Fines of the times

It is a negationist myth that nobody has ever actually been punished for violating lockdowns or mask mandates. It’s true that in some jurisdictions and institutions, it was clear all along you could get away with it. But the Cincinnati news stories that listed people jailed for lockdown breaches debunks the idea that there were never any punishments anywhere.

U.S. federal authorities continue to pursue penalties against those not wearing masks on airliners two years ago. A few offenders actually were imprisoned. The cases continue to be prosecuted even though the requirement was thrown out by a federal court. Criminal cases in the U.S. that arose from the original lockdowns in the spring of 2020 were still being pursued in 2023. In addition, small business owners were still facing stiff fines for being open during the round of closure orders in late 2020, and some had permanently lost their business licenses. It was not only businesses open to the public but also entities that held only private events.

Other countries also saw people punished for COVID rulebreaking. Slovenia was the site of heavy fines, as Prime Minister Janez Janša enacted very tough restrictions on assembly and movement. But later, the country’s Constitutional Court struck down these measures as unconstitutional.

And now, Slovenians who were fined under these rules will be receiving refunds, thanks to new legislation. This includes a delivery driver who was fined for not wearing a mask outdoors. It also includes people fined for daring to participate in protests against the measures.

Significantly, the fines were imposed by Janša’s right-wing government, but are being refunded by what is said to be a center-left successor. It should be safe now to ask COVID catastrophists to hand in their progressive card—if they actually still have the audacity to claim to be progressive, which has always been laughable.

Refunding these fines is actually one of the first and biggest steps taken anywhere in the world to right the wrongs of the past four years. It also suggests Slovenia has moved past the pandemic while many American bodies remain in “zero COVID” mode. Remember last week when the CDC was using the wrong COVID numbers for Hawaii County, Hawaii, which caused Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park to practically shut down based on incorrect data? The CDC has continued using wrong data this week, showing a hospital there has 40 cases even though it only has 21 beds. Random Internetters contacted the hospital about this discrepancy—thereby doing the CDC’s job better than the CDC does.

The CDC is falsifying public records, and Hawaii County isn’t the only affected county. There are other places around the country where the numbers don’t add up. Federal and other agencies still tie restrictions to the CDC’s color-coded map that uses obviously made-up data. Even in counties that seem to show correct data, some institutions appear to be making up their own numbers: A hospital in Kansas just enacted a new mask mandate, saying it was seeing a spike in COVID admissions. It refused to provide numbers to a radio news reporter. But the CDC’s new numbers show that county has zero hospitalizations. The masketeers can’t very well say the CDC is wrong about that county but right about Hawaii County. The map also uses stale, week-old data.

Right now, we can find at least two counties showing “high” transmission on the CDC’s map even though each of these counties lists only two hospitalizations. We can find another two counties shown as “high” even though they each list only one hospitalization. These are two adjacent counties in North Dakota that probably have only one admission between them.

American institutions proudly broadcast their COVID incompetence, while Slovenia seems to be making a serious effort to rectify atrocities that took place there.