Rock Island Mayor blasts fake pandemic

An IQ Test

By Rock Island Mayor Randy Agnew          

Shortly after the Covid lockdowns began this year, someone asked me what I thought was going on.  I responded with; “It’s an I.Q. test”.  Besides being humorous, I thought it might also be the latest Democrat attack on President Trump.  To be honest, at the time I thought there might be a real possibility that some secret laboratory had created a truly deadly virus like Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death, and it had somehow gotten out.  But over the months since then I believe my original suspicion has been confirmed.  The amount of misinformation, disinformation and just plain fear mongering that we have witnessed since the beginning of this so called “pandemic” has been overwhelming.  Original projections of the total possible deaths in the U.S. from Covid were up to two million.  While that is a large number, as a percentage of the total population of the U.S. it’s less than one percent (1%).  For comparison, the European Bubonic Plague (the Black Death) of the 1300s killed almost one third (33%) of the entire continent’s population.  That’s a real pandemic.

The official CDC numbers used in this article are as of October 16, 2020, which was the most current information available at the time.  Also note that the “official” CDC Covid death count you constantly hear quoted is actually all Covid related deaths.  According to the CDC that means all deaths where Covid was noted on the death certificate.  What it does not mean is that Covid was the cause of death.  While the CDC lists the official current number of Covid related deaths as 220,000, it apparently takes some time for the CDC to break them down into the categorized reports I used for this article.  Finally, since we’re talking about deaths, it should be noted that the last I was aware 100% of people die of something sooner or later.

So with those things noted, according to the CDC, the official number of Covid related deaths as of October 16, 2020 was 204,613.  Ignoring the question of how accurate that number is for the moment, that would equal a death rate of six one hundredths of one percent (.06%) of the U.S. population (the U.S. population at the beginning of 2020 was 331 million).  Not 30%, not 10%, not 1%, not one half of 1%, not even 1/10 of 1%, but slightly more than one half of one tenth of 1%!  And this is what is being called a “pandemic”, a “crisis” and a “national emergency”?  The “reason” to lockdown America, destroy our economy, destroy small businesses, and give state governors the power of little banana republic dictators?  Think about it, does that really make sense?

According to the CDC, death certificates where Covid was the only listed cause of death is about 6% of the total Covid deaths.  That would equal 12,277 of the 204,613 total Covid deaths.  Unlike some people, I’m not trying to claim that there have only been 12,277 Covid deaths.  On the other hand, to any honest person it should also be quite clear that we can’t actually blame 100% of the official Covid deaths on Covid itself.  Covid could have been anything from the final straw or simply a side note that had nothing at all to do with the death. 

For example 38,079 deaths were due to heart attack or heart failure.  Did Covid cause the heart attack?  Or did the person just happen to have Covid when they died of a heart attack.  6,871 deaths were due to accidents and suicide.  Did Covid cause the motorcycle to have a head on with the semi truck, or did the rider just happen to have Covid when they hit the truck?  56% of the Covid deaths were associated with; respiratory issues (flu, pneumonia, etc.), circulatory issues (like heart attacks), sepsis, cancer (does Covid cause cancer?), diabetes, obesity, renal failure, Alzheimer, dementia and accidents.  The point is, the real number of deaths actually caused by Covid is far less than the “official” total of 204,613. 

The official combined Covid death rate for Chelan and Douglas counties is two one hundredths of one percent (.02%), which is one third of the official rate for the U.S.  Just for fun, if we used our local rate as a more realistic percentage of the death rate, then the total U.S. deaths actually caused by Covid would be 67,522.  For comparison, according to the CDC, the deaths for the 2017-2018 flu season was around 61,000.  Again, can we really consider Covid an end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it crisis?  While the media and many in government would like you to believe that, it isn’t. 

I certainly don’t want to belittle the pain and grief of those that have lost a loved one due to Covid but at the same time, as a society, we have to keep it in perspective.  Especially in light of everything that has happened in America and around the world, supposedly because of Covid.

According to the CDC’s 2018 Deaths and Mortality report (the most recent year available), the total number of deaths in the U.S. was 2,813,503.  Or put another way, on average 7,708 people die every single day in America.  Heart disease was the leading cause with 647,457 (.20% of the total population).   Cancer was next with 599,108 (.18% of the total population).  Third was accidents with 169,936 (.05% of the total population).  Do we shut down our economy, lockdown our citizens, spread hyperbole and fear because .05% of the population dies from accidents every year?  Are heart attack and cancer victims any less important than Covid victims?  There’s certainly a lot more of them… every single year.

Let’s look at the death rate by age group.  Please note that I had to use the Age Group Population numbers from July 2019 as those were the most recent ones available.  Since the population in 2019 was less than it is for 2020, that actually makes the “odds of dying” numbers listed below a little higher than they really are.  Below the age of 18 the odds of dying from Covid are almost nonexistent.  There have been a total of 97 deaths in this age group.  For the age group 18 to 39 the odds of dying from Covid are still miniscule.  As a percentage of the total people in this age group there is a .003% chance of dying of Covid.  Or in other words, a 99.997% chance of survival.  The odds of being murdered are 60% higher than that.  Have we closed all schools in America over fears of kids or the teachers being murdered?  Why aren’t we making students and teachers wear bullet proof vests and helmets?  Doesn’t anybody care about the children?

Age Group     Deaths            Pop. of Age Group    Odds of Dying           Odds of Survival

  1 – 17                    97               73,206,000                   .00013%                      99.99987%

18 – 39               2,914               97,704,000                   .003%                          99.997%

40 – 49               5,011               40,320,000                   .012%                          99.988%

50 – 74             57,515               94,410,000                   .06%                            99.94%

75+                   91,532               22,580,000                   .4%                              99.6%

Even the worst age group has a 99.6% chance of not dying from Covid!  Looking at those facts, can you see any reason why our kids aren’t in school?  Why many of the college classes are online only?  Why small businesses are shut down?  Why there was any lockdown at all?   Why Democrats want everyone to wear masks?

After spending billions of dollars for tests, the government is spending billions more to go out and randomly test people.  We’ve seen a fair amount of this around the Valley lately.  When they were testing Rock Island I asked the person in charge if the test would indicate how many people had already had the virus.  I was told, no.  The test would only show positive if they were actually sick at the time of testing.  I asked what the point of that was, but the only answer I got was that they were “just doing their job”.  So what is the point?  Just because I wasn’t infected yesterday doesn’t mean I won’t be tomorrow.  Are we supposed to get tested every day, every few days or monthly until we get the virus?  Like most people, I’ve had a fair number of cold’s and flu’s.  I never needed a test to tell me I was sick.  But apparently a lot of people that get infected with Covid are “asymptomatic” meaning they don’t have any symptoms (i.e. they don’t get sick).  How deadly of a disease is it if many people don’t even get sick when they are infected?

A few months after the beginning of the “pandemic”, the news media shifted from talking about Covid deaths to Covid cases.  That’s because the death rate had dropped to the point that it wasn’t fitting the narrative anymore.  Now, the number of cases is being used as the excuse to prolong the lockdown and impose limitations.  Why?  What difference does it make how many people are being infected if it isn’t killing them?  The fact is, the faster the virus propagates the sooner we will reach what they call “herd immunity” (indicates what they think of we the people) and the “pandemic” will be over.  Unfortunately it seems the goal is to drag this out as long as possible.   The more they can slow down the spread of the virus the longer the little dictators can maintain their power.

The mandates, shut downs and other regulations made by our little dictator (Gov. Jay) Inslee are not just annoying but are totally lacking in any rationality.  While I know some of these have been lifted, let’s go over them.  Government building projects are “essential” but private building projects aren’t.  Really?  Does the virus only spread on private property?  It’s OK to go to Fred Meyer, Safeway and Walmart but not Hobby Lobby, a hair salon, or your church?  Why?  With all those people handling products on the store shelves and in the produce department, which do you think would be more likely to spread a virus… stores or churches?  Bars and restaurants must close early.  Why?  Does the virus only spread after 10 p.m. at night?  You must wear a mask.  If I’m sick with Covid and coughing and sneezing and just can’t manage to stay at home, wearing a mask makes sense.  Simply so I don’t spray all over other people.  But if I’m not sick or if I’ve already had Covid (in which case I’m immune and not contagious) what is the point?  If I’m not sick, shouldn’t I have the right to determine the amount of risk I’m willing to take?  If no one else was wearing a mask, wouldn’t I have the choice to stay home or wear a hazmat suit to protect myself?

Now we’re getting to the real heart of the issue.  Do I as an American have the freedom to determine what personal risks I’m willing to take?  If I’m willing to take the risk of catching Covid in a restaurant, bar, hair salon, or any other sort of establishment where people gather, what right does the government have to tell me I can’t?   Or worse, what right do they have to shut down those establishments so that I don’t even have the choice?  For those that don’t want to take the risk, they can self isolate and stay home!  No one is forcing them to go out.  If I want to go skydiving or swim with sharks, does the government have the right to tell me I can’t because it may be hazardous to my health?  If I want to smoke, drink, eat sugar and butter, drink pop and eat fast food, should the government be able to stop me… for my own good?  Should we close schools for good since the students and teachers have a higher chance of being murdered than dying of Covid?  Is this the Land of the Free or the Pasture of the Sheeple? 

So why do I think it’s an IQ test?  Because after decades of lowering educational standards and “dumbing down” by the mass media, I believe we’re being tested.  How effective has their school curriculum and TV programming based on a 12-year-old mentality been?  How effective is their fear and disinformation campaign?  How effective is their “for the sake of all of us” messaging?  How far can they push us before we start pushing back?  How many personal freedoms can they take away before we stop playing along?  Will we accept little tin dictators in the name of an “emergency” or “crisis” or “pandemic”?  What percentage of the people can connect the dots?  What percentage don’t even have enough dots to try to connect? 

And finally because I’ve been wondering… Why would anyone vote for a little tin dictator and a political party that declares a “pandemic”, locks down the state, spreads fear and disinformation, destroys small businesses, tries to shut down churches, keeps raising taxes, drives Boeing out of Washington, supports looters and rioters, supports illegal immigration, wants to confuse kindergartners by teaching them the LGBT agenda, makes it legal to kill babies at birth, and demands we all wear a mask?  Wouldn’t that be an IQ test?