The current lockdown is protecting the healthy instead of the vulnerable.
Climate scientists are frustrated by people who do not believe in climate change. In epidemiology, our frustration is with anti-vaxxers. Most anti-vaxxers are highly educated but still argue against vaccination. We now face a similar situation with ‘anti-herders’, who view herd immunity as a misguided optional strategy rather than a scientifically proven phenomenon that can prevent unnecessary deaths.
Because of its virulence, wide spread and the many asymptomatic cases it causes, Covid-19 cannot be contained in the long run, and so all countries will eventually reach herd immunity. To think otherwise is naive and dangerous. General lockdown strategies can reduce transmission and death counts in the short term. But this strategy cannot be considered successful until lockdowns are removed without the disease resurging.
The choice we face is stark. One option is to maintain a general lockdown for an unknown amount of time until herd immunity is reached through a future vaccine or until there is a safe and effective treatment. This must be weighed against the detrimental effects that lockdowns have on other health outcomes. The second option is to minimise the number of deaths until herd immunity is achieved through natural infection. Most places are neither preparing for the former nor considering the latter.
The question is not whether to aim for herd immunity as a strategy, because we will all eventually get there. The question is how to minimise casualties until we get there. Since Covid-19 mortality varies greatly by age, this can only be accomplished through age-specific countermeasures. We need to shield older people and other high-risk groups until they are protected by herd immunity.
Among the individuals exposed to Covid-19, people aged in their 70s have roughly twice the mortality of those in their 60s, 10 times the mortality of those in their 50s, 40 times that of those in their 40s, 100 times that of those in their 30s, and 300 times that of those in their 20s. The over-70s have a mortality that is more than 3,000 times higher than children have. For young people, the risk of death is so low that any reduced levels of mortality during the lockdown might not be due to fewer Covid-19 deaths, but due to fewer traffic accidents.
Considering these numbers, people above 60 must be better protected, while restrictions should be loosened on those below 50. Older people who are vulnerable should stay at home. Food should be delivered and they should receive no visitors. Nursing homes should be isolated together with some of the staff until other staff who have acquired immunity can take over. Younger people should go back to work and school without older coworkers and teachers at their sides.
While the appropriate magnitude of countermeasures depends on time and place as it is necessary to avoid hospital overload, the measures should still be age-dependent. This is how we can minimise the number of deaths by the time this terrible pandemic is over.
Among anti-herders, it is popular to compare the current number of Covid-19 deaths by country and as a proportion of the population. Such comparisons are misleading, as they ignore the existence of herd immunity. A country much closer to herd immunity will ultimately do better even if their current death count is somewhat higher. The key statistic is instead the number of deaths per infected. Those data are still elusive, but comparisons and strategies should not be based on misleading data just because the relevant data are unavailable.
While it is not perfect, Sweden has come closest to an age-based strategy by keeping elementary schools, stores and restaurants open, while older people are encouraged to stay at home. Stockholm may become the first place to reach herd immunity, which will protect high-risk groups better than anything else until there is a cure or vaccine.
Herd immunity arrives after a certain still unknown percentage of the population has acquired immunity. Through long-term sustainable social distancing and better hygiene, like not shaking hands, this percentage can be lowered, saving lives. Such practices should be adopted by everyone.
Social distancing that cannot be permanently sustained is a different story. Some people will eventually be infected, and for every young low-risk person avoiding infection, there will ultimately be roughly one additional high-risk older person that is infected, increasing the death count.
Anti-vaxxers do not suffer the consequences of their beliefs, as they are protected by the herd immunity generated by the rest of us. Neither will the anti-herders, many of whom can afford to isolate themselves from Covid-19 until natural herd immunity is achieved by others. It is older and working-class people that disproportionately suffer from the current approach, becoming infected and thereby indirectly protecting much lower-risk college students and young professionals who are working from home.
The current one-size-fits-all lockdown approach is leading to unnecessary deaths. Protecting older people and other high-risk groups will be logistically and politically more difficult than isolating the young by closing schools and universities. But we must change course if we want to reduce suffering and save lives.
Martin Kulldorff is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Picture by: Getty.
Authored by Russ Bangs via Off-Guardian.org,
“It has frequently been observed that terror can rule absolutely only over people who are isolated against each other and that therefore one of the primary concerns of tyrannical government is to bring this isolation about. Isolation may be the beginning of terror; it certainly is its most fertile ground; it always is its result. This isolation is, as it were, pretotalitarian; its hallmark is impotence insofar as power always comes from people acting together, acting in concert; isolated people are powerless by definition.”
– Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
Western civilization, led by the US government and media, has embarked upon a campaign of mass psychological terrorism designed to cover for the collapsing economy, set up a new pretext for Wall Street’s ongoing plunder expedition, radically escalate the police state, deeply traumatize people into submission to total social conformity, and radically aggravate the anti-social, anti-human atomization of the people.
The pretext for this abomination is an epidemic which objectively is comparable to the seasonal flu and is caused by the same kind of Coronavirus we’ve endured so long without totalitarian rampages and mass insanity.
The global evidence is converging on the facts: This flu is somewhat more contagious than the norm and is especially dangerous for those who are aged and already in poor health from pre-existing maladies. It is not especially dangerous for the rest of the population.
The whole concept of “lockdowns” is exactly upside down, exactly the wrong way any sane society would respond to this circumstance.
It’s the vulnerable who should be shielded while nature takes its course among the general population, who should go about life as usual. Dominionist-technocratic rigidity can’t prevent an epidemic from cycling through the population in spite of the delusions of that religion, especially since Western societies began their measures far too late anyway.
So it’s best to let herd immunity develop as fast as it naturally will, at which time the virus recedes from lack of hosts (and is likely to mutate in a milder direction along the way). This is the only way to bring a safer environment for all including the most vulnerable.
The fact that most societies have rejected the sane, scientific route in favor of doomed-to-fail attempts at a forcible violent segregation and sterilization is proof that governments aren’t concerned with the public health (as if we didn’t know that already from a thousand policies of poisoning the environment while gutting the health care system), but are very ardent to use this crisis they artificially generated in order radically to escalate their police state power toward totalitarian goals.
The whole concept of self-isolation and anti-social “distancing” is radically anti-human. We evolved over millions of years to be social creatures living in tight-knit groups. Although modern societies ideologically and socioeconomically work to massify and atomize people, nevertheless almost all of us still seek close human companionship in our lives.
(I suspect most of the internet police-state-mongers are not only fascists at heart but are confirmed misanthropic loners who couldn’t care less about human closeness.)
This terror campaign seeks to blast to pieces any remaining human closeness, which means any remaining humanity as such, the better to isolate individual atoms for subjection to total domination. Arendt wrote profoundly on this goal of totalitarian governments, though even she didn’t envision a state-driven cult of the literal physical repulsion of every atom from every other atom.
So far the people are submitting completely to a terror campaign dedicated to the total eradication of whatever community was left in the world, and especially whatever community was starting to be rebuilt.
Some dream of this terror campaign somehow bringing about a magical collective transformation. They don’t explain how that is supposed to happen when everyone’s so terrorized they’re desperate to detach physically from their own shadows, let alone physically come together with other people. But any kind of political or social action, any kind of movement-building, requires close person-to-person contact.
It seems that for most erstwhile self-alleged dissidents, the fact that social media is no substitute for face-to-face organizing and group action, a fact hitherto universally acknowledged by these dissidents, is another truth suddenly to be jettisoned replaced by its complete antithesis.
Thus the terror campaign is a virus causing those it infects to abdicate all activism and all prospect for all future activism, for as long as they remain insane with the fever of this propaganda terror.
Far more profoundly and evoking despair, the terror campaign is a virus causing those it infects to fear and loathe all human contact, all companionship, all closeness, all things which ever made us human in the first place. Prior totalitarian regimes sought this lack of contact and trust through networks of informers.
These networks are part of today’s terror campaign as well, encouraged from above and spontaneously arising from below as a result of the feeling of terror as well as the exercise of prior petty-evil intentions on the part of petty-evil individuals.
But today’s totalitarian potential is far worse than this. Now the regimes aspiring to total domination have terrorized and brainwashed the vast majority of people into an automatic physical distrust of all other people. One no longer fears that someone is an informer, but fears the very existence of another human being.
Any kind of human relations, from personal friendship and romance to friendly social gatherings and clubs to social and cultural movements become impossible under such circumstances. This threatens to be the end of the very concept of shared humanity, to be replaced by an anthill of slave atoms with no consciousness beyond fear and the most animal concern for food and shelter, which already is allowed or denied in the same way experimenters do with lab rats.
And the more people fear and loathe the literal physical existence of all other people, the more the situation becomes ripe for every epidemic of murder, from the spiking rate of domestic violence and killings to incipient lynch mobs to pogroms to Nazi-style extermination campaigns.
This is the system’s end goal. It’s the logical end where every trend of today leads. All of it is trumped up over an epidemic which objectively is a flu season somewhat rougher than average.
Why do the people want to surrender and throw away all reality and future prospect of shared humanity, happiness, freedom, well-being, over so little? Is this really a terminal totalitarian death cult, the globe as one massive Jonestown?
So far it seems this is what the majority wants. If they don’t really want this consummation of universal death in spirit, emotion and body, they’d better snap out of their terror-induced mental delirium fast, before it’s too late.
In previous Bible studies and commentaries, I’ve documented many times now that our global leaders today are largely occultists. (See here, here, here and here.)
So are the owners of many of our country’s largest businesses and sports franchises. (See here and here.)
Even celebrities push occultism constantly. (See here.)
And quite frankly, many Christian churches have been infiltrated by practitioners of Kabbalah, which is a book of Jewish mysticism, magick spells, enchantments, man-made numerology and other esoteric and occult practices that the orthodox rabbis use in the course of their daily lives, and now teach Christian leaders to use, as well. (See here.)
So, with so many of the world’s “top tier” leaders pushing occultism – including those enemies of Christ who run the four hidden dynasties of politics, education, economics and religion— it should come as no surprise to you that the entire global coronavirus crisis is replete with occult symbology and ritual occult initiation themes.
Indeed, as you’ll see throughout the rest of this commentary, the entire manufactured coronavirus crisis is one giant, occult ritual from start to finish, divided up into four mini-rituals, each with the distinct occult purpose of initiation and transformation of the world and its people into a new global order.
So, let’s start by examining the four distinct, but interrelated, occult rituals that make up this massive global occult ritual initiation ceremony:
In the course of examining these four occult rituals, I’ll do my best to explain to you how each one is part of an elaborate stage play designed to symbolically initiate the people of this world into their new positions in a new global order – a new order that rejects Jesus Christ and Christianity, and puts the people of this world under the ultimate control of a global elite whose god is the devil himself.
The Ritual Wearing of the Mask
Have you ever wondered why, in Revelation 17:5, Babylon is called “Mystery, Babylon”?
You already know that the word “Babylon” means “confusion.” But what does the word “mystery” mean? Here’s what the Strong’s Concordance tells us:
G3466 Musterion — From a derivative of muo (to shut the mouth); a secret or “mystery” (through the idea of silence imposed by initiation into religious rites)— mystery.
Don’t overlook that. The word “mystery” in the Bible has to do with shutting the mouth as one undergoes a secret religious initiation. Again, it’s: “the idea of silence, imposed by initiationinto religious rites.”
Isn’t that interesting?
After all, at this point in time, 30 countries, including the United States, are now forcing their citizens to wear face masks over their mouths on a mandatory basis, ostensibly to help stop coronavirus infections.
This, even though numerous medical experts, including the Surgeon General of the United States, have openly stated that wearing masks has no beneficial effect whatsoever against coronavirus.
What’s more, numerous medical experts have attested to the fact that face masks can even be dangerous to one’s health in that they curtail clear thinking (and even consciousness)by trapping carbon dioxide in the chamber of the mask, forcing you to re-breathe it over and over, thus depleting your blood of fresh air and the life-giving oxygen component it contains.
So why are the powers-that-be, globally, forcing their citizens to wear these face masks, if the masks simply don’t work against coronavirus, and might very well be dangerous to your health? The answer might surprise you:
Masking has traditionally played a very important role in occult rituals.
Among other things, the wearing of the mask over one’s mouth is a token of submission…a gesture of your willingness to be subject to others who are not your usual Sovereign.
But there’s more. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, mask-wearing is:
“A form of disguise or concealment usually worn over or in front of the face to hide the identity of a person and by its own features to establish another being.”
In other words, the wearing of a mask represents an occult transformation— a human alchemy, if you will — from one role to another. From one manner of being, to another. Indeed, in this case, from individual sovereign under God to collective subject under the children of the devil.
You see, the masking ritual is specifically designed to reverse the order of hierarchy set in place by GodHimself. In the hierarchy of your heavenly Father, you are a sovereign representative of His Word on this earth. And your job is to speak His Word, on His Sovereign behalf to others.
In other words, He’s the King, you’re a Prince of His kingdom, and your job is to carry His Word to others, so they too can get on board with it and return to the Father eternally, through Jesus Christ. As it’s written regarding our primary duty as Christians:
II Timothy 4:2 — Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
In short, your job is to teach your Father’s Word. And you must be ready and willing to do so at all times (i.e., “be instant, in season and out of season”).
As such, you must always remain unmasked, because your job — in your earthly role as one of His faithful representatives — is to speak and explain His Word to others. And to do so, you must open your mouth. You cannot be muzzled. You cannot be masked.
Wearing the mask is a powerful occult symbol indicating your submission to another power other than the Creator Godwho gave you the directcommission to preach His Word to the world:
Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Matthew 28:19Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Matthew 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
So, in God’s hierarchy, you’re a sovereign representative of His Word on this earth. And your job is to spread that Word to as many others as possible in the course of your adult lifetime. But in the hierarchy of the ritualists, it’s quite the reverse:
The entire point of occult ritual mask-wearing is to hammer home to your subconsciousness — until it becomes completely true in your daily life — the idea that things are no longer the same, and will never be the same again.
Masks hasten the suppression of ego to help facilitate the death of the old identity before the identification with, and the manifestation of, a new identity.
It’s an initiation into a new order. But it’s also a transformationof the self into a new position in that new order.
Under the sway of the occult ritualist, you, being mouth-masked, are no longer the person you used to be. You’re no longer a designated mouthpiece of God on this earth. You’re suddenly demoted and re-assigned to the position of obedient subject.
Symbolically, you become a serf in the new order. That’s your new role…your new identity… as represented by the wearing of mask.
The wearing of the mask is simply part of the initiation ritual used to visually and psychologically signal yourconsentto this new arrangement. Yes, by wearing the mask, you’re signaling your consent to accept a new and very different position in a new global order.
Instead of being a sovereign representative of the Most High God and His Word on this earth, in essence, you agree to become a willing subject — a slave— to the very enemies of God and His Christ. Masked, you’re now willingly serving the enemy’s purposes, and no longer God’s.
When you obediently put the mask over your mouth, you’re symbolically saying to the ritualists, “I admit my words no longer have any purpose or relevance in this life. My sole purpose now is obedience to your words and commands.”
And in raising themselves to the position of your new sovereign, and muzzling you like a dog in the process, they alchemically create a new you in a new role under new rulers. That’s the alchemical transformational change involved in the ritual.
They’re quite literally attempting to take the place of God in your life, and make you their willing subject. They’re becoming your instead-of-Christ. Your antichrist.
And by placing the mask on your face, you’re becoming their unwitting faithful servant. You’re being ritually initiated into the new order. You may not realize it. But in occult magic, the victim doesn’t have to be knowledgeable of the meaning behind what he or she is being told to do. The performance of the ritual itself – on demand — is all that matters.
So, who, exactly, is doing this to us?
1 John 2:18 — Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
You didn’t think these “many antichrists” would sit around on their hands all day, doing nothing, in the final days of this flesh earth age while they’re waiting on the return of their father the devil in his role as the false messiah, did you?
Naturally, they’re softening things up for their god – Satan — before he gets here. They’re using ceremonial occult ritual magic, on a global scale, to capture the entire world in their dragnet.
By wearing the mask, you’re being symbolically and alchemically transformed — “reborn”— into their new global system, through occult ritual programming.
More from the Encyclopedia Britannica on ritual mask-wearing:
“The person who wears the mask is also considered to be in direct association withthe mask’s spirit force and is consequently exposed to like personal danger of being affected by it.
…Upon donning the mask, the wearer sometimes undergoes a psychic change, and, as in a trance, assumes the spirit character depicted by the mask.”
Well, folks, the antichrist – the instead-of-Christ — is the “spirit force” of the maskwe’re talking about. You get that, don’t you? He’s the spirit behind the powers-that-be who are working to pull off this global coup.
And it’s the powers-that-be who have masked, muzzled and demoted you to your new status of slave, on the behalf of their god, the devil himself.
with the spirit of subservience to your new overlords, who are the “many antichrists” of 1 John 2:18.
And it sets you up to do the same when the antichrist arrives and offers his actual “mark,” which we’ll examine at the end of this commentary.
If you don’t think wearing the mask quite literally changes people, as the Encyclopedia Britannica states in the quote above, think about all of the masked “Karens” you’ve seen online videos of, wildly chasing people who aren’t wearing masks down the road, publicly berating them for not wearing masks, and screaming at them that there’s “blood on their hands” for not masking up like good little boys and girls always should.
Here’s one, for example, in which the “Karens” are all big, burly, mask-wearing males, quite literally shoving an elderly gentleman out of a store for not wearing a mask:
Through the wearing of the mask, the occult ritualists have created an army of “Karens” – programmed automatons who take the ritual so seriously that they feel personally and physically threatened when you don’t. And they don’t mind telling you so. Often vigorously.
The Encyclopedia Britannica goes on to say about the masking ritual:
“Usually, however, the wearer skillfully becomes a ‘partner’ of the character he is impersonating, giving to the mask not only an important spark of vitality by the light flashing from his own eyes but also bringing it alive by his movements and poses.”
In other words, in the end, the mask becomes part of the very identity of those who wear it. The occult transition becomes complete. The “new you” is born from the ritual.
The Encyclopedia Britannica further states:
“But often the wearer [of the mask] seems to become psychologically one with the character he is helping to create. He seems to become an automaton, without his own will, which has become subservient to that of the personage of the mask.”
You might want to think about those dozens of online videos showing fully-masked hospital nurses and hospital workers participating in elaborately choreographed Tik-Tok dance videos, while simultaneously thousands of hapless coronavirus victims are supposedly dying cruel deaths and being stacked up like cord wood in those very same hospitals.
Yes, a veritable maskeddance of death, just like you see in the movies. And we all know who Mr. Death is, don’t we?
Revelation 6:8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
What’s more, by adding dance to the mask-wearing, the new slaves show their willingness to entertain their captors– to become little more than flesh play-sports to them — just as the Babylonian soldiers of old tried to force the Israelite captives to entertain them with music. As it’s written:
Psalm 137:1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
Psalm 137:2 We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
Psalm 137:3 For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
Psalm 137:4How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?
As you can see, the Israelites of old refused to entertain their captors…refused to provide the requested mirth…asking amongst themselves, “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”
But unlike the time of the Babylon captivity, today’s coup against God’s People, and today’s ongoing overthrow thereof, is, so far, being accomplished without conventional warfare.
So, the people, by-and-large, don’t even realize the depth and severity of the attempted coup against them, because it’s being accomplished almost solely through occult ritual deception. Which is why God’s Word warns us that there will be times we can’t even trust our own neighbors. As it’s written:
Jeremiah 9:4 Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders.
Jeremiah 9:5 And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.
Jeremiah 9:6 Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the Lord.
First, the powers-that-be deceive your neighbors into putting on the mask. Then your neighbors, thinking they’re doing right, work to push you into doing the same, using peer pressure and “virtue signaling.”
And if you refuse to be deceived, as they are, they’ll slander you, turn against you, and work to supplant you.
Does this sound at all familiar to you?
Tell me again, how many cities and states now have highly-publicized “snitch lines”in which your neighbors can call up and report you for not wearing a mask? One U.S. city alone is said to have registered an astonishing 200,000 “tip-off” calls on their snitch line in a single week.
Yes, it’s just an updated version of what the book of Jeremiah tells us has happened before. Neighbor being turned against neighbor. In this case, over their failure to perform a prescribed ritual.
Like the old movie, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, your own neighbors end up as mind-controlled “pod people” who want nothing more than to drag you into the interconnected pod hive with themselves and all of the other victims of mind-control, happily betraying you (and your God-given freedom and position) in the process.
But the mask-wearing has another occult meaning, as well, which we’ve only lightly touched on. As the Coronacircus.com website states about the wearing of the masks:
“To better understand the symbolism of wearing the mask, try typing the word ‘censorship’into Google Images and see what kind of illustration predominantly comes up. Here’s a sampling of what you’ll find:
That’s also why our figurehead leaders are ostensibly refusing to “mask up”: We are the one’s being gagged, not them.
These unconscious associations are extremely strong. Gags are a symbol of subservience and domination; they are deeply humiliating (and indeed they are popular in BDSM sexual bondage practices).
That is why people resist them so much; that is also why they are currently being made mandatory the world over. There is little doubt the unproductive barbarians behind this circus are enjoying themselves; they believe they are being subtle.”
Ah, yes. Subtle like the serpent. Coronacircus.com continues by pointing out:
This also involves imposing their symbols on us. The esoteric interpretation of the mandatory gagging ties directly into the symbology of silence that is as old as occultism itself.”
The symbology of silence is as old as occultism itself.
And here’s one little thing in particular they’d love you to keep silent about:
Yes, they even admit right on the box holding the face masks that they don’t work for coronavirus.
So why would they force you to wear them under penalty of law? Because, in the grand scheme of things, wearing the mask has nothing to do with coronavirus. It has to do with initiating you into the new global order, and your new place within it.
Caption on box of standard face masks: “This product…will not provide any protection against COVID-19 (Coronavirus) or other viruses or contaminants” …
Finally, as the occult website, Occult-World.com, states about the wearing of masks:
“…Ancient peoples understood well the power of the mask. Evidence of mask-wearing in prehistoric societies shows that masks may have been intended to transform the wearer magically.
“… The mask has been revered as a sacred object of power, a living thing that either has its own persona or represents the persona of another being. It enables the wearer magically to bring to life, and even become, the persona or spirit being represented by the mask.
“…The mask is a mediator between the ego and archetype, the mundane [i.e., worldly] and the supernatural,the sacred and the comic. It connects the present to the past, the individual to the entire collective of race, culture, country—and humanity.”
I submit that the past they are connecting us with is the TOWER of BABEL. The FIRST time that Satan built a KINGDOM that encompassed the whole world. A humanistic DICTATORSHIP where humans had no rights and life was not honored or respected. Where a brick that was marked to be part of the TOWER had more value in the eyes of the people than a life of one who was helping to build the tower.
“And behold these ascended and others descended the whole day; and if a brick should fall from their hands and get broken, they would all weep over it, and if a man fell and died, none of them would look at him.” Jasher 9:28
In other words, mask-wearing is symbolic of the silent acceptance of humanistic one-worldism under Satan. What might that eventually look like? How about this:
The precursor to Revelation 13:15? “And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.”
As you can now see, there’s much, much more to the wearing of masks than what we’ve been led to believe. Mask-wearing is a very occultic phenomena, and always has been. Literally for thousands of years.
Indeed, it’s a striking example of musterion – a secret religious initiation having to do with silence being imposed by shutting the mouth. Again, according to the Strong’s Concordance, the word “Mystery” from the title “Mystery, Babylon,” consists of “the idea of silence, imposed by initiationinto religious rites.”
Surely, by now, you understand that the mask-wearing has nothing to do with coronavirus, but instead, with the filthy pagan and occult beliefs of our present overlords who are seeking to make us their willing slaves through psychological programming, aka occult ritual programming.
Hey, don’t be surprised. This is what occultists do. Like the story of the lady who rescues the hapless snake, only to have it bite her later. But when she asks the snake “Why did you bite me?” the snake simply replies, “Because I’m a snake, lady. That’s what we do.”
In making you wear the mask, the powers-that-be are initiating you into their new order. They’re demoting you from your position as a sovereign representative on earth to the Most High God, to your new position as a dependent slave to their system, aka, their “Mystery, Babylon,”which could very simply be translated: silent confusion.
Can the power of this occult ritual be stopped? Yes, it can. And quite easily, for any Christian. As a Christian, you can simply opt-out of the ritual. Stop participating. Withdraw your consent!
What is a mask? Is a mask just an ornament or article worn on the face for disguise, entertainment purposes or even as a form of protection? (Feinup-Riordan, 21). Masks have commonly been used during ritual and spiritual services and have been used to create, amplify or fulfill the wearer’s identity or sense of inner spirituality. Ritual masks can be found throughout the world and the functions of these masks in ritual are usually religious or magically inclined. Some characteristics include the enabling of communication with the unseen, undead, or giving magical powers to shamans or spiritual healers within tribes and various communities who wear them. This review article will explore the different themes, within different cultures, regarding the use of masks in ritual, and how it coincides and relates to identity building in ceremonies and proceedings.In the study done by Meschutt et al in 1992, the notion of masks incorporated in death rituals is discussed and explored. They mention that, when a death arises within a tightly knit community with shared cultural and religious values (315), the deceased’s memory lives on as a life passage, or as a reminder in the creation of a mask. They proceed to explain that life and death masks were made for many different reasons, but specifically before photography was invented, life masks were the closest representations of an individual, whereas death masks served to preserve an individual’s features as a token of remembrance (positive and negative), and was also used when building statues. According to Meschutt et al, In the late 1890s, Laurence Hutton, who published ‘Portraits in plaster’ separated the creation of life and death masks into two categories, ‘the famous and the infamous’ (318). The category of the infamous was occupied by criminals, convicts, felons and so on (post-execution), however life masks for such felons also exist.
According to Keats (105), masks are also used as an expressive tool, as many therapists aid their clients in discovering the different ‘faces’ of the self; studying the differences in speech, gestures and mannerisms they portray upon donning a mask.
Wearing a mask also gives the wearer a sense of freedom, the ability to perform acts or act in such a way they would not do in their everyday lives, or even be the mask (animal masks – acting like the animal, being the animal). Masked faces also portray different semiotics in the sense that they are used not only in spiritual and cultural contexts, but also for entertainment purposes, as a disguise or different facets of human nature. Evidence of the mask and its aura of spiritual power, specifically in ritual and healing processes, therapists began using masks within their realms of psychotherapy (107). Further exploring the study, it was found that patients with self-esteem issues and confidence issues enabled them to behave more socially and with newfound attitudes, acting almost as a ‘mediator between the client’s conscious and unconscious worlds of self’ (107).
Between Asian cultures, such as Japan and Balinese cultures, the donning of masks in ritual is strikingly correlated.
It is probable that such masks developed out of indigenous religious practices without any foreign influence; each has a strong identity and powerful, sometimes legendary, aura within the culture.
A report was published in the September 1980 issue of The Alcalde which explored the notions involved with mask wearing in the tribal regions of Mexico. Researcher, Donald Couldry, discovered that the masks were not just merely a disguise, but is also ‘a significant function that relates to shamanism, symbolism and social uses’ (20). He found that the Mexican Indians believed that the act of covering one’s face relates directly to the soul, and that Mexican masks were understood as mystical devices of transformation in which the ‘wearers become someone or something else’ (20).
A typical cliche that one may encounter when studying African art, or ritual practices is that men are the only ones who wear masks, while the women prepare, cook and clean for the festivities or ceremony. I was amazed when I read that women, too, don the masks and have their own rituals and ceremonies as well. In Zambia, men and women face initiations (men- mukanda, women- mwadi) (Cameron, 50), who would have thought that women also partake in mask-wearing festivities! In the 1998 study by Elizabeth Cameron, she spends time in the Kabompo district in Zambia to learn, observe and participate in the initiation rituals of men and women. Mwadi, meaning the initiation of the potential mother, is experienced as an interethnic ritual and is easily recognized by women from different ethnic tribes. When a young female matures (signified and recognized by her breast development), the family prepares and plans her initiation. The women, during their initiation phase, don masks and dance, guided by the four basic elements, first, her entire attire (clothes, mask, acoustic mask) acts as a disguise (focussing on aural presence), second, the transformation occurs, third, the masks as a mediator between structures, and fourth, the mask is seen as a medium of articulating power (57). The mask is not only seen as a means of disguise, but also as an intercessor, a medium of transformation. A completely new identity is created via the wearing of a mask, a journey to say the least.
In conclusion, the different cultures examined and explored today all demonstrated similar characteristics in relation to mask wearing. The mask is more than just a simple disguise, in ritual it is seen as a medium of transformation, a deity that enables one to be free, to be someone, or something, that they are not. Masks create identities for the wearer, an identity that he or she may never dream of showing or pursuing when they are ‘themselves’. Although different masks play different roles and have different powers across the various cultures and traditions, they each interrelate through similarity of function, interpretation – they all serve purposes. I understand that the relationship must be harmonious and respectful with the ‘divine’ entities or powers involved in the rituals or ceremonies, and that full focus and intention also plays a huge role in successful mask wearing for ritualistic and spiritual practices. This was an interesting topic to explore, although I have covered minor facets, there is still much more to learn about this fascinating practice.
‘The mask can be a limitation, but you just deal with it. You do get superhuman strength and pumpkin bombs and all this other stuff to express yourself with.’ – William Defoe.
Ritual Daily Hand Washings
We’ve now discovered that the global mask-wearing phenomena is part of an occult initiation ritual designed to usher the initiate into a new paradigm – a new position in a new global order. The mask itself signals one’s consent to the change, and symbolizes loss of one’s previous sovereign position as a faithful Christian carrying forth God’s Word.
So, what about the other rituals they’ve imposed upon us, such as the daily ritual washing of hands?
Perhaps you’ve dutifully washed your hands eight or 10 times a day now, for months on end, thinking it’s a way to keep “the virus” from infecting you. And yes, there’s indeed some truth to the idea of washing one’s hands to help prevent the spread of an infectious microorganism.
But… in reality, for the purposes of occult ritual initiation, the powers-that-be have you symbolically washing your hands of your duties to Christ Himself.
To the occultists, this forced occult ritual washing of the hands reverses Pilate’s public handwashing ritual, which, for the last 2,000 years, has put the onus for Christ’s death on the hands of the ritualists themselves, and absolved Christ (and the Romans) of all guilt:
Matthew 27:24 — When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.
Pilate performed a ritual washing of his hands in front of all of the people of Israel as a means of placing the responsibility for the Lord’s death directly on the heads of those who made sure He would be crucified.
Now, the powers-that-be in this day-and-age – who are descendants of those very same earthly powers who slew Christ on that cross at Calvary — have you working each day, in occult symbolic ritual, to reverse the impact of Pilate’s original ritual hand-washing, as well as his pronouncement of Christ’s innocence.
“Wash your hands,” the powers-that-be tell you every single day on the nightly news. “Spend at least 30 seconds on each finger of your hands, and on your palms and the back of your hands. Do this repeatedly throughout the day if you want to live.”
So, your acceptance of the ritual mask-wearing alchemically begins creating the “new you” – the initiated servant moving from his old position into the new. And your ritual washing of hands has you symbolically (albeit unconsciously) washing away your old position – your old Master and his prescribed ways — in anticipation of your new master and his.
So, you are in actuality, washing away your alignment with Christ which provides your salvation. Which means you are rejecting the gift of salvation, and aligning yourself with Satan, accepting the punishment due to him.
It’s that simple. Hand washing is the occult ritualistic symbol of rejection.
When you fall for the hand-washing ritual, you’re symbolically washing away your old life, under Christ, in willing acceptance of your new life under the new order of the enemy and his “many antichrists” who have been pulling off this coup from the start.
The “Social Distancing” Ritual
So if the masking ritual signals one’s consent to change, and symbolizes loss of one’s previous sovereign position as a faithful Christian carrying forth God’s Word, and the hand-washing ritual symbolizes the washing away of the old Christian order so the new order can be ushered in, what does the “social distancing” ritual signify?
This one’s almost too easy to spot: Right off the bat, the use of the magical number six – as in six feet apart — should set your Spidey senses on edge, meaning, of course, your God-given discernment.
After all, there’s no more widely used occult number in the world than the number “six.” As you know, the antichrist’s very number is “six hundred, three score and six,” or 6-6-6.
The powers-that-be assure us that if we’ll all walk six feet apart, we won’t catch coronavirus. Do you really need me to explain why that’s a bunch of hogwash?
Are you not aware that there are already MILLIONS of viruses in every breath of air you take? No matter where you walk, those viruses are there – somewhere between 1.6 million to 40 million viruses in every cubic meter of air we pass through as we walk.
So, no matter how far apart from others you walk, those viruses are there. You can’t escape them, except perhaps in a full-blown Hazmat suit with an air tank that you’d need to leave running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
So, much like mask-wearing, social distancing is a lie.It cannot possibly work. Yet we’re being forced to participate in it. But why would they do so? And if it can’t really help against viruses, what’s it’s occult purpose? Well, try this on for size:
Each of us are individual, but integral, parts of the many-membered body of Christ. We don’t just walk with Christ. True Christians walk in Christ.
Colossians 2:6-7 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
But symbolically speaking, the ritual of “social distancing” — at the magical “six feet” apart – is the part of the initiation ritual that SEPARATES YOU from Christ.
Rather than walking in Him, as His personal representative on this earth, you’re now symbolically and ritualistically separated from Him. Like Kevin Bacon and his Six Degrees of Separation.
Six feet from the Father. Six feet from the Son. Six feet from the Holy Spirit. Yes, that’s 6-6-6.
The occult ramifications are undeniable.
But that’s not all: Each individual Christian must remain six feet away from all other Christians. Do you understand what the powers-that-be are doing, ritualistically and symbolically?
Let me explain it: As a member of the Body of Christ, you’re supposed to be an integral part of the “whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth…” As it’s written:
Ephesians 4:16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
The term “fitly joined together”in the above verse means “joined, joint-to-joint” or “close-jointed.” The word “compacted” in the above verse means “united.”
In other words, Christians are supposed to come together,sinew-to-sinew and joint-to-joint,tightly united in the Body of Christ. And through preaching His Word, we’re to help bring others into the tightly-knit body to help the body grow.
But the occult ritual initiation rule of six feet of separation symbolically neutralizes this command. (Remember, this is a form of occult magic. Symbols are everything in occult magic.)
It puts arbitrary man-made distance between those who are supposed to have no distance at all between them. It rips the metaphorical body of Christ apart at the seams, symbolically speaking. It separates the “joints and sinews” that are supposed to be so tightly knit together.
But as a well-studied and faithful Christian, you know there’s absolutely nothing on this earth that can separate you from the love of Christ (Romans 8:35-39). And that especially includes some stupid occult ritual.
Nevertheless, ritual occult magic is what the powers-that-be do. They glory in it. Their Kabbalah is full of it. It’s what they’ve done for thousands of years. In other words, it’s what they sincerely believe in. And… it’s what they want us to buy into without critical thought.
Centuries ago, they brought their occult ritual Kabbalistic magic all of the way back from Babylon. Now they’ve opened the ancient books. And they’re unleashing the rituals in the final days of this flesh earth age.
And the worst part is this: It’s actually working. People are falling for it because of the sheer depth and breadth of the deception. And all of this over a virus with a 98.5% survival rate! Talk about putting people into a global trance!
In the end, the ritual of forced “social distancing” is designed to symbolically negate or neutralize God’s Word in a multitude of ways:
In Amos 3:3, the prophet asks a very simple question:
Amos 3:3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
Well, two Christians can’t “walk together” if the powers-that-be can force them to walk six feet apart. We’re building a many-membered body, folks. A living temple of Christ, with each brick (we are not bricks!! We are STONES! Bricks are an abomination to GOD. That was one of the offenses of the TOWER of BABEL, building with bricks, when GOD commands us to build with STONE. Stones are MADE BY GOD and cannot be replicated. Bricks are made of clay by man and they are all the same.) pressed up against the next like the sinews running through your physical body. As it’s written:
1 Peter 2:5Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
But you can’t put together a many-membered body – a living temple of God on earth — if you can’t press the bricks (STONES)up close to each other in the building process. You know what happens when there are gaps in the seams between the bricks (STONES): It gives the “rats” an easy way to get into the temple. GODS TEMPLE CANNOT, MUST NOT, WILL NOT EVER BE BUILT OF BRICKS! I am going to interject an article here just to demonstrate.
At the very beginning of the Bible, in the eleventh chapter of Genesis, we have this description of the Tower of Babel:
While men were migrating eastward, they discovered a valley in the land of Sennaar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them.” They used bricks for stone and bitumen for mortar. They then said, “Let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves lest we be scattered all over the earth.” [Genesis 11:2-4]
Many people, yours truly included, believe that the Tower of Babel is the perfect symbol of secular society. By “secular society” I mean a world that sets itself up in arrogant opposition to the will of God.
References
Cameron, Elizabeth L. “Women=Masks: Initiation Arts in North-Western Province, Zambia.” African Arts 31.2 (1998): 50-61+93. Print.
Coldiron, Margaret. “Lions, Witches, and Happy Old Men: Some Parallels between Balinese and Japanese Ritual Masks.” Asian Theatre Journal 22.2 (2005): 227-48. Print.
Feinup-Riordan, Anne. “The living tradition of Yup’ik masks.” 1992. 21. Print.
Keats, Patrice A. “Constructing Masks of The Self In Therapy.” Constructivism in the Human Sciences 8.1 (2003): 105-24. Print.
Meschutt, David, Mark L. Taff, and Lauren R. Boglioli. “Life Masks and Death Masks.” The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology 13.4 (1992): 315-19. Print.
“The Mexican Mask – A Link to the Soul.” The Alcalde 59.1 (1980): 20. Print.
, PROFESSOR OF EPIDEMIOLOGY, YALE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
As professor of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health, I have authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications and currently hold senior positions on the editorial boards of several leading journals. I am usually accustomed to advocating for positions within the mainstream of medicine, so have been flummoxed to find that, in the midst of a crisis, I am fighting for a treatment that the data fully support but which, for reasons having nothing to do with a correct understanding of the science, has been pushed to the sidelines. As a result, tens of thousands of patients with COVID-19 are dying unnecessarily. Fortunately, the situation can be reversed easily and quickly.
I am referring, of course, to the medication hydroxychloroquine. When this inexpensive oral medication is given very early in the course of illness, before the virus has had time to multiply beyond control, it has shown to be highly effective, especially when given in combination with the antibiotics azithromycin or doxycycline and the nutritional supplement zinc.
On May 27, I published an article in the American Journal of Epidemiology (AJE) entitled, “Early Outpatient Treatment of Symptomatic, High-Risk COVID-19 Patients that Should be Ramped-Up Immediately as Key to the Pandemic Crisis.” That article, published in the world’s leading epidemiology journal, analyzed five studies, demonstrating clear-cut and significant benefits to treated patients, plus other very large studies that showed the medication safety.
Physicians who have been using these medications in the face of widespread skepticism have been truly heroic. They have done what the science shows is best for their patients, often at great personal risk. I myself know of two doctors who have saved the lives of hundreds of patients with these medications, but are now fighting state medical boards to save their licenses and reputations. The cases against them are completely without scientific merit.
Since publication of my May 27 article, seven more studies have demonstrated similar benefit. In a lengthy follow-up letter, also published by AJE, I discuss these seven studies and renew my call for the immediate early use of hydroxychloroquine in high-risk patients. These seven studies include: an additional 400 high-risk patients treated by Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, with zero deaths; four studies totaling almost 500 high-risk patients treated in nursing homes and clinics across the U.S., with no deaths; a controlled trial of more than 700 high-risk patients in Brazil, with significantly reduced risk of hospitalization and two deaths among 334 patients treated with hydroxychloroquine; and another study of 398 matched patients in France, also with significantly reduced hospitalization risk. Since my letter was published, even more doctors have reported to me their completely successful use.
My original article in the AJE is available free online, and I encourage readers—especially physicians, nurses, physician assistants and associates, and respiratory therapists—to search the title and read it. My follow-up letter is linked there to the original paper.
Beyond these studies of individual patients, we have seen what happens in large populations when these drugs are used. These have been “natural experiments.” In the northern Brazil state of Pará, COVID-19 deaths were increasing exponentially. On April 6, the public hospital network purchased 75,000 doses of azithromycin and 90,000 doses of hydroxychloroquine. Over the next few weeks, authorities began distributing these medications to infected individuals. Even though new cases continued to occur, on May 22 the death rate started to plummet and is now about one-eighth what it was at the peak.
A reverse natural experiment happened in Switzerland. On May 27, the Swiss national government banned outpatient use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19. Around June 10, COVID-19 deaths increased four-fold and remained elevated. On June 11, the Swiss government revoked the ban, and on June 23 the death rate reverted to what it had been beforehand. People who die from COVID-19 live about three to five weeks from the start of symptoms, which makes the evidence of a causal relation in these experiments strong. Both episodes suggest that a combination of hydroxychloroquine and its companion medications reduces mortality and should be immediately adopted as the new standard of care in high-risk patients.
Why has hydroxychloroquine been disregarded?
First, as all know, the medication has become highly politicized. For many, it is viewed as a marker of political identity, on both sides of the political spectrum. Nobody needs me to remind them that this is not how medicine should proceed. We must judge this medication strictly on the science. When doctors graduate from medical school, they formally promise to make the health and life of the patient their first consideration, without biases of race, religion, nationality, social standing—or political affiliation. Lives must come first.
Second, the drug has not been used properly in many studies. Hydroxychloroquine has shown major success when used early in high-risk people but, as one would expect for an antiviral, much less success when used late in the disease course. Even so, it has demonstrated significant benefit in large hospital studies in Michigan and New York City when started within the first 24 to 48 hours after admission.
In fact, as inexpensive, oral and widely available medications, and a nutritional supplement, the combination of hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin or doxycycline, and zinc are well-suited for early treatment in the outpatient setting. The combination should be prescribed in high-risk patients immediately upon clinical suspicion of COVID-19 disease, without waiting for results of testing. Delays in waiting before starting the medications can reduce their efficacy.
Third, concerns have been raised by the FDA and others about risks of cardiac arrhythmia, especially when hydroxychloroquine is given in combination with azithromycin. The FDA based its comments on data in its FDA Adverse Event Reporting System. This reporting system captured up to a thousand cases of arrhythmias attributed to hydroxychloroquine use. In fact, the number is likely higher than that, since the reporting system, which requires physicians or patients to initiate contact with the FDA, appreciably undercounts drug side effects.
But what the FDA did not announce is that these adverse events were generated from tens of millions of patient uses of hydroxychloroquine for long periods of time, often for the chronic treatment of lupus or rheumatoid arthritis. Even if the true rates of arrhythmia are ten-fold higher than those reported, the harms would be minuscule compared to the mortality occurring right now in inadequately treated high-risk COVID-19 patients. This fact is proven by an Oxford University study of more than 320,000 older patients taking both hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, who had arrhythmia excess death rates of less than 9/100,000 users, as I discuss in my May 27 paper cited above. A new paper in the American Journal of Medicine by established cardiologists around the world fully agrees with this.
In the future, I believe this misbegotten episode regarding hydroxychloroquine will be studied by sociologists of medicine as a classic example of how extra-scientific factors overrode clear-cut medical evidence. But for now, reality demands a clear, scientific eye on the evidence and where it points. For the sake of high-risk patients, for the sake of our parents and grandparents, for the sake of the unemployed, for our economy and for our polity, especially those disproportionally affected, we must start treating immediately.
Harvey A. Risch, MD, PhD, is professor of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health.
The views expressd in this article are the writer’s own.
Huge foreign loans are given to sovereign nations by the World Bank, IMF and the likes. But the conditions that come attached to these loans are seldom told by governments to their citizens.
A recent case in Belarus has exposed the conditions laid by these agencies for loans being provided for COVID-19. The President of Belarus has exposed that the World Bank coronavirus aid comes with conditions for imposing extreme lockdown measures, to model their coronavirus response on that of Italy and even changes in the economic policies which he refused as being “unacceptable”.
Additional conditions which do not apply to the financial part are unacceptable for Belarus, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said when speaking about external lending during a meeting to discuss support measures for the real economic sector on the part of the banking system, reported Belarusian Telegraph Agency, BelTA.
Aleksandr Lukashenko asked the participants of the meeting how things were with the provision of foreign credit assistance to Belarus.
“What are our partners’ requirements? It was announced that they can provide Belarus with $940 million in so-called rapid financing. How are things here?” the head of state inquired.
At the same time, he stressed that additional conditions which do not apply to the financial part are unacceptable for the country.
“We hear the demands, for example, to model our coronavirus response on that of Italy. I do not want to see the Italian situation to repeat in Belarus. We have our own country and our own situation,” the president said.
According to the president, the World Bank has showed interest in Belarus’ coronavirus response practices.
“It is ready to fund us ten times more than it offered initially as a token of commendation for our efficient fight against this virus. The World Bank has even asked the Healthcare Ministry to share the experience. Meanwhile, the IMF continues to demand from us quarantine measures, isolation, a curfew. This is nonsense. We will not dance to anyone’s tune,” said the president.
Belarus is one of the only European countries that has not implemented strict coronavirus containment measures. The no-restriction situation is such that even the non-essential services remain open. The football league of Belarus is still being played. The only restriction kind-of step that Belarus took till now is that the school holidays have been extended.
Lukashenko is of the opinion that a complete lockdown was completely unnecessary. Similar, views have been expressed by many renowned scientists as well. Recently, an Indian doctor has debunked the official narrative on Coronavirus. He emphasizes that ‘stress affects health’ and said that fear isn’t necessary because eventually people will develop natural immunity to this virus. He is one of the few people to advocate the opinion that life must continue uninterrupted.
The President of Belarus is not the first one to have exposed the pressure exerted by global agencies amidst the coronavirus crisis to further their agenda.
Earlier, in a shocking development the President of Madagascar made a sensational claim that the WHO offered him $20m bribe to poison COVID-19 cure called COVID-19 Organics made from Artemisia.
The Tanzanian President kicked out WHO from the country after Goat and Papaya samples came COVID-19 positive. Days after the Tanzanian move, Burundi also kicked out WHO Coronavirus Team from the country for interference in internal matters.
It was also revealed in an intercepted human intelligence report that Bill Gates offered $10 million bribe for a forced Coronavirus vaccination program in Nigeria. After which, an Italian politician demanded the arrest of Bill Gates in the Italian parliament. She also exposed Bill Gates’ agenda in India and Africa, along with the plans to chip the human race through the digital identification program ID2020.
Authored by Isabel van Brugen via The Epoch Times,
Herd immunity to COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP virus, could be achieved with fewer people being infected than previously estimated, new research suggests.
According to an Oxford University study (pdf), the herd immunity threshold (HIT) may be lower than previous estimates because many people may already be innately immune to COVID-19—without ever having caught the disease.
A team of researchers from the University of Oxford’s Zoology Department, led by Professor Sunetra Gupta, produced a model that suggests as little as 20 percent of the population may need to be resistant to the virus to prevent a resurgence of an epidemic.
The study, which was published on July 16, is yet to be peer-reviewed.
“It is widely believed that the herd immunity threshold required to prevent a resurgence of SARS-CoV-2 is in excess of 50 percent for any epidemiological setting,” the paper says.
The researchers suggest that many people may have already built up some degree of resistance to the virus from exposure to seasonal coronaviruses, such as the common cold.
Herd immunity is achieved when enough people in a population have immunity to an infection to be able to effectively stop that disease from spreading. It lowers the chances of the virus being transmitted from person to person and reaching those who haven’t been infected yet.
Colorized scanning electron micrograph of cell (green) heavily infected with coronavirus particles (purple), commonly known as SARS-CoV-2 or novel CCP virus, isolated from a patient sample, photo published on March 16, 2020. (NIAID)
People can become immune to certain viruses after surviving infection or being vaccinated. Typically, at least 70 percent of a population must be immune to achieve herd immunity. But how long immunity lasts varies depending on the virus.
“Here, we demonstrate that HIT may be greatly reduced if a fraction of the population is unable to transmit the virus due to innate resistance or cross-protection from exposure to seasonal coronaviruses,” wrote study authors Jose Lourenco, Francesco Pinotti, Craig Thompson, and Gupta.
“These results help to explain the large degree of regional variation observed in seroprevalence and cumulative deaths, and suggest that sufficient herd immunity may already be in place to substantially mitigate a potential second wave,” they added.
The researchers said that when people who are resistant to a virus mix with non-resistant people, the HIT drops significantly.
“Given the mounting evidence that exposure to seasonal coronaviruses offers protection against clinical symptoms, it would be reasonable to assume that exposure to SARS-CoV-2 itself would confer a significant degree of clinical immunity,” the researchers suggest.
“Thus, a second peak may result in far fewer deaths, particularly among those with comorbidities in the younger age classes.”
More than 14.7 million people have been reported to be infected by the CCP virus worldwide and at least 610,000 have died, according to a tracking map by Johns Hopkins University, although the figures are believed by some experts to be unreliable owing to inaccurate data from China.