A Covid-19 Review

There are a lot of diseases caused by human viruses. These can be deadly to most infected by the virus, such as Ebola, or to those with weakened immune systems who are unable to cope with the symptoms. There are several groups of viruses such as Herpes Simplex, Hepatitis, Dengue and Yellow Fever, Rhinoviruses, Rotaviruses, Noroviruses, and of course Influenza. Vaccines are available for some, but not all. For example, there are no vaccines for any of the Common Cold viruses. 

Before we continue we should quickly review two items; what is the “immune system” and what is a “vaccine”?

The human immune system is the bodies natural defence system against germs, whether viruses, bacteria, fungi or parasites. While there are multiple mechanisms within the body, including the skin which acts as a protective barrier, an important part are special cells in our blood stream, white blood cells. These attack abnormal cells, antigens, then damage and kill those cells using antibodies. They are key players when infected by viruses. But the body may take too long creating antibodies in reaction to antigens and thus we die. This is where vaccines come in. They stimulate the immune system to react to a weakened or killed form of the germ and in doing so get the body to create the antibodies needed to rapidly defend itself, if and when a person becomes infected with the fully active germ. In effect they “kick start” the immune system so that it is in full readiness to repel and destroy the new germ.

While vaccines are important tools in ensuring the largest number of people are fully prepared to fight a new germ there is a downside. Some viruses are always evolving such that the immune system is unable to recognise the antigen and thus must start from scratch the process of creating appropriate antibodies and thus a vaccine is unattainable.

Enough of a brief preamble. Let us look at the current situation in Ontario. As of July 12^th there have been 2,722 deaths reported that are attributed to Covid-19. Note that I am not going give the number of “cases” as that number is irrelevant as it reflects the number of people tested, not those who may be infected. Of those deaths, 1,730 were residents of Long Term Care (LTC) Homes, or 64% of all deaths attributed to Covid-19. In order to compare these numbers with others we need to normalise and the typical method is to report as deaths per million. First let us set the bar; in 2018, in Canada, there were 8,511 deaths attributed to flu/pneumonia, or 232 per million. Here in Ontario with the number of deaths per day well below 10 (on July 14^th it was 1) we are almost out of the woods and the total normalises to 189 per million (120 per million in LTC Homes and 69 per million not) or 20.4% less than the number of deaths from the flu/pneumonia in 2018.

To see a visual representation of the statistics for Ontario go to https://covid-19.ontario.ca/data. The two graphs to pay most attention to are: Daily Deaths, and Cases by Age. The latter is very revealing! Only 36 people under the age of 50 succumbed to Covid-19 in all of Ontario! That is a very insignificant number! Meanwhile 69% of all those that died were 80 or older. Did they die from Covid or was it just the last straw?

What conclusions can we draw from the above? First, while the initial lock down may have been warranted since we knew very little about this particular virus, it didn’t take long for the evidence to begin piling up that it was not the scourge it was first made out to be. Early evidence included the reports on the quarantining of the Diamond Princess cruise ship and the US Navy aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt. In the former about 10% ended up being infected and all who died were the elderly (70 years or older). For the latter approximately 20% were found to have been infected by the virus with no reported deaths. With the epidemic pretty much over there is no longer any evidence that any lock down conditions should even remain in place.

In closing I want to note that a significant number of people, who under normal circumstances, are pretty level headed, are so caught up in the fraud this “pandemic” has turned out to be that even with the glaring evidence that it is pretty much over, want to force people to wear masks. This is the dark side of what we have experienced; it has brought out the Fascist tendencies (a tendency toward, or actual exercise, of strong autocratic or dictatorial control) in so many, especially in Government worldwide. Here in Canada we have had our Rights and Freedoms that supposedly were guaranteed to us in our Constitution revoked with no push back by the general populace and cavalierly accepted by all political parties. To think that the last World War was fought against Fascism and here we are in the throws of accepting it without thought or care! The world George Orwell forecasted in his book, 1984, is almost upon us. If you have never read it, you should do so very soon before it gets “cancelled” like so much else we had previously taken for granted as being a citizen of a “free” country.