My wife and I took the kids and drove 3 hours from East Germany (Pennsylvania) to the free state of West Virginia just to get away and have some normalcy. We stayed the weekend in Martinsburg and it was really refreshing to not see people in masks everywhere like in PA, only ones wearing masks for the most part were store and restaurant employees. It also felt really good to be able to walk into a restaurant sit down and be waited on, it’s been over three months since we’ve been able to do this back home, and we still aren’t back to that yet. With the exception of restaurants seating every other seat and the employees there wearing masks, you never know there was a pandemic.

^^^ Sounds like the difference between the red county I live in (Hall) and blue county (Gwinnett). Every time I need to go into Gwinnett county I see a TON more people wearing masks everywhere I go.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:

quote:

6....November

Yeah... the election is in November.
Nearly everything happening right now is about the left seizing power.
We have a communist revolution happening at breakneck speed and most people don't even see it.

When you saw white people taking a knee to prostrate themselves before looters and to renounce their “white privilege,” you also saw parallels to Mao’s Cultural Revolution.

The Cultural Revolution began with an attack on the old order, the old “privilege” represented by shop owners and college professors. To avoid the mob’s rage, the victims were forced to humiliate themselves publicly and to utter self-denunciations, to confess their “crimes” against the mob’s ideology. But there was no escaping the demented wrath of the self-anointed protectors of virtue. Eventually millions of those intellectuals and entrepreneurs were put to death — sometimes buried up to their necks so that they could continue to abase themselves until their final breath.

This has been a hell of a few months. A quote from Apocalypse Now comes to mind:
Oh man, the shit piled up so fast in Vietnam this country in the last 3 months you needed wings to stay above it.

We (my wife and I) stopped wearing masks permanently about 3 weeks ago. I have not gotten a snide remark nor even a sidelong glance since either.

North Carolina Racetrack Holds 2,000 Person ‘Protest’ Amid Virus Restrictions

https://www.theepochtimes.com/...ictions_3380556.html

A North Carolina speedway drew a crowd of more than 2,000 spectators Saturday in defiance of the state’s COVID-19 restrictions after declaring the race a “protest.”

The office of North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper warned Ace Speedway in Altamahaw earlier last week that a crowd of more than 25 would violate the state’s Phase 2 restrictions, imposed to curb the spread of the deadly bug.

Yet Cooper has also exempted “activities constituting the exercise of First Amendment rights” from all the requirements of his executive order, which appears to give the speedway legal cover to operate.

WFMY reporter Amanda Ferguson shared a photo of a sign from management outside the speedway, which said, “This Event is held in Peaceful Protest of Injustice and Inequality Everywhere.”

Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson, in comments to the Charlotte Observer, said he received a letter Friday from Cooper’s office calling on Johnson to enforce the restrictions, for which the sheriff had words of criticism.

“This is totally politically motivated,” Johnson told the Charlotte Observer in an interview, “and I don’t like that one doggone bit.”

Johnson earlier objected to calls to prevent Ace Speedway from holding its 2020 season opener on May 23.

“When I took my oath of office, I swore to uphold the United States Constitution. I will not enforce an unconstitutional law. Upon hearing the opinion of the county attorney, I do not intend to stop ACE Speedway from opening on Saturday, May 23,” Johnson said, according to a statement by Alamance County authorities.

Ace Speedway has now allowed thousands of fans to attend three races at the track.

Following the season opener, Cooper expressed his disapproval.

“It is dangerous and reckless to try and draw a crowd and I hope and pray that no one gets sick or even dies from that gathering,” Cooper said at a May 26 news conference, according to Fox8.

The race track’s Facebook account posted a message thanking fans who attended the opener, saying it would take some steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19: “Today we clean and sanitize the facility and will continue forward with our 2020 season.”

At the race this Saturday, WFMY’s Ferguson posted a video from the scene showing staff wearing masks performing temperature checks on people before letting them enter.

The Alamance County Sheriff’s Office said it is “evaluating the events” surrounding the holding of the race this Saturday.

Johnson earlier said that he believes the exemptions in Cooper’s executive order make a strong case to allow people to attend races at the Altamahaw track.

“Worship, religious, and spiritual gatherings, funeral ceremonies, wedding ceremonies, and other activities constituting the exercise of First Amendment rights are exempt from all the requirements of this Executive Order,” an explainer to Cooper’s Executive Order No. 141 reads (pdf).

“People have a right to assemble, the way this order reads, at the raceway or anywhere else,” Johnson told the Charlotte Observer.

“Ace Speedway has continuously and flagrantly violated the plain and unambiguous language of the Phase 2 order,” the letter from Cooper’s office said, as cited in the report. “Those violations pose a serious risk to the health and people of Alamance County and throughout the state.”

Johnson suggested Cooper’s own behavior reflects a double standard. The sheriff said the governor took part in a recent demonstration in which “he marched in the streets in Wake County in Raleigh with 2,000 people side-by-side with no mask on his face.”

Ahead of the season opener at Ace Speedway, the Alamance County government released a statement saying it would not block the event and listed steps the race organizers had taken to help curb the spread of COVID-19.

“Ace plans to implement several precautions, including screening attendees and providing rosters to the Health Department to facilitate contact tracing,” it said.

Other steps include maintaining 10 feet distance between each car in the pit area, marking off areas in the stands to support social distancing, recommending masks for crews, and providing hand sanitizer at a minimum of 10 stations.

That’s the area where I grew up. There’s quite a rebellious streak running through the area.

now this

https://www.breitbart.com/heal...nfected-populations/

W.H.O. Says Coronavirus Crisis ‘Worsening’, Prescribes ‘Active Surveillance’ of Infected Populations

A clearly frustrated World Health Organization (W.H.O.) warned Monday the global Chinese coronavirus pandemic was “worsening” not receding, telling countries loosening lockdowns to observe active surveillance and tracing of infected populations.

The W.H.O. issued its warning as Moscow emerged from its strict coronavirus lockdown. With more than 485,000 cases, Russia has the third-highest number of confirmed infections after the United States and Brazil.

Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said some 136,000 cases had been reported in the previous 24 hours, “the most in a single day so far,” with the majority of them in the Americas and South Asia.

“Although the situation in Europe is improving, globally it is worsening,” he told reporters.

Tedros said that in countries where the situation was improving, “the biggest threat is now complacency”, adding “most people globally are still susceptible to infection.”

“More than six months into this pandemic, this is not the time for any country to take its foot off the pedal,” he said.

New York City — the epicentre of America’s coronavirus outbreak — began partially reopening its shattered economy on Monday after almost three months of lockdown, as AP reports.

Some 400,000 New Yorkers were allowed to return to work as retailers began offering limited in-store and curbside pickup, with construction and manufacturing also permitted to resume operations.

The W.H.O. call for caution came on the same day it revealed coronavirus patients without symptoms, or asymptomatic patients, are not the ones spreading the virus, as Breitbart News reported.

Coronavirus deaths have passed 404,000 worldwide, with more than seven million infections, since the disease emerged in China late last year before sweeping the globe, subjecting billions to some form of lockdown and paralysing global economies.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


We just can't trust WHO anymore.

Do they have good advice or bad advice ?

Is their advice driven by politics to bring down the U.S. and other countries' economies ?

Do the Chinese control every statement Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus delivers ?

To answer your last question, yes.

Article is obviously biased against HCA and other big medical groups, but I hate HCA with a passion, hated them before this mess. Fuckers made my wife get up close and personal with Rona patients and would not provide PPE for her, except a mask, that she had to use over and over. I bought her and her co workers face shields to use. The article doesn't mention conditions for receiving the Gov't cheese.



Hospitals Got Bailouts and Furloughed Thousands While Paying C.E.O.s Millions

Dozens of top recipients of government aid have laid off, furloughed or cut the pay of tens of thousands of employees.

HCA Healthcare is one of the world’s wealthiest hospital chains. It earned more than $7 billion in profits over the past two years. It is worth $36 billion. It paid its chief executive $26 million in 2019.

But as the coronavirus swept the country, employees at HCA repeatedly complained that the company was not providing adequate protective gear to nurses, medical technicians and cleaning staff. Last month, HCA executives warned that they would lay off thousands of nurses if they didn’t agree to wage freezes and other concessions.

A few weeks earlier, HCA had received about $1 billion in bailout funds from the federal government, part of an effort to stabilize hospitals during the pandemic.

HCA is among a long list of deep-pocketed health care companies that have received billions of dollars in taxpayer funds but are laying off or cutting the pay of tens of thousands of doctors, nurses and lower-paid workers. Many have continued to pay their top executives millions, although some executives have taken modest pay cuts.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/0...ailouts-ceo-pay.html

So The WHO says "People without symptoms rarely spread the disease"

https://www.syracuse.com/coron...p-wearing-masks.html

But...but...we'll lose control over people if they all knew this and acted as if this was true (who the hell knows if it is...) so we have to extend the narrative so we stay "in charge" so The WHO says...

"Its getting worse, dont go outside until we tell you, we need contact tracing apps on EVERY CELL PHONE"!!!

And then this today from ABC News - surveillance pictures suggest the major hospitals were dealing with coronavirus as early as October. Chinese search words for cough and diarrhea spiked in the summer of 2019 on the platform Baidu.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPnsuaWT5dE

not surprising that WHO is confused...they've been taking their talking points from the Chinese military

they can't get their stores straight and they will never admit they were wrong

Yeah, but the only problem is that the WHO and the CDC are the only counterweights to each other out there in the land of headless chickens.

quote:

We just can't trust WHO anymore

Anymore? I am not sure the WHO has ever been a trustworthy organization.

The WHO changed it's stance...it was a "misunderstanding"...

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/a...tic-cases-scientists

It reminds me of a game show "Who Do You Trust?"

this is one crazy story

https://www.statnews.com/2020/...s-in-scandal-emerge/

Researcher involved in retracted Lancet study has faculty appointment terminated, as details in scandal emerge

The University of Utah has “mutually agreed” to terminate the faculty appointment of Amit Patel, who was among the authors of two retracted papers on Covid-19 and who appears to have played a key role in involving a little-known company that has ignited a firestorm of controversy.

“The terminated position was an unpaid adjunct appointment with the Department of Biomedical Engineering,” a university spokesperson told STAT. Patel had listed the affiliation on both papers, published in the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine. The spokesperson declined to comment on whether the decision was related to the retractions.

The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine both announced the retraction of papers on which Patel was a co-author within hours on Thursday. The paper in the Lancet, in particular, received widespread attention because it raised safety concerns about the drug hydroxychloroquine based on what was purported to be a huge amount of data collected from health records from hundreds of hospitals all around the world.

Among other consequences of the paper, the World Health Organization paused enrollment of part of a clinical trial meant to test the drug.

The lead author was Mandeep Mehra, the medical director of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Heart and Vascular Center and editor-in-chief of The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation. Along with his co-authors, he had received the data from a small company known as Surgisphere , run by CEO Sapan Desai.

How did Mehra meet Desai, and become connected to Surgisphere? “Dr. Patel introduced them,” a spokesperson for the Brigham told STAT. The spokesperson said Mehra knew Patel “through academic and medical circles.”

In his tweets on Sunday, Patel said that he was related to Dr. Desai by marriage. “That’s old news,” he wrote. “Many people from the Brigham were at that wedding, and media knew about it.” The bigger story, he wrote, was that despite requests from other authors for data, he does not have information from Surgisphere, he wrote. On Friday, STAT had asked Mehra if Patel and Desai were brothers-in-law. “Dr. Mehra indicated that he learned of that relationship today,” Mehra’s spokesperson said.

After independent researchers raised questions about the papers, Surgisphere issued a statement defending its work. Both the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine reviewed the papers, and then issued expressions of concern. The retractions were issued after Surgisphere said it could not share its data with an independent institute Mehra had contacted to audit the data.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Who is Surgisphere ?

https://www.theguardian.com/wo...n-hydroxychloroquine

A Guardian investigation can reveal the US-based company Surgisphere, whose handful of employees appear to include a science fiction writer and an adult-content model, has provided data for multiple studies on Covid-19 co-authored by its chief executive, but has so far failed to adequately explain its data or methodology.

Data it claims to have legitimately obtained from more than a thousand hospitals worldwide formed the basis of scientific articles that have led to changes in Covid-19 treatment policies in Latin American countries. It was also behind a decision by the WHO and research institutes around the world to halt trials of the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine. On Wednesday, the WHO announced those trials would now resume.

A search of publicly available material suggests several of Surgisphere’s employees have little or no data or scientific background. An employee listed as a science editor appears to be a science fiction author and fantasy artist whose professional profile suggests writing is her fulltime job. Another employee listed as a marketing executive is an adult model and events hostess, who also acts in videos for organisations.

The company’s LinkedIn page has fewer than 100 followers and last week listed just six employees. This was changed to three employees as of Wednesday.

While Surgisphere claims to run one of the largest and fastest hospital databases in the world, it has almost no online presence. Its Twitter handle has fewer than 170 followers, with no posts between October 2017 and March 2020.

Until Monday, the “get in touch” link on Surgisphere’s homepage redirected to a WordPress template for a cryptocurrency website, raising questions about how hospitals could easily contact the company to join its database.

Desai has been named in three medical malpractice suits, unrelated to the Surgisphere database. In an interview with the Scientist, Desai previously described the allegations as “unfounded”.

In 2008, Desai launched a crowdfunding campaign on the website Indiegogo promoting a wearable “next generation human augmentation device that can help you achieve what you never thought was possible”. The device never came to fruition.

The "WHO" has changed its name to "HUH?"

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
The "WHO" has changed its name to "HUH?"

I heard it was "DUH".

All I know is that I won't get fooled again....