Lockdown Lunacy summary

[JB Handley authored a brilliant detailed fully referenced piece entitled “LOCKDOWN LUNACY: the thinking person’s guide“. For those who are not willing or able to take the time to read, I’ve distilled JB Handley’s 16 points for an overview. My few comments are contained in [brackets], everything else is from the original. This condensed version still amounts to about 4 pages, yet only skims the surface of the rich information provided in the original. Becky Hastings]

J.B. Handley is the best-selling author of How to End the Autism Epidemic. He graduated with honors from Stanford University, and currently serves as a Managing member of Bochi Investments, a private investment firm. He can be reached at jbhandleyblog@gmail.com.

  • Fact #1: The Infection Fatality Rate for COVID-19 is somewhere between 0.07-0.20%, in line with seasonal flu. [So, roughly 99.3% of people who test positive and develop symptoms related to covid, recover fully].
  • Fact #2: The risk of dying from COVID-19 is much higher than the average IFR for older people and those with co-morbidities, and much lower than the average IFR for younger healthy people, and nearing zero for children.
  • Fact #3: People infected with COVID-19 who are asymptomatic (which is most people) do NOT spread COVID-19.
  • Fact #4: Emerging science shows no spread of COVID-19 in the community (shopping, restaurants, barbers, etc.). 
  • Fact #5: Published science shows COVID-19 is NOT spread outdoors
  • Fact #6: Science shows masks are ineffective to halt the spread of COVID-19, and The WHO recommends they should only be worn by healthy people if treating or living with someone with a COVID-19 infection
  • Fact #7: There’s no science to support the magic of a six-foot barrier.
  • Fact #8: The idea of locking down an entire society had never been done and has no supportable science, only theoretical modeling.
  • Fact #9: The epidemic models of COVID-19 have been disastrously wrong, and both the people and the practice of modeling has a terrible history.
  • Fact #10: The data shows that lockdowns have NOT had an impact on the course of the disease.
  • Fact #11: Florida locked down late, opened early, and is doing fine, despite predictions of doom.
  • Fact #12: New York’s above average death rate appears to be driven by a fatal policy error combined with aggressive intubations.
  • Fact #13: Public health officials and disease epidemiologists do NOT consider the other negative societal consequences of lockdowns.
  • Fact #14: There is a predictive model for the viral arc of COVID-19, it’s called Farr’s Law, and it was discovered over 100 years ago.
  • Fact #15: The lockdowns will cause more death and destruction than COVID-19 ever did.
  • Fact #16: All these phased re-openings are utter nonsense with no science to support them, but they will all be declared a success.

How the hell did we get here?

Now what?

What should be done is so damn simple, IMO, but it never will, because too many people would have to admit they were wrong. But, I’ll say it anyway. My policy recommendation: remove 100% of newly created lockdown rules, secure nursing homes using Florida’s approach, tell everyone with an active COVID-19 infection to stay home until symptoms resolve or wear a mask if they need to go out in public, and encourage everyone else to wash their hands. Done deal. 

I saved one of my favorite quotes for last from Karolinska Institute’s Johan Giesecke (no surprise he’s Swedish), from an essay that appeared in early May in The Lancet:

These facts have led me to the following conclusions. Everyone will be exposed to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, and most people will become infected. COVID-19 is spreading like wildfire in all countries, but we do not see it—it almost always spreads from younger people with no or weak symptoms to other people who will also have mild symptoms. This is the real pandemic, but it goes on beneath the surface, and is probably at its peak now in many European countries. There is very little we can do to prevent this spread: a lockdown might delay severe cases for a while, but once restrictions are eased, cases will reappear. I expect that when we count the number of deaths from COVID-19 in each country in 1 year from now, the figures will be similar, regardless of measures taken.

Measures to flatten the curve might have an effect, but a lockdown only pushes the severe cases into the future —it will not prevent them. Admittedly, countries have managed to slow down spread so as not to overburden health-care systems, and, yes, effective drugs that save lives might soon be developed, but this pandemic is swift, and those drugs have to be developed, tested, and marketed quickly. Much hope is put in vaccines, but they will take time, and with the unclear protective immunological response to infection, it is not certain that vaccines will be very effective.

In summary, COVID-19 is a disease that is highly infectious and spreads rapidly through society. It is often quite symptomless and might pass unnoticed, but it also causes severe disease, and even death, in a proportion of the population, and our most important task is not to stop spread, which is all but futile, but to concentrate on giving the unfortunate victims optimal care.

If you made it this far, thank you. You now share my burden in knowing the facts about Lockdown Lunacy. And, thank you to the many courageous medical professionals and scientists who are taking serious risk to their careers to publicly tell the truth. If you’d like to stay abreast of this complex topic, I recommend the Twitter feeds of both Aaron Ginn and Alex Berenson, they are a welcome respite from “Team Apocalypse.”

A personal note: Compared to the topic I usually write about—the scientific fact that vaccines can trigger autism in a vulnerable sub-set of children—writing about the lockdown madness is a walk in the park, because so many intelligent people have reached the same conclusion I have reached. I wish many of them would see the parallels to the roaring autism epidemic: good science is shunned or censored, the media browbeats dissenters, special interests prevail, parents are never listened to and doctors who speak up are labeled as “Quacks”…and the autism epidemic continues unabated.

Becky Hastings maintains Journeyboost.com with the hope of bringing light and understanding so that people can make informed decisions and experience the best of this world provided by our Creator. Seeking Him in these crazy times provides great comfort and hope!