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Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Coronavirus Reality Check


From First Things:
On March 16, Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London predicted a coronavirus death toll of more than two million in the United States alone. He arrived at this number by assuming that infection would be nearly universal and the fatality rate would be high—a terrifying prospect. The next day, Stanford epidemiologist John Ioannidis sifted through the data and predicted less widespread infection and a fatality rate of between 0.05 and 1.0 percent—not that different from the common flu. 
The coronavirus is not the common flu. It has different characteristics, afflicting the old more than the young, men more than women. Nevertheless, all data trends since mid-March show that Ferguson was fantastically wrong and Ioannidis was largely right about its mortal threat. 
But Ferguson’s narrative has triumphed, helped by our incontinent and irresponsible media. A young doctor in Wuhan died—COVID-19 must be dangerous and deadly for everybody. Hospitals in Italy are overwhelmed—we are witnessing a pandemic of epic proportions. China succeeded with draconian methods of mass quarantine—these must be our only hope of protection against the coming disaster. 
By the end of March, most of the United States had been locked down. Tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs. More than $6 trillion has been spent to save society from complete collapse. Relentless warnings have whipped the populace into frenzies of fear. All of this to contain a disease that, as far as we can tell at this point, is not significantly more fatal than the flu.

2 comments:

  1. We have turned the planet into a prison.

    Now I see that MacDonald's is refusing to re-open. O.K. I see... do not rehire your workers that lost their jobs. Just keep the very, very long lines going around your buildings and maximize profits.

    We all lose - because of the lockdown. Registered nurses, have certainly lost plenty in the psychological and enjoyment of the job.

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  2. Dr. Andrew Bostom, Academic Associate Professor of Family Medicine at Brown University and internist MD and author of several books on Islam and Antisemitism...joined Frank Gaffney's Secure Freedom Radio Episode 1784 to discuss the SARS-Cov2 pandemic w/sobriety & w/out hysteria via Simplecast.com
    Part 1
    Part 2
    Part 3

    https://twitter.com/andrewbostom/status/1255202414308851713

    ReplyDelete