Let me tell you a story… a story with a moral, or more accurately, a grim reminder.
At 0940 on the morning of All Saints’ Day, November 1, 1755, a series of earthquakes devastated the port city of Lisbon, Portugal, killing over 60,000 people in Lisbon alone. Violent shaking demolished large public edifices, wrecked eighty-five percent of Lisbon’s buildings, and destroyed 12,000 dwellings; sixteen foot wide fissures opened up in the city center. Candles lit in homes and churches all around the city for the Catholic holiday were knocked over, starting a fire that developed into a conflagration which burned for six days in the city, asphyxiating people as far away as thirty meters from the blaze within a mere few minutes.
An unimaginable wealth of cultural treasures disappeared in a matter of hours, destroyed by a lethal combination of quake, fire, and water. Subsequent fires and a tsunami—coupled with the earthquake–almost totally destroyed Lisbon and its adjoining areas. Witnesses descriptions said that, “Lisbon swayed like corn in the wind before the avalanches of descending masonry hid the ruins under a cloud of asphyxiating dust”. Although the earthquake lasted less than six minutes, at an estimated magnitude of nearly 9.0, it went down in history as the “Great Earthquake of Lisbon”.
Confused and terrified survivors rushed to the open space of the docks for safety and watched as the sea receded, a phenomenon believed by many to be a manifestation of God’s fury. The recession of the sea revealed a wide plain of mud littered up and down the coast with lost cargo and shipwrecks. After looking on in amazement–approximately half an hour after the earthquake–the unfortunate survivors witnessed a twenty foot tsunami engulf the harbor and downtown area, rushing up the Tagus river “so fast that several people riding on horseback… were forced to gallop as fast as possible to the upper grounds for fear of being carried away,” according to witnesses. To compound the misery, the first great wave was followed by two more waves. Throughout the south of the country, the destruction was similar.
It was the third great earthquake in the city in four hundred years—one in 1321 CE and another in 1531; but the one in 1755 was the worst, ranking as one of the deadliest earthquakes occurring on the earth in all history. In the aftermath, political tensions in Portugal were accentuated–silent opposition and resentment of King Joseph I began to rise, which culminated in the attempted assassination of the king in 1758–and the country’s colonial ambitions were profoundly disrupted. As might be expected, the calamity was widely discussed and dwelt upon by European Enlightenment philosophers and theologians for decades thereafter.
The earthquake had a searing impact on the European psyche. Theologians and philosophers were baffled by this awesome manifestation of the anger of God. Priests and theologians decided that this was the vindication of God and sought to answer the question of why a good God permitted such a manifestation of evil. This led to the religions finding a resolution to the issue of the problem of evil. Theologians and believers had to address the evidential problem of evil by attempting to make the existence of an all-knowing, all-powerful and all-good or omnibenevolent God consistent with the existence of evil or suffering in the world. The general consensus was that God was good; and evil existed, thus proving that God was good, however convoluted that may seem.
For Portugal–despite an ambitious effort at reconstruction–the quake ushered in a period of decline—especially in the spirituality of the populace—and her seaborne supremacy was eclipsed by her competitors, the Dutch and the English.
In the eighteenth century, Voltaire wrote his timeless short satirical novel, Candide, based on the Lisbon quake. His fictional character, Dr. Pangloss, arrived in London right after the disaster and worked assiduously (and with excessively Panglossian effort) to find a silver lining to the whole thing. Dr. Pangloss was an incurable, misguided, optimist who claimed that “all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.” He was so persistent and blind to reality in his optimism that he kept it up even after witnessing and experiencing recurrent great cruelty and suffering.
Li Wenliang was a Chinese ophthalmologist who worked at Wuhan Central Hospital. He reported the existence of a strange new, highly contagious form of pneumonia. He died on February 7 of the infection in his own hospital. On December 27, 2019 the hospital notified the local CDC organization. On December 30, 2019, Wuhan CDC issued emergency warnings to local hospitals about a number of mysterious pneumonia cases discovered in the city in the previous week. After the 27th unverified documents appeared on the Internet describing the outbreak.
On December 31, the Wuhan CDC disclosed to the media that there was a cluster of unknown pneumonia cases related to Huanan Seafood Market. Very quickly, the potential new disease outbreak drew nationwide attention including that of the NHC [National Health Commission] in the capital, Beijing. The PRC rulers sent experts to Wuhan on the following day. Chinese authorities formally notified the World Health Organization on this same day. On January 8, 2020, a new coronavirus was identified as the cause of the pneumonia. China publicly reported its first novel coronavirus death on January 11, 2020. On January 23, 2020: China imposed containment measures–a strict lockdown in Wuhan suspending flights and trains and shutting down subways, buses and ferries.
By January 29, 2020, the virus was documented to have spread to all provinces of mainland China; and Beijing when into emergency overdrive. Every province of mainland China initiated the highest response level to public health emergency. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern three days later on January 31, 2020. Nevertheless, public and media criticism labeled responses by the Wuhan and Hubei authorities as delayed and as failing to contain the outbreak in its early stage.
By February 8, over 724 died from the coronavirus infection-associated pneumonia and 34,878 were confirmed to have been infected. In Hubei alone, there were 24,953 cases of infections and 699 related deaths. At what can only be described as warp speed, the Chinese published the complete COVID genome on an open-access database.
US intelligence agencies started tracking coronavirus outbreak in China as early as November 2019 a few weeks before that information was included in the US president’s daily intelligence briefing and in the weeks following. The intelligence services offered multiple early warnings that a new virus was spreading through China’s Wuhan region and about the potential severity of the impending pandemic now surging in the US. Behind the scenes, the CIA and other intelligence agencies had been combing through their data for weeks to find out the exact nature of what secretive China was beginning to grapple with.
In public, Colonel Dr. R. Shane Day, director of the National Center for Medical Intelligence, denied that any such report existed, “NCMI and the Defense Intelligence Agency spent considerable time over the last 24 hours examining every possible product that could have been identified as related to this topic and have found no such product.” Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Hyten stated that the first intelligence reports he saw were in January 2020. The American president went on record that he only learned about the seriousness of the coronavirus just prior to enacting US travel restrictions on China that took effect February 2. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which is tasked with producing the President’s daily briefing, and the National Security Council, declined to comment.
Japan, South Korea, and Thailand reported their first cases on January 20, 2020. The following day, January 21, 2020, the first confirmed case was recorded in the United States–a man in his thirties from Washington state, who had traveled to Wuhan one day prior. On February 5, 2020, a Diamond Princess cruise ship was quarantined with more than 3,600 passengers off the coast of Yokohama, Japan. The number of confirmed cases on board the ship eventually rose to more than 700, making it one of the largest outbreaks outside of China. On February 26, 2020, the first case of suspected local transmission in United States was announced by the CDC. The patient was from California with no travel history to an outbreak area nor contact with anyone diagnosed with the virus.
By May 20, Chinese Virologist Shao Yiming, chief expert on AIDS at China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), described the COVID-19 pandemic as the equivalent of “the house is on fire!”
The American president occupied the airways almost constantly and with remarkable frequency made conflicting statements. However, he did express a rather Panglossian approach to the pandemic as its lethal statistics mounted. The list submitted here is nowhere near complete, since the communications number in the tens of thousands. All the following are documented statements by the president or his advisors in 2020, a highly contested election year:
January 22: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”
January 24: “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”
January 28: “This will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency…This is going to be the roughest thing you face.” [The president’s National Security Advisor]
January 30: “The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on US soil,…This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.” [Memo from US Trade Advisor Peter Navarro].
February 2: “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”
February 10: “I think the virus is going to be—it’s going to be fine.”
February 10: “Looks like by April, you know in theory when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.”
February 24: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
February 25: “CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus.”
February 25: “I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away… They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”
February 26: “The 15 (cases in the US) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.”
February 26: “We’re going very substantially down, not up.” And, “Well, we’re testing everybody that we need to test. And we’re finding very little problem. Very little problem.”
March 4: “If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work, but they get better.”
March 6: “I think we’re doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down… a tremendous job at keeping it down.” And, “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it… Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”
March 6: “I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault.”
March 12: Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Congress that the country does not have sufficient testing. “The system is not really geared to what we need right now,” he said. “That is a failing. Let’s admit it.”
March 12: “You know, you see what’s going on. And so, I just wanted that to stop as it pertains to the United States. And that’s what we’ve done. We’ve stopped it.”
March 13: “You know, you see what’s going on. And so I just wanted that to stop as it pertains to the United States. And that’s what we’ve done. We’ve stopped it.”
March 14: “I’d rate it a ten,” [The president’s rating of his coronavirus response]
March 17: “I felt like it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.” And, “The only thing we haven’t done well is get good press.”
March 26: “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You go into major hospitals sometimes, and they’ll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they’re saying, ‘Can we order 30,000 ventilators?’”
April 9: “I couldn’t have done it any better,” [When asked if his coronavirus response could have been better]
April 11: US death toll exceeded 20,000
April 15: US death toll exceeded 30,000. And, as the president focused on reopening the country for business, a leaked CDC and FEMA report warned of “significant risk of resurgence of the virus” even with phased reopening.
April 22: “If [coronavirus] comes back though, it won’t be coming back in the form that it was, it will be coming back in smaller doses that we can contain….it’s also possible it doesn’t come back at all.”
April 23: “You see states are starting to open up now, and it’s very exciting to see.” And, “I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? As you see, it gets in the lungs, it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.” And, “So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether its ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said, that hasn’t been checked but you’re gonna test it. And then I said, supposing it brought the light inside the body, which you can either do either through the skin or some other way…”
April 23: 26 million jobless claims filed
April 26: 50 million dead
April 27: “I can’t imagine why,” [Regarding influx in poison control calls about disinfectant]
May 5: “I don’t want to be Mr. Gloom-and-Doom. It’s a very bad subject,.. I’m not looking to tell the American people when nobody really knows what’s happening yet, ‘Oh, this is going to be so tragic.’” And U.S. death toll passes 70,000; Consumer debt hits an all-time high.
May 7: 33 million jobless claims filed.
May 9: “This is going to go away without a vaccine.”
May 11: “We have met the moment, and we have prevailed.”
May 16: “We’ve done a GREAT job on COVID response, making all governors look good, some fantastic (and that’s OK), but the Lamestream Media doesn’t want to go with that narrative, and the Do Nothing Dems talking point is to say only bad about [me].”
May 18: U.S. death toll passed 90,000.
May 21: US mortgage delinquencies surged by 1.6 million in April, the largest single-month jump in history.
May 22: 38 million jobless claims filed.
May 27: US death tole exceeded 100,000
June 6: US death toll exceeded 110,000
June 18: “And it is dying out. The numbers are starting to get very good.”
June 22: U.S death toll passed 120,000.
June 25: “Coronavirus deaths are way down. Mortality rate is one of the lowest in the World. Our Economy is roaring back and will NOT be shut down. “Embers” or flare ups will be put out, as necessary!”
July 6: U.S. death toll surpassed 130,000.
July 7: “I think we are in a good place.”
July 18: U.S. death toll passed 140,000.
July 28: U.S. death toll exceed 150,000
August 3: “They are dying. That’s true. And you — it is what it is.” And, “I think we are doing very well and I think… as well as any nation.” And, “OPEN THE SCHOOLS!!!”
August 5: “It will go away like things go away”
August 6: US death toll exceeded 160,000.
August 26: US death toll passed 180,000
August 31: “We’ve done a great job in COVID, but we don’t get the credit.”
August 31 Six million Americans have currently become infected by the coronavirus.
September 9: US death toll passed 190,000
September 10: “I really do believe that we are rounding the corner. The vaccines are right there.” And, “We have rounded the final turn.” And, “I think that we’ve probably done the best job of any country.”
September 19: US death toll more than 200,000.
September 21: “We’re rounding the corner,” “With or without a vaccine. They hate when I say that but that’s the way it is… We’ve done a phenomenal job. Not just a good job, a phenomenal job. Other than public relations, but that’s because I have fake news. On public relations, I give myself a D. On the job itself, we take an A+.”
September 29: “I don’t wear a mask like him [Joe Biden]. Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from him and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.” And, “Well, so far we have had no problem whatsoever.” (referring to crowds of thousands at rallies).
October 2: President and First Lady tested positive for Coronavirus. He was hospitalized. Also, more than a dozen White House staff and aides tested positive.
October 5: U.S. death toll passes 210,000. And, “Don’t be afraid of COVID.”
October 12: “Under my leadership, we’re delivering a safe vaccine and a rapid recovery like nobody can even believe. And if you look at our upward path, no country in the world has recovered the way we’ve recovered economically or otherwise, not even close.” And, “I went through it. Now, they say I’m immune. I can feel—I feel so powerful.”
October 19: “They are getting tired of the pandemic, aren’t they? You turn on CNN, that’s all they cover. ‘Covid, Covid, Pandemic, Covid, Covid.’ You know why? They’re trying to talk everybody out of voting. People aren’t buying it, CNN, you dumb bastards.”
October 19: U.S. death toll passes 220,000
October 29: “Covid, Covid, Covid” is the unified chant of the Fake News Lamestream Media. They will talk about nothing else until November 4th., when the Election will be (hopefully!) over. Then the talk will be how low the death rate is, plenty of hospital rooms, and many tests of young people.”
October 30, 2020: Over nine million Americans have now been infected by the coronavirus. The number of new confirmed cases on this day was 2,333. Covid-19 deaths in the United States increase… US has one of the world’s highest Covid-19 infection rates (NY Times)
Enough said by ideologists. Here are a few statements of objective fact: There is a terrible pandemic of the COVID-19 virus which has killed multiple millions of people in the United States and the world. The incidence is increasing in the United States and around the world, not decreasing as the Panglossians would have you believe. Previous epidemic plagues were stopped when enough people died, and enough people stayed well away from each other. In that regard, this pandemic is the same as all the rest. The few times when the people of the world practiced wearing masks and keeping a safe distance resulted in diminution of the number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. COVID is no respecter of persons. My president was infected and so have three of my family members. One died. The world is not flat. The earth is heliocentric, not the other way around—i.e. the earth revolves around the sun however draconian were the measures of the medieval Roman Catholic church to the contrary.
It is time posthumous to stop saying, “hoax,” “fake news,” “you catch COVID from wearing a mask or getting a vaccination,” “you might suffocate by wearing a mask,” “masks are for sissies,” “testing is the reason the number of cases of COVID are going up,” “we have stopped COVID,” “we have turned the corner,” “children do not get COVID; so, they can all go back to school risk free,” “the United States has the best COVID control in the world,” and “it is more important to get the people back to work than it is to save people from COVID.” The last statement represents a cruel set of choices for people: take risks, keep your job, keep the money coming in for the family, keep companies alive, and watch people continue to die, including perhaps your own family or bread winner. I have an opinion; it is better to live.
Newton’s law of gravitation, his three laws of motion, the ideal gas laws, heliocentricity; seven laws of physics: The Laws of Polarity, Rhythm, Relativity, Cause and Effect, Perpetual Transmutation of Energy; and the biological laws of the structure and function of cells, interactions between organisms, gender, gestation, causation of infection by microbes, homeostasis, and propagation of species by genetic processes of biological reproduction, evolution are all factual representations of the real world determined by methods of objective observation, experimentation, and correction of incorrect propositions over time. They are not about miracles, political or religious ideologies, nor are they correctly subject to whims of dictators, orators, or social media. The science of COVID as espoused by the CDC, the WHO, infectious disease experts, and epidemiologists are based on such arduous work.
Forget the pundits, the conspiracy theorists, the people in on the current secrets. Science is what will save us. The science for preventing and helping COVID victims is real, simple, and safe. We are lost without it. We do not need any more spokesmen like Dr. Pangloss. We need to follow the science, or too many of us will die. Too many of us have already died.
