I was determined not to respond to the latest of the many posts trying vainly to convince us that the nation-wide reported death and infection numbers must be significantly overinflated from the real numbers, because 1) “I’m sure” that is the case; or 2) there is one isolated case of city officials not publicly saying there haven’t been a lot of cases traced to restaurants or bars in that one city. I fear we’re all just encouraging more of the same by responding.
Oh well. One more time. Contact tracing isn’t always straightforward. We don’t know how good that particular city’s data was. Maybe the officials had good reason not to release the data yet, because it wasn’t definite enough, or it was incomplete, or they feared it was incorrect.
More fundamentally, it’s also a huge leap to go from that one story to assuming that the state and national infection and death numbers are significantly overinflated. That doesn’t make any sense. The fact that they didn’t publicize in the press the number of cases traced to bars/restaurants has nothing to do with whether the infection and death totals were accurately reported to the authorities.
If the death numbers are not inflated, there still remains the fact that the inordinate, disproportional number of early deaths in the US (back then we had 25% of the Covid deaths but less than 5% of the world’s population) was patently, prima facie unnatural.
A number of factors could theoretically explain an unnatural number of US deaths, though. Keep in mind that the virus originated in a country which is being greatly imposed upon by the US government in the form of trade tariffs. Can one visualize ways in which an airborne, aerosolized virus can be spread in large buildings? Through HVAC and ventilation systems, perhaps? Can one imagine a motive for harming a group of people by whom another group feels harmed or threatened? I’m just introducing one of several possible scenarios.
Another scenario would be the development and dispersal of a virus by an elite power group who hopes to create havoc and eventually induce major change. Other scenarios might perhaps be envisioned as well. The point is, when something unnatural occurs, one should look for an unnatural origin or root cause. By any logic, a sudden and poorly-understood viral outbreak should have its greatest impact near its ‘ground zero’ origin, not on the opposite side of the globe.
There is nothing unnatural about the number of COVID-19 deaths in the USA. You can’t rationally compare the number of deaths in the USA with the numbers in China, as China’s numbers were very likely not reported to the international media accurately.
We have many posts in this thread already explaining the differences in the numbers of cases and deaths in various countries. There are differences in timing of public knowledge of the outbreak relative to when the virus started taking hold, differences in when mitigation measures were recommended and implemented, differences in population distribution, differences in living customs that effect how effective various mitigation measures will be, differences in when government recommended and or mandated mitigation measures were started in the course of the spread, differences in how well and how long citizens followed the recommendations and mandates, and whether policies were done on a national or piecemeal basis. Ask yourself this: how could the piecemeal, state by state, town by town, mitigation strategies work in the USA, when we have never done enough testing and contact tracing to know who is infected and who is not? The answer is that they can’t.
If the USA was targeted, why is there no evidence of that? Why were many other countries inundated with infections before the USA? Why is the entire international scientific community who investigated the origin concluding that the virus had natural origins?
Yeah, widespread weaponizing of a virus could cause chaos in a target country. So can weaponizing conspiracy theories and false information about important issues to spread fear and anger in that country, as we’ve seen demonstrated in the USA.
The water used to be clear. But now… there’s definitely a yellowish tinge to it. Uneven approach across the nation is responsible for the mess we’re in, and that all trickles up.
You’re arguing with the wrong person, because the mind won’t be changed. We tried months ago. #COVID19 was not engineered nor purposefully disseminated. Had someone tried to do it, it would’ve happened far differently. And China would’ve been totally prepared for it, citing their “superior advanced medicine.”
I actually think WE want the same thing. We both want clarity. You don’t have to inflate actual numbers to distort what they mean. Numbers don’t always give a complete picture. I get nervous when someone gives me numbers then says here is what you need to know. Like THEY actually know what’s best for me.
For example: When did anyone know early on what % of deaths/infections were happening in nursing homes?
Failing/forgetting to report to the press is one thing, but to hide things is another. The sad thing is, is that it happens most of the time.
I get the impression that if I said it stands to reason that the sky is blue, someone would chime in to explain that blue skies are a fallacy and that I’ve fallen for a blue-sky conspiracy hoax.
