LOGICAL FALLACY

"False equivalence is a logical fallacy in which an equivalence is drawn between two subjects based on flawed or false reasoning. This fallacy is categorized as a fallacy of inconsistency. A colloquial expression of false equivalency is "comparing apples and oranges"

Apples 

 Oranges

are not the same...

There is a powerful force in humans that drives their destinies. This force asserts itself in the form of Liberty. In the Declaration of Independence, the statement “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness,” is the most powerful of liberating words written. The absence of subjugation to power and the right to act, speak, or think as one wants, are the tenets of what makes us all Americans. When these basic rights are threatened the ire of freedom-loving people is raised.

The current COVID-19 pandemic seems to have roiled the tranquil waters. In this chaos, many a voice seems to invoke falsehoods and render them as truths. There is a false equivalency between disparate ideas that rule the minds of the policymakers for ruling the minds of the citizens. 

Let us look at the past 6 weeks and gather reality from this recent past. As the pandemic broke across the Pacific and Atlantic shores simultaneously there was a sense of urgency and panic. The urgency was implied by some very poor models that were based on hypotheticals that overtime failed to materialize. The pandemic continues to march through the country from both the coasts into the middle taking down thousands of lives in its wake. The tally of the infections and deaths has become the daily mantra of the experts. In fact, some seem to thrive in reporting such numbers and take delight in the fact that the worse is yet to come. Even in the face of a slow and steady decline, these experts continue to feed the beast of fear. Caught in the trap are politicians that have lesser of a sense of what is real. The louder the drumbeat, the more deference is given to the experts. Policies are made to counter this beast of an epidemic. No one seems to pause and reflect for a moment as to what is at stake with each policy or mandate, they conjure. No one! 

One such policy is the “lockdown” of the private commerce in its many forms. Closure of hotels, airline travel, shops, and even short-distance travel is frowned upon. So much so that drones have been utilized by various police precincts to usher an era of command and control through virtual means. In a Texas city, the SWAT Team was called upon to close down a bar. The loudest voices seem to be repeating the phrase, “We must flatten the curve.” By that, they mean that by distancing from one another and “shelter at home” the spread of the virus will be contained, and the healthcare system will not be overburdened. Meanwhile dubious policies are in effect; releasing prisoners, arresting law-abiding citizens walking with their children. Yet given the information from recent events, when large quantities of beds were made available and larger numbers of ventilators were built to respond to the need, the threat never materialized. Most of the beds remained empty and as far as the ventilators they are being sent to other countries to handle their respective crises.

But within this “shelter in place” and other such terms is a sinister mechanism that has raised its ugly head and seems to hover over us as the Damocles Sword. The thinking goes that if the private business is opened too soon then we will have many hundreds of thousands of more deaths. That specter shakes the core of any human being. But time is passing, and more and more information is being revealed. The virus seems to not like living under sunlight and moist air. Yet even armed with this knowledge, the powerful governing forces have shut down parks and beaches, albeit a few have been reluctantly opened due to people pressure. Small businesses still are forced to remain closed. Among small businesses include the physician offices that are having a deleterious effect on the medical care of the infirmed and ailing fellow citizens. There are estimates of over 6,000 early deaths just among cancer patients. Other specialties are also seeing fewer patients with heart disease, diabetes, lung disease, and kidney disease. All these patients have been furloughed from healthcare due to fears of hospitalization and close contact with others for fear of contracting COVID-19. How many people will die from such an action will probably scale the number of COVID deaths.

The false equivalency exists between the control of the virus and the shelter in place concept. Although shelter in place may have flattened the curve, that still remains in dispute given the data from Sweden and the U.S. and other parts of the world, where shelter in place was not undertaken by the government. The essence of this virus suggests that it will find “parity” with its surroundings and eventually die off. “Parity,” here means herd immunity. Scientists have since the beginning said that it will take 70% or greater infected populations for the virus to finally die off. But some epidemiologists have models that suggest only 25-30% of the infected population shuts the virus down. Further evidence from other countries including, Sweden, France, and others including the United States suggests that between 40% to as much as 65% of the deaths were from Nursing Home patients. In fact, the Swedish Health Minister stated as such that the increased deaths in Sweden were from the Nursing Home due to poor Infection Control. The incomprehensibility of some enforced policies of moving COVID patients into the Nursing Homes in New York, New Jersey and California are counterfactual to scientific reality. It would, therefore, be prudent to allow the country to open for business and people over 65 years of age with co-morbidities might continue social distancing as preventative measures against the virus. The younger population meanwhile can begin the process of normal living with recommended good hygiene standards. The herd will get itself immunized and the virus will become a distant memory.

While Aristotle suggested that desire can be subjugated to reason and Plato stated that all desire must be postponed for a higher ideal, the current ideal seems to threaten the economic welfare of everyday workers in every country as the economic collapse continues from these unbridled restrictions. Socrates meanwhile argued, “that happiness and personal growths were a major purpose of life and a central goal of education.” If that is true, and it is, then the current actions by some governors are a direct assault in human liberty and freedom to pursue happiness.

It is therefore imperative that Governors exerting an undue force of their incomprehensible logic should undo their dictates and open the civil activities of daily life so that for the time being those aged 18 to 60 years of age can work and provide for their families. Government subsidies cannot sustain life as has been evidenced through history by a top-down movement. The United States Constitution states, ““Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

As the New Hampshire automobile license moniker states, “Live Free or Die,” let us continue to live under that banner of liberty.