The Surgeon Admiral Launches His Next Offensive
Is there a clinical term for the sort of psychopathy wherein the perpetrator of a crime feels compelled to draw attention to it? Maybe it’s an oblique version of victim-shaming, or sub-conscious narcissism? I hope better-versed readers can suggest the proper diagnostic term.
Once and future U.S. Surgeon Admiral Vivek Murthy is truly a gift that keeps on giving. In recent years he has spoken in favor of restricting free speech, and restricting gun ownership, masterfully ignoring the concept that something might, perhaps, be none of his business. In November, 2020, like the world-class dissembler he is, Murthy explained to NPR that he had been against lockdowns because he was for them.
His Admiralcy: “First of all, even the word lockdown itself is a bit of a misnomer. When we locked down, so to speak, in the spring, we didn’t say, just stay in your house and don’t go anywhere … it was important for people to be able to go to the grocery store, to go to hospitals … the more important way for us to think about restrictions is not as a switch that we flip up and down, but more as a dial that we increase and decrease as the situation dictates.”
NPR: “But shouldn’t there be uniformity in that dial – because isn’t something more severe called for?”
HA: “Well, something more uniform is called for… we don’t have a uniform national alert system that tells communities at what level to start implementing restrictions based on important indicators. If we had that kind of system in place, then we could have a more uniform application of these measures.” These types love, love, LOVE uniformity.
HA: “We acted, in a sense, with a blunt axe in the spring (of 2020), and we did that in part because we didn’t know a lot about the virus in the spring that we know now. And if we don’t utilize that knowledge to be more precise, then not only are we going to fatigue people, which will contribute to them not complying to regulations and to having more spread, but we’re also going to disrupt people’s schooling, going to disrupt work. And in the end, we’re going to do that with very little public health gain.” That all sounds very reasonable, but then the reader recalls that earlier in the interview, Murthy favored mask mandates: “Places that actually have mask mandates do better in terms of lower rates of infection spread. President-elect Biden wants to use federal authority where possible to make sure that mandates are in place… as unpalatable as these mandates might be, they are important and they actually work.”
Of course they didn’t, and don’t, as anyone working in the middle of any major flu outbreak would have known.
My purpose with this backstory is to demonstrate that even as Murthy contemplates with woe the smoldering ruins, he was consorting with everyone standing nearby with gas cans and matches the night before.
“Surgeon general lays out framework to tackle loneliness and ‘mend the social fabric of our nation’” moans this ridiculous headline. In a frightened, navel-gazing nation that he helped to stunt and fragment, Murthy wishes to deploy his “National Strategy to Advance Social Connection.” The Admiral tells us that “In recent years, about one-in-two adults in America reported experiencing loneliness. And that was before the COVID-19 pandemic cut off so many of us from friends, loved ones, and support systems.” No, it was the GOVERNMENT, supported by a cowardly medical profession, that cut so many off. Murthy’s bureaucratic fleet and the politicians it supports ignored actual physicians who are also actual public health experts, people like Jay Battacharya, MD, and Scott Atlas, MD, and sailed through the phony channels marked by corrupt destroyers like Birx and Fauci.
“Given the profound consequences of loneliness and isolation, we have an opportunity, and an obligation, to make the same investments in addressing social connection that we have made in addressing tobacco use, obesity, and the addiction crisis.” And we see how effectively the government has fixed those problems.
Murthy’s framework is a six-pillar meddle:
- Strengthening social infrastructure in communities, including more public transit, libraries and green spaces, all with lots of “equitable access.” “Boondoggle is more succinct.
- “Pro-connection public policies,” whatever in the hell that means.
- “Increased investment in educating health care providers about the physical and mental benefits of social connection and the risks of disconnection. Patients’ needs should be assessed and supported, and organizations should track prevalence of disconnection in communities and advance local solutions.” There are some MORE boxes you’ll get to click on your EHR, for which you will be penalized if you forget.
- Reforming digital environments, including more transparency from tech firms. When has the government ever kept up with, much less reigned in, big tech?
- “Deepening knowledge, urges stakeholders such as officials, policymakers, health care providers and researchers to collaborate on a research agenda to address gaps in the data.” Like the NIH doesn’t get enough money to waste already.
- A culture of connection in which Americans “cultivate values of kindness, respect, service, and commitment to one another.” More pointless cheerleading from a silly man in a silly costume.
I don’t think there should be any such office as a Surgeon General, but if it was to be of any good use, it would address … no, forget it. There is no appropriate federal role, and anyone wearing that title can only nag, bother, and be used as a prop to further intrude into individual patient’s lives. No one should take this seriously, but they will.
To bad he didn’t consider this when thousands of elderly people in assisted living, hospitals and nursing homes were locked away from their loved ones for weeks or months at at time, while the staff continued to bring infection into the facilities. Thousands of elderly people declined and died as a result of isolation, not COVID, including my father who was prevented even from going outdoors (except for an hour once a week, which is less than prisoners get). The facility even screwed his apartment windows shut so they couldn’t be opened even a few inches for fresh air. Lockdown a misnomer? I don’t think so.
Too bad indeed. Damn them, and may we never move in lockstep ever again.
I actually think the surgeon general can be a force for good, if they are someone other than this woke in sheep’s clothing. His diagnosis is “fat shat.” It’s the official term for full of sh- ahem.
His Admiralcy: “First of all, even the word lockdown itself is a bit of a misnomer. When we locked down, so to speak, in the spring, we didn’t say, just stay in your house and don’t go anywhere … it was important for people to be able to go to the grocery store, to go to hospitals …
And the marijuana store. Don’t forget the marijuana store. That was an “essential business” in my state. I mean, marijuana is just life or death, so it’s worth the risk of COVID spread to access your weed.
But what’s not essential was the mom-and-pop pizzeria. The mom-and-pop camera and photo finishing store. The mom-and-pop office supply store. The mom-and-pop florist. Or the mom-and-pop garden shop. The mom-and-pop hot dog stand.
You know, the knd of store where a customer walks in the shop, and is served. Then the shop sits empty for a few minutes while air citculates, maybe virus cears, and maybe the next one comes by.
They were all closed.
But if you are Wal-Mart or Costco or Kroeger or any number of big box stores, where you have a massed crowd buying pizza, developing photos, selling computers and office supplies and flowers and garden tools and hot dogs and hamburgers, all in one big crowd coughing virus at each other, that’s OK.
The sit-down restaurant with al fresco dining in the parking lot under a tent is a risk of COVID spread, but the Hollywood movie shoot cast banquet five times the restaurant’s size under a tent the other side of the parking lot is OK.
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