Lessons on COVID and Logic from Sweden

Remnant Newspaper ^ | September 11, 2020 | Greg Maresca

[ebb tide]

Lessons on COVID and Logic from Sweden

It was one of those stories that should have headlined across our fruited plain, but in this age of COVID-19 and Trump Derangement Syndrome, it wouldn’t suit the narrative. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated their website regarding COVID-19’s deaths and the numbers have been greatly reduced of those who died strictly from the virus. 

“For 6 percent of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned,” the CDC’s latest report revealed. “For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death such as pneumonia, respiratory failure, diabetes, or heart disease.”  

COVID-19 is not nearly as lethal as the media and government bureaucrats have continued to portray.  The 11,280 who died directly from the virus doesn’t even make the top 10 of causes of yearly U.S. deaths.

Distrust, disbelief, and doubt about the numbers and when the virus actually arrived in the U.S. have haunted the CDC since the beginning.  It didn’t help that assorted healthcare administrations counted all those who tested positive for COVID as having died from it.   

The CDC has since replaced its COVID testing directives, saying if you have been exposed but do not have symptoms you do not necessarily have to be tested.  According to one report buried in The New York Times, up to 90 percent of those who “test positive are likely no longer contagious by the time they test positive.  In fact, they would test negative under more prudent protocols.”

The tests have diagnosed many who may be carrying relatively insignificant amounts of the virus.  What has not been reported are the people who were considered positive, but were never tested.  One person lamented how they traveled to Florida and during their visit signed up to be tested despite feeling fine.  With the testing line extra-long, they decided to leave.  Within the week, they were notified that they tested positive.  Another exemplar was one young couple that signed paperwork to be tested, but never were.  A week later, they were notified that they, too, were positive for COVID. 

The motives for manipulating and omitting data that accurately represents what is transpiring appears widespread.  According to Regulator Watch, CDC employees have reportedly given 8,000 donations to Democrats compared to only five to Republicans. 

The decisions to restrict public events, businesses, schools including travel in order to contain COVID continues to be based on the percentage of tests that come back positive that is too often misconstrued. 

Provided your test is positive, it may be anything but.  Statistics are doctored, and the higher the numbers, the more the federal dollars pour in. 

How can one believe the “official” statistics or for that matter the nonstop death ticker promptly featured on CNN, the COVID News Network?

Sweden deaths per 100,000 are almost identical with the U.S., despite Sweden having an older population (As of last week, the U.S. had 571 deaths per 100,000 and Sweden 576 per 100,000). Sweden was slow in protecting the elderly, according to their chief epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell. 

Contrast the second quarter GDP, where the U.S. dropped 31.7 percent to Sweden’s drop of 8.6 percent.  The difference cost the U.S. $1.25 trillion in quarterly GDP.

Swedish schools remain open, avoiding the cluster that children and families are experiencing here. The virus does not care whether you lock down or not. Lockdowns hurt the people who need healthcare the most.  Thanks to government overreach, especially by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, deaths among seniors are needlessly high. 

All of society are not equally at risk, which undermines the comprehensive lockdown.  To date, 3.4 million have recovered, as COVID is not nearly as lethal as advertised. 

Given the high recovery rate, is a vaccine necessary? 

__________

EDITOR'S NOTE: Dear Friends, social media is cracking down on Conservative content. Many of you have complained that you stopped seeing our content in your news feeds. We hear you, and we have a way of staying connected in the fight — subscribe to my FREE weekly eblast. Click here.  - MJM 
___________

Tens of thousands die each year from viruses, yet we take no overwrought measures regarding those cases.  People want their lives to get back to normal and the science supports them.  Protect the vulnerable and move forward.   

What happens when there is a much more lethal pandemic that affects, say, 10 percent? 

The virus is real.  The reasons for our present oppression are not.

Lost in the fog of COVID is the ability to reason.

[ebb tide]

Ping

[FormerFRLurker]

From the article:

“COVID-19 is not nearly as lethal as the media and government bureaucrats have continued to portray. The 11,280 who died directly from the virus doesn’t even make the top 10 of causes of yearly U.S. deaths.”

Current US COVID deaths stand at 197,896. Where is the author getting the 11,280 figure from? Also, the author is comparing deaths from COVID, which hasn’t even been in the US for nine months, with top *yearly* causes of death. You cannot compare apples to oranges.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

“According to Regulator Watch, CDC employees have reportedly given 8,000 donations to Democrats compared to only five to Republicans.”

What about all those foreign leaders who are also encouraging their citizens to wear masks and restricting travel into their countries? Are they all Democratic stooges too? No other country politicizes COVID the way the US does. That could be why the US is the world’s #1 COVID petri dish. I’m sick of people injecting politics into everything. I am a conservative and I take COVID seriously. Wearing a mask and avoiding close contact with others does not magically turn me into a Biden supporter.

[IrishBrigade]

‘Current US COVID deaths stand at 197,896. Where is the author getting the 11,280 figure from?’

it always helps to actually read the article that you’re commenting upon...

[FormerFRLurker]

I read the article. Still didn’t see a source for the 11,000 deaths figure the author cited. For all I know the author made it up. Notice how I cited my source in my comment. Is it too much to ask a journalist who does this for a living to do the same?

[absalom01]

He doesn’t give a source, but implies that the 11K figure represents those who died with a COVID diagnosis and no other co-morbidities.

Kind of sketchy math. Clearly, the total “dead FROM COVID” figure is grossly inflated (I mean really, hospitals in NY were getting $39,000 per COVID death. It’s a miracle that anyone died of anything else during the spring), but 11K looks equally self-serving.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Sweden deaths per 100,000 are almost identical with the U.S., despite Sweden having an older population.

However, I have yet to see somebody refute the argument pointing out that the other Scandinavian countries -— Norway, Finland, Denmark and even Iceland have MUCH LOWER deaths per 100,000 than Sweden has. These countries ALL had stringent lock downs.

[IrishBrigade]

“For 6 percent of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned,” the CDC’s latest report revealed.’

11,280 is 6% of 188,000, presumably the death toll at the time of this writing; CDC’s own reporting...

it is there in the article, clear for all to see...

[IrishBrigade]

‘These countries ALL had stringent lock downs.;

so, you’re suggesting we shut everything down again...?

[logi_cal869]

Whatevs.

Today:

U.S. Reaches Grave Coronavirus Milestone: Crickets.

[familyop]

Britain could ban large social gatherings until Christmas as Europe sees rise in coronavirus cases
Fox News
By Stephen Sorace
September 9, 2020
"Sweden drew sharp criticism for its strategy of avoiding a lockdown altogether as deaths spiked earlier this year. More than 5,800 have died in the country, many times higher than the death tolls in neighboring Nordic countries such as Denmark, which has reported 628."

Sweden's population is smaller than the population of Ohio by more than a million but has had more deaths from COVID-19 than Ohio.

[LadyDoc]

Sweden had lots of nursing home deaths...and when some got critically ill, instead of sending them to the hospital they were sedated. There was a big scandal about this, but in the BMJ and thevUKGuardian, but not noticed in the USA.

So Cuomo isn’t the only one who killed grandmom.

Their death rate is pretty similar to the US. No one notices that either.

[familyop]

I’m against mandates for closing businesses, BTW. Some kinds of businesses won’t see many customers with or without mandates anyway. But benefits from masks and vaccines are now common knowledge, and the majority of customers know it.

[logi_cal869]

You’re missing the point: Read the FR-exclusive which I posted the day after the U.S. reached parity with Sweden.

[LadyDoc]

the Remnant is a radical traditional Catholic newspaper.
For some reason the radical trads have swallowed the anti vax conspiracy theories and are promoting this paranoia on line.

After reading some of their nonsense, I am almost tempted to prefer the communist loving Pope Francis.

While both groups are spouting nonsense, the church is dying for lack of people doing their job...preaching Jesus.

[SeekAndFind]

I’m suggesting we LEARN from the countries that did better than Sweden and ourselves.

[lightman]

Without column headers just horse hockey hockey stick blah, blah, blah.

Go hibernate yourself.

[logi_cal869]

Worldometer, dumbass.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

[FormerFRLurker]

So the 11,000 is the number of folks who died in perfect health apart from having COVID? If I have both skin cancer and COVID and I die of lung failure, my death should be listed as due to skin cancer? We should only count the deaths of COVID victims who had nothing else wrong with them?

11,000 deaths out of 6,676,601 cases gives us an absurdly low fatality rate of 0.16%. For comparison, the global death rate is 3.19% (924,577 deaths / 28,944, 152 cases). The US health care system is okay if a bit pricey, but it is not 19.9 times better at preventing COVID deaths. The authors’ methodology is flawed and seems determined to underreport COVID deaths. While preventing panic is an understandable goal, most Americans are reasonable adults who can support conservative values while taking reasonable precautions against COVID.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries