KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
Having been at the epicenter at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, my wife Jeri and I have witnessed many frightening mistakes made by governments over the past four years.
It is critical for all of us to review the positives and the negatives of the policies that transpired, learning from those mistakes to become better equipped to handle future pandemics.
We have a unique perspective. We were quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan, surviving the first massive outbreak of Covid outside of China. After spending a month in Asia, we were quarantined for another month at the CDC’s biocontainment facility in Omaha, Nebraska.
Our world changed during those 8 weeks. We received a lot of media attention throughout our ordeal. I also spent most of 2020 in and out of hospitals, not battling COVID-19 but fighting for my life after taking the Shingles vaccine months prior to our trip to Japan. Our ground zero experiences have kept us in the COVID-19 circle of discussions with politicians, doctors, researchers, bureaucrats, COVID-19 survivors, and COVID-19 vaccine victims, and of course the media. We’ve participated in documentaries, read numerous books, digested many research studies, and listened to hundreds of interviews as we sifted through the various research and narratives.
One of the best analyses written about the past four years was recently released by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity (CTUP). It was written by a combination of very prominent experts. The paper, titled “COVID Lessons Learned, A Retrospective After Four Years,” summarizes among other things, according to a news story, “that granting unprecedented powers to public health agencies, many of which imposed strict limits on basic civil liberties, had little positive benefit and instead helped stoke fear among the public.”
Many news outlets have reported on the study. One news reporter, Michael Dorgan does an excellent digest of the paper that is well worth the read. It’s important for all of us to not only read his article but to discuss its content with family and friends.
From our perspective, many of the bureaucrats who made mistakes during the pandemic refuse to open themselves up to criticism and learn from their mistakes. Instead, whether it’s Los Angeles County health czar, Barbara Ferrer, or the head honcho himself Anthony Fauci they are continuing to double down on their poor decisions and many missteps. They reveal a public narrative they privately know to be false, as many of their personal emails indicate. Their deception, along with the assistance of the mainstream media have left many still believing the origins of COVID-19 didn’t originate in the Wuhan lab, wearing a paper mask will protect you, vaccines are 100% safe and effective and will keep you from getting Covid. Add to that their short-sighted decision to shut down our economy with the long-term closing of small businesses, schools, churches, and any social gathering.
These bureaucrats continue to be afraid that if they stray from their false narrative, history will not be kind to them.
No matter which side of the aisle we’re on, we can all agree our founding fathers carved out a mandate in our Constitution demanding our elected officials make the important decisions. It’s our elected legislators who should be obtaining critical information from a variety of experts, debate the subject, and then create policy.
By doubling down on their ludicrous false narratives, the unelected bureaucrats are doing all of us a frightening disservice. If another pandemic breaks out tomorrow, these same bureaucrats will most likely follow their same misguided path and we’ll all be living through a pandemic version of the script from the movie, “Ground Hog Day.”
We hope you take a few minutes to read and share Dorgan’s article. It should become our guide for how we handle future Pandemics. Here’s the article. The full 49-page report can be found here.
Sponsored Articles
KHTS FM 98.1 and AM 1220 is Santa Clarita’s only local radio station. KHTS mixes in a combination of news, traffic, sports, and features along with your favorite adult contemporary hits. Santa Clarita news and features are delivered throughout the day over our airwaves, on our website and through a variety of social media platforms. Our KHTS national award-winning daily news briefs are now read daily by 34,000+ residents. A vibrant member of the Santa Clarita community, the KHTS broadcast signal reaches all of the Santa Clarita Valley and parts of the high desert communities located in the Antelope Valley. The station streams its talk shows over the web, reaching a potentially worldwide audience. Follow @KHTSRadio on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
The only medical person in the report is Scott Atlas, MD. He is a radiologist specializing in MRI. Not remotely an epidemiologist. Interesting reading:
https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/97056
https://www.npr.org/2020/11/30/940376041/dr-scott-atlas-special-coronavirus-adviser-to-trump-resigns
While I appreciate the time you spent, I’m not clear on what your motives are for writing this editorial. Over a million people died in the U.S. It was a nightmare for many of us. It was an unprecedented world event. I’m inclined to forgive the mistakes made by those in high positions who had good intentions but lacked experience with pandemics. I’ll never get over the idiocy of Trump, who rambled nonsense. And the anti-vaxers are to thank for an upsurge in Measles cases. Wondering if polio will return…
Also, if you try, you can find articles that support whatever you want to believe.
Couple take-aways….
Carl definitely has a unique perspective. Horrible to hear about all the health trouble hv had had and only hope he can let us know how he’s currently doing. Hopefully he’s doing much much better now.
I think it’s always important to point out that no one said the Vaccine will make it so you’re unable to get Covid. I think that is a major misconception being pushed by so called libertarians and the far right.
The Vaccine lessens the reaction to the virus. People fair far better having been vaccinated in the MAJORITY of cases. Same goes for the Shingles vaccine. It doesn’t prevent you from getting Shingles, it lessens the symptoms if you happen to contract Shingles. Carl’s case is definitely the minority of cases.
Perhaps we should use an different example, the MAJORITY of gun owners are responsible. Just because the minority of gun owners are irresponsible with a gun doesn’t mean with should get rid of guns all together. Does it?
I think it’s always important to point out that no one said the Vaccine will make it so you’re unable to get Covid. I think that is a major misconception being pushed by so called libertarians and the far right….but that was exactly what the narrative was for a while!! The CDC said that, Biden said that…there’s video evidence everywhere of this. Then after that lie was exposed, they said oh you can still get it sorry, but you cannot spread it?…remember that?? There’s videos of that everywhere too…oh, sp after 2 lies, they finally said you “won’t get as sick”….stop it already.
Richard,
Making a statement and then updating with new information is
what took place. We were not lied to by Biden and the CDC. As new facts came about, we were told.
Hospitalizations and deaths declined once the vaccine became available.
How about the video of our most uninformed President (yes, clearly Trump) in our country’s history telling the world drinking some bleach should do the trick. We all saw and heard that one.
How bout this video right here of Trump excitidly pushing the vaccine during the debate, before he undeniably lost the election… UNDENIABLY. YES, THATS TRUE TOO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=VnVCldz6EdY
Richard drank the kool aid and the bleach a long time ago.
Thank you Carl for always taking the high road and bringing forward opportunities for us to hear and learn from differing viewpoints. I recall reading your editorials on your personal struggles with COVID19 and am glad that you and Jeri beat the disease and hope your life is and has returned to a more normal state.
This editorial was not about drinking anyone’s Kool-Aid or not. Right and left have their own version of Kool-Aid. Trump made mistakes by listening to advisors and Biden made mistakes listening to advisors. Fauci and Ferrer got some things right and they got some things wrong.
It normally takes 3 years to bring a vaccine to market. Astonishingly, the COVID19 vaccine was brought to market in mere months. Undeniably, it saved lives, but it has also created a lifetime of health-related ailments for others. I appreciate the opportunity to read and to learn, so I am informed to the best of my ability for the next pandemic.
The old saying that it’s easy to be a Monday morning quarterback can certainly be applied here, but then again, it’s not so easy with, as stated in this article, so many bad players out there doubling down on their false statements. Many folks in charge, tried to make the right calls, switching back and forth occasionally when new data became available to them. Often that data was false because of bad players. The number of people who died from covid was exaggerated (died with covid) by hospitals in order to collect money from the government. I’m not saying a lot of people didn’t die from covid. But decisions were made based on the exaggerated number. There’s no doubt Fauci is a bad man and there’s no doubt our leadership were hypocrites. The evidence is there. It was important to slow the progression of the spread, as many hospitals were overwhelmed. I know for a fact that was the case for a period of time right here at Henry Mayo. But it’s confusing when so many hospitals were shown with plenty of empty beds. I suspect it happened in waves. If you are in the camp of “even if one life can be saved it was worth it” then you were pleased with the shut down, but I think it can be shown that it was the wrong decision. Even if you haven’t caught the disease yet, or just don’t know that you did catch it, you will eventually catch it. Catching the disease was the best vaccine. After/if you recovered there was no reason to remain quarantined and no reason to even wear a mask.