Let Life Resume

By John Stossel
America remains bound by often extreme pandemic restrictions.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends staying 6 feet away from others. In Oregon, everyone must wear a mask outdoors. In parts of the country, 2-year-olds must wear masks.
Are such rules necessary?
Recently, Denmark lifted all pandemic restrictions.
"Go Denmark!" cheers George Mason University economist Don Boudreaux in my latest video. "We in the United States should do the same."
"We reduced COVID, through vaccination, to a fairly mild ailment for the vast majority of people," says Boudreaux. "You don't have to worry if the bartender at your favorite bar is vaccinated or not. You are protected against suffering severe consequences. Get vaccinated, and then go about your life normally!"
Portugal and Sweden recently removed most restrictions, too. The United Kingdom ditched plans to require "vaccine passports."
"We don't have to continue to upend human life in our quest to eliminate COVID, which can't happen anyway," says Boudreaux.
"Why not?" I ask. "We eliminated smallpox."
"Smallpox resides only in human beings," explains Boudreaux. COVID-19 can live in animals -- bats, deer, dogs, cats. "We have never eliminated a disease that uses both humans and animals as reservoirs."
Still, China acted as if eliminating COVID-19 were possible.
They've kept deaths much lower (if you believe their numbers) than other countries by imposing nasty repressive measures like quarantines at gunpoint and even locking people in their homes.
"It's just awful. It's tyrannical. It's what you expect of a Communist tyrannical government," says Boudreaux.
Australia's been almost that tough. They've also imposed curfews and arrested people for not wearing masks. In some places, police proudly announced they "smashed windows of people in cars and pull them out ... because they weren't telling us where they were going."
Don't worry about losing freedom, says Daniel Andrews, premier of the state of Victoria. "They're not rules that are against you. They are rules for you."
"So say all dictators and tyrants," retorts Boudreaux.
These countries can't lock down forever. When the lockdowns stop, COVID-19 will return.
That's why Denmark ended COVID-19 restrictions.
"It's not admitting defeat; it's admitting reality," says Boudreaux. "We learn to live with COVID in the same way that we learn to live with many other pathogens. ... The bacteria that caused the Black Death is still circulating in the human population. A handful of people every year still die of it."
In the Wall Street Journal, he wrote, "Eradication of Covid is a dangerous and expensive fantasy."
"We live with countless hazards, each of which we could but sensibly choose not to eradicate. Automobile fatalities could be eradicated by outlawing motor vehicles. Drowning could be eradicated by outlawing swimming and bathing. Electrocution could be eradicated by outlawing electricity. We live with these risks not because we're indifferent to suffering but because we understand that the costs of zero-drowning or zero-electrocution would be far too great. The same is true of zero-Covid."
That's why, now that we have largely effective vaccines, he says it's time to end pointless lockdowns and do what Denmark is doing:
"Live life normally again! Travel, go to parties, weddings, sporting events. Live life and be joyous! Hopefully, humanity will come to its senses soon."
I hope he's right.
[John Stossel is author of "Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media." For other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com.]
COPYRIGHT 2021 BY JFS PRODUCTIONS INC.
America remains bound by often extreme pandemic restrictions.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends staying 6 feet away from others. In Oregon, everyone must wear a mask outdoors. In parts of the country, 2-year-olds must wear masks.
Are such rules necessary?
Recently, Denmark lifted all pandemic restrictions.
"Go Denmark!" cheers George Mason University economist Don Boudreaux in my latest video. "We in the United States should do the same."
"We reduced COVID, through vaccination, to a fairly mild ailment for the vast majority of people," says Boudreaux. "You don't have to worry if the bartender at your favorite bar is vaccinated or not. You are protected against suffering severe consequences. Get vaccinated, and then go about your life normally!"
Portugal and Sweden recently removed most restrictions, too. The United Kingdom ditched plans to require "vaccine passports."
"We don't have to continue to upend human life in our quest to eliminate COVID, which can't happen anyway," says Boudreaux.
"Why not?" I ask. "We eliminated smallpox."
"Smallpox resides only in human beings," explains Boudreaux. COVID-19 can live in animals -- bats, deer, dogs, cats. "We have never eliminated a disease that uses both humans and animals as reservoirs."
Still, China acted as if eliminating COVID-19 were possible.
They've kept deaths much lower (if you believe their numbers) than other countries by imposing nasty repressive measures like quarantines at gunpoint and even locking people in their homes.
"It's just awful. It's tyrannical. It's what you expect of a Communist tyrannical government," says Boudreaux.
Australia's been almost that tough. They've also imposed curfews and arrested people for not wearing masks. In some places, police proudly announced they "smashed windows of people in cars and pull them out ... because they weren't telling us where they were going."
Don't worry about losing freedom, says Daniel Andrews, premier of the state of Victoria. "They're not rules that are against you. They are rules for you."
"So say all dictators and tyrants," retorts Boudreaux.
These countries can't lock down forever. When the lockdowns stop, COVID-19 will return.
That's why Denmark ended COVID-19 restrictions.
"It's not admitting defeat; it's admitting reality," says Boudreaux. "We learn to live with COVID in the same way that we learn to live with many other pathogens. ... The bacteria that caused the Black Death is still circulating in the human population. A handful of people every year still die of it."
In the Wall Street Journal, he wrote, "Eradication of Covid is a dangerous and expensive fantasy."
"We live with countless hazards, each of which we could but sensibly choose not to eradicate. Automobile fatalities could be eradicated by outlawing motor vehicles. Drowning could be eradicated by outlawing swimming and bathing. Electrocution could be eradicated by outlawing electricity. We live with these risks not because we're indifferent to suffering but because we understand that the costs of zero-drowning or zero-electrocution would be far too great. The same is true of zero-Covid."
That's why, now that we have largely effective vaccines, he says it's time to end pointless lockdowns and do what Denmark is doing:
"Live life normally again! Travel, go to parties, weddings, sporting events. Live life and be joyous! Hopefully, humanity will come to its senses soon."
I hope he's right.
[John Stossel is author of "Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media." For other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com.]
COPYRIGHT 2021 BY JFS PRODUCTIONS INC.
Posted in Opinion
Tagged with Covid-19, lock downs, masks, Demark, Doctors, John Stossel, United States, Vaccine, normal life, Normalcy, safety, Freedoms Journal Institute, Freedoms Journal Magazine
Tagged with Covid-19, lock downs, masks, Demark, Doctors, John Stossel, United States, Vaccine, normal life, Normalcy, safety, Freedoms Journal Institute, Freedoms Journal Magazine
Recent
Archive
2022
January
Cartoon 01/03/22Cartoon 01/04/22Can Peace Come to the Hood?Moving ForwardThe Democrats' Exploitation of January 6 Gives Away Their GameCartoon 01/05/22Harry Reid, Death of a 'Statesman'? Cue the LaughterCartoon 01/06/22The Biggest Drug Dealers in the Black Community.Cartoon 01/07/22Manhattan's New DA Is Protecting Criminals Instead of Their VictimsLucy(ed) Again?Cartoon 01/10/22“Voter rights legislation” is a demand for government-backed systemic voter disenfranchisement!The perversion of JusticeCartoon 01/11/22The Freedom to Cheat Act: The Radical Left’s Latest Attempt to Undermine Our DemocracyMoney for IndoctrinationThe Great Re-Sorting Is HereCartoon 01/12/22Big Tech Thugs and Their AlliesCartoon 01/13/22Cartoon 01/14/22Cartoon 01/16/22The King is DeadCartoon 01/17/22Biden's Racist IronyThe Glory of God in the CosmosCartoon 01/18/22Evil FloridaThe Quest to Destroy WorkCartoon 01/19/21MLK Day: Equal Rights Versus Equal ResultsCartoon 01/20/22Cartoon 01/21/22Cartoon 01/23/22Cartoon 01/24/22Sick CityThe COVID-19 Impact of Expressive IndividualismCartoon 01/26/22Biden's Election HypocrisyCartoon 01/27/22Conservatives, If You Are Going to Talk to the Black Community, You Need to Have Something Truly Conservative to SayNo, Requiring Voter ID Is Not ‘Jim Crow 2.0’ And It’s Offensive To Say ThatCartoon 01/28/22Cartoon 01/30/22
February
Cartoon 02/01/22Black History as American HistoryInflationWhoopi Goldberg Says the Holocaust Wasn't About Targeting Jews. Here's Why That Matters.Cartoon 02/02/22Los Angeles Times Slams 'Vitriol in Politics'-- After Hiring Vitriolic ColumnistsCartoon 02/03/22Cartoon 02/04/22Cartoon 02/06/22Cartoon 02/07/22The Attack on Joe Rogan Is an Attack on DissentGroveling to ChinaCartoon 02/09/22A Tale of Top IS Leaders Killed Under Two AdministrationsCartoon 02/11/22Cartoon 02/10/22It’s Time to Sack the Rooney RuleBlacks Continue to be Sold Out by Media Appointed Black Leaders.Cartoon 02/13/22Cartoon 02/14/22Alert to Corporations Embracing Black Lives Matter (BLM): Renounce BLM Now!Epiphanies of a Colored PersonCartoon 02/15/22Canada Goes TyrannicalCanceling JoeCartoon 02/16/22The Great Joe Rogan N-Word ControversyCartoon 02/18/22Cartoon 02/20/22Cartoon 02/22/22The War On Parents ContinuesThe Woke AMACartoon 02/23/22GOP 'Gerrymandering' is 'Racist' -- Obama-mandering is Just PoliticsCartoon 02/24/22Black History Month: A Tempered Hurrah Pt 1Cartoon 02/28/22Cartoon 02/27/22Black History Month: A Tempered Hurrah - Part II
March
Cartoon 03/01/22Putin Wakes up the Western OstrichMy Dream State of the UnionCartoon 03/02/22Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin is a Generational TalentUkraine: Putin's Misadventure Unites the WestCartoon 03/03/22Cartoon 03/04/22Cartoon 03/06/22Cartoon 03/07/22Environmentalist NIMBYism Means Foreign Policy DisasterIt's questionable whether Biden understands American valuesCowards and LeadersCartoon 03/09/22Putin's War on Ukraine: A Graver Time of Reckoning
No Comments