The horizon is not so far as we can see, but as far as we can imagine

April 30th US Covid Data

Our benefactor writes:

Well, we crossed the symbolic threshold of 60,000 deaths before May 1. I’m not sure why it is symbolic, other than that earlier predictions were 60,000 deaths by the end of August. People are beginning to realize that this is an enduring pandemic and preparing themselves for the long haul. It’s going to be a huge challenge for the world. From what I understand, this is not quickly dissipating.


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April 29th US Covid Data

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10 Comments

  1. Zachary Smith

    People who read the Naked Capitalism site will have already seen this headline:

    Link identified between dietary selenium and outcome of Covid-19 disease

    Selenium is an essential trace element obtained from the diet (i.e. fish, meat and cereals) which has been found to affect the severity of a number of viral diseases in animals and humans. For example selenium status in those with HIV has been shown to be an important factor in the progression of the virus to AIDs and death from the condition. China is known to have populations that have both the lowest and highest selenium status in the world, due to geographical differences in the soil which affects how much of the trace element gets into the food chain.

    Long story short – people living in areas with adequate Selenium intake tended to survive better than those whose diet was inadequate.

    Best solution: buy a bottle of high quality vitamins branded for Old People. These tend to have a great many minerals included. Stuff like Chromium, Zinc, and Selenium. Be careful to by the lowest dosage sort of specific mineral supplements if you have to go that route.

    Don’t take the approach that if a little is good, more is better. These are heavy elements, and when taken in more than the minuscule doses needed for dietary requirements they are harmful. Even to the point of being deadly poisons.

    https://www.surrey.ac.uk/news/link-identified-between-dietary-selenium-and-outcome-covid-19-disease

  2. Will

    60,000 is twice the number of annual influenza deaths.

    Yet the same folks who brought us \”covid-19 is far less serious than the flu\” will instead of realizing the error of their agitprop and laying low for a while to reconsider their sources, will simply peddle the next big ridiculous agitprop coming from the very same source.

    As a bridge salesman, I\’d like to get to know these folks better.

  3. James O’Keefe
    @JamesOKeefeIII

    “To be honest with you, all of the death certificates, they’re writing #COVID on all the death certificates. Whether they had a positive test, whether they didn’t.” – Michael Lanza Funeral Director, Colonial Funeral Home
    ====================================

    Somewhat ironically, the regular doctor dude who appears on Fox News was asked about the differential for covid-19 patients (which I think was 20%), and he said it was inadequate, in terms of making up for all of the repurposed facilities which were now not generating their usual revenues.

    So hospitals not only have an incentive to lie, but they can justify it – in their own minds – by comparing to their losses for non-covid-19 business. They might even consider it a matter of survival (for the hospital).

  4. Ron Reeze

    Zachary Smith, can you please provide the link to the Naked Capitalism post? I\’ve searched the site but cannot find it.

    Thank you

  5. Ron Reeze

    Zachary Smith, no need. Google helped me find the page:

    https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/04/links-4-30-2020.html

    Thank you!

  6. BlizzardOfOzzz

    Yes metamars, the Virus Regime is in full face-saving mode now. They have to juice the numbers. WM Briggs has had good coverage, and he noticed something interesting (link) in the yearly death counts: if you take out the Corona spike, there is yet another spike there, suggesting that the lockdown itself is causing its own huge spike in deaths. The Virus Regime Loyalists will gloss over the massive damage caused by the lockdown and gloat that the juiced bat-flu numbers slightly exceed regular flu.

  7. NR

    Hey Blizzard, since COVID is just the flu, why don’t you go out and deliberately infect yourself with it? You want to do your part to build herd immunity, right?

  8. Zachary Smith

    Yes metamars, the Virus Regime is in full face-saving mode now. They have to juice the numbers.
    .

    The Virus Regime Loyalists will gloss over the massive damage caused by the lockdown and gloat that the juiced bat-flu numbers slightly exceed regular flu.

    The internet seems to be full of Deniers these days. Looking up this fellow, I found a recurring theme of Sandy Hook denial. Lots of mentions of “lefties”.

    ~~~~~

    The Daily Kos site is churning up some serious BS these days. Witness this:

    Biden Accuser Reade’s Allegations Match Scene from Dead Father’s Novel.

    Reade’s 1993 claims are ‘invalidated’ by the fact her father wrote a similar scene in his 1998 book. The Kos site has story by a Former Prosecutor who sadly destroys Reade’s claims. (At the Kos site you could get into serious trouble back in 2016 if you wrote anything except Hail, Hillary, Superwoman!)

    I don’t know what went down all those years ago, but I have a strong suspicion about what’s happening now. It’s my guess Hillary’s People are furiously stirring things up. What they say doesn’t matter so much as that Things Get Said. Hillary desperately wants on the 2020 ticket, and already you can find headlines like

    “Was Hillary Endorsing Biden Or Just Warming Up ‘In The Bullpen?’”
    “As Biden struggles, Hillary waits for the call”

    ~~~~~~

    Pretend to care about Coronavirus, but champion Re-opening for the Glory of Trump.
    Pretend to be supporting Biden, and work to knock him out. Keep Biden-the-pervert In The News!
    Mention James O’Keefe without hysterical laughter, for heaven’s sake!

    I see lots of propaganda from fanatics and/or paid workers.

  9. @BlizzardOfOz

    I did a quick read, not absorbing everything. I get the gist of the idea.

    To solidify the theory, though, there should be more data presented. Nobody is going to go back and do autopsies, but what about a crude measure of co-morbidities in the non-CV deceased, vs. general non-deceased population (adjusted for age, blah, blah)? What about their living situation? It’s the lonely that are more likely to die – will we see that in the data?

    The low Taiwan figure was sort of stunning. 6 dead out of 24 million! (with no lockdown) Even so, what about all the rest of the countries?

    Laura Ingraham said something the other night I’ve thought, myself. A lot of people are enjoying the lockdown. I think it mostly comes down to whether you managed to keep your job, or not. (Also, how well behaved, and how old, your kids are, if you have them.)

    Having worked more years than I care to remember as a waiter, I can well imagine the stress that they’re under.

  10. BlizzadOfOz (and everybody else):

    I’ve caught a few of the most recent videos by a Dr. Chris Martenson:

    “First of all, I am not an ivory-tower economist. Instead, I’m a trained scientist, having completed both a PhD and a post-doctoral program at Duke University, where I specialized in neurotoxicology. I tell you this because my extensive training as a scientist informs and guides how I think. I gather data, I develop hypotheses, and I continually seek to accept or reject my hypotheses based on the evidence at hand. I let the data tell me the story.”

    His latest youtube questions the model based flu mortality numbers, which he thinks are exaggerated a few fold. (Gee, what other model-first type scientist would that remind me of)?However, when you compare covid-19 mortality against even more realistic flu deaths, you still come up with covid-19 being about 10x as deadly as the flu.

    That makes sense, from the point of view that many countries have anticipated a hit big enough to tax their hospital facilities. Even Russia eventually started building extra hospital capacity. They are quite friendly with China, and have (I assume) top notch intelligence people to guide and inform them, not just sold-out vaccine mongers with hidden agendas and financial ties.

    One thing that can’t be figured in to the casualty rates easily is that a) doctors are traveling up a learning curve and b) they can, and do, easily communicate with their colleague around the world.

    Martenson goes into how covid-19 appears to be primarily a blood disease that leads to excess clotting, which affects the lungs particularly easily, but is not a typical ARDs type of disease. Doctors are starting to immediately start patients on blood thinners. Apparently, this has been extremely helpful in Italy (if I heard right).

    I like the fact that Martenson can discuss hydroxychloroquine research rationally, but also other approaches, like remdesivir. I also like the fact that he’s not shy about pointing to financial ties as likely influencing the contrasting media treatment by hydroxychloroquine vs. remdesivir.

    Finally, I heard him say that newsweek has written about Fauci’s “gain of function” grant money sign off to Wuhan. I skimmed over the article. It doesn’t suggest that Fauci did anything illegal.

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