Month: June 2020

I emailed the following letter to [email protected].

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June 19, 2020

Re: COVID-19 school-based mitigation strategies

Dear Sitka School District Personnel,

Congratulations to the Sitka school officials who made the brave and right decision to reopen Sitka’s schools in the fall. Now you are left with the unenviable task of deciding what mitigation strategies you will implement to keep students and staff safe. Doing so will be a political minefield. If you do too little, some parents will respond with anger, some will withdraw their kids from school. If you do too much, other parents will do the same.

I have two suggestions for your consideration when you meet to discuss this matter:

1. Stick with the data and the facts. Because this issue is so political, it’s hard to discern the accuracy of data and facts, but it’s still the best source of information available.
2. Don’t do anything that harms or injures children. In the words of Hippocrates, “First, do no harm.”

Based on the data, this is what we know:

1. Comparing state and national case and case fatality rates, lockdowns appear to have little if any effect in preventing transmission or death. In fact, there is evidence that keeping people at home in close quarters for months on end weakens the immune system and increases transmission. In addition, all-cause mortality increases in the USA by some 35,000 lives within five years for every percentage point increase in unemployment. Food banks are now at their breaking point. Famine is predicted. Depression, anxiety, germ related OCD, abuse, addiction, violence, suicide, and death from untreated medical issues will be the long-term legacy of lockdowns. These real and actual harms were not caused by the virus; they were caused by “experts” spreading and responding to inaccurate information about the virus.
2. There is little if any evidence of asymptomatic transmission of disease. On June 5^th, a leading scientist from the World Health Organization said asymptomatic transmission is “very rare.” The next day, the same scientist back pedaled on her statement, saying in essence that the theory of asymptomatic transmission remains in the disease models and may be happening, but she failed to provide a single example to support the premise. Stated differently, even though millions have been infected worldwide, there is still little if any evidence that healthy people have ever passed C19 to others. Researchers have tried to find the evidence, but there is virtually none.
3. There is little if any evidence related to the efficacy of masking healthy people in public. On June 5^th the WHO released a paper titled “Advice on the use of masks in the context of COVID-19.” In this paper, they wrote, “. . . the widespread use of masks by healthy people in the community setting is not yet supported by high quality or direct scientific evidence . . .” How could there be? Viruses pass through fabric masks more easily than krill pass through seiners’ nets. While acknowledging that there is no “high quality or direct scientific evidence” to support the benefit of masking healthy people in public, they claim that doing so provides a “likely advantage . . . making people feel they can play a role in contributing to stopping spread of the virus . . . .”
4. There are significant risks associated with masking healthy people, especially children. In the same paper quoted above, the WHO lists 11 potential risks associated with the use of masks. Following are four of those risks: 1. potential increased risk of self-contamination due to the manipulation of a face mask and subsequently touching eyes with contaminated hands; 2. potential self-contamination that can occur if non-medical masks are not changed when wet or soiled. This can create favourable conditions for microorganism(sp) to amplify; 3. potential headache and/or breathing difficulties, depending on type of mask used; 4. disadvantages for or difficulty wearing them, especially for children  [and]  those with asthma or chronic respiratory or breathing problems . . . .
5. Several studies conclude that the overall case fatality rate (CFR) is on par with the seasonal flu. Anthony Fauci and two of his colleagues acknowledged the same to be true almost three months ago in an editorial published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The median age of those who succumb is above 80 years old. And if you die in 2020, your death will likely be counted as a C19 death, with or without evidence that C19 killed you. The risk to children being harmed or dying is less than the risk of being struck by lightning and far less than the risk of dying from influenza.

With these facts in mind, it is evident that public health and government officials have terrified the public, placed billions under house arrest, wreaked havoc on the global economy,  enacted an array of ridiculous rules, and encouraged people to wear masks that do more harm than good so they can feel virtuous, all for a virus that is on par with the seasonal flu.

As you know, last month the CDC issued guidelines for reopening schools in the fall. While too lengthy to list the guidelines here, they can be summarized as school-based lockdown: No parents, no visitors, no field trips, no touch, no play, no fun. If implemented, you will cause real and actual harm to Sitka’s children in order to keep them safe from a virus that has virtually no risk of hurting them. In short, you will be party to child abuse. Children have been removed from homes for less abuse. The legacy of school-based lockdown strategies will be similar but worse than the legacy of national lockdowns. Classrooms will become logistical nightmares resulting in scared, frustrated, irritated and angry students, teachers, and parents. Learning will decrease, literacy will plummet, grades will drop, and bullying will become the norm. Dropping out of school, engaging in risky behavior, or committing suicide will provide welcome relief from the senseless abuse.

Of course, the CDC recommends that school children should wear masks. This recommendation is wrong on every level and must not be implemented. Teaching children that the air they inhale will kill them and that the air they exhale will kill their parents, grandparents, siblings, and friends has and will continue to result in trauma, lifelong in some cases. In addition, many children today struggle with asthma and other respiratory issues. If they wear masks, they put their lives at risk, and if they don’t, they will be viewed as disease spreaders and will be bullied. This, for a virus that poses virtually no risk to children.

What about the risk of children spreading the disease to adults? It is not the responsibility of children to protect vulnerable adults from sickness and death. Burdening them with this responsibility by requiring them to wear masks which they can’t possibly wear correctly is both cruel and scientifically indefensible. Masking children is yet another example of institutionally sponsored and culturally sanctioned child abuse that has emerged from this pandemic.

While the risk of harm to children from C19 is virtually zero, the risk of harm to children from CDC recommended mitigation strategies is 100%.

Stated differently, school-based lockdown strategies will result in real and actual harm to all students—up to and including suicide—based on the premise that doing so might prevent future harm to a few adults, most of whom are at or near the end of their lives. No decent grandparent would agree to such a proposition. Neither should you. Your job is to protect schoolchildren from people who can’t or won’t acknowledge these facts.

No doubt, as you’ve read this letter, you are questioning my credentials. I would do the same if I were in your position. You are right to do so. You should neither believe nor disbelieve anything I’ve written based on my credentials or background. If credentials mattered, then those with the highest credentials would make the best decisions. Unfortunately, as we’ve witnessed for the past few months, those with the highest credentials have been wrong from week to week and from beginning to end. Their pronouncements make for good comedy but poor policy.

Our country and indeed the world are in this cataclysmic disaster because we mindlessly placed our faith and trust in authority figures. Don’t make the same mistake.

Stick with the data and facts. First, do no harm.

May God bless you. We’re going to need it.

Brett Wilcox

Sitka, Alaska

P.S. I would be happy to discuss this matter further if desired.

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J.B. Handley wrote a highly referenced article in early June titled LOCKDOWN LUNACY: The Thinking Person’s Guide. It’s lengthy, dense, and well worth the read! It supports everything I stated above and so much more. It’s a game changer.