Posted on 11/21/2020 6:32:33 AM PST by george76
Has COVID-19 cured the flu? Not exactly.
In any given year, influenza claims approximately 250 lives in the state of Washington. 2020 is different, of course, because COVID-19 is here. In fact, this year’s flu season, which started in the beginning of October, has yielded zero flu deaths and zero lab-confirmed cases.
Zero lab-confirmed influenza deaths have been reported for the 2020-2021 season to date.
One WA influenza specimens reported to CDC, public health laboratories and commercial laboratories.
Zero influenza-like illness outbreaks in long term care facilities have been reported for the 2020-2021 season to date.
Does that mean the flu has been defeated? No. There are several factors that go into this dramatic reduction of flu cases and zero deaths since flu season began, and all of them have to do with the coronavirus. One of the biggest reasons is the mandated practice of social distancing and face masks. These practices, put in place because of the pandemic, have contributed to greatly reducing the spread of the flu.
This may sound like great news, but when we look at sharp spikes in depression, suicide, drug overdoses, and economic destitution, a very mild flu season is not a worthy trade-off.
There are other unintended side-effects of COVID-19 lockdowns that contribute to the sharp downturn in flu cases this year, but the one that should infuriate anyone who doesn’t live in fear of COVID-19 is the demonstrable over-reporting of the coronavirus compared to other ailments, including the flu. If someone has contracted influenza and COVID-19, they are treated as COVID-19 patients. In fact, there are anecdotal reports of flu patients who possess COVID-19 antibodies indicating they have likely already fought off the pandemic are still being reported as COVID-19 patients. Why? Because hospitals are given more money for treating COVID-19 patients than flu patients.
In other words, it is likely that flu cases are down because of COVID-19 lockdowns but it is certain that reporting is down drastically because of misdiagnosis, intentional or not. Even the state government’s data regarding the flu is loaded with caveats about COVID-19 being the reason numbers for the flu are impossibly low.
A few weeks ago I had to get a Covid test after being exposed to a positive co-worker and I had mild flu-like symptoms. I asked for a flu test as well. Doctor looked at me like I was insane and said “why? We’ve only had one positive test in the county so far.” Sure, because everyone is busy being tested for Covid...no $ in the flu.
I think they are telling people they have COVID when they have the flu. In addition to that, people where I live are suffering from allergies and the weather is still quite warm. I have to wonder how many of those with allergy issues are being tested and told they have COVID?
The money is in COVID not the flu.
Even a Military-Enforced Quarantine Can’t Stop the Virus, Study Reveals:
Jeffrey A. Tucker American Institute for Economic Research
– November 13, 2020
AIER >> Daily Economy >> Regulation >> Authoritarianism
The New England Journal of Medicine has published a study that goes to the heart of the issue of lockdowns. The question has always been whether and to what extent a lockdown, however extreme, is capable of suppressing the virus. If so, you can make an argument that at least lockdowns, despite their astronomical social and economic costs, achieve something. If not, nations of the world have embarked on a catastrophic experiment that has destroyed billions of lives, and all expectation of human rights and liberties, with no payoff at all.
[The earliest version of this article misstated the conditions of the control group. They were equally locked down with those who participated in the study. The difference between the two concerned testing frequency and the isolation response. This does not affect this article’s conclusion; indeed it strengthens it: even under extreme measures, the virus spread, and more so with the extra measure intended to control the virus. Nearly all infections were without symptoms.]
AIER has long highlighted studies that show no gain in virus management from lockdowns. Even as early as April, a major data scientist said that this virus becomes endemic in 70 days after the first round of infection, regardless of policies. The largest global study of lockdowns compared with deaths as published in The Lancet found no association between coercive stringencies and deaths per million.
To test further might seem superfluous but, for whatever reason, governments all over the world, including in the US, still are under the impression that they can affect viral transmissions through a range of “nonpharmaceutical interventions” (NPIs) like mandatory masks, forced human separation, stay-at-home orders, bans of gatherings, business and school closures, and extreme travel restrictions. Nothing like this has been tried on this scale in the whole of human history, so one might suppose that policy makers have some basis for their confidence that these measures accomplish something.
A study conducted by Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in cooperation with the Naval Medical Research Center sought to test lockdownsm along with testing and isolation. In May, 3,143 new recruits to the Marines were given the option to participate in a study of frequent testing under extreme quarantine. The study was called CHARM, which stands for COVID-19 Health Action Response for Marines. Of the recruits asked, a total of 1,848 young people agreed to be guinea pigs in this experiment which involved “which included weekly qPCR testing and blood sampling for IgG antibody assessment.” In addition, the CHARM study volunteers who did test positively “on the day of enrollment (day 0) or on day 7 or day 14 were separated from their roommates and were placed in isolation.”
What did the recruits have to do? The study explains, and, as you will see, they faced an even more strict regime that has existed in civilian life in most places. All recruits, even those not in the CHARM group, did the following.
All recruits wore double-layered cloth masks at all times indoors and outdoors, except when sleeping or eating; practiced social distancing of at least 6 feet; were not allowed to leave campus; did not have access to personal electronics and other items that might contribute to surface transmission; and routinely washed their hands. They slept in double-occupancy rooms with sinks, ate in shared dining facilities, and used shared bathrooms. All recruits cleaned their rooms daily, sanitized bathrooms after each use with bleach wipes, and ate preplated meals in a dining hall that was cleaned with bleach after each platoon had eaten.
Most instruction and exercises were conducted outdoors. All movement of recruits was supervised, and unidirectional flow was implemented, with designated building entry and exit points to minimize contact among persons. All recruits, regardless of participation in the study, underwent daily temperature and symptom screening. Six instructors who were assigned to each platoon worked in 8-hour shifts and enforced the quarantine measures. If recruits reported any signs or symptoms consistent with Covid-19, they reported to sick call, underwent rapid qPCR testing for SARS-CoV-2, and were placed in isolation pending the results of testing.
Instructors were also restricted to campus, were required to wear masks, were provided with preplated meals, and underwent daily temperature checks and symptom screening. Instructors who were assigned to a platoon in which a positive case was diagnosed underwent rapid qPCR testing for SARS-CoV-2, and, if the result was positive, the instructor was removed from duty. Recruits and instructors were prohibited from interacting with campus support staff, such as janitorial and food-service personnel. After each class completed quarantine, a deep bleach cleaning of surfaces was performed in the bathrooms, showers, bedrooms, and hallways in the dormitories, and the dormitory remained unoccupied for at least 72 hours before reoccupancy.
The reputation of Marine basic training is that it is tough going but this really does take it to another level. Also, this is an environment where those in charge do not mess around. There was surely close to 100% compliance, as compared with, for example, a typical college campus.
What were the results? The virus still spread, though 90% of those who tested positive were without symptoms. Incredibly, 2% of the CHARM recruits still contracted the virus, even if all but one remained asymptomatic. “Our study showed that in a group of predominantly young male military recruits, approximately 2% became positive for SARS-CoV-2, as determined by qPCR assay, during a 2-week, strictly enforced quarantine.”
And how does this compare to the control group that was not tested and not isolated in the case of a positive case? Have a look at this chart from the study:
New England Journal of Medicine
https://www.aier.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-13-at-10.16.32-AM-1200x691.png
Which is to say that the nonparticipants actually contracted the virus at a slightly lower rate than those who were under an extreme regime. Conversely, extreme enforcement of NPIs plus more frequent testing and isolation was associated with a greater degree of infection.
I’m grateful to Don Wolt for drawing my attention to this study, which, so far as I know, has received very little attention from any media source at all, despite having been published in the New England Journal of Medicine on November 11.
Here are four actual media headlines about the study that miss the point entirely:
CNN: “Many military Covid-19 cases are asymptomatic, studies show”
SciTech Daily: “Asymptomatic COVID-19 Transmission Revealed Through Study of 2,000 Marine Recruits”
ABC: “Broad study of Marine recruits shows limits of COVID-19 symptom screening”
US Navy: “Navy/Marine Corps COVID-19 Study Findings Published in New England Journal of Medicine”
No national news story that I have found highlighted the most important finding of all: extreme quarantine plus frequent testing and isolation among military recruits did nothing to stop the virus.
The study is important because of the social structure of control here. It’s one thing to observe no effects from national lockdowns. There are countless variables here that could be invoked as cautionary notes: demographics, population density, preexisting immunities, degree of compliance, and so on.
But with this Marine study, you have a near homogeneous group based on age, health, and densities of living. And even here, you see confirmed what so many other studies have shown: lockdowns are pointlessly destructive.
They do not manage the disease. They crush human liberty and produce astonishing costs, such as 5.53 million years of lost life from the closing of schools alone.
The lockdowners keep telling us to pay attention to the science. That’s what we are doing. When the results contradict their pro-compulsion narrative, they pretend that the studies do not exist and barrel ahead with their scary plans to disable all social functioning in the presence of a virus. Lockdowns are not science. They never have been. They are an experiment in social/political top-down management that is without precedent in cost to life and liberty.
[The earliest version of this article misstated the conditions of the control group. They were equally locked down with those who participated in the study. The difference between the two concerned testing frequency and the isolation response. This does not affect this article’s conclusion; indeed it strengthens it: even under extreme measures, the virus spread, and more so with the extra measure intended to control the virus. Nearly all infections were without symptoms.]
https://www.aier.org/article/even-a-military-enforced-quarantine-cant-stop-the-virus-study-reveals/
New England Journal of Medicine
New England Journal of Medicine
Which is to say that the nonparticipants actually contracted the virus at a slightly lower rate than those who were under an extreme regime. Conversely, extreme enforcement of NPIs plus more frequent testing and isolation was associated with a greater degree of infection.
I’m grateful to Don Wolt for drawing my attention to this study, which, so far as I know, has received very little attention from any media source at all, despite having been published in the New England Journal of Medicine on November 11.
Here are four actual media headlines about the study that miss the point entirely:
CNN: “Many military Covid-19 cases are asymptomatic, studies show”
SciTech Daily: “Asymptomatic COVID-19 Transmission Revealed Through Study of 2,000 Marine Recruits”
ABC: “Broad study of Marine recruits shows limits of COVID-19 symptom screening”
US Navy: “Navy/Marine Corps COVID-19 Study Findings Published in New England Journal of Medicine”
No national news story that I have found highlighted the most important finding of all: extreme quarantine plus frequent testing and isolation among military recruits did nothing to stop the virus.
The study is important because of the social structure of control here. It’s one thing to observe no effects from national lockdowns. There are countless variables here that could be invoked as cautionary notes: demographics, population density, preexisting immunities, degree of compliance, and so on. But with this Marine study, you have a near homogeneous group based on age, health, and densities of living. And even here, you see confirmed what so many other studies have shown: lockdowns are pointlessly destructive. They do not manage the disease. They crush human liberty and produce astonishing costs, such as 5.53 million years of lost life from the closing of schools alone.
The lockdowners keep telling us to pay attention to the science. That’s what we are doing. When the results contradict their pro-compulsion narrative, they pretend that the studies do not exist and barrel ahead with their scary plans to disable all social functioning in the presence of a virus. Lockdowns are not science. They never have been. They are an experiment in social/political top-down management that is without precedent in cost to life and liberty.
[The earliest version of this article misstated the conditions of the control group. They were equally locked down with those who participated in the study. The difference between the two concerned testing frequency and the isolation response. This does not affect this article’s conclusion; indeed it strengthens it: even under extreme measures, the virus spread, and more so with the extra measure intended to control the virus. Nearly all infections were without symptoms.]
https://www.aier.org/article/even-a-military-enforced-quarantine-cant-stop-the-virus-study-reveals/
Looks like the coronavirus is so powerful it even killed off the flu!
It’s a Coronavirus-ivus miracle!
Dodged it in 1973 and got out in 1974.
I'll get my next one in 2072.....
Australia’s flu season in our summer saw a 90% drop in verified flu cases from 2019. Could have been their covid lockdown, during which their covid case numbers have been infinitesimally low when compared to the rest of the developed world.
I looked at the CDC website a couple of weeks ago and Iowa was the only state reporting a flu outbreak. I suspect that all the other states are reporting flu cases as COVID to artificially jack up the numbers, increase the fear and allow democrat governors and mayors to seize more power. Then there is the side benefit of blaming Trump for more deaths.
I said to my better half at that time, when we sorta came out of the lockdown and the mask mandates came into full force, that it looked like Fauci was going to keep everyone masked up and locked down until the next natural cold and flu season (which usually starts in November) so that when we begin to sniffle and cough he will have successfully instilled enough fear that we will clamor for his vaccine.
The Rona has cured the flu and colds!
Of all the irrational BS that has gained currency in this wretched year, the most obtuse notion is that a bunch of politicians and bureaucrats can control a pandemic. All they can control is people.
This is the correct answer!
All they can control is people!
The, those of us, who refused to bend over and ask for more, drive them even crazier!
btt
Could the supposed increase in COVID actually be the Corona virus Flu that is being detected? Both are same family of virus.
Went to the grocery store last night without a mask. The only one not wearing a mask. Clerk asked me if I had a mask and I said no, sorry. She said “that’s okay.” People were looking at me with what seemed to be bewilderment or envy. Start pushing back people. The stupid mask wearing will never end if we don’t.
Thousands die of flu every year and no government official has ever batted an eye. Now the flu is cured? This should be major great news!
All have similar viral markings.
Bet they are counting those who got flu shots recently as COVID, We lose as many to Flu deaths per year, and why on earth are HIGH RISKK GIVEN 4 TIMES DOSAGE. Not had the Flu since the Swine Flue, made me so sick landed in ER. Not and won’t take another. I’m High Risk age 72, multiple health issues including Type 2 Diabetes from Gastropresis slow digestion.
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