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COVID-19 and American Rights
The opinions expressed in this published work are that of the author.
Editor’s Note: A few days ago, 10 people in Rhode Island filed suit against Governor Raimondo – The legal template makes points such as: “Neither the Governor nor any public health officer has followed evidence-based, peer-reviewed, clinical science showing that neither social distancing (up to 6 feet of separation) nor the wearing of masks has any clinical effect in a healthy population and instituting such policies is exclusively for the inducement of fear and terror in the population” The suit goes on to say that “Our whole way of life is being trashed. A way to stop a bully is to call the bully out. A lawsuit is a good way to call out a bully.” The suit focuses on “requiring them to test for COVID-19, denying them “air of best quality” by requiring them to wear masks, and denying them freedom of assembly.
The oped, below, is not associated with that lawsuit.
As we are at least 10 months into the “China Virus”, we are still enduring what many feel are constitutional violations. It is a sham that the Democratic Governors are imposing what I refer to as dictator type rule upon us. With 21 years in the laboratory environment, I see no justification for the Martial-type Law being imposed.
Our Rhode Island Governor has no laboratory experience. She is going by certain state and federal experts. Often, experts in long-term government employment could not find that type of security in the private sector. For a variety of reasons.
“Wear your masks” is the mantra. In a laboratory in Groton, CT, these masks were proven to be 90% useless for small droplets, and a CDC doctor said Wednesday night that these masks will only stop a large droplet. Anything else will pass through. I agree.
I’ve noticed many a person’s bad breath coming right through their mask and I keep 6 feet back. The data, below, was collected since May and does not fit the narrative. In full disclosure, my editor is afraid that people will not wear their masks as a result or what this data shows. That is not the goal. The goal is to highlight the truth of what I, and others see, as unconstitutional restrictions, without science behind them.
As of this writing 10 plaintiffs in Rhode Island brought a lawsuit in Federal District court against Governor Gina Raimondo for her overreaching statewide restrictions.
Company: Positive cases Hospitalizations: Total Employees
Electric Boat 14 (6 due to vacations) 0 5000
Toray Plastics 3 0 1764
Amtrol 3 0 300+
Walmart CNE 0 0 200
Ocean State Job Lot 1 (outside Co.) 0 200
Lowes 0 0 300+
Market Basket FR 1 0 300+
Note: Walmart CNE and Market Basket see 1000+ people through theirs doors every day.
Add to this list that a friend of mine had some members of her family test positive with only one hospitalization. An uncle ended up in the hospital and was on a respirator and has since recovered. My friend tested positive as did her mother and possibly an aunt. No other family members tested positive, including her 2 brothers, a sister and her father. The dad and mom share the same bedroom. According to the narrative the dad should have tested positive, but he did not. Actual points of transmission are being routinely overlooked. Also keep in mind this is a very large family that is very close, with lots of hugs and PDA routinely exchanged. Other family members including the grandparents that the uncle lived with – they also did not test positive.
This writer is outraged at the increasing restrictions forced upon us. Enough is Enough! By all means, protect the assisted living and nursing home residents, and the health compromised. But, it’s time to lift the restrictions on the other 99.5% of the population.
Lockdowns have tripled the suicide rate where 1 in 4 millennials saying they have contemplated suicide. City violence is up 300%. Businesses are closing their doors, many permanently, nationwide. Domestic violence is up dramatically.
It is time to protect those in need and allow the rest to get on with their lives unimpeded. If one doesn’t feel safe, fine, wrap yourself in bubble wrap and hide in your basement bunker. The rest of us should not be restricted due to the fears of others.
Wearing of masks is not being discouraged here by any means. IF you choose, then wear one. This writer doesn’t. An uptick in positives is a result of something – lack of proper cleaning – students partying in large groups and then infecting others?
This ink slinger has been covertly inspecting all mentioned sources. The results are that proper cleaning techniques have fell by the wayside. This critic will not put food on the cash register belts due to the amount of unknown liquids visible on the belts. Contacting this columnist’s colleagues resulted in the fact that no one has cleaned their computer keyboards in the last 3 months. Many have yet to ever clean them! Let’s not talk about TV clickers, doorknobs, refrigerator handles, etc. It is time to get back to basic cleaning techniques.
Aircraft Carrier Theodore Roosevelt
The US Navy must be employing proper cleaning techniques as we have not heard about a single battle group nor USN ship locking down under quarantine since the lockdown of the Aircraft Carrier Theodore Roosevelt in Guam. While 800+ sailors tested positive, only a few became ill with only one fatality. The ship was underway 1 month later. The US Coast Guard has yet to have a problem.
Also of note: This freelancer was the lucky beneficiary of the one of the previous mentioned PDAs. Conclusion for me? Long term “China Virus” transmission is not an issue.
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Jeffrey “Jeff” Gross spent 21 years as an Analytical Chemist at the USCG R&D Center in Groton, Connecticut, Woods Hole Laboratories, and Helix Technologies. Changing careers is a “great learning experience for everyone”, Jeff says, and I’m an avid outdoorsman and conservationist, a student of the sciences, and the world. The US holds too many wonders not to take a chance and explore them”.
Jeff is a Model Train and Railroad entrepreneur. Proud Golden Retriever owner. Ultra strong Second Amendment Advocate and Constitutionalist. “Determined seeker of the truth”.
Jeff is a RIFGPA Legislative and Legal Officer, Freshwater Chairman, NRA Liaison.
His subjects include Outdoors, Second Amendment, Model Railroading, and Whimsical.
I thought we might be willing to care for each other. I have 10 masks and make an event out of which mask to wear on a given day. This morning I am wearing my new army green mask and if anyone asks I will tell them I am honoring military people for protecting my freedoms. So thos freedom include not be required to wear a mask to save other people and maybe myself from Covid-19. No. The governor has a duty to protect the people of Rhode Island, Yesterday as i left the house a young woman abandoned the side walk and went into the street in order to social distance. 90% of the time I have to be the one to avoid the other person. Something as simple as sharing the responsibility of “staying out of the other persons face. Since March 15th I have kept a journal on who wears a mask. About 40 percent of people on College Hill wear a mask. The rest of the people (mostly young) do not wear a mask and no one enforces mask wearing. I drive on Thayer Street where 90 percent of people have a mask often down around their neck. This is in order to geo into the places of business. I know that people have done what ever they want and that this law suite is silly. I do hope a judge will ask the plaintiffs to prove their level of harm. These people will be part of the reason that our governor will have to restrict our movements and freedoms even more when the deaths raise because someone wants to go to a bar without a mask and enjoy drinking with strangers. I am a former president of the ACLU and a life long Civil Rights advocate and I believe in freedom. But not the freedom to destroy the public health.
Thank you, Mr. Rickman. Your last sentence says it all. We wear masks to protect not only ourselves but for others we come in contact with. Many are asymptomatic – they display no signs of having the virus but a test will show that they do.
This is also the flu season. While the symptoms aren’t always the same as COVID-19, a mask might protect someone from getting the flu. Personally, I don’t need a double whammy. I’ve gotten my flu shot but, as with anything else, there are no guarantees.
Science still hasn’t found the cause, our President insists that we’ve ”rounded the corner” yet his rallies end up being super spreaders. There is no vaccine, no cure and for some people, they get over it but others have had long-lasting effects. Immunity time is short – it’s not a lifetime immunity. Well-respected doctors of epidemiology have said this over and over.
Mr. Gross, do what you will but don’t cross my path! Your lack of respect for others is appalling.
Making masks & COVID a political divide in a country that’s already divided by a useless president is beyond ridiculous. The writer may be a chemist but that’s like Trump being dismissive of Fauci, an epidemiologist, and hiring a radiologist to tell us anything about the virus. If one passes this man on the street, does he know who may have an underlying condition? Maybe that person isn’t even aware that he/she has an underlying condition. Cancer isn’t going to rear its ugly head immediately nor is a serious heart condition. Does this writer have X-ray vision glasses? I don’t know the age of the writer – not a millennial but thinking like one. Not brought up in a day of a “polite society” when one respected others, obviously. I wear my mask to protect others, not just myself. I may be asymptomatic or shedding or have the sniffles that could be a cold or the start of COVID.
Unfortunately, we call this the ”new normal”. It’s nothing ”new”. For too many years, we no longer know our neighbors, the mailman, a delivery person. We might give them a wave but we don’t stop to talk, to give them a hand if they’re outside trying to clean snow off the car. The breakdown of society started long before masks. We have our ”street masks” & our “inside masks”. They’re invisible & interchangeable. Now we wear a physical mask and you know what? People are actually more pleasant!! They’re not in my face but we exchange remarks, we smile – one can tell from their eyes. We maintain our distance. We see a mom struggling with a whiny kid and try to talk the kid down (it works!). We’re strangers, may not see each other again but for a moment in time, that mask brought us together – not arguing, no politics, an itchy mask which we agree we don’t like but we do respect each other’s fight against something no science has yet nailed down. We do know it’s insidious, that we should be clean but clean doesn’t always help. As in the past, we’ve become a somewhat more polite society, respectful of others’ health & well-being. We don’t know their family members who may have someone vulnerable at home or work in an environment that might make them more vulnerable. Our governor is the voice – she isn’t the doctor, scientist or the kid checking out your groceries. I’m sure she’s learned a lot but she’s doing what she can to relay the message of those more knowledgeable. She puts it out there in the most simple but clear message she can. It doesn’t matter what party she is – once again, put politics aside. She’s done and executed things I don’t agree with. What she has done is communicated how dangerous this can be, how to protect ourselves and others. Other governors have done many of the same things, party aside.
Now I just watched Trump yelling “Open up your schools”. We’re a blue state. I’ve got news for that clown – R.I. has already opened up schools – not every single one but parents still have the right to choose to keep distance learning or send their kids to schools or home school. He left it up to the states – he said that from the start, never helped, never set an example but the governors of most states took up the banner. They did their job – to protect their people.
Wear your mask, social distance, don’t stand in crowds. It’s the only defense we have right now especially from people like this writer who seems to go to a lot of ”dirty” places, has friends who don’t have common sense (who doesn’t wipe a computer off?), and what market has he been in where the cashier doesn’t wipe off the belt? What market is letting him in without a mask? I live alone, my house needs to be picked up but I’ve always washed dishes, cleaned counters, the stove, the fridge every single time I do dishes. What’s added is I wipe off the steering wheel & handles of the car.
What I get from this is that the writer promotes herd immunity. Sweden tried it – it didn’t work. If he wants herd immunity, he can go it alone. Today over 80 million have or have had COVID and it’s getting higher, not lower because people are tired of masks & restrictions. For now, that’s how we have to live. It’s not a law but it is common sense.