All considered, about 99.2% of people in NC posed no threat of passing along COVID-19 to anyone — a virus most had never had and the rest had recovered from.
We still don't have enough new data from DHHS to determine if we've been seeing twin excess death events in late summer through fall. DHHS has only reported partial data through Sept. 26. Nearly all the rest of the United States has reported data through Jan. 2.
Each time (nine so far) Cooper has announced an extension or tightening of his original mask order, the average daily case numbers have been higher than they were when he originally leveled the order.
The contrasts between Cooper's heavy-handed, deeply authoritarian, and woefully ineffective policies and Japan's less restrictive, more sensible virus mitigation policies are striking. So, too, are the similarities between Japan's policies and what we at John Locke have urged for North Carolina.
Shouldn't Cooper be sobered by this study's warnings about economic damage from lockdowns? Instead, the governor flat-out warned of returning to lockdowns in announcing the very order that cited this research.
Taking a study that starts by assuming a mask order in place cannot justify a mask order. Circular reasoning is no basis for an extreme emergency order. Also, a study that was retracted must never serve as the basis of an extreme emergency order.
A finding of no protection cannot be the basis of an extreme emergency order. Furthermore, changing the culture is no business of an extreme emergency order.
