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Delta a Blessing in Disguise?
Delta a blessing? I am not often accused of being a raging optimist/Pollyanna type. But I really am seeing a bright silver lining around the Indian variant.
Here is what we know:
First, unlike variant alpha which was really fiercely “seasonal” within defined regions, delta is causing a noticeable simultaneous “case” increase all over the US (even more in the southern US because late July-early August is the southern COVID “seasonality” period.) indicating a big difference in contagiousness. That may seem like bad news but…
Second, fatalities per case are extremely low compared to all previous waves.
And a glance at the excess deaths running chart from CDC–much lower compared to this time last year:
Third, hospitalizations remain remarkably low despite the increase in reported COVID-positives cases all over:
Fourth, antibodies are being mass-produced! We are adding lots of new COVID-antibody-possessing Americans at a very low cost in illness and/or death and doing so at a faster pace. Delta and the vaccines are parallel tracks toward broader resistance and immunity. Some real scientists might even step forward and say that while COVID-19 will hang around indefinitely as an endemic nuisance, the chances of another life-threatening dangerous surge are rapidly approaching zilch if not already there.
ADDED BONUS: What little credibility the CDC had left has been squandered over its response to the Delta wave. The CDC decided to base new mask guidance on a weird interpretation of data resulting from an enthusiastic non-socially distanced gathering of tens of thousands of gay guys in P-town MA for “Bear Week.” That should have been the ultimate superspreader event but instead resulted in only 5-7 hospitalizations (some of which may have been for other medical reasons but accompanied by a positive COVID test) and zero deaths. Delta spread widely with minimal or no adverse effects among the vaccinated and unvaccinated alike. No big subsequent COVID surge in the surrounding community. The entire state of Massachusetts is still averaging only 2-5 COVID deaths per day.
The CDC/media panic porn addiction contrary to reality, science, and common sense will be their undoing.
So an increasing mild, rapidly spreading variant is rapidly pulling us toward the clear end of the pandemic and hopefully to the dawn of accountability and retribution. Masks off, businesses and schools open, and pitchforks out.
Published in General
I am willing to read the ones that aren’t lies while I’d prefer to skip over those that are.
If it comes from thenCDC it can ot be trusted.
Facuci has admitted to lying. Nothing he says can ever be believed ever again. He is a liar.
The CDC lies. They cannot be trusted.
Once someone or an institution lies, they lose trust forever.
The mechanics of our lungs are very favorable to particles of a certain size settling. If they are bigger they get filtered out or settle in the base of the lungs and if they are smaller they swirl and are exhaled. The optimal size for deposition is about 1 micron. What’s about 1 micron in size? Wood smoke, asthma inhalers, virus aerosols, asbestos fibers. Those particles can float for 2-3 days in still air.
Yes and no.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy
Life expectancy is commonly confused with the average age an adult could expect to live. This confusion may create the expectation that an adult would be unlikely to exceed an average life expectancy, even though, with all statistical probability, an adult, who has already avoided many statistical causes of adolescent mortality, should be expected to outlive the average life expectancy calculated from birth.[151] One must compare the life expectancy of the period after childhood, to estimate the life expectancy of an adult.[151] Life expectancy can change dramatically after childhood, even in preindustrial times as is demonstrated by the Roman Life Expectancy table, which estimates life expectancy to be 25 years at birth, but 53 years upon reaching age 25.[152] Studies like Plymouth Plantation; “Dead at Forty” and Life Expectancy by Age, 1850–2004 similarly show a dramatic increase in life expectancy once adulthood was reached.[153][154]
Life expectancy differs from maximum life span. Life expectancy is an average for all people in the population — including those who die shortly after birth, those who die in early adulthood (e.g. childbirth, war), and those who live unimpeded until old age. Maximum lifespan is an individual-specific concept — maximum lifespan is, therefore, an upper bound rather than an average.[151] Science author Christopher Wanjek said “has the human race increased its life span? Not at all. This is one of the biggest misconceptions about old age.” The maximum life span, or oldest age a human can live, may be constant.[151] Further, there are many examples of people living significantly longer than the average life expectancy of their time period, such as Socrates (71), Saint Anthony the Great (105), Michelangelo (88), and John Adams, 2nd president of the United States (90).[151]
However, anthropologist John D. Hawks criticizes the popular conflation of life span (life expectancy) and maximum life span when popular science writers falsely imply that the average adult human does not live longer than their ancestors. He writes, “[a]ge-specific mortality rates have declined across the adult lifespan. A smaller fraction of adults die at 20, at 30, at 40, at 50, and so on across the lifespan. As a result, we live longer on average… In every way we can measure, human lifespans are longer today than in the immediate past, and longer today than they were 2000 years ago… age-specific mortality rates in adults really have reduced substantially.”[155]
[All emphasis added]
I understand all that. Better hospital care keeps us alive longer, but it’s not really qualitative.
Trust not, but verify.
I’ll never trust them again. Not for the rest of my life.
Epidemiologist have lost any trust forever, and that is what I shall teach my children. It is over. There is no institution in America, even the military, that can be trusted on anything. Every again.
We have a lot more centenarians today than we did 50 years ago, but how much of that is from just having a bigger population?
On Stephan Millers Versus Media podcast from the other day, he was talking about whether instead of epidemiological experts, we’ve just been ruled by a raging hypochondriac for the last year and a half. Fauci with his “Never shake hands again, wear two masks, wear three masks” stuff.
I suppose that is the case.
However, the whole profession is now suspect. I don’t want to hear about “Good epidemiological experts” any more than I want to hear about “good FBI agents”.
It is all hopelessly corrupt. All science on the topic is political now. Dissenting voices are silenced. We will be made to show our papers.
I will NOT show my papers, even though I have done the Vax.
The time is now to stand against the tyrants, and any so called conservative who supports Mask Mandates is siding with the enemies of freedom.
Good idea not to trust institutions. You shouldn’t have been trusting them in the first place. Not learning from people in those institutions is not so healthy.
Probably very, very accurate.
The issue of risk aversion and responsibility gets brought up occasionally. If someone thinks their relative died from COVID because Fauci didn’t tell them to wear enough masks, that’s HIS fault. But if someone gets drowsy from lack of oxygen from wearing 3 masks, drives off the curb and hits a tree and kills themself, or crashes into a bus stop and kills themself plus others, Fauci doesn’t get blamed for that.
Being a government bureaucrat means you never have to say “I’m sorry” AND you never have to hear, “You’re fired!”
Interesting overview of the Covid waves, attributing them to a combination of seasonality and new variants:
https://dailysceptic.org/assembling-covid-jigsaw-pieces-into-a-complete-pandemic-picture/