A VIRUS that arose in 2019, which did not cause anything like the predicted number of deaths, which posed virtually no risk to the vast majority and for which the measures implemented to manage it were demonstrably devastating to economies, businesses and lives is still news a whole six years later.
Covid-19 is history and even the weak-minded who masked up, socially distanced and stayed at home for the best part of three years are living relatively normal lives. Efforts to mask us up again arise from time to time, as exemplified by my own NHS Trust in Hull last week, and as reported in these pages at the end of last year.
But these are feeble, half-hearted efforts. The public health busybodies must know that they are exposed for what they are: fear-mongering fascists whose motivation is not to improve the health of the nation but to exert control over other people. If folk get healthier because of their actions, that's a bonus. What really makes them happy is seeing people do what they are jolly well told.
But the covid vaccine campaign continues apace and, barely into the new year, our old friend Global Health Now (GHN) is at it with a link to another familiar face, that of CIDRAP, straplined 'COVID continues to exact heavy toll on older US adults, study suggests'.
The word 'suggests' has clearly been at the gym over the holidays with a view to the heavy lifting it will still be expected to do in the year ahead when it comes to interpreting covid-related studies. As usual, the facts do not match the rhetoric.
Data for the article come from a study in JAMA Internal Medicine. As usual, I do not question the raw data presented in the study and the methods for data collection appear to be robust. Data for the study come from the COVID-19 Hospitalization Surveillance Network and are in the tens of millions. The data are undoubtedly representative.
The figures, covering 2022 to 2024, show that covid is still present, or 'Covid-19-associated illnesses' as they are described in the JAMA article. These data are gleaned from hospitalisations and outpatient visits. But what they do not show is how covid was diagnosed or whether people presented at hospital with some other condition and were then tested for covid which, as readers of TCW will be aware, exaggerates the extent of covid.
The JAMA article states: 'In 2023-2024, people 65 years and older comprised 17.7% of the total US population but accounted for 47.9% (95% UI, 27.1-66.9) of COVID-19-associated illnesses, 64.3% (95% UI, 53.1-73.4) of outpatient visits, 67.6% (95% UI, 65.9-69.2) of hospitalizations, and 81.2% (95% UI, 70.2-90.6) of deaths.'
The above is just a long-winded way of saying older people tend to get ill more often and tend to die more frequently than younger people. This was a cross-sectional study with no comparison group so whether those with 'Covid-19-associated illnesses' died more or were admitted more than those without is not reported.
The abstract of the JAMA article concludes 'the Covid-19 burden continued to have a large impact in the US, particularly among adults 65 years and older, underscoring the ongoing importance of prevention measures.'
As usual, all roads lead to 'prevention measures' despite the fact, as explained by Dr Claire Craig in her book Expired, prevention measures are virtually worthless. Of course, once 'prevention measures' rears its useless head the next sentence usually contains the word 'vaccine'. And, sure enough, in a commentary on the JAMA article, quoted from at length in CIDRAP, the vaccines-as-saviour narrative is brought to bear.
According to Dr David C Grabowski of Harvard Medical School, the covid vaccines 'are effective at preventing severe disease and death', which is nonsense. The vaccines are barely effective and also, as explained by Dr Claire Craig in her recent book Spiked, led to higher levels of covid in recipients compared with the unvaccinated. And that is before we take adverse effects, including death, into account.
Dr Grabowski laments that 'uptake among vulnerable populations has lagged' and 'vaccine hesitancy is common among nursing home staff'. Yes, sir, that is because most people are not as stupid as you think.
None of this is accidental. Covid now functions less as a disease than as a rhetorical device, a standing justification for authority without accountability. The danger is not that the public will panic again, but that institutions will never stop trying.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/covid-not-so-much-a-disease-as-a-fascist-device/