Stanford University Medical School professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya called the COVID-19 lockdowns “biggest public health mistake we’ve ever made” and says the harm it causes to society is “catastrophic.”
In an interview with the Dialy Clout, as reported by Newsweek, Battacharya said the lockdowns are having a devastating effect on both short and long-term public health.
The Stanford doctor is behind the Great Barrington Declaration, a petition signed by thousands of medical professionals and practitioners, which calls for an end to the lockdowns.
In the interview, Bhattacharya said the declaration stems from “two basic facts.”
“One is that people who are older have a much higher risk from dying from COVID than people who are younger…and that’s a really important fact because we know who his most vulnerable, it’s people that are older. So the first plank of the Great Barrington Declaration: let’s protect the vulnerable. The other idea is that the lockdowns themselves impose great harm on people. Lockdowns are not a natural normal way to live.”
He also pointed to the disparate effect the lockdowns have based on socioeconomic status: “People who are poor face much more hardship from the lockdowns than people who are rich,” he said.
The impact the lockdowns is having on children appears to be quite devastating. According to a recent report, from January 2020 to November 2020, self-harm claims have risen by 333 percent and overdoses have gone up by 120 percent among 13 to 18 year-olds.
In an email to Newsweek, Bhattacharya said, “I stand behind my comment that the lockdowns are the single worst public health mistake in the last 100 years. We will be counting the catastrophic health and psychological harms, imposed on nearly every poor person on the face of the earth, for a generation.”
“At the same time,” he wrote, “they have not served to control the epidemic in the places where they have been most vigorously imposed. In the US, they have – at best – protected the ‘non-essential’ class from COVID, while exposing the essential working class to the disease. The lockdowns are trickle down epidemiology.”
For the full report, click HERE.
Biden HHS Pick Oversaw Disastrous COVID Nursing Home Policy in Pennsylvania
Joe Biden’s pick for assistant Human Health Services (HHS) secretary was responsible for the deadly COVID nursing home policy in Pennsylvania.
Last March, Dr. Rachel Levine, the transgender health secretary of Pennsylvania, directed long-term care facilities to admit new patients who were discharged from hospitals who may have had COVID-19. This was ordered to “to alleviate the increasing burden in the acute care settings.”
As COVID outbreaks ravaged the elderly population in the state, Levine’s own 95-year-old mother had the luxury of being removed from her nursing home and into a “premium hotel.”
“My mother requested and my sister and I as her children comply to move her to another location,” Levine said in a press conference in May. “During the COVID-19 outbreak. My mother is 95 years old. She is very intelligent and more than competent to make her own decisions.”
According to data from the New York Times updated earlier this month, Pennsylvania now ranks second for COVID deaths (9,365) from long-term care facilities in the country, placing the state only behind California, which had 10,134 fatalities. Overall, deaths in Pennsylvania’s long-term care facilities make up 52 percent of all COVID deaths in the state.
Republicans in the state, including State Sen. Doug Mastriano, had called for Levine’s resignation.
“These failings are compounded by being complicit in the virus spreading through our elder care homes, triggered by unscientific and illogical directives, forcing them to readmit COVID-19 patients,” he said. “Let me state this clearly, this order by Secretary Levine is responsible for the deaths of approximately 2,500 of our citizens and displays the gross incompetence of someone unfit for office. The bottom line is Secretary Levine has failed to protect our most vulnerable population.”
In June, Levine defended the nursing home policies put in place and said, “They contracted the virus in the facility. So it doesn’t mean they were bringing it to the facility. The virus was already there.”
Biden released a statement on his nomination of Levine today:
“Dr. Rachel Levine will bring the steady leadership and essential expertise we need to get people through this pandemic — no matter their zip code, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability — and meet the public health needs of our country in this critical moment and beyond. She is a historic and deeply qualified choice to help lead our administration’s health efforts.”
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf congratulated Levine today, writing on Twitter, “Dr. Levine has been a wise, calm, and dedicated partner during this pandemic and I couldn’t be prouder of the tireless work she’s done to serve Pennsylvanians. She will be missed, but I know she will be a tremendous leader at @HHSGov.”
Congrats to @PAHealthDept @SecretaryLevine.
Dr. Levine has been a wise, calm, and dedicated partner during this pandemic and I couldn’t be prouder of the tireless work she’s done to serve Pennsylvanians.
She will be missed, but I know she will be a tremendous leader at @HHSGov. https://t.co/OPyOzskDWw
— Governor Tom Wolf (@GovernorTomWolf) January 19, 2021
Andrew Cuomo is shattering NYC’s restaurant business...for no reason
The restaurant industry is perhaps the most essential part of New York City’s social and economic sectors – from small, family-owned restaurants to world-renowned establishments, the industry is the second-largest component of tourism spending.
But, at least 4,500 restaurants have been forced to permanently close their doors thanks to Governor Cuomo’s never-ending coronavirus restrictions.
As cases continue to rise, the Democrat ordered an end to all indoor dining starting on Monday, with NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio in full support of the ban.
“The hospitalizations have continued to increase in New York City,” Cuomo said. “We said that we would watch it if the stabilization, if the hospital rate didn’t stabilize we would close indoor dining. It is now. We’re gonna close indoor dining in the city on Monday.”
Cuomo’s decision has received enormous backlash because of its disregard for the facts.
Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, blasted the dining ban, calling it “insanity” in a Twitter rant Friday.
Politicians Are Stealing the Basic Right To Earn A Living pic.twitter.com/9Yx9Vf1iP1
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) December 11, 2020
“I can’t believe in this country, what I consider the most basic right of them all, the right to earn a living, the right to earn a livelihood, is now being stolen,” he continued. “It is being stolen by a few politicians who believe they are smarter than me and you.”
According to the state’s contact tracing program, restaurants and bars have contributed a mere 1.4 percent to the total number of cases, while personal gatherings have driven nearly 75 percent.
So, essentially, Cuomo is shutting down an industry, pulverizing small businesses and putting workers out of a job only to make a microscopic dent in case numbers.
And restaurant owners are infuriated.
“We’ve been following everything that they gave us – the guidelines, we changed our air filter systems, we do the protocols of taking temperatures, getting people to sign the [contact tracing] papers, everything from A to Z,” one restaurant owner told the New York Post. “It’s just not right you have small businesses that are day to day surviving, and day to day they’re trying to pay the bills and day to day trying to feed their staff who are trying to feed their kids.”
Closing down restaurants takes away one of the few options New York City residents have to socialize, and because humans need social interactions, household gatherings will likely skyrocket – and so will case numbers.
