Category: COVID-19

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Huh? I’d really like some fact checking!!!

Caught a headline on Apple News+ from ABC News saying that the Covid Death toll had reached 1 million.

The article was apparently building on a statement from Joe Biden lamenting this milestone.

According to the CDC…

CDC DATA :

Total U.S. DEATHS ( ALL CAUSES ) :

2014: 2,626,418

2015: 2,712,630 : Increase – 86,212 – 3.28%

2016 : 2,744,248 : Increase – 31,618 – 1.16%

2017 : 2,813,503 : Increase – 69,255 – 2.52%

2018 : 2,839,206 : Increase – 25,703 – 1%

2019: 2,855,000 : Increase – 15,794- 0.55%

2020: 2,913,144 : Increase – 58,144 – 2%

It’s not unusual for nearly 3 million people to die per year. That number would naturally increase as the population does.

2021 and 2022 data wasn’t available when I checked. There have been some reports that the CDC is re-evaluating their data due to over reporting of COVID deaths and potential skewing of the numbers because death with COVID is different from death due to COVID.

Even in 2020 during the height of the lockdowns and with no vaccine really available the average death rate from all causes seems within normal.

Indeed there is an anomaly, a lower than average increase in death rate in 2018 and 2019.

I’m not attempting to minimize the pain and anguish of a loved one’s death, I’ve been through it.

What I am saying is if we’ve had a million deaths due to COVID are these in addition to the normal death rate, or did COVID simply push some people over the edge that were already “one foot in the grave”?

My uncle “Died of COVID” according to the family and death certificate. But he was in his 70’s, had already had bypass surgery, still had heart problems, was an asthmatic, and was exhibiting the signs of what the family used to call normal end of life for the men in the family.

72 to 75 is about normal for us, we wear out and kick off. The best we can hope for is that we kick off having sex. It’s shitty for our wives or partners but we go out happy. Typically we’re not laying in a hospital bed in our own poop. From a quality of life, (or death,) standpoint, I’d prefer to just drop dead or have a mind blowing orgasm, go to sleep and not wake up.

Did my Uncle die of COVID? Or did COVID just put a banana peel next to the grave he already had one foot in?

Death sucks, but it’s part of life. We gotta move aside to make room for the next generation so they can screw things up as badly as we did.

I’ve always been morbidly fascinated with the way we Americans address death. We keep putting our fingers in the dike trying to hold back inevitability and honestly I’ve questioned if in doing so we are causing more pain and suffering than is necessary for the person dying, and the family of the soon to be deceased.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t strive for healthier or longer lives. I’m saying that at some point, we each need to draw a line in the sand and accept the inevitable with some semblance of grace.

When you look at the numbers from 2014 through 2020 it’s 3 million people a year more or less. We’re not wringing our hands over those folks as a nation. But for some reason 500,000 additional deaths per year due to COVID merits a Presidential speech?

Honestly, I find it somewhat offensive.

It’s almost like The President is using those deaths for his own gains. If the President is so upset about it, then let’s do the investigation to find out where COVID came from and figure out methods to mitigate a similar future tragedy. No matter where such an investigation may lead.

Assuming that the one million deaths were solely the responsibility of COVID as a single factor, (Dividing the 1 million across 2 years,) that increases the annual 3 million natural annual deaths by 0.16 which is about on par with the expected increase in death shown in the CDC’s data above.

Were it not for COVID, that increase might well have gone relatively unnoticed.

It’s still tragic, it’s still a marker for all the people who lost loved ones in a year. But people die…

Again, not minimizing the loss for the families, I just think we should have context against which to evaluate the headlines. Let’s look at the big picture, and let’s look at it in the cold light of truth.

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I was looking at the VAERS database the other day

I’ve been watching VAERS for a while. Not just over COVID but I’ve been curious for a long time if the Anti-Vax movement had a leg to stand on.

I’m still undecided about the Anti-Vaxxers in general.

I noticed something interesting in the charts located here.

In the conservative media there’s been a lot of talk about adverse reactions to the COVID vaccine and the VAERS database does tend to back up their allegations. Bear in mind this is only one data source and there may be contributing factors such as other comorbidities.

It is, and always has been that the sudden rise in death wasn’t necessarily only the COVID vaccine. It’s possible that the deaths might be associated with the vaccine triggering a cascade of issues that resulted in the patient’s death. This is very much in the vein of the CDC and others revising their COVID cause of death statistics.

In both situations, if the patient had diabetes and perhaps pneumonia then it’s possible that having COVID contributed to the patient’s death but was not the sole reason they died. Likewise a patient getting the vaccine may have died after getting it, but the vaccine is not necessarily the sole reason they died.

It pays to keep that in mind when looking at the data.

To get a clear cause / effect relationship you need to exclude everyone who had comorbidities or some other pre-existing condition. Only then, can you reasonably draw some conclusion as to whether the vaccine is dangerous. If the preponderance of deaths due to adverse reactions were in an otherwise healthy population, that should raise a red flag.

The overall numbers of deaths isn’t my point. What caught my attention was that the number of “Vaccine Related” deaths is dropping.

If, as the Anti-Vaxers say, the COVID vaccine is universally bad and dangerous, I wouldn’t expect to see the numbers dropping off.

Thinking about it. I came up with three hypotheses.

1 The really vulnerable population has died off. That’s gruesome to think about, but doesn’t exclude it from the realm of possibility.

2 Fewer people are taking the COVID vaccines. If those people who were never going to take the vaccine in the first place are still not taking it, and the population that ran to get the vaccine have already had it, then the numbers wold start to fall pretty much due to reason #1.

3 People are giving up on reporting adverse reactions because they’ve come to the belief that the government won’t listen anyway and therefore it’s pointless to report anything.

As I said, these are only hypotheses. Like all hypotheses they can only be proven or disproven. The science, (A.K.A. Truth,) of the situation doesn’t care if it hurts my feelings. Since I’m not a “Scientist” my hypotheses are pretty much not going to matter in the least.

However, this little exercise might give some of you insight into the workings of my mind. I’m dogmatic to be sure, but there’s a part of me that’s always asking, “Are you sure?”

It’s the “Are you sure?” That makes me go back and reevaluate.

While I may think the traditional Anti-Vaxxers are incorrect in their declaration that all vaccines are bad, I keep looking at their data and determine for myself if I agree.

I suppose it’s along the same lines as watching Ancient Aliens. I find that sometimes there are points they make, that clearly can’t be explained away with our current knowledge of ancient civilizations. There are items, stories or customs that don’t seem to make sense.

In those situations in my mind I relegate the Ancient Aliens “proof” to anomalous items. A kind of a TBD pending further research. I don’t believe that every odd shaped stone, pot, or weird custom is proof of alien contact.

For all we know, 4000 years ago an apprentice craftsman did something weird and the Master craftsman said, “Run with that, you’ll find out why it won’t work for yourself,” The apprentice may have put the item on their workbench as a reminder not to get too wild with innovation.

I myself have done this. I’d hate to think that 4000 years hence, a cult of some sort rose up around one of my failures.

Anecdotal evidence in my mind isn’t evidence. It’s an observed situation that deserves further inquiry. That’s why I reevaluate the Anti-Vaxxers data from time to time. That’s why I’ve been interested in all the COVID issues. That’s why I have always liked science in general. I like testing the anecdotal against the provable.

I like being able to convert anecdotes into demonstrated facts, or disprove anecdotal evidence as an odd coincidence.

The latter is more interesting. You can have a repeatable event, that anecdotally looks like proof but when you really look at it, you discover that what appeared to be a clear cause / effect relationship was dependent on a bunch of conditions that weren’t obviously related.

The puzzling part of that kind of discovery is the most fun to figure out. Then again, I like puzzles so it’s probably just me.

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Yea! Another potential gift from China.

I look up Dr. Robert Malone’s writings and video interviews with him pretty frequently.

Dr. Malone is one of the creators, if not The Creator of the mRNA technology that was used to create several of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Dr. Malone has been smeared by Fauci and others in the government medical industrial complex because he disagreed with their methodology and his work with mRNA lead him to believe that using the technology to create vaccines wasn’t a good idea.

Dr. Malone has been banned from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and searches for him on Google are limited. But apparently his research was good enough that it formed the foundation for certain highly profitable vaccines.

He’s plain spoken and direct in interviews. There’s no hemming and hawing unlike with Fauci. Dr Malone’s answers to even complex questions are generally comprehensible even to the layman. Honestly, I am biased toward Doctors like him. My Dr. of 20 years was very similar and my current Dr. is as well.

There’s something that resonates with me when a Doctor is straight forward and pragmatic. I’ve also found that generally speaking, such Doctors create a teamwork approach with me as an active partner in my healthcare.

They welcome questions to clarify their instructions and usually appreciate my last request before the appointment is completed. My last question is, “Give me a list of rules under which I should contact you as I take this medication. What anomalies should I watch out for?”

That’s me taking responsibility but not wanting to send up a panic alert without cause. That’s also why my trusted doctors have always responded to my calling them, even if they returned my call at 9 o’clock at night. They know I’m not concerned needlessly and that something has happened that was outside the rules they gave me.

All of which is to say that I’m biased toward taking what Dr Malone says seriously.

I found an interview dated Jan 11, 2022 where Dr. Malone was asked about the recent Chinese lockdowns around Beijing.

I about fell off my chair when Dr Malone said that Information coming out of Beijing is very sparse, but that there have been numerous reports speaking of some kind of hemorrhagic fever.

For me that was an OH SHIT! moment.

Dr. Malone goes on to say that hemorrhagic fevers are not typically associated with Coronavirus but are instead usually a different variety of viruses associated with Ebola. He does note that it is remotely possible due to China’s mass vaccination efforts with their vaccine, a variant of COVID-19 may have arisen that has developed hemorrhagic symptoms. It’s unlikely, but he went on to explain viruses sometimes do the most unexpected things.

Dr. Malone also said that continuing with the Winter Olympics in Beijing was beyond stupid. ( His actual language was more colorful) I do like a doctor that uses “Fuck”.

Yes, I want a Dr. that is professional but I love a Dr. that isn’t embarrassed to ask, “When was the last time you fucked? I need to know so that the PSA test isn’t skewed.” I really miss my old Doctor a lot!

To be clear, a hemorrhagic fever that is as communicable as COVID would be a nightmare of epic proportions. I’ll go out on a limb here and suggest that such a thing could be an extinction level event depending on its fatality rate.

This again is why most civilized countries, even tyrannical despotic regimes, have forbidden bioweapons research.

Anyone with a basic understanding of Biology knows there is a line that must never be crossed.

Dr. Malone mentioned that he and several other epidemiology specialists were meeting to collect any further information and that as they got more data he’d be making the information available.

This makes me think, as tired as the general public is of COVID terror and as much faith as has been lost in the FDA, CDC, WHO, due to the incessant “Bring out your dead” messaging, have we been set up to ignore warnings?

If the governments of the world actually do start warning us of something really deadly, will we listen?

There’s a reason “The Little Boy who cried Wolf” was a teaching story for generations.