The Two Weeks That Stretched into a Year, Part II

Exactly a year ago today, Texas shut down. Yesterday, the state officially lifted mandates and shutdowns. I went grocery shopping. Stores required masks, and people wore them. Nothing feels different yet. Maybe we could even speculate that no mandates or shutdowns were ever required. All people wanted and needed was accurate information—which is what we didn’t get.

Our household suffered less than many. We work at home, didn’t have kids in school. As an introvert, I was content to stay home most days with no pressure to be somewhere. That’s harder for Mr. Spherical Model. We have gotten through the year healthy (with exceptions of injury recovery for Mr. Spherical Model, unrelated to the pandemic). That probably gives me ability to consider what happened with less emotion than those who suffered greater losses. But I wanted to take a look back at this year today. My recounting is pretty mundane, but it may be useful for history—at least to me.

 

What We’ve Been Through This Year

Wikipedia has something of a detailed timeline. So I’m going to do one highlighting what I remember and experienced this past locked-down year. Feel free to skim. 

January 2020

·         We start hearing about this virus that supposedly came from a Wuhan wet market, which is spreading in China. We’re told it spreads by eating bat soup, not human-to-human.

screenshot from Epoch Times documentary on CCP virus

·         We hear of it spreading person-to-person in China, despite denials.

·         January 30 President Trump closes travel from China. Meanwhile, he is derided by Democrats for being racist.

February 2020

·         President Trump closes travel from Italy, where there is a serious outbreak, overwhelming hospitals, with high death rates particularly among the elderly.

·         Meanwhile Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco and Andrew Cuomo in New York City are calling for people to come out to Chinese New Year festivities, to show they are not cowed by President Trump’s “fearmongering.”

·         A cruise ship has an outbreak. People from the ship are quarantined until they are completely cleared of the disease.

The Grand Princess cruise ship had an
outbreak of COVID-19 a year ago.
Getty image from here

·         We begin learning that the virus came from a lab near Wuhan. It may have been an accidental leak; whistleblowers died. WHO said whatever the Chinese Communist Party told them to say. The Epoch Times calls it the CCP virus, which is probably most accurate.

March 2020

·         We work the polls for the primary election.

·         I sing in a choir, unaware that this won’t happen again for a very long time.

·         President Trump calls for businesses to retool to provide needed PPE (personal protective equipment). We need to rethink supply chains.

·         Democrats complain that President Trump has not done enough to prevent the spread, or to provide PPE.

·         Our kids visit and attend an off-season league football game—turns out to be the last outing for a while.

·         The rest of the Houston Rodeo is cancelled.

·         Businesses are shut down (March 11, 2020)—for two weeks, to “flatten the curve,” meaning to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed to the point that people die because of lack of resources for them.

·         We begin work on the district platform by Zoom meeting (which becomes very common this year).

·         District convention is postponed.

·         Schools close temporarily.

·         Our church closes temporarily—no Sunday or weekday meetings.

·         Our book club, which we hold in a nursing home with a resident there, is cancelled indefinitely.

·         We find ourselves mostly homebound, because Mr. Spherical Model broke his ankle (March 13), so he can’t walk or drive.

·         Early on, I imagine hospitals with overwhelming numbers of sick people, in parking lots, unable to get help inside. Why else would such drastic measures be put in place? This never happens anywhere in Texas. Some areas of New York and New Jersey were briefly overwhelmed, but no one went without help, as had happened in Italy.

·         President Trump starts holding daily press briefings on the pandemic, along with Drs. Fauci and Birx and others, to inform and reassure the public.

·         People start making masks at home, in large numbers to supply others. (I make enough for us to get by.) Clothing and other manufacturing companies retool to make PPE. Innovation happens to supply larger numbers of ventilators, which we later learn are seldom needed.

·         Dr. Fauci at first says the public should not use masks; they don’t work. Later he says they should wear masks. He excuses his lie because he had been concerned that the public would use up what was needed by healthcare professionals (our first hint that he lies because he doesn’t trust the public).

·         Guidelines are given for “social distancing,” which becomes a ubiquitous phrase: Stay home unless going out is necessary. Avoid contact with people outside your home. Stay outdoors, or, when indoors stay six feet apart; when unable to social distance indoors, then wear a mask. [This quickly got distorted into masks everywhere, in addition to social distancing, and in some places even outdoors alone, like on a surfboard or a bicycle.]

·         Texas suffers its first 47 deaths between March 16^th and the end of the month.

April 2020

·         More than two weeks have passed, the curve is lowered, so that there is no concern of overwhelming the system. But lockdowns and mandates continue with no indication of when they will be lifted.

·         The clearer it gets that there is no chance of overwhelming the hospitals, the more draconian the demands are on the people.

·         Schools either go virtual or shut down for the remainder of the school year.

·         Tax payments are postponed for 90 days. 

·         Governments show authoritarianism, inflicting mask mandates, identifying which businesses they will allow to open, and shutting down churches during Easter season, even when the churches are willing to meet outdoors, in cars, distanced, with no one coming into contact with others in the congregation. 

·         Good news comes out that doctors are successfully treating patients by intervening early with hydroxychloroquine along with zinc and azithromycin, as well as some other successful treatments. 

·         President Trump mentions a couple of treatment options and receives huge backlash. The media tout a Lancet study, which is one week later repealed, because it was a lie. Other studies touted use parts of useful protocols but at the wrong times—and in lethal doses—and then proclaim drugs such as hydroxychloroquine are dangerous. The media continues to tout these false studies and begins censoring information about useful treatments. 

May 2020

·         We’re doing church at home entirely. Fortunately, we’d been prepared over the past couple of years to be able to do just that.

·         Mr. Spherical Model, who has been commuting to work in his upstairs home office by scooting up the stairs on his backside, begins physical therapy to be able to walk again.

Mr. Spherical Model commuting
upstairs to his office

·         People who put businesses on hold “for two weeks” do some civil disobedience. [I heard Shelley Luther and her husband both testify on HB 3 today in the House State Affairs committee meeting; they are still fighting the criminalization she went through, even though she opened her business safely and no one spread the virus there—but she did it before government allowed. Yet government did nothing to repair the “takings” they did to her and many other people.] 

·         We visit kids—all of whom have been safely virus-free—for a birthday celebration.

·         I did the garden this year, since Mr. Spherical Model cannot.

June 2020

·         Our community pool is closed for the summer, even though outdoors, and with chlorinated water, spreading is unlikely. Our neighborhood park has all the equipment taken down and is closed. We will not get any refund from the HOA for this loss of amenities.

·         We hold the district convention in person, beyond county boundaries to avoid the county judge’s no-gathering orders. No one gets or spreads the virus at this gathering of several hundred people.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw speaks at
our District 7 convention June 15, 2020

·         I no longer disinfect my groceries as I bring them into the house. There’s something called “viral load” that means, unless you have an infected person sneeze a lot of saliva right on your items, you’re not likely to have the virus passed to you from items, food, packages, clothing, etc.

·         We still don’t know anyone who has had the virus. I start keeping track of data, including my zip code, where we have our first two deaths.

·         Riots have become a daily part of life in several cities around the country; these are not thought to spread the virus for some reason. 

July 2020

·         We help our neighbor rehabilitate his pool so I can swim daily.

·         I attend the first two days of the State Republican Convention committee meetings in person, downtown (I’m editing the platform, not on a committee). I work the third day from home. No illness is spread to anyone attending these in-person meetings.

·         That same week Mr. Spherical Model runs our primary election runoff (postponed from May), safely, but in an unpleasant alternate location. There is PPE and hand sanitizer everywhere. People use a latex finger glove to touch equipment, and are given sanitizing wipes. All is safer than grocery shopping; nevertheless, the interim county clerk attempts multiple ways of thwarting election integrity and blaming it on the virus. This is a wake-up call for the November election.

·         The rest of the State Convention is done virtually because of the Mayor’s last-minute contract-breaking lockdown order. Doing business virtually with 7,000+ people is nigh unto impossible. We face denial of service and other hacking problems (including on the platform). Business is not completed at this time.

·         Frontline Doctors begin speaking out—but are silenced. Some are fired. [Months later, now, we know what they said was true.] 

Frontline Doctors speak out.
screenshot from here

August 2020

·         We start having in-person church, limited to 50 people, in masks and social distanced, per session. I offer to play the organ for our session—even though we aren’t allowed to sing—promising to wipe it down afterward.

·         We’ve missed having our Texas grandchildren each spend a week with us, as in other summers, but we get a quick visit.

·         Texas has had a surge, but by the end of the month is in decline. At this point the county judge places a graphic on the county public health site to indicate we are in the red zone, high alert, despite the decline. [This graphic never changes, no matter what the numbers are, we now know.]

from the Harris County
public health site

·         Using the pandemic as an excuse for skirting election integrity rules—particularly concerning ballots by mail—increases. 

·         I attend an online music festival, which in some ways offers more than in-person, and is less expensive. It has been a hard time for musicians and others who make their living from music festivals and other performances.

·         We help son Economic Sphere and his wife move into their first owned home.

September 2020

·         Schools are either delayed or done with some combination of in-person and virtual teaching. Our grandchildren, in a small Texas town, get to attend in person but must wear masks. Schools around us are mixed—parents decide. Teachers must do both.

·         Teachers we know are among the most frightened about getting COVID-19, despite their relative youth and good health.

·         The President and First Lady get COVID-19 and recover quickly. 

·         A brother-in-law gets it and suffers badly—until he changes to a doctor that does the HCQ/zinc/Zithromax protocol and he improves almost instantly. 

·         There’s no trick-or-treating this year.

My grandson designed our pumpkin

·         We start having up to 100 people attend church, spread out. People have the option of joining virtually from home.

November 2020

·         The election fiasco happens—everything we warned against and more.

·         We work our polling place. None of our workers gets exposed to the virus.

·         People are warned not to gather for Thanksgiving. We nevertheless have Thanksgiving with kids—outdoor dining. So illness is spread at this gathering.

December 2020

·         Mr. Spherical Model injures his shoulder putting our Christmas tree up on the car. (I was inside Kroger waiting way too long for help.)

·         Mr. Spherical Model travels to help out a nephew; he further injures his shoulder.

·         Mr. Spherical Model gets shoulder surgery, preventing us from celebrating our anniversary. I spend the day wearing a mask in the waiting room. No illness is spread from this time in public.

·         We have our first Tea Party meeting since February. It is well attended, and we look at what we can do, looking forward to the legislative session. No one gets sick from attending this gathering.

·         People are warned not to gather for Christmas. We ignore that. Kids visit on Christmas day. But we have no church party or other gatherings. I make my specialty dipped chocolates as usual, but we have a difficult time knowing how to give them away. A few people accept plates dropped off at doorsteps. The rest get eaten by Mr. Spherical Model, who gains some temporary weight.

January 2021

·         We get to start singing at church. I play the piano until the organ gets fixed. Still limited to 100 people, with masks, spread out every other pew.

·         There are various versions of the vaccine available and being rolled out. I will not be getting one, since I am a lot more likely to have an adverse reaction to the vaccine than I am to die from the virus (assuming appropriate treatment—but my plan is to avoid ever getting it).

·         Authorities say you must wear a mask, even after both doses of the vaccine. They do not explain why that would be necessary. They do not well explain why people who have had the virus still need the vaccine and must wear masks and avoid gatherings.

·         Mr. Spherical Model begins physical therapy for his shoulder, while I do all the heavy lifting of putting Christmas away.

·         There are a million or so people at the US capitol on January 6^th, approximately .01% whom loot and pillage the place, with media blaming the President. No one talks about this being a super-spreader event, because it isn’t one.

·         The CDC (or is it WHO, who have US funding again because of Biden?) lowers the number of cycles for testing, which, not surprisingly, lowers numbers of new cases right after the Biden inauguration.

·         Since we spend so much time at home these days, we give in and get a puppy. She’s adorable, but big trouble—and getting very big soon (a Great Pyrenees).

Our new puppy likes snow.

February 2021

·         News media tell the surprising news that HCQ with zinc and Zithromax, and a couple of other treatments are actually effective—failing to explain why they’ve been censoring this information since March. 

·         President Biden claims there was no vaccine available when he took office—forgetting that he received both his doses prior to inauguration, the first in December and the second in early January.

·         We have friends and family members who have been getting the vaccines. It appears to be common for the second shot to be much worse than the first—causing pain and possibly a couple of days of fever. This is supposed to indicate that it is working. (I’m noting that, for some, this reaction is worse than the virus typically is for their demographic.)

·         We survive the “snowpocalypse” in Texas—without power for a day and a half, better off than those who lost power longer and had frozen pipes that burst. Loss of power suddenly looks like a greater catastrophe than a pandemic, the worst of which is the shutdown of society combined with refusal to allow treatments. 

·         There is concern that vaccination may be required for participation in various parts of society—shopping, traveling, attending events, for example. Then there is the question of how they know—will we have to carry around certifications? Will I be allowed an exemption for health reasons, or will I lose the ability to function in society?

·         The media suddenly becomes aware of what we knew almost a year ago: NY Governor Andrew Cuomo order infected people into nursing homes, causing the deaths of thousands, and then covered it up. And, by the way, he’s being called out for sexual harassment, as though that were the more important issue.

March 2021

·         CDC guidance now admits that wearing a mask after taking the virus will not be necessary.

·         The current occupant of the White House seems to have forgotten to address the joint houses of Congress this year.

·         Former President Trump addresses the country from CPAC in Florida, where there is a large gathering—allowed by Governor DeSantis. No one seems to be attempting to claim that CPAC will be a super-spreader event.

·         Governor Noem of South Dakota is something of a CPAC rock star, because she never locked down the state, and they fared as well or better than most states—without the damage to the economy.

·         Evidence shows that the states and cities with the tightest restrictions not only do not fare better than more open states; they fare worse. California is attempting to recall its governor. And New York’s governor is not likely to last much longer either.

·         My zip code is exactly average in Texas for deaths from COVID-19. There have been 17; three happened within a week in February. Before that most months had only 1. I have not known any. The daily active cases (7-day rolling average) has been decreasing since January 25.

·         The daily deaths for Harris County (7-day rolling average) is 12, where it has been for some time, down from a high of 40 in August.

from the Harris County Public Health site March 10, 2021

·         Daily deaths in Texas (7-day rolling average) have dipped below 200, down from 349 at the beginning of February, which is approximately what it was in August at the peak. It isn’t clear to me where those deaths are taking place, since I don’t track all 250 counties. Harris County claims high case counts still, although actual numbers don’t bear that out. But we make up nearly 14% of the state’s population yet only 6% of the state’s daily COVID deaths. Some people speculate it is illegal immigrants at the border bringing in cases, but data doesn’t show large case counts there.

What Have We Learned

We’ve learned not to trust government with our healthcare. When they continue a two-week lockdown indefinitely, without explaining why or setting reasonable expectations for when it will end, they lose our willing cooperation.

We’ve learned not to trust experts in a single specialty to set policy for all of society; they consider everything (and everybody) outside their specialty nonessential, expendable, or irrelevant.

 

Dr. Scott Atlas quantifies other losses compared to COVID-19 deaths,
as of half a year ago. Screenshot from here

We’ve learned not to trust the media to either tell us the truth or to allow truth to be told—even when that censoring costs lives.

Our family has been blessed to get through this entire year without losing a loved one to the disease. We know that’s not true for millions of people. We do know people who have lost close loved ones; the virus is real. But this virus may be a risk we learn to live with, as we have the 1918 flu and some other maladies. If we can grasp that, then life can get back to something approaching normal.

Virus conditions are better than they could be; it wasn’t as deadly as we feared, and there are treatments and vaccines. The economy and society are worse than they should be; we shouldn’t have let that happen, and we’d better prevent it going forward.

The Two Weeks That Stretched into a Year, Part I

Last week Governor Greg Abbott announced the end to mask mandates and lockdowns in Texas. This is to take effect on Wednesday, March 10, 2020.

We are all cheering, right? Yes and no. Yes, we’re glad for the freedom and movement back toward normal. No, our freedoms should not be dependent on a governor’s say so. If we have inalienable rights, then why does a governor have the power to take them away and restore them at his command?

Again, the Babylon Bee accidentally offers real news.
Image from their Facebook page, March 7, 2021

At one point, last spring, our county judge tried to enforce a mask mandate and several other draconian orders. The governor, to his credit, said that a county could not mandate, but only suggest.

Then—and I’m fuzzy about just when—the governor set a mask mandate for the state and set rules for which businesses could open under what circumstances. Just like our socialist county judge.

By the time we got to the district and state Republican conventions—which for me is about writing the platform—there were many people around the state concerned with this unlimited authority being wielded by our state and local governments. So there were multiple platform planks insisting that we reiterate the limits.

And now, in the legislature, there are multiple bills identifying ways to curtail executive overreach. (SJR 29, HB 311, SB 422, SB 525 and companion bill HB 665, HB 1557, HB 1691, SB 1025, SJR 45)

Meanwhile, there’s this sneaky priority bill being pushed by the governor, HB 3. HB3 doesn't prevent executive overreach; it will set in stone for all time (relatively speaking) the authority to take whatever measures he likes if he ever declares another pandemic emergency—and criminalizes anyone unwilling to go along.

I remember first hearing Governor Abbott speak, at the first Texas State Republican Convention I attended, back in 2004. Every time I heard him speak, I liked him. He understood the principles of the Constitution. And during the Obama years, when he was still the Texas Attorney General, he frequently sued the federal government for its overreach. I was so happy to be able to vote for him as our governor.

That’s why it feels like such a betrayal that he takes this authority on himself, now that he is governor. HB 3 doesn’t prevent executive overreach; it sets it in Stone.

In Sec. 418A.002, which lists the purposes of HB 3, it contradicts itself. Purpose (4) says it is to:

protect and preserve individual liberties guaranteed under the United States Constitution and the Texas Constitution.

Then, just a couple of lines lower, purpose (6) says it is to:

clarify and strengthen the roles of the governor, state agencies, the judicial branch of state government, and local governments in the prevention of, preparation for, response to, and recovery from a pandemic disaster.

You can’t do both; either you preserve our God-given rights under the Constitution, or you take away those rights by "strengthening" the government's power to abridge them.

Not everyone is OK with lifting
the mandate, which I guess is how 
you get bills like HB 3.
Image from Dwayne Stovall.

Several bills are requiring the Governor to call a special session within 30 days of the declaration of a disaster, including a pandemic, to determine whether any disaster restrictions should continue. But this bill grants the governor essentially unlimited time to keep the disaster declaration going—until there’s no longer any threat (hint: the 1918 flu pandemic hasn’t technically ended yet). The bill pretends, but does not do what is required.

In Sec. 418A.053, concerning the governor’s declaration of a state of pandemic disaster, the 30 days limit comes up, but it's sufficiently weakened to be meaningless:

(c)  A state of pandemic disaster may not continue for more than 30 days unless renewed by the governor.  The legislature by law may terminate a state of pandemic disaster at any time. On termination by the legislature, the governor shall issue an executive order ending the state of pandemic disaster.

Here’s the thing: the legislature can’t do anything if it isn’t in session, and only the governor calls a special session. So the governor can theoretically keep renewing the disaster declaration monthly until the next legislative session—a 5-month window every other year, during only 2-3 months of which are bills voted on.

Here’s another very bad thing. In Sec. 418A.104, local election officials can change voting laws to accommodate the pandemic—i.e., suspend laws put in place for voter integrity. All they have to do is write for permission from the Secretary of State, who is given authority under this bill to supersede the legislature at will—just as we saw done in multiple states that still have the cloud of fraud hanging over them, and which is in violation of the US Constitution, clear to anyone who has actually read it. That’s what we want to prevent in Texas, not encourage.

And there’s this force of law thing snuck in there. In Sec. 418A.152 we learn that the governor plans to enforce his reign—and not just his, but any state, local, or interjurisdiction rules—with criminal penalties and fines up to $1,000. This is from a governor who, at the outset claimed he didn’t have authority to mandate things like business closures, mask wearing, or limits on leaving your home or gathering; all he could do was issue recommendations.

For some reason, as we learned that the disease was less deadly than originally thought, and we learned which citizens were most at risk, and we learned best practices for treatment—so that this virus became no more threatening than a bad flu season—the governor “discovered” new executive powers that he feels so strongly about that he will use the full power of criminal law enforcement.

In Sec. 418A.157 concerning education during a pandemic, it offers something I think I might favor. If a school or district doesn’t offer full-time in-person education for a student, that student can use an off-campus instructional program by “an entity other than a school district or open-enrollment charter school.” The student will be counted as attending, and the school will reimburse the off-campus instructional program. This has the potential for introducing some free-market choice into public education—but only with approval, and only in the absence of in-person schooling because of a pandemic. So, maybe this year only, and not signed into law until the end of this school year. So—probably never. 

Also, you don’t need HB 3 to get this little tidbit. Senator Lois Kolkhorst has introduced a bill to allow something similar (SB 481)—a student can attend in-person school in another district when the student’s district doesn’t provide that, and the original district or general funds will have to pay the district providing in-person schooling for that student.

Governor Abbott announcing the end of mandates and lockdowns
Image found in this Buck Sexton story

If you're in Texas you know what to do: contact your state representative and insist on smashing this bill. If there's something we need to do to actually be prepared—like knowing where we're getting PPE supplies, for example—we need a bill limited to doing that. This one is a tyrant's paradise with the added camouflage of being a Republican governor's priority bill. 

What we should have learned from this past year:

·         Don’t trust so-called “experts” with an agenda—and never trust the experts of a single field to set policy that affects all of society.

·         Don’t trust politicians with any power over our God-given rights—even for the duration of an emergency.

·         Don’t worry about one health threat while ignoring all other threats.

·         Trust the Constitution; it works every time it’s tried.  

Since it has been a full year, as of this week, I wanted to look back at what we’ve been through. But this was enough for a day; we’ll do that in Part II.