The COVID Chronicles: A Conversation with Dr. Strauss (https://www.facebook.com/randy.hillier/videos/207924880655043/, link works when logged in but different video)

Dr. Matt Strauss’s research is on Twitter: @strauss_matt:

MY notes about this discussion:

Under 50, very little chance of dying.
Hospitals wouldn’t allow long term care residents in.
death rate in long term care
4 months isolated from your family!? inhumane!
Case of someone with catatonic depression
Case of patient who came in who was basically starving
Nazi party founded in last months of Spanish Flu pandemic, authoritarianism.
Social cohesion lost when market activity stops.
People have lost confidence in one another. Dangerous path of stoking fear of friends and neighbours, not enough expressions of concern about authoritarianism.
Body language and facial expressions blocked by masks
The literature seems to show that viral transmission is not prevented by masks, transmission mostly due to being in enclosed places for extended period, as per Dr. Evans he mentions
Lack of communication is a real problem. In many jobs it is critical because of the dangers, e.g. working as electrician. We’ve lost a sense of proportionality.
Social “bubble” 10 people, not allowing people to exercise their judgment.
Dr. Strauss has been writing articles for the UK Spectator.
Many of the doctors and nurses and public health people are of the same mind as he is and “shrieking busy-bodies” have pushed the agenda.
Censorship. They tried to de-platform his presentations on statistics with other professor.
We are made to feel fearful of others’ fearful criticism
Media is not allowed to write a story contrary to official narrative. Backlash will get them fired. So we’re not speaking truth because we’re fearful of the people who’ve been made fearful.
Feedback loop – the govt caused the fear and then they appease the fear. How do we get out of this?
Doctor refers to the State of Georgia not having the same policies, did not have skyrocketing death rates that were predicted. (Article)
The majority of younger people under 50 have no symptoms. If they get COVID and then asymptomatic, this contribues to herd immunity and that’s the solution.
The evidence shows this virus is not the lethal killer we were told it would be.
Healthy people locked up in their apartment buildings in places like New Zealand for weeks at a time!?
So-called “Stage 3” began in Ontario but same week we make masks mandatory. Which is it? Creates mixed impression. Things getting worse or getting better? (note: this confusion is just deliberate)
There seems to be a spike in mortality in a number of places, and basically COVID is putting them over the edge sooner than they would have died. Accelerated death rate during the lock-down.
In Ontario, we don’t have the all-cause mortality data released. Not public. [No wonder I’ve been having trouble finding it]
What percent of excess mortality is due to COVID and what percentage is due to the lockdown? Suicide, substance abuse have all been issues, economic deprivation. We may not see those deaths for years to come. Ten years building a business but now it’s gone, what happens to health long-term?
In his riding (electoral district), significant increase in fentanyl deaths in April & May.
In March they closed the rehab centers as part of lockdown. And people struggling with addictions given thousands a month and not allowed to work! Many relapse
Personal liberty is how we deal with complex life problems. Command public health like command economy
Systems of using freedoms and parliaments has worked for a long time, all of a sudden . . .
Why were we so willing to trust the info from China on this virus? Why would a communist regime be truthful?
We followed China rather than S. Korea & Japan, more moderate policies than here.
We reacted to these huge numbers coming out of China & Italy etc. that gave the impression of lethal virus (My notes: they didn’t mention the air pollution which is a huge factor in China and N. Italy as per articles along with pneumonia cases and commodities – there was an official organization in Italy early on which corrected the death numbers attributed to COVID-19)
Germany did very well but Belgium & Holland hit worse. (I think it will turn out to be the policies in some of those countries that made the deaths worse, I think we should be able to tell already).
Some populations were hit harder, maybe higher population of certain age (note: or it may have been genetic)
Population density a significant factor. Bigger cities huge difference than smaller ones.
Cultural factors maybe.
Institutions simplify the narrative and exclude the various factors, not recognizing them.
We didn’t overwhelm the hospitals (they were half-empty) there was social distancing but no idea what the objective is now! Hospitals were not overwhelmed. Coming down from peak in virus and 2 months later same lockdown measures.
People need to use their critical thinking and powers of deduction and get past the panic from the headlines.

Note: I really appreciated this interview, but to me, it’s a bit strange hearing one or two naive interpretations of events. Referring to “mission creep” for example is neither a valid explanation of the behavior of top politicians during COVID-19, nor is it a valid explanation of how long and destructive the Iraq War was. I hope that more people learn to accept that there is a very large, highly-organized long-term agenda which has reached a culmination, and it is spelled out in the Great Reset by the World Economic Forum–and had already been spelled out in countless international agreements about sustainability and carbon reduction. So there is this naive libertarianism (and naive liberalism and conservatism too) still going around which really isn’t going to work. Maybe this is how people can cope with craziness, but it won’t help us deal with reality to keep attributing evil policies to good motives, sloppy thinking and bad ideology. These explanations don’t explain our world at all.

But thanks to both gentlemen for the words of sanity.

Interview on Twitter