COVID-19 truths?
Anyone who blindly believes everything said by politicians and/or the media needs to get their head out the sand. Supposedly a lot of the restrictions and controls that have been put into place are CDC guidelines. But are they really?
Here is some of the information from the CDC regarding COVID-19
Please note the above linked page (as of today) was last reviewed April 13, 2020. That's almost 2 months ago.
The first is what we constantly hear from politicians and the media, and it's the reason behind social distancing.
"The virus spreads easily between people""The virus that causes COVID-19 is spreading very easily and sustainably between people. Information from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic suggest that this virus is spreading more efficiently than influenza, but not as efficiently as measles, which is highly contagious."
But here's where we're not getting the truth from politicians and the media.
"The virus does not spread easily in other ways""It may be possible for COVID-19 to spread in other ways, but these are not thought to be the main ways the virus spreads."
Some of these other ways the virus doesn't spread easily include
"From touching surfaces or objects"
"From animals to people"
"From people to animals"
Did you catch that? COVID-19 doesn't spread easily on surfaces. With all the hyper-sensitivity to cleaning and disinfecting, along with the continual media reports, most people believe otherwise.
The CDC identifies ways' to protect yourself and others including social distancing, and the standard best practices for preventing infection of all diseases including washing hands with soap and water, using hand sanitizer if soap and water aren't available, and to routinely clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces.
As I recall from many years ago, washing hands, cleaning and disinfecting was required for food handlers permits.
Oh, and washing hands thoroughly, not touching your face (particularly the eyes and nose) were already known to reduce your chances for infection.
Personally, I'm glad there has been renewed emphasis on hand washing as well as cleaning in general. Where I work there are students training to be firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics. I don't have exact numbers, nor can I tell which students from which programs are the culprits. However, I can say that when I have used the restrooms and a bunch of students go on break, it's not uncommon for 1 or 2 out of 10 or so to not wash their hands. I admit I didn't see if they needed to. Maybe they came in just to talk with someone (not usually something guys do) or to check themselves in the mirror. And some do the 5-10 second (or less) quick-wash that my wife and I send our kids back into the bathroom to redo. I don't know how things have changed since classes went online and now some students are just starting to come back for some training. Anyway, it was appalling to see people who are supposedly training in medical-related fields be so flippant or casual towards hand washing.
Do a Google search on "how many doctors wash their hands". Hopefully the numbers have increased, but the articles I was reading were stating things like:
- 32% of hospital physicians comply with accepted hand hygiene guidelines. Nurses are better, but only at about 48%
- Doctors and nurses only wash their hands about half as much as they should, unless they're being tracked.
- Many doctors don't appreciate patients telling them to wash their hands.
So, what's really new about COVID-19? It spreads easily from person to person but it's not as contagious as the measles.
Yet, for the past three months the media, politicians, and most of the world act as if this virus could cause the end of the world.
Certainly, as I've mentioned in past posts, COVID-19 can pose serious health complications and death for those who have underlying health conditions, such as respiratory issues. Since many of our elderly population have health challenges, COVID-19 is more risky for them.
There are several sources you can read get the following data from, but I chose https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/tell-me-what-to-do-please-even-experts-struggle-with-coronavirus-unknowns/2020/05/25/e11f9870-9d08-11ea-ad09-8da7ec214672_story.html which was published May 26, 2020. In the article we read:
"The question of the true lethality of the virus remains the subject of controversy. When the CDC put out its guidance last week, it estimated that 0.2 to 1 percent of people who become infected and symptomatic will die. The agency offered a “current best estimate” of 0.4 percent. The agency also gave a best estimate that 35 percent of people infected never develop symptoms. Those numbers when put together would produce an “infection fatality rate” of 0.26, which is lower than many of the estimates produced by scientists and modelers to date."
According to the Washington Post, a report by researches at the University of Southern California and the Los Angeles County health department (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2766367)
" estimated that about 4 percent of the population had been infected as of April 10 and 11." The report doesn't provide and estimated fatality rate, but lead author "said it would probably be 0.13 percent for people outside nursing homes and 0.26 percent — identical to the CDC best estimate — when people in nursing homes were included."
I'm not saying 0.26% of those who get infected isn't a lot of people. It is. But it's a small number compared to deaths by other causes, none of which have locked down the country and collapsed the economy to the level of the Great Depression (and some say it's worse, or will get worse). I'm very interested to know the reduction of deaths from other causes since COVID-19 seems to be the fashionable cause of death statement now.
Yes, COVID-19 has potentially serious and deadly complications, especially for those with unerlying/pre-existing health conditions, like many of the elderly. The reality is, many illnesses can cause serious and deadly complications for those with pre-existing health problems. The only real difference is COVID-19 does spread easily from person to person so extra precautions need to be taken, particularly when you're around the most vulnerable.
What we don't hear about are the tragedies on unknown numbers (probably millions) of mental, emotional, and even physical victims as a result of the economic recession/depression caused by over-reaction to the pandemic. The intense stress and fear that have many people are experiencing can't be measured. But we can definitely say that it has caused significant problems for the "over 40 million Americans" who have filed for unemployment during the pandemic. The real jobless rate is over 23.9%
The unemployment rate for the Great Depression has been estimated at 24.9%
The next time a pandemic threatens (most likely to be widely reported on in 2023-24 with the next presidential election, maybe even during the midterm elections) the health departments and politicians need to take the approach of identifying and protecting the most vulnerable in the population, but closing down the economy and quarantining everyone is the wrong approach, unless you're trying to control everyone. Hopefully legislatures will rein in the power and authority that governors, mayors, health departments, and unelected officials have on us, especially in taking away Constitutional rights.
I think we should close the K-12 public schools down again, but those should be the only mandatory closures. My kids have been healthier over the last couple months, without colds, brought home from school, continually cycling through the house.
And requiring masks? I've already made a post on that issue but I will sum it up by saying there are a few times when it may be appropriate, but most of the time I think masks are unnecessary and may actually pose a greater health risk for the wearer if the mask is worn for extensive lengths of time.
I don't think the COVID-19 was released intentionally. But since it's release I believe there have been politicians, governments, and organizations that have taken advantage of it to exert control, influence, power, and authority over the people by restricting, regulating, limiting, and even taking away Constitutional rights and liberties. And unless the people, through their elected representatives, put controls and limitations on the politicians, governments, and organizations, what has happened establishes a precedence for future events where, I believe, we will likely experience longer lasting or even permanent infringements on our freedoms.
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