By Samuel Strait, Reporter at Large — April 17, 2021 Red Tier, Purple Tier, Red Tier, Purple Tier, almost as if the State and our local Public Health "expert" are beginning to sound a bit schizophrenic. Nobody seems to know what it means to be relegated to one tier over the other. Seems that the old set of requirements for belonging are set to change even with the uptick in reported Covid cases in the County. Perhaps it is because the thirteenth state in this country has suspended its Covid Mandates, and the courts have suddenly remembered both that this is a free country and we have a Constitution that makes it so. Hopefully the over reach of state governors and their bureaucratic minions will come to realize that this country's citizens have the right to determine what is "safe" in their own right. People who wish to continue to wear masks, social distance, wash your hands, and stay at home are free to continue to do so, just don't expect those that do not wish to do so will continue with this behavior. It is crystal clear from the many states that do not insist compliance that none of the mandates have had any appreciable effect on the spread of the virus. Some of the most restrictive states, blue like California and New York, where 85 to 90% of the population have bent a knee to Covid mandates are doing no better than those that have not. Surprise, surprise. As the "Pandemic" mania continues to crumble under the weight of new information and the fact that none of the hype and hysterical media bleating of doom and gloom has come to pass. How embarrassed does this group of clowns have to become before things get back to normal? Epidemics have come and gone for centuries, yet the human race has seemed to have survived. Epidemics will continue to erupt in the future, but hopefully a valuable lesson has been learned, not to over react. Over reaction clearly appears to be far more damaging than past responses. Perhaps a bit of local information on just exactly how the "pandemic" effected us here locally. The daily tolling of the bell by the County's Covid dash board turned up with the following information after fifteen months of ringing the bell of doom. For the County of 27,956 souls as of the most recent census, 1272 people have tested positive, if that in fact represents one positive for a single person, hardly likely. This represents about 4.5% of our entire population. Of that 1272 a mere 30 people were placed in the hospital, or 2.3% of those testing positive, 0.1% of the County's population. Finally, seven people are purported to have died from Covid, if you consider being over seventy, having multiple serious health issues, and earning Sutter Health a tidy windfall. This represents 0.025% of the entire population for fifteen months. Over the past several months vaccines were thought become the "new" go to solution for our problems with Covid where troubling responses to all of the current vaccines, and even suspensions for some of them have health officials scrambling to reassure the public that vaccinations are "for the most part safe". Lingering doubts about what will vaccines afford us in states like California, not much, higher negative outcomes from vaccines than when infected by Covid, remember they are all still experimental, and a mortality rate that likely will descend to that of the Common Flu. Not much further to go. All in all, in spite of the doom and gloom reflected in local and state authority's handling of Covid-19, Del Norte County got off lightly from the virus, not so much our economy. Keep in mind, Del Norte's student population will, maybe, might go back to school in the fall, masks will be required