End New York City’s lockdown now!

[Leongsam]

nypost.com

End New York City’s lockdown now!
By David Marcus

4-5 minutes



Sometimes, a good rant is all a writer can offer. Bear with me.

Last Friday morning, some 3,500 New Yorkers lined up at a Catholic church in Queens to receive free food hours before it even opened, according to the New York Police Department. Catholic Charities has reported a 200 percent increase in demand over the past month and a half.

By prolonging the coronavirus shutdown long after its core mission was accomplished, Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio have plunged tens of thousands of New Yorkers into poverty.

It needs to end. Now.

In mid-March, we were told we have to endure a lockdown to ensure that hospitals didn’t get overrun. We did. The hospitals were not overwhelmed. We turned the Javits Center into a hospital. We didn’t need it. We brought in a giant Navy ship to treat New Yorkers. We didn’t need it.

We were told we were moments away from running out of ventilators. We weren’t, and now the United States has built so many, we are giving them away to other countries.

Meanwhile, the Big Apple is dying. Its streets are empty. The bars and jazz clubs, restaurants and coffeehouses sit barren. Beloved haunts, storied rooms, perfect-slice joints are shuttered, many for good. The sweat equity of countless small-business owners is evaporating. Instead of getting people back to work providing for their families, our mayor talks about a fantasyland New Deal for the post-coronavirus era.

Open the city. All of it. Right now. Broadway shows, beaches, Yankees games, the schools, the top of the freakin’ Empire State building. Everything. New Yorkers have already learned to socially distance. Businesses can adjust. The elderly and infirm can continue to be isolated.

Enlarge ImagePeople social distancing at Domino Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.Paul Martinka

For two months, we have waited for Cuomo and de Blasio to tell us how this ends. Where is ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg with his alleged army of tracers that the governor told us was the key to reopening? And why did he hand that responsibility over to Bloomberg, whom nobody elected anyway?

What the hell is going on? Is anybody in charge of this situation? Or are we just left with the governor and his talking-head brother arguing on CNN about which of the two Ma loves best? (Who cares?)

In late April, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp defied experts by opening his state. The Atlantic magazine, once a serious publication that should now come with a stick of stale bubblegum, accused him of engaging in “human sacrifice.”

You want to guess what happened? Guess, come on, take a guess. Instead of the predicted spike in deaths, the number of cases of coronavirus and associated deaths declined.

We should always consider that we are led by idiots, as one of my friends likes to remind me. Cuomo and de Blasio have no plan. There is not a single question about when New York can get back to normal to which they have a straight answer. Not one. They cash their taxpayer paychecks while immiserating the rest of us.

If our elected leaders won’t save the world’s greatest city from a slow death by economic strangulation, then the people of New York must do it themselves. Barbers, tailors, nail salons, sporting-goods stores, movie theaters and others should open their doors — while maintaining social distancing, of course — and dare the state to shut them down.

Our politicians serve by our consent; we don’t run our businesses or live our lives by their consent. The suggestion to the contrary is an affront to Americanism.

It has been a long time since this country, let alone this city, really had to deal with the prospect of mass starvation. This isn’t about the stock market — it’s about parents putting their kids to bed hungry and hoping tomorrow there will be something for them to eat if they get up at 4:30 a.m. and get in line at the food bank.

We did what we were asked. We flattened the freakin’ curve. There is no longer any reasonable justification for the government to deprive us of our livelihoods. And our rights aren’t the government’s to grant or take away. They belong to us — the free grant of nature and the God of nature. We’re Americans. More than that: New Yorkers, goddammit.

 

[laksaboy]

Those left wing folks have shown their true colours.

I'm a bit worried about the PAP govt's Phase 3 'new normal until a vaccine is available'. Let's hope Bill Gates and Ho Ching hadn't made deals behind the scenes.

 

[Leongsam]

https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Testimony-Atlas-2020-05-06.pdf

How To Re‐Open Society Using Evidence, Medical Science, and Logic

Scott W. Atlas, MD, is the David and Joan Traitel Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution
and the former Chief of Neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center.

The consequences of the COVID‐19 pandemic have been enormous. As of the first week of May, more than
70,000 Americans have died. If it were compared as a separate country, the New York area would rank, by
far, as number one for deaths per capita. Given that three to four weeks typically elapses before death,
thousands more already infected will also succumb to the virus. That said, the direct daily toll from the
infection has markedly declined throughout the United States, including the epicenter of New York. The
curves have been flattened – the stated goal of the isolation has been accomplished – for both
hospitalizations per day and deaths per day.

We now have an even greater urgency, due to the severe and single‐minded policies already implemented.
Treating Covid‐19 “at all costs” is severely restricting other medical care and instilling fear in the public,
creating a massive health disaster, in addition to severe economic harms that could generate a world
poverty crisis with almost incalculable consequences. Half of neurosurgery patients still refuse to come in
for treatment of diseases that if left untreated risk brain hemorrhage, paralysis, and death, even when their
doctors directly reassure them. Transplants from living donors are down 85 percent from the same period
last year. Missed biopsies of now undiscovered cancers number thousands per week. That doesn’t include
the latest reports of skipping two‐thirds to three‐fourths of cancer screenings, most childhood vaccinations,
and treatment for new strokes and known cancer.

We also know that total isolation prevents broad population immunity and prolongs the problem.
We know from decades of medical science that infection causes individuals to generate an immune response –
antibodies – and the population later develops immunity. Indeed, that is the main purpose of widespread
immunization in other viral diseases – to assist with “herd immunity”. In the Covid‐19 epicenter New York City,
higher immunity is likely, although undoubtedly muted by the extreme isolation policies, as more than 20
percent of those tested had antibodies. A similar finding was reported in Boston. That fact has been incorrectly
portrayed as an urgent problem requiring mass isolation. On the contrary, infected people are the immediately
available vehicle for establishing widespread immunity. By transmitting the virus to others in lower‐risk groups
who then generate antibodies, pathways toward the most vulnerable people are blocked, ultimately
eradicating the threat. While we do not know with certainty that antibodies from Covid‐19 stop infection, it is
expected, based on decades of virology science, including other coronavirus respiratory viruses, where
immunity post‐infection is thought to last for a year or more. That’s why scientists are hopeful about using
Covid‐19 antibodies to treat the sickest patients; that’s the basis for the drive to generate a vaccine.
There are two critical aspects of this urgently needed, targeted re‐entry plan. First, policymakers must
apply logic and critical thinking to the data we have acquired, instead of continuing to prioritize
hypothetical projections – projections that need to be readjusted every few days, highlighting their
inaccuracy ‐ and then combine that evidence with decades of established medical science. Second, we must
demonstrate and fully convey the logic underlying the plan to reassure a public that has become almost
paralyzed with panic and fear.

Reassuring the public about re‐entry requires repeating the facts – what we know ‐ about the threat and
who it targets. By now, multiple studies from Europe, Japan, and the US all suggest that the overall fatality
rate is far lower than early estimates, perhaps below 0.1 to 0.4%, i.e., ten to forty times lower than
estimates that motivated extreme isolation. And we also now know who to protect, because this disease ‐
by the evidence ‐ is not equally dangerous across the population. In Detroit’s Oakland County, 75 percent of
deaths were in those over 70; 91 percent were in people over 60, similar to what was noted in New York.
And younger, healthier people have virtually zero risk of death and little risk of serious disease – as I have
noted before, under one percent of New York City’s hospitalizations have been patients under 18 years of
age, and less than one percent of deaths at any age are in the absence of underlying conditions.
Here are specific, science‐based, logical steps to strategically end the lockdown and safely restore the
pathway to normal life:

First, let’s finally focus on protecting the most vulnerable – that means nursing home patients. Given that
older people with underlying conditions are obvious set‐ups for serious complications from respiratory
infections, it is difficult to excuse policies that allowed 20,000 nursing care residents to die ‐ 30 percent of
all deaths in the US, more than half of the total in some states, particularly when they already live under
controlled access. Urgently needed, targeted protection would include strictly regulating all who enter and
care for nursing home members by requiring testing and protective masks for all who interact with these
highly vulnerable people. Moreover, nursing home workers should be tested for Covid‐19 antibodies, and if
negative, for virus to exclude infection, to ensure safety of senior residents. No Covid‐19‐positive patient
can resume residence until definitively cleared by testing.

We must continue to educate and inform the public about what they have already successfully learned
regarding the at‐risk group. That means issuing rational guidelines advising the highest standards of hygiene
and appropriate social distancing while interacting with elderly friends and family members at risk,
including those with diabetes, obesity, and other chronic conditions.

Second, those with mild symptoms of the illness should strictly self‐isolate for two weeks. It’s not urgent to
test them – simply assume they have the infection. That includes confinement at home, having the highest
concern for sanitization, and wearing protective masks when others in their homes enter the same room.
Third, open all K‐12 schools. If under 18 and in good health, you have nearly no risk of serious illness from
Covid‐19. Exceptions exist, as they do with virtually every other clinically encountered infection, but that
should not outweigh the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Again, standards for consciously
protecting elderly and other at‐risk family members or friends, including teachers in higher‐risk groups,
should still be employed.

Fourth, open most businesses, including restaurants and offices, but require new standards for hygiene,
disinfection, and sanitization via enforceable, more stringent regulations than in the past. It is reasonable to
post warnings for customers who are older or in other ways vulnerable. Avoid unnecessary requirements
for spacing of customers, though – it is not logical that otherwise healthy adults, especially younger age
groups, should be isolated or maintain a six‐foot spacing from each other. If infection is still prevalent,
socializing among these low‐risk groups represents the opportunity for developing widespread immunity
and eradicating the threat.

Fifth, public transportation, the lifeblood of much of the workforce in cities, should resume. In addition to
new standards of cleanliness and hygiene that passengers would welcome, regional authorities could
require barrier masks for passengers. Given the state of our fearful public, it seems highly likely that most
people will choose to wear them.

Sixth, parks and beaches should open. The closure policy was aiming to prevent all social mingling. There is
no scientific reason to insist that people remain indoors. Given now that we know who to protect and how
to protect them, even inside our homes, outdoor sports activities can resume. Smart, considered limits on
large group gatherings should be advised.

Finally, implement prioritized testing for three groups: nursing home workers, health care workers and first
responders, and patients in hospitals with respiratory symptoms or fever. Widespread testing for the
whole population is not a predicate for reopening as above. And contact tracing is not as valuable after a
disease is already widespread, even though it would be an important part of the overall preparation for
potential future outbreaks.

Targeted protection for the known vulnerable, standards and commonsense recommendations for
individuals and businesses, and prioritized testing form the basis of an urgently needed, strategic re‐entry
plan that would save lives, prevent overcrowding of hospitals, and limit the enormous harms
compounded by continued total isolation. Smart, safe re‐entry cannot be delayed by fear or hypothetical
projections, because we have direct data on risk and experience with managing it. The goal of the strict
isolation has been accomplished. Let’s stop underemphasizing empirical evidence and established medical
science while instead doubling down on hypothetical models. Science and logic must prevail over fear and
worst‐case scenarios.

 

[steffychun]

nypost.com

End New York City’s lockdown now!
By David Marcus

4-5 minutes



Sometimes, a good rant is all a writer can offer. Bear with me.

Last Friday morning, some 3,500 New Yorkers lined up at a Catholic church in Queens to receive free food hours before it even opened, according to the New York Police Department. Catholic Charities has reported a 200 percent increase in demand over the past month and a half.

By prolonging the coronavirus shutdown long after its core mission was accomplished, Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio have plunged tens of thousands of New Yorkers into poverty.

It needs to end. Now.

In mid-March, we were told we have to endure a lockdown to ensure that hospitals didn’t get overrun. We did. The hospitals were not overwhelmed. We turned the Javits Center into a hospital. We didn’t need it. We brought in a giant Navy ship to treat New Yorkers. We didn’t need it.

We were told we were moments away from running out of ventilators. We weren’t, and now the United States has built so many, we are giving them away to other countries.

Meanwhile, the Big Apple is dying. Its streets are empty. The bars and jazz clubs, restaurants and coffeehouses sit barren. Beloved haunts, storied rooms, perfect-slice joints are shuttered, many for good. The sweat equity of countless small-business owners is evaporating. Instead of getting people back to work providing for their families, our mayor talks about a fantasyland New Deal for the post-coronavirus era.

Open the city. All of it. Right now. Broadway shows, beaches, Yankees games, the schools, the top of the freakin’ Empire State building. Everything. New Yorkers have already learned to socially distance. Businesses can adjust. The elderly and infirm can continue to be isolated.

Enlarge ImagePeople social distancing at Domino Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.Paul Martinka

For two months, we have waited for Cuomo and de Blasio to tell us how this ends. Where is ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg with his alleged army of tracers that the governor told us was the key to reopening? And why did he hand that responsibility over to Bloomberg, whom nobody elected anyway?

What the hell is going on? Is anybody in charge of this situation? Or are we just left with the governor and his talking-head brother arguing on CNN about which of the two Ma loves best? (Who cares?)

In late April, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp defied experts by opening his state. The Atlantic magazine, once a serious publication that should now come with a stick of stale bubblegum, accused him of engaging in “human sacrifice.”

You want to guess what happened? Guess, come on, take a guess. Instead of the predicted spike in deaths, the number of cases of coronavirus and associated deaths declined.

We should always consider that we are led by idiots, as one of my friends likes to remind me. Cuomo and de Blasio have no plan. There is not a single question about when New York can get back to normal to which they have a straight answer. Not one. They cash their taxpayer paychecks while immiserating the rest of us.

If our elected leaders won’t save the world’s greatest city from a slow death by economic strangulation, then the people of New York must do it themselves. Barbers, tailors, nail salons, sporting-goods stores, movie theaters and others should open their doors — while maintaining social distancing, of course — and dare the state to shut them down.

Our politicians serve by our consent; we don’t run our businesses or live our lives by their consent. The suggestion to the contrary is an affront to Americanism.

It has been a long time since this country, let alone this city, really had to deal with the prospect of mass starvation. This isn’t about the stock market — it’s about parents putting their kids to bed hungry and hoping tomorrow there will be something for them to eat if they get up at 4:30 a.m. and get in line at the food bank.

We did what we were asked. We flattened the freakin’ curve. There is no longer any reasonable justification for the government to deprive us of our livelihoods. And our rights aren’t the government’s to grant or take away. They belong to us — the free grant of nature and the God of nature. We’re Americans. More than that: New Yorkers, goddammit.

Sounds like The Dark Knight.