From the beginning of this series, a year and a half ago, we noted, "The geographic area and population of Illinois are both similar to those in Sweden, and there are similarities of the Chicago and Stockholm metropolitan areas. But Springfield politicians are hazardous to your health." More hazardous than the latest coronavirus variant, which, apparently, more readily evades the latest vaccines, but appears to have mutated into something that doesn't "appear to be more serious" than the earlier mutations.
Three years into fifteen days to slow the spread, health policy analyst Scott Atlas, M.D. is not pleased with what has happened. "We must acknowledge the abject failure of the Birx-Fauci policies. They were enacted, but they failed to stop the dying, failed to stop the infection from spreading, and inflicted massive damage and destruction particularly on lower-income families and on America's children." The big increases in the Pritzker Body Count came early in the shutdowns, when the contagion got loose in the care homes, all the closed schools, churches, restaurants, and bars notwithstanding. Preach it, Dr. Atlas. "History's biggest public health policy failure came at the hands of those who recommended the lockdowns and those who implemented them, not those who advised otherwise."
Specifically, notes Power Line's John Hinderaker, "The bottom line is a point I have made more than once: covid shutdowns, at best–i.e., not in states like New York and Minnesota where infected old people were sent into nursing homes–delayed the inevitable for some of the already-sick elderly, at great cost to the rest of us, and especially at appalling cost to young people. It was a terrible bargain."
The tyranny extended beyond the bars and the churches.
The government shut down dissent. They shut down free speech, our most sacred right behind the right to life. They colluded with Big Tech to punish those who questioned the measures being taken, questioned the origin of the virus, and eventually questioned the efficacy of masks and an experimental vaccine that was suddenly mandated as a condition to participate in American life. We are only now seeing the extent to which that hellish partnership actually operated, with the release of the Twitter Files.Regime media, however, would prefer that the potbellied dictator and the cadre of unelected experts retain their authority.
Because this “analysis” with its “experts” and whatnot effectively boils down to “unelected government bureaucrats need to bypass the legislatures and force people to wear masks, force schools to shut down, and force the public to abide by “‘protective measures.'” How can America survive without a vast government bureaucracy dictating what is and isn’t good for us?State legislatures stripping governors of emergency powers! What do those legislators think this is, a constitutional republic? The horror, the horror! "When the next pandemic sweeps the United States, health officials in Ohio won’t be able to shutter businesses or schools, even if they become epicenters of outbreaks. Nor will they be empowered to force Ohioans who have been exposed to go into quarantine. State officials in North Dakota are barred from directing people to wear masks to slow the spread. Not even the president can force federal agencies to issue vaccine or testing mandates to thwart its march."
That's probably for the good. "Over the past three years, we’ve seen authoritarianism rear its ugly head in response to the virus, and we should be doing everything we can to ensure that this type of government interference in our daily lives never happens again."
Dementia Joe has teased an end to the federal state of emergency in May. We'll see. The emergency decrees for the United States taken together, as well as Illinois, remain in effect. Illinoisans voted to return the potbellied dictator to Springfield, and by next month's survey we'll see what Chicago has voted for.
These posts will continue until the emergency decrees end.
A service called Worldometers has been keeping track of coronavirus infections and deaths, disaggregated in a number of ways. With local, state, and federal governments in the United States changing the way they count infections (and they might be rethinking how they classify deaths) I'm not sure how valid any numbers, even from a service consistently used from month to month, is.
The latest report from Sweden counts 2,700,231 infections, an increase of 4,063 over last month, and 23,785 deaths, a change of 251 from the preceding report.
The latest report from Illinois counts 4,092,259 infections, an increase of 52,120 over last month and 41,573 deaths, adding 291 to the Pritzker Body Count in one month. The winter spike we observed in 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 has not appeared in Illinois, or Sweden.
The most recent tally of vaccinations continues to report around 26.5 million doses of the various vaccines, initial course or the various boosters, or perhaps reformulations, administered as of today. The state also appears to have ended their count of the scary variants, with the current link noting the most recent update in late December.
At Valentine's Day, the governor trailed by 17,728.
At the National Day of Service, the governor trailed by 18,068.
Note the time series: a margin of terror that used to be growing by hundreds in a week has been growing only slowly. The details from the end of 2022 to the beginning of this reckoning in 2020 are on page 2.
2022 ...
At the end of the fall semester, the governor trailed by 19,204.
At Veterans Day, the governor trailed by 19,284.
At Columbus Day, the governor trailed by 19,436.
As Oktoberfest season began, the governor trailed by 19,467.
At the start of the academic year, the governor trailed by 19,611.
At Bastille Day, the governor trailed by 19,567.
At Flag Day, the governor trailed by 19,295.
At Syttende Mai, the governor trailed by 19,149.
At Patriots Day, the governor trailed by 19,243.
At St. Patrick's Day, the governor trailed by 19,580.
At Valentine's Day, the governor trailed by 19,533.
At the National Day of Service, the governor trailed by 17,062.
2021 ...
At Beethoven's birthday, the governor trailed by 14,796.
At Veterans Day, the governor trailed by 13,981.
At Leif Erikson Day, the governor trailed by 13,101.
At the start of the professional football season, the governor trailed by 12,307.
At Roller Coaster Day, the governor trailed by 11,502.
As of 7 June, 10,887.
As of 1 June, 10,810.
As of 24 May, 10,645.
As of 17 May, 10,520.
As of 10 May, 10,417.
As of 3 May, 10,310.
As of 26 April, 10,216.
As of 19 April, 10,167.
As of 12 April, 10,169.
As of 5 April, 10,167.
As of 29 March, 10,125.
As of 22 March, 10.095.
As of 15 March, 10.070.
As of 8 March, 10,017.
As of 1 March, 9,933.
As of 22 February, 9,857.
As of 15 February, 9,693.
As of 8 February, 9,623.
As of 1 February, 9,662.
As of 25 January, 9,739.
As of 18 January, 9,727.
As of 11 January, 9, 860.
As of 4 January, 9,595.
2020 ...
As of 28 December, 9,057.
As of 21 December, 8,414.
As of 14 December, 7,815.
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