“PURVEYORS OF PANIC”
Just a few days ago, we were told that there will be as many as 240,000 COVID deaths during the first two weeks of April. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said it would be a “Pearl Harbor and 9/11 moment” for the nation.
This figure is now projected to be one-third as high (81,766), according to the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation’s model — which is oft cited by Drs. Fauci and Birx during the Coronavirus Task Force daily briefings.
No doubt, the number of deaths will continue to be revised downward during what was supposed to be an apocalyptic period.
These projections about healthcare capacity at the peak of the pandemic have also been revised downward in the latest IHME model:
* Total hospital beds: 121,269, down from 140,823
* ICU beds: 10,517, down from 29,210
* Ventilators: 18,992, down from 31,782
Less than a month ago, Gov. Cuomo was screaming that NY *alone* would need 40,000 vents. At this juncture, the entire country is estimated to need less than half that number.
Of course, each death is a terrible loss for a family and for a community. But if the total number of COVID deaths turns out to be lower than the average flu season, the Purveyors of Panic in the media and public health agencies need to be held accountable. Starting with the Surgeon General, who also tried to convince Americans that masks are useless in preventing people from getting or spreading COVID.
We have bankrupted tens of thousands of businesses and millions of employees, and have mortgaged our economic future by adding trillions of dollars to the national debt.
By mid-month, if there isn’t a plan and a timetable to put out the “Open for Business” sign, people will no longer consent to be held captive by models that are wild guesstimates. And then what are our elected going to do with their “emergency” powers to quell the uprising?
Stella's Place 
More FB postings from people filled with wisdom. Okay, I’m game. Let’s do it. Lift all restrictions. We never did anything like this before. (Except for Spanish Flu, and somehow people survived things being closed, though we have no idea how.) I’m not a fan of the government shutting everything down, and I’m not a fan of giving people or businesses government money. I’m not saying this is all great and fantastic. But I want these FB writers in their wisdom to tell me what we should do. How should we fight this?
Sending everyone home was never about saving their lives – that’s called “collateral damage.” The effort was undertaken to save the US healthcare system which runs at capacity most days with regular, run-of-the mill things and cannot handle a full Spanish Flu style outbreak. The local hospital laid down restrictions before we even had a local case and admitted that they were at capacity. I’m glad the numbers have been rounded down but the truth of the matter is no one knows what this will look like at the end because we’re not too the end of it yet.
In the 2018-2019 flu season, 113 people in Indiana died of flu. As of yesterday when I checked the Johns Hopkins counter, 143 people in Indiana have died of ChiComVid-19. We had the first case of ChiComVid-19 diagnosed in Indiana on March 6th, so 143 died in one month. In one month it went from 1 diagnosed case to 4,956 diagnosed cases. I’m not sure what that rate of growth is but I would describe it broadly as “not good.” And this is the growth that’s happened with most of the state shuttered. The flu deaths are spread out over months. Whatever else ChiComVid-19 is, it’s not “just the flu.” I used to think that. I was wrong.
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How many of those 143 deaths were from reasons-other-than-CCP-Virus, but as carriers of virus or antibodies were attributed to CCP Virus?
Fasci ran the H1N1 response as well as this one. Fasci stopped counting regular flu deaths and lumped them all into the H1N1 death category.
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Excellent question, and one that I do not have an answer for. Given that thanks to the CDC’s ineptitude with test kits, we don’t have many test kits, and that there are restrictions on who can be tested, I suspect the number is actually under-reported rather then over-reported. I also do not know the number of autopsies done to validate the cause of deaths, and I did see s story of a coroner in CO trying to get test kits to see if the deceased had died of CChiComVid-19. She begged hospitals for them, because she doesn’t have them. (Aesop over Racontuer Report had a report of patients dying in the ICU of ChiComVid-19 symptoms while waiting for the test results to come back, that’s how far behind CA is on processing their tests.)
I would put nothing past Fauci, but right now I think we’re showing artificially lowered numbers due to the lack of available tests.
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The other side of this coin, though, is that someone having a preexisting condition doesn’t mean that if they end up dead, they didn’t die of ChiComVid-19, either.
I have Type 1 diabetes. If I die of gangrene because I failed to control my blood sugar, then that cause of death should be listed as diabetes. If I have no other underlying issues other than the diabetes, and I catch ChiComVid-19 and drown in my own lungs, then diabetes was not the cause of my death. The only grey area here is, if I have diabetes and gangrene then I get ChiComVid-19, what should that be listed as? As a layperson in that scenario, I would say that the death is gangrene. I can see the numbers being tampered with that way, but to just say that someone like me, who has an underlying condition but no issue with it should not be listed in the ChiComVid-19 stats if I get ChiComVid-19, well, that’s dishonest too. I was fine up up until I caught the Chinese virus, then the Chinese virus killed me.
(And I don’t have ChiComVid-19 (yet) or gangrene (fortunately.) I just use that as an example.)
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My wife’s grandmother cause of death was Alzheimers on her death certificate. She was 98 years old. Did she really die of Alzheimer’s? (She did have Alzheimer’s for the 6 – 12 months of her life, just to be fair.)
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I couldn’t say, without knowing more info (which you don’t need to provide, I’m just saying I can’t say.)
I posted about diabetes above because I notice when I am on FB that people on the right are very fond of saying “the increase in deaths is due to a preexisting condition in the decedent.” How does that work? It’s not like I have AIDS. And I work hard to take care of my blood sugar. The JDRF believes that well-controlled diabetics are at no greater risk of catching Chinese Virus then the general population (though we don’t know how susceptible the general population is to Chinese virus, anyway.)
I always want to ask them “so if I get hit and killed by a bus while crossing the street, are you gonna blame that on my diabetes too?” Some causes of death are definitely direct results of diabetes. Others, like the heretofore unknown Chinese virus, are not. But in the interest of saying that the government is wrong to shut everything down, this is what people on the Right go around saying. (and I know this shutdown is bad for the economy, I don’t contest that at all. But downplaying this isn’t so great either. The left is wrong for running around with Orange Man Bad syndrome while screaming that the sky is falling; the Right is wrong for trying to play this off as a nothing burger.)
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The issuer of ’cause of death’ has a number of fathers. If someone goes into a hospital with a severe heart condition and COVID and dies the hospital is more likely to pur ‘COVID’ on the death certificate than ‘heart condition’. The hospital will say it’s reporting the proximate cause of death.One could say that that’s true BUT if the hospital were to say that the death was due to heart failure due to viral overload then the death could show up on its morbidity reports as cardiac and hospitals don’t like that. Best to try and find a cause of death that doesn’t hurt their stats.
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I’m guessing it’s also because they get paid for caring for a COVID patient, and may or may not be paid if the cardiac patient has bad insurance or none at all.
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Then they use her death to get funding for Alzheimer’s research. That is not to say it is a not a terrible condition.
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When life hands you lemon patients, squeeze ’em.
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A lot.
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I’m not sure about saving the healthcare system. I am afraid there are going to be hospitals and private practices that may collapse under this.
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I’m betting the Feds (i. e., us) will come to their rescue, we can’t afford to lose them as a resource for when the next and inevitable side effect of globalization comes around.
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This may have been on Fakebook, but this conversation is being held in every nook and cranny of Flyover Country. Wicked Son & i had this convo last night.
Question is, who will receive the blame?
Yes, Fake News will blame Pres Trump. But are not the medical fascists, the guvners, and our Pampered Smugnorant Betters truly responsible?
The upside is, who is going to believe climate models after this fiasco?
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Good point on Climate Change there. Early on I saw a comment on FB that I wish I had screencapped. Someone said that president Trump looked at the info he had available and said to himself that he could rebuild the economy after this was done but he couldn’t raise the dead.
The State Department needs to be blamed for trying to kick this party off by taking people exposed on the Diamond Coronavirus and flying them home on a plane full of unexposed passengers. The CDC deserves a fair amount of blame for botching up their first batch of test kits, and the FDA needs blame for dragging their feet on Plaquenil.
Of course, the media, which first laughed at Trump and called him a racist for closing our borders now runs around screaming that the sky is falling. They’ll try and blame President Trump for this. I’d ask “will the lo-fo voters believe it” but as I was typing that I realized that if they were likely to show any sort of critical thinking, I wouldn’t be calling them lo-fo voters.
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The same people that believe climate change models now will continue to believe them in the future.
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Hope you are incorrect, but believe that you are correct. Sadly.
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Well, Whoopie won’;t let us blame the Chinese.
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Speaking of Fauci, POTUS is about to speak and there is Fauci, finger in the wind know it all, sitting on his butt with his hands touching his chin. Complete tool.
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Those of you who have paid any attention to my posts over the years probably realize I tend to lean toward being a conspiracy nut sometimes. Well, I can tell you I have gone full blown conspiracy nut on this. I have no doubt there is a COVID-19 virus and it is killing people. I question where it came from, who devloped it, how it was spread, why the Chicoms were buying up all the PPE in the beginning, what the best way to handle it would have been, why PPE was never replaced after the last epidemic, why Cal. has such a low death/infection rate, why NYC has such a high one, etc., etc.
One thing I do believe for sure is that Dr. Fauci is a weasel of the worst kind. I never trusted him from the beginning and he proves every day that he has an agenda. Yesterday, when that Chicom reporter was in the briefing room, Dr. Fauci gave a thumbs-up to somebody as he left. What was that for? The question somebody asked? He needs to be watched and I trust that Pres. Trump is watching him. I notice he sticks him right out there when there is a question about something Dr. Fauci has said or was involved in.
And, who was it that talked Gov. Cuomo into denying the meds that would help people in NY who are sick with this? I think he has been in constant, close contact with Fauci. And, Fauci has tried to discourage the doctors from using something that seemed to be helping.
As far as what we do next, I believe we have to stick with Pres. Trump. I believe he knows much more than we do and sees the overall picture like we really can’t right now. I won’t be willing to join an uprising until he says, “Go.”
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Jonathan Karl saluted Fasci as Fasci left the room, ostentatiously waiting for all to leave first.
Karl gave Fasci that little salute. Fasci gave Karl the thumbs-up back.
Watched the vid several times. There is no doubt what happened.
Was giving Fasci the benefit of the doubt until I saw that last night.
Your opinion of Fasci is warranted. imo
My naivete will kill me, eventually.
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I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but there is just something weasily about Fauci. But, see, I don’t have the same opinion of Birx, and she may be just as bad. I just don’t see it.
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A ‘high 5’ would have been too obvious. Look for more pressure for a government single-payer system when this panic dies down. I could write the ‘reasons why’ section of the proposal in my sleep.
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Are We missing the point that shutting down CAUSED the decrease in those numbers of cases??
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Maybe. Maybe not.
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I’m not. And we should be happy the numbers are toward the lower end of the predictions.
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I’m sure that at some point the politicians will trip all over themselves claiming they were responsible for the break in numbers. Bottom line is that limiting social interaction, the basis of our economy, has serious effects and will these self-stroking pols learn and take reasonable and effective measures to deal with that for the next inevitable occurrence?
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As expected, people are getting tired of restrictions, recommendations, bad news, etc. Really, everyone wants it to be over, wants to go back to the old normal. Sorry, this is not a problem for people with 15 minutes of attention span.
Remember the problem with statistics and predictions: they can only give possibilities and require interpretation (which means bias can come in). It is and was important to give the worst case scenarios to get people’s attention, and even that was and is not going to get some people to participate in the needed changes. And, data and facts were expected to change. Consumers have come to expect to receive information on a moment to moment basis, 24/7, some of us so we can make the best decisions.
There have been modifications at both my hospitals since we started to gear up for this. I believe, based on my own experiences, and the data being presented in the daily press briefings, these are helping. There are more beds created in both hospitals (by repurposing inpatient therapy and surgical recovery beds). These did not just occur over night, they required planning, which required statistical predictions. And, in fact, the beds are being filled: some with the usual sick people, many with Covid positive or pending patients with symptoms appropriate for hospitalization.
The Facebook poster has his opinion, whether based on facts or not, and the bias is apparent. At this point, my bias is to take the careful road and comply with recommendations. I remain hopeful that Americans will work through it, even if it is hard for a while.
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There are many perspectives, I am sure.
The Facebook poster is a woman, Ruth Papazian, living in the belly of the beast in the Bronx, NYC. She was, until recently, running as a Republican candidate against AOC.
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I think there is truth in your perspective, but also in the perspective of the FB poster. Remember that there is usually good that comes from healthy skepticism.
I am following all of the guidelines that the government has recommended, probably better than most. I haven’t been in the same room with another human being for three weeks, or off my own property for much longer than that. There is no chance that I will come down with the common cold, much less COVID-19.
I also don’t believe that exaggerating the dangers is good, particularly in the long run. Reminds me a bit of the boy who called wolf. Why would we believe them the next time around?
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So far we’ve received precious little to make us believe the government from this or past emergencies, like planning for the last war it seems to plan for the last emergency.
Best bet for individual/family survival is personal planning and prep. If you fail and rely on the governments to take care of you you’ll have no one to blame but yourself.
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The matter isn’t relying or not relying on the government to take care of you. The matter is being FORCED not to work and stay at home indefinitely while the money in your bank account dwindles away. This is especially galling for those who live in areas where there is very little danger or where it wouldn’t be particularly dangerous to be working. I know that if I were still working, it would have been safer in my office than it would be in the average supermarket.
Every business owner and citizen is being treated like the village idiot.
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I’m not happy with the idea either but there are limited options. Whether it’s the government ordering your business closed during a pandemic or a business shuttered by a natural disaster a businessperson should have a plan as no one can guarantee a rainy day – or flood – won’t happen. Capitalism and the free market means that not everyone will survive, if the government (read as ‘we the taxpayers’) are expected to bail out every business that fails due to Acts of God we’re officially a socialist nation. I don’t like being cooped up either but quarantines are effective when you have no other prophylactic ways of dealing with potential spread of infection.
Of course people are being treated like village idiots by government at all levels – so what else is new? Ignoring the fact that the village idiots elected them what we have is elected officials who don’t really know s**t about almost everything and have to rely on ‘experts’ they can’t trust because of the elected’s lack of knowledge. They can’t trust the experts as they can’t trust themselves and we’re caught in the middle.
As for those businesses that will go under, I think it’s up to the public to determine which ones are worth the public putting the money into as, ultimately, that’s who’ll finance any ‘recovery’. If the Feds bail out every business they can then the Feds make the choices on who survives and ultimately they use OUR tax dollars, the only money the Feds have to operate with are those WE pay in taxes. We, our children, our grandchildren and our great grandchildren will pay back those bailouts so how many nail parlors, hair salons, bagel shops, etc, do we really need? I say let the locals decide.
Our descendants will be paying off the Texas and Gulf Coast hurricane recoveries of the last 20 years, not counting those to come, for decades so why add more?
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One point. In a natural disaster, you have an option to move to a place where you can work. That option doesn’t exist here.
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We have been as safe as we can be, with my husband still working. I even had quit going to the store. But as of this past weekend, Chattanooga has closed every single place that you might get any exercising, like biking or walking,
For weeks I’ve been walking in several places around my home, and not many people have been there, partly because I go early, usually. But everyone has avoided the heck out of coming anywhere close to another person. Most of us slower walkers just walk out on the grass to let someone pass, or the faster person runs a wide circle around.
I need to lose weight, I am trying to control my blood pressure and reduce cholesterol. I fear I am increasingly a candidate for a heart attack, and yes, I know diet comes first. More important than all of that though, walking gives me a lot of relief from my very severe arthritis. Without my walking routine my pain level becomes extreme, and if I quit, I don’t think that I will ever be able, especially mentally, to face the pain and get back to where I was. I am really close, if inactive, to rolling over and giving in.
The road I live on is not fit for walking, nor is it safe. Some people use it as a cut threw road and they fly. Both directions from my house there are blind curves and the road is narrow. I do have a pond and a field beside and behind my house, not ours but okay to walk on, at least the owner hasn’t complained yet. But I can’t walk it regularly or for a long time because my knee gives out too much to walk on uneven ground.
So, my point is this. Why take away my right to have a small neighborhood track to walk on? No one was in danger there, and people are going to get out of the damned house, one way or another. I have stopped myself all week from going to Walmart or Home Depot just because I want someplace to walk.
We’ve talked about ventilators and older people having to or choosing to give them up. Well, I think that I face possible long term ill effects to my quality of life, if not health. That isn’t a choice I wanted taken from me.
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PS: Insulting people as having 15 minutes of attention span isn’t helpful. There are lots of people in this country who have lost their income, and maybe will lose their jobs, businesses and/or homes in the near future. Is it any wonder that they are concerned and wondering – amidst the varying “expert” opinions – when the hell they will be able to put their lives back together?
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Well we, that’s thousands and not just us, had to put our lives back together after Katrina, personal lives, businesses, the whole 9 yards.. There was help and money but the level f destruction was on the scale of a war. We had our share of armchair criticism too.
Again as a point of reference Czarina’s working two hospitals and they’ve just called her to see if she can take on a 3rd just over 70 miles away, one way. Her perspective may be a bit more personal and based on actual hands-on bias and perspective.
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I have no reason not to believe in the sincerity of czarina or her personal bias. Nevertheless, I don’t now, nor have I ever, believed at face value what we are being told by people like Fauci or the World Health Organization.
I meant that it is not fair to belittle those who are questioning what they are being forced to do, and wondering when they will be ALLOWED to put their lives back together.
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They’re all products put out there in the marketplace of ideas.
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The weeping nurse in a CBS News tweet is just another Jussie Smollett
By Andrea Widburg – April 7, 2020
“America is not prepared, and nurses are not being protected,” she said, and that’s the phrase that CBS highlighted in its tweet. Oooh, scary! We’re all going to die (and the subtext is that it’s all Trump’s fault).
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/04/the_weeping_nurse_in_a_cbs_news_tweet_is_just_another_jussie_smollett.html
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Hmm. Where are the red eyes, the swollen eyelids, the tears, the snot running out of her nose?
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