I keep writing my thoughts on the Wuhan virus, based on stories I read from multiple sources over time. As I’ve mentioned in several bogs now, people are mostly confused about what is actually going on and what it is we have to fear from a virus that has a 99.99% survival rate. One one end we’re told that and it allows everyone to actually take a breath, knowing that even if they are infected, unless they have some underlying co-morbifity, their chance of dying from this is virtually zero.

On the other end because of the pandemic, businesses are closed, meaning millions of people are out of work, and the least reported story of the pandemic is the number of virus unrelated deaths due to societal lockdown. Anyone unaware of what that means, here’s what it refers to: suicides are up (over 48K in 2020), drug overdose deaths are up, death due to disease (heart, cancer, etc) are up because people won’t/can’t get to the hospital for treatment.

All of this is directly related to my tweet, which is a summary from an article I had just read (thanks to Stephen Green for the charts and the summary itself) Here’s what we “know” now:

Non-Wuhan flu deaths virtually vanished in 2020.

That’s right, here’s the charts of deaths from the flu. The left chart shows the numbers ending December 21, 2019, the right shows ending December 21, 2020.

Interesting isn’t it? What we do not know is if any of these data are confused with Covid-19. No, really. But that’s not what we were told last spring when the Wuhan virus was presenting, is it? We were told that, with the regular flu season approaching in the fall, that the numbers would be much higher due to fighting both viruses. So far, that appears to be false.

Official death figures frequently conflate those who died from the Wuhan flu with those who died merely with the Wuhan flu

In other words, people are regularly admitted to hospital for other than Covid-19. Those same people test positive for the virus, then possibly die from the original disease they were admitted for. Those cases are added to the numbers of people that have died from Covid-19 simply because they tested positive. This is again something not reported by the media, at least not many outlets, because it is in the interest ($ka-ching!$) to keep people frightened over the numbers. We also see the totals of those infected but never see if the positivity is asymptomatic, mild or severe. Just showing the total number of infections is misleading.

A significant rise in non-Wuhan deaths presumably due to the shutdown

As previously mentioned, suicide, drug overdoses, and those dying from previously diagnosed disease are up significantly. Also people dying from undiagnosed issues because people are in fear of going to hospital due to the chance of becoming infected with Covid-19. All of these are preventable, but the lack of attention to the emotional distress caused by isolation is probably most distressing. When officials, without the least knowledge or experience of how to handle what was declared a National Emergency, make decisions affecting the youngest lives and then continue their arrogant ignorance for months, this is what may be expected. In any other context we would declare these same people “Mass Murderers”, as that the the effect of their decisions.

So, what we know is – nothing. Those that are not in extreme distress have a hope that the newly approved vaccines will change the calculus, but when we see how the vaccine is being distributed (politicians and “front line workers” first) we realize they don’t give a damn about the individuals they were so concerned about initially: the elderly and those with underlying conditions. Surprise! The only elderly they care about are the political elites or those with the financial resources to receive the vaccine early. Everyone else? Good luck.

What we don’t know about this pandemic will probably fill volumes by historians in a few generations. The arrogance of the political gentry should be what we’ve learned about this virus and how even though people around the world were told to pay attention to the science, there has been a lack of that in the implementation of measures to ameliorate the affects of the virus. In fact, as shown, these measures have done irreparable harm not only to economies around the world, but to individuals and families as well.