“Whoa,” Deborah!!

Dr Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci have been the dynamic-duo of medical advisers to President Trump during this Wuhan virus pandemic. They have been the purveyors of bad news since practically day one, and I have had no reason to doubt their expertise, that is until just recently. 

From the beginning the world was somewhat mystified by how poorly the Wuhan virus patients did in Italy. Mortality rates in Italy were much worse than any place else . . . but why? Yes, the population in Italy was an older population, but Japan has the oldest population in the world, and the Wuhan virus patients in Japan were not doing as poorly as the Italians. Why ? Social distancing was late in coming to Italy, and certainly this could have played a role in the spread of the virus in Italy, but why would that affect the mortality statistics there? It wouldn’t. The large number of Chinese transplants in and around Milan in conjunction with the Chinese New Year, most likely played a pivotal role in the very large overwhelming initial surge in that area, but again this should not have affected the mortality stats. 

Well it turns out that the mortality stats in Italy were influenced by the way these stats were collected. For instance, if someone had a heart attack and coincidentally also tested positive for Covid-19, aka the Wuhan virus, this death was attributed to the virus. Likewise, if someone on death’s door with Stage 4 cancer, was in the hospital for weeks, and then at death was found to have Covid-19 . . . you guessed it, the death was again attributed to the virus. 

Certainly this could not be the case in the U.S., could it? Without a doubt, we can keep more reliable stat than those Italians. I certainly thought so until earlier this week Gov. Cuomo of New York made an off-hand comment that other diseases in New York appeared to have miraculously stopped existing. Hallelujah! Perhaps a miracle! Could it be that in New York the reason that people seemingly stopped having strokes and heart attacks, etc was because they were testing positive for Covid-19, and so their deaths were then attributed to the virus? After all people in New York do die of things other than the Wuhan virus. In fact thousands of people die in New York every day, and have done so long before the Wuhan Covid-19 virus existed. Also, coincidentally CDC-pneumonia deaths have been “far lower” than normal. This sounds very much like the “disappearance” of another disease, just like in New York City and New York State.

Interestingly on the day following Gov. Cuomo’s innocent remark,  Dr. Birx admitted that some of the deaths attributed to Covid-19 were possibly due to something else, and Covid-19 was an innocent bystander of sorts. She said, “We have taken a very liberal  approach to mortality.”
“Whoa,” Deborah !! Have we wrecked our economy because of someone(s) “liberal approach to mortality?”

Likewise it is turning out that the predictions of Dire Straits, not that pop-group, but death due to that same virus have been vastly over-stated. Somehow the models used to predict the nationwide deaths due to the virus have been off . . . and off not just by a little bit!. A week or two ago we were told the models were predicting 100,000 – 200,000 deaths in the U.S because of this virus, even with social distancing measures taken into account. Now the models are predicting 60,000 deaths by August. 

This virus is bad news . . . really bad news. Yes, people, many people are dying because of it, but is it possible that we have over-hyped its significance?

I want it clearly understood that I am not suggesting that either of the dynamic duo has been less than honest with the American public, but if I had lost my job because the model was mistaken, I would not be happy!

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