Imagine the panic our medical overlords, hand-wringing politicians, and a complicit media could create if they started treating the common rhinovirus like they are treating COVID-19 right now. For starters, maybe they change the name to something super-scary sounding, like COVID-20 (shudder). Then they start shouting from the hilltops about how deadly this thing is. To prove it, they start a massive ultra-sensitive testing regime whereby anyone with a scratchy throat is gaslit into getting a test, for which tens of thousands a day test positive and are subsequently quarantined for weeks. Finally, anyone who tests positive and dies, no matter how old or how sick they were and, if they recovered, no matter how far after recovering from COVID-20 their death occurred, is included on a daily “death count” that is published and reported on in every major media outlet seemingly every hour of every day. Given the infectivity and stubbornness of highly contagious respiratory viruses as well as the natural tendency of elderly people to die, this “death count,” and particularly the "case count" would literally be unending and probably reasonably steady for a long period of time, if not forever.
Obviously, you don’t have to imagine the panic that would ensue and the severity of the response, because we’re experiencing it every day of this 7-month-old dystopian nightmare, and there’s no end in sight. I outlined the scenario above because, as you’ve probably guessed, we could play that game with most any highly contagious virus, no matter how lethal or benign, and still just as easily convince Joe Biden to hide in his basement with his face muzzle wrapped around his eyeballs like a mummy.
Granted, COVID-19 is more dangerous overall than a common rhinovirus, especially to certain high-risk groups who by now know to be extra careful. But it’s also LESS dangerous than the flu to most others, particularly children and younger adults. Still, it’s difficult to know right now exactly HOW dangerous it is because we simply can’t trust their numbers, much less anything else that comes out of their lying mouths.
Remember the brouhaha over the news that only 6% of those who die with COVID-19 actually die FROM COVID-19 alone, that 94% have some sort of comorbidity in addition to the virus? Now, people on our side made a lot of hay over this, and I’ll admit some of it wasn’t entirely fair. A 55-year-old with asthma who dies after contracting coronavirus, for example, obviously should be listed as a COVID death, and it’s unfair to suggest otherwise. However, when we’re talking about cases like the 89-year-old who died in Milwaukee this month of “COVID-19” according to a death certificate that also lists dementia, hypertensive & atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and chronic renal failure, it begins to strain credulity. Or how about the 91-year-old female who had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and dementia, or the morbidly obese 76-year-old with chronic renal failure, diabetes mellitus, and asthma?
Sure, the motorcycle accident “COVID deaths” make the news from time to time, but it increasingly seems like the people who were on their last legs already are the real death-count drivers here. For example, Fox News aired a report last week on what has been uncovered in Milwaukee County, and it’s beyond stunning. Specifically, 410 out of 422 deaths attributed to COVID-19 occurred in patients with potentially deadly underlying conditions. Forget 94% - this is 97%, and most had at least two to three, if not five or six underlying, potentially deadly comorbidities. And even more striking, several weren't even tested before being listed as having had the virus based on symptoms alone, yet ALL had COVID-19 listed as a cause of death. When you add that to the fact that COVID death count procedure is to count everyone who dies at some point after contracting COVID-19 as a COVID-death regardless of whether or not they recovered from the virus infection itself, again, it’s hard to trust their numbers.
So, on the one hand, the hand that appears to be winning the policy debate right now, there are those who want COVID-19 to be essentially blamed for any death even remotely associated with the virus. It’s difficult to say what their motivations are, besides loving raw power and wanting to hold onto as much of it for as long as possible. If cornered, they’d probably say they legitimately view the virus as an existential threat and see no harm in overstating the actual threat if it convinces people who may not otherwise take precautions to follow orders and mandates without question. This was likely the Nashville mayor’s ‘logic’ for failing to reveal the low COVID numbers tracked to bars in order to keep a lid on arguments against their continued closure. Of course, the problem with distorting reality like this is that there are other consequences, to livelihoods, to societal norms, to human-to-human interactions, and even to public health and ultimate mortality.
On the other hand, there are certainly some who want to downplay the virus and pretend it doesn’t exist and/or that it’s not dangerous. I’ve been accused of this, as have many others on ‘Team Reality,’ but for me and all the legitimate truth-tellers I know (if you haven’t yet, please check out and follow this fantastic Twitter list to follow them all at once and amplify their voices!), it’s an unfair charge. We know the virus is real and that it’s dangerous. However, we also know that it’s not dangerous to the majority of humans, and there are ways to protect and treat those to whom it IS dangerous without destroying the economy, crushing freedoms, and undermining society with useless measures like mandatory mask mandates.
Yes, it does appear that there have been excess deaths this year. Just how many have been caused by the disease itself versus the lockdowns, delayed medical treatments, suicide, depression, and other factors? It’s hard to say at this point. However, it’s also true that the vast majority of those who died of COVID would have likely been dead either this year or by the end of 2021. If not COVID, for many it would have been the next cold or flu that came their way.
For pointing this out, we’re accused of not caring about the elderly. But it’s entirely possible to care about the elderly and take reasonable steps to protect them, and also understand that there is a difference between the death of someone with decades left to live and that of someone in hospice with stage 4 cancer who already had a prognosis of two weeks. The Spanish flu killed 50 million people worldwide and 675,000 in the United States. The average age of death was 28 years old. Compare this to COVID, for which the median age of death is at or greater than the average human lifespan (yes, young people can die, but again it’s at a rate lower than the flu). Obviously, it’s a tragedy to anyone who loses a loved one, as is any disease that takes someone even a few hours before they should have gone. But let’s not pretend it’s the same thing, because it’s not. A disease that took children would be far more feared than COVID-19 is, and for good reason.
The truth is, in two years COVID-19 will be a statistical blip when it comes to the number of people alive on the planet. Yet, the damage and suffering we have caused with our overbearing response could last for decades.
Follow Scott on Twitter @SKMorefield, Parler @smorefield and Facebook
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