The Cost of Pandemic Field Hospitals
In an environment where fear has arguably been promoted beyond what the pandemic justified, the costs of preparation for the worst have to be added to the tally.
Politics This Week with John DePetro: No Face on Vaccine, Blackface on Block Island
My weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, for February 22, included talk about:
- Gina/McKee tension
- Health director in the wind
- The call for a clear governor from mayors
- Partyless blackface story from Block Island
- Picking a lieutenant governor
I’ll be on again Monday, March 1, at 12:00 p.m. on WNRI 1380 AM and I-95.1 FM.
Politics This Week with John DePetro: Politics In Between
My weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, for February 15, included talk about:
- Gina’s selective parking lot presser
- Mayors’ call for the governor to end RI’s limbo
- Last for vaccine rollout
- Smileying out the door
- Conservatives with guns
- “Republicans” off the Lincoln hook
I’ll be on again Monday, February 22, at 12:00 p.m. on WNRI 1380 AM and I-95.1 FM.
McKee’s RI-Same-Old COVID Task Force
With this panel, McKee seems to be sending a signal about who really matters in the state. That may not be his intent, but it’s something upon which he’ll have to improve quickly now that he’s achieved the big chair.
Politics This Week with John DePetro: Flagging Leadership
My weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, for February 1, included talk about:
- Black Lives Matter flag in Barrington
- The governor checks out
- McKee shuffles in
- Unplanned vaccines
- The General Assembly back in the picture
I’ll be on again Monday, February 8, at 12:00 p.m. on WNRI 1380 AM and I-95.1 FM.
Rhody Reporter: Marijuana Sales in RI
Rhody Reporter Diana Lozowski takes a look at how the State’s Bureaucracy has morphed what could have been a simple licensing process using existing procedures into yet another feast for connected insiders. In short, You Gotta Know a Guy. Too bad that kind of overhead drives up the price. Too bad that those in the most need have to overpay because of cost structures designed to feed insiders. The surprising conclusion: At least it’s available now to those in need.
In The Dugout: We ARE Right!
Friday Cocktails with Mike Stenhouse on In The Dugout
COVID Coming to an End in RI Despite the Queen?
With scary news that RI has one of the worst COVID-19 infection rates in the world, it’s worth revisiting a concept about which we’ve heard absolutely nothing in the Rhode Island media: active cases.
Politics This Week with John DePetro: The Breaking Cloud of Fear
My weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, for December 21, included talk about:
- The end of the Pause
- COVID transparency
- The Guv as a national story
- Testing at the mall
- Judges entering the Supreme Court under an ethical cloud
I’ll be on again Monday, December 28, at 12:00 p.m. on WNRI 1380 AM and I-95.1 FM.
Asymptomatic Spread Rare… as in Zero?
Asymptomatic spread is the core rationale for putting ourselves into martial-law lite, greatly restricting our freedoms, so it’s important for it to be continually evaluated and debated.
The Responsibility of the “Experts”
If you won’t do what you’re told of your own free will (with their helpful psychological tricks and manipulation) they’ll have to force you to do it.
Roland Benjamin: COVID-19 Lockdown: The Preferred Intervention of the Elite
It is commonly accepted that an effective vaccine for COVID-19 will save lives.
The vaccine, be it BioNTech’s, Moderna’s, or any other pharmaceutical intervention, will most effectively bring an end to the COVID era. The “science” needed to bring this intervention into the world is astounding, with tens of thousands of test subjects undergoing trials for each version. Months and months and months of careful testing, and yet A SINGLE ADVERSE EVENT among any of the study participants halts the progress. One event. Savings lives is critical, so long as no harm is done in the process.
Simultaneously, governments all over the world have become obsessed with their own interventions. The non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) range from mask mandates, to required testing, to full scale economic lockdown. In the most extreme, China even resorted to welding people into their homes.
There has been no shortage of speculation that the lockdowns have caused harm. The argument has always been that they save lives by mitigating spread, but there really has not been comprehensive proof of that. Florida and California, two comparable states in climate and demography, have had comparable disease spreads with remarkably different approaches to inhibiting its residents. In other words, the NPIs adopted by California, draconian in some respects, have not proven any more effective than the “control group”…Florida’s non-interventionist approach.
Politics This Week with John DePetro: Them and the Rest of Us
My weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, for December 14, included talk about:
- The administration’s COVID outbreak
- The governor’s quarantine
- A budget through the roof
- The governor’s house becomes an official protest spot
I’ll be on again Monday, December 14, at 12:00 p.m. on WNRI 1380 AM and I-95.1 FM.
Rhody Reporter: Fines by Executive Order
Diana Lozowski notes all the extra-legislative authority Governor Raimondo is exercising in the service of enforcing her lockdown orders and muses (along with two prominent legislators) that her excellency is skating on thin legal ice.
Rhode Island, It Isn’t You… It’s Them
If the people of Rhode Island are going to tolerate the queen’s destruction of our livelihoods as she attempts to contain outbreaks in our state, we ought to know why she can’t prevent them in her own inner circle.
Demand Transparency on Covid-19 Cycle-Threshold Data
The full release and analysis of detailed testing data could be critical in shaping more focused and less intrusive COVID-19 restrictions for Rhode Islanders.
This data, which measures “viral load” (how much of the virus is present) and which is routinely collected by labs that conduct COVID tests, can be critically important in determining both public policy and individual regimens. Take action now to demand it.
The Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity has launched a new campaign, sending over a sixteen hundred pre-written emails (in just days) to officials petitioning the state to take action to collect and publish this vital cycle threshold data.
We have good news to share… they have taken the first steps in making a small portion of this data available. Our campaign is clearly working, but we need full transparency on this critical information.
You can take action by clicking on the link here now. Don’t wait, because your voice is powerful and it will make a difference for the people of Rhode Island!
Court Appointments and the Governor’s Power
Raimondo wants you to follow rules that she, alone, has developed and proclaimed. Whatever their thoughts about the coronavirus, Rhode Islanders should insist that she must follow the rules that our representative democracy purports to impose.
Politics This Week with John DePetro: The End Game Settling In
My weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, for December 7, included talk about:
- Not getting rid of Gina
- Identity politics rule
- The poor investment of a General Assembly campaign
- Nellie’s election security deterioration
I’ll be on again Monday, December 14, at 12:00 p.m. on WNRI 1380 AM and I-95.1 FM.
Mattiello, Shekarchi, Ruggerio, Raimondo Prolonging Failed Lockdown – Due to Filthy Federal Lucre?
Let’s review eight months of unconvincing reasons for implementing, then not ending, Rhode Island’s COVID-19 lockdown, then go to the video tape for what’s looking like the real explanation.
Wolf Crying and Water Carrying in the Local News Media
It’s a sad testament to the state of modern media that journalists are happy to play along with the governor’s scare campaign to maintain her far-reaching emergency powers.
Politics This Week with John DePetro: The Governor’s Court
My weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, for November 30, included talk about:
- The Pause arrives
- The Queen’s bid for a higher court
- McKee’s bid for the Queen’s attention
- The General Assembly as courtiers
- Is the jester in the Britt trial still relevant?
I’ll be on again Monday, November 30, at 12:00 p.m. on WNRI 1380 AM and I-95.1 FM.
Arm’s Length for the Heir During the Very Serious Pandemic (TM)
If Governor Raimondo really thought the coronavirus represented a crisis, wouldn’t she be keeping her replacement in the loop?
Rhody Reporter: COVID Update
Mark Zaccaria shows that Gov Raimondo and other public officials have provided little help to their constituents by trying to micromanage everyone’s behavior. Instead, they should start trusting us to make good decisions about COVID safety on our own.
The research Mark cites may be found here: https://globaljournals.org/GJSFR_Volume20/1-SARS-Cov-2.pdf
Lockdowns are Now a Proven Failure As Their Collateral Damage Rises Inexorably
Eight months into the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, let’s examine the goal of the lockdown, the critical matter of its effectiveness and the collateral damage it has caused.
Following the Science Where Science Can’t Lead
We should acknowledge reality (you know, believing in science and all), respect rights, and do what planning and management we can around those to great Rs.
Distracted from Important COVID Questions
Given the choice, Americans might very well choose not to sacrifice their holidays, their businesses, and their children’s education so as to maintain the fiction that a rapidly socializing government can manage complex systems like healthcare.
Politics This Week with John DePetro: Mailing in the Lockdown
My weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, for November 16, included talk about:
- What to make of Gina’s move toward another lockdown
- What to think about the RI Trump co-chairs’ differences on concession
- What Rhode Islanders should do about mail ballot anxiety
I’ll be on again Monday, November 23, at 12:00 p.m. on WNRI 1380 AM and I-95.1 FM.
… Except that Rhode Island’s COVID Positivity Rate Is Lower than Two Months Ago
Graph by epidemiologist Dr. Andrew Bostom basis State of R.I. data
At her press conference currently ongoing, Governor Gina Raimondo is announcing new restrictions, including reduction from fifteen to ten at social gatherings; no spectators at any sports for next two weeks; and fines, including fines on households, saying she doesn’t want cases to “explode”.
You’d reasonably conclude from these serious measures and language that Rhode Island’s case positivity rate, the newest panic-promoting selling point of the lockdown, was at a recent high, wouldn’t you? In fact, as epidemiologist Dr. Andrew Bostom said yesterday on the R.I. Center for Freedom and Prosperity‘s “Mikes with Mics” and shows in his graph, above, the current, very modest rise in case positivity is actually lower than the modest rise of August 1.
UPDATED: Rhode Island Hospitalizations – Still Less than Half the Peak
Eight days ago, this is where Rhode Island stood with hospitalizations, the original and only goal of the lockdown. Now Rhode Island is seeing an uptick in COVID-19 cases. Good time to update, especially with a press conference by Governor Raimondo coming up shortly.
At 168 “Currently Hospitalized”, we are still less than half the peak in late April of 377. And Rhode Island hospitalizations were not overwhelmed even at this peak. In fact, the Governor Raimondo herself stated mid-April that the need for hospital beds would peak in late April or early May and that Rhode Island was not going to see a worst case scenario. She was correct on both points. Nor has Rhode Island come close to the peak for hospitalizations
Yet despite achieving this goal, Governor Raimondo, with the express consent by inaction of Speaker Mattiello and Senate President Ruggerio, has inexplicably not lifted the onerous and damaging lockdown of Rhode Island.
Moreover, as we are now seeing in Europe, lockdowns do not work to stop the disease.
Yes, we need to be vigilant. Vulnerable populations must continue to take steps to protect them and we all need to be thoughtful of our interactions with them. But let’s also not overreact.
By continuing to impose what has now been demonstrated to be an ineffectual (yet highly damaging) measure to suppress spread when the singular goal of the measure was achieved six months ago, our state leaders are flexing power in a way that is completely detached from facts, science and data. This is, accordingly, an an abuse of power and an overreaction, the result of which, intended or not, is to punish Rhode Islanders in the short and long term for something that is beyond our control.