Lorenzo Valla

Both websites are updated daily.

Whether something is a fact or not is largely based upon the source and their bona fides, and whether or not the 'fact' is derived from a primary source. It's always curious to watch someone fact shop for the conclusions they want, instead of just looking at the actual primary sources of information on the subject. In this case, if you had just visited the CDC's Covid tracker webpage and the HHS's hospital utilization webpage, you would see that the reporting from politico.com and fiercehealthcare.com (????) is simply incorrect. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home https://public-data-hub-dhhs.hub.arcgis.com/pages/Hospital Utilization There's a tremendous amount of information on these sites, it's easily searchable and downloadable, and can be graphically displayed for the entire period of the pandemic from beginning to today. While there has been a very slight increase in recent cases and hospitalizations, those increases literally pale in comparison to the previous two winters of the pandemic (in the US). All of the information clearly shows a very predictable result from increasing vaccinations rates, natural immunity and the tendency of respiratory viruses to become less deadly and more contagious as they successfully evolve.

I didn't make any assertions about conspiracies in any way (the key indicator being the lack of the word 'conspiracy'), but I thank you for your comment and its applicability to my original premise.

This conversation is getting bookmarked...case study in how the ubiquity of information, coupled with an inability to weigh the sourcing and accuracy of that information leads to a complete junkheap of thinking and conclusions, and that applies to the lefties and righties. The title of the thread points to another unintended consequence of unlimited access to bad information; warning fatigue. Let me simplify that for the professors here...think Chicken Little. At a certain point it won't matter whether the warnings are accurate/true or false. They'll simply be ignored.

That's all correct. A router isn't required and the desktop app would work as suggested, and OpenVPN client isn't necessary to circumvent VPN or geo-blocking. I was just giving an example of something I have been using that accomplishes what the OP is looking for, isn't overly expensive and gives a great deal of flexibility. With the set up I have I can use the static, dedicated IP address in the US on my desktop, laptop, phone and media streaming devices by pointing that device to the VPN router, or I can use my local Thai IP address by switching to the Thai ISP router. I'm sure there's literally dozens of other ways to get this job done and some may be cheaper and some more expensive. This method has worked great for me and I can continue to access any and all government/commercial/banking/video streaming sites I need in my home country (US), as well as access any local websites. I value the flexibility and I definitely enjoy being able to watch the video steaming channels in a seamless way.

Good morning...your dilemma is something I tried to tackle a few years ago here in Thailand and now I'm on year 5 of successfully being able to completely mask my location. First step is what you've already thought about and that's a dedicated, static IP address. There are only a few VPN providers that actually offer this. Some claim it's dedicated because the IP address you connect to doesn't change, but the IP is still in a range of 'detectable' VPN IP addresses. The next step is to set up a separate VPN router, which will be connected to your Thai ISP-supplied one. This VPN router will need to be able to use OpenVPN protocol, or Wireguard (much preferred). There are a limited number of routers that will come preconfigured to use OpenVPN and/or Wireguard, or you can buy a regular router that's capable of being flashed to DDWRT...most aren't and you need to do the research to make sure it will. Torguard has worked well for me continuously. I can access any website I need to in the US at any time with zero verification issues, beyond those from expired cookies requiring it. It's not easy to set this up initially, but there is quite a bit of documentation online and at Torguard's website to guide you along. I'm not an IT professional, just a semi-advanced user...on good days. If you use OpenVPN protocol on your second VPN router, expect your bandwidth to be roughly 10% of your ISP's rated bandwidth, which can cause problems. With Wireguard you will get an encrypted tunnel for information protection, but you'll maintain about 50% of your bandwidth. Hope that helps a little.