First of all I want to start off by saying that it’s not my intention to spend my time during this situation playing these whackadoo conspiracy theory games. I’m pointing out what I am seeing, rightly or wrongly. I am not doctor or scientist. I am not an expert on viruses. I am also not trying to downplay the seriousness of Covid19 by comparing apples to oranges. I am merely asking what I believe to be necessary questions during an unprecedented lockdown that has brought this entire country to a halt. I am speaking from what I’m hearing from my customers as I continue to work as an essential worker, as a small business contractor. Also, I am an outspoken conservative advocate but my intention here is not to turn this serious situation into a game of politics, even if I believe the media has already done that. I will not shy away from my political opinions but my focus on this blog is on the lockdown itself first and foremost.
Spiked: Brendan O’Neill discusses the lockdown with Heather MacDonald
That being said, I’d like to share some resources I’ve been observing lately and I want to make my case for why I believe we need to set a deadline of no more than 3-4 weeks to return to work. It can be a soft return where those below the age of 45 without pre-existing health problems return first. It doesn’t even need to be all businesses necessarily. But the idea that places like the Home Depot and Canadian Tire must close their doors is totally ridiculous. I believe that the real epidemic here is uneducation. This is a virus, not an alien invasion. And this lockdown is a cure that is worse than the virus itself.
Taiwan is not locked down. Taiwan has children in school, consumers at food courts and employees going to work. Business is open and yet they are right beside China and were dealing with this sooner than Canada was. Aside from a tracing app imposed on phones that shakes my libertarian sentiments, that may be something that’s necessary. But otherwise I’m very impressed by all their initiatives they’ve taken since the beginning. They use temperature readers to assess people at all travel junctions, terminals, events and other large gatherings. Taiwan is retrofitting hotels to quarantine people which is aiding hospital ICU capacity. They’ve even implemented a neighbourhood watch type of initiative to help communities self police the spread.
While politicians who are scared shitless are telling us how unrealistic it would be to end the lockdown, in Taiwan it’s equally unrealistic to even consider a lockdown. We have heard models and projections now but one fact that is indisputable is there is no scenario where we have an outcome of zero risk. We face risks every single day from a broad spectrum of things. Even if we manage to bring our infection rate down to 0%, this virus is widespread around the world. Through trade, travel and immigration, the risk will continue. Taiwan knows this. It has calculated those risks and it is moving forward. While our politicians are too terrified to even conduct that cost/benefit analysis. And they are failing us as a result.
Again, I am fully aware that Covid19 is much more contagious than the typical flu. But we are not getting a full context. We are sitting in our homes, locked down, while watching these daily press conferences by all levels of government. The only data they are sharing, if any at all, is Covid19 data. And even those numbers really are totally arbitrary because we aren’t testing everyone. Even with the testing, you need to tick enough boxes just to qualify for a test. So those who are confirmed are only those with severe enough symptoms.
Combined with unconfirmed reports of anywhere from 30-60% experience no symptoms at all. That means if we’re calculating a mortality rate out of who lives and dies based on who is submitted to hospital, that’s going to be a way higher mortality rate than if we were to include all of those other cases outside of hospitals. But we’ll never know that entire number because we aren’t testing everyone. So this is one way that we are not getting a clear picture on the reality of this virus.
So what I would like to do is simply share more data to contrast and to add context to what we are already hearing. In this Statista chart it shows that in 2017 we had 20.2 deaths per 100 000 people. That’s a death rate of 0.0202% or roughly 7500 deaths for the year. Did you get your flu shot in 2017? Maybe you did but most don’t. And we certainly haven’t been social distancing until now. Contrasting that to the 2,147 deaths currently from Covid19.
The death rate among the opioid crisis, according to Canada public health services, was 10.6 per 100 000 in 2017 from Jan-Sep at about 0.0106%. That’s roughly 3,750 deaths. From January to September of 2017. And we all know that death rate has only gone up since then. Yet we don’t force everyone into rehab. Not that that would necessarily even work. Contrasting that to the 2,147 deaths currently from Covid19.
The death rate for suicides in Canada, according to Wikipedia, from 2017 was 11.3 per 100 000 people for 0.0113%. Roughly comparable to the opioid numbers. We don’t have everyone on suicide watch. We do have suicide watch but I think we could all comfortably say there is so much more we could be doing to battle suicide. Contrasting that to the 2,147 deaths currently from Covid19.
According to Carsurance.net 27% of all motor vehicle fatalities are linked to speeding. That statistic would go to 0%, or close to it, if we just reduced all the speed limits to all roads to 25 kilometers per hour. But we don’t. Why? Those speed related fatalities are most likely to occur from the age group of 16-24. So why don’t we change the minimum age requirement to 25 before you can apply for a license?
Now I get it. These are apples and oranges comparisons. Speeding and opioids and suicide isn’t contagious. But if you’ve been following the Covid19 news media and listening to these press conferences then you’re hearing an emphasis on worst case scenario modelling. There is no disputing that news media is fear mongering people to stay home. But these are the same people who a month ago were mocking and sneering people for wearing masks.
Now these people are mocking and sneering at people for not wearing masks. These are the people warning about disinformation while lying to us on a daily basis, cherry picking data and platforming Chinese communist apologists. We are not being informed, we are being managed. Maybe you trust that big brother has your best interests at heart but I personally like to see the world for what it is and decide for myself.
Viva Frei: Why the Media is failing us now:
Viva Frei: Mass Graves in New York? How to read the news:
Viva Frei: CBC is fake news, eh? From Scheer to Trudeau:
Viva Frei: Canada to criminalize “disinformation?”
True North: Fake news journalists need to be called out for their dishonesty
Yes, this virus has killed a lot of people and will kill many more before we’re through with it. It’s revealed a great blindspot of incompetence in our senior care homes and in how we interact with one another on a daily basis. But there is a lot that kills us every year and we don’t let that terrify us into submission. This lockdown may have a purpose and is effective right now but we are not hearing any economic numbers alongside of the health statistics. Because there are just as many risks, if not more that can also result in death that are intrinsically tied to the economy.
To confine people to their home and even ban them from going on walks to the park is almost method of torture. To give people no sense of when this is over makes it impossible for people to plan or set goals. There’s literally nothing to look forward to. We are creatures of habit and there’s no telling how this isolation is messing with our heads. In some ways this manifests itself in domestic violence. Maybe already stressful situations now seemingly unbearable with the added stress. Maybe existing mental health situations find themselves now unable to fully access their support network. Domestic violence can result in death too. There is no approach to this situation that is truly risk free.
TVO: Domestic Violence during a pandemic
The economy is not just a long line up of people getting manicures and pedicures. A lot of these hashtags and finger wagging about people staying home is coming from people who are able to work from home or just continue to collect a paycheck. Maybe you’ve qualified for the government EI. Maybe $2000 is enough for you to cover your bills. But there’s a big difference between your rent and business rent and there’s a whole lot more of you guys than those guys. Yet it’s those guys who are the backbone of our economy. And they’re rent is still due, regardless whether or not they can be evicted. It’s not the landlord telling them to stay home. It’s the government.
If we follow the money from the business to the landlord it eventually takes us to banks. But the banks don’t seem to be taking the same hit that the rest of us are taking. Sure they’ve made concessions but unless the government can convince the banks to drastically compromise these arrangements then what the government is effectively doing is asking the private sector to die. And out of a lack of ability to build consensus due to isolation and from our hysteria around this virus we are effectively cheering it on.
And to just take one quick second to speculate even further. I can’t help but notice that this lockdown is like a socialist and environmentalists wet dream. Every day in these press briefings I’m watching Trudeau handing out billions here, billions there, billions everywhere like we have Oprah for president. And in his briefing yesterday where he announced event students would get 9 billion, including volunteers, I was just exasperated. We are beyond deficit spending. The more accurate description of what’s going on right now I can only articulate as a redistribution of wealth.
What students were handed in the guise of a “bail out” amounts to nothing less than universal basic income. And immediately I saw “experts” going to media to comment on UBI being inevitable. This is something that deserves to be debated in the house of commons and put forth to the nation during an election. You don’t just use state of emergency privileges to put forward your own personal political agenda.
We already saw the liberals try to make a power grab out of emergency budget legislating. Why would we believe that they’re going to be any less ideological with these stimulus packages. How do we not know that the liberals are capitalizing on this disaster to implement their political ambitions now that they have more power than they did as a majority government? Through the Kathleen Wynne government and now with most of those people working with the feds it’s clear that a liberal ambition is to bloat the government even further. There’s a direct link between government and union workers and the liberal voting base. I myself saw a unifor daily bulletin board with a poster that depicted Andrew Scheer with devil horns drawn on him that read “anything but Scheer” during the last election.
As the private sector dies so too does services like daycares, health related and management services. Exactly the things liberals always campaign on wanting to take care of for us. All day kindergarten and all that type of stuff. Because liberals think they’re the nannies to our children because a mother is just a CEO being denied her access to the marketplace. How am I supposed to believe that Trudeau isn’t intentionally allowing the free market to die so he can step in with a great excuse to take over these sectors once they’ve gone belly up?
We have soldiers in our senior care homes right now. Maybe that’s perfectly necessary seeing everything that’s come out of them. But Trudeau talks about making changes once this is over. Sure these failings and loop holes need to be called out for what they are. But what exactly is going to happen to this area once government takes control of it? And will there ever be a return to normal? Or will the government do us “the favour” of taking it over 100%?
Liberals have been talking for years about Alberta needing to find a new method of generating revenue aside from the energy sector. Now the energy sector is in dire straights right after blockades, protests and investor disregard. With the exception of a short term bump, Trudeau has yet to provide Alberta with any kind of long term plan.
Sure, now isn’t exactly the time to be having lengthy debates over things that aren’t the lockdown or Covid19 but I can’t help but be suspicious. Every day we’re being told the border is locked down yet more arrivals come. We’re being told that airport security has ramped up and PPE is being provided. Yet that’s been proven to be completely false. The story coming out of the Nova Scotia massacre, about the mounty who only got 2 surgical masks a day and had to drive in daily just to pick them up. This isn’t the PPE he boasts daily that he’s providing widely across the country. So what else isn’t true.
This is the government that worked to develop the 2030 UN Global Compact goals. Things that read like a communist manifesto if you dig deep into it. We were told that none of the compact was legally binding. So then why did we sign onto something if we had no intention of implimenting it’s initiatives? Why did Australia refuse to sign on citing it would compromise their national sovereignty to make independent decisions on policies? Is the whole country of Australia a bunch of hateful nazis? Blame Trump for that too?
TED: UN Global Compact Goals
Stexhexenhammer666: We must oppose and stop the UN Global Compact
Rebel News: What they won’t tell you about the UN Global Compact
Well the things that Trudeau is talking about in his daily press briefings could be pulled right out of these sustainability goals that he signed onto. After hearing his tirade on the Earth day briefing I have little doubts. At a time when the conservative party has suspended their leadership race? Who’s going to put forward a vote of non-confidence now? What party is actually going to endorse an election right now? It’s the perfect time for them to push this because for all they know the conservatives will hold true to their previous threat of an October vote of non-confidence over the handling of the railroad blockades.
I’m just saying that I think the liberals are enforcing this lockdown for ulterior motives and are arguing to stay home in bad faith. And they’re getting bad advice from experts with ulterior motives as Dr. Tam herself works directly with the WHO. And I think the politicians are scared shitless and are suffering from optimism bias. So I think it’s about time there be some pressure to push back against this concept that saving the economy isn’t worth adopting any risk at all. Because I think that’s wrong. I know it’s wrong. And I believe if we don’t act now we could see a death of the free market in Canada as the country shifts to be reshaped to be socialist.
These businesses represent great sacrifice, great vulnerability and great risk taking. Entrepreneurs investing everything they have on the gamble that they can make their business work. Families that are all in to do their part in keeping that business afloat. Couples who have daily conversations on costs and risks and how to pay for their children’s education. And now these businesses are sitting at $0 profit with bills continuing to come in.
The fallout of the economic lockdown represents disputes, divorces and broken homes. It represents addiction, abuse and disorder. It represents longer lines at the foodbank and those too proud to do so. It represents self harm, mental illness and suicide. Not all business owners are relaxing on their yacht while things are locked down. Most business owners do not own a yacht. Maybe we should go down to the food bank que and you can tell these people what it is they don’t understand about physical distancing.
My point is that I believe a lot of this lockdown is coming from the part of our brain that deals with disgust and fear and it’s our societal sense of entitlement that lead us to the privileged position of self preservation. We are naturally risk adverse to begin with. It’s an unusual thing for people to become entrepreneurs. That’s why I enjoy watching shows like dragons den and shark tank because you see so many rich stories of people who put everything on the line to promote their ideas. To be so bold to challenge the world to be a better place with more accommodating things in it. And to dare to be those people to make that happen.
Being commission based, myself, in my job. I’ve noticed that the vast majority of people in my line of work over the years are far more interested in receiving a base pay to offset their commission, then taking a lower commission percentage as a result. It’s always confused me because as I apply the math to my own work I find every time I would be getting paid less for doing the same work. That is assuming that I continue to get calls. Which puts me at odds with this lockdown as I’m only receiving 20-30% of the calls I normally get.
My point is that this virus is triggering our collective senses of fight or flight and due to the vast majority of us reacting with flight, we find ourselves in this indefinite lockdown. We are running out of the burning building rather than looking for a way to put the fire out. All the while the building continues to burn, becoming less salvageable by the minute. The problem with this is that that building is our home. That building is our nation.
True North: The economic toll of the shutdown
True North: Andrew Scheer on Trudeau, China and the WHO
True North: Why are Trudeau and the media misleading Canadians?
True North: Border Closures work!
True North: China thinks we’re idiots but Trudeau continues to appease them
True North: The deranged left screams racism
True North: Do Canadians like being controlled?
When we talk about a recovery, there has to be enough left to work with to rebuild. But as anyone who’s dealt with insurance companies before, there comes a point where the whole thing is just a write off. I think part of what’s rallying us all behind this lockdown is an unfortunate factor of optimism bias. I saw it when people and institutions were largely apathetic to this virus until it affected the markets. We saw it when the recession hit in 2008 and suddenly car companies were asking for bailouts after we always heard that they were “too big to fail” when in actuality they were so big they were doomed to fail. I’m saying that if we don’t return to work soon I don’t think there will be a recovery.
People like Camille Paglia have documented in detail civilizations that have collapsed under their decadence. We need to ask ourselves if we have lost our way in knowing how to run a country, a province, a city or even our own households. What I see in our leaders is a deficit in leadership. I see people scared shitless about litigation. I see people who have failed to prepare for our current challenge despite the fact that pandemics are nothing new to the human experience. Even if we’ve never experienced it within our lifetimes.
In our secular society we have divorced ourselves from the sacred concepts and virtues of God but I don’t think we’ve done so with a complete understanding of the role of worship and spirituality build within our very DNA. What I’m saying is that we can’t simply remove that guidance that has lead us for thousands of years and just instinctively know the path ahead. It’s not as simple as just being a “good person” or just “living your life” without God.
You remove God, you remove the ultimate ideal. And you can’t help but attempt to replace that ideal. But there isn’t anything adequately available to do so. Because no celebrity or mathematical equation or philosophy is perfect like God is perfect. In the same way the strong shame the weak and the beautiful shame the ugly, the ultimate ideal shames us all. It’s far more preferable to look away from the light that burns too bright. Doesn’t mean the sun’s going anywhere just because you have a problem with it.
We have effectively replaced God with “experts”. People of science and facts and peer review who we have placed at the top of our social hierarchy. But the problem with an expert is the same problem with taking your love advice from Kim Kardashian. They are only human. And humans are far from perfect and our deep personal failings permeate our better judgement. Trudeau props up Dr. Tam as the ultimate authority on this situation despite we elected him to lead us as Prime Minister. Dr. Tam gets her guidelines from the World Health Organization despite the evidence and consensus that the WHO has been compromised ideologically by the Chinese Communist Party.
Rebel News: Secret ballot at WHO
Global News: Canada’s top doc responds to Alberta Premier’s criticism
These failings manifests itself when information was coming out of China about human to human transmission, longevity of covid19 living on surfaces and in air, methods of transmission and most mainstream media and experts initially dismissed all reports simply because they hadn’t gone through some tedious peer review process. Because the tribal membership that comes with belonging to the sacred expert community is such that those in leadership positions prop up recommendations and guidelines which served to actually get people sick. In telling us all not to wear masks, to take march break into our own judgement, refusal to shut down borders, condemning people for not wanting to shake hands or visit Chinatown as racist, etc.
To go against the grain to a holy sacred system of experts and bureaucrats is nothing more than blasphemy and must be called out and condemned. And that is how it seems perfectly logical that an expert would sincerely believe that the best thing to do is to lock ourselves away until the sky stops falling. Because they’re faced with an enemy that doesn’t respect their religious-like routines and protocols and traditions. They don’t know what to make of it. Nothing about this is ideal but we now find ourselves in a situation of people running the country are playing hot potato with our very survival over a deeply ingrained behaviour of cover your own ass.
These are the same people who regularly work to rule because they’ve resigned themselves to the mediocrity of segregated duties. The kind of mentality that comes with a cushy government job with benefits like jobs for life. You just punch in the time clock and push your broom and keep your head down until it’s home time. Till the little bell rings and boss mommy lets you go home for the day. Not even any homework. Swell. They override any sense of humanity or obligation simply because it isn’t in their job description. These are the people who are more than happy to reduce their very existence to a mere job description. Who stare at the clock instead of taking their place in the greater destiny of the world. I fear that these are the people leading us now.
That probably means we’re all going to just go extinct now because it’s not our job to survive. Trudeau keeps saying that once we have a vaccine we can open back up. But for the entire time we had SARS there was no vaccine ever found. Unconfirmed, un-peer reviewed reports are saying that as this virus travels the world it’s mutating and there could currently be up to 30 different variants of Covid19 abroad. So we come up with a vaccine for this strain in Canada. And them someone comes over from Turkey to visit family and that lone traveler brings with them the second wave. Or maybe by then it’ll be the fifth wave. Do we just lockdown again until we have a vaccine for each individual new wave? That just isn’t an option. Let’s all be on the same page here for a second when I say if we don’t find a way to return to work ASAP then we are in fact committing suicide as a nation and a province. With implications that could even break up confederation. We are quite literally at the brink of collapse.
TVO: Planning Ontario’s economic recovery
TVO: Poverty, food and Covid19
TVO: Polly and the Pandemic
TVO: When should we restart the economy?
Power & Politics: Will Covid19 bankrupt Canadian cities?
Power & Politics: Scheer wants opportunities to question Trudeau
Pierre Poilievre: Solid economic and Covid19 analysis from senator Leo Housakos
Pierre Poilievre: The Clip the CBC didn’t want you to see
Pierre Poilievre: Stop taxing personal protective equipment
Rebel News: Trudeau’s new censorship initiative
What we know is that China had to lockdown Wuhan and take their economic hit. Now we’re being told to do the same. Trudeau now talks about cracking down on the spread of disinformation. Would he be referring to the WHO when they told us not to worry because there was no human to human transmission of the virus? When they delayed in deeming this a pandemic until several epicenters had formed outside of China? When they held press conferences to praise China for their lockdown despite it’s authoritarian iron fist methods. Praised China for apparently giving us months to prepare in advance when we know if China had acted sooner this outbreak would’ve affected the world 95% less? No, I’m pretty sure Trudeau is talking about the independent media that called his government out for sending PPE to China without replenishing it and for sending almost a billion dollars to the biolab in Wuhan where this all began.
The point I am trying to make in all of this is that we have been lulled into a false sense of confidence over this lockdown by our leaders, their experts and the manipulative reporting of the media. We are forgetting that what we are dealing with is a virus at the end of the day, not an alien invasion. And out of hysteria we are allowing this virus to hit us like a nuclear bomb. And we need to seriously question why the media isn’t doing more to educate us on viruses and how best to protect yourself from infection. It’s time for a giant national classroom WHIMIS discussion, so why aren’t we having it?
How many of you out there are taking the time to educate yourselves on this virus? For all your worrying about it, what can you really explain about how it functions, spreads or how to even put on PPE? We all need to be preparing for the return to work and so we must prepare for the second wave. Government isn’t our mommies or daddies. It’s up to us to protect against infection. Given how many millennials still have their parents do their laundry, I guess that’s not surprising to me. We are a generation that has been infantilized ever since the participation trophy and now is our opportunity to define our generation and to define the generations to come.
CDC: How does Covid19 spread?
CDC: 6 steps to protect against Covid19 spread:
CDC: What older adults need to know about Covid19:
CDC: How to properly put on PPE:
CDC: How to properly take off PPE:
CDC: How long can Covid19 survive on surfaces and in air:
CDC: Can Ibuprofen make Covid19 symptoms worse:
CDC: How to prepare for an emergency:
CDC: Can you contract Covid19 through stool?
CDC: How to tell if you have the flu:
CDC: Social distancing:
CDC: managing anxiety and stress:
CDC: Answering questions about Covid19:
Stop whining about now getting more allowance from your government and learn how to live in the world that has come upon you. Learn how to live your lives! Do something for this country to preserve what our ancestors built for us to inherit! Make a mark that you can point to the next generation as your contribution to them. Be brave! End this lockdown! Expand ICU capacity, stockpile PPE and ventilators, impliment hygiene tools and practices, practice physical distancing and let’s keep calm and carry on. Let’s be the ones who saved Canada!
Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.
-Theodore Roosevelt
Rule #8 