By Samuel Strait, Reporter at Large – February 16, 2021 A recent comment in Linda Sutter's piece on local restaurants in the Crescent City Times, triggered the same feeling that I have carried around since last Spring. After the barrage of media coverage of how deadly this pandemic was going to be, before any real research had been done, it seemed prudent for thinking people to take a step back and see what developed. Since that time the media has continued to hyperventilate over the pandemic as a certain means of dying like nobody had ever died before, ever. Close on the heels of the media were the people who are especially entrusted with doing what is most beneficial for all of us, the government. Since then we have endured closures, social distancing, mask wearing, and stay at home orders, without a single shred of scientific evidence that any of these practices actually work. The burden on small businesses has been far worse. Seems like at least once or twice a week, Dr. Walter Rehwaldt and his Public Health Ministry, announce the tally for the week, 931 positives, 39 active cases, 2 hospitalizations, and four deaths like it is the box score for some sporting event. This is followed by the predictable warning that we must soldier on, as we are not out of the woods yet. Wear a mask, wash your hands, do not go out unless necessary, and social distance as if that weaves some sort of magic over every one who complies, avoiding exposure and very likely an addition to the box score. I wonder if we were to have approached the common flu like this, many centuries ago, just where would we be. People have died from the flu, some years by the thousands, yet nobody suggested inventing a test to see which of us had it. There was no call to social distance or wear a mask. Quarantines were for the people who were sick with the flu. People came to work infected by the common flu and nobody worried about transmission because very few people actually died from the common flu compared to the millions that caught it each and every flu season. Vaccines were formulated for those that wished to escape the worst effects of the flu. And most years in the flu season alone those of us here in Del Norte County experienced far more cases than the paltry numbers being reported by Public Health for the entire year of the Covid pandemic. So, I for one have said enough is enough for months. I do not intend to subject myself to the continued lunacy broadcast each week in the media, or by Dr. Walter Rehwaldt. There clearly is currently nothing that will prevent the spread of Covid-19. Seventy percent of all cases of Covid-19 claim to wear a mask and social distance all the time. A further nineteen percent claim to have worn the mask and social distanced most of the time. Recent mutterings out of the medical hacks appear to be going with wear more masks to explain the failure of the current mandates to slow the spread. Is two masks going to be enough? Three maybe? Better yet ten masks, just to be sure? It has been well over six months that a series of studies said very clearly, "Mask do not prevent transmission of, or being infected by Covid-19". Countless medical professionals have repeated that warning without any acknowledgement by those that continue to repeat the mantra, masks, social distancing, wash your hands, and stay home. To quote some one who appears to have his head on, instead of having it perched on his dresser in the morning, "the question I have for local business owners, and for all citizens of Del Norte, is: Where do you draw the line? What else has to happen to spur you into action-what new controls or regulations on your livelihood or your lifestyle does the government have to impose before you say "enough is enough?'" I am saying we crossed that line months ago. Government mandates about human behavior simply cannot do anything but fail when it comes to human mortality. It is what it is…..