The deeper stock markets plunge, the louder the calls for v-shaped recoveries, and the shriller the exclamations that “it’s just the flu, bro” suggesting the global panic is overdone.
But… with confirmed cases now topping 100,000 and the death count rising exponentially, there is a major difference between their fatality rates…
“Globally, about 3.4% of reported COVID-19 cases have died,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press briefing at the agency’s headquarters in Geneva.
In comparison, the seasonal flu generally kills far fewer than 1% of those infected, he said.
However, that hides the real risk of the “it’s just the flu” Covid-19 pandemic.
As the following chart shows – and should put to death (pun not intended) any belief this is just a rougher flu – the fatality rates for older people is extremely high…
Specifically, the fatality rate for South Koreans aged 65+ is 14.42% of the total population, and for Italians aged 65+ is 22.75% of the total population.
World “authorities” admit they don’t know much about this virus, yet are hopeful it can be contained. Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s health emergencies program, said Monday that the coronavirus isn’t transmitting the same exact way as the flu and health officials have been given a “glimmer, a chink of light” that the virus could be contained.
“Here we have a disease for which we have no vaccine, no treatment, we don’t fully understand transmission, we don’t fully understand case mortality, but what we have been genuinely heartened by is that unlike influenza, where countries have fought back, where they’ve put in place strong measures, we’ve remarkably seen that the virus is suppressed,” Ryan said, according to CNBC.
In other words: “no, it’s not ‘just like the flu, bro!”
Additionally, as Lawrence Solomon notes, you shouldn’t believe everything you read about flu deaths…
The CDC unabashedly decided to create a mass market for the flu vaccine by enlisting the media into panicking the public. An obedient and unquestioning media obliged by hyping the numbers, and 10 years later it is obliging still.
The CDC’s decision to play up flu deaths dates back a decade, when it realized the public wasn’t following its advice on the flu vaccine. During the 2003 flu season “the manufacturers were telling us that they weren’t receiving a lot of orders for vaccine,” Dr. Glen Nowak, associate director for communications at CDC’s National Immunization Program, told National Public Radio.
“It really did look like we needed to do something to encourage people to get a flu shot.”
The CDC’s response was its “Seven-Step ‘Recipe‘ for Generating Interest in, and Demand for, Flu (or any other) Vaccination,” a slide show Nowak presented at the 2004 National Influenza Vaccine Summit.
Here is the “Recipe that fosters influenza vaccine interest and demand,” in the truncated language that appears on his slides:
“Medical experts and public health authorities [should] publicly (e.g. via media) state concern and alarm (and predict dire outcomes) – and urge influenza vaccination.” This recipe, his slide show indicated, would result in “Significant media interest and attention … in terms that motivate behavior (e.g. as ‘very severe,’ ‘more severe than last or past years,’ ‘deadly’).”
Other emotive recommendations included fostering “the perception that many people are susceptible to a bad case of influenza” and “Visible/tangible examples of the seriousness of the illness (e.g., pictures of children, families of those affected coming forward) and people getting vaccinated (the first to motivate, the latter to reinforce).”
The CDC unabashedly decided to create a mass market for the flu vaccine by enlisting the media into panicking the public. An obedient and unquestioning media obliged by hyping the numbers, and 10 years later it is obliging still.
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
HHS has apparently pulled 0.1% out of their ass and claimed that is the mortality rate – which is directly refuted by the best data available, from South Korea (as is the claimed CFR of 3.4, BTW – minimum 5%).
I don’t know if they are completely incompetent or just lying for a paycheck, though I suppose these things aren’t mutually exclusive,
I wonder if they’re taking pointers from the Chinese government on falsifying statistics?
Anyone looked at deaths from a month ago, and deaths from today to figure a doubling time for this thing?
Should make a handy, quick, worst case estimate for the year.
Hold on
Obongo will sit next to them on a bus and cure them all
He was so wonderful. What’s a disease anyways.
Just another way to reshape (destroy) which according to him was needed Will be a different world alright.
My brief experience with academia is that it is a combination of lying for a paycheck and incompetence. This is easy to pull off in such an ignorant society.
It’s just the flu, bro.
But you keep listening to a guy that looks like this-
Just the Flu: Save the Masks for Us.
The real flu truthers?
CDC Flu stats say flu mortality is 6.5%
But who’s counting?
CDC: 80,000 people died of flu last winter in U.S., highest death toll in 40 years
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEPTEMBER 26, 2018
That first link says 2 deaths per 100,000 and 6,515 total deaths. That isn’t 6.5%.
The second link says they are guessing about the 80,000 number. Probably because the flu vaccine makers pay them.
Is good to see people clicking the links. Nice work. You passed.
They probably subsidize the Weekly U.S. Flu Surveillance Report too.
It is just the flu. Reported cases are not the same as total cases. A huge number of people are either asymptomatic carriers or only have mild symptoms. As such, they never get tested. For the most part, only the truly ill are being tested, which makes the death rate appear higher then it really is.
@ General,
I was going to make a similar point regarding false reporting and using an unreasonably high death rate for flu.
From the article:
What good are any stats if the testing/reporting is bogus?
This is why… buyer beware.
Above the “Flu Season” Pharmaceutical sales graphic, we have:
below it we get:
“Specifically, the fatality rate for South Koreans aged 65+ is 14.42% of the total population, and for Italians aged 65+ is 22.75% of the total population.”
Which, as of Wednesday, gives us a total of 18 dead elderly Italians, and as of Monday, 3 elderly Koreans.
But,
‘In other words: “no, it’s not ‘just like the flu, bro!”’
No, it isn’t. It will (my guess) probably end up being about 3 times worse than the 2018 flu (which was about twice as bad as most flus). Which, under other circumstances would be a huge deal, whether we’re talking about a virus, or 6 times the normal number or heart attacks in one year, or traffic fatalities.
Nevertheless, it’s not Captain Trips.
In Tyler’s mind it’s also apparently unlike the flu in that
1. We SHOULD believe everything we read about Covid-19 cases and deaths
2. There won’t be a vaccine and no one’s working on one, OR, alternately, if there is one it will be totally free (not even at taxpayer expense, so no one will profit from its administration) and
3. Neither the WHO, nor CDC, nor MSM, nor ZeroHedge will hype the numbers to panic the public.
And, talking about overall mortality is also VERY deceptive … I think everyone would acknowledge that fatalities are heavily skewed toward the aged. So, quit lumping teenagers (really, anyone under 50’ish) w/ the elderly when you discuss this. If you are 60+, your risk is getting significant and every year or every complicating condition you have on top of that raises the risk very much higher.
yeah but that makes maffs eben harder
How about a neologism: “math-a-batics”?
I am reminded of the scene in
Absence of Malice
Q: ‘That’s true, isn’t it?’
A: ‘ No, but it’s accurate.’
Perhaps better to just leave it: “Figures don’t lie, but some liars sure figure.”
Good point…..I also like this idiotic statement, ” the fatality rates for older people is extremely high…”
(Insert face palm meme here). Newsflash genius– the fatality rate for older people is ALWAYS higher, some call it mortality…….
Of those who have died so far, 100% have been quarantined. Think about that. Because that’s one hell of a stat.
But, the number of deaths has not been falsely reported?
It’s like looking out your window through a straw. This was the point I was going to make. Of those who have died from the flu, did 100% of those deceased have the flu? What percentage of the dead were hospitalized, 80%, 90%, 100%? And was it really the flu that killed them or other underlying factors? Was it flu or pneumonia? Because many of the stats (and articles that we read) conflate these. And how many of those hospitalized with pneumonia, survive?
In the same 100,000 population, anyone can pull stats to
tell different storiespromote various narratives.But who do we believe and why? Occam’s Razor? Or is nothing as it seems? These are the questions we should constantly be asking ourselves. Now more than ever. Because if I ruled the world I could set it ablaze tomorrow with this headline (and not be lying; it’s new because the name is new):
New FLUMONIA Kills 20%+ of Those Quarantined or Hospitalized
I think pneumonia is what kills many flu sufferers. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-does-the-flu-actually-kill-people/
Actually, Old Age kills many flu suffers.
I don’t know yet whether it is a real threat or just a lot of hype, but I do know that it will be used by the NWO to implement their agenda (vaccines, medical tyranny, etc.). It is also being used to perform a controlled demolition of the economy so that the coronavirus can take the blame for the Everything Bubble popping instead of Fed (intentional) mismanagement over the last 15-20 years. The recession/depression and mismanagement of the coronavirus crisis will also be used to ensure Trump loses in November.
Uppity China and Backwater, Russia acting up?
Release the FED Kraken!
0.66% intraday!
So, the article is hinting that this is an Anti-Boomer Millennialist plot? /s/
Damn Millennials can pay for their own damn testing! Get off my lawn!
The government will probably just let them add the cost of the test to their student loans.
Student loans are just the old indentured servitude scam, when you get down to it. So, it is really doesn’t matter where you insert more theft.
I think all of this hand wringing about the Corona Virus is hyped-up bullshit, unless you’re Asian for whom this thing was engineered for. What do I base my opinion on? If CNN, MSNBC, and all of the other MSM are screaming 24 and 7 about how bad it’s going to be and how it’s going to be The Orange Man’s fault, YOU AUTOMATICALLY KNOW IT’S ALL LIES. None of those organizations tell the truth, as they are America’s “Pravda” and “Izvestia”.
The 2017-18 flu season in the United States had 79,400 deaths … and I don’t remember reading about it even once …
Just sayin’ …
Well, even I accept your point … it only goes so far.
Perhaps before preening it around like a peacock you should wait to see what the final figures are in a couple years.
Americans should put as much effort into avoiding diabetes as they’re putting into corona virus obsession.
I have no opinion on what is actually happening with the kung flu. Western Rifle Shooters had some scary links today.
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/
Test for subscription hot link.
Email to confirm subscription has a dead link.
Hmmm… well, it’s a LOT more dangerous than the flu, IMHO.
Let’s look at some stats from HERE from Italy for just today so far:
1,247 new cases and 36 new deaths in Italy [source]
Percentage of deaths by age group:
90+ years old: 6% of deaths
80 – 89 years old: 42% of deaths
70 – 79 years old: 35% of deaths
60 – 69 years old: 16% of deaths
– Among the 5,061 active cases, 3,218 (55%) are hospitalized, 567 of which (representing 11% of active cases) are in intensive care
You have to scroll down to get the details by country and by day on the page…. yesterday looked just as bad for italy. It seems like it’s more serious in some countries than others…. My guess is that italy has the more serious strain spreading than say s. korea.
I believe the really bad part of this is that between 50 and 60% of cases need to be hospitalized….
cases they know about, that is.
This post aged well. In fact, Brandon flu czar Klain just basically said, it’s just the flu, bro.