Let’s start with this blaring headline from the Miami Herald:
White House looks at domestic travel restrictions as COVID mutation surges in Florida
The 7 Day Positivity rate has gone from 5.4% in November to 3.2%. Yes, people are still being infected with COVID and a very small percentage of those are hospitalized. And even smaller number wind up in the ICU.
And what about the death rate? If you just read the Miami Herald headline you would assume they are stacking bodies. Nope. The number of people who have died at Sarasota Memorial in the last 86 days (17 November 2020 to 10 February 2021) is averaging 1 per day. (Yes, I know, two died today but none died yesterday, so it averages out).
Stumbling Joe Biden, or should I say his handlers, are pissed that Ron DeSantis, our Governor, is not playing the fear game. Florida is open for business and we have something approaching a normal, pre-COVID life (except for the brainwashed who have been bamboozled into improperly wearing masks).
Republican governors need to go on the offensive. They should require every hospital to collect and publish data along the lines of what Sarasota Memorial Hospital puts out every day. Those numbers should be posted on a website that all citizens can read. But additional data is needed. What are the ages of the people dying? Florida is called God’s waiting room by some wags because of the swarm of elderly that have put down roots here to avoid shoveling feet of global warming in such charming iceboxes as Massachusetts, Minnesota and Iowa. Guess what? Old people die. Not just from COVID.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that COVID is not a real, serious disease. But it is not the only disease that threatens life and we should not be bullied into sacrificing our Constitutional rights just because some out of touch bureaucrats buried in the bowels of Washington try to tell you where you can worship and who you can hang out with.
I believe information is power and we need to put more of the correct information into the hands of each and every American. You are more trusted to run your life than letting slow Joe do it.
| Sarasota Memorial Hospital | 17-Nov | 15-Dec | 10-Feb |
| Today’s patient census: | 678 | 757 | 718 |
| COVID-positive patients total | 57 | 78 | 45 |
| % of Covid Patients in Hospital | 8.41% | 10.30% | 6.27% |
| ICU census: | 51 | 57 | 55 |
| CoVID-positive patients in ICU | 12 | 9 | 10 |
| % of Covid Patients in ICU | 23.53% | 15.79% | 18.18% |
| Total Hospital Beds | 839 | 839 | 839 |
| Total ICU Beds | 62 | 62 | 72 |
| 7-Day SMH positivity rate | 5.40% | 4.63% | 3.20% |
| Patients who tested positive | 1348 | 1701 | 2811 |
| Patients who tested negative | 32011 | 38265 | 52510 |
| % of Patient who tested positive | 4.21% | 4.45% | 5.35% |
| Patients hospitalized since outbreak began (Mar 2, 2020) | 1134 | 1410 | 1999 |
| Patients treated/discharged | 1233 | 1548 | 2304 |
| Patient Deaths | 112 | 140 | 203 |
Cuomo – fills up nursing homes with contagious covidians.
DeSantis – uses Florida Guard to make damn sure no covidians enter our nursing homes.
The White House has denied suggesting travel restrictions for Florida, who knows when they are telling the truth, I sure don’t.
From time to time I thank God that Andrew Gillum is not our governor, that was a very very close race.
If two masks are better than one, why didn’t they make them that way to begin with?
I like the term “Sunshine State”. “Freedom State” would also work.
Ron DeSantis for President!
Resticting travel to Florida now, months after the people fleeing the disease infested state run by Biden’s Butcher, Governor Andrew Cuomo, brought the (checks lawfuly allowable speech terms) China virus here to kill off thousands of Americans who reside in Flordia? What’s not to like about that, since NY, NJ and others imposed quarantines in June:
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/21/more-than-half-of-us-now-faces-travel-quarantine-in-new-york-tri-state-region.html
We are approaching the one year anniversary of “15 days to slow the spread”. How did all those quarantines and shutdowns work for NY and NJ?
“More than 9,000 recovering coronavirus patients in New York state were released from hospitals into nursing homes early in the pandemic….” via AP.
““we froze” out of fear the true numbers would “be used against us” by federal prosecutors, ”
I guess the granny killer is no longer the darling of the Democratic Party now that St. Joe, the 80 million vote man, is in office.
https://nypost.com/2021/02/11/cuomo-aide-admits-they-hid-nursing-home-data-from-feds/
Why aren’t a lot of ‘experts’ now unemployed, and a few in jail?
Here is the major Covid hysteria turning point, used to seal Trump’s political defeat so the Democrat’s could claim Trump murdered over 300,000 persons. This happened shortly after Nancy Pelosi tore up Trump’s SOTU address in Feb 2020, which was her declaration of war against him. The real felony murder charge should fall on Dr. Deborah Birx, the infamous Scarf Lady.
APRIL 2020: The federal government is classifying the deaths of patients infected with the coronavirus as COVID-19 deaths, regardless of any underlying health issues that could have contributed to the loss of someone’s life.
Dr. Deborah Birx, the response coordinator for the White House coronavirus task force, said the federal government is continuing to count the suspected COVID-19 deaths, despite other nations doing the opposite.
“There are other countries that if you had a pre-existing condition, and let’s say the virus caused you to go to the ICU [intensive care unit] and then have a heart or kidney problem,” she said during a Tuesday news briefing at the White House. “Some countries are recording that as a heart issue or a kidney issue and not a COVID-19 death.
“The intent is … if someone dies with COVID-19 we are counting that,” she added.
Fred,
Why aren’t those “experts” either unemployed and/or in jail? Consideration has been given them as to how “helpful” they were in “vaulting the propaganda” and gettin mail-in voting installed so the correct people were installed after the crooked election. There ya go.
Larry,
You are spot on from where I’m sitting. What you see is not just true in Florida. It is true across the country.
I have access to data pertaining to a sample of Americans from across the country – and it’s not a small sample (i.e. consists of many millions). Inpatient bed utilization per 1,000 in < 65 products is same as, or lower than, the previous years. Ditto ICU utilization. We are not seeing a large volume of covid diagnosed people/people receiving treatment, nor hospitalizations for covid, nor deaths due to it in < 65 products. The deaths are minuscule in number/% and are almost exclusively among those with a history of serious underlying conditions - the kind of underlying conditions that kill you sooner or later anyhow. In > 65 products, the figures are a little higher, but still tiny (just like a bad flu season) and bed day utilization is flat compared to previous years. Deaths tend to be among those at, or above, their actuarially expected year of death.
We are being to told to understand that what we see (or not see, more accurately) is explained by covid damage being done primarily to the indigent elderly; people on Medicaid,in low grade nursing homes, etc – and not to our people, who the type working or paying for Medicare Advantage. The indigent are always effected worse because they don’t take of themselves. That is axiomatic in our business.
At any rate, it still appears to me – based on the data – that relatively healthy, educated people have little to worry about from covid, beyond economic destruction caused by reactionary policies and by associated loss of freedoms that America is supposed to represent.
Bill Wade,
At least we didn’t get the women wailing from windows and the men dropping dead on the sidewalk. 😉
Though I do appreciate good theater when locked down
The US excess deaths for 2020 show that approximately 300,000 more people died than were predicted to die in 2020.
Former President Trump’s pandemic team addressed comorbidities at one time (well over 90% comorbidity). The “Swiss Doctor” website notes average age of death (I think it was 78 in US and 82 worldwide). These are clear signs that this additional information is being collected; just not consistently and widely published.
I thought early on that consistent complete factual reporting by even a single local TV station could collapse the pandemic in a pocket. I remember others said early on that active resistance was needed for change (the covidians are “true believers”, like religion, who will not be put off).
The consistent, complete factual reporting has not taken place. This blog post may have found the key. “More governors need to go on the offensive.”
Posted by: FWH |
Ghost Ship,
What is the methodology used to arrive at the “excess deaths” number? Is it similar to Cuomo’s nursing home deaths counting, but in reverse? Why are raw numbers being used and not rates (e.g. deaths per 100K)? Why is 2020 being compared to just one data point, 2019? Why not compare an *age adjusted* rate per 100K for 2020 to each of the past 10 years (hint, I know what that would show and it doesn’t maximize covid hysteria)?
How many excess deaths, such that they may be, are actually attributable to the increases in drug overdoses and suicides in 2020? To lack of screenings and early diagnosis due to doctor office and hospital shut downs and restrictions? To people too scared of covid exposure to continue treatment for chronic conditions even if they could see their doctor? To illegal aliens and other recent third world immigrants (another hint moment)?
You’re allowing yourself to be gaslighted under the guise of wanting to appear informed.
Yes. There is a covid virus. Yes it will make some people with weak immune systems + a heavy viral load, sick. No. It’s not more deadly than the some of the flues that come around from time to time, like every ten years +/-.
SO, there were reportedly 400,000 more US deaths in 2020 than in 2019. Considering that the very eldest of the huge Baby Boom generation turned 74 in 2020, I wonder if such an increase in deaths per year is something we’re going to witness for the foreseeable future?
What does our resident actuarial have to say about US death rates vis a vis aging Baby Boomers???
Covid Hysteria?
And what about Global Warming Hysteria?…
Someone still with a Twitter account, please, to retwit this to Greta Thunberg..who, obviously, has no clue…
https://twitter.com/CynicalSceptic_/status/1360240090656763906
There is a glaciation coming, and they know it, this is why they want to leave us without heat and electric supply..so that depopulate Earth…
Hyper expensive lectricity coming from windmills is absolutely unreliable and will give place to increasingly periodic blackouts…
They will only survive the transgender CEOs and their varied experimental courtesans, in their luxury bunkers…
Do you recall, Pat, what I told you about the last “children of men” months ago, those who were born around this pandemic?
This is quite tragic, sorry to say…
The link to the proof on the glaciation got wiped out…go to know how…Tech CEOs…
https://twitter.com/CynicalSceptic_/status/1360240090656763906
Eric – I’ve got the picture, here in Europe and also in the States, that it’s a race between the new variants and mass vaccination.
B117 gave us quite a scare. The figures were going down nicely, as in the States, then along came this new variant. In Ireland, Portugal (less certain because less genomic testing) and the UK the same pattern: New variant. Cases, and later deaths, rising sharply. Control measures (lockdown etc). Then an equally sharp drop.
So in those three countries I don’t think there’s any doubt that after the new variant came along it was only lockdown that prevented the hospitals getting hopelessly overloaded. Now it’s a question of hoping that mass vaccination will have its effect before the new variant gets further ahead.
There’s some B117 in the States but not enough genomic testing is done to be quite sure how much. The SA variant also, and the two Brazilian variants. The mysterious thing about the Brazilian variants in Manaus is that they seem to be attacking people who by rights should have immunity from previous exposure to Covid. I’ve just heard in Europe of yet another variant (N439K “Romania variant”) this one seemingly more resistant to treatment but I don’t know if it’s more transmissible and don’t know if it’s reached the States.
As are you, I’m sceptical about the stats put out. They don’t allow for the effects of such lockdown as there has been. They don’t allow for the fact that flu deaths have gone right down. They don’t allow for informal lockdown – that is, people who isolate whatever the advice is. They don’t allow for increased deaths from other conditions that didn’t get treated because of the pandemic. And the crude stats I’m seeing don’t allow for different cultural patterns, and different population densities, that increase transmission rates and therefore death rates by up to four times.
So instead of rooting around in that thicket I believe it’s safer to stick to the one verifiable fact. That is that the new variants are more transmissible, possibly more dangerous, and that if the race between them and vaccination is lost then all that will stop the hospitals getting overloaded over your way will be control measures of the sort that were successful in Ireland, Portugal and the UK.
Is this right, or are there factors that alter the picture in the States that don’t alter it here?
……………….
I’ve gone off your man Fauci, by the way. Heard him bad mouthing Trump. Nothing about what I reckon is going to be counted as one of the great achievements of the Trump Presidency, Operation Warp Speed. Nothing about the fact that he himself lost the plot several times last year. Just a sneaky little jibe. He could be Paracelsus come again for all I care but I put him down as a rat.
And I’m not at all sure that William Barr shouldn’t be placed in the same Hall of Infamy.
Larry, you might be biased, we live in a “sane state” as oppose a democratic “state of fear.”
Remember Darth Maul’s One Truth, fear is my ally…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZE1UM6xpjM
Thank you, Mr. Newhill, for addressing the potential conceptual and interpretive errors in Ghost Ship’s post.
If the CDC and the other powers that be told us to drink dog piss, the vast unwashed herd of sheep would argue about which breed was best.
Larry, I’m not at all shocked that Covid is not driving the population of Sarasota to extinction. It’s the same in my area of Fredericksburg and the Rappahannock region of Virginia. Hospitals have never been in danger of collapsing and the number of illnesses and deaths have remained manageable. I would think that’s true throughout the country. It’s only the relatively few hotspots that make the nightly news. It’s the same with wildfires, mudslides and major traffic pileups. The few major incidents make all the news. Much like the BLM protests and riots. Dumpsters, buildings and even whole a few city blocks have gone up in flames, but no cities or towns have burnt to the ground. What do they say?If it bleeds, it leads. It works for the news and it works for the politicians.
Florida’s actions over the last year should be studied. DeSantis has not presided over the worst Covid numbers and he’s done it with minimal restrictions. He’s also doing a decent job with vaccine distribution. Not as good as West Virginia, but pretty damned good. How have Florida’s businesses fared under his policies? With minimal restrictions have they experienced only minimal disruptions?
I have one data point to offer from an unlikely area and that too from India. Make of it what you will.
I invested in Pharma stocks specifically generics makers that export to USA and Europe largely. I get copies of earnings conference calls posted and a typical is like this
https://www.bseindia.com/xml-data/corpfiling/AttachLive/d3b8ef26-90ec-40ea-a0f4-38556a98d485.pdf
This is the third time, I have seen a reference to the lowest-flu-shot sales in a decade. This is from Lupin and I have seen similar lines from CFOs in the earnings calls of Cipla, Aurobindo generics makers that have a large US generics presence.
from the linked pdf file…
Talking about sales – U.S. sales grew by 4% sequentially at US$188 million in
Q3 FY21, as compared to US$180 million in Q2 FY21, and grew by 1% as
compared to Q3 FY20. The sequential growth was driven by ramp up in
Albuterol as well as new products like Lapatinib, Tacrolimus etc. The demand
for seasonal products continues to be pretty weak on back of the weakest flu
season in the last decade, leading to a fall in quite a few of those products as
compared to the previous year. Other in-line products however. remain
stable.
For those of you who posted that there’s something off about flu season, the above is a good indicator; though it still does NOT explain why the deaths seem higher than normal at an elevated 3000 deaths/week. Personally, I have no idea what’s a “normal” weekly death rate is, as macabre as it may sound to ask.
@Eric Newhill | 12 February 2021 at 05:11 PM
Also: did you ever notice how every time somebody with late-stage cancer or heart disease dies, they’ll claim they died of ‘Covid-19’ if they flunked a PCR test at some point before their death? But then, if somebody drops dead immediately after getting the new vaccine, they’ll claim it was actually a ‘pre-existing condition’ that killed them? That’s another reason why these excess-death stats don’t prove much.
But let’s be charitable to our opponents here. Let’s assume, just for the sake of argument, that each and every last one of those 400,000 excess deaths was a result of Covid-19 and absolutely nothing else. Even in that case, would it make any sense at all to subject the other 340,000,000 people in this country to experimental, completely untested vaccines designed to alter their DNA irrevocably? Do we have any idea what the failure (or death) rate from those vaccines will be?
Eric, yep, Wuhan was at Academy Award level.
Florida is booming right now. Homes in my area are selling within hours/days of being listed. My daughter in Tampa tells me that even residential areas there are now experiencing traffic jams never seen before. I believe we’re at 90% GDP compared to pre-covid. The restaurants are jam packed, new home construction is everywhere, vacant lots that were 5K are now 25K. We usually see restaurant closings in Charlotte county peaking in May only to be replaced by new ones over the Summer. We had 23 restaurant closings this past year but, unheard of, we’ve had about 45 new ones open up. I know quite a few realtors and they are putting in extra long hours and raking in the dough. The overall mood is optimism. I heard DeSantis’ phone call with Hunter’s dad was heated. I hope we can hold off on any Florida specific sanctions. I am so happy we live here and not elsewhere.
TTG, et al
Here is Florida governor DeSantis:
https://youtu.be/bwv7noYAWaM
So, it would appear that lockdown was political. As Desantis notes, Florida which has no lockdown has better Covid performance than many other states including those with strict lockdowns. States that have prevented kids from returning to school, essentially an entire school year lost, have a lot to answer for. Of course they don’t care as they have used covid hysteria for their own ulterior purposes.
The hysteria created by the political and media establishment, in effect destroying the livelihoods of small businesses and those that don’t belong to the urban-managerial class who could work from home as well as destroying the learning of kids at schools is nothing but cynical manipulation for political and economic gains for the Party of Davos.
Seamus Padraig,
Why yes of course.
Everyone with some rudimentary smarts is fixated on “excess deaths”, because it sounds, well, smart – and would have merit if done right and with full transparency into methodology. As I said, those figures, as thrown around today, have serious methodological flaws and who knows how they are really calculated.
IMO, a more telling metric will be life expectancy in years, currently at 78.8 years (2019 figure). If covid is the existential scourge that Covidians want it to be, then life expectancy should show a decline in 2020. On the other hand, if what I am saying is true, that covid is merely killing those who were going to soon die anyhow, then life expectancy, in years, will remain the same. That finding would also support what you say about anyone testing positive and dying for any reason being chalked up to covid; an understanding that I agree with more than not.
2020 figures are not yet available.
I also note that Google searches for age/sex adjusted mortality rates direct you away from that and towards links about how terrible covid is and how many excess deaths there have been. It is near impossible for the general public to find adjusted mortality rates for the past 20 years. I’m sure that’s done on purpose by the tech-Marxists. Of course the CDC site is a scrambled mess still. No luck there either.
TTG,
“Hospitals have never been in danger of collapsing…”
Now that there has been a change in administrations there’s a change of tune of the narrative. Why are states still ordering lockdowns and masks if there was never any danger of hospitals being overwhelmed? That was the whole point of doing so. Well, actually, driving Trump from office was the point. Mission accomplished.
A few months ago when the first “Johns Hopkins study” (French female epidemiologist study) analyzing CDC data was squelched, it concluded from the official CDC morbidity data there were NO excess deaths in 2020 when plotted against the prior 10 years of CDC data.
This CDC data “study” was immediately depublished by Johns Hopkins with the claim this study conclusion would be confusing to the public.
However, it did serve the purpose to put CDC on notice and make sure any future CDC data reports conformed to the prevailing Democrat narrative, or risk also getting “cancelled”.
The latest official “gaslighting” narrative claims regular seasonal influenza morbidity is close to ZERO because everyone is wearing masks and social distancing – which stopped regular flu in its tracks according to this narrative.
Yet for some reason this exact same masks and social distancing that stopped seasonal influenza cold, did nothing to stop “covid”?
2020: Influenza = 0; Covid = 350,000. C’mon, man.
When Democrats run both the media narrative and the deep state data gathering operations, we will never know the truth.
Though I suspect many of actually do know the truth regardless of the massive Democrat efforts to keep gas-lighting the public for their own political gain. Yes, they are that venal. Look what they have accomplished for their own self-interests so far.
Here’s multiple breakdowns of the CDC’s own data. It does not support nationwide lock-downs.
https://kschulzke.github.io/C19/CDC_C19_Excess19.nb.html
TL:DR Removing New York City, not the state, just the city, it was a bad flu season in the U.S.
A better response would have been to educate the public with ways to boost their immune systems so as to avoid hospitalization. Vitamin D and Zinc supplements among other strategies.Depending on an EULA experimental “vaccine” as a magic bullet was flawed thinking.
As others have noted we also have a boomer generation aging up and out.
TTG,
Once again the fates align and we agree. I’m beyond thrilled that I got my wife out of Maryland two years ago. We have a life and businesses are operating in a normal fashion except for the stupid mask wearing. DeSantis has done himself some read good.
LJ
KMD,
Very good link. Yes, that’s what I’m talking about.
The tri-state outlier; in addition to what some of us have been saying along about Cuomo and the other murderer Govs. infecting nursing homes with sick patients that should have been quarantined in private , that is now becoming public, hospitals in that region made the wrong call en masse. The pattern of practice was to be very aggressive with the use of vents and heavy sedation. The frail elderly can’t handle that. To make it worse, there were often inexperienced staff administering some of that treatment. The treatment itself killed a lot of people. Other states’ physicians learned what not to do from the trip-state mistakes.
The great mass of the population consists of 2 broad personality types.
The rule followers.
People who will (often blindly) do what they’re told, go out of their way to avoid confrontation. These are your average citizens who “don’t want trouble.”
These people are not usually leaders.
The other personality type is people who live with fear, every day. A pandemic is steroids for these people.
These two types are the sheep to be manipulated by the despicable class of politicians, media and bureaucrats.1
CDC website continues to recommend cholorquinine as a good choice when traveling to malaria prone countries. The same drug CDC-Fauci claims will “kill you” if you are in “covid” countries.
https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/travelers/drugs.html
Well yeah, “demos” are running all this having robbed any meaning from that traditional labor/common man viewpoint (think FDR) thus in full cahoots with the global cabal which is gates and all the other devils, which must be stopped. Too long to list,here is astonishing summary big food/pharma/chemical/oil/$
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/bill-gates-neo-feudalism-farmer-bill/
A sane discussion: Medicine, law, covid, censorship and media. The Rubin report explores covid tribal hysteria by those censored by new media algorithms with three popular media personalities who are experts in their field.
https://generaldispatch.whatfinger.com/censored-medical-legal-experts-viva-frei-dr-drew-zdoggmd-roundtable-rubin-report/
Media censorship in medicine has translated to private censorship among medical colleagues. No deviations allowed from the corporate medical orthodoxy – even conventional medicine suffering now from the heavy hand of media censorship.
Where is this taking us – when will freedom finally leak out from under this heavy non-science censorship hand?