On 19 March 2020, California became the first state to issue a stay-at-home order, ban all public gatherings, and close down schools. Within days, New Jersey, New York, and Illinois followed suit. That was followed by 39 more states, 43 in all, shutting down their economies, schools, and social interaction to deal with the spread of the coronavirus.
Last Tuesday, Gerald Celente wrote in his weekly letter to subscribers, “We forecast a pause in the COVID War. Restrictions will be relaxed… for a while.”
Just two days later, the CDC backed down on its mask-wearing mandates, and now there are more signs of a full reopening:
- On Friday, NYC subways registered about two million riders, its largest passenger load since 13 March 2020;
- Almost two million travelers passed through U.S. airports on Sunday, by far the most since the coronavirus first hit;
- Symphony orchestras in a number of states announced plans to soon perform in front of live audiences;
- Last week, the online restaurant reservation service OpenTable reported dining levels to be equal to that of 2019.
As of yesterday, 37 percent of Americans have been vaccinated, according to the CDC’s data. Last Tuesday, President Biden said federal funds (taxpayer money) would be used to help pick up sagging vaccination rates and help reach his goal of getting 70 percent of Americans fully injected by the Fourth of July.
Last Monday, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced the state had met her goal of getting 55 percent of adult residents jabbed, and she would permit businesses to welcome back workers to offices.
More than half of U.S. states have reopened, based on a survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Twenty-two states have dropped mask mandates.
Beware of Surges
Continuing the policy of injecting fear into people by warning of potential spikes in infection rates, epidemiologist Michael Osterholm at the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota was quoted:
“I don’t think anybody in public health believes that these [vaccination] levels are adequate to stop local surges right now. In a sense, this is an experiment. We can’t continue to stay in lockdown or shutdown as a society, but at the same time we’re going to have to figure out how we fine-tune that so we don’t see these surges within a state.”
TRENDPOST: To again illustrate why we had forecast an easing of COVID lockdown rules: “It’s the economy, stupid.” In many parts of the nation, the streets are dead at night, tens of millions are not commuting, and businesses are not rapidly bouncing back.
We also note the randomly imposed close-down/open-up dictates from politicians to both emphasize the lack of scientific data and the hypocrisy of their actions. While Washington has declared that some 80 percent of the population must be injected with the COVID Vax, just 37 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated as of yesterday.
And as for Michigan’s governor saying her state had met her goal of getting 55 percent of adult residents jabbed and she would permit businesses to welcome back workers to offices, the fact is that only 38.63 percent have been fully vaccinated. Thus, the reason states are opening up is to attempt to regenerate the economy… and cover the massive tax shortfalls from being locked down.
TRENDPOST: While the vast majority of political leaders and health officials continue to point to increased vaccinations as the reason for optimism, this doesn’t explain scientific data reported back on 4 February.
The Daily Mail noted at the time that the COVID-19 Tracking Project traced a 45-percent decline in U.S. COVID-19 cases since the month before, and the WHO confirmed a 30-percent drop globally. Hospital rates from COVID-19 also dropped 26 percent. But the article notes that only 8 percent of Americans and 13 percent of people worldwide had been vaccinated at that time.
And USA Today, on 6 February, confirmed this in an article with the headline:
Coronavirus cases are falling in the U.S., but experts say it’s not from the COVID-19 vaccine yet
On 17 September, the BBC reported that falling death rates from COVID-19 were due in large part to better knowledge on how to treat those coming into hospitals. This included avoiding the invasive ventilation protocols originally used and prescribing the steroid dexamethasone, which worked effectively as an anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant.