why are so many in the US now so sick?

because this surge in serious ER presentation does not look like covid

so, we’re finally getting the “hospital crisis” that so many covidians have been clamoring for. there’s only one eensy weensy pequeño problema: it’s not from covid.

THIS piece from NPR is incredibly telling. they lay out quite a lot of evidence that we have set our own house on fire, but fail to connect the dots. they ascribe iffy explanations devoid of substantiation and fail to explore the etiology of this situation. (which, frankly, looks REALLY interesting) so let’s dig in.

first let’s hear what they are saying:

now, we’re heard A LOT of stories like this and a great many seem to be false. but i checked it with the HHS tool.

the state as a whole looks pretty normal, perhaps a tad high for this time of year. mclaren hospital, less that 10 miles away from sparrow, has 7% of beds and 15% of ICU empty. so, they may have picked the local hospital showing most acute strain, but strain seems present, esp for this season.

they go on:

It's a stark contrast to where this emergency department — and thousands others — were at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Except for initial hot spots like New York City, many ERs across the U.S. were often eerily empty in the spring of 2020. Terrified of contracting COVID-19, people who were sick with other things did their best to stay away from hospitals. Visits to emergency departments dropped to half their normal levels, according to the Epic Health Research Network, and didn't fully rebound until the summer of 2021.

But now, they're too full. Even in parts of the country where COVID-19 isn't overwhelming the health system, patients are showing up to the ER sicker than they were before the pandemic, their diseases more advanced and in need of more complicated care.

Months of treatment delays have exacerbated chronic conditions and worsened symptoms. Doctors and nurses say the severity of illness ranges widely and includes abdominal pain, respiratory problems, blood clots, heart conditions and suicide attempts, among others.

they also claim this is a widespread issue:

Less acute cases, such as people suffering from health issues like rashes or conjunctivitis, still aren't going to the ER as much as they used to. Instead, they may be opting for an urgent care center or their primary care doctor, Cox explains. Meanwhile, there has been an increase in people coming to the ER with more serious conditions, like strokes and heart attacks.

nationally as in MI, hospitals have low covid counts.

so it seems an unlikely driver of the ER surge.

there is a fair bit of attribution to “neglect” and “more advanced disease” from having avoided care over the last year, but this seems like a tenuous claim lacking in evidentiary support.

what if it’s something else?

what if, for example, this surge in severe case presentation to ER’s with a rise in strokes, heart attacks, blood clots, and respiratory problems has a different etiology, one known to cause heart issues, heart damage, blood clots, and respiratory issues?

what if these are adverse reactions to a set of vaccines already known to have orders of magnitude worse side effect profiles than any other ever approved by the FDA?

does this look like a data pattern to ignore when seeking culprits?

it’s not such a crazy idea. we flat out KNOW that the vaccines cause clotting and cardiovascular issues. it’s been in the data for ages. and story after story keeps emerging.

interestingly, the first account i saw post this on the bluebird is now suspended…

but the story is real. the only question is “is this really rare”? well, perhaps not as rare as many would have you believe.

something caused this huge spike in ER presentation in germany at the beginning of may. (a spike that is not going back down but rather remaining elevated. more HERE)

and this timing looks awfully provocative. (as does the causal pathway as this is just how auto-immune issues from mRNA and adenovirus vaccines work and present)

i lack comparable data for the US (but would love to see it if someone has it).

there is an awful lot of powder smoke here for there to be no gun. covid was low and dropping in germany during that surge.

this finds interesting confluence with the vaccine studies themselves. they DID show efficacy in stopping covid deaths but this did NOT translate into improved all cause deaths performance. it was the same. (or slightly worse. pfizer L moderna R)

deaths avoided from covid were offset by deaths from other causes, often heart related.

and all cause deaths are higher in the age adjusted UK data in the vaccinated than the unvaxxed (or were back in may and june. best i can tell this is no longer reported.)

(data is all cause deaths per 100k per week on y, week of year for 2021 on x)

fully vaccinated folks saw all cause mortality rose into summer (which bucks typical seasonal pattern and was inverse to the pattern in the unvaxxed)

something odd was going on.

it was nearly an order of magnitude worse in those that got one shot but never a second. (likely a sign of severe adverse reaction)

this should raise a veritable briar patch of pointed questions and fever pitch data collection.

instead, we see story after story of VAERS reporting being suppressed.

“Nobody is considering that [these medical problems] could be vaccine-re­lated,” says an ICU nurse in a county hospital. “It’s not even in question. You might as well say you want to start treat­ing people with crystals and burning sage. If you say it’s the vaccine, they look at you and say, ‘It’s the safest thing ever produced. Why would you say that?’”

Yet, doctors are at a loss to explain the increase in non-COVID-related ailments, including a reported increase in heart at­tacks in young people, mainly men, who received the COVID-19 vaccines.

Doctors “just chalk it up to genes,” one nurse says.

even the certification authorities for the medical space are threatening doctors that question vaccines with the loss of their licenses. the board has become a truth ministry and they will not even define what the crime of wrongthink really means. this is the classic recipe for censorship: harsh penalty for undefined transgression.

this is not evidence based medicine. it’s politics based omerta.

i have never seen anything like it in my career.

you know it’s bad when even “politifact” has to weigh in with a “fact check.” that’s literally synonymous with “whitewash.”

and the loudest of the hectorers are going full bio-tyrant.

Hooman Noorchashm MD, PhD @noorchashm

In a stable plural civil society, when fear & extreme individualism veer into the kind of narcissism that poses a risk of harm to others & to the greater society, it becomes subject to government regulation. To deny this FACT in a republic is 2 not understand what a republic is.

pro tip: the key sign of such extreme, republic destroying narcissists is their iron bar certainty that they know what is best for everyone and their presumptive right to impose their views by force.

a republic is the right of the individual to say "no” and to be secure in his/her person and property, not of the state to force action up them for some conception of common weal.

it’s odd. perhaps it’s a function of my age, but, despite personally knowing easily 100 people who have had “the virus,” i do not know a single person who has died of covid or even been in hospital.

i know people who know such people, but personally i do not know any.

but i know dozens of people that have had severe vaccine reactions, many that are ongoing to this day. mercifully, none have died, but several have lasting ill effects from tinnitus to crippling heart issues and inability to breathe.

something smells fishier than lobster boat bilge-water around here.

i’m left with a simple question:

why, if this is so safe, is the data being suppressed?

why are doctors silenced, why is VAERS nerfed, why were breakthrough case reporting standards adulterated to prevent true data gathering and why, most of all, is no US agency reporting all cause deaths data by vaccination status (any vaxx vs no vaxx) in a way where we can see it instead of making stuff up, handwaving, and refusing to let anyone see the actual figures?

THE CDC CLAIMS HERE were a joke that made the mask tripe they have pushed look well substantiated.

this is EASY information to report and would be truly meaningful.

the idea that health officials lack the data to assess this issue is ridiculous. what they lack is the willingness.

instead, they distort and suppress and then speak in moral absolutes about the need to serve society by taking a high risk vaccine they themselves admit does not stop spread.

public health policy is built on trust.

but how is anyone to trust this?

we seem to be in this endless negative feedback loop where they lie more and more to cover the old lies and to try to “overcome vaccine hesitancy.”

but these lies are so transparent that they simply drive more distrust of vaccines and health officials alike.

how about instead they try a little honesty instead of another heaping plate full of manipulation?

how about we get data instead of claims that “we need to give the vaccines to kids to see if it’s safe to give vaccines to kids”?

these drugs likely make sense for some. they look like clearly negative expected value for many others.

they do not stop spread, so this is entirely a personal choice.

how about supporting us with the data to make good choices instead of this fun house mirror game of distortions and dissembling?

isn’t that what public health is supposed to be?