More Proof that the Covid Is a Scare Tactic by Larry C Johnson

If you live outside of Florida I bet you believe that those of us still crazy enough to live here are on borrowed time. It is a Covid hotspot dontcha know. We are on the cusp a bubonic Armageddon. Bodies are piling up in morgues. Nurses and physicians are committing mass suicide out of despair brought on by this plague inflicted by Donald Trump.  We're talking wrath of God. Beirut bomb levels of catastrophe. Swarming locusts. Dogs and cats, living together. Mass hysteria. Must be true. I saw it on the TV.

 

Oh wait, that was Ghostbusters.

Ready for the truth? Can you handle the truth? Let me give you the report for Sarasota and Manatee counties. This is the metro area that encompasses Sarasota and Bradenton. This is the fastest growing area in all of Florida. What is actually happening in terms of Covid should shock you.

Florida is home to 21,933,000 people (see here). How many have succumbed to Covid since March 6, when Florida's Government started keeping tabs on the disease? 7,084.  That means 0.032% of the population have died from Covid in the last six months. To put this into perspective, the CDC reports for 2017 that 46,044 Floridians died from heart disease. I do not recall nightly news broadcasts wailing hysterically about fat Floridians eating double cheeseburgers and clogging their arteries. But less than 8,000 deaths in six months and we are supposed to put on masks and hide in our closets? Nonsense.

Let's take a closer look at Sarasota County over the last 30 days. According to the US Census, Sarasota County was inhabited by 433,742 souls as of July 1, 2019.  Here are the numbers according to the Florida Covid 19 "Dashboard." Just follow this link and click on Sarasota County. Five thousand nine hundred seventy four Sarasotans tested positive since the first of July (July 7 to be precise). That is 1.3% of the total county population. Hospitalized? 360, which represents 0.08%. How about deaths? 160. That is roughly consistent with the number of deaths recorded state-wide--0.036%.

What about neighboring Manatee County (seat of the city of Bradenton and winter home of the Pittsburgh Pirates)? Manatee has a slightly smaller population than Sarsota, weighing in with 413,655 happy inhabitants. Eight thousand nine hundred fifty six Manatee maniacs tested positive for Covid--i.e., 2.1%. More have been hospitalized--589, which represents 0.14%. The death count is 189 or 0.045%.

Ever hear of the concept of "perspective?"  I am sure that the families of those whose kith and kin perished from Covid and/or co-morbidities exacerbated by Covid don't care a whit about the stats. But the truth is the disease is not spreading like wildfire. People are not flooding the hospitals. Just look at today's stats for the major medical center in the region:

Sarasota Memorial Hospital:

Total hospital beds: 839

Today’s patient census: 642

Today's COVID+ patients total: 70 (no change from yesterday)

Most of the media is irresponsible and alarmist. They report positive tests as if those equate with people destined for the hospital and then the morgue. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Yes, Covid is a disease and a very small percentage of the population will die if they contract it. But it is not a health crisis that requires shutting down businesses and forcing kids to stay away from school. It is time for the American people to demand honest reporting and deal with real facts and actual science instead of the voodoo scare tactics being spread by partisan pundits and doctors masquerading as experts.

Comments

[blue peacock]

Larry,

I have a bet that Wuhan virus will magically disappear after the elections.

[Fred]

There you go with facts again Larry. The response to the virus is a giant CovidConJob that was sold as the bubonic plague. This has allowed China to disrupt the entire world's economy, crush Hong Kong and get their operatives to unleash anti-western agitprop as part of their tarrif response, all with plausibly deniability and "you're racisist" cover. At home we have the left destroying inner city self reliance via business lock-downs that are bankrupting small businesses; and now internal border checkpoints (remember how outraged the Democrats were when Rhode Island and Florida asked for voluntary isolation because we all believed the death projections of the now memory-holed expert models?).

The greater the visibility to the reality that there is low risk for hospitalization or death for a majority of citizens the more draconian the left becomes. Manadatory masking to get people used to their slave-in-training mask is expanding as a tactic in subjugation to authoritarianism. Big tech is silencing all mention of HCQ and its apparent effectiveness in other nations when given early and in conjction with other drugs. It's all vaccines - with complete immunity to the manufacturers for any and all potential complications - all the way, damn the cost! We even have unionized teachers extorting school districts for pay for no work and demands their competitors - private and charter schools - be forbidden to operate, all based on "science" that can't be questioned.

[EEngineer]

The Florida numbers are so "high" because it has a disproportionately older population. The last time I checked, two thirds of the deaths in my home state Oregon were in nursing homes. Something will eventually deliver the coup de grace to each one of us. Somehow I imagine that CV19 will miraculously fade away after the election...

[Fred]

Larry,

Here's another chart that might be useful, it compares 1918 flu deaths vs. Covid. Bubonic plague is not, and it is causing the old age deaths of the front end of the baby boomers (and other elderly). Many of the BB generation are fat and frail, we'll see similar higher death rates for the next decade because they are all approaching old age. A quick look at the Social Security life expectancy chart would help show that.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-one-remarkable-difference-between-covid-19-and-the-1918-spanish-flu-2020-07-07

Not much has changed in the distribution since this was put together at the end of June.

[downtownhaiku]

Rupert Beale (Crick Institute) has just published an article on covid-19. He explains the science of making a vaccine, and the 3 main approaches now being attempted. This is real science from a real scientist. He thinks a functional vaccine may be available early next year (2021).
Highly recommended, published yesterday in London Review of Books, here is a link that will take you behind the paywall:
https://outline.com/XUKkT3

[badrng]

From the moment I heard the term 'pandemic'... I knew. Coup de tat 2.0.

People need to be put to death for this treason. Seriously... to death.

[Mike G]

In Canada, there were 8500 Viral Infection deaths in 2018 (per Statistics Canada), and not one business was shut down and the media barely mentioned it...
There have been 8900 Covid deaths this year... deaths are down to single digits for the entire country, yet district councils are passing laws one by one to force masks inside ALL public places!
I'm sure it's the same around the developed world... the biggest psyop in history... time to let the Emperors know we're not buying the new clothes thing and put the perps where they belong!

[Bruce Jackson]

Mate,we have brain dead people in charge in Australia
26 million people
20,000 cases
255 deaths
In our southern state you are locked into your home for the next 6 weeks,masks mandatory for everyone
the rest of australia,state borders closed,thinking of making masks mandatory
just sheep following some supposed version of science,and what the rest of the world is doing
the numbers tell the story,but fear and worst case scenario is driving their lack of reason and logic

[English Outsider]

The question is really whether the disease should be eradicated or lived with.

My vote goes for eradication. I don't believe modern Western countries are incapable of dealing with the virus, and incapable of helping out those that aren't.

If we live with it -

1. We don't yet know enough about the virus to know what "living with it" means.

2. The wealthier elderly and a fair few less elderly will change their buying habits. Since, I find to my astonishment, the buying habits of the wealthy elderly account for much economic activity that'll damage an already fragile economy.

3. We'll never hear the end of it from the New York Times.

But I do wish that this pandemic had stayed merely a complicated public health problem and hadn't got caught up in politics.

[Keith Harbaugh]

Mr. Johnson, why do you start your post with discussing media "reporting" on (the whole state of) Florida,
but then switch in much of your detailed, and valuable, analysis to merely reporting on the statistics in two counties in Florida?

Why I ask that question:
I live in Virginia.
All the measured statistics for covid vary radically between its counties, driven by a number of factors.
https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus/
To see the geographical disparities, at that webpage click on "Daily Dashboard".
For a breakdown down to the county level, click on Demographics, then on "Select Health District".

I have no reason to assume the situation is different in Florida.
So why should I take your two counties as being typical?

BTW, other notable and documented examples are NY and NJ, where the rates varied dramatically from country to county.

But these criticisms of your methodology are definitely not criticisms of your overall conclusion.

[j. casey]

So, who is coordinating this psychological operation, call it Project Fear? I agree that the media promotion of the so-called pandemic will go out like a light after the election, and clearly the DNC is working hard to keep this monstrosity alive until the election. But who is coordination this? And I suspect, given the WEF's "Global Financial Reset" operation, that this is about a lot more than the DNC and US elections and unleashing the Red Guards on what's left of the country.

[BillWade]

Gov DeSantis is going to allow northerners into our state without quarantine. Taking a jab at Cuomo, he's asked NY's governor not to quarantine Floridians into nursing homes.

I'm in Charlotte county just south of Larry's Sarasota county and just north of Lee county. My county is the oldest demographic in the entire USA. We're doing better numbers wise than our neighbors for some odd reason. It might be because we don't have a major city in our county like Sarasota or Fort Myers.

When I talk to someone who's so afraid to go out, I ask them "what if this thing lasts for 10 years"? Are you willing at your age to lose all that time due to a flu like illness, you're 70 or so, do you want to spend your retirement in fear? I get the dumbfounded look from them and I just hope it makes them think a bit.

[Patrick Armstrong]

The PCR test is a joke, the counting rules are preposterous, the reporting is done by people with an interest in the outcome. But only crazy conspiracy theorists doubt SETTLED SCIENCE.

Well the crazy conspiracy theorists just won another one.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8599213/Thousands-Covid-19-deaths-wiped-governments-official-toll-counting-fiasco.html

[Bobo]

My little County in NE Florida of 820,00 population has 154 deaths in the 65+ grouping out of 2,700 that caught this CRUD. Now I know how miniscule this is but if you check the local pharmacies, prescriptions of Happy Pills, you will find well over a 200% increase since this Crud has arrived.
The difference between the 1918 Pandemic and this Crud is that we all have computers and have become statistically orientated but still cannot put the finger on the bums who are jacking up the numbers for their own financial gain. This is a FLU & if your not dealing with an immobility go find someone who has it and get it over with.

[Deap]

If Trump wins, Covid will continue to be the Zombie Apocalypse. If Biden wins, Covid will be a manageable threat.

[Deap]

Can't get this image out of my mind: Nancy Pelosi ripping up Trump's SOTU address, highllghting his administration accomplishments to date. Then Democrats unleashed the Zombie Apocalypse hysteria which dismantled every single Trump re-election bragging rights, one by one.

And they are not letting go. Covid was clearly an opportunity the Democrats and their media henchmen were not going to waste. This played out most brazenly with the LA Teacher union holding school children and parents in covid hostage, until the the school district met every one of their revolutionary "progressive" and unrelated demands.

Democrat teachers unions now currently threaten and violently disrupt millions of Americans lives with their extortion demands. The Democrat face of Big Government got way, way, way too big with that move.

You are warned, this is the face of Biden's America.

[Deap]

1960's social revolution against the mass conformity of the 1950's: Question Authority; Do Your Own Thing: Don't trust anyone over the age of 35, Follow your bliss; Tune in, Turn on and Drop out; Dawning of the Age of Aquarius - love, peace and understanding; We are one people, one world. Freedom just another word for nothing left to lose.

2020's: Mass conformity; symbolic allegiance demanded; blindly trust experts; individualism will be crushed and canceled; fear is everywhere, hate is everywhere, violence is everywhere, intolerance is everywhere; freedom is a word that now means you lose everything if you do not conform. We are angry hateful tribes, now eternally divided.

(Cartoon version of the extremes of course) But out of the 1960's ,there was a new dawning - the Silent Majority rose up and took charge, and urban hippies became suburban yuppies. The mass internet revolution was the unanticipated Black Swan.

Where, what and or who will be the 2020 Black Swan(s)?

[Deap]

Who is coordinating the fear campaign? My trusty fall back - the big due paying government union membership.

In California there are over one million dues paying government employee unions, just in education, police and fire. They pay nearly one billion dollars every year in union dues.

Their union bosses are free to spend this largesse on "public information campaigns", which includes getting their one million, highly disciplined and coordinated one million members blogging and letter writing, creating "public opinion". Plus answering opinion polls with their mandated party line.

Key goal - pin both the recent chaos and covid on directly Trump. Peace, love and harmony will again ensue once Trump is gone. And covid will magically become a manageable threat.

Quite honestly, if Trump loses, we all lose. You cannot escape this conclusion, whether you like Trump or not. There is no other choice. Biden is their straw man, now so painfully obvious.

[Deap]

It was the mindless panic over toilet paper that first primed the introduction of the "pandemic" panic into the US. Apparently started by Yahoo News in Australia and spread "like wildfire" across Facebook. Americans were primed to panic first before they even knew the first things about the Chinese corona virus.

A good investigative article about the Great Toilet Paper Panic is a worthy venture at this point in time - that is who and what started it. Quote of the hour at that time only a few months ago: Why are you filling your shopping cart with toilet paper? Because i saw everyone else filling up theirs. I panicked because I saw other people panicking.

[Account Deleted]

Bill wrote:
"When I talk to someone who's so afraid to go out, I ask them "what if this thing lasts for 10 years"?"

We can dramatically shorten this if we go the "Herd Immunity" route. Of course as with everything there are risks in this approach.

Herd immunity for Covid is estimated to occur when about 70% of the population becomes infected, assuming that reinfection cannot occur in the short term.

The current US fatalities versus infections is .033
70% of the US population is 244 million.

If those citizens under say 50 years would start going out and party hearty to speed up this pandemic we could possibly reach herd immunity by election day.

We've got a long way to go and time is of the essence. So far we have only 4.9 million cases to date, we need at least 244 million infections and nearly 8 million Covid deaths before November.

My wife and I are both over 70 so unfortunately we won't be able to take part. We'll just hang back and wait until you do your duty, then go shopping for a new home as soon as the financial collapse gets underway.

Another thing:

1) This strategy would lessen the need for a vaccine. It should meet the approval of the anti-vaxers.
2) The anti-maskers will love it.
3) It'll teach Fauci a lesson.

Keep your sunny side up and lets get rolling!
Good Luck

[turcopolier]

Mike46

The population of the US is 328 million. If the number of deaths so far in the US is accepted at 200K, then the national COVID-19 death rate computed against the whole population is .06%

[TV]

Wear a mask and shut up.
America in 2020 - a "nation" of cowering sheep.
And I'm very discouraged that this collection of dimwits will actually elect a corrupt career politician with dementia.

[BillWade]

Mike46, If people want to stay home to avert the flu I've no problem with that but I think they need to understand that the authorities are going to get more authoritarian as time goes on, witness Melbourne Australia, you might be there in your home for a while, a good long while. I remember back when the crisis was going to be "just two weeks of quarantine".

Myself, I'm practically your age. My wife and I stay in good shape. In our circle of friends of our age group only one other woman is in what I would call height/weight proportionate state. Quite a few are obese so I can understand why they self-quarantine, the virus for them is a real death threat.

Yes, we will take your advice. We're going out to eat tonight and then headed to a bar for some karaoke. I'm not a fan of karaoke but a much younger friend is singing and I'm wanting to buy him a few beers as he's broke. He was an up and coming entrepreneur but the virus has ruined his business, he's likely to lose his condo in the near future as well. You probably wouldn't want to buy it though as real estate in Florida is going up and not down. My realtor friend tells me that mucho northeners are making inquiries, I'm wondering how you'll sell your current house to buy a new one real cheap if everyone is so broke?

[TV]

"The population of the US is 328 million. If the number of deaths so far in the US is accepted at 200K, then the national COVID-19 death rate computed against the whole population is .06%"

Sir:
You missed a zero.
It's .006.

[turcopolier]

TV

Did you multiply by 100 at the end to get a %?