We have switched from seeing the virus as the enemy to seeing our OWN government as our enemy for stealing our rights. About time.

"The perpetrators of this blitzkrieg attack on economic freedom, the alpha authoritarians like Cuomo and Bill de Blasio, should be stopped. Lose at the polls. And go down in history as self-aggrandizing commissars in the story of the virus that caused economic suicide."

In simple American English, Hell Yes!

Thanks for the excellent factual recap and accurate, rational analysis, WD. 👍

A good article. Thanks WD. Some comments, which elaborate:

Point 1. The data being so imprecise, as is usual, how to analyze and how to deal with the problem, and by whom, becomes an exercise in guesswork.
Point 2. why they went so wrong. They did not so much as go wrong, rather they were wrong from the outset. Available data was/is weak, the wrong people were given the job. The most notorious case is Neil Ferguson of Imperial College, London. Ferguson would have been selected on his reputation as a scaremonger. Grossly large numbers of fatalities were forecast, this enabled governments to bring in measures otherwise unpalatable, the public, well msm, love a good scare so got what they deserved. Meanwhile, The Donald and Boris claim a great victory for their policies as deaths are so much lower than the experts predicted.
Point 3. Yes. But there is now evidence that NY was hit by a more virulent mutation from Europe rather than from Wuhan direct. Closing the border to China by Trump was the right decision, not closing all borders was a bad decision.
Lessons-
- the ability to mutate quickly reduces the chance of a one-shot vaccine being effective, so big pharma gets annual big on-going business! (shsh about Vitamin D, HCQ with zinc, etc)
- lockdown at least in NYC was essential (IMO), but fast border closure could have avoided lockdown.
- US experts (nearly all) and the solid phalanx of Demos were initially oblivious to the dangers, Trump followed advice that he was given, he closed the border too late, lockdown was inevitable.
- The US, in fact everyone, should have learned from Taiwan, closed border fast, masks, ready with supplies of PPE that were not available to Chinese buyers! (see daigou) and no lockdown needed
Point 4,5,6,7,8 Yes. Appalling.
so, from closing borders too late, lockdown was needed (IMO but perhaps only for NYC), economic calamity is to be treated by helicopter money, they say.

Who did everything right? Taiwan
Who did everything wrong? The UK
Interesting cases- Japan, Sweden.
What about China (well the CCP)? It looks like the inquiry is to be conducted by WHO, effectively a subsidiary of the CCP. There are books to be written on this, I do not see reparations. I'd like to see a court ..

People in NYC were kind of stupid to continue to ride the crowded subways as the pandemic was spreading. What an easy way to catch it.

I never saw 'the Crisis'. I just assumed everyone had been drinking something funny.

The government has become the looter on the state level. They're looting our constitutional freedoms. The Dem love this because they became petty dictators. Their claim that the continued lock down in some state is for the health of their constituents. They want to destroy the economy and blame Trump.

Now that I've studied this virus very early in it's onset and watched current events I have come to realize that this whole thing was handled with very little attention paid to science. It's mostly whims and shootin from the hip. Interesting...

What's interesting is that the doctors are mostly talking about how overblown this is, but the nurses I know are petrified. One cardiology nurse I know told me about how one ICU patient gave a half dozen nurses and medical technicians the virus, and two died from it.

This really depends on your personal experience. I have an iron constitution. My late wife swore that I could have survived the Black Plague without showing a symptom, so even at 75 I don't worry, but I do show others courtesy, wearing a mask if they want me to.

Since I'm on a fixed income that's more than what I need to pay the bills, I've been spending more than usual, mostly on local, or at least US businesses. I figure that's the least seniors who have an assured income can do in these times.

Any vaccine is going to slow the spread of the disease, even if there are multiple variants around, so the sooner there's a vaccine, the better. Of course, the MSM are spreading the word how dangerous "unproven" vaccines are. Interesting how the anti-vaxxers went from being the villains to being the heroes.

My pediatrician stopped by for a cold one yesterday. His comments on how overblown this thing was is pretty enlightening... He's a smart guy, too...

100,000 Americans are dead. Perhaps an inconvenient truth here.