Reminder: Lockdowns Still Don’t Work

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Michael Betrus argues that the burden of proof is on lockdown states to prove their policies are more effective than those of non-lockdown states

In New York, unused vaccines go into the garbage as Governor Cuomo’s horrific mismanagement continues. In other news: A recent study shows people who have already contracted coronavirus are as protected against reinfection as those who have received the best COVID vaccine. Drs. Vladimir Kogan and Vinay Prasad make an eloquent case for why public […]

In the latest display of security theater, the U.S. will soon require international airline passengers to prove they recently tested negative for COVID before flying to the country. In other news: Pfizer has reassured the public that its COVID vaccine remains effective against the new mutant strains detected in Britain and South Africa.  Writing in […]

Len Cabrera reviews the pre-COVID views on face masks and the data from states with and without mandates and finds there is no evidence to support mask mandates.

Dr. Andrew Bostom writes that PCR cycle threshold data provides critical information and should be made public by health departments

It’s 2021 and most families across the United States still have no clear path forward for getting their children back into school and routine life. Join medical experts, policy advisors, parents and concerned citizens at this national forum and webinar.

A Wall Street Journal investigation reveals many governments left nursing home residents vulnerable to the COVID pandemic who accounted for over a third of fatalities in some countries. Law enforcement in multiple cities report homicides have dramatically increased in 2020.  In other news: Our Jennifer Cabrera was recently interviewed on the Tom Woods Show. According […]

Todd Kenyon analyzes cycle threshold data from Rhode Island and shows that these distributions can be predictive

Happy New Year! 2020 may have gone in the rearview mirror, but COVID and our politicians are still with us.  Despite having some of the most restrictive policies in the nation, California’s COVID case count, hospitalizations, and deaths are still skyrocketing. In Texas, the state supreme court blocked local orders establishing an overnight curfew for […]

Franca Panettone, a 46-year-old woman with Down Syndrome, died alone from COVID, without access to her healthcare surrogate. How often has this happened over the past 10 months?

The study, conducted by the UF Department of Biostatistics, found that the secondary attack rate for asymptomatic index cases was not statistically different from zero

May Reason Prevail in the New Year Last Friday, the FDA officially issued an emergency use authorization for the Moderna coronavirus vaccine, the second in the U.S. As the vaccine rollout continues, we are seeing more evidence that our response to COVID may be harming more people than the virus itself. In San Francisco, drug […]

Another panel of FDA experts gave their approval for Moderna’s COVID vaccine. Emergency use authorization is expected later today. In other news: According to data from the Census Bureau, more Americans are going hungry than at any point during the COVID pandemic. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Drs. Jay Bhattacharya and Sunetra Gupta say […]

Alex Lieske defends The Great Barrington Declaration against Stephen Archer’s attack

Last Friday, the FDA officially issued an emergency use authorization for the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine. Over the weekend, Pfizer trucks carrying the vaccine made their way to distribution sites across the United States. On Monday, Sandra Lindsay, an intensive care nurse in New York, became the first person in the country to receive the vaccine. […]

On Thursday, a panel of experts gave their endorsement for the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. The FDA is expected to grant emergency use authorization and vaccination in the U.S. may begin as early as next Monday. Earlier this week, Canada became the third country to officially authorize use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. In other news: A […]

17 new mask charts from Ian Miller!

The United Kingdom started vaccinating its population against covid-19 yesterday, becoming the first country to start distributing the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, less than a week after its approval. In other news: The FDA’s first analysis of the clinical trial data shows that the coronavirus vaccine worked well regardless of a volunteer’s race, weight or age. Gallup […]

The United Kingdom has officially approved Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine while the U.S. FDA digs into the data. President Trump asks why the UK is beating us on the vaccine, while Switzerland holds off on approval until more data is released. In other news: More rules for thee but not for me: Austin Mayor Steve Adler […]

It’s time to move forward. Here we offer ten steps to dramatically improve the current situation that we feel both sides of the divide can agree on.

Join us for a webinar on December 3 at 6:30 PT/9:30 ET to talk about 10 steps to end the lockdowns

Right before Thanksgiving, the Supreme Court blocked COVID restrictions on religious services in New York. That’s something we can be very thankful for. On Monday, Moderna submitted an emergency use authorization application to the FDA for its coronavirus vaccine. Moderna’s newly released data further strengthens its case: it concludes the vaccine is 94% effective — […]

Megan Mansell writes that justice under ADA law has been denied to pregnant women, babies, children, and anyone who is unable to wear a mask.

In spite of admonishments from politicians and bureaucrats, millions of Americans plan to travel home to celebrate Thanksgiving this year.   In other news: A third of parents surveyed in a new poll say it is important that they see their families in person during the Thanksgiving holiday this year. A third major Covid-19 vaccine, co-developed […]

Karl Dierenbach uses the example of New Mexico to argue that mitigation efforts are not effective against a virus.

Though it has no official authority to cancel Thanksgiving, the CDC is urging Americans not to travel home for Thanksgiving this year, in the name of the public health and safety of course. As politicians and other bureaucrats issue new rules, it’s likely many Americans will celebrate the holidays with or without their approval. In […]

Another ray of light has emerged on the horizon: Moderna says its coronavirus vaccine is 94.5% effective. More details are coming soon.  In other news: In a high-profile speech before the Federalist Society, Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito expressed his concerns that the coronavirus pandemic “has resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty.” Rules […]

President-elect Joe Biden is already busy putting together members for his new COVID taskforce and it looks like he doesn’t seem receptive to freedom or lessons from the past. Dr. Michael Osterholm, one of his coronavirus advisors, has called another 4-6 week national lockdown. Dr. Osterholm wants an even more draconian second lockdown than the […]

Karl Dierenbach takes a look at the studies the CDC uses to support community-level mask effectiveness.

Megan Mansell breaks down the CDC Scientific Brief on “Community Use of Cloth Masks to Control the Spread of SARS-CoV-2”

A ray of light has emerged on the horizon: a coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE showed in an early analysis to be more than 90% effective in protecting people from COVID-19. We are waiting on further details to be released soon. In other news: On public policy, Jayanta Bhattacharya of Stanford, […]

We had the opportunity to review death certificates for some of Florida’s recent COVID-19 deaths, and we can tell you definitively that Florida is counting deaths that were not directly caused by COVID-19.

The 2020 U.S. presidential election is over… but as of this writing, a winner has not been called. With everything focused on the election, we’ve enjoyed a short panic break from COVID19.  The courts continue to rule against governors who abuse their powers in the name of public health. New research continue to discover the […]

Dr. Andrew Bostom calls for more data transparency in Rhode Island as the governor asks citizens to stay home for Thanksgiving.

Happy Halloween… remember as the holiday season arrives, nothing can escape the reach of Rona. It is the instrument to ruin the rest of 2020 and the season that brings us together. Our leaders have assured us if we disobey expect more trouble on the horizon. Lockdown advocates have found their next disobedient target that […]

Happy Halloween… remember social distancing applies to skeletons. We are all in this together! Remarkably, skeptics continue to be vindicated by the evidence on the ground while the MSM acts surprised and claims ignorance. From the Texas Tribune to the New York Times, mainstream media publications are finally “discovering” that allowing children to go to […]

Len Cabrera provides several ways to picture just how much genetic material is created by a PCR test using 40 cycles

Megan Mansell offers a framework for operating any facility or business during COVID.

The “new normal” performs quite terribly in public polling. People don’t enjoy wearing masks, prefer to hug friends and family outside their household, and like those pesky things called civil liberties. In almost every continent, anti-lockdown protests have occurred in response to government overreach and COVID lockdowns. The resistance continues to grow. Even pro-lockdown institutions […]

We are told that we are going to have to accept a “new normal” but what if that “new normal”, is just a slogan for completely restructuring society? Across the world, the “new normal” appears just to be a new blend of  authoritarianism and limiting civil liberties. In the UK, the government plans to give […]

Recently, Rational Ground was invited to speak to a group of activists in the state of Arizona. These concerned parents, teachers and policy makers spent 90 minutes with our team getting the latest info on COVID-19 and learn the latest tactics and strategies on how to get schools back and open. The Powerpoint presented at […]

Colleges are endangering the mental health of students with pandemic restrictions and then bullying them and calling them names when they break the rules.

More mask charts that show the (lack of) correlation between mask mandates and cases or hospitalizations

Kyle Lamb discusses the censorship of Scott Atlas, masks, and the disappearance of the flu compared to last year.

Dr. Andrew Bostom examines the CDC’s guidelines for reporting COVID-19 deaths and how that has affected the Florida death reporting.

After months of the data showing lockdowns have enormous consequences with little gain, politicians continue to push a failed policy with unimaginable social and economic costs. In the UK despite rising cases (with a rise in testing), deaths have remained flat with only a mild increase in hospitalizations, yet strict lockdown measures have been enacted. […]

It is remarkable how supposedly trustworthy, scientific organizations have flipped on key issues after being proved consistently wrong on said issues from Twitter to scientific journals. For example, The World Health Organization (“WHO”) finally realized that lockdowns were not effective as a primary method of stopping COVID-19 and  lockdowns’ severe economic impact (estimated to be almost […]

Megan Mansell writes that conversations about death with dignity and representation are long overdue.

Alex Rodriguez contrasts the public health responses between the 1918 and 2020 pandemics.

After several months of hope that New Yorkers  were starting to leave lockdowns, New York’s leaders decided medieval lockdowns by neighborhood made good sense, specifically targeting Orthodox Jewish communities. New Yorkers rebelled and resisted the new street-by-street lockdowns.  New York is not alone in its lockdown fetish, Israel is under an even more extreme lockdown, […]

If COVID hysteria only meant people were stuck inside for a few weeks, perhaps it would be more understandable. Instead, across the world, it has led to economic and social catastrophe. Years of economic growth and rising social standards in countries like India have been destroyed in a few short months. We have rolled extreme […]

Update as of October 5 on COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths at 50 American universities since August

Have you been looking for charts that show the (lack of) correlation between mask mandates and cases or hospitalizations? Your wish is our command!

Big thanks to @BenMarten for his excellent collection and comparison of masks and cases data. We took his data and embedded it here in several sheets. Feel free to play around with the filters on the right and let us know what information you find. The data takes county-level cases and deaths (per 100K population […]

Based on Florida’s case line and long-term care data, we estimate President Trump’s chances of surviving COVID.

An update from the UK: The COVID hysteria unfortunately is not only an American issue, as COVID Karenism has become a major issue in the United Kingdom. Despite the decline in COVID-19 deaths in the UK to near zero and excess deaths less than the past five years, both conservative and liberal political leadership across […]

Dr. Andrew Bostom explains herd immunity concepts that Dr. Fauci might find illuminating.

COVID hysterics want to hide the consequences of their policy, but the truth eventually comes out. You can only hide from reality for so long. A part of living in hysteria is ignoring consequences and blindly marching forward. Take the tragic example of restaurants in Nashville. Restaurants were ordered by fiat to reduce occupancy, yet […]

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis held a roundtable on September 24 with professors from Harvard and Stanford. The conversation covered an impressive amount of ground in important COVID topics, and we produced a lightly-edited transcript to make it more accessible.

The news reports continue to blast scandalous headlines about the number of deaths per day here in the United States from COVID-19. Our new interactive tool gives you a very different and more accurate view.

The roundtable was a foundational event that provided Governor DeSantis the scientific justification for opening up Florida.

Hysteria, whether about COVID or another political issue, requires society to either ignore or twist the evidence on the ground and detach from reality. For COVID, public health experts or the media would rather promote hysterical viewpoints and the worst-case scenario than acknowledge complexity or differing viewpoints. “COVID sins” has now merged with cancel culture […]

How excess is literally only half the story. Debunking the debunkers about the flu. And Attorney Thomas Renz is leading the charge for OhioStandsUp.org. Why the federal lawsuit can be a win for the entire country and what it can do for you.

In this cultural moment, COVID-19 encourages the media and Twitter blue checks to shoot first and ask questions later. Experts would rather cast judgement, moralize, and get clicks than wait for the evidence to come in. It is easier but far more damaging. It’s very difficult to update priors based on bad evidence when it […]

The overall average COVID-19 death rate for Florida residents dropped by 78% from April to August.

COVID-19 isn’t just a disease but also a moral code with sins and righteous deeds. One of the most prolific righteous deeds for the COVID faith is committing to a public policy, moralizing the policy, shaming those that disagree, and never providing data or evidence for justification. Nashville closed bars and restaurants yet knew that […]

Sweden is having its moment in the sun now that Europe is seeing a second outbreak of cases, social stability in strict lockdown countries is fraying, and the severe economic damage is beginning to be seen. Through an approach that granted autonomy and information for the average Swede to make their own decisions, Sweden’s  economic […]

New podcast from Kyle Lamb: PCR testing is amplifying the fear

The point of testing should be to identify infectious individuals, and the current testing procedures fail in that public health goal.

A CDC study on COVID-19 transmission in child care centers only shows that children can infect people in their own households.

COVID lockdown zealots  are having their second moment in the sun. In the UK, Boris Johnson wants to introduce “COVID marshals” to track people’s whereabouts and report violations in social distancing. In the United States, rushed reporting on the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally led to large amounts of finger-wagging and moralizing. Even worse, some states are […]

Len Cabrera describes Dr. Fauci’s incorrect testimony about COVID’s fatality rate and the resulting public fear that led to lockdowns.

It is concerning that after several weeks, universities have not updated their priors. It seems every day another university goes into lockdown because they did not predict that college students would…act like college students. Even worse, some schools like Northeastern have been adopting CCP style COVID-19 policies, such as expelling offenders and just keeping their […]

Dr. John Littell writes that COVID-19 has become, with no reason, the modern equivalent of leprosy.

As the COVID-19 pandemic starts to wane from its horrible entrance onto the international scene the data is now coming in to test the viability of NPI (non-pharmaceutical interventions). The CDC has published and updated a specific database tracking the “stay-at-home” orders across the country down to the county level.

While it is correct that only 6% of COVID deaths show COVID as the only cause of death, that’s not the full picture.

Operation warp speed continues to be a bright spot in how America fights COVID-19. A recent pleasant surprise is that Dr. Fauci said current vaccine trials are going well and potentially a vaccine could be delivered later this year but still cautious about an early release from trials.. From 18 months to 12 months to […]

Every time you think the expert class knows what they are doing, you are soon quickly corrected. The return to school will cause a spike in deaths? Nope.As we have known since March,children are far less likely to die or have a severe outcomes of COVID-19 . Lockdowns saved lives? Peru enacted the strictest lockdown […]

Just when you thought the lockdowns were almost over, the consequences from the global lockdowns are just beginning to be felt. Turns out lockdowns discriminate against the young (the lowest risk of a severe COVID outcome) and lead to an increase in anxiety, depression, and thoughts of suicide, especially for those 25 and younger.

Dr. Scott Atlas joined Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for a press conference today, emphasizing that the U.S. is “the only nation among our peer nations that are hysterical about opening schools.”

From violating a student’s privacy to threatening to take people’s children away if they forgot to login to Zoom to go to class, educational authorities have been handling the second round of online schooling ineffectively.

Across the world, officials for the first time might actually be grasping the unintended consequences of the COVID-19 lockdowns.

The new guidance from the CDC reflects our growing understanding of the unreliability of asymptomatic testing

Even with the deaths through August 25 added to the data, the death rate for people who tested positive for COVID in June or July was much lower than it was in April.

Megan Mansell offers a proposal for isolating those who are worried about COVID infection at school while allowing the rest to resume normal activities.

A review of Florida District 8 Medical Examiner reports for COVID-19 deaths in Alachua County, FL suggests “dying with” still gets counted in the COVID-19 deaths.

Kyle Lamb discusses the impact of dying OF COVID-19 vs. dying WITH COVID-19 and the craziness which ensues among healthcare providers identifying cases with “COVID-like” illnesses.

Despite several EU countries with higher levels of cases and fatalities, experts claimed that European strict lockdown measures were able to prevent a new wave or spike in COVID cases. However in New Zealand, who lockdown experts also obsessed over as their primary example of success, a second spike in cases shows the unsustainability of […]

There has been a great deal of concern about rising numbers of COVID-19 cases in Florida, but the real question is whether these cases translate into correspondingly large numbers of deaths; as we’ll show below, this is unlikely because people who get sick now are far less likely to suffer adverse consequences than they were in April or May.

What a week! After our team broke this story regarding anomalies with testing numbers coming out of the Texas DSHS on Sunday 8/9, with additional tweet series every day through Wednesday, the story began to gain traction with major news outlets. A quick recap:

We get strong objections from people who say any reassuring information could cause people to let their guard down. They say that older people are at great risk because that graph says 1 in 5 cases (20%) of people over 85 will die. That ignores the original argument: young, healthy people are not in danger. (

We’ve noted on several occasions that the most important question/answer you can seek in your quest to understanding the impact of COVID-19 is “Knock, knock, who’s there?”

Welcome to RationalGround.com. If you are interested in learning more be sure to join our newsletter for the latest news, charts, memes, and studies around COVID-19, the shutdowns and the impact on society.

We represent a strong and varied force of experts, data analysts, demographers, and lay citizens determined to quell the irrational forces impacting our lives from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The trouble with a lockdown after the fact is that it’s an inherently top down measure, without a meaningful way to measure success, and ignores the negative secondary impacts that cost lives. While one may try, you can’t see everything, and eventually, something slips through the cracks.

Even with the deaths through August 10 added to the data, the death rate for people who tested positive for COVID in June or early July was much lower than it was in April.

Dr. Rebel Cole, a data scientist and professor of finance at FAU, says random sampling is the best way to track the virus.