Face mask

While it’s great news that Pfizer, BioNTech, AstraZeneca and other pharmaceutical companies are developing vaccines to prevent people from getting the coronavirus, we should remember that international criminal entities are taking advantage of the fear, uncertainty and desperation created by the coronavirus pandemic to expand their illicit footprint. Since early June, Customs and Border Protection has seized more than 107,000 FDA-prohibited COVID-19 test kits, 750,000 counterfeit face masks, thousands of EPA-prohibited anti-virus lanyards, 11,000 FDA-prohibited chloroquine tables and more than 67,000 ACCU-CHEK test strips. When demand outstrips supply, it creates an environment in which substandard and counterfeit medical supplies proliferate.

‘Trust the experts’ is the battle cry of America’s elitists. After President Trump’s shock election in 2016 showed that Americans are sick of hearing from politicians, the politicized classes adopted experts as their proxy for power. Climate change ‘experts’ justify AOC’s radical Green New Deal with prophecies of planetary extinction. Foreign policy ‘experts’ claim America will destabilize the Middle East if, as Trump wants, we withdraw troops from Syria and Afghanistan. Medical ‘experts’ are wheeled out to justify increasing control over the lives of everyday Americans through draconian lockdowns, mask mandates and stringent travel restrictions.

Next time Donald Trump poses for a photo call in one of those ridiculous, unnecessary and completely off-brand face masks, maybe he should remember the history of his good friends the Chinese. In the 17th century, China's Ming dynasty was overthrown by the Manchu invaders of the Qing dynasty. The Manchus imposed their will on the conquered Han majority by forcing them to adopt their hairstyle. Where the Han had traditionally worn their hair long and tied in a bun, they now had to wear it Manchu-style, shaved at the front and sides with the top grown long and plaited into a queue. The sentence for failing to have the correct new haircut was death by beheading. Does this scenario sound vaguely familiar?