The obvious question is вЂњso then why are we doing all these silly things?вЂќДЇauci, Birx, Walensky and the rest of the wacky crew arenвЂ™t stupid, but theyвЂ™re also not smart enough to pull off a prank this complex so we have to consider the possibility that they are actually serious. This was the best evidence the WHO could find to support prohibiting mass gatherings, yet as I type this the entire nation of Australia is on a lockdown more strict than that time the sketchy kid smuggled LSD into the middle school sock hop. IвЂ™m not kidding - their references are two papers about the 1918 flu, and one article essentially about kids on a school trip. What? the effects are uncertain but theyвЂ™re also effective? And they got this from 100 year old reports and a school sleepover? They repeatedly recommend something while admitting thereвЂ™s almost no evidence it actually works. However, the effects of measures to avoid crowding in reducing transmission is uncertain.

HereвЂ™s a direct quote from the report to give you an idea of the doublespeak involved (page 101 of the Annex):ДЄvoiding crowding including separating people into small groups or cancelling public gatherings is an effective intervention to prevent the spread of influenza. ThatвЂ™s a real article in a real journal and the WHO really referenced it. More kids sleeping in the gym got the sniffles compared to kids sleeping in classrooms. Two of those are about the 1918 flu pandemic (so, really recent and relevant) and the third was about вЂњpilgrimsвЂќ attending World Youth Day 2008 2. Their section on limiting public gatherings is amazing, if we use вЂamazingвЂ™ as a synonym for вЂuseless.вЂ™ДЄfter reviewing hundreds of citations, they found three papers they thought were worth including. In an earlier post we discussed a 2019 report 1 by the World Health Organization on the use of non-pharmaceutical measures during a pandemic. ItвЂ™s not just the mask thing thatвЂ™s crazy. Getting back to the business of governmentвЂ¦ If I have done my work correctly this playlist will make you wonder why you are even reading this blog.] Click the thing at the top right to launch Spotify. If you just hit the play button it plays a preview of each song, which is incredibly annoying.

If you donвЂ™t have an account with Spotify then youвЂ™ll need to self-medicate. [Note: This post covers some topics in economics and politics and I canвЂ™t pipe alcoholic beverages to you via broadband, so instead I put together a playlist on Spotify that will make you feel a little disoriented instead. Mostly useless, but unfortunately NOT mostly harmless.ДЇor those just joining us, we spent an obsessive amount of time reviewing scientific papers and reports about masks in order to learnвЂ¦ what? That nothing our various government health agencies are telling us makes any sense.

Regulatory capture