirement last month, it said the CDC had been hoping to roll out a more flexible masking strategy that would have replaced the nationwide requirement. 

Meanwhile, on April 12th, Hot Air reported:

We’re still waiting to find out if President Joe Biden will allow the mask mandate for public travel to expire on April 18th or if he will extend it yet again. While he’s making his decision, he might want to take a peek at a new Axios/Ipsos poll that was just released this week. They asked Americans a variety of questions about how serious the threat from COVID was at this point and if the pandemic was still a major driving concern. While it may come as a great surprise to some people, particularly inside the White House and among cable news hosts, people really aren’t seeing this as a crisis requiring any extravagant government intervention at this point. In fact, it sounds like a large majority of Americans crossing party lines and every other demographic are done with the pandemic. (Daily Caller)

Just 9% of Americans believe COVID-19 is a serious crisis, signaling Americans are ready to move past the pandemic, according to a new Axios/Ipsos poll released Tuesday.

The poll asked Republicans and Democrats to characterize the state of the coronavirus in the U.S. Only 16% of Democrats called it a “serious crisis” compared to just 3% of Republicans. Sixty-six percent of Republicans called it a “problem, but manageable,” compared to 81% of Democrats. Overall, 73% of those polled said it was a “problem, but manageable.”

Meanwhile, 31% of Republicans said it was “not a problem at all” while just three percent of Democrats said the same, according to the poll.

The article at Hot Air also notes:

Another interesting recent finding mentioned in the linked report is the reality that the states which took a more “eased” approach to masking and other mandates had better outcomes than those with the harshest restrictions in terms of deaths, hospitalizations, and all the rest. The lowest grades were given to blue states such as New York, New Jersey and California. Utah, Vermont and Nebraska fared the best.

I don’t know exactly how Covid became political, but it is becoming obvious that very few of the decisions made in the last two years were based on science. Unfortunately, I expect that trend to continue.

When Republicans Go Bad

On Tuesday I posted an article about Senator Rand Paul’s amendment that would end the position of director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a position Dr. Fauci has held for more than thirty years. Unfortunately, common sense does not often make appearances in the Senate. Senator Paul’s amendment was to replace that one position with three new institutes, each with its own director. The institutes would be a National Institute of Allergic Diseases, a National Institute of Infectious Diseases, and a National Institute of Immunologic Diseases. Replacing one all-powerful agency with three less powerful agencies would be a step toward bringing America back to where it began–government by the people–not by un-elected bureaucrats.

On Tuesday, The Daily Wire reported the following:

Six Republican senators voted against an amendment Tuesday that would eliminate the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) position, which is held by Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Senators voted on Kentucky Republican Rand Paul’s amendment to replace the NIAID with three separate national research institutes on Tuesday morning in Washington, D.C.

Republican Senators Richard Burr of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, and Jerry Moran of Kansas each voted against the amendment.

The senators did not immediately respond to The Daily Wire’s requests for comment.

“We’ve learned a lot over the past two years, but one lesson in particular is that no one person should be deemed ‘dictator-in-chief,’” said Paul when he introduced the amendment Monday, adding, “No one person should have unilateral authority to make decisions for millions of Americans.”

The article concludes:

The Senate passed a resolution, led by Paul, to repeal the mask mandate for public transportation on Tuesday.

While Democrats voted in favor of Paul’s resolution, according to The Daily Caller, Romney was the only Republican to vote against it.

Paul had also promised last week to force a vote in mid-March ending “unscientific” mask mandates on planes and public transportation.

“Apparently government doesn’t want to relinquish its power and plans to extend the mask mandate on planes & public transportation,” tweeted the Republican senator. “Not on my watch! I’ll be forcing a vote next week to end this unscientific mandate.”

Please remember these votes when voting in the mid-term election.

Changing The Rules In The Shadow Of The Upcoming November Election

The recent election of Governor Youngkin in Virginia sent shock waves through the Democrat party. It was an election where parents voted to regain control of their children’s education and their children’s health issues. We have elections coming up in November, and the Democrats do not want the Virginia story repeated (even in Virginia).

On Wednesday, The Conservative Review reported:

A bipartisan bill to make masks optional in all of Virginia’s K-12 schools passed Wednesday with three Democrats joining Republicans to codify GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive order. The bill now heads to the state House of Delegates, where Republicans have the majority, and it is expected to pass.

The Senate voted 21 to 17 in favor of the bill which requires schools to be open for in-person learning and gives parents the right to decide if their children will wear masks in school. Youngkin celebrated the bill’s passing in a statement.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday The Daily Wire reported the following action by Democrats in the Virginia legislature:

When Democrats regained control of the Virginia House of Delegates in November 2019, one of the first things they did was pass a law that says school officials do not have to report misdemeanor crimes – specifically singling out “sexual assaults” – to law enforcement. Two years later, with Republicans back in control of that chamber, Democrats do not support its repeal.

Former Democratic Governor Ralph Northam signed off on the law in February 2020. Schools are currently not required to report to police misdemeanors related to instances of sexual battery, assault, violent threats, stalking, drug and alcohol violations, and more.

The article at The Daily Wire notes that some legislators feel that reporting these crimes to the police creates a “school-to-prison pipeline” for some children. While I agree that the penalty for an alcohol violation should be different from the penalty for a sexual assault, I don’t see a problem with reporting both to the local authorities. I sexual assaults are happening in our schools, the problem is not the “school-to-prison pipeline”, it is the bad behavior of the students.

The Daily Wire also notes:

In an interview with The Daily Wire, Republican Delegate John Avoli, a former Virginia public high school principal, said “sexual battery needs to be reported.”

“If you’re a 17-year-old and you assault someone, the cops pick you up and they charge you. But you do this in a school building, and we don’t charge you. It doesn’t make sense to me. Think about it as a parent. If your daughter is a freshman in high school and she’s assaulted by someone, do you mean I don’t report that? Are you kidding me?” he said.

The mid-term elections are going to be very interesting this year.

Good News About Covid

On Saturday, Just the News posted an article about the declining number of Covid cases in American states.

The article reports:

The sharp upward trajectory of cases in this country appears to have turned in mid-July and has been falling ever since. At that time, the daily average case numbers stood around 800,000; they have since fallen to just over 300,000.

Deaths attributed to the virus are continuing to rise; a lag between case rates and deaths from the virus has generally been observed throughout the pandemic.

Some states are following the encouraging news by lifting restrictions such as mask mandates and event bans.

Vaccination rates in the country largely stalled last year and have been increasing only at a very slow rate since then. Less than a third of the U.S. has received a booster shot against the virus.

Covid is a virus. Vaccines against viruses are very tricky. Viruses mutate. We are seeing a combination of these factors work together to bring the number or Covid cases under control. It seems as if Covid may be wandering down the path that previous viruses have taken.

The Courts Are Standing Up For The Rights Of Americans

On Monday, The Daily Wire reported that Judge Thomas Rademaker, a New York state Supreme Court judge, Monday struck down Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul’s mask mandate for schools and public locations.

The article reports:

“There can be no question that every person in this State wishes, wants and prays that this era of COVID ends soon and they will surely do their part to see that is accomplished,” Judge Thomas Rademaker said in the ruling. “However, enacting any laws to this end is entrusted solely to the State Legislature. While the intentions of Commissioner Bassett and Governor Hochul appear to be well aimed squarely at doing what they believe is right to protect the citizens of New York State, they must take their case to the State Legislature.”

Hochul’s mask mandate was “violative of the State Administrative Procedure Act as promulgated and enacted and therefore null, void, and unenforceable as a matter of law,” the judge wrote, adding that it was also “violative of the Public Health Law as promulgated and enacted and therefore null, void, and unenforceable as a matter of law.”

Hochul responded by saying  in a statement that her “responsibility as Governor is to protect New Yorkers throughout this public health crisis” and claiming that her mask mandate would “help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and save lives.”

There is no scientific evidence that masks prevent the spread of the coronavirus or save lives. One scientist has compared wearing a cloth mask to protect from the coronavirus to putting up a chain-link fence to keep out mosquitoes. It’s time that we get back to the actual process of making laws that is enshrined in our Constitution–laws are made by legislative bodies elected by the citizens and held accountable by the voters.

More Politics Inside The Department Of Justice

On Sunday, Zero Hedge reported that the Department of Justice has stated that it will not withdraw a controversial memo used to activate the FBI Counterterrorism Division to investigate parents voicing their opposition to a variety of topics – primarily mask and vaccine mandates, and teaching critical race theory. Very questionable people are streaming across our southern border, and the Department of Justice is worried about parents who oppose mask and vaccine mandates and critical race theory. That is not only unbelievable–it’s dangerous to the security of our nation.

The article reports:

This week, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) revealed the pre-Christmas response – stating:

“[I]n December we asked why the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division was getting involved in parents expressing their concerns at school board meetings. Now, just to be crystal clear, there’s no excuse for real threats or acts of violence at school board meetings, but if there are such threats, these should be handled at the local level and the Attorney General should withdraw his memo that started this whole thing.

“Well, a couple days before Christmas, the Justice Department responded to us with just a one-page letter.

“In that letter, DOJ had nothing to say about why the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division was involved in local school-board matters. DOJ just said, ‘We’re not going to withdraw the memo.’ So, the Feds may be keeping track of school board meetings—even if it creates a horrible chilling effect. And, of course the FBI looking over your shoulder would have a chilling effect. Next week the Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on domestic terrorism. I hope we’re going to be focusing on the serious threats facing our country—and I hope no one thinks the focus is on our nation’s parents.”

The article also notes:

According to a public statement by Grassley regarding the one-page letter:

“The Department of Justice owes the American people a better answer than just a one-page letter that says nothing about why the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division is involved in local school-board matters. Now more than ever, parents should be their kids’ strongest and best advocates. They have the God-given right to do so. And the Justice Department ought to be doing everything it can to protect that right, not scare them out of exercising that right. Attorney General Garland should withdraw his memo. And he should take Congress’s oversight, and concern for the rights of parents, more seriously.”

Saturday night I watched the movie “The Lives of Others.” It is a foreign film with subtitles about life in East Germany under the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police. The movie was made in 2006. It is on Amazon Prime. If you haven’t yet seen it, I strongly recommend it–it gives a glance into what life is like when justice is political.

Change Is Coming

I am not yet ready to go on the record to say that Republicans will sweep the House and the Senate next year. I have no idea how well the election will be run and what rules will be followed. However, I can say that if I were a Democrat, I would be worried.

On Monday, Hot Air posted an article about a run-off school board election in Houston, Texas.

The article reports:

It’s a start. In run-off elections for Houston ISD board trustees, two conservatives defeated their incumbent Democrat opponents. National politics look to have influenced voters as they rejected hot button issues like Critical Race Theory and face mask mandates in Houston public schools. Both conservative candidates used the issues on the campaign trail.

There has not been conservative representation on the HISD school board since 2019. It is a nine-member board so clearly, two conservatives are in the minority. It is good news to simply have them on the board. This looks to be another bad sign for Democrats as the midterm elections next November loom in the background. Frustrated voters are not only in blue states like Virginia but also in blue cities like Houston. HISD is the largest public school system in Texas and one of the largest in the United States. It is crucial for conservatives to have representation on the school board.

The elections are not supposed to be partisan but everyone knows which party the candidates are associated with during the campaigns. Local Democrats, including County Judge Lina Hidalgo, endorsed candidates in the run-off elections. These races are like the mayor’s race or the county judge’s race – they, too, are supposed to be non-partisan but party affiliations are clear. Typically the HISD trustee run-off elections don’t get a large turn-out and that was the case Saturday. One Republican won by less than 100 votes.

This is a wake-up call to parents out there–turnout matters. The race was decided by less than 100 votes. If you care about your children’s education, please get involved. Your involvement can make a difference in the education of your child and other children in your town or city.

The article concludes:

School board elections aren’t exciting, as a rule. Now, however, with the controversy of CRT in the forefront and pandemic mandates, many parents and grandparents are getting involved. The importance of school board decisions is no longer being overlooked. If a deep blue city like Houston can see those results, it bodes well for other places, too. It’s a start.

Common Sense Arrives In New York

On Monday, The New York Post reported that Nassau County (NY) Executive-elect Bruce Blakeman will not be enforcing Governor Kathy Hochul’s new statewide mask-or-vaccine mandate when he takes office on January 1.

The article reports:

“Come January 1st, my administration will move Nassau forward with a common sense approach that acknowledges the facts, science and progress made by our residents while also protecting businesses and jobs from any further damage created by government mandates,” Blakeman, a Republican, said in a statement on Monday.

“Nassau County is not in crisis, and should not be painted with the same broad brush as the rest of the state. Ninety-seven percent of adults in Nassau County have received at least their first dose of the vaccine and Nassau hospitals have adequate capacity to handle existing demand.”

A spokesperson for outgoing Democratic County Executive Laura Curran said the county will “continue responding to complaints” until she’s out of office on Dec. 31.

On Monday, WND posted an article about the effectiveness of the measures that countries and states have taken against the Covid virus.

The article at WND states:

A former adviser to the World Health Organization and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has compiled a list of more than 400 studies showing that COVID-19 lockdowns, shelter-in-place policies, school closures, masks and mask mandates have failed to curb virus transmission or reduce deaths.

“These restrictive policies were ineffective and devastating failures, causing immense harm especially to the poorer and vulnerable within societies,” wrote Dr. Paul Alexander for the Brownstone Institute in an article in which he lists the studies.

Alexander said that while nearly all governments have attempted compulsory measures to control the virus, the research shows that no government can claim they have had a “discernible impact” on “virus trajectories.”

A study published in January 2021, for example, reported “in the framework of this analysis, there is no evidence that more restrictive nonpharmaceutical interventions (‘lockdowns’) contributed substantially to bending the curve of new cases in England, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, or the United States in early 2020.”

“We’ve known this for a very long time now,” Alexander said, “but governments continue to double down, causing misery upon people with ramifications that will likely take decades or more to repair.”

Obviously, the measures being pushed in New York, California, and some other states are not based on the current information. It is good to see some of our elected officials reacting to the science rather than using the virus as an opportunity to grab more governmental power.

Do Harsh Coronavirus Measures Work?

Fox News posted an article today that included the statistics on coronavirus cases in California and Florida. California has mask mandates and other mandates impacting the freedom of the unvaccinated. Florida has no mask mandates and has pretty much been open since the original ‘two weeks to slow the spread.’

The article reports:

Watcher (Dr. Bob Wachter, chair of the medical department at the University of California-San Francisco) added that with low booster shot rates and waning immunity, “the end result is that we’ve plateaued in our improvements, both nationally and in California, and it’s likely we’ll soon see some significant upticks.”

“California has done very well over the past few months, but we still have too many unvaccinated people,” he added. “People are spending more time inside and being more active, and masking is going down.”

Florida, meanwhile, hit another new benchmark last week. The first hospital in the state to treat a COVID patient last year, Doctor’s Hospital, announced that for the first time since the pandemic, it has no virus patients in its care.

“This is great news! For two weeks and counting, Florida has had the lowest rate of new COVID-19 cases in the entire country – with no mandates, vaccine passports, or lockdowns. Overall, COVID hospitalizations have been declining for more than 70 days straight, and we’re at an all time low in terms of the number of COVID patients hospitalized statewide,” Gov. Ron DeSantis’ press secretary, Christina Pushaw, told Fox News on Monday when asked for comment about Doctor’s Hospital in Sarasota.

The article also notes:

Cases in California are no longer falling, with the rate increasing to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s red “high” level of virus transmission stemming from the delta variant, the outlet reported.

But Southern states such as Texas and Florida – where state leaders do not enforce face mask policies or support other strict mandates – are in the CDC’s orange “substantial” transmission level.

California’s vaccination rate is higher than states such as Texas and Florida, but that still hasn’t stopped the outbreaks. Sixty-two percent of California’s total population is fully vaccinated, while Florida reports 60% and Texas 54%.

Maybe it’s time to rethink the ‘science.’

 

The Numbers Tell The Story

Any parent can tell you that young children are very efficient spreaders of disease. It doesn’t matter what disease–they will spread it. It has to do with the fact that they have not yet learned the concept of personal space or some of the basic health rules. There is a reason most of the childhood acquired diseases are acquired in childhood. However, even though the coronavirus does not seem to be focused on the younger Americans, there are those who insist on putting masks on them. There are a number of reasons why that is a bad idea, but let’s just look at the science.

Yesterday Townhall reported the following:

NEW PEDIATRIC CASES:

New COVID-19 cases for children ages 5-17 – the vast majority of the school-aged population – have decreased 79% in the month of September, in the 54 Florida counties where school districts have no masking policy or are following state law by honoring the parental opt-out rule.

For comparison, COVID-19 cases for children 5-17 in the 13 districts that imposed forced-masking in schools have decreased 77%, on average.
 
POSITIVITY RATES:

The 54 districts with opt-outs or no mask policy have seen an average decrease of 65% in positivity from week ending Aug. 19 (when school started) to the week ending Sep. 30.

The 13 districts that broke the law to impose forced-masking have seen an average decrease of 67%.
 
That is to say, the data for this school year to date shows no impact of forced masking in schools on pediatric COVID-19 prevalence. This is not surprising, since there were no statistically significant differences in case rates in forced-masking versus mask-optional schools during the 2020-21 school year in Florida.

The article also notes:

Meanwhile, Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to decline across the state, despite largely maskless schools and no governmental vaccine mandates (via press release).

The article concludes:

As usual, the hard data supports sanity and normalcy not just in America’s schools, but for everyone else as well.

It is quite possible we are seeing the end of this epidemic. I am not so sure we will ever see the end of the government’s quest to use fear as a tool to acquire more power.

A New Level Of Federal Government Overreach

Yesterday The Epoch Times reported that the Biden administration is threatening legal action against governors who ban school mask mandates.

The article reports:

Governors who ban school mask mandates could face legal action from the federal government, President Joe Biden warned on Aug. 18.

Biden stated that he was directing Education Secretary Miguel Cardona “to take additional steps to protect our children.”

“This includes using his oversight authority and legal action, if appropriate, against governors trying to block and intimidate local school officials and educators,” Biden said in remarks at the White House. “We’re not going to sit by as governors try to block and intimidate educators protecting our children.”

As an example, he said the federal government may use money from the American Rescue Plan to pay an educator who has their salary cut by a governor.

“I am going to say a lot more about children in schools next week that as we head into the school year remember this, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, says masks are critical, especially for those not yet vaccinated, like our children under the age of 12,” Biden said. “So let’s put politics aside. Let’s follow the educators and scientists, who know a lot more about how to teach our children and keep them safe than any politician. This administration is always going to take the side of our children.”

Much of the science does not support either masks or vaccinations for children. Also, the federal government constitutionally has no role in education–that is up to the states. (However, we have ignored that for so long, I don’t know if we can get control back to the states.)

The article concludes:

After Biden’s threat, Christina Pushaw, press secretary for DeSantis, told The Epoch Times via email that “the forced-maskers often criticize Governor DeSantis for overruling ‘local control’ to protect parents’ freedom to make health and education decisions for their own children.”

“I doubt they will apply the same principle to this blatant federal overreach,” she said. “CDC bureaucrats and their politicized ‘guidance’—which does not have the force of law—shouldn’t interfere with parents’ rights, which are protected under Florida law. Governor DeSantis will continue to stand up for Florida families and defend our rights, no matter what the Biden administration attempts to do.”

This threat is aimed at Governor DeSantis. The Democrats are desperately looking for a political victory somewhere and are throwing mud against any wall they can find. Governor DeSantis will probably have a place on the Republican presidential ticket in 2024, and the Democrats would like to remove him from the picture before then. They have done similar things with candidates in the past and will continue until people wake up to what they are doing.