by Media is relentlessly continuing their Covid Panic Porn (CPP) – one of today’s headlines:
Sveriges Radio states “OVER 17000 CASES YESTERDAY – NEW RECORD FOR SWEDEN”
(note the use of capital letters…!)
As a consequence, our Government has given our Public Health Office mandate to increase restrictions, including prohibiting non-vaccinated to go to restaurants, malls, museums, and even going to shop their groceries… This on a “if-needed”-base…
How “needed”, how necessary are these new measures…?
It’s true (assuming that we can trust the numbers from FHM) that yesterday’s case load was highest ever, since the start of the pandemic. So, are we all doomed now….?
Not necessarily. Let’s start by looking at daily Covid events, as kept by FHM, since the beginning of the pandemic up until yesterday:
Indeed, yesterday’s 17000 cases is all-time-high, so media seem to be telling the truth… But for a statement (any statement) to be regarded as true, it not only has to be true, it also must be representative, that is, relevant to the context. And for me, the main context of the pandemic is *not* how many people test positive, but how many people actually get ill, and how many people that die from the disease.
The bottom two subplots show the daily number of ICU cases and daily number of deaths. As can be seen, those numbers are very low, despite the record number of cases. Now, you could of course argue the known “…but just wait a couple of weeks…!”, that is, that in a week of two, many of those 17000 positive cases will become ICU’s and deaths.
I doubt it. Why…? Below a graph showing ICU’s and Deaths per case:
My take on this is that despite cases rising to record levels, ICU’s, and even more so, deaths, will not follow, because Covid is now, with the highly infectious Omicron, about to become endemic, that is, everybody will get it sooner or later, vaccinated or not, but for the vast majority, the illness will be mild.
Furthermore, all cause mortality 2021 is at record lows, giving me further confidence that Covid is now endemic.
It’s high time for media and authorities to stop counting positive tests – the only thing this counting does is to prolong the hysteria and #MassFormation.
