An Open Letter regarding COVID-19 Response
by guest contributor Annette Huenke
To all Public Health and Elected Officials:
Please consider the following questions and concerns:
Is the lockdown justified?
1. How many suicides are projected to take place as a result of the government having shut down much of our economy, forcing people into unemployment, bankruptcy, or poverty?
2. How many do you project will die because of the rise in depression, anxiety, alcoholism, other addictions and drug overdoses that the lockdown and associated unemployment and social isolation will cause, as the lockdown drags on for weeks or even months?
3. How many children and spouses do you project will be abused while couples and parents remain confined to their homes, in many cases unemployed, without their usual income and social connections?
4. How many children will be put in foster care because of domestic abuse, or loss of their parents’ ability to provide for them, or both?
5. How many isolated seniors are projected to become sick or die because they no longer receive regular visitors, such that nobody is able to take them to their own family doctor, or take them to an emergency unit at the hospital? How many will die at home, alone?
6. How many people are projected to die or to suffer permanent damage because their nonemergency (elective) surgery, their testing and their various treatments have been cancelled due to your singular focus on fighting COVID-19?
7. How many people are projected to suffer serious harm caused by lack of access to secondary health providers they regularly rely on, such as physiotherapists, massage therapists, optometrists, chiropractors, osteopaths, podiatrists and dentists?
8. How many people are projected to die or suffer serious harm because they believe (correctly or incorrectly) that they cannot go see their doctor, or that they cannot check into emergency at the hospital?
9. How many children, confined to their homes while schools and playgrounds are closed and athletic and recreational activities are shut down, are projected to develop diabetes or other chronic health conditions?
10. How many people will develop psychiatric disorders caused by governments having eliminated social interaction at restaurants, pubs, churches, recreational facilities and community centers?
11. Have you or your staff researched any of these questions here above?
12. If yes to the foregoing question, have you created any models, estimates or projections in regard to any or all of these causes of illness, harm and death, in the same way that you have relied on models, estimates and projections in regard to COVID-19? *
Social Distancing and Masking
• In order to justify the extreme disruption to schools, businesses and social life caused by the six-foot distance guidance, it is incumbent upon authorities to share the scientific evidence (not models) that supports such measures. Numerous scientists and experts have said that no such research exists.
• Similarly, legitimate research regarding the wearing of face masks outside of clinical settings or proximity with symptomatic individuals indicates negligible reduction in infection rates, in addition to the likelihood of harm to the wearer from reduced oxygen intake, inhalation of one’s own CO2, et al:
“No RCT study with verified outcome shows a benefit for HCW or community members in households to wearing a mask or respirator. There is no such study. There are no exceptions. Likewise, no study exists that shows a benefit from a broad policy to wear masks in public…”
“This study is the first RCT of cloth masks, and the results caution against the use of cloth masks.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4420971/
“The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that people should only wear a face mask or surgical mask if they are taking care of a person with suspected COVID-19 and if they are sick themselves.”
“Masks may actually increase your coronavirus risk if worn improperly, surgeon general warns”
https://jennifermargulis.net/healthy-people-wearing-masks-during-covid19/
“This study demonstrates that when doctors wear a facemask during consultations, this has a significant negative impact on the patient’s perceived empathy and diminish the positive effects of relational continuity.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3879648/
Lastly, there is zero science that supports advising people taking exercise outdoors — on bicycles or foot, at our beaches and parks — to be masked, rather than breathing 100% fresh air. If you cannot back up policy with well-done research, then you must admit it and change course. Otherwise, you are in dereliction of your duty to protect public health.
Sincerely,
Annette Huenke
Port Townsend, WA
* The twelve questions above are quoted directly from this document.
