Coronavirus XI: What the Hell is Going On? The Fear Should Stop!

AdminM said:
I cannot understand why we are in a police state atmosphere right now. Over 99% of those that contract COVID-19 will recover from it. Folks, I am not minimizing this illness. COVID-19 is something to take seriously. It is highly contagious and spreads quickly. Yes, it causes respiratory failure and death in those most susceptible: the elderly and those with chronic health conditions including diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and lung disorders. We may not even have enough respirators for those who have a serious case.

However, there is another side to this story that is not being told.

Did you know that COVID-19 is much less deadly than the common flu?
Thank you for this. There is an incredible amount of misinformation due in large part to the internet, which makes it possible for countless opinions to proliferate.  For example, the opinion that deaths from the influenza virus are 500 or fewer. 

The 1918 flu virus killed  millions of people because it was so virulent. Subsequent flu strains are less deadly, but they still cause tens of thousands of fatalities annually. The methodology supporting the 500 number is also suspect. If an unidentified virus causes a death that is indistinguishable from the flu virus, how was it determined that it was not the influenza virus?  

As was stated, laboratory tests are rarely done, so the statement that "actual flu deaths are incredibly rare" has the whiff of an agenda behind it. According to  mainstream literature, variants of the flu virus cause of tens of thousands of fatalities annually. Almost no one accepts the number of 500 oir less.

Anyone can post whatever they like in the Huffington Post, from carefully pre-selected statistics to outright inventions. But if the majority of peer reviewed medical literature concluded that fatalities from the influenza virus was 500 or less annually, that would surely be front page, above the fold news, not something from a blog. In fact, the number of fatalities from the flu is accepted by the vast majority of medical practitioners as being well into the tens of thousands annually.

The influenza virus changes from year to year, and there is always more than one strain extant. Some strains are more deadly than others, but even the least deadly flu causes tens of thousands of fatalities every year in the U.S. alone.

There is no doubt that fatalities caused by the covid-19 virus have not yet peaked. But the number will eventually flatten, and begin to decline. But it is still far less deadly than the average flu virus. Currently, there is a higher probability of a person being killed by a lightning bolt than by the covid-19 virus. At this point it is still questionable whether that will change before this virus has run its course.

No one panics over the possibility of being struck by lightning, and the country isn’t shut down due to the flu. Why is there such a panic over this particular virus?

There is more than one answer to that question, but the media is certainly the primary culprit. No one can watch a television program without being reminded in the most hyper terms, over and over again, of the minute-by-minute progress of this virus. Even the smallest detail is repeated constantly, if it shows anything negative. Only the most extreme authorities are interviewed, and without any contrasting opinion. For example, this article would never be broadcast by any of the six TV networks operating in this country.

H.G. Wells The War Of The Worlds is tame compared with the media’s fear mongering over this virus. It is surprising that so far there hasn’t  been any violence. But that is not from lack of effort by the TV and print media. They are doing their utmost to incite violence — and they may well succeed before this media-induced panic runs its course.

Finally, it is always worthwhile to ask: Cui bono?  Who benefits?  

The media isn’t, in effect, throwing gasoline on a fire just to sell more advertising. There is an unstated agenda behind their constant wild-eyed reports, and the panic they create. The media is clearly aware of the recessionary effect  shutting down the economy will have in the next six to 8 months, because they constantly remind everyone.

So they’re clearly willing to destroy the economy and the savings of millions of people, in order to try and bring down their nemesis.  Nothing else has worked, so the media is now ready to sacrifice We The People. Despicable, no?

Linda said:
He’s missing the point that the flu deaths have been artificially inflated for the last decade by the CDC in order to scare people into getting the flu vaccine.  Actual flu deaths are incredibly rare.  See Don’t Believe Everything You Read About Flu Deaths — https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/lawrence-solomon/death-by-influenza_b_4661442.html.  


"According to the National Vital Statistics System in the U.S., for example, annual flu deaths in 2010 amounted to just 500 per year — fewer than deaths from ulcers (2,977), hernias (1,832) and pregnancy and childbirth (825), and a far cry from the big killers such as heart disease (597,689) and cancers (574,743). The story is similar in Canada, where unlikely killers likewise dwarf Statistics Canada’s count of flu deaths.


Even that 500 figure for the U.S. could be too high, according to analyses in authoritative journals such as the American Journal of Public Health and the British Medical Journal. Only about 15-20 per cent of people who come down with flu-like symptoms have the influenza virus — the other 80-85 per cent actually caught rhinovirus or other germs that are indistinguishable from the true flu without laboratory tests, which are rarely done. In 2001, a year in which death certificates listed 257 Americans as having died of flu, only 18 were positively identified as true flus. The other 239 were simply assumed to be flus and most likely had few true flus among them."
I was going to point that out but you did.  Not only are cases inflated-in fact they are made up.  The CDC states on their webpage that they  have no idea how many adults die from the flu each year because adult flu deaths are not re portable, only children.
"First, although the CDC states that it conducts influenza mortality 
surveillance with its partner agencies, there is no actual requirement 
for U.S. states to report adult flu deaths to the CDC. (In public health
 parlance, adult influenza deaths are not “reportable”
 or “nationally notifiable.”) In fact, the only “flu-associated deaths” 
that the CDC requires states and other jurisdictions to report are deaths in children—180 last year.-https://childrenshealthdefense.org/news/vaccine-sa…
If you go to the CDC webpag they give you a big word salad on how they makeup the numbers.  So in essence-they don’t know.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/overview.htm

"I cannot understand why we are in a police state atmosphere right now. 
Over 99% of those that contract COVID-19 will recover from it"
Yes you do Dr. Browstein.  We have been heading towards an authoritarian state for the last 3 years.  Just yesterday the Justice dept headed by the Consigliere.of tRump, Barr:
Trump’s Justice Department Proposes Indefinite Detention in Emergencies—Like the Coronavirus Outbreak-https://www.motherjones.com/coronavirus-updates/20…
People need to remember anther crisis that impacted the rights of Americans-The Patriot Act. 

AdminM said:
I cannot understand why we are in a police state atmosphere right now. Over 99% of those that contract COVID-19 will recover from it. Folks, I am not minimizing this illness. COVID-19 is something to take seriously. It is highly contagious and spreads quickly. Yes, it causes respiratory failure and death in those most susceptible: the elderly and those with chronic health conditions including diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and lung disorders. We may not even have enough respirators for those who have a serious case.

However, there is another side to this story that is not being told.

Did you know that COVID-19 is much less deadly than the common flu?
Thanks for the information, Dr. Brownstein.  I have been wondering about these same issues, that you clarified.  There seems to be an ulterior motive for shutting down entire countries for a virus that kills fewer people than the flu…and certainly fewer people than car accidents.