On Tuesday, cumulative US deaths from covid-19 crossed above 100,000. The worldwide casualties (that we know of) now exceed 350,000.
Whether or not we as a society can agree on the health risks of covid-19 or whether the national lockdowns it has triggered are worth the resulting economic damage, hopefully we can all agree that the global death toll from the pandemic is tragic.
Meanwhile, battle lines are being drawn between those arguing for vigilance against a second infection wave and those skeptical of the severity of the virus and the rationale for curtailing economic activity and personal freedom.
We’re entering a tense time when this discord and friction will increasingly manifest in arguments, shaming, mass demonstrations, and open resistance.
More than ever, it will be important to keep a level head and seek out unbiased sources that focus on data vs pushing a narrative or inflaming emotions.
We here at PeakProsperity.com will keep doing our best to serve as such a trusted source.
And don’t forget to get your free download of Peak Prosperity’s book Prosper!. Given its relevance to preparing for any kind of crisis, pandemic or otherwise, Chris and I are now making it available to the world for free during the covid-19 lockdown.
I hope you are wrong Chris… but I think you are probably not.
I can’t speak for anyone else but the shaming is getting old. For me anyway. Hell, I don’t even have much of a digital footprint (linkedin and a few forums) and I am tired of hearing it. It’s like I’m in grade school again only now I’m surrounded by a bunch of prudes and tattletales holding megaphones.
One good thing: Maybe all of these trouble makers will be too busy with online preening to cause much damage?
I know, wishful thinking.
Will
Many videos back, Chris talked about how the CDC’s own assessment of HCQ (from 2017) was very favourable, and he had a rather telling comparison assessment of the dangers of aspirin, but I can’t find either on the CDC site. I don’t know if they’ve been taken down or I’m just clueless at finding them, but if Chris still had the screen shots of them, could he make them available again? And also, I seem to remember way back when the first inklings of HCQ being useful came up, it was because some country, I think it was Italy, had noticed that some huge number of lupus patients who were already on HCQ had a very much lower CFR with COV19, as well as generally much milder cases. I seem to remember that this prompted some studies at the time. But again, I can’t find reference to them in any searches, so possibly my memory is wrong in some key points? Can anyone help? I’d really like to get some positive data accumulated to take to my own doctor and clinic here. I’m sorry - not trying to get out of doing the work - it’s just possible my (lousy) memory has skewed my search criteria.
I wanted to compliment Chris for stepping down with the amount of videos he is producing. A long-thought hard decision, but one that needed to be made. When your loved ones, your other work, and your health is suffering, letting go of something we love is both painful and revealing. And this is not the time to weaken our immune system.
Chris’ timeouts have been beneficial for me as well: no information overload, time to digest his latest video, and continuing my own research while I navigate a sea of conflicting information. As a rabid sceptic, I take everything with a grain of salt (yes, even what Chris says), keep an open mind, look at all sides. It’s all about the data.
If anything, I’ve discovered that Chris is far more qualified to discuss this topic than he admits: he has the schooling, consulting, and pharmaceutical experience. Maybe time to be a little less modest about what you bring to the table when confronted with people not even willing to have a discussion.
As a child we used to have drills at school where we had to hide under our desks. The Red Scare was everywhere. There were bomb shelters in every neighborhood.
People lost jobs because they were suspected of being RED ot PINKO
Very few propaganda narratives have gotten to such a fever pitch. (9/11, The Iraq war come to mind). HCQ is now the scourge of civilization. take it and you will die. Doctors can lose their license for prescribing it. Pharmacists can deny filling prescriptions. HCQ prescriptions must be accompanied with a reason for prescribing.
The media campaign is ubiquitous, controlled and relentless. Once well respected medical journals are now corrupted and research is not to be trusted. Researchers design studies destined to prove failure instead of finding the truth.
Five months ago HCQ was one of the safest drugs on the planet. Anyone could have gotten a prescription for it no questions asked. It is now demonized. It was on the WHO list of essential medicines.
The doctor patient relationship is no more. It has been replaced by the state/bureaucrat relationship which is a one way relationship of absolute control. It has taken the power to practice medicine out of the hands of physicians once and for all. The state now has declared it has complete dominion over our bodies. We will be tested / traced and issued or denied certificates of immunity. You don’t have to have one except if you want to fly, get on a train or any other form of public transportation. You will need it to get into sporting events, school, any and all public buildings. Etc., Etc.,Etc…
Land of the free home of the brave new world.
The Amerikaan Dream because you had to be asleep to believe it.
Infowars is touting a Texas bar owner who’s barring anyone wearing a mask from entering. Well it’s his business. The weepy part is looking at the comments where everyone is cheering “no masks”. Bunch of posturing and 0 common sense. A person wearing a mask is no affront to your personal liberty and may be saving your life.
I guess a futile and stupid gesture needs to be done on someone’s part; and Texans are just the guys to do it. Let’s go… y’all
I came across several articles explaining that wearing a mask might de-humanize (I guess self esteem) you. Emphasizing that certain people with conditions should not wear a mask (duh) however, subtext implying that no one should wear them. and this little jewel:
" if worn for several hours. When a person is infected with a respiratory virus, they will expel some of the virus with each breath. If they are wearing a mask, especially an N95 mask or other tightly fitting mask, they will be constantly rebreathing the viruses, raising the concentration of the virus in the lungs and the nasal passages." As I’m wont, I’ll paraphrase: When a person is infected with a respiratory virus, they will expel some of the virus with each breath which is why I’m wearing a mask. I’ll work on clearing the virus in my garden.
I just realized, I might have had covid hands a few weeks ago. So I am getting the antibody test in the morning.
I think I get an exam and grilling.
But I will let yall know the procedure when I am done. I am a bit nervous they will want to give me the covid test also. I am scared of a nasal swab that reaches to my brain. Okay, it is not that bad, but it looks scary.
Karen
dtrammel-
I’m going to suggest that your source is…hopelessly political. The photo in the story of the body bags placed by protesters in front of the white house, each carefully labeled “Trump Covid Death”, supports this thesis of mine.
Here’s my counter-thesis:
Your “effective IFR” depends on the policy you use to deal with the virus.
If you don’t protect the vulnerable, death rates go up.
If you do protect the vulnerable, death rates drop.
What do I mean by this? My very first recommendation: don’t send COVID-positive patients into nursing homes - which is what they did in New York - which is just like dropping a bunch of foxes right into the hen house, and then saying “the Hen Fatality Rate is really high!”
“My gosh the IFR in New York was awful. You guys must be suppressing data from everywhere else.”
No. Most likely, everywhere else, they didn’t send COVID-positive patients into nursing homes.
Of course if you are a reporter, and you really want to spin every COVID death as a “Trump Covid Death”, such nuances will almost certainly escape you.
I suppose the only real way to tell what the “actual IFR” is, is to execute an RCT - infecting a randomized cross section of the country, and seeing how many people die - without treatment, mind you. Otherwise, an effective treatment might unfairly skew IFR. So would protecting the vulnerable. So would taking vitamins. And exercise. And presumably a positive mental attitude which helps the immune system. And having a reasonable BMI. So might getting a lower initial dose (via a mask).
Takeaway: IFR is mutable. It isn’t a constant. A lot of things can wang it around.
And I think your source is too lame to notice these nuances because they want to blame Trump for every single COVID death.
Dave I like most of your posts, you have a insightful way of looking at things, but you have at times a bias for minimal effects of this virus.
That said, both sides spin the news and numbers to favor their agendas. I’m aware of that but lack the expertise to analysis their posts in depth. That’s why I post them here, so those of you who have expertise can give the rest of us a clearer and more honest appraisal of the actual facts.
The CDC is clearly under tremendous pressure to minimize the numbers by this Administration. If they are doing it, I’d like to know. The Tribe here seems to approach data in an unbiased way, I’d like to see that continue.
The one thing this site has taught me, is that CFRs/IFRs are the numbers no one agrees on.
Just because a source has political bias, doesn’t always mean their facts are wrong.
And do you not think that money and donors affect the way researchers report their data?
I am shocked at how many people participate in the trashing of HCQ as a treatment. Everyone is on board… They are giving this to near death people as a hail mary, and they are not seeing results and using this as the be all - I am uncertain, why they have not reviewed data from other countries" just US garbage studies" on hail mary use’. I understand the people with conflict of interest. But media and drs should not be conflicted. The who and the FDA etc… all have lots to gain on expensive cures. In my book if you represent a study to prove something , that is not correct knowingly killing people , its murder . I do not see it another way… But murder is being committed. Its very hard to watch this many people participate in this act.
