The extension of the statewide stay-at-home order until the end of April by Governor Bill Lee Monday, a #ReopenTennessee movement has started in the state.
The governor’s original Stay-At-Home Executive Order No. 27 was scheduled to expire at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, April 14, but was extended Monday by more than two weeks to April 30, The Tennessee Star reported.
The Twitter account @ReopenTennessee, with a tagline, “Tennessee must be free. Reopen the state immediately” started Monday night with an initial Tweet, “We are #reopenTN We are here to unit for the common good of the citizens of our state. We will oppose this gross government overreach and demand for the state to open immediately. Too many people are suffering the financial impact and loss of freedom of the gov. Lock down.”
#reopentennessee #reopentn #reopen #ReopenAmerica pic.twitter.com/q4Hl4crvlA
— Reopen Tennessee (@ReopenTennessee) April 14, 2020
A tweet that links to a petition – “Bill Lee: Protect the 1% at risk, and let the 99% return to work” – speaks to the heart of the issue.
Started by Jason Hall, the petition opening presents that it is written from the perspective of a healthcare professional.
“It is safe to say that the most pressing issue that the State of Tennessee is facing right now has progressed from a pandemic to an epidemic. As a physician and surgeon, I am not speaking of a viral epidemic, but one of a more insidious nature: an epidemic of fear,” the petition says.
The petition is not at all dismissive of the seriousness of the disease. “Make no mistake, SARS-Cov-2 (COVID-19, the “Wuhan virus”) is a serious illness that demands our attention as a community.”
It also makes the point that over a month of dedicated data about the virus is now available.
With all of that data available, the petition speaks directly to Lee to say, “Unfortunately, the statistic that is most talked about, and apparently which you and other leaders use to make decisions is the one that is the most meaningless: total number of cases of SARS-Cov-2.”
The number of cases is called out as a “vanity metric” that serves only to stoke fear and panic and sell newspaper ads, but says nothing about who is at risk of serious consequences if they contract the virus.
The 290,000 cases of laboratory-confirmed cases of flu since September 2019 is compared to the 427,000 laboratory-confirmed cases of SARS-Cov-2 infections, one of which is totally ignored by the news media and “decision makers,” while the other is cause for a national shutdown.
“Both numbers are eye-opening, but tell us NOTHING about the seriousness of either disease process.”
The hospitalization rate is a metric worth using, particularly that of the at-risk population, which is those over 65 years of age and/or with a weakened immune system.
With SARS-Cov-2, that rate is 16.8 per 100,000, whereas it is 195.4 per 100,000 with influenza.
“This represents a greater than 1000% difference,” states the petition.
The conclusion that the petition draws: “Clearly, the data shows that SARS-Cov-2 causes, for the majority of the population, a mild illness.”
The mortality rate is an even more important data point that must be used to help guide decisions.
Current mortality estimates for the 2019-2020 influenza season is between 24,000 and 65,000.
As of April 9, the U.S. has had just over 4,100 confirmed deaths, with 1,800 – over 30 percent – in New York City alone. (emphasis added)
Meanwhile, there have been 16 laboratory-confirmed SARS-Cov-2 deaths in Tennessee. (emphasis added)
It has been reported that Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House coronavirus task force confirmed that in the U.S., with a positive test, deaths by any cause occurring during the pandemic are reported as a coronavirus fatality.
Using “presumed” deaths, there have been 16,800 nationally and 79 in Tennessee, both well below this and the past few influenza season mortalities.
The reality is that the mortality rate from SARS-Cov-2 is higher than influenza, especially among the at- risk group.
For those over age 65, the SARS-Cov-2 mortality rate of between 2.5 and 25 percent is 3 to 30 times higher than influenza.
However, 90 percent of those had “co-morbid conditions” of obesity, heart disease and pre-existing lung disease, making them more medically fragile than the general public.
Among the rest of the under 65 population, mortality rates are similar to influenza at less than one percent in each age group.
Tennessee Department of Health data proves that out, with 84 percent of the deaths occurring in those aged 61 and older.
Population density being another important factor, the petition points out the extreme conditions in New York City – the leader in hospitalizations and deaths from the novel coronavirus.
New York City has a peak population density of over 56,000 inhabitants per square kilometer, while the second hardest hit King County, Washington, has a population density of 20,000 inhabitants per square kilometer.
In stark contrast, Nashville and Memphis – by far the leaders in SARS-Cov-2 mortalities in Tennessee and the highest population densities – peak at 4,000 inhabitants per square kilometer.
And, the rest of the state has population densities averaging less than 100 inhabitants per square kilometer.
The petition goes on to that there is a need to develop “herd immunity,” and that mass quarantine “has never, in the history of recorded time, been an effective, durable disease management strategy.”
Consistent with recent news reports of the IHME model’s drastic reduction from millions to tens of thousands of projected deaths, the petition points out that “to date, there have been exactly ZERO accurate computer models of this disease process,” and cautions Lee, “to continue to listen to academic ‘policy makers’ and professional consultants who have yet to make an accurate prediction is tantamount to malpractice.”
In a Twitter thread Monday, Sean Davis, co-founder of The Federalist, criticized IHME’s predictions in a couple of states.
Specifically regarding Tennessee, Davis said IHME’s modeling was in a class all by itself for being “horrifically wrong,” when it comes to coronavirus-related hospitalizations.
His graphics illustration demonstrates that with an actual 567 cumulative hospitalizations (that is total number of hospital admissions, including those who have been released and are no longer hospitalized) as of Easter Sunday versus the predicted 12,000, the IHME model was “off by 2,000%.”
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1249773699005394944?s=20
Unlike many protest-type petitions, this one offers a reasonable conclusion and recommendations on how to proceed.
“We need to focus on getting our population back to work to prevent economic and societal collapse.”
“At the same time, we can target our resources to protecting the vulnerable, ‘at risk’ population until this disease ‘burns out’ as spring progresses to summer.
The petition’s three specific recommendations to Lee for his action are:
1. Repeal Executive Orders 17, 21, 22, and 23. Focus on protecting the “at risk” population and get our state back to work and school.
2. Repeal Executive Orders 18 and 25. Allow the resumption of all surgical and dental procedures – elective as well as emergent. Physicians and surgeons are infinitely more capable of making risk/benefit decisions for their patients and their community than any politician. We do so every day without interference from the state.
3. Protect the “At Risk” population – those over 65 and/or with fragile immune systems. Individuals with suppressed immune systems (ie: those on chemotherapy or immune-suppression medications) and those over 65 years of age should be encouraged to stay at home until at least 5/15/2020. Limit visitation to nursing homes and hospital wards. Encourage expedited and delivery services for those who must be protected by sheltering. Government mandates don’t work – allow private enterprise to do what it does best: innovate and solve problems. Encourage it with tax breaks and expedited business policies.
Meanwhile, similar activities are taking place across the country in displays of civil disobedience for actions that may be unconstitutional by elected governors.
At FoxNews Channel reported, state stay-at-home orders have stirred protests nationwide amid fears of economic collapse.
To protest Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s tyrannical new guidelines to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the state, at least 15,000 cars and trucks are expected to descend on Michigan’s state capitol Wednesday in a drive-by demonstration to gridlock Lansing.
#ReopenNC began last Thursday, and already had 21,000 members by the time of the Monday report.
The Ohio Star reported that approximately 150 people gathered outside the State Capitol in Columbus Monday, to tell Governor Mike DeWine and Health Department Director Amy Acton, “You’re getting a paycheck, we’re not” and “Open Ohio Now!”
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Laura Baigert is a senior reporter at The Tennessee Star.
Photo “Bill Lee” by Bill Lee.
File a complaint under USC Title 18, Section 241 & 242 – as easy as a mouse click or telephone call. Name the Governor and your County Mayor as Co-Conspirators
USC Title 18, Section 241 Conspiracy Against Rights – https://www.justice.gov/crt/conspiracy-against-rights
USC Title 18, Section 242 Deprivation Of Rights Under Color Of Law – https://www.justice.gov/crt/deprivation-rights-under-color-law
Here’s where to file a complaint: https://www.justice.gov/crt/how-file-complaint
SIGN THE PETITION!!! And send Governor Lee a clear message!
https://www.change.org/p/bill-lee-protect-the-1-at-risk-and-let-the-99-return-to-work?recruiter=818748304&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_abi&utm_term=share_petition&recruited_by_id=a4041910-b83c-11e7-b599-55cf484f3029
Michigan business owner and private citizens have filed suit against their Governor, for violating the 1st and 5th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
https://www.wlns.com/news/gov-whitmer-being-sued-over-stay-home-order/
We need to do the same – the only language they’re likely to understand. A broad coalition, though, of health care providers, business owners, and private citizens who can demonstrate damages. File as a class. Watch how fast the order is lifted!
Metro Nashville Government is about to begin furloughing employees while simultaneously fanning the flames of CV hysteria.
Of course, Mayor Cooper has millions in the bank and has nothing to worry about. Those part-time employees can live off of stimulus checks and unemployment for months on end.
#ReopenTennessee
Darn, he started out so strong… a movement has started to recall Ohio’s DeWine & Michigan’s Whitless, perhaps y’all should start one as well?
No provision for recalling a Governor in Tennessee – only local officials. Best we can do is demand our state representatives and state senators to issue a de facto vote of no confidence and/or ramp up public discord to such an extent as to drive his resignation.
There’s always the rule of 308
I agree with Mark Taylor who says, ” this is a World Reset”. None of us are seeing or hearing the reality of what is really going on in our world. Right now the masses are focused on this virus. And what is being revealed is the virus is a smoke screen for the real battle that is taking place world wide. Fear is controlling and its a powerful weapon that is effectively working to control peoples critical thinking. If folks follow the back story they will realize that timing is an issue, and patience is needed so that everything can be accomplished. And when the President says, the economy is going to take off like a rocket I think he knows something we don’t. I believe we will all look back in history and say, this was the best thing that ever happened in our world. Only God’s Mercy!
Trump signed a $6T bailout bill that the CONgress was too chicken to record their votes on. That’s over $17,000 per person borrowed from the criminal banksters. You get a check for $1200. Where did the rest go? Rocket fuel?
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Bill Lee is an idiot. I will never vote for him again. I have been a bedside nurse for 22 years working everything from emergency medicine, ICU, Radiology, Endoscopy, IV Therapy, and home care. I have been sneezed on, coughed on, spit on, thrown up on, bled on, pooped on, peed on, you name it. This so-called pandemic has been one of the most contrived BS moments in my career. America is one of the fastest, out of shape, drugged up populations in the world. THAT is the problem, not a cold virus. I will no longer do business with Lee Company either.
Amen. If you look at the statistics objectively, this has been an enormous overreaction that is killing more people than it saves. You are right—America is a fat and over-medicated society so it is no surprise that the pathogen killed the weak.
Also, people have screamed about the tragedy in Italy. But, they do not mention that Italy has the oldest population in Europe, has an incredibly high rate of smokers, and their hospitals are taxed in normal times. But, we shut down the world because a single nation was the author of its own misfortune.
You are right—Bill Lee has millions and doesn’t care that people are out of work and losing their cars and apartments.
Most of Dr. Hall’s positions regarding infection rates versus illnesses, the severity (or not) of those illnesses, co-morbidity, etc. were communicated in no uncertain terms to the Governor and my County Mayor beginning in March.
Initially, they were directed to research conducted in 2014 that demonstrated the dangerous insufficiency and misguidance being promulgated by the CDC and WHO at the time, in “response” to the emerging Ebola threat. That CDC and WHO misguidance had the practical effect of propagating the virus, versus containing it. It was only after the “guidance” was dramatically changed, as regards PPE in particular, did the virus get under control.
We see much the same here with this virus, which is thankfully much less grave in its primary effect, medically. But the secondary effects of medical misguidance and ignorance of hard evidence, is resulting in the needless deaths of millions. And, economically, it is a global disaster unlike any other.
As appeals to factual evidence didn’t seem to result in a rational response, they were referred to a passage in the Bible: Jeremiah 5:21 Hebrew. Colloquially – “there are none so blind as those who will not see, none so deaf as those who will not hear.”
This is not an issue being reasoned by fact and evidence, but driven by irrational fear. People driven by irrational fear perform irrational acts. With the passage of the abomination called CARES, the states are now coerced into going along with whatever the Federal government, globalist financial elites, and the administrative state, writ large, wants. It’s about power, and money. Were Tennessee to lift its state of emergency before that power cabal fully wrests control, it stands to lose over $2.65B in “relief”…from a problem the cabal created no less.
That very same argument, i.e., potential loss of Federal funding, was presented before the Kansas State Supreme Court by the attorney arguing for closing churches on Easter, but keeping bars and restaurants open. Which is how the court ruled…in Kansas, on the eve of Easter.
It is encouraging to see practicing physicians step up in opposition, versus government paid bureaucrats who are far removed from reality – they live in a bubble of oblivion, be it Nashville, or DC, or Brussels. Now we need principled politicians to do the same.
All those who genuinely care about their fellow man need to take the time to do their own research, and decide on the evidence, not the hyperbole. Linked below is a compilation of evidence, not idle opinion, much of which originated by leading epidemiologists and infectious disease specialists worldwide. Outside the Beltway or Brussels in other words.
This isn’t just about the economy, it’s about public health, globally and well as locally. Acts of simple fellowship, shaking hands for example, are being outlawed. Again, irrational fear = irrational acts.
Here’s the link, which is regularly updated: https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/
“…with a positive test, deaths by any cause occurring during the pandemic are reported as a coronavirus fatality.” How is this not illegal falsification of records? How can we allow “healthcare professionals” to get away with this behavior? I expect the Chinese Communist government to do this kind of stuff, but not the American government! And with this kind of faulty data, how can anybody make any cogent decisions regarding “reopening” society? Perhaps more importantly, why would citizens follow leaders who accept this kind of public disinformation?
So much for oaths, be it Hippocratic, or, to uphold the Constitution of the United States and Tennessee.
This shut down madness must stop. Drive by the capitol and honk just like in the days when an income tax was being snuck in by Sundquist.