We Are in A World War

 

We are amidst a world war, the first since the last one ended in 1945. First the good news. Rather than having soldiers wage mortal combat against one another, instead we are having politicians and the major media making battle using propaganda enforced by our supposed “legal” system. Laws are being invoked based on nothing but what has turned out to be an outright fraud. Supposed “journalists” are supporting this fraud by engaging in what has been described as “panic porn”. Thankfully, this is a war of words rather than wholesale death. That last may appear ironic in that it got started with grossly pessimistic modelling estimates of the impact of a newly identified virus with those models predicting millions of dying from this virus.

It is sad to report that no one validated those models by inputting historical data and seeing if it would predict the actual trends. Admittingly at the time in January the models were based on widely speculative suppositions that have proven to be totally false. These include that the new virus was very deadly and that it easily spread such that a significant portion of the population of the world would be infected and an abnormally large number would die.

Then reality started to show itself but has been ignored by politicians and media who instead were encouraging this war on humanity. It was not helpful when China, the source of the virus, clamped down on the sharing of information which encouraged the panic that was then just arising. Then hard evidence began to appear. One of the first was the instance of the Diamond Princess cruise ship upon which this new virus appeared as an infected person had boarded. The ship was quarantined to contain the contagion. In the end, and this has been documented by the CDC among others, in a report published March 9 of the 3,711 people on the ship about 17% were found to have been infected and about 0.4% died. Of the latter all were over 70 in age.

Next to expose the actual face of this virus was that of the US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt. Out of a crew of about 4,800 about 600 were found to have tested positive for this new virus, or 12.5% of all onboard. In the end 1 person died.

With this information beginning to pop up amongst the efforts to “flatten the curve” by imposing a lock down and the infringement of what we had, up till then, thought were “fundamental” rights and freedoms few took this contradictory information seriously. Instead this war on our freedoms was increased in intensity, all under the guise of “protecting our health”.

Here we are four and a half months after the lock down was imposed pretty much worldwide with few exceptions. One of those exceptions is Sweden. There the chief epidemiologist took an interesting path. Rather than forcing people to isolate themselves he recommended that, other than maintaining good hygiene and separation of at least a metre (as that is the approximate distance that saliva droplets can be expelled when speaking), nothing needed to be done and allowed  the human immune system do its job, just as we do for the common flu.

I have taken the time to compile the numbers from available sources (Statistics Canada, Heath Canada, BC Center for Disease Control, Ontario and Quebec Ministries of Health and the Public Health Agency of Sweden). The numbers focused on were deaths and cases. Admittingly the latter doesn’t mean much in that it reflects only those who were tested, or it was assumed they were infected. For comparative purposes I also located and downloaded data for the flu with the most recent numbers being for 2017 and 2018. These flu numbers provide a base line on how deadly Covid-19 is and how contagious one is compared to the other.

The results are conclusive; the lock downs and the fears being propagated by politicians and media alike, are totally unfounded! Here is a chart showing the results:

After normalising all data sets by relevant population resulting in numbers per million of population these data sets were combined into one chart. The first observation is that the flu, for both 2017 and 2018 has been more deadly across all age groups than Covid-19. Sweden, thanks to its absence of lock down, allowed the full population to become exposed to this new virus and the results show that, like the flu, the elderly are the most susceptible to dying as a result of being infected. Yet Covid-19 is not as deadly, even for the aged, as the flu. Here in Canada we managed to shield a significant number of people from becoming exposed to the virus such that the death rate is about a third due to the flu.

What conclusions can we draw? First keep in mind what we have always done to “fight” the flu. Other than recommending that the most vulnerable take a flu vaccine, no extraordinary measures were taken. The flu is an accepted risk. Covid-19 is not as deadly as the flu nor is it more virulent. Both are facts supported by real data, not an opinion. Yet we have had politicians thrust upon us unreasonable and, as has been shown, unwarranted restrictions to our freedom and this was encouraged by the media who did nothing to investigate if any of that was warranted! And what have we done ourselves? With rare exception we have acted like compliant sheep to the point that I for one am ashamed of my fellow human beings who show so little regard for what our forebearers fought and died for; our freedom.

These are Still Surreal Times

The following was published in the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal on July 24, 2020.

In the first month of The “pandemic” lockdown I, when asked what I thought about what was going on, often responded that it was “surreal”;  a time marked by an intense irrational reality as if in a dream. Why is that you ask? There was no rational thought being applied. For example, when it first became well established that Wuhan, China, was the epicentre of a previously unknown virus what did the government of Canada do? They proposed chartering aircraft to ferry Canadian citizens from there, and elsewhere in China, back to Canada. You know, take people that may have been exposed and now are potential carriers of the contagion and bring it back with them to our home country. That was near the end of January. And what did our dastardly neighbour south of us do at the same time? They shut the border down to all traffic to and from China, a rational move. Unfortunately for all involved fewf other countries shut down contact with China in a timely manner and so it spread in all directions.

Soon after an issue related to what is now described as Covid-19 was: “should people wear face masks”? A rational response would have been yes. We all know that medical personnel, including dentists, wear masks whenever there is a chance that they can pass on a pathogen to their patient; it is not to protect them from the ill, especially if the issue is a virus which is so small that on its own very few masks, only if worn properly, can stop them. But viruses can be spread in drops of moisture when you speak, cough or sneeze and those drops can easily be captured by those same masks. What did our “experts” say? As WHO reported on their website:  "if you are healthy, you only need to wear a mask if you are taking care of a person with suspected [COVID-19] infection." While at face value that statement has a grain of truth, at the time people who were infected yet were not showing any signs of that infection and so thought they were “healthy. Plus those who we knew who were infected were not asked to wear masks. That indeed was the time that we all should have been wearing masks when in public places! Over in Asia those countries all know this and without being ordered to, just about everyone did wear a mask and look at how that worked out; much fewer people died because of fewer being infected!

Come March, well after the virus had become established in Canada, we were put into lockdown. Note that at that time Sweden took a much more rational approach and just asked its populace to minimise travel and contact with others. Did things work out differently? No, they did not. Why would that be we all wonder? Here we were mandated by threat of penalty to not get closer than 2 metres of one another. A number seemingly plucked out of the air when all that was needed was to tell everyone to avoid physical contact as it was still uncertain at the time how this pathogen was transmitted. Another forced rule was the limit on the number of people in a group setting. Again, no rational reason why the number 5 was chosen. Why not 4, or 6 or any other number?

At that time too in just about every jurisdiction, especially here in Canada, hospitals were closed except for caring for those with serious problems brought on by Covid-19. The result? Near empty hospitals yet with people with non-covid issues told to wait until further notice because no matter what, their problem was not as important. People died as a result yet all that had to be done was to keep going as usual, other than suspected covid cases wearing masks to reduce the chance of sharing their special gift, and only if Covid-19 cases started to overwhelm, then cut back on other services. In other words, be flexible. To help us accept this irrational choice we are told to honour our “heroes” in the front-line medical services doing exactly what they are paid to do. The last time I checked a “hero”’ is someone noted for doing some special achievement, something over and above what was expected of them. That does not cover people doing exactly what they are paid to do.

Here we are, months after the lock down was enacted. Deaths from the virus, in this country is almost down to single digits; the end is almost upon us. So, what does the Thunder Bay District Health Unit do? Again, something totally irrational. They demand that masks or face coverings are required for indoor public spaces. At a time where there is 1 reported case within the District. When deaths are virtually non-existent during a time of year that our immune systems are working at their best? Most importantly, when virtually no one in the district is even carrying the virus?  Months after when such an order would have been logical? Like I said at the beginning, and I will say again; surreal. When did we as Canadians start going insane?

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.