Hospitals Overwhelmed

RSV Cases On The Rise (Catalogued as Covid) | “Fully Vaxed” Update

Published by Papa Giorgio

Okay, to follow are two stories that are “in-additions” to these to show just how manipulated and wrong the press has bee and has already had to backtrack on… but it doesn’t matter because people only remember the headlines, not the retractions or challenges. Again, the two new additions will follow the links:

The RSV story has a lot to do with hospitalizations and ICU beds. I will MAROOON the related stories:

Okay, from the CDC having to retract Florida numbers to CNN using numbers from a leftie paper that were 4,100% wrong to this RDV thing being glommed on to by the media as Covid admissions… the facts TRUMP the rhetoric of the Left.

This first story deals with the RSV topic via RIGHT SCOOP! (Apologies to RS for gabbing most of the post) — I AM ADDING THE BULLET POINTS:

I mean, your instinct is probably to answer “of course they are!” But there is misleading and then there’s MISLEADING. And in the second misleading, I’m talking about downright, outright, deliberately stating things in a way specifically to make it seem like you are saying ONE thing when actually you’re avoiding saying that ONE THING.

You know, it’s misleading to say that “most people hated that song” if only 51% of people hated that song. It’s sort of true but you’re leading people to believe it’s a bigger number.

But it’s MISLEADING to report “Hospital beds are filling up as Covid cases increase in Texas”, when your article is about how multiple factors are contributing to a bed shortage. You are deliberately giving the ILLUSION that you’ve said Covid cases are filling up the beds. But you actually aren’t saying that. You just want people to THINK you said it and not check further.

It was misleading of Anthony Fauci to say “masks are the most effective barrier to infection” when what he MEANT was “don’t buy too many masks we want them for other stuff.” (By the way, it’s quite an accomplishment on Fauci’s part that he was for AND against masks and was lying about their effectiveness in BOTH cases.)

Anyway, here’s what brought this up. [Link to ALLIE, link to AMANDA]

Those anecdotal tweets are interesting and telling. This is even more so:

This is damning:

  • The United States is not the only country experiencing a spike in RSV cases. New Zealand has also reported an increase in children falling ill with the respiratory virus. The country has reported nearly 1,000 RSV cases in the past five weeks, according to the Institute of Environmental Science and Research. In infants younger than six months, RSV can cause symptoms like irritability, poor feeding, and apnea. Older infants and young children can experience a decreased appetite before having a cough, fever, and wheezing. In the health advisory, the CDC said the RSV spike deviated from a typical circulation pattern for the virus, so it was not possible for the agency to anticipate the spread, peak, or duration of viral activity. (INDEPENDENT)

  • New Zealand hospitals are experiencing the payoff of “immunity debt” created by Covid-19 lockdowns, with wards flooded by babies with a potentially-deadly respiratory virus, doctors have warned. Wellington has 46 children currently hospitalised for respiratory illnesses including respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. A number are infants, and many are on oxygen. Other hospitals are also experiencing a rise in cases that are straining their resources – with some delaying surgeries or converting playrooms into clinical space. RSV is a common respiratory illness. In adults, it generally only produces very mild symptoms – but it can make young children extremely ill, or even be fatal. The size and seriousness of New Zealand’s outbreak is likely being fed by what some paediatric doctors have called an “immunity debt” – where people don’t develop immunity to other viruses suppressed by Covid lockdowns, causing cases to explode down the line. (GUARDIAN)

And this on CDC is devastating.

  • TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health advisory after seeing an increase in Respiratory Syncytial Virus, more commonly known as RSV, across the southern United States. “Due to reduced circulation of RSV during the winter months of 2020–2021, older infants and toddlers might now be at increased risk of severe RSV-associated illness since they have likely not had typical levels of exposure to RSV during the past 15 months,” a release from the CDC said. Doctors across Tampa Bay say RSV typically spreads in the winter months, like the common cold. However, they have been seeing an increase in cases in the last few months, as temperatures warm, which is unusual. “It is the predominant thing we are seeing in the emergency department right now,” said Dr. Joseph Perno, the chief medical officer for John’s Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. (ABC 27 NEWS TAMPA)

Breaking away from RIGHT SCOOP, I will continue the graphics with links to their Twitter — which you can then link to the articles from:

  • Mathematical models by researchers at Princeton University suggest that substantial outbreaks of the RS virus and possibly seasonal flu may occur in future years (link is external), with peak outbreaks likely occurring in the 2021-2022 winter season in the U.S. (PRINCETON)

That linked to a WALL STREET JOURNAL Article, which follows:

Post-Covid-19, World Risks Having to Pay Off the ‘Immunity Debt’

Many people had little exposure to common viruses during social distancing, meaning bugs could spread more quickly once countries reopen

Doctors in France are calling it the immunity debt: When people avoided each other during the pandemic, they failed to build up the immunity against viruses that comes from normal contact.

As regular life resumes, society may find payments on that debt coming due, in the form of worse-than-normal viral disease outbreaks.

In early June, 16-month-old Toranosuke Tsukidate came down with a common virus that caused a fever topping 106 degrees Fahrenheit.

The bug was spreading rapidly through his Tokyo daycare, said his mother, Miwako Tsukidate, 27, and the boy was hospitalized for oxygen treatment for a week.

By the time Toranosuke was discharged, his mother observed the beds around him filling up with children suffering the same ailment, which is usually more common in the fall.

“I was surprised to see how it took off so quickly, and I was also surprised to see it spreading at this time of the year,” Ms. Tsukidate said.

At Perth Children’s Hospital in Australia, infectious diseases researcher David Foley isn’t surprised.

His country experienced a similar out-of-season flare-up of the virus that infected Toranosuke — respiratory syncytial virus or RS virus — during the Southern Hemisphere’s summer months following an unusually quiet winter.

There was “an increased population that was susceptible, helping the virus to spread more easily,” Dr. Foley said. “Similar to starting a fire, the more kindling present, the easier it is for a spark to take hold and burn brightly.”

Doctors around the world who treat infections are getting ready for another year or two full of such anomalies.

As people strove to avoid the virus that causes Covid-19, they ended up staying away from many other viruses and bacteria that cause common ailments — influenza, chickenpox, strep throat, RS virus and more. Now as normal life resumes in many countries, exposure to those bugs is returning, too.

RS virus, transmissible by droplets and contact with contaminated surfaces, is usually minor in children but occasionally leads to hospitalization. Because it can cause inflammation of small airways in the lungs, it is also a significant cause of death in the elderly.

At Maimonides Children’s Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., Rabia Agha, director of the pediatric infectious diseases division, encountered an RS virus wave this spring.

She found the median age of infants treated was just 6 months, down from 17 months the previous season. The immune system of small babies tends to be weaker, so more of this year’s patients ended up in intensive care.

Dr. Agha thinks the difference had to do with mothers not being exposed to the virus while pregnant.

Mothers pass on RS virus antibodies to their babies but only when they have had a recent infection, she said.

Since May, the number of cases has eased, but “RSV will definitely come back and attack a larger population because last season few children got infected,” Dr. Agha said.

Toranosuke’s pediatrician, Akifumi Tokita, said older toddlers, age 3 or 4, were also turning up with high fevers because of RS virus.

He attributed this to their lack of normal exposure to the virus, which in turn meant they couldn’t build up immunity little by little.

In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning in early June about increased cases of the virus in the South after a year of low activity. The U.K., France and Japan have also seen a return of RS virus.

Figures recently released in Japan show the profound effect exposure to viruses such as flu and RSV can have on a nation’s health.

Deaths caused by pneumonia — a common complication of viral infections — last year in Japan fell by more than 17,000, far outweighing the 3,466 deaths attributed to Covid-19. As a result, Japan’s overall mortality fell for the first time in more than a decade.

It may have been borrowing from the future by creating greater room for viruses to run rampant later.

Robert Cohen, a professor at a pediatric research center near Paris called Activ, calls this “immunity debt.”

Dr. Cohen said the hygiene measures adopted during the pandemic bring “an immediate and indisputable benefit” because common illnesses have been suppressed.

But at some point almost all children are going to get RS virus, chickenpox and viruses that cause colds, which could mean larger outbreaks when the bugs make up for lost time, he said.

Mathematical models by researchers at Princeton University suggest that substantial outbreaks of the RS virus and possibly seasonal flu may occur in future years, with peak outbreaks likely occurring in the 2021-2022 winter season in the U.S.

Dr. Cohen said another long-term concern involves the hygienist theory, which suggests that modern cleanliness contributed to the rise in allergies in wealthier countries by hindering the development of children’s immune systems.

With Covid-19 lockdowns, “We may see more children with allergic asthma,” he said.

Other doctors said they considered such an effect unlikely after only a year of social distancing.

Stopping a resurgence of infections during post-Covid-19 times depends in part on vaccinations.

Common viral diseases including chickenpox, rotavirus or stomach flu and regular flu can be prevented through vaccines. However, no vaccine for RS virus is available. The World Health Organization has said developing one is a priority.

Dr. Foley, the researcher in Perth, said he hoped the new technologies behind the Covid-19 vaccines “will spill over and help us develop more effective RSV vaccines.”

For now, people have one powerful tool that doesn’t depend on a medical breakthrough. “You can get rid of a lot of viruses by good hand-washing,” said Brooklyn’s Dr. Agha.

That is the hospitalization of kids issue. Next is an update the fully vaccinated in Israel. However — FIRST — just a quick convo I had with a friend via MESSANGER:

QUICK CONVO

RT: Of course this is a “Pandemic of the Unvaccinated.” Numbers are impossible to refute. Feel sorry for the little kids that are getting beat up by this thing, even though those numbers are small. You always find that “one doctor.” Usually the oddballs.

ME: I refute em all day long on my site. CDC had to retract Florida numbers. CNN used numbers from a leftie paper, and retracted because the # was in the 700s, and not 5,800. RSV is blowing up in kids, media is saying Covid. Don’t be silly

RT: I’ll agree with you and we can both be wrong. ICU beds tell EVERYTHING. Louisiana in big trouble. Florida and Texas big cities already in trouble.

ME: ICU beds not due to covid. Sorry. Also, not anywhere near a pandemic, at all. The flu season of 2017-2018 much worse. Also ……

STILL ME: Not only that, but if you catalogued that flu season (2017-2018) with the new definitions per the CDC (April of 2020) that flu season would have tripled to quadrupled in deaths attributed to it.

(AFTER THOUGHT): What my friend is doing is combining all the stats in his head from the start of this in September of 2019. Instead, he should be looking at this as two separate seasons and working with those numbers to compare with: 2019-2020 and 2020-2021.

END

Okay, moving on. Again, this is only half of a post via ALEX BERENSON, who, like the WSJ is behind a partial pay wall. But his posts have been key — for quite some time now. Enjoy the deep thought/work of Alex:

Yesterday Naftali Bennett, the prime minister of Israel, issued an stark (if unintentionally) revealing warning to his country about the failure of the mRNA vaccines.

As you know if you are a regular reader, Israel is the canary in the world’s coalmine for Covid and the vaccines. It vaccinated more of its citizens with the Pfizer shot more quickly than almost anywhere else.

This spring, Israel’s experience seemed to validate the success of the vaccines. Now it’s a cautionary tale, as I explained in a Substack almost two weeks ago (time flies when nations are falling).

Unfortunately since then the data has gotten much worse.

The number of serious cases has risen almost 30-fold since late June. Roughly 60 percent of those people are fully vaccinated.

Yet the vaccine fanatics refuse to admit the depth of Israeli the crisis. Instead they continue to point out that per-person rates of serious illness are higher in the unvaccinated elderly.

They are correct, but they’re leaving out a key fact. Over 90 percent of Israelis over 70 have been vaccinated, suggesting that many of the remainder have not received vaccinations because they are too frail to do so. (One datapoint supporting this fact: Vaccination rates actually peak among people in their seventies and then decline as people get older, even though the oldest people are at the highest risk and should be the most likely to be vaccinated.)

Thus the relative numbers matter much less than the absolute numbers and trend. And the absolute trend is awful.

—

Which brings us to what Naftali Bennett tweeted yesterday.

“Non-immunization for a third time leaves senior citizens in mortal danger. Get vaccinated now.”

Mortal danger?

Get vaccinated now?

These older Israelis are already vaccinated. Yet as Israel’s Covid wards, fill their prime minister is now more or less admitting that they are unprotected against the virus.

A major preprint out of Japan from July 30 explains why.

The researchers examined Pfizer vaccine-generated antibodies in more than 200 people and found that on average they fell to undetectable levels about 6.5 months after the first shot – or roughly five after they reach full vaccination.

In other words, the Israel failure is happening right on schedule. Vaccine protection lasts months, not years. (Four months, give or take, since protection is limited the first month and likely negative the first week or two.)

Thus Bennett’s desperate call for a third shot. But although the booster does seem to produce new antibodies, neither the Israeli government nor Pfizer nor anyone else can know whether it will reduce infections or deaths, either temporarily or permanently. NO ONE HAS CONDUCTED ANY CLINICAL TRIALS TO DETECT THESE ENDPOINTS OR TO EXAMINE THIRD SHOT SIDE-EFFECTS IN ANY DETAIL. (I looked at this issue last week in a different Substack.)…………….

Anyways, I am sure more will be available for review in the days to come.

Hospitals Overwhelmed (Bonus: Florida Follies)

Published by Papa Giorgio

Here is the TWITER THREAD: (it is “UNROLLED” HERE)

  1. These are actual quotes from pieces I’ve just read. I don’t know why I’ve been ignoring this. Let me say that I’m serious about my respect for frontline workers. I’m confident THEY are NOT the ones calling for us to lose our jobs so they can do theirs. Politicians did that. 2/
  2. “Tallia says his hospital is ‘managing, but just barely,’ at keeping up with the increased number of sick patients in the last three weeks. The hospital’s urgent-care centers have also been inundated, and its outpatient clinics have no appointments available.” 3/
  3. “Dr. Bernard Camins, associate professor of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, says that UAB Hospital cancelled elective surgeries scheduled for Thursday and Friday of last week to make more beds available” 4/
  4. “We had to treat patients in places where we normally wouldn’t, like in recovery rooms,” says Camins. “The emergency room was very crowded, both with sick patients who needed to be admitted” 5/
  5. “In CA… several hospitals have set up large ‘surge tents’ outside their emergency departments to accommodate and treat … patients. Even then, the LA Times reported this week, emergency departments had standing-room only, and some patients had to be treated in hallways.” 6/
  6. “In Fenton, Missouri, SSM Health St. Clare Hospital has opened its emergency overflow wing, as well as all outpatient centers and surgical holding centers, to make more beds available to patients who need them. Nurses are being “pulled from all floors to care for them,” 7/
  7. “it’s making their pre-existing conditions worse,” she says. “More and more patients are needing mechanical ventilation due to respiratory failure” 8/
  8. “From Laguna Beach to Long Beach, emergency rooms were struggling to cope with the overwhelming cases… and had gone into ‘diversion mode,’ during which ambulances are sent to other hospitals.” 9/
  9. “Hospitals across the state are sending away ambulances, flying in nurses from out of state and not letting children visit their loved ones for fear they’ll spread… Others are canceling surgeries and erecting tents in their parking lots to triage the hordes of… patients.” 10/
  10. “There’s a little bit of a feeling of being in the trenches. We’re really battling these infections to try to get them under control,” McKinnell said. “We’re still not sure if this is going to continue … “ 11/
  11. “At Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, waiting rooms turned into exam areas as a medical tent was built in order to deal with the surge of patients. A Houston doctor said local hospital beds were at capacity” 12/
  12. “Dr. Anthony Marinelli says they’ve seen a major spike in… cases. It’s so overwhelmed the community hospital that they’ve gone on bypass at times — that means they tell ambulances to bypass this ER and find another.” 13/
  13. “Dr. Atallah, the chief of emergency medicine at Grady, says the hospital called on a mobile emergency department based nearly 250 miles away to help tackle the increasing patient demand. “At 500-plus patients a day you physically just need the space to put a patient in. “ 14/
  14. “We’ve never had so many patients,” said Adrian Cotton, chief of medical operations at Loma Linda University Health in San Bernardino County.” 15/
  15. “…at least one hospital has set up an outdoor triage tent to handle the overflow of people” “In Long Beach, hospitals have started visitor restrictions. In the South Bay, a conference center has been transformed into an ambulatory clinic.” 16/
  16. We have signage set up all over the hospital to inform patients that, if they have any family members with even signs of symptoms, not to visit” “Loma Linda emergency physicians are seeing about 60 more patients a day than usual, Cotton said.” 17/
  17. “About 150 patients have so far been treated in the tent, which is staffed according to the number of people inside. It’s expected to be up [for months].” 18/
  18. “As the main emergency room gets full, patients are moved to the tent. For example, a patient who comes in with a broken arm is likely to be treated inside the tent, he said. Visitor restrictions have also been implemented.” “The county saw a 300-percent increase” 19/
  19. “Overflow tents also have emerged in San Diego County hospitals. Though they haven’t pitched tents, most hospitals across Southern California have set up overflow areas inside their facilities.” 20/
  20. Our workers are incredible and I know they’ve been trained to deal with this. But maybe the lockdown folks are correct. Maybe we opened up too quickly. Maybe we should stay in shutdown mode. I mean nothing like this has ever happened to our hospitals before?!

I recently discussed this flu outbreak on my site’s Facebook page:

(OP – Original Post) Good presentation. This rant is not related to the video, but I was thinking about this today. Whenever there is a bad flu year, we always deal with the variants in years to come, and, typically they aren’t as deadly. Like Delta. So deaths, and hospitalization are typically lower than the Alpha strain. So tent triages and the like were set up for the 2017-2018 flu season — (the CDC estimates that between 46,000 and 95,000 Americans died due to influenza during the 2017-18 flu season. This resulted in an estimated 959,000 hospitalizations and a middle-ground of 61,099 deaths) and the subsequent variants were less deadly, but they are still floating around. But this seasons Delta Variant is less of a bugger than 2017-18, maybe even the 2012-2013 flu season — (56,000 deaths is the CDC estimate. 571,000 influenza-related hospitalizations). But people still want to live in fear, rather than live. Its sad.

(KRIS W. — a thoughtfully minded conservative) This doctor was great! I hope you are right about the numbers. I refuse to live in fear.

(ME) Kris W., So, the Alpha Covid strain was here in September of 2019. So the Covid season “A” was 2019-2020. We are now in a 2020-2021 season. The numbers from this season need to be separated from the previous. I bet we are closer to bad seasons from previous years. And next year will be better. But like other flu strains, we will have Covid with us forever. (Flu shots are a hodgepodge mixture of various strains, and people who get it hope one of the many strains in the shot get close to the actual, and so lessons the symptoms if they get the flu. Same here. These Covid strains may be in a cocktail mix in the future.)

What follows is some #FANEWS via the CDC and others regrading Florida.

FLORIDA FOLLIES

NATIONAL REVIEW starts us out:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is misrepresenting Florida’s coronavirus case counts from this past weekend, according to the state’s Department of Health (DOH).

On Monday, the CDC announced that Florida had reported new 28,317 cases for Sunday, August 8 — a figure that would have set a new record in the Sunshine State. It also reported 28,316 new cases for the day prior, and 23,903 for last Friday.

State officials dispute those numbers. On Monday night, the DOH’s official Twitter account stated that the number of newly recorded cases for all three days was substantially lower than what the CDC is claiming, coming in at 21,500 on Friday, 19,567 on Saturday, and 15,319 on Sunday.

CNS NEWS chimes in with this:

The 28,317 Sunday cases originally claimed by the CDC is 12,998 higher than, and 184.5% of, the 15,319 new cases reported by Florida.

On Tuesday, CDC lowered its Sunday count for Florida by 8,733, from 28,317 to 19,584 – a number that’s still 4,265 higher than the number reported by the state’s health department. CDC’s new number is 69.2% of its original claim.

“Accurate data was provided to the CDC, but the incorrect number for Friday, Saturday and Sunday was displayed on the website,” Florida Deputy Secretary for Health Dr. Shamarial Roberson told National Review.

UPDATE!

  • Today, the CDC basically admitted that the numbers they put up were wrong by quietly adjusting the numbers down. They updated Florida’s new cases to 23,958 for Friday, 21,487 on Saturday, and 19,584 on Sunday. But the numbers still were more than Florida’s numbers. According to the Florida Department of Health, the numbers were 21,500 on Friday, 19,567 on Saturday, and 15,319 on Sunday. The numbers were actually decreasing over the three days. (Via RED STATE)

And there was an excellent article by THE DAILY SIGNAL that goes over four of the medias FLORIDA FOLLIES and EXAGERATIONS (Hat-tip to Shannon H. for this) Here they are:

1. Florida Is Experiencing a Spike in Cases: True.

Florida is experiencing a surge in new confirmed cases. The seven-day rolling average of new infections topped 18,000 on Aug. 5, more than the state logged in January.

Florida accounts for roughly 6% of the U.S. population but 18% of the seven-day moving average of daily new cases nationwide.

Those are concerning figures, but they should be understood in context. Most states are experiencing increases in cases, although Florida is unique in exceeding previous highs. 

Florida’s increase resembles the U.K.’s, which only recently has begun to subside. The country’s mask mandates and other restrictions didn’t prevent a spike in cases, any more than such restrictions prevented recent or ongoing surges in Spain, Israel, France, Ireland, and the Netherlands

Florida’s spike in cases is consistent with a broader global pattern and isn’t easily attributable to the state’s refusal to implement mask mandates or adopt vaccine passports. Nor does a spike in cases necessarily produce a surge of severe illness or death, but more on that below.

2. Florida’s Increase in New Cases Is Due to Low Vaccination Rates: False.

“Seven states with the lowest vaccination rates represent just about 8.5% of the U.S. population, but account for more than 17% of cases,” Jeff Zients, White House COVID-19 response coordinator, said earlier this week. “And 1 in 3 cases nationwide occurred in Florida and Texas.”

Florida is not one of the seven states with the lowest vaccination rates. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data available on Aug. 5, 49.8% of Americans were fully vaccinated. That compares with 49.2% of Floridians. The vaccination rates among the elderly also are comparable—80.3% of Floridians over age 65 are fully vaccinated, compared with 80.2% of all Americans in that age group.

And while Florida’s vaccination rates vary by county, those rates don’t correlate with newly confirmed cases per 100,000 residents.

The data come from the most recent weekly report prepared by the Florida Department of Health. They show that even counties with high vaccination rates reported high new case rates for the week ending July 29.

Nearly 80% of the residents over the age of 12 living in Dade County (home to Miami), the state’s most populous, were fully vaccinated. But the county reported 532 new cases per 100,000 residents, exceeding the state’s elevated average of 503 new cases per 100,000.

Ten of the 17 counties that reported vaccination rates of 40% or less had lower rates of new infections than did Dade County. A similar pattern held in other populous counties with high vaccination rates, including St. Johns County (Jacksonville/St. Augustine) and Orange County (Orlando).

It is, of course, possible that most or all these new cases are occurring among the unvaccinated, but there may be a significant number of breakthrough cases. Unfortunately, neither the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nor the Florida Department of Health provides that information.

3. Florida Hospitals Are Overwhelmed: Mostly False.

President Joe Biden’s chief spokesperson, Jen Psaki, recently tweeted: “23% of new COVID hospitalizations in the U.S are in Florida, and their hospitals are being overwhelmed again.”

Let’s start with the word “again.” Among the media’s favorite stories to report last summer was that a run-up in COVID-19 cases had pushed Florida hospitals beyond their limits. As I’ve written (here, here, here, and here), that was not the case then.

And it isn’t the case now. It is true that Florida hospitals are treating a more significant share of COVID-19 patients than most other states and that hospitals are facing staffing challenges. Here is the breakdown, updated Aug. 6, from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:

  • U.S.: 76.2% of inpatient beds are occupied, 7.9% by COVID-19 patients.
  • Florida: 84.2% of inpatient beds are occupied, 22% by COVID-19 patients.

Those figures are at once disturbing and reassuring—disturbing because nearly 13,000 Floridians are hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, but reassuring because the state’s hospital systems still have plenty of unused capacity (roughly 9,400 empty beds). More than 11% of the state’s adult ICU beds are vacant.

Psaki’s allegation that Florida hospitals are “overwhelmed” is thus false, although the situation certainly bears watching.

More encouraging is that deaths associated with COVID-19 remain far below levels reached last summer and during January. The seven-day moving average of COVID-19-related deaths stood at 72 on Aug. 5, compared with 184 on Aug. 5, 2020, and 185 in late January.

While not conclusive—deaths generally lag new cases by a few weeks, and reporting is sometimes delayed—this resembles the pattern in the U.K., where a spike in infections did not result in a comparable rise in deaths.

4. Florida’s Spike in Cases Is DeSantis’ Fault: False.

Critics of DeSantis hold him responsible for the state’s spike in cases. Biden, for example, called on DeSantis to “get out of the way,” arguing that rising case counts were the direct result of the Florida governor’s policies.

A recent news analysis piece in The Hill is among the many publications touting this theme. “Conservative Republicans—notably Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott—have adopted a permissive approach,” the article asserted. “The result of their purported dedication to ‘freedom’ has been an explosion of coronavirus cases in their states.”

The article goes on to quote Georgetown law professor Lawrence Gostin as saying, “If you are against masks and vaccines, you might have a short-term win with people who don’t want to mask and vaccinate, but overall the population in your state doesn’t have the freedom to safely and securely go to do the things they love.”

The argument that Florida’s case rate has risen because its governor embraces freedom and opposes masks and vaccines doesn’t hold up.

First, DeSantis isn’t “against masks and vaccines.” Although he has shunned mask mandates, his state’s health department promotes mask-wearing and social distancing. His administration lets individuals and businesses respond to this advice instead of subjecting them to government mandates.

Similarly, although opposed to vaccine passports and mandates, the DeSantis administration promotes immunizations. Florida’s immunization rate is quite close to the national average. Its rise in cases is not due to low vaccination rates.

Second, despite the current uptick in cases, Florida has done an exceptional job preserving freedom and advancing public health throughout the pandemic. Florida’s COVID-19-related deaths per 100,000 population remain below the national average.

That is more remarkable considering that more than 1 in 5 residents is over age 65, the nation’s second-highest proportion of elderly. That demographic accounts for nearly 80% of COVID-related mortality nationally. Yet, Florida has outperformed numerous states with smaller proportions of elderly people that have adopted less “permissive” policies, including New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois and Delaware.

Florida’s increase in COVID-19 cases is troubling and not easily explained. Its vaccination rate is nearly identical to the national rate, and counties with very high vaccination rates are among those reporting big increases in cases. Allegations that the state’s hospitals are overwhelmed are exaggerated, although future capacity strains can’t yet be ruled out. That’s also true of COVID-19-related deaths, which have so far remained far below previous highs.

The president and his allies can’t resist politicizing the Florida case increases. Demonizing a governor of a rival party deflects from the national surge in cases, the administration’s frustration with lagging demand for vaccines (particularly among young adults and racial minorities), and the CDC’s confusing and conflicting advice on whether vaccinated people should wear masks.  …………

Most important in this post is this, WHERE CAN I GET Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin? AMERICA’S FRONTLINE DOCTORS has a consultation sign up HERE! See also FLCCC ALLIANCE (Click Pic)