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Who’s Died?
The more misleading information about Covid-19 that is published, the angrier I’m becoming. Here’s one of the latest lead paragraphs to one story :
A coronavirus outbreak centered at the White House has exploded in the week since President Trump said he tested positive on October 2. At least three dozen people so far are known to have contracted the virus, but the true number is unknown absent a running update from the White House. Instead, reporters have tapped sources and otherwise relied on the infected to come forward in order to gain a fuller portrait of the disaster. The outbreak has grown so vast that it has apparently infected everyone from unnamed federal employees to senior Pentagon leaders. Here is a running tally of those known to be infected (italics mine).
Disingenuous would be a generous way to describe the information described in this story. Dangerous and treacherous might be a better choice of words. Why do I say that?
First, to my knowledge, many of the people listed in the article are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. I have no reason to think they are intentionally downplaying their conditions. Those who are contracting it are adding to the herd immunity numbers, a critical factor in the country managing the pandemic.
In the article, one person who is gravely ill has been sick since September 26 and has been hospitalized. Chris Christie, who checked in to hospital as a precautionary measure, has been released. Although early reports tried to blame Trump because many of the people who attended the news conference announcing Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court did not wear masks, most of the people in the article appear to have contracted the disease in other settings, or could not attribute their infections to that event.
President Trump was accused of “blaming” the Gold Star families (with whom he met recently) for his infection. Does this sound like blaming to you?
‘It’s very, very hard when you are with people from the military or from law enforcement, and they come over to you and they want to hug you and they want to kiss you because we really have done a good job for them. And you get close and things happen,’ Trump told Sean Hannity hours before his diagnosis was publicly disclosed.
That Senator Mike Lee subjected himself to this “abuse” (hugging) and his test came out negative is irrelevant.
So just what do we have here? The usual immoral distortions by the press:
- There was no common source for the infections for most people.
- At the Barrett press conference, anyone could have worn masks.
- Almost no one has become seriously ill.
- All reports try to point to Trump for being responsible for all the illnesses.
- People are misled about the truth of the infection.
The most disturbing distortions or omissions are, of course, the most alarming to the general public. Originally the virus was extremely lethal and many died (often needlessly). At some point, people will be exposed to the virus and may present a positive test, which may or not result in symptoms. Many who contract the disease will have mild symptoms and a great majority will recover without hospitalization. In spite of President Trump’s optimism, there is no way to know when a vaccine will be available for wide distribution.
But the most critical information that isn’t publicized: many more people have the disease than we think, and many fewer people will actually die of Covid-19 (and not from other complications) than people are being told. Any death is a tragedy, but the risk of death from the virus is small.
It’s a travesty of immense proportions. What is the truth?
No one really knows.
Published in Journalism
Because, for Trump-hostile urbanites, protesting is sacred.
I usually start my morning with The Weather Channel. Their programming is saturated with Biden ads, the worst of which is a physician saying “there is no excuse” for the pandemic’s continuing. Apparently, it’s Trump’s fault and never woulda happened under Biden. He also tells the heart-wrenching story of a young woman with Covid-19 asking him if she would be okay. He says he couldn’t tell her what she wanted to hear. The implication seems to be that she would not, but he doesn’t say that, or whether the woman died.
I guess that wasn’t important. The important point was that Biden has a plan and this sort of thing will be a thing of the past if we elect that great man. I can’t hit the mute button fast enough when he appears.
He will end pandemics, cure all ills, end all prejudices. And here I am still waiting for his old boss to stop the rise of the oceans!
I’ve seen that ad and if he’s a real doctor, he should be ashamed. The fact is, he could have said, “we’ll work to get you well.”
Yes, I don’t know whether that was a real doctor or an actor in scrubs.
I think we know that even if he has a medical degree, he is not a real doctor. He is a political hack.
I can’t imagine any ethical doctor lying to a patient and essentially saying, you’re gonna die. Sorry about that. To suggest that Covid is a death sentence is beyond irresponsible.
He is saying that when his patient, desperately ill, asks if she will be OK, he couldn’t answer her. Is that proper bedside manner, even if there is no chance of recovery? And, as you point out, COVID is not a death sentence, so she wasn’t in a position of having no chance of recovery. And on top of that, he then specifically blames the president for this person’s illness and possible death from a virus. He is outright saying that if Biden were president, his patient would have not gotten COVID.
It comes very close to him just telling his sick patient begging for reassurance ‘Sorry, you’re gonna die, because Trump is president’. But even worse, in true lefty victimhood fashion, the vibe I got was ‘I’m a doctor, and look at the anguish Trump is putting me thru making me tell my patients they have no hope.’ As if having to endure giving bad news to his patient was an imposition by the president himself. Oh, sure, you are gonna die, but I’m the one stuck with the ugly task of telling you !
I hadn’t even thought of that, @phenry. It could have been even uglier than I thought.
Excellent analysis of a terrible ad.
But really, Democrats are beyond reprehensible at this point.
I use wunderground.com, There are ads, but no political ads so far.
His name is given, so I’m thinking he’s actually an M.D.
Too bad.
Weather Underground was better when it wasn’t owned by The Weather Channel. The Weather Channel has scooped up so many weather-related sites (like Intellicast, which I used to use), that it’s now impossible to get away from their Climate Change hysteria.
I still use Weather Underground, but it’s less useful, and a lot of their historical weather information is no longer available.
AccuWeather has been pretty good over the years in avoiding the Climate Change vapors, though I haven’t peeked at their non-forecast areas in a while, so I don’t know if anything’s changed there.
Just never was comfortable with that name. Wasn’t that Bill Ayers group?
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Weathermen
Weather Underground, also called Weather Underground Organization, formerly Weatherman, militant group of young white Americans formed in 1969 that grew out of the anti-Vietnam War movement. The Weather Underground, originally known as Weatherman, evolved from the Third World Marxists, a faction within Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the major national organization representing the burgeoning New Left in the late 1960s. Members of the Weather Underground sought to advance communism through violent revolution, and the group called on America’s youth to create a rearguard action against the U.S. government that would bring about its downfall.
Yes, but it really used to be a fantastic site with loads of interesting data — before the Weather Channel bought it.
Maybe you can still get the bells and whistles with a paid subscription or something, but so much that used to be available at a click is now missing.
It used to be a crowd-sourced thing aggregating data from people with home weather stations, didn’t it?
I used Weather Underground as a paid subscriber for years. Finally stopped when the sensor used closest to my home read 6-10 degrees hotter than actual for a year. Throw up a temperature map and it was always the hot spot, but not really. Maybe students in the area were staging some climate change.
He may or may not have a practice.
My understanding is that sensor stations are always near where people live and as areas become more urban the sensors are affected by heat sinks of concrete and asphalt.
It still does.
BTW, Drew, I like your new photo!
Ha. It’s actually a few years old.
Not much has really changed, I guess.