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    Two Visions of America by Don Jans

    Let’s Get Our Country Back NOW! Here’s How…

    by Phil Erwin

    We’ll be hearing much in the coming weeks about what the country must do to get back to “normal.”

    That word itself – “normal” – will be debated ad nauseum, as the healthcare professionals warn of second and third waves of Coronavirus infections, even as we’re just now cresting a first wave.

    Drs. Fauci and Birx, the two epidemiology specialists who appear on the podium with the President most days, insist we must change our lives to guarantee “safe living.” “Safe” to them means: No spreading of disease. No hand-shaking. Six feet apart. Max ten people per group.

    But “safe living” means something very different for many Americans. A good illustration of the chasm between those two extremes – healthcare folks vs. “ordinary” Americans – are those videos of college kids Spring Breaking on popular beaches amidst warnings about the deadly disease even then reaching our shores.

    Dr. Fauci is adamant that this pathogen will change our public behaviors – to the tune of insisting that this should mean the end of hand-shaking. Really, Doc?? You think the average American male will give up his lifelong-customary greeting of friends, relatives and strangers just to avoid an invisible medical danger? C’mon, man!!

    I respect the doctor’s knowledge, experience and dedication. But when it comes to addressing social norms, he’s a bit of a loon.

    All these precautions we’ve been tolerating are, in truth, predicated on nothing more than guesswork as to what will keep us safe. (Well… safer.) They were guessing that six feet of personal distance was the right separation. Five feet – probably insufficient. (Think of the plume of breath frost that you send out in very cold weather – it’s visible for 2-3 feet. So doubling that is not an unreasonable guess as to your breath’s reach.) Ten feet would have been a much safer guideline. But nobody would accept ten feet of separation. And seven would just sound stupid.

    So… Six it is. Arbitrary, unsupportable, but tolerable. We put up with it as though it’s some magical boundary that actually, really, for sure keeps us safe.

    It helps. Nothing wrong with that. But it ain’t no guarantee.

    And think about the changing “recommendations” coming from the healthcare gang. First, no mask needed, and gloves won’t help. Wash your hands fifty times a day. Then… OK, maybe SOME people need masks. But keep washin’ them hands! Now it’s Ever’bodygotta wear a mask! And gloves! And… Strip outside your door, throw ‘the togs in the laundry, change your shoes!!

    If those changing guidelines tell you nothing else, it is proof positive that the healthcare community is just guessing. They’re making some reasonable guesses, and some not so. Their guesses have undoubtedly helped some. And hindered us, huge. And the longer we’re living lives upturned by what is fundamentally just guesswork, the more we’re thinking: When is this gonna end?!!

    Dr. Fauci has a definitive word on that, too. “We can’t get back to normal until we have a cure.” And we have it on his and other authorities that, even if one of the possibilities currently under study proves to be effective, it will be 12-18 months before such “cures” are approved and available.

    Eighteen months of masks, gloves and six-feet-apart breadlines?!??

    I don’t think so.

    I’m not saying the doctors are wrong about what practices can keep us 100% safe; or for how long we might have to follow those practices in order to remain 100% safe.

    I’m saying they’re wrong to think we can, or will, do that.

    We won’t survive as America if that’s what we have to do. Because that’s not a nation of free Americans; that’s a population of meek, neutered, broken-down ghost-people. Not ‘Mericans.

    Not America.

    I don’t know about you, but I think America is a pretty valuable thing to preserve. At any cost, really. And for the short term, these protective measures are seen by Americans as acceptable inconveniences in protection of America and Americans. But if they become dangerous to the nation’s future, all bets are off; all cooperation, tenuous.

    So, to the Powers that Be: Get us back to being America, or we’ll do it for you.

    You find a way, or we will.

    If you think I’m barking up a non-existent tree, think about this: California law enforcement officers arrested a paddleboarder for violating the Governor’s stay-home edict. The edict is meant to facilitate enforcing social distancing. The paddleboarder was alone in the ocean. But the officers were photographed escorting the arrested man between them. So… Who’s violating the distancing rules – the man who was recreating alone, or the officers who needlessly exposed themselves to him, and he to them?

    That picture is not America. Nazi Germany in the ‘Thirties, maybe.

    I don’t denigrate the officers’ motives; only their incredibly bad judgment.

    But when scenes like that are even possible, much less likely, we’re drifting too far away from America. As the President says, “We have to get back!” We can’t wait eighteen months. We can’t wait a year. We can’t even wait through the Summer, unless we can clearly see that we’re on the road back to being America. (You remember… Land of the Free ?!?)

    So how can we do that? We’re hearing the “authorities” talk about what needs to happen, how we must keep our safety measures in place, we need “testing,” we need to “flatten the curve…” Blah, blah, blah. What can we do that we’re not already doing?!?”

    First – consider these points:

    • We know that hydroxychloroquine and Z-Pak seem very effective at knocking down/out this disease. And hydroxychloroquine probably protects against infection. (Yeah, yeah, it’s “unproven”, no definitive clinical evidence, yadda yadda…. Shut UP!! It’s obvious that it helps, and helps big time, for most people, and in a big hurry!! Who cares if it doesn’t work every time?? The damn stuff is safe, effective and available!! It’s even cheap!!
    • We know that people who have survived the disease, and even those who’ve been infected but had no symptoms, have antibodies in their blood. Antibodies which can be harvested and used to transfer immunity to those who are really sick. (Yeah, yeah, we don’t know how much, or how often, it will help. So what? “Therapeutic plasma” treatments have been used before, and there is every reason to believe this will work for this pandemic. As the President is wont to say: What have we got to lose?)
    • We know that hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of young people were congregated in Florida and elsewhere for Spring Break activities at precisely the same time that social distancing was first being advanced as an important public health measure to stem the spread of the pandemic.
    • We know that healthcare workers, law enforcement, and other “essential” workers are being stricken at an alarmingly high rate.
    • We now have a test that can determine within fifteen minutes whether someone’s been exposed, based on a simple nasal swab.
    • We now have a blood test that can quickly determine if someone’s blood is carrying antibodies for this disease.

    So let’s put all of what we know together, and come up with an actual PLAN for ATTACKING this disease RIGHT NOW!

    Here it is:

    1. Distribute the rapid-test kits, both the nasal swabs and serum tests, to as many hot-spots as possible, Right now!! And keep ’em coming!!
    2. Start a nation-wide campaign to have all people who went to, or worked at, the Spring Break locations in hot-spot areas check in with healthcare professionals. Have them tested for the antibodies. If they have them, offer them a big bounty ($100? $200?) for their blood donation. (If they’ll do it for free, let them name a charity, or assign one. Point is to give people a serious impetus for doing this, beyond just “It might help…”) And extend this testing to all healthcare and law enforcement workers working in hot-spot locations.
    3. Do the same for Disneyland/World visitors and workers, Superbowl, etc.  A public-response drive to contact all people who were in big crowds in the “hot” zones during the early weeks of infection, before everyone was convinced it might become a problem here.
    4. Extend this drive to all their families and close contacts. This “contact tracing” is what the CDC does to track an epidemic – use that capability to track down donors! And extend it to other high-exposure or key-services groups, such as airline stewards, truckers, bartenders, grocery clerks…
    5. Harvest them damn antibodies!! And distribute them immediately to all other healthcare workers and law enforcement, everywhere, starting with the very sick (obviously).
    6. Once the infected essential workers are healthy, ask them to immediately donate plasma to continue the effort.
    7. Give the hydroxychloroquine/Z-Pak combo to all other essential workers who want to take it as a prophylactic, starting with healthcare and law enforcement. Get those people back to work, healthy and protected!! NOW!!
    8. And so on, and so on…   Everyone who recovers from the infection, or tests with antibodies developed on their own, should participate [but no coercion!] in a “Rescue the Nation” blood drive until this pandemic is over!  They become the source of antibodies with which to inoculate others.  There’s your vaccine!   And everyone who has antibodies can be immediately cleared to return to work, and all other activities.   (Maybe give ’em a “Good To Go” pin.)  They have immunity, so they are not contagious.

    And that is how all Americans can get actively involved in rescuing and resurrecting America.

    This would force-manufacture what is called “herd immunity” by finding, harvesting and distributing COVID-19 antibodies as fast, as completely, and as effectively as possible. And I might just remind you, this strategy also has the effect – I’m almost tempted to call it a “side-effect” – of saving the most lives possible, starting with our most exposed, most endangered, most important public servants!

    So, Mr. President: Get those Task Force geniuses coordinating right now to involve the American people in getting this done, and getting us back to work!

    Now!!

    Phil Erwin is an author, IT administrator and registered Independent living in Newbury Park. He would like to support some Democrat ideals, but he has a visceral hatred for Lies and Damn Lies (and is highly suspicious of Statistics.) That pretty much eliminates supporting most Democrats, and a bunch of Republicans to boot.

     

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    Charleen Schuss
    Charleen Schuss
    3 years ago

    There is no getting back to normal without widespread testing and case monitoring. An entire public health infrastructure has to be put in place. We don’t have nearly enough testing for active disease or testing for immunity.

    https://www.vox.com/2020/4/10/21214218/trump-coronavirus-testing-social-distancing

    William Hicks
    William Hicks
    3 years ago

    Bt the time this “widespread Testing” is available, will there be jobs to go back to?
    Can we wait that long?

    William Hicks
    William Hicks
    3 years ago

    An immediate challenge is finding a source for masks. If you go to the Grocery Store, they require you be masked in order to go through the checkout.

    I ordered bandanas, but two weeks after I ordered them I received a notice that they can’t fill the order.

    I may just have to use the funny, but plausible, mens underwear mask when I run out of my disposable masks.

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