- Received in my message system
From N
I JUST LISTENED to the BBC World news. It opened by saying that the pandemic has infected a million people and killed 50,000.
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There IS a killer virus, but it is not Covid-19.
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It’s the BBC newsroom.
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The BBC, like many other branches of the mainstream media, opens each report with a stark, frightening update of the number of cases and the number of deaths.
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A MILLION PEOPLE!
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FIFTY THOUSAND DEATHS!
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But its hourly news bulletin always always always omits the vital elements of context that enable their listeners to work out the crucial piece of data: EXCESS DEATHS. How many are there? Are there… any?
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MISSING DATA
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1) The media has told us countless times already that 3,000 people died of the virus across China in the past four months.
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But it omits the fact that more than THREE MILLION people died of other causes at the same time in the same place over the same period.
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2) The media reported that there had been more than 400 coronavirus deaths in New York this year.
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And omitted the fact that there are normally more than 400 deaths in that city EVERY DAY.
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3) The media tells us that 14,000 people died of Covid-19 in this terrifying respiratory illness season in Italy.
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And omits the fact that the normal death rate from other respiratory diseases in that country in the season is about 17,000, and sometimes as high as 24,900.
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THE KEY: EXCESS DEATHS
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Omitting the context gives the media a bigger story, and prevents the public from doing the calculations that tell the true story: how many EXCESS deaths are there?
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Are there any?
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Take my city for example. We have the same panicked media reports focusing on numbers of cases here in Hong Kong.
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But the actual number of excess deaths from respiratory illness is LESS THAN ZERO. It is MINUS 242. The hygiene inspired by Covid-19 has lowered death rates.
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UK DATA
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Science writer Peter Andrews dug up the number of deaths in the UK in the first week of March last year.
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It was 10,898.
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Then he looked at the figure for the first week of March this year. “The equivalent figure was almost identical: 10,895,” he said.
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BIGGER PICTURE
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Statistician Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University found that if UK deaths are about 20,000 in total, Covid-19 will end up having ‘’a minimal impact on overall mortality for 2020.”
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“We have yet to see any statistical evidence for excess deaths, in any part of the world,” says Dr John Lee, writing in the Spectator, a UK publication.
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Did you hear that? IN ANY PART OF THE WORLD.
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THE REAL KILLER
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Here’s the kicker. In the long term, there WILL be a large number of excess deaths from what is happening now.
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Some may stem from Covid-19. Many will stem from the panic, or more specifically from:
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1) Lowered quality of life from unemployment.
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2) Delays in testing for more dangerous conditions, such as cancer.
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3) The health downturn from lack of exercise.
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4) Heart problems from a more sedentary life style.
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5) The rise in early deaths triggered by isolation.
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6) A jump in the suicide rate.
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7) The usual spike in deaths associated with economic downturns.
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And so on.
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BREATHE
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So the real answer to this problem is to stop overdosing on panicked reports from the torrent of misleading information from the woefully reckless mainstream media.
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Breathe. Get a grip. Calm your spirit in whichever way works for you: pray, meditate, sit and dream, read novels, walk in the forest.
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Be sensible. If there’s an epidemic of regular influenza or swine flu or pneumonia, you’d be careful, and you can react to Covid-19 with the same degree of care.
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HELP OTHERS
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People around you will be panicking. Calm them down. Help them. Buy masks for them, if that’s what helps, or cook them meals.
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Support businesses. Order food. Buy stuff online from small businesses. Enjoy the bluer skies and cleaner waters. Exercise sensibly and encourage others to do so.
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Help people get back to normality.
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If we all pull together, we can do what we can to turn this period into a positive one for humanity.
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Perhaps God, or Mother Nature, or the Spirit of Evolution (who of course are all the same person), is giving the present incarnation of human society a chance to step back and take a look at ourselves.
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Peace! |
