09 Dec 2020

Questioning Unreliable PCR Testing Is Hardly Trivial

By Kathleen McCarthy

We are very appreciative of Scott and Rock Island Counties' Health Departments' participation. I disagree with Dr. Katz referring to our questions concerning cycle thresholds in PCR testing as “trivial.”

This precise controversy is quickly gaining in prominence and urgency. (For responses to all eleven questions we posed, see "Dr. Katz Answers 11 COVID-19 Questions.")

09 Dec 2020

Dr. Katz Answers 11 COVID-19 Questions

By Kathleen McCarthy and Dr. Louis Katz

Dr. Katz Scott County Presser Dec 3.2020 screenshot

Last month (issue #979), the Reader published 11 questions relative to COVID-19 for the Scott County and Rock Island County Health Departments. Both departments deferred to Scott County Medical Director Dr. Louis Katz for responses and we are pleased to share his unedited responses, along with the original questions, below. (For my responses to these answers with additional supporting documentation, see "Questioning Unreliable PCR Testing Is Hardly Trivial.")

11 Nov 2020

Eleven COVID-19 Questions for Local Health Officials

By Kathleen McCarthy

QC Covid Coalition Presser Oct 27 2020 Video Screenshot

Regarding the worldwide crisis brought about by governments' response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, for nine months the Reader has kept to our mission of providing news and information beyond what is delivered by both local and national corporate media. Alternative information and viewpoints are what we do, and COVID-19 is no exception. In fact, because of its importance to our bio-future and personal freedoms, understanding COVID-related issues deserves as deep a dive as we can muster.

[Dec 11, 2020: Here are the counties' answers to the Reader's questions: https://www.rcreader.com/commentary/dr-katz-answers-11-covid-questions]

18 Nov 2020

Gov Kim Reynolds Signs New Proclamation Modifying Public-Health Measures

By Pat Garrett

DES MOINES, IOWA (November 18, 2020) — Governor Kim Reynolds signed a new Public Health Disaster proclamation that modifies existing public-health measures to provide clarity and simplify the measures applicable to recreational activities and fitness centers.

17 Nov 2020

Gov Kim Reynolds Signs New Proclamation Continuing State Public Health Emergency Declaration

By Pat Garrett

DES MOINES, IOWA (November 17, 2020) — Governor Kim Reynolds has signed a new Public Health Disaster proclamation that imposes a number of additional public health measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19. These new measures, signed on November 16, will be effective at 12:01AM on Tuesday, November 17, and will continue until 11:59PM on December 10, 2020.

17 Oct 2020

Three Scoops of Good COVID News

By Kathleen McCarthy

Blinders will have to come off before masks do.

We all agree there is a new coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 that causes a disease called COVID-19, from which people have died. That's pretty much where the agreement begins to wobble as new information is discovered, building on the science and informing the relative risk, which in turn informs the extreme response that lingers with increasingly less justification.

02 Sep 2020

Flatten the Fear: Cracking COVID Cases, Testing and Causes of Death

By Kathleen McCarthy

21 Scott County Iowa COVID Deaths March through August 2020 Death Certificate Information

It was a only a matter of time before the scientific evidence relative to the SARS-CoV2 virus and COVID-19 downgrading its lethality overwhelmed the narratives that continue to perpetuate shuttering businesses and schools.

31 Aug 2020

If Politics Is a Science, Then Pritzker and His Critics Are Learning by Pratfall

By Rich Miller

When Governor JB Pritzker announced the state COVID-19 "mitigation" plan for the Metro East on August 16, he said it was done in conjunction "with local officials in the Metro East region and across the border in St Louis." Last week, though, the governor admitted the cross-border arrangement to try to contain the virus's spread was a "mistake." Man, was it ever.

17 Aug 2020

Ann Spillane Proving Indispensable in Keeping Pritzker's COVID Orders on Course

By Rich Miller

Tuesday, August 11, was probably the best day, professionally, that Governor JB Pritzker has had in quite a while. The Joint Committee on Administrative Rules has been a source of legislative frustration for the governor all year. He didn't quite seem to grasp how best to work its process-dominated membership, and he was handed a major defeat back in May when JCAR members in both parties turned thumbs-down on a sweeping plan to impose fines and even jail time on violators of Governor Pritzker's COVID-19 executive orders.

12 Aug 2020

Still No Conclusive Evidence Justifying Mandatory Masks

By Todd McGreevy

Still No Conclusive Evidence Justifying Mandated Masking

In June, we published Denis Rancourt's white paper titled “Masks Don’t Work: A Review of Science Relevant to COVID-19 Social Policy.” As of this date, the article has been viewed over 460,000 times world-wide. And, as the Reader's publisher I pledged to publish all letters, guest commentaries, or studies refuting Rancourt's general premise that this mask-wearing culture and shaming could be more harmful than helpful.

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