A Wuflu context update: As of Thursday morning, 18 June 2020, Texas had recorded 2,062 deaths attributed to COVID-19. That is over all but about two weeks of half of the year.
2,062 deaths are sad but did you know that across the United States the CDC says that we average 7,708 deaths PER DAY (2017 numbers.) The highest fatality rates are November through March where in 2017 we experienced 8,478 deaths PER DAY in January alone.
So again, 2,062 deaths over almost half a year in Texas is sad for those suffering losses but it is a tiny number compared to the number who die, even without Wuflu, each day across the country. The 2015 numbers for Texas, the last year the Department of State Health Services had full statistics posted and when our population was two million less, showed 518 deaths per day in Texas.
According to official records of the Texas 2018/19 flu season deaths due to standard influenza strains, recorded as P&I deaths, were 9,249 by end of July last year and 10,095 for the annual season. Even if Wuhan virus deaths were to more than double, rise by 150% in Texas to 5,155 over a year, that is still about half of those who died of the flu in Texas in 2018/19.
No one wants to become ill and there are always people with compromised health for whom contracting any disease, even a cold, is particularly frightening.
Coronavirus, by the numbers and by the risk factors for serious complications, simply does not justify any of the extraordinary measures that have been, and are still being, pushed upon us.
News has been saturated with stories this past week that COVID cases in Texas have soared during Gov. Abbott’s Phase III reopening of the state. It’s false and misleading reporting.
It’s all in an effort to keep pandemic fears alive and apply pressure on the Governor to keep the state locked down and to require masks. Requiring masks, when no credible science supports them, is one visible way to increase perceptions of danger but are little more than compliance signaling, as Ron Paul calls them.
While testing the general public has no medical or clinical purpose, politicians and consumers have been convinced of its necessity to get us out of the pandemic. This is politics. Viruses, including all coronaviruses, run their natural course no matter what any politician does to try and change that.
The Governor is right, it’s a matter of seek and ye shall find. The more testing that is done, the more positive cases will be identified. Sadly, too few consumers and local politicians understand that identifying cases is NOT the same as actual increase (spread) of infections.
There has not been a recent surge in new cases among the general public during phase III to warrant Gov. Abbott keep Texas locked down. The increase in positive cases has been due in part to the dramatic increase in testing. But there’s also an important factor that media has failed to reveal that explains the sudden increase of “reported” cases during Phase III in Texas.
It’s on the first page of the COVID Tracking Project, which states: “The reported cases for June 16 include 2,622 new cases and 1,476 cases that were previously diagnosed among Texas Department of Criminal Justice inmates but that had not been reported by local health departments.”
Clearly, these inmates are not in the general public and these 4,098 new cases suddenly added to the rosters last week have nothing to do with reopening Texas!
It is especially egregious to see the Texas media making false claims of insufficient hospital beds and facilities. It has life threatening consequences for people who’ve been denied care for cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other “nonessential” medical care. I personally know of four seniors who could not get care for months and who recently died from cancer gone untreated until it was too late. Multiple groups of doctors and medical professionals have written of the health imperative to open the country and return to our real normal to save millions of lives being lost. https://aapsonline.org/physician-letter-reopen-america/ https://www.scribd.com/document/462319362/A-Doctor-a-Day-Letter-Signed#from_embed
Texas has more than enough hospitals and medical facilities to handle a virus. It’s inexcusable for medical professionals not to be speaking out and helping people not be frightened by claims of rising COVID patients. Remember that people in the hospital with COVID-19 does NOT mean they are hospitalized BECAUSE of COVID-19. It only reflects the people who tested positive for the virus. As hospitals begin to do “non essential” medical care again, the number of patients in the hospital testing positive will increase, too. https://www.conservativereview.com/news/horowitz-new-panic-lie-increased-coronavirus-hospitalizations-cases-southwest/
Why the recent media reports of rising cases and hospitals being overwhelmed? The fears are so removed from careful examinations of facts that it can only be political. Financial gain could have a troubling incentive, too. Just as the CDC has been showing that new cases, deaths, and ER visits across the country are waning to near pre-COVID-19 levels, the American Hospital Association issued a Special Bulletin on June 9th announcing that the HHS was planning to distribute an additional $10 billion to hospitals who report COVID-19 patients. (This is addition to the $175 billion as part of the CARES Act Provider Relief Fund.) The deadline to get in on this money was June 15th.
But most likely, all of this scaremongering is to politics to keep pandemic fears alive and keep Texas locked down and cripple its economy. It’s a red state, after all. The scare campaign appears to have worked. Governor Abbott succumbed to political pressure and gave the okay to local municipalities to issue mask edicts and almost immediately the liberal mayors did just that. Lubbock Mayor didn’t go along and you’ll notice that suddenly, news is reporting that Lubbock is the newest COVID hot spot. Not.
It was surprising to see Texas mentioned in the NY Times sounding the “alarm” over “an explosion” of COVID cases in Texas cities, and to read local news reports of “startling” increases in cases among younger adults in Lubbock. The news attributed the nearly 80% of new cases this past week in Lubbock to bars. Pity the small bars and eating establishments that are being targeted as sources of COVID infections, when the reporting has not been forthright about the true facts.
You can see the highly unusual surge in COVID positive cases among 20-29 year olds reported by the Lubbock Health Department. (https://ci.lubbock.tx.us/storage/images/ona9ClsBTF7CV7Fy8H5yhoQt8lVL8222yybYsSJB.pdf) Nearly all of these new cases are among young people of college age. These young people are not sick, symptomatic or a risk to the general public or burdening the hospitals. What’s going on? It didn’t take much digging to figure out why all of these cases among young people were suddenly reported this past week.
It is because of massive testing of all student athletes and all coaching, volunteer and allied staff being mandated by Texas Tech as part of its return to campus plan. (https://247sports.com/college/texas-tech/Article/Texas-Tech-Red-Raiders-football-COVID-19-148093523/) In fact, PAC-12 has recently required mandatory weekly testing for COVID of all student athletes. https://247sports.com/Article/Former-Miami-Dolphins-RB-Jim-Kiick-dies-at-73-148384791/
Testing will be the death of Texas and the country. Its sole purpose is to hype numbers…cases that during any other viral season would go unreported. The marketing is currently focused on bringing the public into submission to wear masks. Masks are a symbol of control, the American burka. Many of us who understand actual science and are thinking conservatives who value personal freedoms will not wear masks or patronize businesses or towns mandating them. In the end, masks will assuredly cripple America and everything our Country stands for.