Flattening the Curve

City Safari: Flattening The Curve…Or Is It Politics?

Thom Nickels
Fri, Aug 14, 2020
By Thom Nickels
Contributing Editor

The institution of overkill-corona-virus-lockdowns has now become the favorite sport of fear-mongering politicians.

But revisiting the fear and panic of March 2020 is not an option for intelligent people. As of this writing, there are still Philadelphians quarantining themselves as if the city were stuck in a perpetual March 2020 time warp. I know of men still fearful of going out and getting a haircut, couples who won’t socialize or dine outdoors (even with masks), and people fearful of using public transit. Fear like this seems excessive to me. Living your life in this state of mind (for months) truly has the makings of a nervous breakdown.

I’m reminded of two famous quotes about living in fear:
"Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears.” ―Rudyard Kipling.
"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.” ― Marcus Aurelius

Because of fear not much is happening in the lives of healthy people (without pre-existing conditions) afraid to take the slightest liberties because of the virus. Sadly, they remain stagnant like swamp gas, some of them waiting for a vaccine to be developed, although when a vaccine is available they will more than likely still find reasons to hibernate: "We have to wait a year before the effects of the vaccine becomes evident,” or, "The vaccine is only 75 percent effective so we won’t be out and about for another 10 months just to be safe.”

Just to be safe. And are you prepared to wait a lifetime just to be safe?

The corona virus doomsday predictions about what might happen this fall and winter are discouraging. These predictions are based on dramatic news reports that indicate a surge in "infections.” Some "experts” claim the virus will be here until the end of 2021, while others suggest that social distancing might be necessary for a decade, while the really dour prophets suggest that we will be wearing masks for the rest of our lives.

Whatever spike Philadelphia may go through this fall and winter, it’s important that Philadelphians watch that the city avoids following a totalitarian approach as set by the city of Melbourne, Australia. That totalitarian game plan might be called the Maoist offspring of George Orwell’s, 1984.

Australia, known as "The Lucky Country,” has had a relatively modest corona virus death toll even as that nation’s politicians are behaving as if this was not the case.

In the city of Melbourne, the death of 7 people within a 24-hour period has caused Melbourne’s Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, to put that city in the most draconian lockdown of recent memory. The six-week stage 4 lockdown, from August 2 to September 13, imposes a nightly curfew from 8 pm to 5 am (as if the virus operates within time perimeters). Melbourne residents are not permitted to leave their homes except to purchase food and essential items. Exceptions include health care workers and essential workers in other categories. You may leave home if there’s a risk of family violence (being cooped up in a small space with too many people, or even the "wrong” person, may generate animosity).

In Melbourne, when you go shopping you must do so alone (no couples allowed). You may only leave your house once a day to shop. You may exercise for one hour per day but you are not permitted to exercise further than 5 kilometers (3 miles) from your home. Masks are mandatory when leaving your home but if you are a jogger you are permitted to jog without a mask if you have an excuse like, "Masks aren’t practical while running.” People with medical conditions are exempt from wearing masks as are children under 12. Ironically, teachers are not required to wear masks in the classroom but students are. Teachers and students both must wear masks while traveling to and from schools.

Visitors are not permitted in your home. Residents are not permitted to visit another person’s home except for giving and receiving health care. According to The Guardian, you are permitted to leave your house if you are in "an intimate personal relationship” with another person but you must be mindful that your ‘bonk visit’ must end before 8 pm but if it does not (passion unhinged), you are required to spend the night with your special friend and leave sometime after 5 a.m. the next day.

Home improvement projects, such as remodeling, plumbing, painting, extensive gardening or putting up a fence, are all prohibited. Contractors may not visit your home for any reason, however if you have "an intimate personal relationship” with a contractor you might be able to sneak in a project appraisal or a night of work posing as love.

Melbourne’s home improvement project ban is reminiscent of Mayor Kenney’s recent announcement that Philadelphians stop their home improvement projects because these projects are adding to the city’s trash problem. Philadelphia’s mounting trash problem, by the way, has been blamed on "staffing problems” (an ambiguous phrase that warrants further explanation). Still, the added trash is to be expected when you are told that you can’t go anywhere, or when your covid-19 fears are so high that you won’t go anywhere even when you are told that you can. Rehabbing the bathroom or painting the dining room might help you from going insane if you’re the ultra-quarantine type.

In Melbourne, restaurants and cafes must offer take-out and delivery only. However, if you are a regular patron of that city’s brothels and strip clubs you will have to wait until after September 13. Melbourne’s churches and places of worship must limit participants to ten or under.

Fines for breaking any of these rules range from $200 to $5,000.

According to The Guardian, this stage 4 lockdown will cost Australia some nine billion dollars and put the unemployment rate up to 13 per cent.

Daily Mail.com UKreported that the Institute of Public Affairs has called the city's stage-four restrictions, "the greatest incursion into our basic liberties ever on Australian soil”. The stage 4 restrictions give the police unprecedented powers, "including the ability to seize private property, enter people's homes and stop them in the street.”

What caused the City of Melbourne to panic?

Those 7 deaths that occurred in the city within a 24-hour period, despite the fact that of the 7 that died, 3 of the deceased were over 70, 2 were in their 80s and 2 were well into their 90s. There is even some question as to whether some of the dead had pre-existing medical conditions.

Because the world is a global village, it’s almost certain that some United States mayors are studying Melbourne’s stage 4 lockdown status for possible implantation in their cities this fall and winter.

It’s a well-known fact that politicians lie. In Melbourne’s case, the big lie surrounding the stage 4 lockdown can be traced to the reason given for the first lockdown in March 2020. That first lockdown was instituted "to flatten the curve,” a fair and benign judgment by most standards. Melbourne’s stage 4 draconian lockdown, however, has nothing to do with "flattening the curve,” but with politics.

As the controversial and indomitable Katie Hopkins explains in a You Tube video about the Melbourne lockdown: "Locking people down because someone dies…Is that good enough of an excuse?”

Melbourne, Hopkins believes, is nothing but a test case scenario. "This is a test case for how much control they can have over you and how much freedom they can take away. Remember, they told you initially that it was all about flattening the curve, now it is about stopping 90-year olds from dying of corona.”

Hopkins is asking if it is it reasonable to lock down an entire city and to give the police power to enter your homes (without a warrant) because of 7 elderly deaths.

Melbourne’s police have been quite adamant in their threats to come down hard on Stage 4 lawbreakers. Although the police frame their threats in saccharin sentiments such as, "We hate to do this, and we understand your pain, but we must proceed nevertheless,” they mean business and are prepared to break into private homes.

Hopkins believes that other cities will eventually follow Melbourne’s example if the citizens of Melbourne don’t stand up and say enough is enough. Many Melbourne residents, it is reported, are already in a state of anger and despair.

It is unlikely that Philadelphia would survive another long economic lockdown. Many businesses here have already left the city, and many restaurants like The Bards, Dmitri’s in Northern Liberties, Mama’s Vegetarian, Lalo in Old City, Poi Dog and V Street, have closed their doors forever,

Philadelphia must notgo the way of Melbourne, Australia.