Master debunker Michael Fumento casts shade on the virulence of the Coronavirus; Look at the Numbers, Not the Hysteria

Mike Konrad wrote an informative article saying that, even if the Coronavirus is as serious as the media says, we Americans have good medical care, including antibiotics for secondary infections and steroids to control some of the worst symptoms. Now Michael Fumento, debunker extraordinaire, says that, on the available evidence, the newest virus is (a) just another virus and (b) not likely to ravage American shores.

The media is flogging the Coronavirus as if it’s the new Ebola. That’s very fertile soil because we have locked in our memories horrific images out of Africa, showing people lying dead in the streets and, in one particularly disturbing scene on some news show, a three-year-old boy shunned by everyone in his village, including his parents, until he lay down and died, alone, in the dirt.

But this isn’t Ebola. China isn’t Africa. And we, thank goodness, are neither China nor Africa. One of the blessings of life in 21st century America is that we have ways of dealing with diseases that were once deadly.

Michael Fumento blames the media for the hype and proceeds to debunk the scare on the facts. After describing a masked CNN reporter standing in total isolation, something that makes the mask pointless, Fumento explains why someone would do something so silly:

It’s called “drama,” which is badly needed, because there appears to be nothing very special about this outbreak of the 2019-nCoV or Wuhan virus. It should actually be called the DvV, or Déjà vu Virus, because we have been through these hysterias before. Over and over. Heterosexual AIDS, Ebola repeatedly, the H1N1 swine flu that was actually vastly milder than the regular flu and, especially, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003.

[snip]

HERE IS THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE BY MICHAEL FUMENTO.

TITLE: Don’t buy the media hype over the new China virus

Here is the key quote:

The best remedy for all epidemic hysteria is perspective. How is this new outbreak different and thus potentially more dangerous from other diseases we have dealt with in the past or are dealing with now?

Wuhan is repeatedly labeled “deadly” — but so is every other virus most people know about. But especially deadly? Nearly 600 cases have been confirmed with at least 17 reported deaths.

An infected American is reportedly doing well. It’s probably true that the death toll is understated, but it’s guaranteed the infection number is. Probably as with, say, flu, the vast majority of those infected have such slight symptoms, they don’t seek medical attention.

For that reason, a comparison to the US flu death rate is also very difficult. As a share of hospitalizations, the regular flu death rate is 8.5 percent to 17 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — considerably higher than for Wuhan. But counting all estimated illnesses, reported and estimated, it’s much lower.

What we can say for sure is that Wuhan will be a lot worse in China, simply because health care there is vastly inferior. It appears that, like flu, Wuhan usually kills through often treatable secondary infections. Well, treatable in the West. You’d be surprised at how many potentially deadly diseases (malaria, TB) Americans get that wreak havoc in much of the world but kill essentially none of us.

It also appears those most likely to die of Wuhan virus fit the same profile as flu fatalities: people over 65, those with compromised immune systems and those with serious pre-existing conditions. Two of the 17 Wuhan dead were 89-year-olds with pre-existing conditions; the youngest was 48 and suffering from diabetes and a stroke.

Contagiousness is highly important, of course. But so far, there is no evidence that Wuhan, first reported more than three weeks ago, is more contagious than influenza or spreads differently.

Those are the important factors; everything else is noise and tinfoil-hat paranoia.

Agreed.

Any westerners who got it died yet?

People get bored and need drama.

It’s BAD in China. Just like earthquakes are devastating in 3rd world countries.

This guy is right. Probably not NEARLY enough antibiotics so what would be a lousy week with pneumonia is DEATH.

I’ve had pneumonia twice. Could tell I may have died without antibiotics.

Thank God we live in the US

Our 24/7 Nonstop Breaking News Media has definitely made people stupider and more hysterical.

My elderly mother unfortunately is a slave to this. She never leaves the house and has FoxNews on day and night. She's already called my siblings and I several times to "warn" us of this plague and admonishes us to stay inside and hunker down.

By the way, she goes through the same hysterical routine for every winter storm, hurricane, mass shooting, Middle East bombing, etc., and has already had poor President Trump removed from office at least a 1,000 times since his Inauguration.

I tell her to turn the crap off but she's addicted to the nonstop barrage of "news" and will not shut it down out of fear that she might miss something important. And she's not the only one.

I’ve been getting grief for not taking this seriously. I’m hearing stuff like, “but this one feels different”.

My normal MO is to ignore these outbreaks until they are no longer in the news, when it’s obvious it came to nothing. Yeah, that includes Ebola.

People take movies too seriously. Nevertheless, if I see someone walking around that is seriously stricken with this particular virus, there is one thing I’ve learned from the movies: It takes a head shot. :)

“Any westerners who got it died yet?”

It was first discovered in China Dec 8. People did not start dying until first week of January. Most of the deaths have been after Jan 15.

The cases in the West have only been confirmed about a week ago or less.

Lets see what happens in another 2-3 weeks.

I got the flu last January (first time in forever), bam, it went to pneumonia so fast I was blindsided and didn’t get to the hospital fast enough. Nearly died. But first rate treatment and 4 days in isolation and I walked out fine. I was 100% within several weeks after.

It was a serious eye opener for sure. Point? In China as in most of the world, I would have been a death statistic. Not here.

RE: The numbers are low, because China doesn’t have enough test kits or medical personnel to test all of the people there.

Also, in Wuhan, many people were being turned away at the hospitals. Their resources are OVERBURDENED and the number of medical personnel could not handle the crowds that needed medical attention.

In this case, how many of these people that were not tested have the virus?

These will not be in the official figures.

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