Column #274Goose Stepping Germans in 1939

I like to follow science, but this year politicians, the MSM, and social media giants discredited that slogan by narrowing the national conversation, cherry picking theories, and only mentioning science-based reports that support their unified narrative.1

We can’t just take one scientific fact in isolation and go with it. That’s true for our personal health as well as for the COVID-19 pandemic. The nutritional chemistry our bodies require is so incredibly complex the best we can do to match our nutritional needs is to eat the foods mankind mostly ate before inventing agriculture. The science involving the many aspects of dealing with COVID-19 is also complex and can be similar to randomly throwing a thousand darts. Standing alone each factual scientific dart may make sense. But taken in the context of all of our society’s many variables, many of the “darts” become cumbersome, useless, wrong, ridiculous, and even destructive.

Scientific reports are published every day, scientific theories are announced every day, and we hear from bureaucrats and medical professionals every day. When the information is presented, for the most part citizens are clueless as to which report is fact, fiction, or even applicable. This is why everyone needs to be a student of life every day of their lives. Learning does not stop on graduation day. It often starts after graduation!

Scientific facts begin as theories. Then the theories are tested and conclusions are reached. Then the findings are independently tested and reviewed by professional peers to see if they stand up to the rigors of investigation. Was the “fact” just an observation of a coincidence? Was there an error in the evaluations or testing approaches? Was the report a hoax? In the end, the scientific fact is a stand-alone fact that is only a tiny part of the big picture.

The science for lockdowns, social distancing, masks, testing, fatality rates, immunity, and even treatments for COVID-19 are a dime a dozen. Many are pro and many are con because the evaluations are difficult to test in the real world. Unfortunately, bureaucrats issue edicts based on their interpretations of cherry-picked scientific “facts” regardless of peer reviews. Sometimes the edicts are based on the moral suasion of media bias. Sometimes the edicts are based on political correctness. Some are based on merely whims. That happens because it’s impossible to base an edict impacting an entire society on a scientific fact!

There has never been one scientific fact that even attempts to cover all the many variables impacting people living in our country. Therefore, based on simply some science-based facts, it’s impossible for bureaucrats to create simplistic rules that take into account millions variables. That’s why edicts from despots always get it wrong for some subjects and often for all subjects.2

Dictates cause collateral damage that’s far more expensive to the social fabric of a nation than no dictates at all. Yes, in a pandemic every death is unfortunate and preventing them is a goal. But, that doesn’t exclude the importance of improving the lives of the survivors. For instance, compare 270,000 deaths, consisting of mostly elderly, infirm citizens, with the lives of 70 million students not getting a proper education, millions of people postponing critical elective medical care, the increase in obesity, addiction, stress, depression, and suicides which are negatively impacting more than 100 million additional people, and the unrecoverable losses of billions of dollars of invested savings and sweat equity that many small business owners suffered because they were closed down permanently by lockdown edicts.

Don’t the survivors count for something?

The American way of life has been throttled by fear and edicts. Crazy requests and even demands against gatherings for Thanksgiving are messing with the mental state of the entire nation. For what? Yes, 270,000 people tested positive to COVID-19 when they died. Of those, 94% had multiple chronic issues that contributed to their demise or was the primary cause of their death.

There are more COVID-19 tests being given these days and more positives too. But are the tests 100% accurate? In August, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced that a rapid test was positive. But a short time later, DeWine said a more sensitive test came back negative. A few weeks ago Elon Musk reported he took four tests at the same time and two were positive and two were negative. People are encouraged to take a test to make sure they are not infected. But if a test is accurate, and it’s negative, it’s only good for that moment—not for days or weeks because a person may get exposed the day of the test. So what good is a negative test unless it’s to confirm that an infection has passed? Once an infection is cured, the person is then immune and therefore unable to infect others.3 4 5

At one time the COVID-19 fatality rate was thought to be 4% or higher. But some reports now say it’s closer to 0.23% which is similar to the annual influenza bug that sweeps the country. A pandemic is any contagious disease that sweeps the world. Every century American has been involved in a pandemic. In the 17th century it was smallpox, 18th century it was yellow fever, 19th century it was cholera, 20th century H1N1 flu, and now COVID-19. Smallpox, yellow fever, and cholera had very high fatality rates but H1N1 was not so deadly. Influenza is not very deadly and it’s turning out that COVID-19 is not all that deadly either.

Yet in spite of looking back to see how mankind survived previous pandemics, some of our bureaucrats (elected and unelected) are decreeing edicts that are restricting personal freedoms. Some countries have even gone full dictator mode. On November 18, the German parliament passed a law, “Infection Protection Act” (“Das Infektionsschutzgesetz”) formally granting the government the authority to issue whatever edicts it wants under the guise of protecting the public health. So Germans are goose stepping in the ranks once again.

When the big picture is taken into account there are some voices that are condemning the bureaucratic approach. For instance, “A British Supreme Court judge slammed the UK government as ‘control freaks’ for attempting to control people’s lives under the guise of COVID-19, and labeled it ‘morally and constitutionally indefensible’ that bureaucrats define what freedoms the public should and shouldn’t have.”

A virus spreads until herd immunity is achieved. On September 10, 2020 the CDC released a report indicating that approximately 34.8 million Americans had been infected. At the time the stats showed there had been 6.6 million positive cases recorded. Today the total of detected positives since early February is 13.5 million. Therefore I believe there’s been 70 million infections to date which means about 22% of the population is now immune to COVID-19.6

Adults are responsible for their own actions. They are not subjects of ordained rulers because, theoretically, our system of government does not allow dictators to exist. Adults can make their own decisions about their health. As of now, I aim to maximize my body’s natural immunity and forgo a reliance on vaccines that might not be available to me for six months or so. Yet at the same time I do not believe it’s my place to shame or force others to “do it my way.”7

To your health.

Ted Slanker

Ted Slanker has been reporting on the fundamentals of nutritional research in publications, television and radio appearances, and at conferences since 1999. He condenses complex studies into the basics required for health and well-being. His eBook, The Real Diet of Man, is available online.

1. On Coronavirus, We Must Not Allow Politics to Dictate Science by Dr. Ron Paul

2. Op-Ed: What Does 'Follow the Science' Mean, Anyway? by Vinay Prasad, MD, MPH

3. Lies, Damned Lies and Health Statistics – the Deadly Danger of False Positives by Dr Michael Yeadon

4. Fast Isn’t Always Better: What to Know About Rise of Rapid Coronavirus Testing from Healthline

5. Dr. Fauci Told the Truth About COVID-19 Tests in July and Has Been Misleading the Public Ever Since by Stacey Lennox

6. U.K. Supreme Court Judge Slams ‘Totalitarian’ Covid ‘Control Freaks’ in Government by Steve Watson from Financial Survival Network

7. What the Covid Vaccine Hype Fails to Mention by Gilbert Berdine, MD from Mises Institute