A new word was coined this week, used to describe people that claimed the Covid virus, also called the CCP virus, was a hoax. Covidiot, and what a clever person that coined that word as it fits perfect for some.
There are well meaning people no doubt on the other side but that doesn't mean they aren't Covidiots. Their arguments run a vast range, some say it is all a hoax, that this is no worse than the flu or daily car deaths. Others want to claim it was manufactured by liberals or the deep state to upend the economy and ruin Trump's hope for re election or that these same bad actors were spinning the facts to make it worse than it is. Another is the Pollyana denier that seizes the smallest thread of “fact” without verifying it is a fact and claiming that a certain city has started downward and that we are only five days behind them.
But by far the worst Covidiot is the ones that encourage disobedience to the suggestions and recommendations that the health officials and our political leaders have given. They are the worst because everything is filtered through their confirmation bias and they encourage other weak minded souls to fight back against authority without having a valid reason to fight back. Some are motivated by virtue signaling, gaining attention on social media, others are just the small percentage that always finds fault without offering an alternative way to deal with the problem.
But some on social media find themselves being hit back by their own “friends” and it is interesting when someone they know personally asks why they are spreading such propaganda. Here is one example, put up by a local activist, someone with good intentions but poor judgment in this case:
Mainstream media: We need something to cure this virus and stop the spread to save lives!
NYC hospitals/Shanghai, China: We've had successful improvements by using high doses of intravenous vitamin C. These patients are recovering better than those who aren't using it.
MSM: We need SOMETHING. Can anything save us before it gets worse?
Dr. Vladimir Zelenko: I have cured hundreds of patients using Hydroxychloroquine sulfate, zinc, and azithromycin (z-pak) and have a 100% rate in curing Coronavirus in my patients.
MSM: ANYTHING! This is only going to get worse, thousands of people are dying! When will this end??
Johnson & Johnson/CDC: We will begin human testing of our fast-tracked Coronavirus vaccine by September. We don't know what the side effects will be or if it will be effective at all, but we will make sure everyone receives this vaccine to save lives.
MSM: Thank you, finally!! The answer we've all been waiting for!!
Now it seems to be that the post was pushing the idea that vitamins and drugs are miracle cures but that the MSM, Main Stream Media, was only impressed by the vaccine makers. I get it, the vaccines have some serious questions and the anti vaxers have some valid points. And yes, the MSM is in bed with the big pharma companies, no doubt all that advertising. But the response by one of the friends or followers of this poster was something I called “a moment of reality”:
Marci Carlisle Coates I'm going to assume this is a joke?I have patients on ALL of the above. Still dying!100% cure rate!?? What the actual f*ck.I can't even.
I wish you could see through my eyes for just one of my shifts.
Everyone want a world with out vaccines? This is what it looks like without one!
So many dying, including my colleagues trying to fight to save others!
I pray my family and i survive this! Every day I come to work they are at risk.
This is not some f*cking conspiracy.
Reality intruded upon this well intentioned poster, someone actually on the front lines straightened her out about these miracle drugs.
There was another excellent example of another person who considers themselves conservative although their own brand of conservationism heavily salted with them being superior to others because of his religion:
Here is a question for the fear mongers and scared people out there.
Using the CDC numbers, as of today, the death toll for the corona virus is 0.00000625%
Why is this a pandemic?
influenza = .06
and starvation = 15 people every 60 seconds, and that is .009
Why is the Corona Virus a pandemic at .ooooo625% ? perhaps Control?
Well, I had to wade in on that one:
This is how much of a Covidiot this Ronin Crawley is. He is spewing that the CCP virus is .00000625 death rate compared to .06 for flu. One intelligent person did the math but Covidiots can't do math much less follow it being done so I simplified it.
The flu death rate he gave was .06 so you divide it by .00000625 and the result is 9600, meaning that the smaller number is 9,600 times smaller than .06, meaning that the flu ought to have 9600 times fewer cases, right?
SO, how many deaths does Ronin's .06% represent? Deaths from flu are between 12,000 and 80,000 per year in the U.S., but they were 61,099 in the last complete year, 2018. Using this Covidioit's own numbers we would have 61,099 2018 flu deaths divided by the 9,600 figure, or 6.36 deaths in the U.S. for the CCP virus.
Here are the stats for the 2018 season.
In reality there are 7,851 CCP deaths in the U.S. at the moment I replied meaning that Ronin is underestimating the deaths by 1,234.43%. A half day later that number has risen to 9,444 deaths, 1485 times higher than the Covidiot's estimated 6.36 deaths from his .00000625% death rate.
But he used the world population, 7.3 billion x .00000625 = 45,625 world wide deaths using his fake numbers. The reality is 62,399 deaths so far, nearly 50% higher. BUT you cannot use the total world population as a base unless the entire population has been infected. Once that happens the reality is that 95% or 6.9 billion people will be fine, another 365,000,000 will have had serious cases and been hospitalized and if the death rates do stay the same as right now 21% or 76,650,000 will have died. Here are the stats I used
There are some caveats, we don't know what the death rate will be till a few more weeks. China has fudged their numbers for some reason and they forced a draconian quarantine. There are signs that a second wave is coming to China and it isn't from outsiders coming into China. Another point is that we don't know how many were infected so far, only the serious cases have been tested for the most part after they brought themselves to the attention of the health industry.
Still we look back to last week's story about the cruise ship, an isolated example that is perfect for doing an analysis other than the population being skewed towards the elderly. Point being that the majority of the population is going to be infected at some point, 20% of them will require hospitalization, around 5% of the population will require a ventilator, and 85% of those on the ventilators will die. However, by following our leaders we can flatten the curve and the hospitals are better able to save people when they are not overwhelmed.
Much was made of New York City's deaths dropping, but it was a few dozen on six hundred the day before. You cannot use one day as a trend, a week works though. Then this morning the NYC leaders are estimating the need to intubate (ventilator) 5,000 new patients next week and they are calling for Trump to draft medical experts across the nation to force them to come to NYC to help. Plus, reports claim that NYC is a ghost town these days and many of the infected fled the city to other areas both nearby and far away. Some states are tracking them down and quarantining them or threatening to close their own borders to people from the hot spots. Of course the death rates will lower once most of the people flee the area.
Where are we on the curve? No one knows but a safe bet is two weeks till we hit the top, IF we keep doing what we are doing, social distancing, people generously remaining home and taking the financial hit to lower the spread of the virus, and locking down non essential businesses. Once we see the death rate start downward and keep trending that way after a few days we are sure we have a winning solution. However, new cases will drop before the death rate drops because usually it is a couple of weeks between infection and death.
The solution is to learn to do business and go about our lives under new rules for a while. Wearing masks which means the government continue to force companies to produce vast quantities of new masks and cutting off exports. If that means putting a few 3M executives and a few of their distributor's executives in jail, so be it. We are at war with an invisible and terrible enemy and it is time to act like it is war time. We need to open up the businesses that can meet people on the curb and hand off ordered items, most are already doing this. The businesses like restaurants and bars that depend upon masses of people need to remain closed, perhaps even requiring them to make a list of everyone that attends a function for a few months so that if an outbreak occurred the people exposed can be found and tested quickly. But we can find a way to re open businesses ONCE our health experts tell us the rate of infection and deaths rate is safely declining.
