The tide is turning against lockdowns in New Jersey (Opinion)

For months listeners to my show have heard me take a hard line, uncompromising stance against government overreach. Turns out, I am not alone.

Many voices are starting to rise up in the community against the arbitrary, inconsistent and dangerous policies coming out of Trenton. This is helping to galvanize a strong opposition to the ruling party/political class. Garden Staters are increasingly sick and tired of endless lockdowns and mask mandates as they watch and live through the devastation it's causing in our economy. The latest report is that 31% of New Jersey small businesses have shut their doors showing that the economy is worse here than elsewhere in the US where the estimate is 17% of restaurants are now closed for good.

Hundreds of thousands are still out of work in NJ and there is no end in sight. What's more telling is that the fear of the virus is starting to abate as a reported 74% of New Jerseyans are refusing to cooperate with contact tracers. Seems that more people than we originally thought are coming out of the COVID-fog and realizing that no amount of lockdown policy or mask mandates will stop the spread of this virus. Even in Sweden, it's important to understand that compared to severe lockdown countries, they are actually over-performing.

One of the most overlooked stats is that overall deaths are essentially flat over the past ten years. Seems that one of the worst years in Sweden, and the rest of the world for that matter, was 2018 when the flu was so bad many hospitals in the US and Italy were overwhelmed with patients and had to set up medical tents outside. Yet in the midst of that medical crisis, no discussion of lockdowns and certainly no quarantining of healthy people. This year, the flu is almost non-existent showing that the viral season is still here, but many deaths have been re-categorized as COVID instead of using one of the nearly three serious medical complications (comorbidities) present in 94% of COVID deaths.

The reality is that the average age of a COVID death is higher than the expected mortality age across the globe. And since the reporting of COVID deaths has been shown to be almost exclusively among older, medically compromised patients, the narrative of locking down healthy people is rightfully falling apart. Since the so-called "outbreak" is all about positive cases, which are nothing more than high cycle PCR tests called inaccurate by the creator of the test when used this way, we're seeing more of a case-demic than a pandemic. And in places around the world and in the US, heavy lockdown and mask mandate areas like NJ and California are seeing the highest cases. The idea that asymptomatic people, AKA healthy people, are spreaders has also been debunked further tearing down the narrative pushed by fear mongering politicians.

The bottom line is that a coalition of people who are ready for serious change is building in New Jersey. Change which can be delivered without the vitriol and crass delivery that we've seen from the president and his detractors over the past four years. Change that will save them and our culture from elite, out-of-touch politicians who don't understand nor care about the plight of working and middle class families. Trump-style change with Reaganesque delivery needs to be a reality in New Jersey. This change is not coming overnight. It will take years to deliver. Stay strong and patient. Keep the faith and the fight. Help is on the way. But don't count on the current crop of GOP politicians and moderate Democrats to save us.

Most have simple taken a back seat and avoided controversy as the Governor and his shills in the legislature and media crushed your economic, civil and religious liberty. NJ deserves new leaders. Leaders who can relate to average people and who have the courage to act in an aggressive fashion to turn this state around. NJ should be the place for working and middle class families to thrive, raise kids and eventually retire. Sadly, today's NJ is a place where most simply want to get out as soon as possible.

That coalition of people who want to get NJ back to normal and take power away from the corrupt elites in Trenton includes parents who should not be bearing the burden of working and teaching in place of teachers who are forced by the complicit NJEA and weak superintendents to stay home. Union workers who are rightfully concerned that they could lose two weeks of pay if someone tests positive and the site gets shut down or if they have to wait a week to get their own test results. Teachers who do not want to be forced home and want schools open. Cops who are absolutely opposed to acting as the anti-holiday, mask, distance enforcers. Small business owners (the largest group of employers in NJ), young people who are stuck living at home because of the cost of living, nurses and doctors who are being...and the list goes on.

Bottom line is that history shows the pandemic ends when people just decide it's over, similar to the Spanish flu which took many more lives than COVID and still, people woke up after two years and went back to normal life. So I'm 100% confident that life will return to normal by 2022, but the economic devastation will last long into the future creating the need for real leadership to replace the political class responsible for destruction and death well beyond what the virus would have done without government help.

You have no legal obligation to submit to contact tracing. In my opinion, we have a moral obligation to resist and not cooperate.

New Jersey is waking up. Where do you stand? Are you ready to fight for our state?

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Spadea. Any opinions expressed are Bill's own. Bill Spadea is on the air weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m., talkin’ Jersey, taking your calls at 1-800-283-1015.