This is one of the first good news since the start of containment on March 17. The number of individuals infected by each person infected with SARS-CoV-2 is now less than one, or even much less in certain regions, announced the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, during his press briefing on Monday, April 6 .

This figure, close to three before the French were "placed under house arrest", shows that the chain of transmission has considerably slowed down, even if it will take time for the pressure on the health system to decrease. More than 7,000 Covid-19 patients are currently in intensive care, but 14,000 beds may be needed in the long term, according to government estimates (against a capacity of 5,000 beds before the epidemic began).

Read also Coronavirus: more than 10,000 dead in France, one in four employees in partial activity

On the flip side, by curbing the epidemic wave, the authorities have also delayed the time when enough French people will be immunized to definitively stop the spread of the coronavirus. Without a vaccine, this "group immunity" can only be acquired through contact with SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19. To reach it, epidemiologists estimate that about 60% of the population should have been infected.

This horizon still seems very distant: according to the assessments of epidemiologists from Imperial College London, taken up by the Minister of Health, only 3% of the French population is today immune.

 

Read more:

https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2020/04/07/le-deconfinement-une-e...

Panic and Political Absurdity in the Face of the Pandemic

by Thierry Meyssan

Every major epidemic has changed the course of history, not necessarily by wiping out populations, but by provoking revolts and changes in political regimes. In the panic, we are unable to think and we behave collectively in an animal-like manner. Many societies have not survived the stupid decisions they made then.

In history, the great epidemics that wiped out national economies were almost all followed by numerous overthrows of the executives. The one at Covid-19 should be no exception to this rule, no matter how many deaths it may cause. That is why political leaders around the world are making decisions that they know are unnecessary, just to show their fellow citizens that they have done everything in their power.

Social psychology shows that fear is not proportional to the danger, but to not being able to assess and control it.

When an unknown disease occurs and there is no telling how many men it will kill, Science tries to know about it by doubting everything. Politicians, on the other hand, have to make decisions without knowing more than researchers. Some politicians therefore surround themselves with people who have advanced science in the past, appoint them as "experts" on what they do not yet know, and use them to say how much good they think of their policies. For them, the aim is not to save lives, but to act to guarantee their Power.

Lockdowns

The media are trying to convince their fellow citizens that their own Executive has taken the same measures as the others and therefore cannot be accused of laxity. They obscure the debate by falsely claiming that 3 billion people are simultaneously confined for medical reasons. This is an amalgamation of very different situations and lies about their objectives.

The term "lockdown" is used today to refer as well: 

- Quarantine. That is to say the confinement in an airlock, usually a boat, by customs, until they are sure not to allow sources of disease to enter the country. This measure was invented by the Duke of Milan in 1374. This is what Japan did in February with the liner Diamond Princess. 

- A sanitary cordon. It is the isolation of a sick neighbouring country or a sick population group so that it does not transmit the disease to the rest of the population. Healthy people are then at risk of being infected by the sick. In the seventeenth century, Italy and Spain had the army isolate sick population groups, with orders to shoot on sight if individuals tried to leave. This is what China did with the population of Hubei. 

- The confinement of people at risk. It is the designation of a category of citizens as potentially sick and its prohibition to meet the rest of the population so that they cannot be infected, nor infect others. This is what France does, for example, by prohibiting entry into institutions for the elderly and residents from leaving them. 

- Assigning an entire population to house arrest without distinction. This measure was not required by infectious diseases doctors, but by statistical epidemiologists in order not to saturate hospitals with a massive influx of patients in a short period of time. It has no historical precedent.

Only measures to prevent a disease from infecting a territory have sometimes been successful, as in 1919 in the United States Samoa Islands, which effectively protected itself from the Spanish flu that ravaged New Zealand Samoa. However, closing a border is no longer worthwhile when the disease is already present.

However, measures to slow down an epidemic have never succeeded in lowering the mortality rate. Worse, by spreading the disease over time, they make the population vulnerable to a second and then a third wave of contamination, until a vaccine is made available on a massive scale and requires at least 18 months of preparation. While populations that refuse to be placed under house arrest gradually acquire herd immunity that protects them during new waves of contamination. Contrary to the dominant discourse, current forms of confinement are therefore likely to increase the number of deaths considerably over time. Since some countries do not practise these measures, such as South Korea or Sweden, it will be possible to compare the results when new waves of contamination occur. The hyper-precautionary policy of political leaders may then backfire.

Decline of civilization

It is not possible to live together if we are afraid of each other. Civilization cannot be based on mistrust. It is therefore, for example, not humanly acceptable to forbid accompanying sick people on their deathbed. We cannot accept being deprived of our freedom without good reason.

The European Convention on Human Rights of November 4, 1950, which was signed by all the states of the European continent from the United Kingdom to Russia, authorises "lawful detention of a person likely to spread a contagious disease" (Article 5e), not for the purpose of managing the influx of patients in hospitals.

The European Union Treaties raise the bar even higher by stating that the "right of movement of persons" is part of the EU’s identity. De facto, several member states have placed themselves outside this fundamental rule, starting the disintegration of the supranational state.

Some governments have chosen to turn citizens into enemies. In doing so, they deprive the state of legitimacy in their regard, since the state also becomes their enemy.

In France, the prefect of police in Paris, Didier Lallement, said that the people who are being resuscitated today are the same people who yesterday violated the confinement orders.

Already on another continent, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered his police to "shoot and kill" any citizen who tries to break the containment rules before changing his mind.

If everyone is aware of the exorbitant economic cost of current politics and if everyone discovers its destructive psychological impact on the weak, few people are aware of the political bill to come.

 

Placebo measures

 

Ignorant of the new disease, medical and political authorities advocate placebo measures to keep the morale of their fellow citizens high.

In the seventeenth century, plague doctors wore a kind of suit made of linen, leather or waxed cloth and a mask with a long nose which allowed them to breathe through various fumigations of mint, camphor etc. Invented by the King of France’s physician, it spread throughout Europe. Today some people also wear plastic or rubber suits against coronavirus with surgical masks. The wearing of these masks began for the general public during the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918 in Japan. People’s confidence was rebuilt by being dressed as Western surgeons. It gradually became established in Asia and spread to the rest of the world during the Covid-19 epidemic of 2020. However, never before has the effectiveness of plague doctors’ suits or surgical suits and masks for all been proven against an epidemic.

Anyway, by recommending the use of the surgeon’s suit to protect oneself from the disease, the Chinese medical authorities, and then the political leaders of the world, are proposing a solution to a problem that no one can solve at present. The main thing is to act, not to prevent and even less to treat.

Thierry Meyssan

Translation 

 

Roger Lagassé

 

Read more:

https://www.voltairenet.org/article208720.html

 

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INVESTIGATION:

In Paris as well as in the provinces, the police receive calls to denounce breaches, real or supposed, of containment measures. A limited phenomenon so far, but revealing the anxieties of the times and the weight of the past.

An email has disappointed "professional denouncers". The town hall of the 20th arrondissement of Paris sent this mail to its citizens on March 19: (...) It ["denouncing"] saturates the emergency system. Also, it is requested not to call '17' to report these breaches of the containment rules. "

A few days later, 18,000 km from Paris, the authorities of New Zealand experienced a similar congestion, but without complaints. On the contrary: the local police had themselves set up a digital platform calling for denunciation. Overcome by an overload of calls, the site found itself out of service in a few hours.

In France, since the announcement of the confinement, as always — when exceptional police measures are applied — regime changes, state of emergency, wars, etc. — the authorities noted a significant increase of these "reports".

Why, unlike the New Zealand administration — imitated by Canadian, Spanish and Belgian municipalities — does the Paris Prefecture of Police want to discourage them? First, because these denunciations often prove to be useless, if not slanderous. "In the context of confinement, reports that identify specific people generally make us waste time," confirms an official in Saint-Etienne. These calls claim to fulfill a civic duty. In reality, many are linked to neighbourhood problems. When we go there, most often, there is nothing. Even more so when the reports are anonymous — their authors forget that the blocked numbers, due to the urgency of certain calls, have no secrets on our lines ... "

In Caen, after an anonymous call pointing to a rally in the garden of a condominium, the police moved without finding anyone to report. "I went upstairs to sleep with my 8-year-old son," said Julia B., one of the two women targeted by denouncing. "With a neighbour, we went down to get fresh air, scrupulously respecting social distancing. I felt empowered: my confinement had started two weeks before the government’s announcement, after returning from my vacation in Sicily. But members of two different households are apparently prohibited from entering the building's garden". Does this 37-year-old special education worker know the person who reported her? "I think she is one of my neighbours," she presumes. "She lives alone and can't wait to throw me out. Our apartments are poorly soundproofed. She always blames me for making noise."

 

Read more:

https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2020/04/10/avec-le-coronavirus-le...

 

Translation by Jules Letambour

 

(Jules: the argot names for denouncer in French include "corbeau" (crow) and mouchard (sneezer)...

 

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Casey Chalk has a beef about doggies. Especially American doggies… Casey Chalk covers religion and other issues for The American Conservative and is a senior writer for Crisis Magazine. He has degrees in history and teaching from the University of Virginia. He has a masters in theology from Christendom College. He’s a hoot… because he is so predictably prejudiced about anything that is not religious nor godly. We’re not. Between dogs and gods, we shall prefer dogs even if we have to "dutifully pick up their excrements in the yards of those very same neighbors, whose names we haven’t even bothered to learn.” He tells us without thinking, I feel:

Who doesn’t love a feel-good story about dogs? How about an entire section of your newspaper devoted entirely to man’s best friend? You’re in luck, because TheWashington Post’s September 8 print edition featured a special insert entitled: “Dog Days: How Canines Became Indispensable During the Pandemic.” One might think family, neighbors, or perhaps religious faith might have proved the essential, oft-overlooked salve to quarantine life. But no—Fido, in all his friendliness and faithfulness, is the key to happiness in 2020 America.

Perhaps the Chinese zodiac cycle—according to which we are currently (and aptly) in the “Year of the Rat”—requires revision. “Shelter’s nonprofit rescues, private breeders, pet stores—all reported more consumer demand than there were dogs and puppies to fill,” notes one WaPo article. Yet the Wuhan Flu has been hard on dogs too, explains another. “Pets are finding the pandemic disorienting. Their routines have been upended, and everyone’s wearing a mask.”

….

There are a lot of miserable Americans right now, compounded not only by the coronavirus but by a summer of social unrest and an upcoming election that will further expose the fraying cords of whatever’s left of national civic unity. Perhaps what’s even sadder is that rather than seek solace and purpose in loving our neighbor, we’d rather find comfort in four-legged creatures whose excrement we dutifully pick up in the yards of those very same neighbors, whose names we haven’t even bothered to learn. We need these dog days of summer to end.

Read more:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/coronavirus-is-for-the-...


Good one Casey. We’re (nearly) with you on this one. To a point. A point at which we have to recognise that many people with dogs, really enjoy the company. Dogs aren’t indispensable. Religious faith is entirely dispensable. Actually religious faith should be drowned immediately, should you be alone. It’s full of weasel words and if you believe, the devil could catch you swiftly… In these times of Covid arrest of the economic lifeblood, neighbours are a good source of comfort for the lonely who don’t have a dog. Those who are lucky enough to have found human love before the pandemic should treasure this relationship to the hilt and avoid situations that could rock the boat. But having a neighbour your know the name of whom, say Judy and John, who have a dog could give the pleasure to pat the dog, Bluey (it’s a red setter) while actually not owning one and its vet bills...

In regard to dogs, most of them are there to please a master. Being a master (or a mistress) can only make you feel good… It’s in their DNA and your DNA. Having to deal with other beings on an equal footing is fraught with compromises. Should you indulge in religious faith, you’re the moron who becomes submissive… 

Usually dogs don’t ask questions nor do they demand much: a walk in the park which is healthy for your flab, a few trees to sniff about and some food that comes out of a packet or a tin. The rest of the time, they are at the ready to lick your face when you get too close — and they love to be scratched. And you love to scratch your dog while saying: “who's a good dog now, who’s a good dog now"… at least twice so you know he understands that you won’t forget to feed him soon. Most dogs hate cats and I don’t blame them…

But having a nice relation with someone else without stress nor silly compromise and making happy deals in the best way to go, and you can still have a dog, Patchie, to share to boot… What’s wrong with that?

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