My Daily Kona

 Thank you to every one for their comments of condolences of us loosing "goofy", they were much appreciated.

Well we were in Puerto Rico and I saw something in the bakery where I was getting really good coffee..

 I know I posted something a couple of days ago about Covid Restrictions, but I will continue to add more material.  Sure, this article focuses more on the aviation industry, but it bleeds over into the general economy, and more information that I can out there and if helps someone with information to counteract the coming madness as I see the rumors of coming restrictions and mask mandates as there is "Supposedly" some super strain from Africa.(How convenient you know)  I personally believe that this is a cover to run the same playbook the donks and their apparatchiks used in the 2020 election to scare the crap out of people and push the "Mail In ballots" that were so successful in the 2020 elections to in effect to "steal the Elections like they did in 2020.  Sure, that happened 2.5 years ago, but my belief hasn't changed, matter of fact it has solidified and the subsequent charges against the presumptive frontrunner from the GOP every time there is a problem for the Bidens, Trump collects another indictment to push the Biden drama off the news cycle.

Credit: Chalabala / Getty Images

The financial cost to airlines worldwide of the coronavirus pandemic has been well documented, with estimates in the $280 billion range for the two worst years of 2020 and 2021. 

The industry also proved to be resilient in the face of its worst ever crisis, with IATA now forecasting a net profit of around $10 billion for airlines as a collective in 2023, although most carriers will remain deeply in debt.

What has been less widely reported is the cost for human populations of government policies that were swiftly introduced in the early weeks and months of the pandemic and that targeted and severely restricted global air travel. 

At the end of the day, it wasn’t the coronavirus that brought the global passenger air transport system almost to a standstill (cargo operations continued but under severe constraints); it was the border shutdowns, mandatory quarantines, and multiple and expensive testing processes that prevented or dissuaded people from flying. And in many regions, those rules continued for months—in some cases years—after vaccination programs were well established and data pointed to the ineffectiveness of such rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Scientific data also showed that flying did not raise the risk of catching the coronavirus. On the contrary, the hospital-grade HEPA filters on modern airliners combined with masking and the natural barriers provided by seatbacks made them one of the safest places to be, certainly safer than a restaurant or grocery store.

All this was mostly ignored by governments, which for the most part implemented, then stuck with, prolonged air travel restrictions regardless of whether they did any good.

But reports are now coming out from a set of independent studies—many conducted by top medical and university organizations worldwide—that show that far from doing any good, these rules did great harm. And for all the immense cost to airlines, those rules inflicted far worse on the economies and citizens of the nations that governments were supposedly trying to protect.

The September ATW cover story “World in Chains” reports on the calamitous findings of these studies. For the most part, the government rules did little to nothing to stop the spread of the virus. At best, they delayed the spread to some remote islands by a few weeks at most and ultimately, they did not prevent infection.

Without their vital air connections, 90 million people fell into extreme poverty, receiving less than $2.15 per day as tourism and export demand collapsed. About 350 million people were pushed into food insecurity, risking starvation, according to the United Nations. Tragically, it was the poorest and most vulnerable who suffered most and will, undoubtedly, find it hardest to recover.

As Subhas Menon, director general at the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, put it, “government response was generally knee-jerk as well as isolationist and parochial.”

While governments and their people are understandably eager to move on and put the dark years of the pandemic behind them—something that is clear by the huge demand for air travel last summer and in 2023—the wider lessons of the effect of these policies need to be broadcast and understood.

A professor involved in one of the studies has called for an investigation similar to that which typically follows an air crash, and it’s a sensible and perhaps urgent call. Reports are emerging of yet another coronavirus variant taking hold. Thankfully, there’s also likely to be a vaccine up to task of mitigating the effects on human life. 

But given how reluctant governments were to turn back their border and air travel policies in the face of strong scientific data, why should the air transport industry or the general public trust or believe that governments will behave more wisely and rationally if there is another COVID-19 wave?

In any human crisis, the air transport system can be a vital part of the solution. Directly, it can get medical experts, equipment and food swiftly to where they are needed. The global air cargo system delivered ventilators, masks and then vaccines throughout the pandemic. Indirectly, air connectivity also delivers people, trade, and prosperity. Will that lesson be learned?

This popped up in my work feed from a 3rd party email.  I have concerns because there is apparently a new strain of "Covid" in several countries in Africa and our "Betters" will probably try to use the playbook from 2020 to ratchet down again and scare the crap out of the "low info voters" again and push the absentee voting that worked soo well for the Donks, they will try something because a lot of people are disillusioned with the meat puppet presently in the White House.  

Credit: daboost/Getty Images

It was the worst public health disaster in a century and the worst economic crash since the Great Depression. And it did the worst damage to the airline industry since World War II. What can be learned from the COVID-19 pandemic that will prevent a repetition, of either the virus or its massive damage?

Every virus is different and methods of dealing with each must be tailored to the virus itself, Sunetra Gupta, a professor of theoretical epidemiology at the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford, cautions. But Gupta thinks some lessons from COVID can and should be learned.

Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine, economics, and health research policy at Stanford University puts it more strongly. Like Gupta, Bhattacharya warned against lockdowns and all the other restrictions early in the pandemic. He now thinks something similar to an NTSB review of a disastrous aircraft crash is needed to look at how governments mishandled the virus.

Nearly three years after Gupta, Bhattacharya and many others made their arguments, a raft of studies, research reports and meta-analyses of many studies reached the same conclusion: With the exception of fast and tight border closings of a handful of Asia-Pacific islands, all the non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) ordered by governments, including restrictions on air travel, had little effect on virus mortality but imposed massive economic, social, health and other costs on people.   

Source: “A Literature Review And Meta-Analysis Of The Effects Of Lockdowns On Covid-19 Mortality,” Jonas Herby, Lars Jonung, Steve Hanke, Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health and Study of Business Enterprise, May 2022.

Researchers from the University of Washington and the University of Edinburgh’s Medical School reviewed 600 publications and studies and concluded that lockdowns, school closures, travel restrictions and other NPIs inflicted huge “collateral damage,” beyond that of the virus itself.

During the pandemic, heath visits, diagnostics, therapeutics and hospital admissions declined between 30% and 60% for non-COVID illnesses. Mental health also declined, especially for those vulnerable to mental challenges. Pandemic damage thus included an increase of between 2% and 20% in non-COVID mortality, higher in some countries.

Per capita GDP initially declined about 7% in emerging markets, 5% in advanced economies and 4% in low-income countries. Even after recovery, the 2024 GDP in emerging and developing countries will remain 6% below levels expected before the pandemic, according to the World Bank. Borrowing to counter this slump led to the largest one-year increase in global debt since World War II, which will crimp social expenditures of poor countries well into the future. Income inequality increased both within and between nations. Global poverty increased for the first time in a generation, and 90 million people fell into extreme poverty, receiving less than $2.15 per day as tourism and export demand collapsed. About 350 million people were pushed into food insecurity, risking starvation, according to the UN.

Sources: 2022 Actual GDP v. 2013-2019 GDP Trend To 2022; Worldometer, mid-July, 2023

Some of this immense damage was caused by the virus itself or voluntary reactions to the virus. But as much as half the GDP losses were caused by government policies—the NPIs, including travel restrictions—according to economist Douglas Allen of Simon Fraser University, who drew this conclusion after reviewing 100 COVID studies. Yet Allen found that these same policy reactions “had, at best, a marginal effect on the number of COVID-19 deaths.” For different nations, per capita death rates generally showed no relation to the stringency of each country’s NPIs. This was chiefly because people voluntarily changed much of their behavior in light of the virus’s danger to themselves.

 I saw this and clipped it,  I already knew this.  It even said it on the box of facemask I got from work.  But the "Army of Covid-Karens" were the Harpies of the Pandemic and the Mask was the symbol of virtuousness during the pandemic.  I had total disdain for the mask, I absolutely refused to wear the mask unless I had to.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has found “no evidence” which proves medical-grade face masks protected vulnerable people from COVID-19, according to a new study.

The study investigated if masks such as N95, KN95, and FFP2 helped prevent vulnerable people from contracting the virus.

“The review did not identify any studies for inclusion, and so could provide no evidence to answer the research question,” the authors concluded.

“No studies matching the inclusion criteria were found, so no evidence could be presented,” they adding, admitting the study conclusively proved face masks don’t work against COVID.

So after years of being forced to wear face masks and being unable to breathe at times barely, was this all for nothing?

Professor of evidence-based medicine at the University of Oxford, Prof Carl Heneghan, said there were virtually no high-quality trials that showed face mask worked.

“I do not understand why there’s been a lack of will to do high-quality trials in this area,” he told the Telegraph.

“We have completely failed to address this issue, and I actually consider that to be an issue that the [Covid] inquiry needs to look at.”

“If there’s another pandemic around the corner, we still haven’t addressed any of these issues. We’ve not learned anything,” Prof Heneghan added.

In the absence of any conclusive evidence that face masks worked, the media and the government worked overtime in the early days of the pandemic to convince people of their effectiveness.

The government propaganda was so finely tuned it resulted in an army of Karens policing people into submission.

Those who dared to question the effectiveness of face masks were called anti-vaxxers, far-right neo-nazis, vilified across social media, and sometimes attacked physically public.

The UK government later admitted that face masks were a symbolic tool to remind people they were in a pandemic.

It did its job at the expense of the economy, common sense, and human sanity.

Even as far back as 2020, the publication of the ‘Danmask-19 trial’ was conducted in Denmark to determine if maks worked.

The study found statistical evidence which suggested maks do not prevent the contraction of Covid-19.

As The Spectator reported at the time:

But overall, there is a troubling lack of robust evidence on face masks and Covid-19. There have only been three community trials during the current pandemic comparing the use of masks with various alternatives – one in Guinea-Bissau, one in India and this latest trial in Denmark. The low number of studies into the effect different interventions have on the spread of Covid-19 – a subject of global importance – suggests there is a total lack of interest from governments in pursuing evidence-based medicine. And this starkly contrasts with the huge sums they have spent on ‘boutique relations’ consultants advising the government.

READ: Unattractive People MORE Likely to Continue Wearing Face Masks without Mandates, Study Says

 I clipped this also from "Townhall",   I thought it was an interesting opinion piece.

This week has been eye-opening. Even for me -- and I'm the guy who has warned for over a year, in commentary after commentary, and often for three hours a day on my nationally syndicated radio show, that the COVID-19 vaccine could be dangerous and deadly and could lead to catastrophe. 

I stuck my neck out like no other talk show host in America to warn the vaccine may not even prevent illness; in fact, it could damage the immune system, thereby causing more illness and death. And not just from COVID-19, but also injuries and death linked to the COVID-19 vaccine itself.

Eight months ago, I warned it was time to suspend the vaccine program pending an investigation of mounting deaths, grievous injuries and permanent disabilities. I titled my commentary, "What if This Experimental COVID Shot Is Killing People? Don't Americans Have a Right To Know?"

Four months ago, I was courageous enough to scold New York Times medical reporters about the unfolding disaster that they have ignored. I titled my commentary, "What I Just Told the New York Times About the Complete Failure and Disaster of the COVID-19 Vaccine."

Three months ago, I was the first to warn that Americans were dropping in record numbers of heart attacks, strokes and blood clots. I titled my commentary, "If the Vaccine Is So Great, Why Are So Many People Dropping Dead?"

But even I was shocked by the plethora of stories coming out just in the past week, from all corners of the world, suggesting the vaccines are indeed a terrible failure and are causing a mass die-off.

Here is a quick look at the FACTS that have come pouring out of the closet just in the past week:

Israel is the most vaccinated major nation in the world. Almost the entire population is quadruple vaccinated. Yet right now Israel is No. 1 in the world for COVID-19 infections. Over one half of 1% of their entire population is testing positive for COVID-19 PER DAY. 

In Germany, the most draconian COVID-19 mandates and restrictions in the world were sold to the public with false data. Just like in America, the German government labeled this a "pandemic of the unvaccinated." They claimed up to 90% of the infected and dead were unvaccinated. Newspaper investigations have found that none of this was true. The government simply classified every sick or dying person as "unvaccinated." Government officials are apologizing, blaming the "mistake" on a "software error."

In Alberta, Canada, the government published, then quickly deleted health data exposing that almost 60% of the COVID-19 victims classified as "unvaccinated" were actually among the vaccinated. It turns out everyone who got sick, was hospitalized or died within two weeks of getting any vaccine (the first jab, or second, or third) was counted as "unvaccinated."

The most perfect control group ever is the U.S. military. Every young soldier got the COVID-19 vaccine in the past year. To follow the results is the very definition of SCIENCE. Military whistleblowers have come forward with Department of Defense medical data showing since the start of the vaccine program cancer is up about 300% among military members; female infertility is up 500%; miscarriages are up by 300%; and there was an astronomical 1000% increase in neurological disorders from 82,000 to 863,000 in one year.

These are young men and women who were in perfect health ... until the vaccines. It appears the vaccines are literally crippling our national defense.

One more control group of formerly healthy young men and women: FIFA soccer players in the EU. Deaths from cardiac arrest increased by 500% in 2021. An astounding 183 professional athletes and coaches collapsed "suddenly" in 2021. 

Worst of all is the news from the CDC that non-COVID-19 deaths in the age range of 18 to 49 increased by 40% in the past year. No one has ever seen anything like this. Why are working-age Americans dying in record numbers? Only one thing changed in 2021: vaccine mandates at the workplace. 

The real story these numbers tell is we are experiencing a "pandemic of the vaccinated." I believe the vaccine is doing catastrophic damage, but governments, politicians and bureaucrats the world over have falsely labeled vaccinated people who are sick and dying as "unvaccinated." And the media covers up the truth like it's Hunter Biden's laptop.

This is the greatest scam in world history. It would make Bernie Madoff blush.

 I snagged this from "Townhall", it was very good.  I have found myself pushing back against the maskers and the "Fear Porn" that they are pushing.  I am soo tired of the fearmongering that I have gotten quite "Snippy" with some of the people because they have bought into the media narrative that "We all gonna die" unless we follow the draconian and confusing mandates from the CDC and our "Betters" from Washington and Hollywood. 

As far as I could determine, the only randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test the effectiveness of masks against COVID-19 was a 2020 study led by Henning Bundgaard of the Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark. Published in the March 2021 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, it found that 1.8% of those in the masked group and 2.1% of those in the control group became infected with COVID-19 within a month. The 0.3-point difference is statistically insignificant.

MD and epidemiologist Vinay Prasad of the University of California at San Francisco buried the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's child masking recommendation in one sentence: "The CDC cannot 'follow the science' because there is no relevant science."

And what about surgical masks? They are not designed to prevent the spread of viruses, but to prevent medical personnel from accidentally infecting the open wounds of patients on the operating table, and to prevent body fluids from patients spraying up into the mouths and noses of the surgical team. Dr. Colin Axon, a COVID-19 advisor to the British government, made this point clear: Medics were "unable to comprehend" the miniscule elements involved: "A Covid viral particle is around 100 nanometers, material gaps in blue surgical masks are up to 1,000 times that size, cloth mask gaps can be 5,000 times the size."

While most studies conclude that masks are essentially useless against COVID-19, not all do. Probably the most widely cited study on behalf of mask efficacy was published in the British Medical Journal in October 2021. But it's hardly a ringing endorsement. As the authors note, "The quality of current evidence would be graded as low or very low, as it consists of observational studies with poor methods."

If the only problem with the pro-mask position were that it negates science, it would only be harmless nonsense.

But while it is nonsense, it is not harmless. 

Take children, for example. Only time will tell how affected children have been by not seeing other children's faces and seeing few adult faces for two years. In July 2021, an article published under the auspices of the USC Center for Health Policy and Economics addressed this issue: 

"Masking is a psychological stressor for children and disrupts learning. Covering the lower half of the face of both teacher and pupil reduces the ability to communicate. In particular, children lose the experience of mimicking expressions, an essential tool of nonverbal communication. Positive emotions such as laughing and smiling become less recognizable, and negative emotions get amplified. Bonding between teachers and students takes a hit. Overall, it is likely that masking exacerbates the chances that a child will experience anxiety and depression, which are already at pandemic levels themselves."

Yet, just this past week, the enemies of children known as teachers unions -- in this case, the one that controls the Los Angeles Unified School District -- issued a directive that all children must wear N95-type masks all day, including during outdoor recess, with a wire over their noses to keep the masks at maximum tightness.

The social damage of masks is not confined to children. All human interaction has suffered as a result of two years of masking. For example, people are less kind when they are anonymous.

All of that harm is more than sufficient to justify contempt for mask advocacy. 

Now let's add to that the irrationality of the pro-mask position.

Health authorities demand that people wear masks when entering restaurants, when seated on an airplane, and when walking through airports. However, an exception is made for eating and drinking. So, then, one regularly sees people on airplanes seated less than 12 inches from one another eating without masks on; people seated at airport cafes and restaurants with no masks on; and people spending about an hour eating in restaurants with no masks on.

And while on the subject of airplanes: Do pro-mask advocates think that pilots keep their masks on while flying? Do they even want them to? Does any rational person want their pilots to breathe their own carbon dioxide for six hours while flying across the country?

The utter irrationality of mask advocacy is the single greatest reason the anti-mask people hold mask advocates in contempt. How else should one regard adults who believe that two-year-olds on airplanes and five-year-olds in schools should be masked?

Watching half of our fellow Americans accept and engage in such irrational behavior (not to mention sometimes hysterically enforce it, as myriad social media videos attest) not only depresses the rest of us; it frightens us. That more than half of our country willingly obeys completely irrational orders raises the question: What irrational orders from the state would they not obey?