The Cult Of The Mask: Coronavirus Update XLIII

IF MASKS WORK, WHY DON'T MASKS WORK?

https://twitter.com/duke_canuck/status/1334687960764182528

https://twitter.com/ianmSC/status/1332387371308916737

https://twitter.com/ianmSC/status/1336061330059526144

There are dozens of pictures like this, just are there are dozens upon dozens of formal studies showing masks don't work, here and here, and here (a long list).

The burden of proof is entirely on those who make masklessness a crime: they are imposing, we are not. I have no obligation, none whatsoever, to show masks do not work. But, we have more than enough evidence they do not. Mask compliance in high. In NYC, it's almost 100%. Same is true in many places. It can't go higher.

Masks are pure superstition. People think it is "obvious" they work because they "cover" the face. No objection evidence can penetrate this false belief. Masks are magic and that is that. Only bad people, unbelievers and heathen, don't wear them.

It's winter that's upon us. What "cured" coronavirus in the summer, here and abroad? What is causing it to surge again in winter? Why do flu and pneumonia peak every winter without exception (see below)?

Governor DeSantis of Florida has remained strong, in spite of a hersterical media response, a concerted effort to get him to cave. Pray that he holds out against the onslaught of Panic 2.0.

BOOK UPDATE

The big news is that we have sold out of the second printing of the book: The Price of Panic.

E-book and audio book versions are still available. Rumor is a third printing is being considered.

https://twitter.com/billwaltonshow/status/1335587951959543809

Website of similar name: price of panic.

THE NUMBERS

Sources: daily tests, CDC official toll number one, number two (the old weekly file, now suspect). Deaths by age. Covid & flu. WHO flu tracker. All current as of Monday night.

Daily tests:

This is the number of daily tests. The date of the media's (COVID Tracking Project) peak attributed deaths is noted: attributed deaths have been steadily declining since then (they will never go to 0).

There's good and bad news. Good: the increase in testing ended. Bad: because we're entering Panic 2.0 and people are staying away from hospitals again, unless the fear COVID.

Notice where the peak of COVID deaths were? Testing levels have nothing to do with the actual state of the disease.

Each positive test in the media is counted as a new "case". These are almost all not cases, but merely positive tests, which indicate past infections, current by mild infections, asymptomatic infections, and even no infections at all. False positives.

If testing was at all related to actual deaths, a plot of number of tests per number of deaths should be somewhat flat, all things considered. Here's what the plot looks like in reality:

The CDC's COVID deaths (rescaled only to aid in visualization) are there as a guide. Testing continues to soar even as deaths sink to background level. We have lost any sense of proportion.

Here are CDC the weekly attributed coronavirus deaths:

These are attributed deaths, which include all those dying with or dying from the coronavirus. The CDC says deaths "involving" COVID.

Attributed COVID deaths peaked early in the year, and then as it spread to the south, it re-peaked. It is now joining the great chorus of bugs that circulate every winter. It will peak in winter, and subside again in spring. This year's totals will be higher than next year's, and there always be fluctuation, just like with flu.

Here's the CDC weekly ALL CAUSE death counts, or the Perspective Plot. The late drop off is late counting, which takes up to eight weeks to get all, but most are in by three. We need to look at all cause deaths because we can't quite trust the COVID numbers.

The black line is all deaths, including COVID. Weekly deaths are now at a low, even COVID is small. The dashed is all deaths minus attributed COVID, and the red, for perspective, is COVID. (Again, the drop off is late counts.) The blue line, about the same order as the doom, is flu+pneumonia (it's the pneumonia that kills most flu patients).

IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND DEATHS ALWAYS INCREASE RIGHT AT THIS TIME OF YEAR, PEAKING IN JANUARY. DO NOT BE ALARMED.

The CDC (important!) stopped reporting separate flu and pneumonia deaths midway through 2020, but I estimate them after by subtracting deaths "involving" COVID from those "involving" (their word) pneumonia or flu or COVID. That's the dashed blue line.

Here is another way to look at the same data, week of the year all cause deaths, along with a model (black line) of what deaths would look like without COVID.

Ignoring the late counts, deaths are where we expect them to be.

CDC says "Flu activity is unusually low at this time but may increase in the coming months." Here's their picture of the flu tracking.

Flu has gone missing. Flu + pneumonia kill about 200,000 each and every year in the US. Not anymore. That is, we don't know any more, because nobody is bothering to check.

Here is the WHO's global flu tracker, showing the same thing:

These, like the CDC flu picture are not deaths or illnesses, but counts of positive tests made. Testing has disappeared, because all tests are COVID tests now.

Thus, if we focus only on COVID deaths, we lose all perspective. We can see above that deaths peak every January, because of our self-enforced wintertime lockdowns, when we all hunker down inside and spread bugs among ourselves. You may recall that this is also the "solution" many governments hit up to stop the spread of bugs.

Here is the CDC official population mortality rates for the all causes other than COVID, and "involving" COVID (with and of).

Here are the same population fatality rates in tabular form:

POPULATION FATALITY RATES
                 Age     COVID OtherCause
1       Under 1 year 0.0000077    0.00390
2          1–4 years 0.0000010    0.00017
3         5–14 years 0.0000011    0.00011
4        15–24 years 0.0000100    0.00066
5        25–34 years 0.0000400    0.00120
6        35–44 years 0.0001100    0.00190
7        45–54 years 0.0003100    0.00340
8        55–64 years 0.0007300    0.00740
9        65–74 years 0.0017000    0.01500
10       75–84 years 0.0042000    0.03600
11 85 years and over 0.0120000    0.11000

No matter what age, there is at least about a 10 times or larger chance of dying from something else then COVID.

About masks in depth, see this article and this one.

To support this site and its wholly independent host using credit card or PayPal (in any amount) click here