In an over 18 minute interview with Dr. Fauci, Hewit asked him to address what Fauci claimed are hurtful lies regarding COVID-19 vaccines spread by Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving and other NBA players who refuse to get vaccinated, as well as the government overreach that occurred as a result of how the pandemic has been handled.

“These are people; they’re not stupid people, and yet they have somehow or other been convinced of things that are just not factual, Hugh. You look at the data. The data are overwhelming that these are highly effective and safe. If you look at the track record of vaccines in general, what they’ve done for society and the benefit-risk ratio overwhelmingly weighs in favor of the benefit.” Dr. Fauci said.

When asked if he would step down as head of the NIH if it would result in an overall increase in the number of vaccinated Americans, Dr. Fauci firmly stated that he would not resign.

“I’ve lost confidence in the CDC and the FDA, and I actually believe a lot of Americans, a significant part of America, now have lost confidence in you, Dr. Fauci.”

“Is there a point where you will say I do more harm than good because people don’t listen to me anymore and step aside?” Hewitt asked.

“No, absolutely, unequivocally no, Hugh. Sorry. I mean I agree with a lot of the things you’ve been saying. You come from a different perspective than I do, but I think the thing that gets lost in the discussion and that people need to understand—and I do know that some people don’t understand it and don’t accept it, you know smart people, who evaluate it in their own context—is that we have been dealing with an evolving situation,” responded Fauci .

Even when Hewitt asked Fauci if he’d resign in favor of a fresh face that hadn’t flip-flopped on their position on COVID-19 if many more Conservatives would get vaccinated, Fauci declined and suggested Hewitt was creating a false narrative.

“Hew, I think that is a completely false narrative that people are not getting vaccinated because of me. I am very sorry—I’ve known you a long time, and I respect you, but I totally reject that people are not getting vaccinated because of me. Are you kidding me, Hew? Come on!”

Watch the full interview below:

The post Hugh Hewitt Asks Dr. Fauci to Step Down to Increase Vaccinations. Fauci Says “No!” appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Witnesses state John Huynh was walking to his car when another resident walking past him flipped him off. A verbal confrontation ensued when witnesses reported the man lunged at the victim with a knife and stabbed Huynh in the heart. 

According to Q13 News in Seattle, the suspect lived with his mother, and the mother gave police a key to the apartment to arrest her son.

From Q13:

“While officers were outside the building investigating, the suspect’s mother approached police and said her son was involved. She gave them a key to her apartment, where officers found the suspect in a bedroom. 

The suspect’s mom later told police her son came into the apartment yelling that he’d just been attacked by an anti-masker. He told her he wasn’t hurt but that he thought he hurt the other man involved. 

When questioned by police, he declined to provide a statement.”

While the indication appears to be that the altercation was over the victim not wearing a mask, witnesses report that the suspect was the one who initiated the violent attack over the incident after being questioned about his obscene gesture.

According to Kiro 7 News, the incident was captured on surveillance, and there were a large number of witnesses.

 Kiro 7 News reported:

 “Bothell police said Williams — who has no criminal record — is seen on video surveillance suddenly lunging and stabbing 29-year-old John Huynh 45 seconds after Williams allegedly made an obscene gesture at Huynh, who had never met Williams before, according to witnesses.

 Witnesses told police that Huynh then asked Williams if he “flipped him off or waved at him.” A witness told police seconds later, he saw “Williams pull out a knife and stab the victim in the heart.”

 Police said a lot of witnesses at the apartment building and at restaurants across the street with outdoor seating saw everything that happened.”

At the time of this writing, a GoFundMe Campaign has raised over $60,000 for Huynh.

The post Washington Man Stabbed to Death Reportedly for Walking Without Mask appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

However one tweet in the thread appeared to receive a lot of attention after people noticed a striking resemblance to NPC Wojak.

The tweets originally posted on April 6th began to go viral on April 8th as people noticed this particular infographic in the thread, which illustrated “possible side effects.” Check out some of the Tweets below.

The post CDC Appears To Use NPC Meme In Vaccine Graphics appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Mary Rose Corkery on March 16, 2021

Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said Tuesday that spring breakers coming to Florida “want to let loose in ways that are unacceptable” during the coronavirus pandemic.

“The problem it’s not just Miami. The problem is we have too many people coming. We have too many people coming who want to just let loose in ways that are unacceptable. And we have a pandemic including I think really sort of ground central for the variant,” Gelber said on “CNN Newsroom.”

“There’s a lot of things to be concerned about. Our medical advisors say exactly what the national medical advisors say, that this is all very perilous and that in fact, you know, it could easily be something that spreads elsewhere,” Gelber said.

Gelber said he doesn’t want the city to become an epicenter “of a problem that affects other communities locally or elsewhere.”

WATCH:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky implored spring breakers on Monday to heed the coronavirus guidelines. Police arrested almost 150 people over the weekend in Miami when spring breakers came to the city.

Miami Beach Police Department officers had to use pepper balls to scatter a chaotic crowd and two officers were brought to the hospital after being injured, the police department tweeted.

Gelber said he believes Miami Beach was the first U.S. city to mandate masks “when the CDC said to have masks.” The Miami Beach mayor said the city has issued more than 1,000 fines, but Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said they cannot issue the fines.

“Recently he said you can’t do anything to promote that kind of compliance. We’re doing the best we can. We have good will ambassadors on Saturday alone that gave 7,000 masks out to people,” Gelber said.

Gelber said Florida residents are receiving “mixed messages, including from” DeSantis, which has been difficult to get past.

“The problem isn’t just the ability to do stuff, the problem is that the message people are getting from the governor and others is that they shouldn’t have to worry about this,” Gelber said.

The post Miami Beach Mayor Criticizes Spring Breakers ‘Who Want To Let Loose’ During COVID-19 Pandemic appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

First and foremost, the COVID-19 pandemic posed enormous challenges to American institutions, and continues to do so. Frankly, we were not prepared. We need to diagnose what went wrong, so that we are never caught unaware like this again. Fortunately, the diagnosis is straightforward. COVID-19 was going to be bad, no matter what. But the failures of big government made it much, much worse.

In particular, the Centers for Disease Control, Food and Drug Administration, and public teachers’ unions are the great American villains of 2020. Meanwhile, the heroes of this year are almost entirely in the private sector. From Zoom to vaccine development, Big Pharma and Big Tech—yes, you read that right—made this horrible year bearable. Even amid a crisis that led so many to cry out for vigorous government action, we saw that private markets still work best.

For progressives and so-called “national” conservatives who support big government, 2020 represented the ultimate test for their philosophies. Although they disagree on cultural issues, they see eye-to-eye on the role of government. Both want a big, energetic state promoting what (they believe to be) the good of the nation. Well, here was their chance for the government to shine.

The result was shameful failure. The COVID-19 crisis put left-wing and right-wing statism on trial—and both were found guilty of ill-intent and gross incompetence.

After all, the CDC is the reason America lagged behind other nations for so long in terms of COVID-19 testing. We had the virus genome fully mapped in January, which enabled the rapid production of private testing kits. But the CDC forced these operations to shut down, coming up with its own test—which was flawed, and even contaminated! Testing and tracing could have stemmed the worst of the COVID-19 tide.

On this issue alone, CDC ineptitude is likely responsible for tens of thousands of deaths. Its red tape and incompetence made containing the COVID-19 pandemic, like a few other countries were able to, impossible.

How about the FDA?

It is no secret that the vaccine was delayed because it needed FDA approval. Indeed, several working vaccines could have come much earlier, were it not for our bungling bureaucrat gatekeepers. (Dear FDA: Can you please speed things up a little, so people do not, you know, die? It would make us ever so happy if you did. Thanks.)

As for schools, the data show that young people and children are at very low-risk from COVID-19, and that schools are not “super spreaders.” Despite this, largely due to pressure from public teachers’ unions, many schools remained closed in the fall. In fact, the US was pretty much the only country to pursue the alarmist policy of keeping schools closed.

The toll on school-aged children is immense, from psychological trauma to impeded learning. Low-income families were hit especially hard. They often lacked the means to participate in distance learning, and having their kids at home made it harder for parents to earn much-needed income.

Fortunately, there seems to be some well-deserved backlash against the crony public education establishment. Hopefully a mass exodus to more effective and accountable learning platforms will follow, whether that is charter schools, private schools, or homeschooling. Even more hopefully, parents will realize public education racketeers are not their friends. They should demand loud and clear: Fund students, not systems!

In stark contrast to these unacceptable failures by government agencies and employees, the private sector delivered.

Big Pharma and Big Tech are the winners here. Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and many other companies did amazing work getting the vaccines developed as quickly as they did. Public health “experts” repeatedly claimed a vaccine would not be available for 18 months, at the earliest. (Shows what they know!)

As for Big Tech, companies like Facebook and Twitter helped us stay connected while we were forced physically to remain apart. Amazon responded well to a huge surge in demand, stemming from the curtailment of in-person shopping. Faced with an immense logistical challenge, the online retailer surpassed expectations.

These sectors and their star performers are not perfect, of course.

In the past, Big Pharma lobbied for many of the regulatory roadblocks that made fighting COVID-19 so hard. Big Tech got egg on its face for covering up the Hunter Biden laptop story. Nevertheless, the takeaway is clear: 2020 would have been much, much more miserable without these supposedly evil big businesses in our corner. We owe them far more than we give them.

2021 is the perfect time to revisit our basic beliefs about the role of government and business in society. Both were unexpectedly challenged by the greatest public health crisis in recent memory.

Government failed. Business triumphed. Statism should be discredited, hopefully for an entire generation. Any coherent political philosophy for the 21st century must start from this basic truth.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

The post Why the Real Villain of 2020 Was Big Government appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

While much remains to be learned, the new coronavirus seems to be more infectious than the annual flu and possibly more deadly. The unbelievable daily growth in the global confirmed case count speaks for itself.

Indeed, confirmed cases of COVID-19 across the globe now exceed 1 million cases–not to mention the death toll that continues to rise.

But that’s not the end of this pathogen’s perfidy.

Over the past few weeks, an assortment of new studies have shown that asymptomatic carriers—those who are infected with the virus and “shedding” (or spreading) it, but don’t show any symptoms—may be driving the spread of the disease.

In other words, people who are sick with COVID-19 may be moving around communities unwittingly, rather than staying at home, because they don’t realize they’re ill and potentially contagious to others.

In an interview Monday, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noted that “as many as 25%” of infected patients don’t display any symptoms.

By Friday evening, the CDC and the White House’s coronavirus task force had endorsed the public’s wearing of nonmedical cloth face coverings–including masks–to help address this concern, especially when social distancing is difficult.

The new recommendation shouldn’t threaten the supply of protective masks for health care workers.

Elsewhere, a study of roughly 700 infected passengers aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship estimated that 18% of the cases were asymptomatic. Yet one of the study’s authors noted that the percentage of asymptomatic cases actually could be higher.

Results from diagnostic tests on Japanese evacuees from Wuhan, China, where the new coronavirus originated, show similar findings. According to a study by Japanese scientists, nearly 31% of confirmed cases didn’t show any symptoms.

Another significant finding involves lab testing in Iceland.

The island nation has tested a larger percentage of its population for COVID-19 than any other nation—nearly 5%. These efforts have focused on the broader population, not just patients with moderate to severe symptoms.

Thus far, about 50% of those who tested positive in Iceland haven’t displayed any of the tell-tale flu-like symptoms.

Although scientists have yet to nail down exactly what percentage of coronavirus cases are asymptomatic, the reality is that spread of the disease by those without symptoms is a serious concern.

Indeed, despite the ongoing development of therapeutics, anti-virals, vaccines, and serological (antibody) testing, concerns regarding asymptomatic transmission provide a compelling case for the administration’s “stop the spread” regimen of social distancing.

The White House last weekend extended the president’s coronavirus guidelines through at least April 30. The “30 Days to Stop the Spread” campaign is another critical step in our battle with COVID-19.

But few disagree that social distancing—really physical distancing–is our best chance to slow or stop the spread, especially given the limited weapons we currently have available in our anti-viral arsenal

The idea of asymptomatic transmission is bad news, but the good news is that we know more now about our invisible enemy than we knew before.

The more we know about the virus, the more efficiently and effectively we’ll wage this war.

COMMENTARY BY
Brayden Helwig

Brayden Helwig is a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation.

Republished with permission from The Daily Signal.

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At the time of this writing, there have been eleven deaths linked to Coronavirus in the United States, ten of which have taken place in Washington State. 

Take this to heart, as this won’t be limited to Washington for very long.

The very first Coronavirus case was in my town of Everett, WA. That patient recovered, but the virus soon found its way into an assisted living home in Kirkland, WA, which is where most of the Washington deaths have occurred.

The Northshore School District is closing for two weeks and transitioning to virtual classrooms for that time.

The popular technical school, Lake Washington Institute of Technology is closed at least through the weekend after an instructor tested positive.

As Washington State is a mail-in ballot state, they are asking voters not to lick their envelopes, but instead to wet them with a sponge.

An employee of the Amazon Headquarters in Seattle has tested positive for Coranavirus, as well as an employee in the Seattle Facebook Office.

People are getting uneasy, and it’s showing at the grocery stores. Many stores are sold out of essentials, inconveniencing people making routine shopping trips. One Facebook user in Washington State took to Facebook highlighting empty shelves.

More troublesome is that the confirmed case numbers are actually very unreliable, and are likely much higher than what has been reported. One Twitter user in the Seattle area, who is concerned they are showing symptoms consistent with Coronavirus, has outlined how difficult it is to get tested.

With Coronavirus organically spreading in the region due to a 14 day symptom-free contagious period and testing eligibility still seemingly focused on international travel, the current reporting is grossly unreliable. Cases are still being treated as isolated, even though this is a clear indicator of regional spreading. 

It’s easy to get the virus, but difficult to get tested for it. The number of documented cases are very likely far below reality.

Pay attention to Washington. This is coming to your state soon.

The post Empty Shelves, School Closures Show Coronavirus Testing Concerns in WA State appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

What we know about Coronavirus makes the things we don’t know unsettling. This has opened up a range of theories surrounding the pandemic. This article will use what we do know to connect a few dots. Some more controversial than others.

I am, by no stretch of the imagination, a medical professional. However, one thing I can do well is examine behavior and spot things that are out of place, inconsistent, or far too convenient that a coincidence is improbable. A bullshit detector, if you will. Mine works rather well. That doesn’t mean I know the answer, but it does mean the answer we’re being told likely ain’t it, chief.

THE ORIGINS

First, we know that Wuhan has a virology lab where this sort of virus would be housed and studied, if not purposefully engineered there. We have to remember that Coronavirus is not a new virus type, but rather this is a newer and more potent (or altered) strain of that virus.

We also know that Hong Kong was not the only site of protests. Wuhan had large protests over the Chinese government’s plans to build incinerators in that region. Enter Coronavirus, and  those protests have died down and 40 incinerators have been built.

While many may view these facts as circumstantial, the Chinese government clearly acted in their own favor, in what would be an identical result of how they would have acted had this been an intentional release. Does that prove beyond a doubt this was an intentional release? No. But Occam’s razor certainly falls there. From a logical standpoint, it’s very reasonable to assume this is what took place unless otherwise proven.

After all, we know that the Coronavirus didn’t originate from the Wuhan food market, but rather entered it. That “patient zero” who brought it to the food market has yet to be identified.

THE SYMPTOMS AND TRANSMISSION

The symptoms can range from no symptoms at all, to mild cold, to severe flu. The severity runs in accordance with age and health. The young and healthy bounce back quickly, while elderly or middle aged people with underlying health conditions may develop severe pneumonia.

The Coronavirus can be spread through air, or contact with the nose, mouth, and even the eyes, rendering face masks all but useless.

The Coronavirus has a symptom free phase ranging from 2 to 14 days where the host is contagious and can pass on the virus to others without showing any symptoms. This cannot be stressed enough.

This is a huge red flag. It is the most glaringly dangerous and consequential aspect of the Coronavirus transmission, yet people are treating it as a non-factor.

THE CONTAINMENT RESPONSE

This is where things really do not add up from the most practical standpoint.

The containment response has been focused exclusively on whether an individual is exhibiting symptoms and if they’ve been in physical contact with someone from an affected region. Coronavirus testing is largely limited to people who have exhibited symptoms and can be linked to another known case. This response can only be effective in circumstances when an individual is contagious only upon becoming symptomatic, as is the case with most viral illnesses. 

In a situation where people can spread the virus without symptoms for up to 14 days, this approach is bluntly missing the forest for the trees. Is it better than doing nothing? No, because doing nothing is just as effective and substantially cheaper than what’s being done now. The virus will be most largely spread by those who are infected but not symptomatic, and are going about their lives business as usual.

THE CONSEQUENCES

At the time of this writing, there have now been eleven deaths in  the United States linked to Coronavirus. Ten were in Washington State, the same state as the first confirmed Coronavirus case in the U.S., and one in California.

Most Washington deaths took place at EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland, WA. From local NBC affiliate King 5 News:

A man in his 50s was a patient at EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland and was the first in the country to die of coronavirus. He had underlying health conditions, Duchin said. The man had no history of travel outside of the U.S. or known contact with anyone who had COVID-19. He is also not connected to the possible outbreak at a nursing facility in Kirkland.

A man in his 70s was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth. He had underlying health conditions and died on Feb. 29.

Yes, you read that right. A Coronavirus outbreak has taken place at a nursing home facility in the same city of Kirkland, WA. There is no known connection between these deaths and that Kirkland facility leaving several in critical care.

Some people may write that off as coincidental. But Kirkland is far too small for this to be a coincidence. Let me put this into perspective for you.

In a span of 12 miles, you can drive from Bothell to Bellevue while quickly passing through Kirkland. That is a 3 city span.

In a 13 mile span, you can drive from North Seattle Community College to South Seattle Community College. Those aren’t even Seattle’s most northern or southern points. It’s simply a point of reference.

Cases being supposedly unrelated would be much more probable in a larger area like Seattle than they would a small area like Kirkland. These cases in Kirkland are clearly related, though indirectly, likely by a symptom-free transmission case  between them.

It’s clearly much more reasonable to assume there was an intermediary carrier between these two, than to assume they’re both somehow tied to Wuhan travelers, which there is also no evidence of.

THE LOGICAL CONCLUSION

To refresh your memory, the first thing China did after the Coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan was build the incinerators that were being protested against once people stayed inside out of fear. They behaved exactly as they would have had they purposefully let loose the Coronavirus.

Equally as important, with a facility like that in Wuhan which can alter and design viruses, what kind of designer virus would China let loose if their government could avoid culpability as it seemingly has?

From a Communism standpoint, they would favor a virus that kills those who consume from the system without the ability to be productive or contribute. Those who are able bodied, but choose not to be productive out of the allurement of compensation regardless of productivity, can later be forced into labor or be subjected to famines as was the case with The Great Leap Forward which killed 45 million people in 4 years under the Communist regime of Mao Zedong.

Keep in mind, these aren’t similar symptoms across the board that elderly and people with pre-existing health conditions simply have a harder time coping with. They can handle the common cold, as Coronavirus appears to present itself as to younger people.

It is far more aggressive towards those folks, and appears to be optimally built for a wide transmission to reach them. Between symptom-free contagious periods and minor symptoms in the young healthy while wreaking havoc on the unhealthy and elderly, it transmits as if by design for specific reasons.

The post Was Coronavirus Meant To Be The 2nd Great Leap Forward? appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

They distributed hazmat suits to workers. They researched everything they could, built a treatment center, and set up a comprehensive response. Transmission stopped. Even now, the only cases seen in this area come from outside the community.

National Public Radio reported on the case and concluded:

even as the worst Ebola outbreak ever recorded rages all around them, Firestone appears to have blocked the virus from spreading inside its territory…. A key reason for Firestone’s success is the close monitoring of people who have potentially been exposed to the virus — and the moving of anyone who has had contact with an Ebola patient into voluntary quarantine. By most accounts, this Ebola outbreak remains out of control, with health care workers across West Africa struggling to contain it.

Another triumph of the market and human volition! Still, somehow, the lesson here has not penetrated. As with every crisis in the history of the modern world, Ebola fears gave rise to debates over government power, just as the Coronavirus has today.

China has kicked into gear the largest quarantine in modern history. As George E. Wantz,  distinguished professor of the history of medicine at the University of Michigan, has written:

To combat the contagion, the Chinese government has taken the extraordinary step of quarantining the city of Wuhan, as well as neighboring districts and cities. The borders are sealed, and all transportation out is blocked. Officials closed the public transportation systems. Friday morning, more than 35 million people woke up facing aggressive curtailments of their freedom.

Is all this necessary? Wantz looks at the numbers:

It’s possible that this coronavirus may not be highly contagious, and it may not be all that deadly. We also do not know yet how many people have mild coronavirus infections but have not come to medical attention, especially because the illness begins with mild to moderate respiratory tract symptoms, similar to those of the common cold, including coughing, fever, sniffles and congestion. Based on data from other coronaviruses, experts believe the incubation period for this new coronavirus is about five days (the range runs from two to 14 days), but we do not yet know how efficiently this coronavirus spreads from infected person to healthy person. And because antibodies for coronavirus do not tend to remain in the body all that long, it is possible for someone to contract a “cold” with coronavirus and then, four months later, catch the virus again.

The case fatality rate, a very important statistic in epidemiology, is calculated by dividing the number of known deaths by the number of known cases. At present, the virus appears to have a fatality rate of about 3%, which mirrors that of the influenza pandemic of 1918. But what if there are 100,000 Chinese citizens in Wuhan with mild infections that we do not know about? That would lower the case fatality rate to a mere 0.02%,which comes closer to seasonal flu death rates. If that’s the case, a major disruption like the Chinese quarantine would seem foolish and cost a fortune in terms of public health efforts, interrupted commerce, public dissonance, trust, good will and panic.

In sum, this virus might be as serious as any seasonal flu. Still, when people are afraid, they have this irrational penchant for reaching out to government to save them. Never mind that the power might be abused or might not even be a necessary, much less suitable, power. Government is magic: if something is big, important, or crucial, people long for government to do it.

Do we need a Coronavirus Czar, operating under the Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Adviser? These are the same people who spy on your email, record your phone calls, watch your online habits, run the TSA security theater, and so on. What does any of this have to do with health? No one can doubt that the Coronavirus will be used, just like every real crisis before it, as a means of amping up government power.

The thinking goes like this. The virus is terrifying. We can’t just allow people to wander around with the disease and infect others. We could all die under those conditions. So we need government to discern who has the disease, force these people against their will to stay away from others, and even put together a plan for how to deal with mass outbreak, even if that involves creating camps of sick people and keeping them all there by force

The US government already has an extensive plan for dealing with communicable diseases, and these plans involve forcible quarantines. You can read all about it at the website for the Centers for Disease Control.

Regulations prescribed under this section may provide for the apprehension and examination of any individual reasonably believed to be infected with a communicable disease in a qualifying stage and (A) to be moving or about to move from a State to another State; or (B) to be a probable source of infection to individuals who, while infected with such disease in a qualifying stage, will be moving from a State to another State. Such regulations may provide that if upon examination any such individual is found to be infected, he may be detained for such time and in such manner as may be reasonably necessary.

These regulations are enforced, but you might be surprised at the light penalties:

Any person who violates any regulation prescribed under sections 264 to 266 of this title, or any provision of section 269 of this title or any regulation prescribed thereunder, or who enters or departs from the limits of any quarantine station, ground, or anchorage in disregard of quarantine rules and regulations or without permission of the quarantine officer in charge, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000 or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or both.

So, if you are willing to risk coughing up $1K or going to the pokey for a year, you can pretty much walk around infected with anything, and infect anyone else? If that’s your goal, it’s not likely that such penalties are going to deter you. I can’t imagine that anyone thinks: “I would like to infect lots of people with my deadly disease but I’m rethinking it because I just can’t afford the $1,000 fine.”

In the meantime, the US government already has the power to create sick camps, kidnap and intern people upon suspicion that they are diseased, and keep people in camps for an undetermined amount of time.

The Surgeon General shall control, direct, and manage all United States quarantine stations, grounds, and anchorages, designate their boundaries, and designate the quarantine officers to be in charge thereof. With the approval of the President he shall from time to time select suitable sites for and establish such additional stations, grounds, and anchorages in the States and possessions of the United States as in his judgment are necessary to prevent the introduction of communicable diseases into the States and possessions of the United States.

Anyone concerned about human freedom should be uncomfortable with this policy, especially given the hysteria that surrounds the issue of communicable diseases. Rules don’t guarantee results, and government has no solid reason to be careful about who gets put into the camps and why. It is easy to imagine a scenario in which such powers end up exposing undiseased people rather than protecting people from the disease.

It’s true that quarantine powers have been around since the ancient world and have been invoked through US history from colonial times to the present. They are hardly questioned. I was once in a debate over the role of government and my opponent relied heavily on this power as proof that we need some government — because society is just too stupid to figure out how to deal with such a deadly problem.

On the other hand, abuse of such powers is even more frequent. The problem is the low threshold concerning risk. Once government has the power, it can use it any way it wants. In World War I, prostitutes were routinely arrested and quarantined in the name of preventing the spread of diseases. In the 1892 typhus outbreak, it became common to arrest and quarantine any immigrant from Russia, Italy, or Ireland even without any evidence of disease.

In 1900, the San Francisco Board of Health quarantined 25,000 Chinese residents and gave them a dangerous injection to prevent the spread of bubonic plague (it turned out later to have been entirely pointless). We know about the Japanese internment, which ended up promoting disease. In more recent times, fears of AIDS have led to calls for arresting Mexican immigrants to prevent the spread of disease.

And it’s not just about disease. The quarantine power has been used by despotic governments all over the world to round up political enemies under the thinnest excuse. Fear of disease is as good an excuse as any. For a complete list of concentration and internment camps, see this Wikipedia entry.

Is it really true that government needs quarantine power? Let’s think rationally and normally about this. Imagine that you are feeling not so great. You go to the hospital and it is discovered that you have a deadly communicable disease. Are you going anywhere? No. It’s preposterous. These days, you can’t even go to the office with a cough without eliciting the disdain from your fellow employees. I let out a slight cough the other day in a security line and found myself with a five-foot gap between myself and the people in front of and behind me!

Once a deadly disease is discovered, no one has any reason to have the attitude that one should just let it go, embrace death, and take others with you. It only takes a moment of reflection to realize this. You want to be where you can get well or at least minimize pain. If that means staying in isolation, so it is. Even if you don’t like this idea, others will make sure that you do understand.

Let’s say you just can’t stand it. You leap from the window and run. Truly, the whole of the social order would be organized against you, even in the absence of the use of coercion. You would stand no chance of getting so much as a place to sleep or a bite to eat from anyone, anywhere. And, in the real world, such a person is likely to be shot on sight.

Government power is not necessary in any respect. It is not likely to be effective, either. And when it is not effective, the tendency is to overreact in the opposite direction, clamping down and abusing, exactly as we’ve seen with the war on terror and China’s response to this virus, which might be as serious as seasonal flu outbreaks. Still, people assume that government is doing its job, government fails, and then government gets more power and does awful things with it. It’s the same story again and again.

Remember that it is not government that discovers the disease, treats the disease, keeps diseased patients from wandering around, or otherwise compels sick people to decline to escape their sick beds. Institutions do this, institutions that are part of the social order and not exogenous to it.

Individuals don’t like to get others sick. People don’t like to get sick. Given this, we have a mechanism that actually works. Society has an ability and power of its own to bring about quarantine-like results without introducing the risk that the State’s quarantine power will be used and abused for political purposes.

The post Must Government Save Us from the Coronavirus? appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Whitney Tipton

House Democrats on Monday set aside $50 million in their initial labor, health and education bill to study gun violence, ending a 20-year congressional hold on the subject.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will split the money to study firearm injury and mortality prevention, according to Politico.

“For the first time in more than 20 years, it also includes funding to ensure the CDC can conduct scientific research to reduce injuries and save lives from gun violence,” said Democratic New York Rep. Nita Lowey, chair of the House Appropriations Committee.

Lawmakers have been wary of funding gun-related research since the 1996 passage of the Dickey Amendment, which “prohibits the CDC from using federal funds to advocate for gun control,” according to The Hill. Democrats have lobbied for such funding since that time.

Gun control advocates, including the gun-lobbying organization Giffords, praised the move.

“The time for action has never been more urgent — that’s why we applaud the 2019 House majority for taking this issue seriously from day one,” said its managing director Robin Lloyd.

“Along with passing stronger gun laws, they are finally allocating money for researchers to properly study this public health and public safety crisis,” he added.

The CDC previously warned it is unable to produce meaningful gun violence research without substantial budgets, according to an agency spokesman.

“Dedicated funding from Congress would help CDC to move forward in this work,” the CDC told Politico in March.

The study was included in the $189.8 billion spending bill being proposed by Democrats for fiscal 2020, which begins Oct. 1. The bill is the first of 12 spending bills being rolled out.

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