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Comorbidities

medicalComorbidities is defined as: “…the presence of one or more additional conditions often co-occurring (that is, concomitant or concurrent with) with a primary condition.” In other words, at the time of death, was the deceased contending with more than one lethal medical condition?

Recently, the CDC published an update to their COVID-19 statistisc which said:

Table 3 shows the types of health conditions and contributing causes mentioned in conjunction with deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death. The number of deaths with each condition or cause is shown for all deaths and by age groups. 

The statement that caused a stir was the part that said, “For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned.” 

In other words, in 94% of the fatalities, the cause of death was something other than COVID-19. The Coronavirus was present, but it was not necessarily the cause of death. Rather, it was something akin to someone dying of a heart attack, but because they also had the Coronavirus, they were documented as a COVID-19 fatality.

The same statement goes on to say that, “For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death.” So, for those who are being documented as COVID-19 deaths, not only was it not the sole cause of death, in many of the cases there was more than one “morbidity.” On the average, they were contending with three potentially lethal conditions.

But regardless of how they died, they were documented as a COVID-19 death.

In 94% of the cases, COVID-19 was present, but it wasn’t the deal breaker.

Pause for effect…

This is incredibly significant, but what’s even more disconcerting is this:

Google Search for “CDC 6%”

When you click on that link you get any one of a number of websites that rush to maintain the idea that COVID-19 must be perceived as a lethal disease and that any other perspective is inevitably revealed as the result of overly simplistic thinking.

Take for example this article from Vox entitled, “Covid-19 Death Skepticism, Explained by a Cognitive Scientist.” In the article, those who read the recent CDC publication and walked away thinking that the death toll numbers have been exaggerated were not taking into consideration the way in which COVID-19, though not being the actual cause of death, is still a contributing factor in that it exacerbated the effects of the lethal disease that was already in place.

But that’s not really the point, is it?

No, the media hasn’t lied, but they haven’t been telling the whole truth. COVID-19 is lethal by itself only in rare situations. It proves to be genuinely problematic only in those scenarios where you already have one or two more terminal conditions.

Since March of this year, we’ve been treated to a non-stop parade of headlines and statistics that imply you are at risk of contracting a deadly virus, regardless of your health. The fact that you have a better chance of dying in a car wreck or the fact that there are treatments that have proven effective are consistently drowned out by the perpetual publishing of “death tolls” and “new cases.”

This is the message and the situation that justifies masks and the limitation, if not the obliteration, of businesses all over the country because it’s a pandemic and we need to be “working together.”

Not only is this is not a problem that justifies an entire population cowering in a corner, hiding behind a mask and avoiding any kind of activity that involves normal, human interaction in the context of a crowd. The real problem is that the media has been ethical only to the point of saying how many people have died. They haven’t made any attempt to quality the condition of the individuals who passed away, thus giving the impression that healthy people are at risk and the continued shut down of our nation is therefore justified.

Here’s what I think..

  • There are areas in our country that are seeing this virus affect their population in a way that requires hospitalization. Assist them, pray for them but don’t use them as situations that represent the nation as a whole.
  • Those who are risk need to take the necessary precautions and quarantine themselves, avoid crowds, wear a mask and take responsibility for their health.
  • Those who are not at risk need to get busy repairing the damage that’s been done by those who have maintained from the very beginning that normalcy is a liability. Go back to school, open your doors, take the mask off and move forward.
  • If you’re among those that are still convinced there’s reason to be concerned and you don’t want to give up your mask or your ability to work from home – provided you still have a job – I respect your concern, but I will ask that you respect my evaluation of the statistics and, again, remember that it’s not healthy people that are having a problem.
  • For those who are in decision making positions and fret over the possibility of opening things up and then someone contracting the virus and dying, ask everyone in your charge to sign a release that represents a willingness to assume responsibility for their health and not hold you or anyone else liable.

According to the CDC, of the 161,392 fatalities reported, only 9,683 actually died from COVID. Compare that to the fact in 2017, 20,000 people died from the Flu and we have a vaccine for that! If that’s the case, COVID-19 is less of a problem than the Flu and the content that’s being published in the media in an effort to better qualify CDC’s recent report isn’t being distributed for the sake of clarity…

It’s damage control.

Bottom line: COVID-19 is not a morbidity in and of itself. In 94% of the cases, it’s a comorbidity and while it’s appropriate to be sensitive to those who have one or more terminal conditions that can be worsened by COVID-19, being sensitive is not the same thing as being disengaged.

Coronavirus News Room

(Fade in on a conference room at a major news network headquarters. People are slowing filing in and taking their seats…)

Chief Editor: Alright, everybody. Let’s find a seat and get started. We’ve got something important to talk about…

Journalist (smiling): What’s happening in the world, today chief?

Chief Editor (without smiling): We’ve got word about a new kind of pneumonia called the “Coronavirus.” It gets passed on through saliva and mucus. It incubates for about three weeks before it even shows up in recognizable symptoms and most people will feel like they’ve got a cold for about two weeks and then make a full recovery.

Journalist: Why is that “news?”

Chief Editor: Because in some cases, it can be lethal.

Journalist: Well, the flu can be lethal. Why is this a big deal?

Researchers currently think that between five and 40 Coronavirus cases in 1,000 will result in death, with a best guess of nine in 1,000 or about 1%.

(BBC News)

Chief Editor: Because the flu is lethal only in 1% of reported cases. This has a 3.4% mortality rate, although most of those who pass away are elderly people with pre-existing conditions.

Random Journalist: Sorry, chief. I’m still not seeing why this is a headline. I remember reading that back in 2009 there were something like 60 million incidents of the Swine Flu. Something like 300,000 people got hospitalized and what – 17,000 people died? The Coronavirus doesn’t even begin to compare to that? Why does this have you so motivated?

Chief Editor: Because if we do this right, we can create a panic that’s founded more on what we say that what it is we don’t say.

(puzzled look around the room)

Chief Editor: Guys, we’ve been doing this for the last four years. Don’t look at me like I’ve got monkeys flying out of my nose.

Journalist: Well, give me an example.

Chief Editor: If we say that this is the “Corona Flu” what do you think?

Journalist: I think a runny nose and a splitting headache.

Chief Editor: Right. You don’t think of the 56,000 people that die from Influenza every year.

Look, let’s do this: Everybody get your tablets out and let’s document some ground rules. Abide by these guidelines and you’re going to get a green light from me every time.

#1) Never refer to it as the Corona Pneumonia. or the “Corona Flu.” Always refer to it as the “Coronavirus.”

Pneumonia or the Flu suggests something familiar that can be controlled. As long as you use “Coronavirus” or “COVID-19,” you maintain a feeling of uncertainty and fear that can be easily manipulated.

#2) Anytime you reference statistics, go for the larger number.

For example, if you’re talking about the number of mortalities, use the global body count and not the national number of deaths. Right now, we’re at 80 deaths in the US. Don’t say that. Always refer to the international statistic to keep uncertainty paramount.

Journalist: Chief?

Chief Editor: What?

Journalist: Stupid question, but IF the national number is mentioned, I’m assuming you want us to shy away from the fact that 60% of those deaths came from a Washington Nursing Home?

Chief Editor: I’m not even going to answer that. Moving on…

#3) Don’t talk about the recovery rate. Always refer to the number infected and, as mentioned previously, default to the more dramatic numbers.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says those that experience mild illness typically recover from the illness in about two weeks, while those who experience a more severe illness could take up to six weeks to recover.

#4) Encourage testing.

There are people who have it who aren’t even aware of it. They’ll recover and by that point they’re no longer a statistic that we can use. The more people you identify as being “infected,” the more threatening it becomes.

#5) Underscore anything that resembles the inability of the current healthcare system to handle the problem.

Anything that encourages people to place the Healthcare industry into the hands of the government is one more step towards socialized medicine.

#6) Encourage any kind of shutdown that could potentially damage the economy.

You can’t proclaim an objective “all clear” when most of what we’re looking at in the context of containment and “good health” is subjective at best. A vaccine is months away. If this continues, our economy will take a serious hit and that will reflect poorly on the current administration when it comes time to elect a new president.

#7) Don’t discuss anything about life after the Coronavirus.

Overwhelm the marketplace with as much information as you can about the current state of affairs. Don’t reference the fact that:

Journalist: Chief, this is all do-able, but there’s one person out there that’s been making some really valid points about the Coronavirus scare and he’s basically saying that all of this is a hoax designed to damage the American economy.

Chief Editor: So?

Journalist: A lot of people are listening to him…

Chief Editor: What’s he saying?

Journalist: Well, and I should say, it’s not just him. There’s a lot of people who’ve been sorting through all the hype and have been able to determine that the Coronavirus is a drop in the bucket compared to the number of people that get infected with the Flu every year.

Chief Editor: Alright, well, who is this guy? Why is he a “thing?”

Journalist: He followed up a tweet from Trump that said the Dems and the MSM were exaggerating the hype about the Coronavirus by saying, “As an MIT PhD in Biological Engineering who studies & does research nearly every day on the Immune System, the #coronavirus fear mongering by the Deep State will go down in history as one of the biggest fraud to manipulate economies, suppress dissent, & push MANDATED Medicine!”

Chief Editor: What’s his name?

Journalist: His name is Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai. He’s an MIT Biologist and he nails it, man! In one video he describes how the Coronavirus literally just ricochets off our cells provided you’ve got a healthy immune system. In another video, he calls out the CDC and the politicians and the pharmaceutical companies and says they’re all reading from the same script – saying that they’re intentionally ignoring the obvious and using the Coronavirus to damage the economy

Chief Editor: So?

Journalist: What do you mean, “So?” Rush Limbaugh referenced him last week and if you connect the dots, you’ll also find another article that talks about how the Coronavirus is part of the same family as the Flu and the Common Cold. At one point, the article says…

As WHO further observes: “Human coronaviruses are common throughout the world. The most recent coronavirus, COVID-19, was first identified in Wuhan, China and is associated with mild-to-severe respiratory illness with fever and cough.” But so is garden variety flu, which causes vastly more deaths every year in every nation than COVID-19 has shown itself to be capable of causing.

Yet the lying media breathlessly report “rising death tolls from the [sic] coronavirus” as if COVID-19 were the beginning of an apocalypse. As of this writing, there have been only 26 deaths from “the coronavirus” in the United States, 19 of them occurring in the same senior living facility in Washington State, while the common flu has already claimed 17,000 lives throughout the country since the current U.S. flu season began last October. (TechStartups)

Chief Edtior: Listen, I’m going to be late for another meeting. What are you getting at?

Journalist: I’m saying you’re fighting an uphill battle that could really damage our credibility. Anybody with a lick of sense is going to read this and know that we’re leaving some very relevant information out of your reporting.

Chief Editor: It doesn’t matter. By the time a lot of that other info sinks in, provided this works the way I think it can, we’ll have successfully shut down every public institution and that’s what we’re going for.

Journalist: Alright…

Chief Editor (looking at his watch): Ok..we good? Everybody knows what they need to do? (sighs) One more thing (pauses for effect). It’s not what we say, it’s what we don’t say. Do this right and we can create a problem that will be very hard to fix. Some businesses may even fail, people could lose their jobs and that’s serious stuff. But at the end of the day, it’s not about who loses as much as it’s about who wins.

(looks around the room)

We clear?

Meeting adjourned.