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

American Thinker ^ | 01/30/2020 | Andrea Widburg

[Red Badger]

[SeekAndFind]

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.

[dp0622]

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

[nuconvert]

While I appreciate his calm reasoning, the problem rests on his words, “on the available evidence,”.
The information is coming from the Chinese government.
That’s the problem.

[SamAdams76]

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.

[cuban leaf]

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. :)

[TangoLimaSierra]

The information is coming from the Chinese government. That’s the problem.

I multiply their numbers by 10. Probably closer to the truth.

[Jonah Hex]

Agreed, there's no significant threat outside of China yet. However... the reported case curve in China is rising dramatically in a straight line with no sign of leveling yet.

As long as it's kept contained within the mainland, there's a good chance the critter will burn itself out before spreading. Fingers crossed...

[Salvey]

Fumento nailed it on exposing the myth of heterosexual aids, a number of years ago, so I’m assuming he’s correct here.

[setter]

“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.

[SeekAndFind]

I like the site you referred to. The visuals are VERY HELPFUL.

My only beef with it is it isn’t really that up to date.

Yesterday, we’ve heard confirmed cases in India and the Philippines and these have not been updated in their map and figures (yet as of this writing).

[ChildOfThe60s]

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.

[seawolf101]

[dp0622]

I tell my mom the same thing. Watching Fox 24 hours a day is worse than watching a soap opera

[null and void]

Even if (and that's a BIG if) China wanted to honestly report the true numbers, they couldn't.

Once the hospitals are full, once they have no choice but to turn people away at the door, those turned away cannot be counted as nCoV patients. They were never seen by a medical professional, they therefore have no formal diagnosis, and they aren't anybody's patient.

[Okeydoker]

Good article. I recall a few days go the hysteria clowns berated me for saying the same thing as this writer.

[familyop]

The numbers are low, because China doesn’t have enough test kits or medical personnel to test all of the people there. We don’t see the total number of Americans with the flu, either.

[familyop]

The truth is that we don’t know much about the effects of coronavirus on people, but we do see the extreme actions taken by governments.

[SeekAndFind]

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.