“What did surprise us is we hadn’t really thought through the economic impacts. What happens when you have a pandemic that’s running rampant in populations all over the world? The fact that we would all be home, and working from home if we were lucky enough to do that. That was a piece that I think we hadn’t really prepared for.
-Melinda Gates
By: Mark Glennon*
You’d think she’d be embarrassed to admit to such a thing, but that’s what she told the New York Times when asked about all the prior thought and research she and her husband, Bill Gates, had put into developing their supposed expertise on pandemics.
She might as well have been speaking on behalf of a large portion of the experts and politicians in charge of America’s COVID-19 response. They’ve been blind to the need to balance the direct risk of the virus, however small that risk may be in some circumstances, against the economic and indirect but enormous health effects of shutdowns.
That blindness continues today.
The most recent example is cancellation of the DuPage County Fair. As reported by ABC Chicago, fair officials said Governor J.B. Pritzker’s decision to delay the Bridge Phase of reopening led to the decision.
It’s almost entirely an outdoor event. If there’s any empirical evidence that COVID presents a material risk in outdoor events like that, I haven’t found it.
To the contrary, experts are now speaking up to say that outdoor activity is generally safe – “whether there are 10 COVID cases a day or 10,000 — even with variants of concern,” according to three experts writing in the Toronto Star.
You can’t find empirical evidence showing a material risk because finding any solid examples of outdoor transmission is hard. “In reviewing the literature, very few cases of true outdoor transmission are noted, and many are associated with activity that includes a mix of both indoor and outdoor elements, like camps, barbecues and concerts,” those three experts wrote. “These events represent a sliver of the overall cases, which are overwhelmingly acquired indoors.”
“What we need to be thinking about at this point is harm reduction, not harm elimination,” said another infectious disease expert. If lower-risk outdoor socializing replaces higher-risk indoor gatherings, that’s a win-win. “People think any risk is something we don’t need to [take on]…. But those discussions detract from the harm-reduction part of the outdoors,” he said.
County fairs can be a big deal for many people, especially farm families and the agriculture industry, though DuPage’s fair has included much more than agriculture in recent years. The DuPage County Fair has been a local tradition for over 180 years and is a source of livelihood for many people and businesses, officials there told ABC Chicago. But that apparently counts for nothing in the face of even the tiniest COVID risk.
And the DuPage Fair wasn’t even scheduled to start until July 21!
By that time, everybody who wants a vaccine almost certainly will have been able to get one, and over half of everybody else will have a high degree of natural immunity from prior infections. President Joe Biden announced a July 4 goal last month for getting the nation back to normal. That’s apparently proceeding ahead of schedule because he recently bumped up the target date for making all adults eligible for vaccination by two weeks to April 19. And DuPage County is doing particularly well on vaccinations, having the highest portion of its population vaccinated in the Chicago area.
But they’ve cancelled the fair anyway.
What about all the risk of surface transmission? At county fairs, people pass around tickets, prizes and food containers. They pet the same animals and use public restrooms. And we all know that surface transmission is a big risk, right?
Nope. The Center for Disease control now tells us that was a false alarm. Last week they announced that the risk of surface transmission is “generally less than 1 in 10,000.”
It’s no wonder that irrational fear pervades even where risks are minimal. Americans are “wildly misinformed” about the risk of hospitalization from COVID, said the Foundation for Economic Education in response to a recent Gallup poll. About 60% of Americans think the chances somebody with COVID must be hospitalized are around 10 times higher than they actually are, according to the poll.
That poll echoes an earlier one by Gallup that reported American ignorance about COVID fatality risk was “nothing short of stunning,” according to Franklin Templeton, the financial firm that commissioned the poll. Americans have been “blinded from science,” they wrote. Young people are particularly ignorant about the low mortality risk, the survey found.
Apparently, however, some parts of the country are wising up on the low risk of outdoor events. One place is Texas, which has had significantly fewer COVID deaths per capita than Illinois, where the Rangers played baseball to a full house last week.
None of this is to say that caution shouldn’t rule in attending outdoor events like county fairs. Wear a mask if you think they work. Keep your distance from others. Don’t try to kiss the fair’s beauty queen. Don’t take a bite off a stranger’s corn dog.
And if you are elderly or have another known risk factor, stay home if you don’t want the risk.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
But they are opening 6 flags!
Study regarding the efficacy and problems of wearing masks.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030698772033334X
Cornflakes, you might have copied the wrong link because that link has nothing to do with masks. It’s about a device that allows COVID-19 patients to avoid the “proning” that is done in the hospital to allow them to breathe more easily.
Ditch the gathering restrictions and make masks optional. This end game of XX% vaccination is a load of baloney.
Yes
All of this b.s boils down to two main factors,ignorance and fear-the general populace ,or the ” sheeple” are in constant fear mainly because of thier ignorance to the true facts.They dont seem to be able to read for themselves what the true numbers are regarding this so called “deadly” pandemic.I see grown men who i consider cowards, by themselves with masks on,in thier car or walking alone outside.Wtf,just because pritzker,lightfoot and dr.fauci says so,doesnt mean its true!-c,mon man,as biden would say!
Agree 100%
The Central Planners strike again.
I want to confess to something here. I’m overweight. I’m now 60 years of age and you would place me in the “at risk” category of Covid19 illness and perhaps death. You would say to me “hey fat boy, stay home, don’t get sick, stay safe”. Ya, well go to…….. I had Covid19 in late September of 2020 while wearing a mask, washing my hands, never being around other humans other than the few who work in our small company and I did my part and everyone else’s part to be safe plus I manufacture Covid related research and production… Read more »
👍👍 other than Gates don’t forget The free Mason;s and the dirty Rockefeller’s
Well said. Except for the bullship part. You can say bullshit here. After all, this is about IL government.
lol,i like you mark!!!
Another way to say House Arrest.
In the words of the wonderful Don Knotts, just wait a cotton picking minute here fella. Are you telling me that the wife of the multi-multi-multi-billionaire Bill Gates had the arrogance to utter this comment? “What did surprise us is we hadn’t really thought through the economic impacts. What happens when you have a pandemic that’s running rampant in populations all over the world? The fact that we would all be home, and working from home if we were lucky enough to do that. That was a piece that I think we hadn’t really prepared for. C’mon man. C’mon man.… Read more »
When I was a kid I was fascinated with fireworks, and I wanted to be the one to light them off on July 4th. I was probably eight years old when I really wanted to get into it. I wanted to get that punk going and then get ’em lit, particularly on the bottle rockets and the firecrackers. So much fun! But my mom insisted that they were all made in China, and that we didn’t know if they would “blow off instantly and take off my finger.” She filled my head with all sorts of irrational fears to try… Read more »
The book by Michael Crighton STATE OF FEAR comes to mind while reading your excellent reply to Mark’s article.
When will the sheep and Kool-Aide drinkers freaking wake up man?
If we were alive during the days of the pioneers no one would have traveled westward and all would be held up in a dirt hole while some unseen virus or scamdemic was passing over.
Dear God they’ve all turned soft on us. America could not fight another World War under these conditions. They are all wussies.
The consequences of K-12 education not properly teaching history/civics. Drop the social/emotional learning bull and focus on reading, writing, and arithmetic. Our country is dead last because of the crappy job teachers are doing in our schools.
Its not just the crappy teachers who are at fault in your complaint. The problem you’ve pinned on teachers has several contributors you’ve not bothered to contemplate. Teachers are only the ones clearly “out front” in a way similar to evening TV news which has typically maybe only one person visible to the public.
Love the ending. I almost choked on my breakfast laughing about that. The schools being closed because of all this nonsense is what’s not funny. Just awful.
Is it? Because we can now see clearly the indoctrination that is going on in them and big plans for the future as the teachers unions have no fears of finally and openly laying it all out. After all, we have all been sheeple so far. At least we can finally understand why scores have been historically low. Real education never was the focus just a “packaging”.
Fortunately county & the state fair will be happening this year in Indiana.
Indiana is OPEN and Maskless. They are no longer making you breath your own expectorant into your lungs. God bless Indiana.
And God bless Texas, Florida and all other open states. Those are great places to live, work and play.
Unfortunately the Silicon Valley billionaires have far too much influence on issues well beyond their IT industry. It’s the “big head/swollen ego” syndrome made large. Bill Gates is a college dropout who thinks he’s a top-notch medical professional and global health expert. Of course he’s not; he’s a super-rich guy who buys influence and caters to other Big Ego folks. Bill and his wife Melinda have established far far too much global influence, drawn from their extreme wealth, with their personal opinions and prejudices driving their global agendas. Bill Gates, before his public relations makeover at time of Microsoft trial,… Read more »
And now the Bill Gates agenda (and all of the other “philanthropists”) is focused on their main goal- climate change hysteria. Covid was just the pre-season game. They are using the same game plan, projections that “prove” that we will all die if we don’t allow them to “fix” it for us.
Melinda Gates says she was surprised that maybe they didn’t think through all of the potential consequences. That applies in spades on their plans for the Green New Deal. Or maybe the consequences have been exactly what they wanted…
Since 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall they had to have a “crisis” to foist upon the American people those so stupid they would believe anything and they found the university and college idiots that bought the frackin’ lie. Easy minds full of liberal mush on campus.
When liberals are smoking pot they are drinking the Kool-Aide.