How did politicians act in lockstep on lock downs (and more) even before COVID was a crisis?

Covid-19 Reveals A Disturbing Agenda Behind Our Mayors

By Sandy Szwarc, guest commentary to Pratt on Texas.

Never before in the history of our country or the free world, have politicians and governments assumed such overarching authority over personal liberties on account of a virus. These measures have had the single largest negative impact on people’s lives in our entire lifetime.

Mayors around the country, like Dan Pope of Lubbock, began issuing unprecedented emergency declarations last March. They issued nearly identical emergency declarations across the country at nearly the same time − even when their cities had not had a single death. Health professionals immediately recognized something was amiss because these emergency orders contradicted published medical evidence and everything health professionals had already known about the virus. Worse, they ignored the advice of unbiased experts and went against the government’s own pandemic plans. And they continue to do so.

Who has Pope, along with these other mayors, been answering to?

It is not the citizens.

These mayors have been answering to special interests working to forever transform our country, and turn Texas blue in the process. Change happens on a local level but few people would suspect that their own mayor could be part of anything this big and sinister coming from outside their city. Especially right here in Texas.

“It is the right and duty of every citizen to see what the scientists have said and to analyse it for themselves.” – Lord Sumption, former Justice of The Supreme Court 

The false claim: “We couldn’t have known”

SARS-Co-V-2 was a newly identified strain of a coronavirus, a virus that causes colds and respiratory infections. Before Mayor Pope had issued his first emergency declaration, medical professionals already knew enough about this virus and past pandemics to know that none of these emergency declarations were warranted or could be supported.

In fact, even before a single emergency declaration was made anywhere the U.S., medical professionals knew, based on real world data from overseas and published medical literature, that this coronavirus coming here wasn’t anywhere near as deadly as other once “novel” coronaviruses, like SARS with mortality rates of 9.6% or MERS at 34%. This virus had already been demonstrated to not significantly affect children and for the overwhelming majority of people infected, it resulted in no or few symptoms.

Independent epidemiology and immunology experts here and around the world had already published data estimating mortality rates for Covid-19 well under 1% − lower than or closer to the seasonal flu. Even Anthony Fauci and scientists from the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had written in the New England Journal of Medicine, published on February 28, 2020, that the data “suggests that the overall clinical consequences of COVID-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%) or a pandemic influenza,” and not similar to SARS or MERS.

During the severe 2017-18 flu season, viral infection cases were above epidemic levels for four straight months. Government officials didn’t shut down the country; force healthy people to wear masks and undergo mass testing and quarantines; close schools and businesses; forbid people from gathering at sporting events, community socials or churches; stop all “nonessential” medical care; and decimate the economy.

In fact, government responses to past pandemics have never done this. Instead, they’ve followed decades of proven public health and infectious disease science and fundamental principles of biology. The 1957-1958 pandemic, for example, was from a new viral strain and resulted in a quarter of the population becoming infected. It killed the same number of people (adjusted for population growth) as current Covid-19. The responses by public health officials to this pandemic were documented more than a decade ago in the journal Biosecurity and Bioterrorism. As Dr. Donald A. Henderson, former dean of Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, who helped eradicate smallpox during the 1970s, explained, medical professionals recognized that efforts to mitigate, slow or stop the spread of a virus are futile.

During that major pandemic, no efforts were made to quarantine individuals or groups; deliberate decisions were made not to cancel or postpone large meetings, church gatherings or athletic events to try and reduce transmission, he wrote. No recommendations were made to wear masks; no attempts were made to limit travel or screen travelers; schools were not closed (unless there were insufficient numbers of teachers or students); and there were no interruptions of essential services or production. And, while efforts were made to speed vaccine production, it became available too late to have an affect.

And, as a result, there was no measurable impact on the economy or GDP, Dr. Henderson documented. That pandemic response wouldn’t cause a recession and left almost no discernable mark on the economy or society.

“COVID-19 is not the greatest crisis in our history. It is not even the greatest public health crisis in our history. But the lockdown is without doubt the greatest interference with personal liberty in our history.” – Lord Sumption

So, it is reasonable to ask what makes this year different from past flu seasons or pandemics?

You don’t have to be an expert to figure that out. “What we didn’t have back then were mass media, social media, and the incurable virus of evidence-free panic propagation to induce an epidemic of fear and paranoia,” wrote Daniel Horowitz.

Dr. John P.A. Ioannidis, renowned epidemiologist with Stanford University, wrote a landmark paper published in European Journal of Clinical Investigation on March 19. In it, he cautioned the country and public policy makers of “the harms of exaggerated information and non‐evidence‐based measures.” The only thing unprecedented about this virus, he said, is the amount of media attention it has received. We have an “epidemic of false claims” and media that’s inundated us with nonstop exaggerated information, he warned.

He chastised public officials and professionals for promoting sensationalized information, fake news (even from discredited and withdrawn papers), and speculative measures that are not evidence-based and will have obvious harms without any benefits. Lockdowns, masks, social distancing, testing, and all of the aggressive measures lack evidence for preventing the spread of respiratory viruses, he emphasized. But the harm from nonevidence-based government responses, misallocating medical resources, and the resulting economic and social disruption will have major adverse consequences.

Dr. Ioannidis called upon leaders to consider careful, unbiased and the most accurate and real-world evidence; he called for the open sharing of scientific information; and he called for responsibly balancing effective healthcare management policies with the least disruptive measures. But, like countless other independent professionals, his expertise went unheeded.

Mayor Pope and city leaders failed to consult autonomous, unbiased medical professionals, many of whom would have issued similar cautions. They failed to examine the medical literature and real world evidence. They failed to make any kind of careful analysis of the harmful consequences that could reasonably have been expected of these actions. They failed to enact policies that would cause the least disruption to the lives of people or their personal liberties. As a result, the economic and societal effects and the costs to human life, of the unprecedented government measures to Covid-19 have been unlike anything we’ve ever experienced.

“Freedom is a better friend of true science than government-centered and government-controlled science… Freedom focuses our politics on persuasion and the intellectual strength of our positions, not on control, coercion or the heavy hand of government. And if someone is interested in the common good in all its iterations and complexities, freedom is the one and only choice…“But politicians who take away people’s freedoms and enforce lockdowns are praised – and shielded from real scrutiny.” − Governor Kristi Noem

It’s long past time for scrutiny. And, there’s much more to this story in which Mayor Pope has been a willing political participant.

Mayor Pope’s Actions

When Pope issued a Declaration of Disaster on March 16, restricting public gatherings, there was not a single case of Covid-19 in the entire county. He issued a second declaration on March 18 in response to two cases who’d travelled from outside the country. Two days later, he issued a third declaration, imposing even greater restrictions, enforceable with police action, jail time or fines. On March 23 at 6:00 pm, the Mayor issued a Fourth Declaration closing all “non-essential” businesses, shopping centers and group meeting spaces.” Without a single Covid-19 related death in the entire county, he proclaimed that “COVID-19 poses an imminent threat of disaster to the City.”

• Pope acted like Austin Mayor Steve Adler who issued his first Declaration of Local Disaster on March 6 and cancelled South by Southwest for the year. Adler did this even against the advice of Austin public health officials who said cancelling the festival would do nothing to make the city any safer from the virus. Adler issued subsequent orders on March 15, 20 and 21, each increasingly restrictive on gatherings and movement, and closing all nonessential businesses, enforceable with criminal penalties. There hadn’t been a single Covid-19 related death in all of Travis County.

In actuality, multitudes of Mayors across the country issued nearly identical emergency declarations, all at nearly the same time, in lockstep – even when their cities had not had a single death. For instance, Chicago on March 9; Dallas on March 12; Arlington, TX on March 13; Boston, MA on March 15; Des Moines on March 16; and Oklahoma City on March 17.

Pope and these mayors clearly weren’t acting independently, yet their mandates seized overarching municipal authority and power. Who were they in lockstep with?

The first clue is the political groups that all of these mayors belong to. Texans will remember the past controversy when Pope joined other Texas mayors in lobbying against and signing a letter opposing State property tax relief legislation? It would have given local voters a say if city officials excessively raise property taxes and put a cap on runaway city spending. Texans and everyday citizen taxpayers unanimously supported it, but mayors acted in lockstep against their citizens.

Instead, they were in concert with one of the largest taxpayer funded lobbying group in the state, known for working to grow the size and power of city governments. The Texas Municipal League, of which Lubbock is a member.

This municipal league is one of many under the National League of Cities. It’s part of a network of state and local government groups, that includes U.S. Conference of Mayors and National Governors Association, all working together with programs and resources that are interlinked and indistinguishable. Pope is also a member of USCM; as are the mayors of Austin, Boston, New York City, Des Moines, and Oklahoma City who are also Trustees.

NLC and USCM are both based in Washington, D.C. to augment their lobbying focus, and are known for left of center policies and initiatives, but they’re exempt from lobbying disclosures so mayors can lobby under its umbrella without being revealed.

They began lobbying Congress for federal funding direct to cities for Covid-19 responses on March 4 – before the WHO had even declared a pandemic (which it did on March 11). NLC’s Cities are Essential campaign, lobbying for $500 billion in direct federal money to cities for expanded governmental programs, even provided a template for mayors to use in adopting a resolution.

In fact, they had everything in place before Covid-19 was labeled a pandemic.

Bloomberg Philanthropies directs the mayors’ calls to action and Covid-19 responses for NLC and USCM.  

Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City Mayor with a reported $65.2 billion net worth and the 8^th richest person in the world, has had his sights on becoming President of the United States. In his address to the USCM at its January annual meeting, he promised to include the mayors in his unofficial cabinet and highlighted his political platform, with plans to factor climate change in every decision, highlight gun regulations and early childhood education, install smart cities with greater rules and enforcements, and completely transform the country’s infrastructure and power grid to reduce the carbon footprint. He’s poured more than $400 million into his campaign described in New York Times as one “defined by Democrats’ hunger to defeat President Trump.” With an immense media and financial conglomerate, news reports and Bloomberg’s personal op-eds are consistently anti-Trump. Bloomberg Philanthropies partners include Planned Parenthood, European Climate Foundation, United Nations Foundation Family Planning, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, WHO, Global Cities, Environmental Defense Fund, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, and other global progressive organizations, “cornerstones of liberal policies.”

At the NLC conference on March 10, Bloomberg announced his new program for mayors to address the “coronavirus public health crisis.” He also introduced the slogan for their Covid-19 response: “We’re all in this together!” This was the same slogan used by Mayor Pope’s Lubbock Economic Recovery Task Force, formed on April 16. Mayors across the country, from Boston to Chicago followed suit.

Teaming up with NLC, Bloomberg collects, monitors and post mayors’ actions, with a Coronavirus Local Action Tracker. The tracker urges mayors to work together and emboldens them towards “extraordinary” local government responses that “will have far-reaching implications.”

Bloomberg’s Covid-19 response program for city leaders is in collaboration with his John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. These two Bloomberg projects are important for every American to understand.

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JH-BSPH) had teamed up with the United Nation’s World Economic Forum, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the now-famous Event 201 on October 18, 2019 in New York City to plan for a mock “novel zoonotic coronavirus.” They were joined by the director of China’s CDC, a former CIA deputy director under Obama, and pharmaceutical and tech companies. Included in these globalists’ global pandemic response plans and call to action was a prototype pandemic dashboard…which everyone will recognize as the very same one that instantly appeared on our daily news reports and online when the pandemic was declared five months later. This is also the same Covid-19 dashboard JH-BSPH provides to mayors and cities worldwide.

JH-BSPH set itself as the world expert on governmental responses to the pandemic. It was the creator of the Public Health Principles for a Phased Reopening During Covid-19: A Guidance for Governors and Roadmap to Recovery: A Public Health Guide for Governors. While there are other pandemic and reopening plans, they’re all similar to this, some just more draconian than others. This is also the same  “reopening plan” that’s been adopted by local and state government officials, and regrettably, even the White House.

While it’s called a “reopening plan,” anyone who reads it instantly sees that it is actually designed to never allow the country to return to normal…ever. It leads our country to the “new normal.”

The government actions it outlines continue indefinitely and are unprecedented for any viral pandemic:  

• Countrywide social distancing and public mask/face covering
  

• Government control over public and private businesses, churches and healthcare facilities; closing and enforcing restrictions on businesses deemed nonessential, schools and childcare facilities, outdoor spaces, gathering places, churches, gatherings, sports events, transportation

• Mass testing. To date, about 127 million tests have been conducted on Americans, nearly one million in just the past day. Texas has done nearly 8 million tests, with Governor Abbott’s goal of 30,000 per day.

• Contact tracing of every citizen who is tested or comes near or in contact with anyone who tests positive to be identified and tracked. It goes beyond the army of contact tracers – with calls for 100,000 contact tracers needed − visiting homes, questioning and spying on people.

• As described in JAMA and by Johns Hopkins, contact tracing is patterned after Communist China and Korea government tracking which collects personal identification information and movements on every citizen using their cell phone GPS data, closed circuit camera footage, credit card purchases, public transportation records, government agency records, all health and medical records, prescription records, police records, etc.

• Again, politicians acted in lockstep. Massachusetts was the first state to the country to deploy a tracing army on April 3; followed by New Mexico on April 16. Former Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Cuomo launched New York’s massive contract tracing program on April 23, funded with another $10.5 million from Bloomberg, with his JH-BSPH to do the training and certification of tracers.

• Texas Governor Abbott made his controversial contact tracing deal on May 22, with the goal of an army of 4,000.
• Quarantine and isolation on massive scales of everyone tested or in contact with a positive sample, along with quarantines currently for anyone traveling from one of 17 states deemed “Covid-19 hotspots.” Quarantine and isolation of healthy, asymptomatic citizens.
• Creation of a national surveillance system, which was funded with $500 million from the Cares Act; to augment the integrated electronic medical records (where everyone’s medical records are reported and incorporated into a national database) under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare); and the $50 million added to public health data systems last December.

Nothing like this has ever been imposed for a virus. Any reasoned citizen and health professional will instantly recognize that these mandates are not about protecting public health, but are focused on a complete transformation of our society. They implement government control, tracking and surveillance of every person…on a level never before seen in a free country…or the free world.

This is a global agenda. As Bloomberg announced on March 17, his $40 million program was a global response initiative, partnered with the global health organization Vital Strategies along with the World Health Organization. It directs Covid-19 responses for city leaders here and around the world. Bloomberg’s extensive global and local initiatives and resources include a contact tracing playbook and curriculum.

Bloomberg’s guidelines and best practices for mayors include instructions on what their powers could be under a state of emergency. On March 26, Bloomberg announced a new guidance program for mayors in how to use Covid-19 to get federal money for expanding social programs. Pope readily complied to get over $3 million from the Cares Act for increased social programs in Lubbock. Likewise, Austin allocated an initial $18 million from the Cares Act for social programs, including expanded government childcare and funding various nonprofits.

Under his Bloomberg-Harvard City Leadership Initiative, Bloomberg holds a virtual training and information program for participating mayors, called the Local Response Initiative, to “set the response model for cities around the world.” These online conferences are hosted by a list of progressive politicians and are the source of now-familiar slogans, marketing tactics, and agendas that have been adopted by Bloomberg’s foot soldiers across the country. Conference speakers included Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, and Stockton Mayor Tubbs. Boston Mayor’s Press Secretary, Dot Joyce, told mayors they needed no formal authority to issue lockdowns. “We don’t need to wait for our governments.”

The pivotal first seminar on March 11 was conducted by Harvard Kennedy School and outlined the mayors’ role in the coronavirus epidemic. It instructed them on the need for a common message; skepticism of President Trump’s Administration; the need to eliminate “disinformation via social media;” the key role of WHO in America; and the need to take bold action and a “whole-of-society global approach to mitigating the impact of the coronavirus pandemic…while preparing [people] for more restrictive mitigation actions.”

            “Imagine that a company were to discover a vaccine,” said Amitabh Chandra. And offered to sell it “for $70 Billion, which is substantially less than one percent of the more than $7 trillion in coronavirus-induced health and economic losses.”

            “Disruption is the plan,” said Juliette Kayyem, chair of Belfer Center’s Homeland Security and Global Health Projects and former assistant secretary under President Obama.” And as a planner, that means that the best way to do this is by aggressive and consistent social distancing planning that will be disruptive… But this is the new normal. Disruption is the plan.”

Did you catch that? The very day WHO was to declare a pandemic, they were already coaching U.S. mayors to condition people to “the new normal” and had plans to never end the disruptions to our society. And, they had already anticipated $ trillions in economic losses from the draconian measures they were instituting on society. 

For a virus that in reality was no more deadly than the seasonal flu and with mitigation plans that lack evidence and would cause far more harm. And they appeared to have known that, too.

People are going to the polls not realizing that their mayors are not who they seem and are not representing them or acting in their best interests. If Texans don’t wake up fast, we’ll end up with leaders working for a political agenda that will forever transform our country. 

Sandy Szwarc, BSN is a researcher and writer on health and science issues for more than 30 years.

© Szwarc 2020