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Dear Editor:
The information on the COVID-19 pandemic that has been accumulating over the last few months indicates that our country's shutdown orders have been a "terrible mistake" and has become an "unnecessary and unprecedented self-inflicted economic disaster." This is due to a serious failure by our outdated and incompetent CDC to get COVID-19 information from countries that preceded us in the pandemic and then to analyze that information and make reliable predictions and recommendations. Throw in the hysterical NIH's 2 million plus deaths predicted in the U.S. and the media's whipping this into a frenzy, and you get the current devastating debacle.
The highly inflated number of putative COVID-19 deaths is now around 75K in the USA. In the 68/69 Hong Kong Flu season, there were over 100K deaths, and in the 17/18 flu season, the CDC estimates that over 80K died. We did not close down our country for those pandemics. It is estimated that 50% of our COVID-19 deaths were people in nursing homes and hospitals who were, unfortunately, already dying. The average age of death from COVID-19 is 83 years old! Dr. Ben Carson, Secretary of HUD said that 99% of people who get COVID-19 show no to mild symptoms. He also said that all that was needed was to protect the vulnerable cohort of older (65+) individuals who are obese and/or diabetic and those with respiratory or cardiac problems. Gov. Cuomo of N.Y. was amazed to discover that 66% of all new COVID-19 cases in his state were in people who sheltered in place, something that was supposed to prevent them from contracting the disease! We are also at a point where casualties due to the side effects of the COVID-19 shutdown such as suicide, depression, and child abuse are starting to outnumber the COVID-19 deaths.
Many county executives are ignoring their state's shutdown orders and opening for business. Many sheriffs across the country say the shutdown orders are unconstitutional and refuse to enforce their governors' orders. One California sheriff summed it all up when he said that the "stay-at-home orders don't make sense anymore." Tens of thousands of criminals are being released from jail, including murders and rapists, while good people who open their businesses in order to feed their families and pay their employees are arrested, fined, and put in jail. This is insane! Never again should we citizens of the USA trust our power-grabbing, police-state-mentality federal and state politicians or acquiesce to their unconstitutional demands.
It is time to end this unfortunate episode in our country's history and fire back up as quickly as possible. It is time now to go back to school, if only for another month. Time to fully open all businesses, restaurants, libraries, church services, movie theaters, sports events, resorts, and national parks.
George Schwarzmann
Belmont Township