How Public Opinion and Political Interests Dictated COVID Policy

Wire Editor
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How Public Opinion and Political Interests Dictated COVID Policy

(Jess Gill, FEE) In Britain, The Telegraph and journalist Isabel Oakeshott obtained some 100,000 Whatsapp messages exposing the then Secretary of Health Matt Hancock and other government ministers during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

These leaks, dubbed “the Lockdown Files,” exposed that the politicians in charge were not all-knowing rulers who “followed the science” in order to protect the people but were in fact self-interested and too often clueless.

These same politicians made it a criminal offense for people to leave their home and see their friends. These same politicians made everyone wear face coverings inside and closed down schools for over half a year. And now it is evident to all that they did not have the best interests of the British public at heart.

Public Choice Theory Proved Correct

The reason why Hancock and other government officials acted the way they did can be explained through public choice theory.

Simply put, public choice theory treats politicians, voters, lobby groups, civil servants and any other political group, not as being selflessly motivated by “the public good” but as being basically driven by self interest just as much as everyone else. Nobel Prize-winning economist James Buchanan observed that when their private interests conflicted with the interests of “the public good” they often prioritize self interest.

Pride and Prejudice

For example, Matt Hancock ignored the guidance from Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer, that care homes should be prioritized for Covid testing. His reason? Hancock told his advisors that it “muddies the waters” and would get in the way of his self imposed target of 100,000 Covid tests a day.

The Telegraph also reported that Boris Johnson’s most senior adviser told a parliamentary committee in May 2021 that Mr. Hancock instructed officials to “hold tests back” so that he could “go on TV and say, ‘Look at me with my 100k target.’”

It’s clear that at the expense of vulnerable elderly people in care homes, Matt Hancock’s career and ego came first.

Polls Prioritized over Public Health

In June 2020, the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson considered ending some lockdown restrictions early, but dropped the idea after he was advised that it was “too far ahead of public opinion.”

Furthermore, despite being told by scientists that the data on death modeling was “very wrong,” Johnson plunged Britain into a second national lockdown that lasted for a month.

It’s crazy to think that the British people’s liberty was stolen for the sake of public opinion and that even though Johnson knew the data was wrong, he still carried through with the draconian policies forced on the British people.

Don’t Upset China!

Furthermore, Matt Hancock and Boris Johnson were also very cautious not to disturb the UK’s relationship with the World Health Organization and China. According to Isabel Oakeshott, Hancock was told to make it clear that any talk of the lab leak was pure “supposition.”

“During tortuous negotiations between Hancock and the Cabinet Office over what he could and could not say in his Pandemic Diaries, officials let slip something quite extraordinary: that they believe the proximity of the Wuhan lab to the first recorded Covid outbreak is ‘entirely coincidental.’ They seem terrified of anyone saying otherwise.”

She goes on to explain that, “Any hint that anyone in government suspects the virus started life in a coronavirus research facility in Wuhan ‘would cause problems,’ officials complained.”

Put Not Your Trust in Politicians

Through the leaked Whatsapp messages, it is now clear that politicians were motivated more by foreign relations, public opinion and their own careers and image than what would be best for the British public when it came to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Throughout the lockdown, Matt Hancock told young people “don’t kill gran” with coronavirus, and emotive ads were put up in order to guilt-trip the public. At the same time, politicians were making rules up as they went along and cared more about themselves than they did about saving lives.

As James Buchanan wrote, “Politicians and bureaucrats are no different from the rest of us. They will maximize their incentives just like everybody else.”

If those incentives are perverse (as they generally are in government), then the behavior of politicians and bureaucrats will be corrupt. The Lockdown Files are a glaring example of that. That is why governments should never be trusted with sweeping power over our health, lives, and livelihoods.

WHO ‘Urges’ Countries to Force Kids to Get Vaccinated

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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WHO ‘Urges’ Countries to Force Kids to Get Vaccinated

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) The World Health Organization issued new COVID-19 vaccination guidance this week, in which the globalist organization urged countries to keep vaccinating “low risk groups, like healthy children and adolescents.”

According to Blaze News, the WHO‘s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts now think that because of the “impact of Omicron and high population-level immunity due to infection and vaccination” nations should re-evaluate their vaccination schemes, taking into account “the cost-effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination for those at lower risk – namely healthy children and adolescents – compared to other health interventions.”

The organization also thinks that geriatrics, adults with significant comorbidities, pregnant women, front-line health workers and the immunocompromised should continue getting the COVID-19 vaccine boosters every 6 or 12 months. The WHO didn’t specify when the vaccine tyranny would end, only saying that the recommendations “are time-limited, applying for the current epidemiological scenario only.”

SAGE recommends that healthy adults and sick kids should receive primary series and first booster doses, but not additional boosters, also noting that there is a “low burden of disease” for healthy children ages 6 through 17.

The “expert” group also admitted that the “public health impact of vaccinating healthy children and adolescents is comparatively much lower than the established benefits of traditional essential vaccines for children – such as the rotavirus, measles, and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines.”

SAGE also conceded that the probability of infants suffering from severe COVID-19 is very low overall, but said that vaccinating “pregnant persons” — also known as pregnant women — still “protects both them and the fetus, while helping to reduce the likelihood of hospitalization of infants for COVID-19.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, however, appears to be way more radical than the WHO, since the government organization still continues to recommend boosters for American children.

According to the latest CDC immunization schedule, kids can begin receiving the COVID-19 vaccine in a triad series as young as 6 months of age.

Douglas Mackey Found Guilty in Hillary Clinton Meme Trial

Ken Silva
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Douglas Mackey Found Guilty in Hillary Clinton Meme Trial

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) After four days of deliberating, a jury has found Douglas Mackey guilty of election interference for posting a meme in 2016 about voting for then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton via text message—a verdict that many observers say is a major blow to free speech rights in America.

Mackey had been operating the popular “Ricky Vaughn” Twitter account that had some 58,000 followers.

He has maintained that the memes were clearly satire, while the U.S. government claims his actions were designed to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote.

Following Friday’s verdict, Mackey’s lawyer, Andrew Frisch, released the following statement: “This case presents an unusual array of compelling appellate issues. I am optimistic that the conviction will be vacated.”

One of the government’s testifying witnesses was an FBI informant who still actively operates anonymous right-wing Twitter accounts. According to prosecutors, the informant operates accounts similar to the Ricky Vaughn account. They claimed that the two worked in tandem to spread “misinformation.”

The informant plead guilty to the same charge that Mackey has been found guilty of. His identity has been protected because he is allegedly still working with the FBI in respect to other Twitter users.

“The [informant] is presently involved in multiple, ongoing investigations and other activities in which he or she is using assumed internet names and ‘handles’ that do not reveal his or her true identity,” prosecutors said.

Mackey’s lawyer, Frisch, claimed that the revealing of the informant’s identity is an essential part of the legal process to which nobody should be considered exempt.

“While the defendant and [the informant] never met, they were both political conservatives, and the [informant] is now at odds against him. If the [informant’s] political views have changed significantly, it is relevant to understand his community and biases,” Frisch wrote.

“If his political views have changed, the defense may wish to probe as to whether he has a political bias against the defendant,” Frisch continued. “If his views have not changed, it is relevant to probe his motivations.”

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

Las Vegas Shooter was Rumored to be Psych Patient, FBI Records Say

Ken Silva
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Las Vegas Shooter was Rumored to be Psych Patient, FBI Records Say

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) In the aftermath of the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, there were reports that gunman Stephen Paddock had told people around him he was a “government experiment,” and would often lie in bed “moaning and screaming” in mental anguish.

This week, the FBI released a trove of records that may be related to those claims.

The new, heavily redacted FBI records show that a special agent interviewed a worker at Mesa View Hospital in Mesquite, Nevada about a week after the Oct. 1, 2017, shooting, which killed 60 people.

The agent apparently asked the Mesa View worker about rumors that Paddock had been on a “psychiatric hold”—when a patient is being mentally evaluated, often involuntarily.

“[Redacted] told [REDACTED] that Paddock had been at Mesa View on a psychiatric hold and that [REDACTED],” the heavily redacted FBI memo says.

The FBI memo also says that a hospital official sent an email to employees, instructing them not to search for Paddock’s medical records. The name of the official who sent the email was redacted, and no more details about this incident are included in the records.

FBI memo
FBI memo about Paddock’s hospital trips

Additionally, the FBI memo discusses who Paddock’s “sitter” may have been. At Mesa View, somebody is required to sit outside of the room where the psychiatric patient is being held.

“[REDACTED] also heard a rumor that [REDACTED] had ‘sat’ with Paddock,” the FBI memo says.

The FBI also interviewed at least one other Mesa View worker about Paddock. According to a memo from that interview, only one person at Mesa View said the rumor was true.

“Nobody had said that Paddock was ever a patient at Mesa View other than [REDACTED],” the FBI memo says. “[REDACTED] had heard from somebody that [REDACTED] had said that Paddock was a ‘frequent flyer.’”

The Mesa View worker was also asked about rumors that the hospital had destroyed records related to Paddock. The worker reportedly said the person spreading this rumor was “full of crap.”

“[REDACTED] believed it would be impossible to obliterate records,” the FBI memo says. “[REDACTED] felt that whoever was claiming that the records were being destroyed ‘just wanted to be heard.’”

FBI memo
Memo about Paddock’s hospital trips.

Yet another FBI memo from Oct. 7, 2017, reports the findings of a special agent’s interview with a worker from Envision Physician Services, which had been billing for ER doctors at Mesa View since 2004. The billing worker told the FBI that Paddock’s social security number could not be found in Envisions system, but that two other Stephen Paddocks with different social security numbers were in the system.

The billing worker also advised the FBI that Envision’s records were current through Sept. 28, 2017, which was three days before the shooting.

Paddock’s rumored Mesa View trips were first revealed in December 2017, when the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that law enforcement issued a search warrant for all of Paddock’s medical records from the facility. The warrant reportedly cited an anonymous tip that Paddock had self-admitted to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, but the search revealed no such records, according to reports from the time.

There were also media reports from 2017 about Paddock being prescribed Diazepam, a sedative-hypnotic drug.

However, little attention has been paid to Paddock’s possible Mesa View visits since then. Even when the FBI released new records about the subject this week, most media outlets concentrated on records about a possible motive for his killing spree: some $38,000 in gambling losses—a dubious reason, considering that Paddock was reportedly a multimillionaire.

Indeed, local police are already dismissing the notion that gambling losses may have played a motivating factor for Paddock.

Kelly McMahill, a retired deputy chief, reportedly said it was “unprofessional” for the FBI to publish the new information without first notifying the Metropolitan Police Department.

“It will be very damaging to the 22,000 people that attended the concert, the victims of the family members that were lost and the survivors,” McMahill, who is married to Sheriff Kevin McMahill, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “There is still no known motive five years later, and LVMPD would never hide a potential motive from any of our victims.”

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

Female Students Sue Sorority for Accepting Male Member

Contributing Author
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Female Students Sue Sorority for Accepting Male Member

(Headline USA) Several former and current university students are suing their sorority chapter for admitting a biological man who identifies as a woman, alleging the man’s presence made girls feel extremely uncomfortable and unsafe.

The sorority members filed the suit against Kappa Kappa Gamma at the University of Washington in the U.S. District Court for Wyoming on Monday, asking the court to void the membership of Terry Smith, who goes by Artemis Langford, the New York Post reported. 

Smith, a 21-year-old male who claims to be a female, was admitted into KKG last fall, becoming the first man to be accepted into a women’s-only sorority.

Smith’s acceptance became possible after KKG altered its bylaws in 2020 to define a woman as “an individual who consistently lives and self-identifies as a woman.”

Smith is 6 feet, 2 inches tall; weighs 260 pounds; and makes zero effort to appear like a woman, the sorority members said. The school itself even still uses male pronouns in reference to him.

Smith also reportedly admitted to the girls that he is attracted to women. He created a Tinder profile seeking female matches, and was caught watching an unsuspecting girl who was wearing only a towel walk toward the communal bathroom to take a shower.

The sorority members said Smith has become visibly aroused when watching women inside the sorority house. He “had an erection visible through his leggings,” the lawsuit said, causing him to cover his groin area with a pillow.

Smith has also asked uncomfortable questions about feminine experiences, including “what vaginas look like, breast cup size, and whether women were considering breast reductions and birth control,” the lawsuit says.

By allowing this man into their space, the sorority girls alleged KKG failed them and its central purpose.

“The Fraternity Council has betrayed the central purpose and mission of Kappa Kappa Gamma by conflating the experience of being a woman with the experience of men engaging in behavior generally associated with women,” the lawsuit said.

Census Considers Adding New Question for Slavery Descendants

Jacob Bruns
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Census Considers Adding New Question for Slavery Descendants

(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) Perhaps in order to prepare Americans for widespread national reparations, the United States Census Bureau has announced that it is considering adding a new question for descendant of slaves.

The idea has been floated by President Joe Biden’s administration, and is currently in its “public comment” phase, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Blacks who have descended from slaves have recently increased their demands to be differentiated from blacks who did not. According to Chad Brown, spokesperson for the National Assembly of American Slavery Descendants, which backs reparations and is pushing for the change, blacks ought not be seen as a single group.

“America sees black people as a monolith,” he said. “When you say all black people are the same, you are ignoring differences in culture, ancestry, economics, and you are doing a disservice to everyone lumped into that group.”

The move from the Biden administration coincides with the first major political push for reparation payments in California.

According to reports, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s reparations task force held a hearing Wednesday wherein protesters deemed that their $5 million reparation sums for every eligible black adult would be too low, and that $7.6 million would be necessary.

Reverend Tony Pierce, a black activist pastor, noted that $5 million is insufficient.

“Where’s the money? Where’s the cash? Where’s the check? $5 million, San Francisco’s already made a move. $5 million is nothing, and I’ll tell you why.”

For Pierce, since the payments would be distributed over a 50-year period, “you’ll be lucky if you end up with $40,000 a year.”

Tinisch Hollins, vice-chair of the African American Reparations Advisory Committee, has emphasized in the past that the Task Force will set what could become a national reparations precedent.

“I don’t need to impress upon you the fact that we are setting a national precedent here in San Francisco,” Hollins said. “What we are asking for and what we’re demanding for is a real commitment to what we need to move things forward.”

Watchdog: Charities Fraudulently Spent Millions in Taxpayer Dollars on Illegals

Contributing Author
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Watchdog: Charities Fraudulently Spent Millions in Taxpayer Dollars on Illegals

(Headline USA) A federal watchdog found that nonprofit charity organizations fraudulently spent more than $100 million in government funds that were meant to be used to feed and house illegal immigrants near the southern border.

A Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General report released this week found that many of the organizations awarded with Federal Emergency Management Agency failed to submit receipts with reimbursement requests and spent funds on illegals who were ineligible for government assistance, the Washington Examiner reported. 

Recipients “did not always provide the required receipts or documentation for claimed reimbursements,” and “some of the [local recipient organizations] were unable to provide supporting documentation for families and individuals to whom they provided services,” the report says.

A closer look at $12.9 million of the more than $80 million awarded to these organizations found that “they did not always use the funds consistent with” FEMA’s guidelines. And more than half of the $12.9 million — $7.4 million — was missing required paperwork.

Conservatives have raised concerns about the government’s funding of these organizations for years, accusing the groups of hauling in millions in taxpayer dollars to sponsor illegal immigration.

“It’s money laundering,” New York Post columnist Betsy McCaughey wrote last year. “Democratic politicians want to maximize illegal immigration, but they don’t want their fingerprints on it. The remedy: pay so-called charities that will do the  work for them. Who’s in on this scam? President Joe Biden, and politicians across the country including Gov. Kathy Hochul, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser and our own Mayor Eric Adams.”

One organization, for example, Organization for Migration, handed out debit cards loaded with $800 to migrants in Mexico — before they even crossed into the U.S. 

To fight back against the organizations and leftists incentivizing illegal immigration, 25 state attorneys general filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month asking it to protect a federal law that’s been used to prosecute those who “encourage” or “induce” illegal immigration.

AOC Facing Ethics Complaint for Allegedly Defaming Libs of TikTok Creator

Contributing Author
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AOC Facing Ethics Complaint for Allegedly Defaming Libs of TikTok Creator

(Headline USA) Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is facing an ethics complaint for allegedly defaming Libs of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik earlier this month.

The conservative Heritage Foundation filed a complaint against Ocasio-Cortez with the House Ethics Committee this week, accusing AOC of “falsely accusing” the Libs of TikTok creator of “lying and disseminating disinformation.”

Ocasio-Cortez’s allegedly defamatory comments were made during a House Oversight Committee this month on Big Tech’s suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story. Ocasio-Cortez asked witness Yoel Roth, the former head of trust and safety at Twitter, “Are you aware that, from Aug. 11 to Aug. 16, [the Libs of TikTok] account posted false information about Boston Children’s Hospital claiming that they were providing hysterectomies to children?” 

Roth replied: “Yes, I am aware of that.”

Ocasio-Cortez was referring to a tweet from the Libs of TikTok account exposing the Boston Children’s Hospital for pushing sex-change procedures, including double mastectomies, for gender-confused minors. The tweet from Libs of TikTok included a video taken from the Boston Children’s Hospital’s own website, as the Heritage Foundation noted.

“Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s accusation that the tweet contained false information is itself outrightly false on its face,” the complaint states. “Surely Rep. Ocasio-Cortez watched the video herself before using it in her line of questioning, so she knew — at a minimum — that Ms. Raichik’s statement in her tweet was supported by the attached video, and she knew that Boston Children’s Hospital actually did tout its ‘gender affirming hysterectomies.’ Rep. Ocasio-Cortez knowingly made this allegation in bad faith.”

Ocasio-Cortez “knowingly and intentionally” accused Raichik of lying and therefore committed defamation, the ethics complaint says.

If Ocasio-Cortez is found guilty, the Heritage Foundation asked that the Office of Congressional Ethics reprimand the congresswoman, strike her defamatory comments from the congressional record, and urge Ocasio-Cortez to publicly apologize to Raichik.

Book Reveals SCOTUS Justices’ Secret Gay Marriage Deal

Molly Bruns
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Book Reveals SCOTUS Justices’ Secret Gay Marriage Deal

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Supreme Court analyst Joan Biskupic’s upcoming book, Nine Black Robes: Inside the Supreme Court’s Drive to the Right and Its Historic Consequences, will take a deep dive into the recent history of our country’s highest court.

According to CNN, the book argues that Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy colluded to influence the outcome of several cases concerning gay marriage, despite their initial hesitations about the 2015 ruling.

A few years following the ruling, however, Roberts and Kennedy allegedly organized a deal, lumping the latter in with LGBT activists by allowing two lesbians from being named on their adopted child’s birth certificate in Obergefell v. Hodges.

Kennedy, for his part, voted for the court to hear the appeal of Colorado’s Masterpiece Cakeshop case, after owner Jack Phillips refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple.

Public action for both cases was announced on the same day.

Since the 2017 cases, Roe v Wade has been overturned and Justice Clarence Thomas requested that his cohorts on the bench reconsider past decisions regarding the legitimization gay marriage.

Obergefell v. Hodges may yet be revisited, and the results may change as only two of the five justices in the Obergefell majority, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, still serve on the court.

Justice Samuel Alito attempted to assuage people’s fears that the overturning of Roe would effect rulings on homosexual unions in his opinion on the abortion overturn.

“(W)e have stated unequivocally that ‘nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion,’” the opinion explained. “We have also explained why that is so: rights regarding contraception and same-sex relationships are inherently different from the right to abortion because the latter (as we have stressed) uniquely involves what Roe and Casey termed ‘potential life.’”

The book argues that Roberts tried to build bridges and make compromises where necessary throughout the Trump administration, attempting to avoid polarization across all branches of the government.

Sen. Ted Cruz, GOP Push Legislation to Defund Sanctuary Cities

Corine Gatti
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Sen. Ted Cruz, GOP Push Legislation to Defund Sanctuary Cities

(Corine Gatti, Headline USA) Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and a group of his GOP colleagues announced they’ve reintroduced legislation called the “Stop Dangerous Sanctuary Cities Act” to defund sanctuary cities and enable local law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. 

“So-called ‘sanctuary cities’ refuse to enforce the laws on the books and release violent criminals in our country illegally —including rapists and murderers — who go on to prey on both American citizens and the immigrant community,” Cruz recently told the Daily Caller.

“Moreover, many of these sanctuary jurisdictions actively prevent state and local law enforcement from coordinating with their federal counterparts. They release murderers, rapists and burglars who end up preying on the community. That is wrong,” he said.

It’s time for decisive action on immigration reform to bring order and accountability to the system and ultimately strengthen our borders, Cruz explained.

“The American people and Texas communities in particular, are tired of seeing our laws flouted and the crime that often accompanies illegal immigration. These jurisdictions need to be held accountable, and I will do everything I can to enforce our immigration laws,” Cruz added.

“When the whims of local politicians prevent law enforcement officers from doing their jobs, our communities are less safe and our nation’s rule of law is shortchanged,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who co-sponsored the bill, said in a press release. 

“City governments should not tie the hands of their law enforcement officers who are trying to comply with federal immigration law,” he added. Any city that chooses to force their officers to ignore our laws doesn’t deserve the benefit of taxpayer-funded federal grants.”

Cruz has advocated for increased border security and demanding immigration reform to address America’s immigration crisis for years. He recently engaged in a fiery exchange this week over the border crises — grilling Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the U.S. and Mexico border problems.

The questioning included stats about illegal immigrant encounters.

“We now have over 5.5 million people who have entered this country illegally under [U.S. President] Joe Biden,” Cruz asked in a heated exchange. “How many murderers have you released into America? This is a crisis, a disgrace,” said the senator.

Mayorkas was asked several times by Cruz if there is a current crisis at the border. “Senator, we are dedicated to the safe cause,” Mayorkas replied.

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