Dangerous Inaccuracies

"Team Reality" (h/t: Alex Berenson) has spent time studying the actual science and legitimate statistics associated with COVID-19. As a consequence, it rejects the fantasy "science" that is often referenced by the likes of Joe Biden and other members of Team Apocalypse. 

Team Reality has opposed many of the dictates and declarations of Team Apocalypse along with almost all of its major catastrophist players (Anthony Fauci, MD comes to mind). In the view of the catastrophists, COVID-19 is a VERY DEADLY virus. If we don't hide in our basements or shutdown the country, close all schools, ruin the livelihoods of those who cannot work remotely, put policies into place that destroy far too many small businesses, or wear masks (that have been proven mostly ineffective) to the beach, "We're all gonna die!!!"

After all, Team Apocalypse intones gravely, 265,000+ Americans have DIED!!!  And there are MILLIONS of cases, and .. and ... and ... those cases could kill us all. Even as the CFR is dropping by the week.

As many of us on Team Reality have tried to explain, the vast majority of deaths have been among the very old (75+) and the very sick. Among those working age people under 40, the chances of dying from COVID are 0.002%. That's very, very, very low. And among children under the age of 15, the number is even lower. 

So ... instead of focusing on the population in danger from the virus and isolating ONLY the old and sick (if they agree), Team Apocalypse developed policies that unduly impacted the population that has a tiny probability of dying if they get the virus (it's worth noting that the majority of "cases" are asymptomatic). Like everything else about these past 8 months, that makes absolutely no sense.

But ... but ... but ... DEATHS!!! 

The media keeps telling us that it's an abattoir out there with ubiquitous scoreboards trumpeting the mortality count daily. And the public, understandably concerned, moves through fear, uncertainty and doubt into what can only be called hysteria. Not everyone, for sure. In fact, as time passes, people have begun to push back and decided to start living their lives once more. 

But mostly Democrat politicians in mostly blue states won't allow that. Drunk on the near dictatorial power the virus has  bestowed on them, they use "cases" as their metric, re-instituting lockdowns, in some cases literally arrested or fining those who refuse to comply, and all the while, wear the cloak of moral superiority as they cite fantasy science and claim that "empathy" is all that matters.

But ... but ... but ... DEATHS!!! 

Anyone who questions the 'narrative-approved' data on COVID-19 is immediately labeled a "denier" (does that term sound vaguely familiar?) and is accused of facilitating even more deaths. That, in and of itself, is suspicious. If in fact, a COVID-19 claim, study, or article is fallacious, it should be immediately refuted and dismissed using proven scientific fact, and overwhelming scientific data and statistics. But instead, a number of legitimate studies that run counter to the COVID narrative have been suppressed, even censored or de-platformed. Why? Is there not sufficient scientific fact, and overwhelming scientific data and statistics to refute those studies. Apparently not ... and that's also concerning.

Recently, Genevieve Briand at Johns Hopkins University conducted a critical analysis of the impact that COVID-19 had on U.S. deaths. She argues that COVID-19 deaths in the United States should be examined by comparing 2020 death totals and their causes to deaths recorded in past years.

Using CDC data, she agreed that COVID-19 deaths are overwhelmingly concentrated among the elderly. Matt Margolis reports:

Surprisingly, the deaths of older people stayed the same before and after [the advent of] COVID-19 [in March 2020]. Since COVID-19 mainly affects the elderly, experts expected an increase in the percentage of deaths in older age groups. However, this increase is not seen from the CDC data. In fact, the percentages of deaths among all age groups remain relatively the same.

According to Briand, “The reason we have a higher number of reported COVID-19 deaths among older individuals than younger individuals is simply because every day in the U.S. older individuals die in higher numbers than younger individuals.”

Briand’s analysis found that the range of deaths amongst the older population has remained within the range of past years.

So, if COVID-19 has actually had no significant impact on U.S. deaths, why does it not appear that way?

To answer that question, Briand shifted her focus to the deaths per causes ranging from 2014 to 2020. There is a sudden increase in deaths in 2020 due to COVID-19. This is no surprise because COVID-19 emerged in the U.S. in early 2020, and thus COVID-19-related deaths increased drastically afterward. 

Analysis of deaths per cause in 2018 revealed that the pattern of seasonal increase in the total number of deaths is a result of the rise in deaths by all causes, with the top three being heart disease, respiratory diseases, influenza and pneumonia.

What she found was that as deaths attributed to COVID-19 increased dramatically, deaths attributed to heart disease, respiratory diseases, influenza and pneumonia deceased substantially. But how can that be? For the seven pre-COVID years she studied, Briand found a relatively steady-state death rate among the elderly attributable to heart disease, respiratory diseases, influenza and pneumonia. But in 2020, deaths associated with those illnesses dropped without explanation. 

Margolis continues:

The study found that “This trend is completely contrary to the pattern observed in all previous years.” In fact, “the total decrease in deaths by other causes almost exactly equals the increase in deaths by COVID-19.”

Briand concludes that the COVID-19 death toll in the United States is misleading and that deaths from other diseases are being categorized as COVID-19 deaths.

There have been reports of inflated COVID-19 deaths numbers for months. Patients who never tested positive for the disease had COVID-19 as their cause of death on their death certificates. In May, Jared Polis, the Democrat governor of Colorado, disputed official coronavirus death counts, saying even those of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were inflated as the result of including people who tested positive for the coronavirus but died of other causes. In July, a fatal motorcycle accident victim was listed as a COVID-19 death.

On Thursday, Johns Hopkins University explained that they deleted the article on the study because it “was being used to support false and dangerous inaccuracies."

Hmmm. If there are "dangerous inaccuracies" in Briand's work, real science should point them out and refute them with hard data—well sourced and repeatable. Instead, her work was censored by members of Team Apocalypse. Why?

UPDATE:

Not sure whether to laugh or cry as this (mostly accurate) meme spreads across social media (until of course, it's removed or its perpetrators are de-platformed):