Surging COVID Cases Spark Draconian Measures

As COVID cases flare like a rampaging California wildfire, a swarm of authoritarian governors are resorting to stringent infringements on personal freedoms in the name of health and safety. Many measures are clearly unconstitutional.  Others are inane with no basis in science.  

The restrictions come in the wake of harsh lockdowns that persisted from spring through most of the summer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) assured Americans that forced isolations would "flatten the curve," thus relieving the stress on health systems while slowing the virus spread.

Most Americans abided by the dictates.  Of course, there were isolated cases of brazen misbehavior.  The actions of a few should not condemn the majority. But it is also fair to point out that scores of protests, riots, sporting events and post-election political celebrations were also contributors to the insidious spread.  

Once lockdown constraints were eased, the virus ticked up while hospitalizations remained within acceptable occupancies as determined by powerful health systems.  But as the new rules loosened, COVID cases began a steady march upward, triggering Draconian abuses of power. 

Michigan's Democrat  Governor Gretchen Whitmer ordered gatherings in personal residences be limited to include people from no more than two households. New Mexico's Democrat Governor Michelle Lyan Gresham slapped a limit of no more than five people per residence for Thanksgiving gatherings. 

Oregon's Democrat Governor Kate Brown capped indoor gatherings in personal residences at six people, threatening to use police to enforce her dictum.  Other states, such as Massachusetts and New Jersey, are ordering restaurants and bars to close between 10 p.m. at 5 a.m. based on whims not science.

Here is an example of the kind of condescending comments from health officials in support of the autocratic governors from Dr. Mark Dworkin, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Illinois:

"Plenty of people will congregate (on Thanksgiving) and nobody will get sick and they'll go 'hah nah, fake news.' But there will be other families that will be devastated and it will be very bad for them.  If you want to play Russian roulette with COVID, that's your right, but I think it's foolish."

What is clear by these haughty pronouncements from elitists is they believe you are the problem.  Forget their scientific-approved lockdowns failed.  These hypocrites believe you need to be punished despite the fact most Americans are wearing masks, social distancing and practicing hygiene in public.

There is no 100% safe way for people to go about their daily lives even masked and socially distanced. Sheltering in place 331 million people for a year is a prescription for health problems at least as life-threatening as the virus. Every country emerging from mass lockdowns is experiencing COVID spikes.

The governors, instead of haranguing citizens, should be embarrassed by their own miserable failure to protect the most vulnerable individuals, despite their pledges to make it a top priority of their COVID response.  COVID deaths at nursing homes are accelerating in every state.

The latest CDC figures show 37% of all new Coronavirus fatalities are linked to the nation's 26,000 nursing homes.  A total of 46% of all hospitalizations are for people aged 65 and older.  The CDC reports  a staggering 662,000 nursing home patients have been infected this year. 

Why haven't the governors been held accountable by the media and health officials?  The answer is the media's incessant political weaponization of the virus.  Now the media puppeteers are riveted on climbing cases to raise fear.  New tactics include deceitfully raising doubts about the safety of vaccines. 

Meanwhile, there has been no mention that the United States is now testing an average of 1.7 million individuals every day, contributing to the rising cases.  Nearly 200 million Americans (181.1 million) have been tested for the virus or 56% of the population, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

Of those individuals tested for COVID, more than 145.6 million tested negative.  The CDC estimates about 40% of those who tested positive are asymptomatic, meaning they exhibit none of the usual symptoms (dry cough, fever, lost of taste, etc.).

Although hospital wards are deluged with patients, stays for COVID patients are falling nationwide. A study by the Mayo Clinic hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, found hospital patient stays now average five days, half as long as in March. The reason: hospitals are armed with better treatment options now.  

The current billowing rise in cases could have been predicted as the cacacoon lockdowns were lifted.  Returning to the dark days of sheltering in place will be difficult if not impossible to enforce.  If nothing else, the country's hospitals and health officials should have beefed up staff for the inevitable flood.

This latest round of infringements clamped on individual liberties by governors is fueling more lawsuits.  Most state and federal courts have so far declined to invalidate state and local restraints to combat the virus, except for a handful of narrow rulings on curbs. But the tide is shifting.

A recent decision by the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Pennsylvania struck down unconstitutional aspects of Pennsylvania's emergency COVID order limiting the size of indoor gatherings and demanding the "closure of all business that are not life sustaining." 

That was followed last week by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the restraints on religious freedom imposed by New York's Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo, who clamped restrictions on churches and synagogues,  limiting worshipers to 10 or 25 during the pandemic.

The plaintiffs in the case claimed Cuomo's order unfairly targets houses of worship while treating secular institutions less stringently and allowing designated essential businesses to operate without similar limits.  Other state governors have also scapegoated religion as an enemy of public health and safety.

"Even in a pandemic, the Constitution cannot be put away and forgotten," the SCOTUS majority (5-4) wrote in its opinion.  "The restrictions at issue here, effectively banning many from attending religious services, strike at the very heart of the First Amendment guarantee of religious liberty."

    

It is about time the courts stepped into the breach of constitutional freedoms by politically ambitious governors who believe unelected scientists provide the authority to allow the government to order what Americans can do in the privacy of their homes.  

All Americans want to protect themselves from this virus. The overwhelming majority have followed the public orders to the letter. Blaming them for the upturn in cases is just a way for politicians to distract  responsibility for their own pathetic decisions which have fallen short in protecting the most vulnerable.