During the week of 11/22, Colorado’s First Gentleman, Marlon Reis, contracted Covid-19 and was taken to a hospital for treatment and observation. Subsequently, Governor Polis himself has tested positive and is quarantining at home. There has been plenty of news coverage of this event, yet not one news organization has asked the obvious question: if the Governor and by extension, his partner, were following the magical protocols set forth by the Governor himself, how did it come to be that they contracted the virus? Indeed, Reis himself proclaimed in a post to his Facebook feed that, “Wearing a mask properly reduces your risk by half! Also, make sure to avoid social gatherings (right now one in forty Coloradans are contagious with Coronavirus) and keep a distance from others.”
Who knows where Reis is getting his, “masks reduce your risk by half” claim, but an alleged news organization should be able to verify the veracity of the claim with ease, or if nothing else, at least call it into question and contextualize it. There are currently 260,581 Covid-19 cases in Colorado and with an estimated population of 5.5 million, the odds of contracting Covid-19 works out to about 0.5%. And as for dying from Covid-19, it is easy enough to do the math using the data available from the Colorado CDPHE website, but if you are under 70 years old, you have a 99.95% chance of survival.
Across the nation and around the globe, mask mandates and Covid-19 cases follow a similar trend, one in which wearing masks does nothing to prevent spikes in Covid-19 cases.If we are to believe that wearing a mask makes a significant difference (as conventional wisdom universally proclaims), why would cases be spiking recently? The answer is that no one really knows and the virus is going to do what the virus is going to do regardless of government mandated solutions. Below are some graphs showing the number of cases from a variety of geographic locations and an indicator of when certain mask mandates were implemented (all sources for the images can be found here and here). If you want to try your hand at creating your own graph, have at it! Here’s my attempt, Colorado’s mask mandate was implemented in July (my graphic isn’t as fancy, but you get the picture):
In the week leading up to November 20 (whereupon a state mandated Code Red order was implemented in Colorado), government officials and the news media were full of stories about spiking cases, hospital capacity concerns, and scary stories about virus outbreaks at social gatherings in houses and at restaurants. Take this giant wheel of terror proffered by Denver’s Fox31 Affiliate showing retail outbreaks through December 2:There are two things to note with the presentation of this graphic. First, they are giving you a cumulative view THROUGH December 2nd, which is factually true, but what good does it do for you to know that there was an outbreak at a Lululemon store four months ago? Secondly, outbreaks at retail/grocery stores have hovered around 6.5% of all outbreaks for at least the past six weeks (retail/grocery are the green bars at the bottom of the graph below from the CDHPE website). So why all the panic now, almost a full month after the peak of cases on 11/9? (image below) Why not include this with the graphic wheel of terror? They are showing you a snapshot of a snapshot, zoomed way in with the intent to deceive. What they are really showing you is fear. Look, here is a big scary graphic, that’s all you need to know.
Covid-19 outbreaks by type and date in Colorado:
Number of Covid-19 cases by onset day in Colorado:
The Code Red order eliminated indoor dining at restaurants, limited office capacity to 10%, capped capacity at places of worship and gyms, suggested capacity requirements for childcare and educational facilities and limited personal gatherings outside of one’s own family to zero (all the magical dictates are defined and can be found in this chart here). The order also continues to destroy the livelihood of countless small businesses and restaurant owners. The intent of the order was to curb the increases in cases that were occurring and to prevent a possible holiday spike, but in looking at the numbers from the government’s own website, it is evident that the peak had already occurred on November 9, well before the holiday get-togethers and Code Red order. This is a classic occurrence, wherein government attempts to take credit for something that was already occurring.
If the bureaucrats and their willing media counterparts are willing to give only half the story on this topic, the Most Important Story of our Lifetime™ (other than the latest election, of course) it takes no small leap in thought to understand that any story that is presented to you is only giving you half the story and surprise! it’s the fearful half that makes the headline. Not surprisingly, of course, is the number of people who go along with the standard narrative. Many do it because it’s easier, it seems right, why would they lie to us, if it saves just one life, do your part, get in line, etc. My advice? Do your own analysis and do what you think is best for you and your family and do what you can to protect the most vulnerable.
For a more rational approach to dealing with this virus, read the Great Barrington Declaration.
