If nothing else, the COVID-19 Pandemic has made for a polarizing 2020. It's destroyed friend and family connections and created hostility within communities like most of us have never seen before. This is largely driven by mainstream media who continuously vilifies anyone who dares espouse a differing perspective than the narrative they continue to push on a daily basis. Beyond that, are our politicians (elected) and medical officers (un-elected) who continue to create restrictions without providing any evidence as to precisely what it will accomplish and why. What's worse, is that in most cases their attitudes toward these restrictions are incredibly flippant, which when you consider the fact that these restrictions do not impact them personally in any meaningful way (they don't lose a penny of their income), is very concerning. We have officials who continue to make decisions that impact the daily lives of billions of people all over the world, yet these same decisions do not impact them, and there are countless instances of these same officials flouting their own rules whilst demanding local law enforcement ramp up surveillance and enforcement of the very restrictions they do not follow themselves.

I personally believe the real reason why this has turned so polarizing though, is the simple fact that you have 2 main groups of people. The first group are those who consume only mainstream media and choose to believe what they are told at face value without evaluating it in any way. The second group are those who do additional research, look for sources beyond the mainstream and continue to be healthy skeptics of media and government. The thing is, if this second group was not able to uncover anything that suggests what is being offered as truth in the mainstream, isn't, then we would all be on the same page and there would be limited conflict. However, we all know that this is not the case. With each passing day, there are new studies and more experts coming out to discuss the realities of COVID-19, it's genuine danger, the impacts of the various restrictions, efficacy of PCR testing and the list goes on. The problem is, when we have constant censorship of these opinions (I'll focus only on the opinions that are coming from otherwise respected experts) and governments who fail to acknowledge any new information and simply continue down the exact same path they have been on since the beginning, without ever providing a shred of evidence to back their decision making, where are we at? Let me focus on some more specifics to really lay out where things are now, and where we are headed.

In Nova Scotia, we have had additional, significant restrictions recently implemented as a result of some new cases, of which the vast majority are in the Halifax region and are in the 18-35 age group (so we are told). Since then, this age group has been chastised and vilified by Premier McNeil and Dr Strang. They have been blamed for the recent "outbreak" and have all but been told that the reason for the current measures are their fault. As expected, on the back of these types of comments from our officials, you see social media flooded with negative comments and often times downright vitriol for this entire group of people. There are approximately 200000 people that fall into this age group in NS. There are currently 78 active cases of COVID-19 in NS. Assuming 75% of them are in the 18-35 age group, that's 58 cases. So 58 of 200000 people have COVID-19 in this age group, which is 0.03%, meaning 99.97% do not have COVID-19. Of the 58, we have absolutely no public information that tells us how many of these people caught the virus as a result of activities, in the Premier's words, that resulted from them "living as if the virus does not exist". All we have is vague, harmful rhetoric with no facts whatsoever. We have 200000 people vilified, even though 99.97% of them don't even have the virus, and we have no idea how many, if any at all, of the 0.03% that do, contracted it because they were doing anything wrong. Why is it just NOW only a problem yet people have been gathering and going out to bars and restaurants for months now. The suggestion that a specific group of people are causing the problem all of a sudden, rather than the seasonality of the virus seems patently ridiculous. The rest of the world is experiencing the same spike in cases. If it was just down to human behaviour clearly this would have started months ago when most restrictions were lifted. If you can't see what's wrong with this picture then there is really nothing else I, or anyone else can say.

HERE is a (surprisingly) informative article published by the CBC where Tok Tok star and Halifax mayoral candidate Max Taylor discusses how the current rhetoric around his age group is causing more harm than good. Professor Dr. Bob Huish of Dalhousie has launches a survey to try and establish the level of stigma people are currently facing. Dr. Huish said when people feel stigmatized, it can lead to mental health challenges and societal division. "When people are meant to feel responsible or blamed for something as globally inclusive as a pandemic, all we're doing is creating further wedges," he said.

What also contributes to the societal hysteria and ongoing shaming is the constant bombarding of exposure sites (note they are often no longer referred to as "potential"). From my end, they serve zero purpose but to keep people in a constant state of fear and paranoia and has caused Nova Scotia to become a place of hate rather than a place of love and welcoming. It is now well known that to be under any real risk of exposure to the virus, you have to be within close proximity to an infectious (note infectious and infected are not the same thing) person for a prolonged period of time (typically accepted as 15 mins), which is why apps like the Canada Alert app doesn't alert about potential exposure unless you are verified to have been within 6 feet of an infected person for a minimum of 15 minutes. What this means is, if you were within 6 feet of someone who since confirmed a positive test, for 14 minutes, you would not get a notification of exposure. That is quite telling by itself. Being in this proximity to random strangers would hardly be likely under normal circumstances of being out and about, let alone with masks and social distancing in place currently. To my knowledge, not a single verified case of COVID-19 transmission has ever occurred in Nova Scotia stemming from one of these exposures (The Bitter End is separate because all cases, as far as I know, were related to the large group that were all known to one another), where a random person caught the virus from someone who they did not know.

Doing things (restrictions etc...) out of an "abundance of caution" has its limits. When the benefit is basically none existent yet the actual harms caused to people and society are real and tangible (just read any social media comment threads, they are beyond disturbing), our elected officials have a responsibility to, well, act responsibly. This is just one of an endless list of examples of "covid tunnel vision" where the only concerns appear to be reducing covid transmission (regardless of how little risk there is) and the negative impacts in any other area are completely disregarded. On top of this, several people have brought up questions about how it seems curious that Walmart, Costco etc... never seem to be part of these exposure notifications yet more people go to these stores than any other place in the Province. I actually have first hand information including the official document from public health that an employee in the pharmacy at Costco tested positive but NS Public Health would not add it to the exposure list. It's quite telling that they are so quick to name small businesses in these exposure sites but conveniently refuse to name huge companies where there was a confirmed case and thousands of people are in and out in a daily basis. But no risk there, right?

Now let's discuss some of the obvious contradictions that policies and restrictions have that do nothing to help and everything to create further division and further dis-trust of those creating such contradictions. As previously stated, there are currently 78 people out of about 400000 in the Halifax Regional Municipality that have a positive test result got COVID-19 (for simplicity, I am assuming all cases are in HRM, I realize there are a few elsewhere as well). As a result of 0.02% of this population having a positive test result (does not mean they are sick, infected, infectious or have live virus) all 400000 are now urged to not travel anywhere outside the HRM, even within our own Province. Businesses outside HRM are turning customers away if they are from, or have been to HRM recently. Yet 99.98% of this population does NOT have COVID-19. Does this seem proportional to you? Beyond that, we have lineups that are hundreds of people long that are ok as long as it's to get tested, and these people are passing pizza back and forth that was purchased by Dr Lisa Barrett, and this activity is considered "low risk". Yet retail stores in HRM can now only have a maximum of 25% of their stores capacity inside their store, and we have no information that tells us even 1 single case has EVER resulted from a causal interaction in a retail store. We were told to avoid Thanksgiving with our families, and certainly not share food or have buffet style since people will be touching the same surfaces, and inevitably that will likely be the same guidance for Christmas as well. These blatant contradictions are precisely why and how "conspiracy theories" begin because people look for other rational explanations when the explanations given for regulations are that are rife with contradictions fail to pass the most basic rational and common sense test. There is a reason why so many people have so much dis-trust for the officials making these decisions all over the world, it's not hard to see why, and these are only a few examples locally. It's the same story all over Canada and all over the world.

New Brunswick is now enforcing mandatory masks (or what they call "community masks") outside in orange zones, issuing fines likes candy (over 70 as of last week, and that's just since zones 1 and 2 have been in the orange phase recently) and this is being enforced by what I can only label as the "mask police" who are not the "boys in blue", but officers geared up in green military style combat fatigues. What is Canada coming to? How is this even remotely acceptable?

NB Health Enforcement Officers

Please note that REBEL NEWS is offering legal representation to the first 1000 Canadians who reach out regarding any COVID-19 related fines, including for not wearing a mask, having friends over etc... more information is available HERE

Everyday citizens have been actively pitted against one another, have been encouraged to "rat" on their neighbours and this has now been taken to a new level in Niagara, Ontario. A law has just been passed (receiving unanimous support from city council) that will publicly shame anyone who receives a COVID-19 related ticket. This is literally stuff you only see in dystopian fiction tales about Authoritarian regimes. This is Canada? Just look at the division and hate everything is causing, people literally willing to and wanting to have their fellow citizens arrested or fined for not following recommendations that aren't even law or part of the the actual health order. Is this the Nova Scotia Dr Strang and Premier McNeil are happy to have created and fostered?

Unmasked people are ridiculed because medical officers (especially Dr Strang) have wrongly and haphazardly swept aside legitimate reasons for not wearing one, discounted mental health issues and significantly overstated the positive impacts masks have and ignored any and all negative ones. No actual scientific study has concluded masks stop the transmission of any respiratory virus. Period. That's a scientific fact. Yet masks have been weaponized into a political tool and a sign of virtue. It's disgusting. Children wearing them for hours on end, it's not healthy and just about anyone knows it. Even if they worked as intended, they still wouldn't make sense for the public to wear seeing as no one wears them properly. The policy exists because of the risk of asymptomatic spread, which has twice now been proven to be rare. The WHO confirmed as much back in May, based on robust contact tracing data they received from multiple countries. The newest study is HERE. Nonetheless, the point being if anyone could have the virus at any time, and the mask is meant to provide some protection to stop particles from being emitted as much and as far, even if that worked, the fact people are constantly touching the mask, pulling it off, shoving it into their pockets or purse, schoolbag etc... Means these surfaces are being constantly contaminated in a way that would never happen if you didn't have an item on your face that you were forever touching and putting in various places. Surely this contamination and spread is far more negative than any minor benefit a mask provides as a barrier? Here are just a few of the scientific studies that show masks will not help contain the spread of a virus. This is on top of countless medical experts who agree, but they are not connected to government and are ignored or even shamed by media.  LINK1  LINK2  LINK3  LINK4 LINK5

Some of the public distrust stems from Covid death reporting and how, even though most know the death tolls are not actually people who would still otherwise be alive, that's how it's framed and reported. Vague statements like "connected to" or "from complications including Covid" are used when reporting deaths when in reality it just means the person died and was also Covid positive. Why not be truthful? Isn't it a good thing that less people are actually dying as a direct result of a new disease? It's a very unnatural behaviour to ignore or downplay good news. It's almost as if "they" don't want people to know the reality as then maybe they would be less inclined to accept harsh restrictions. For example, in Ontario there are currently nearly 800 people in hospital with Covid. It's framed so that the average person believes Covid-19 has caused 800 people to be in hospital, as in, people who would otherwise not be on hospital, but this isn't the case. It's simply that there are 800 people in hospital who also have a positive Covid test, but they could be in the hospital for any reason. In most jurisdictions, every person admitted to hospital is tested for Covid. A car accident victim who tests positive for Covid would be labelled as a Covid hospitalization yet their reason for being in hospital has zero to do with Covid. These distinctions are incredibly important to understand but most do not and Government and Media make no attempt to clarify, and in fact use fear mongering such as hospitals being overwhelmed, when that has nothing to do with Covid in most, if not all cases.

Lockdowns DO NOT WORK. This is something I reported on many months ago from a US based study that looked at restrictions imposed by each state. This is now also confirmed by a new study linked HERE. Both studies conclude the same things - mortality is not correlated with the level of restrictions. In layman's terms, instituting heavy restrictions does NOT lower the death rate. End of story. Being cautious is no longer acceptable in light of the utter lack of evidence for actions taken. In fact, the science points to the actions being wrong, period.

Then you have PCR testing, which is the real elephant in the room that allows for this entire pandemic to exist at all. The PCR test and how it's used is perhaps the biggest scam in modern human history. I'll try and keep this short and sweet given this article is quite long already. The now infamous NY Times article shed some real light on PCR testing, and more importantly, cycle thresholds (CT). A PCR test, first of all, is not a diagnostic tool and was never intended to be used that way. As per the PCR test creator Kary Mullis, the PCR test is designed to detect microscopic samples of RNA and amplify it so it can be measured. It cannot be used to diagnose disease (whether you are infectious, sick etc...) it simply confirms that you have some level of the RNA sequence that the sample is being compared to. This is done through amplification cycles. The more times you have to amplify the sample, the less of what you are looking for is there. This is VERY important and currently, I know of nowhere that actually uses this information to dictate policy, when it's probably the single most important piece of information we have. As per the NY Times piece linked above, and a newer study linked HERE, at 25 CT (the sample has been amplified 25 times), around 70% of samples are deemed live virus, aka infectious. Once you continue on to 30 cycles (as in, the first 29 were unable to detect anything), this drops to just 20%, meaning 80% of the samples were not of live, infectious virus. At 35 cycles, over 97% of samples are not infectious live virus. At 36 and above, effectively 100% of samples are not infectious live virus. This is important because when you are tested, you simply get a positive or negative result. If you are positive, you have to self-isolate for up to 14 days, can't work etc... Yet you have no idea if you tested positive on the 20th, 25th or 40th cycle. As the NY Times article indicates, potentially over 90% of all positive's are meaningless and people are forced to quarantine unnecessarily as they are not since, infected or infectious. They simply have an incredibly small amount of dead virus in them, possibly from quite some time ago. Here are 2 links that discuss the CT values used in each Province. Ontario is highly concerning in that they keep racking up thousands of new cases daily, yet many of their labs test up to 45 cycles! LINK1  LINK2 This is yet another example of perfect scientific information that should absolutely be used effectively to manage the situation, quarantines etc... yet it simply isn't, and that might be the biggest fraud at all. For a disease that has a survival rate of well over 99% and essentially isn't impacting overall mortality and life expectancy, it's not longer viable or acceptable to continue on the current course just to be cautious. The negative impacts to real people's lives but the response as without a doubt, far worse than the virus itself.

The Charter Rights and individual responsibility matter. The death rate for Covid is low. Most don't even show symptoms. The response is worse than the disease. 0 people in hospital (NS). Flatten the curve and preserve hospital capacity morphed to STOP the spread and 0 cases which has morphed to get in front of the curve. There are 0 excess deaths in Canada through August. This isn't Ebola or something that can kill anyone and is taking years of people's lives. It's a bad flu, that's just a plain fact. Destroying individual rights, small businesses, the economy and creating division and hate are all far far worse than the damage this virus could ever cause. Well over 80% of deaths in Canada (and around the world) are in Long Term Care homes with people 80+ who have 2+ co-morbidities.

Thousands of experts have come out against these measures, paper after paper is published denouncing lockdowns and clarifying PCR testing yet officials continue to ignore them entirely and just repeat the same rhetoric and build cautious restrictions on top of one another that are based on nothing but conjecture. It's time to stop the charade, put some money into long term care and let people get back to normal. You really have to ask, why is something that seems so obvious, appear to be so far from our grasp? Why is the actual science being ignored in place of rhetoric and half truths? That's the million dollar question. We'll see how the coming months unfold as vaccines begin being administered worldwide. Unfortunately, I expect that will open a whole other can of worms. Alas, that's for another day.