You know there's something wrong when you're in the middle of what they purport is a pandemic worthy of hysterical, draconian measures, and the only thing they seem to care about are "cases," not deaths, not hospitalizations, but cases. Because if you talk about deaths and hospitalizations, you get the picture that we are pretty much through this and have been since roughly the beginning of the year, especially in places that stayed open, put one foot in front of the other, and just dealt with it like adults.
Part of the testing is attributed to hospital-required mandatory testing of all (or most) patients that get admitted. Certainly every elective surgical case is required to get tested prior to surgery. I believe this is true in all states but certainly here in crazy California. Additionally, as everyone knows, the hospitals are incentivized to test ($$$) and will not stop until the incentivization goes away. Thus, we will continue to have a static level of tests done despite a near-zero prevalence, and it will not end until the motivation to test goes away. Even with a true absolute zero prevalence (if reached), the false positives alone will generate the hospital reimbursement income that will more than pay for the cost of testing.
I love that you pointed out that what we're seeing is STILL predicted by Hope-Simpson. This whole "experts are baffled" schtick is really wearing thin.
As you point out, it almost appears as if they are lying. The fundamental problem that you have pointd out many times - that thy do not adjust for testing levels - is made even worse by two other factors: (1) They continue to report PCR test results as if they were "cases" and (2) They report them as "new cases". They try to convince the populaton that these are incidence rates, when they are actually estimating prevalence rates (of positive test results - not infections). People believe that thousands of "new cases" are occurring every day. The "pandemic" appears to never end. What a disgrace!
Table 3 shows the types of health conditions and contributing causes mentioned in conjunction with deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The number of deaths that mention one or more of the conditions indicated is shown for all deaths involving COVID-19 and by age groups. For over 5% of these deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned on the death certificate. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 4.0 additional conditions or causes per death. For data on deaths involving COVID-19 by time-period, jurisdiction, and other health conditions...
You know there's something wrong when you're in the middle of what they purport is a pandemic worthy of hysterical, draconian measures, and the only thing they seem to care about are "cases," not deaths, not hospitalizations, but cases. Because if you talk about deaths and hospitalizations, you get the picture that we are pretty much through this and have been since roughly the beginning of the year, especially in places that stayed open, put one foot in front of the other, and just dealt with it like adults.
Part of the testing is attributed to hospital-required mandatory testing of all (or most) patients that get admitted. Certainly every elective surgical case is required to get tested prior to surgery. I believe this is true in all states but certainly here in crazy California. Additionally, as everyone knows, the hospitals are incentivized to test ($$$) and will not stop until the incentivization goes away. Thus, we will continue to have a static level of tests done despite a near-zero prevalence, and it will not end until the motivation to test goes away. Even with a true absolute zero prevalence (if reached), the false positives alone will generate the hospital reimbursement income that will more than pay for the cost of testing.
It’s obviously not about a virus.
I love that you pointed out that what we're seeing is STILL predicted by Hope-Simpson. This whole "experts are baffled" schtick is really wearing thin.
As you point out, it almost appears as if they are lying. The fundamental problem that you have pointd out many times - that thy do not adjust for testing levels - is made even worse by two other factors: (1) They continue to report PCR test results as if they were "cases" and (2) They report them as "new cases". They try to convince the populaton that these are incidence rates, when they are actually estimating prevalence rates (of positive test results - not infections). People believe that thousands of "new cases" are occurring every day. The "pandemic" appears to never end. What a disgrace!
And this week, the CDC came out with this news...
Comorbidities and other conditions
Table 3 shows the types of health conditions and contributing causes mentioned in conjunction with deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The number of deaths that mention one or more of the conditions indicated is shown for all deaths involving COVID-19 and by age groups. For over 5% of these deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned on the death certificate. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 4.0 additional conditions or causes per death. For data on deaths involving COVID-19 by time-period, jurisdiction, and other health conditions...
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm?fbclid=IwAR1f60yy6TzKSx4cRXoD7aOStG9xHDiYNSfdzjr-P5HU1OZh6tnYNj5H5D8#Comorbidities
The tests are not random....... therefore I question whether they infer a population statistic.
So we've moved on from Dan Rather's "fake but accurate" to "accurate but fake."
Quite an improvement.
Meanwhile, data-free articles abound, like CNN's https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/05/health/cdc-model-covid-19-cases-study/index.html
It's as if they can't permit themselves to report good news without trying to scare us with what might happen.