I prefer imperical fact to speculation, that is just the way I am. Note though that I say "prefer", often times there is an absence of imperical facts, and all one has left is specualtion.
There are some who genuinely believe that the Covid-19 pandemic is a hoax, that is not a belief to which I ascribe. Covid-19 is real, as real as cancer, or influenza, heart disease or countless other diseases and conditions that have the potential to take human life.
How serious and deadly a disease is still up for debate as far as I'm concerned. Based on everything I've seen published in reputable media and the data which is publicly available I do not believe that our response is proportionate to the threat, that is my opinion.
One of the main reasons for my view that Canada's response has been excessive is based on the data that first came out of Italy when that country was front and centre. Overwhelmingly those falling victim to Covid-19 were people who were both elderly in addition to already having serious medical conditions.
Back on March 18th Bloomberg News published a story with data put out by Italy's national health authority. It stated that over 99% of the fatalities in Italy were among people who suffered from previous medical conditions. Only 0.8% were in people who had no other illnesses. In addition the average age of those dying at this juncture was reported to be 79.5 years, close to the 83.2 years Italians live on average. They reported that all the deaths under 40 were among males with serious medical conditions.
Here is the link for those who wish to verify the facts as reported by Bloomberg:
I find it vexing that we're no longer seeing this kind of detailed reporting and analysis. I am firmly of the view that media has jumped the shark in it's reporting on Covid by sensationalizing and feeding into fear and drama. I consider it nothing short of irresponsible and reprehensible.
Ontario is a province of ~14.5 million people, with approximately 500 hospitals. On the government's own Covid-19 portal they give daily updates on the virus, the numbers of: cases, resolved cases, deaths and hospitalizations with the hospitalization numbers broken down further into those in ICU and those on a mechanial ventilator.
The numbers are updated daily at 10:30 AM (excluding public holidays) and for weeks now the total number of people hospitalized has been less than 100. I won't bother quoting the current numbers because they change every 24 hours, if you want to keep track here is the link:
While it is helpful seeing that the number of Ontarians needing hosptial treatment for Covid is so incredibly low, it would be enormously helpful and informative if our media would provide the kind of detail Bloomberg did back when it was Italy under the microscope. What is the average age of those being treated? Are these otherwise healthy people or are they by and large people with serious and at times life threatening illnesses like cancer, heart disease and auto-immune disorders.
Rather than reporting simple facts and data our media is fixating on trying to find younger people who have fallen victim to Covid. I saw a Global story about a 26 year old personal trainer and mixed martial artist who was put onto a ventilator, thankfully he survived. The story presented him as:
The story does mention that this young man suffers from diabetes, but it goes on at length talking about how danderous Covid can be for young people, regardless of their health status. To channel some of my English ancestors I say 'bollocks'. This same Global News did a story back June 1st reporting on how dangerous and potentially lethal Covid are for those who are diabetic:
Diabetes is a serious and insidious disease, one I know a fair bit about as my late father suffered from it. Even those who do an outstanding job of moitoring and controlling their blood sugar levels will often see the disease progress to cardiovascular and kidney diseases. Many don't die directly from diabetes, but rather from the way it progresses to other vital organs like the heart and kidneys. For those sufficiently motivated, or those who simply want to fact check this assertion here's a scholarly article to get you started.
These are some of the facts and data points that have served to form my opinion that our response to Covid has been akin to burning down the house because there's a racoon in the attic. We have a disease that predominantly afflicts those who are old, sick and dying. In Canada it has already been widely reported that around 80% (or more) of this country's deaths have occured in Long Term Care facilities (LTCs). I've shared Ontario's statistics for LTC residents before, and sadly residents are not healthy, you don't go into a nursing home in my province unless every other care option has been exhausted and the level of care needed is extreme.
Here are the numbers again for those who missed my previous post, I'll hyperlink it the source, Ontario's LTC Association:
Ontario's long-term care residents (2019)
- 90% have some form of cognitive impairment
- 86% of residents need extensive help with daily activities such as getting out of bed, eating, or toileting
- 80% have neurological diseases
- 76% have heart/circulation diseases
- 64% have a diagnosis of dementia
- 62% have musculoskeletal diseases such as arthritis and osteoporosis
- 61% take 10 or more prescription medications
- 40% need monitoring for an acute medical condition
- 21% have experienced a stroke
Bottom line, in the absence of contradictory information I've come to the perfectly reasonable conclusion that overwhelmingly people do not die FROM Covid-19, rather they die WITH Covid-19. Put another way, those who are younger and otherwise healthy, this is not a major health issue.
Why aren't media outlets providing the numbers and the data the way we were seeing at the start out of Italy? That springborads me into the second part of this post, conspiracy theory and conspiracy fact.
Put the label "conspiracy" on anything and immediately people will start sizing your head for a tin-foil hat. And a lot of the time that is fair enough, there are all kinds of crazy theories out there. Reptilian aliens running the government, a hollowed out Earth populated by extra terrestrials, a planet beyond our solar system that will be coming to attack us sometime soon.
But many conspiracies are real and proven. A simple one most people don't know about is the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Ask most people and they'll tell you that a disgruntled southerner by the name of John Wilkes Booth acted alone. It was actually a co-ordianted criminal conspiracy that aimed to take out Vice President Johnson, Secretary of State Seward and Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant. Grant's assassin chickened out, but Seward was savagely stabbed by one of Booth's co-conspirators, Lewis Powell, miraculousy surviving. https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-lincoln-assassination
Conspriacies are real and they do happen, but until they're proven they are simply theories. We know about the Tuskegee Study where black American men were infected with syphilis in order to track the untreated progression of that disease, it's a conspiracy because those conducting the study told the men they were receiving free health care. Conspiracy by definition means two or more people acting in concert in order to deceive. We also know that US president George HW Bush conspired with an ad agency and formulated a story about Iraq's soldiers tossing babies out of incubators in order to garner support for a war to liberate Kuwait.
I could list many more examples of proven conspiracies, but I think my point is made. Governments do conspire and lie, the term disinformation is well known to students of geo-politics.
All of this is preamble to bring up a subject that will likely cause many eyes to roll, hydroxychloroquine which I will henceforth refer to as droxy to save on digital ink. I know some will be sorely tempted to stop reading right now (probasbly 3 out of the 4 people who have made it this far), but I will kindly ask that remain skeptical, but keep an open mind and be willing to fact check.
When it comes to 'droxy', I was as ready as anyone to dismiss it right away as a quack treatment. The fact that US President Trump touted it was enough to get me to disregard it. While it is true that DJT does say a lot of incredibly stupid things (bleach) he also does get things right on occassion. Recall that Trump closed travel between the US and China more than a month before Canada followed suit.
What I didn't know was that droxy has been around for over 50 years, a generic drug used for treatment of malaria and some inflamatory conditions like arthritis. And it was being used to treat Covid, and was being tested for efficacy in clinical trials. That is until a now retracted study was published in the leading medical journal The Lancet.
Why did the Lancet pull the study? I won't bore you with the details, the typically left leaning and very progressive Guardian did an excellent takedown on this study and the company that conducted the research. The apparently Lancet published a study done by a company with just 5 or 6 employees, among them a science fiction writer and an exoctic dancer. You can't make this stuff up, it is crazy.
So how does this happen? Well, now we get into conspiracy theory. It is a widely held belief that Big Pharma is more interested in profits than human health, in fact one executive said selling a drug for the highest possible price was a moral requirement.
Good luck making big money with a drug like droxy though, one that is long past patent protection and is even available over the counter in some jurisidictions. Big Pharma is investing hundreds of millions into developing a vaccine, taking big bucks from governments around the world at the same time. Imagine the cratering of share prices for some companies if all a sudden there was a safe and effective drug that could treat Covid patients at the early onset of symptoms.
I only just came across this thanks to a web/pod cast being done by a California church that is defying a court ordered shut down and is continuing to worship on Sundays. The pastor Rob McKoy does a nightly broadcast with guests, and a recent one included a Columbia Univeristy MD graduate named Dr. James Todaro, someone who apparantly began his undergrad studies at 14 years of age, a latter day Doogie Howser of sorts.
I'll invite you to listen to what the Dr. says, and I encourage you to be skeptical, I was. I listened to his assertions and given his demeanour and simple stated candor I was compelled to fact check the points he made, I have yet to find any errors.
I know he won't cater to some who have a biased viewpoint, and that some may even get angry. That is okay, if you have an issue with something he says I would simply ask that you comment with specific examples of where you think the Doctor is wrong, I don't go in for ad hominem attacks or strawman fallcies.
If you're not a Christian that's okay, but it is something you should look into, watch to the end and you'll receive the benediction:
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