Who Is Under the Intoxicating Spell of COVID-19?

The spellbinding presence of the coronavirus has resulted in disproportionate numbers, desultory speculations, masked manipulation and unnerving alarmism. A more cogent reaction comes from Dr. Knut Wittkowski, a highly credentialed, widely cited professor who rubbishes the United States’ response to the virus. John Kirby for The Press & The Public Project in New York City, April 1-2, 2020, interviewed the longtime biostatistician.

Here are the main points:

[00:36.03] Kirby: You gave recommendations for how best to deal with COVID-19.

[00:44.20] Wittkowski: As with every respiratory disease, we should protect the elderly and fragile because when they get pneumonia, they have a high risk of dying. So that is one of the key issues that we should keep in mind. On the other hand, children do very well with these diseases. They’re evolutionarily designed to be exposed to all sorts of viruses during their lifetime, and so they should keep going to school and infecting each other. Then, that contributes to ‘herd immunity,’ which means after about four weeks at the most, the elderly people could start joining their family because then the virus would have been extinguished.

[01:36.02] Kirby: You think containment prolongs the duration of the virus. Can you talk about that?

[01:45.00] Wittkowski: With all respiratory diseases, the only thing that stops the disease is ‘herd immunity.’ About 80% of the people need to have had contact with the virus, and the majority of them won’t even have recognized that they were infected, or they had very, very mild symptoms, especially if they are children. So, it’s very important to keep the schools open and kids mingling to spread the virus to get herd immunity as fast as possible … after about four weeks the virus has been exterminated.

[02:33.24] Kirby: What do you make of the policy enacted in the United States and England… [i.e.,] this policy of containment, shelter-in-place, etc.?

[02:47.05] Wittkowski: Well, what people are trying to do is flatten the curve. I don’t really know why. But, what happens is if you flatten the curve, you also prolong, to widen it, and it takes more time. And I don’t see a good reason for a respiratory disease to stay in the population longer than necessary.

[03:23.16] Wittkowski: It’s not the first coronavirus that comes out, and it won’t be the last. And for all respiratory diseases, we have the same type of an epidemic. If you leave it alone, it comes for two weeks, it peaks and it goes for two weeks and it’s gone.

[05:03.25] Kirby: Fauci and the president [have been] saying that, had they not done the containment strategy that they have done, that upwards of 2 million people would have died in the United States. What do you think of that figure?

[05:22.27] Wittkowski: Well, I’m not paid by the government, so I’m entitled to actually do science. If the government, if there had been no intervention, the epidemic would have been over, like every other respiratory disease epidemic.

[10:19.14] Kirby: What do you think of “social distancing,” that we’ve saved ourselves from the 2 million dead, but that we are probably looking at 150-200,000 dead?

[10:52.12] Wittkowski: Social distancing definitely is good. It prevented the sky from falling down.

[40:50.21] Kirby: So, is there anything else you want to say about this? What would you like people to know?

[41:02.18] Wittkowski: I think people in the United States and maybe other countries as well are more docile than they should be. People should talk with their politicians, question them, ask them to explain, because if people don’t stand up to their rights, their rights will be forgotten.

With that as background, we consider last week’s threat to Bluegrass State citizens by Kentucky Democrat Governor Andy Beshear’s despotic Machiavellianism: “Any individual that’s going to go to a mass gathering of any type that we know about this weekend [read: Easter church services], we are going to record license plates and provide it to local health departments, [which] are going to come to your door with an order for you to be quarantined for 14 days.”

You will notice that Governor Beshear picks his words carefully, using the term “quarantine,” rather than “house arrest” or “ankle monitor,” which defendants under house arrest or parole are required to wear.

Not to be outdone, Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer ordained which items are and are not “essential” for purchase at grocery stores.

Buying lottery tickets would be allowed, the self-coronated “Michigan Monarch” decreed, but shopping for seeds to feed one’s family was prohibited. In her arrogant audacity, the governor further banned residents from traveling to their cottages up north.

Governmental overreach of this type is tantamount to monocratic absolutism.

In an article for The Federalist, John Daniel Davidson exposes elected officials and government bureaucrats as in dire need of reformative lessons in the Constitution. He says: “They think they have unlimited and arbitrary power over their fellow citizens, that they can order them to do or not do just about anything under the guise of protecting public health.”

Which may be the reason why America is mired in this pandemic. For as God used famine in Egypt to curtail mighty Egyptians to save His people, so could He even use the coronavirus to rout both the “deep state” and potentates bent on domination by ordeal and ordinance.

Who is the King of America?

Historian William J. Federer answers this question by writing: “Have you ever met an individual who has lost their memory? Maybe they have Alzheimer’s. They cannot remember who you are, or who they are. Someone could easily take things away from him or her.

“In a sense, America has had national Alzheimer’s. We have lost our collective memory.

“Here we are, the most prosperous and independent nation in world history, with more individual liberty and opportunity than any previous people, and yet we forgot how we got here.”

The American Founders established a “republic,” as any elementary school student through the 17th-19th centuries knew. “We the people,” the people of America, are King, ruling through their representatives.

Will a refresher course have to be mandated for politicians and government bureaucrats in contemporary America that is done through political currency in the form of ballots on Election Day? Politically aloof and tone-deaf politicians fear one thing only and that is being removed from office.

If America is to make it through, those foisting Russian collusion, impeachment, Ukraine and such will have to be voted out of office.

While pro-life marches, Sunday sermons or Jericho marches around the Capitol are inspirational, they are not denominations of political currency. In order to be culturally and politically impactful, evangelical pastors and churchgoers will have to take their game to a whole other level. The best way to do this is by engaging in the ekklesia through Jesus’ biblical kingdom assignment from Matthew 16:18.

The battle in America’s public square is on, where eternal and immutable Christianity clashes with transient and mutable secularism. These two distinct religions cannot coexist, as one will ultimately end in the destruction of the other. Whereas one leads to death, the other will give rise to the Fourth Great Awakening.

Are there Gideons or Rahabs willing to stand?