Januarians

Remember January? It was a time before masks, before the social distancing, before the lockdowns, before mass layoffs, before business closures, before media's penchant for "death" scoreboards, breathless "case" counts, and catastrophist hysteria, before the notion of contact tracing, before the idea that a "case" was the equivalent of a death sentence, before the predictions of death and mayhem coming from certain public health experts who were given far too much underserved credibility, before the closing of borders ... before COVID-19. Sure, the virus existed in Wuhan China in January, but it was barely mentioned in the USA. All the best people (that would, of course, be Democrat people) told us not to worry about it. Even the notion that we might limit travel to/from China was considered to be "racist." 

James Lileks comments on a current woke narrative that demands we get used to the "new normal" and stop trying to return to January:

It’s as if January and Now are equally weighted as two possible modus vivendi, and our attachment to one over the other is irrational and counterproductive.

Well. No. I’m here to make a bold, counterrevolutionary assertion: January was better. And January is a standard we should hold up and remember and strive to regain. That doesn’t mean you don’t wear a mask tomorrow. It means you will discard it when it’s been a month since a case and the hospitals are empty, despite what the sign says. Despite what the sign says. It means you will not slump around in perpetual compliance for the rest of your life, and acquiesce with sad nods and shrugs when all the aspects of human interaction are forbidden and the world shrinks to a hive of bees in their cells. It means prudence and it means kicking the shins of those who revel in contraction.

It means being a Januarian.

Many of us roundly reject Team Apocalypse. We question their tendentious claims that they and they alone are "following the science." We demand that a dishonest media stop trying to instill fear, uncertainty and doubt, not to protect people, but to achieve their long sought political objectives. We refuse to accept the tenuous claims that lockdowns worked or that masks are substantial protection against COVID-19 (see Update-1), or that school children (and most teachers) are at deadly risk or that colleges and sports should remain shuttered. We are concerned about the lives and livelihoods that have been ruined because far too many politicians listened to the catastrophists. We reject the notion, proposed by Joe Biden, that until we get the virus "under control" (whatever that means), we can't worry about rebuilding lives and livelihoods.

We applaud the notion, bravely stated by Donald Trump, "Don't be afraid of Covid! Don't let it dominate your life." 

Sure, you can and should be cautious and concerned, but you've got to live your life and encourage others to do the same. We are saddened by those who feel they must remain hidden in their basements, but recognize it is their decision, and they can to do so if they wish. But we are angered by catastrophists who demand that we allow their fear to govern our lives.

We are Januarians.

UPDATE-1:

Masks have become of symbol of progressive virtue. They're not worn out of fear, goes the narrative. Nooo ... they're worn to keep others safe and to stop the spread. The progressives who populate Team Apocalypse aren't afraid, after all, they're virtuous and would never give in to fear ... oh wait, that's exactly what Donald Trump advocated when he emerged from the hospital after he didn't die from COVID-19. And the progressive agreed ... um, no ... they didn't. They became outraged that anyone would suggest that we should not be afraid of COVID-19, that we live our lives.

Like everything else that the team has advocated relative to COVID-19, the wearing of masks is more 'virus theater' than medical necessity. Everyone should be allowed to wear a mask if he or she feels the need. But progressives want to go far beyond that and mandate that masks MUST be worn under penalty of law.

Matt Margolis takes a look at the efficacy of mask mandates. He presents chart after chart that indicate that mask mandates don't work. Here's one for France:

Obviously, there are many parameters that affect the growth of COVID-19 cases, but it appears that masks don't have a profound impact on the curve.

UPDATE-2:

Read the Great Barrington Declaration and then watch this video if you have the time:

UPDATE-3:

It appears that the Democrats have built their election strategy on blaming Trump for COVID, first by insisting that the country stay locked down in April/May and then blaming Trump for the economic damage that the lockdown caused. Talk about chutzpa.

Daniel Henninger comments:

Even by the standards of Trump derangement syndrome, the media compulsion during a U.S. president’s tour through Covid-19 to build every molehill into a mountain of duplicity was a new low.

Meanwhile, running relentlessly in the background of this Trump-obsessed spectacle is something called SARS-CoV-2. Joe Biden’s campaign is built around promising a return to normalcy. So let us ask Mr. Biden: In the era of Covid, just what will your normalcy look like?

By Mr. Biden’s lights, normalcy mostly means a world without Mr. Trump in the White House. Set aside that what then would inhabit the White House is not just Joe Biden but Bernie Sanders, who surely will appear to collect on Mr. Biden’s Faustian bargain with his party’s left-wing progressives. Their to-do list on taxes, climate, health care and race isn’t normal ...

At last week’s presidential nondebate, perhaps the most consequential remark by Mr. Biden was about living with the virus. “You can’t fix the economy,” Mr. Biden said, “until you fix the Covid crisis.” Virus first, economy later.

I take that to mean Mr. Biden’s coronavirus policy would be to support reviving shutdowns if the virus-case metric goes up, and support governors who push back against openings. As such, his policy would reflect minimal adjustment of the Democratic party’s lockdown bias, no matter the country’s experience with the virus since March.

The reality is that while deaths from Covid dominated March and April, the tragedy since has consisted of both continued fatalities and an equally appalling toll in economic destruction measured in lost jobs, businesses and incomes.

Should Joe Biden win in November, it will be fascinating to watch the media reaction to COVID-19 after that victory. My prediction:  All of a sudden, miraculously, the virus will be "under control." No more COVID death scoreboards. Case counts will become MUCH less important. Masks will become mandatory so that the miraculous "disappearance" of the virus (from media consciousness) can be attributed to some Biden initiative. President-elect Biden will read a cue card that tells us: "Don't fear COVID-19. Live your lives."

The media will fall all over themselves praising a cognitively impaired politician for his "bravery" in the face of the virus. Crazy? Nah, it's 2020.