Over the past year we have been bombarded with an ever expanding body of data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia and the World Health Organization of the United Nations about the COVID-19 pandemic.  We have developed a case of sensory overload amidst the daily barrage of numbers about new "cases', "hospitalizations", "hotspots", etc.  As a population viewpoints on all of this range from belief in wearing masks as a sort of quasi-religious political orthodoxy to rank cynicism about the entire subject of the virus.  No one with any intelligence believes the virus in "not real". 

     Amidst all of this, whatever our viewpoint may be, it is beyond debate--I would surely hope--that we are entitled to engage in critical thinking, and should.  Consider:

    ** A large plurality of Coronavirus infections are broadly agreed to be asymptomatic.  How, then, can we possibly be sure we are anywhere close with estimates of total infection rates, since people with no symptoms by definition largely do not go get a COVID-19 test?

     ** The World Health Organization states that there have been 117,972,000 Coronavirus infections globally, with 73,972,000 "recovered" and 2,619,230 deaths.  Who are the missing 41,460,770?  

     ** The New York Times recently published a state by state infection rate per 100,000 people.  New Jersey tops the list at 203 per 100,000.  Using that leading published infection rate, that is .203 per hundred people.  The CDC figure of total "cases" nationwide since the virus arrived in the USA is 32,736,900, which includes 585,090 deaths so far, a 1.79% fatality rate.  Yet Becker's Hospital Review which cites the NYT statistics states upfront in it's disclaimer that the database "includes cases and deaths " that are "probable coronavirus patients" who never tested positive for the virus but were deemed to have the virus "using criteria developed by national and local governments".  Notably--and alarmingly--it does NOT say HOW MANY were never tested for the virus, a very interested omission indeed. 

      So, we now have a host of vaccines available to the public, produced in record time under the Trump administration, which the Trump hating media mocked him for saying was doable.  Of course he gets absolutely no credit for that remarkable achievement.  This is no surprise.  And ironically, the Biden Leftists are out in droves getting the Trump Vaccine, while the Right--especially men--are more prone to refuse to get vaccinated.  This writer is holding off for now, but I AM getting bloodwork done to see if I already have antibodies from exposure, since I worked full time and was out and about through the whole pandemic.  

      Our entire civil society has been crippled and derailed by this pandemic event, and we must be vigilant regarding those in a position of power who play a dangerous political game with our lives and livelihoods.  People are out in the bright breezy sunshine jogging around with masks on.  We are too easily cowed into a herd mentality and mindset.  It is long past time that we learn to beware of the complacent compliance which is eroding our liberties, and reject it entirely.  When we ask ourselves the question "Why do states which have discontinued mask-wearing and social distancing mandates entirely (Florida, Texas) continue to have the lowest rates of infection?", what answer comes to mind?  Couple that with the fact that there is not so much as a shred of empirical evidence that lockdowns and masks have saved a single life--no, not a shred--and the America-hating forces which are invested in perpetuating fear and mindless "compliance" for their radical agenda come into stark relief.