The Media Lies Because it Works
I went to the doctor for a routine matter 2 days ago. After we got through everything my doctor and I had a brief conversation about Covid 19 and all the changes that have happened because of our reaction to it. I pointed out that Alberta has only seen one week in 2020 with deaths outside of normal and that week was abnormally low. When I commented that Covid 19 in Canada hasn’t even been as bad as most flu seasons my Doctor made a comment that was odd. He said that he supposed people were more concerned about Covid because influenzas tends to kill older people and Covid can kill younger people. I thought this was odd because I knew the opposite to be true.
First I have to apologize for comparing the US to Canada. I can get demographics for covid deaths in Canada but not Influenzas deaths. I can get demographics for influenzas deaths in the US. I am using the 2017/18 influenza year in the US when an estimated 18.7 people/100,000 died of influenzas. So far in Canada 25.7 people/100,000 have died with Covid. On the surface that makes Covid look more deadly except excess deaths in Canada are far lower than the official 9,642 covid total and Canada, like other countries, is using a running total for Covid that spans 2 seasons now. That is just another little numbers game to keep people scared. Covid has all the hallmarks of a seasonal respiratory disease just like influenza. With Influenza we stop the tally when the season is over and start the tally form 0 again next season. With Covid it looks like we are going to keep a running tally until the earth ends in the sun’s final fiery supernova.
My Doctor was right Influenza tends to kill older people. According to the CDC in the 2017/18 US flu season only 5.64 % of deaths were in people under 50. Where my Doctor was wrong was in thinking that Covid was more serious than influenza for younger people. As of October 19th only 61 of the 9,642 Covid related deaths in Canada have been people under 50; that is 0.63%. As a percentage of deaths Influenza is 9 times more deadly for young people than Covid is. Even if we look at deaths/100,000 Covid is not more deadly than influenza for young people. Canadas has had 0.26 deaths/100,000 people under 50 while influenza deaths in the US were 1.62/100,000; 6 times more deaths. Any way you slice it influenza is a far bigger problem for young people than Covid 19 is so why have we locked down young people?
Below is what covid looks like in Canada in total deaths and deaths/100,000 for each age category
This data clearly shows Covid 19 is almost exclusively a problem for the elderly. When you build a bar chart the numbers for people under 50 are so small you can’t even see the bar. The data is available to anyone with an internet connection so why does my doctor not know it? I can think of 2 reasons.
- He is a small business man so busy with trying to comply with ridiculous and arbitrary restrictions imposed by the government that he has not had time to look.
- The media lied to him and he is too nice a guy to believe just how corrupt the media is.
My wife has friends that are scared witless by Covid. When my wife expressed that she was not that concerned her friend sent her this article to convince her how dangerous Covid was.
The Calgary sun had to go all the way to the Ukraine to find a young person who died with Covid. He was a fitness influencer so that meant he posted fitness videos on the internet. We are supposed to believe that means he was healthy and Covid is incredibly deadly. One fit young person in the Ukraine that we assume to be healthy died so that justifies shutting down the entire world’s economy. The media does this all the time they take one abnormal case and use it to convince us the whole world is in Jeopardy. A truly healthy young person that dies of covid is a unicorn, the data tells us that. The media wants you to believe that the death of a Unicorn signals impending doom for all of mankind.
Why does the media play so fast and loose with the truth? Because it works. It worked with my wife’s friends and it worked with my Doctor who is a competent highly trained medical professional. The media counts on you to be too busy or disinterested to fact check their obvious lies. It is sad how well that works.
