I hope you all have survived election week. There’s a well established and colorful military expression that captures the essence of election week – “it’s a cluster fuck.” I have never seen anything like this in all the years I’ve religiously exercised my civic duty. It’s enough to drive you to therapy but as you all know a therapist is a jackass who studied psychology in order to understand themselves. A good shoot the shit once a week is far more effective and will save you $150 per hour.
Shoot the shits are great because participants don’t need to know anything about the topics, they are free to make unsupported comments, freely use profanity, insult anyone they wish or change the subject altogether. So let’s get started.
I’m a Trump supporter and I don’t give a rat’s ass what he looks like, how he talks, whether he passes gas in crowded elevators or any other metric other than what he and his administration has accomplished, and that list is both broad and deep. So, I don’t understand all the fahrblunget surrounding this election; as far as I’m concerned Donald J. Trump should be up for another four years; however, after some reflection I’ve come to the conclusion that all of the jackasses fleeing, California, Oregon, New York and New Jersey due to high cost of living, taxes, and a steady erosion in the quality of life vote at their new state the same way they did when they lived in the previous state expecting a different result. Go figure!
I’m sure it’s coincidental but all of the states that went to VP Joe Biden have High to Very High concentrations of psychologists. The way things sit now Biden has 264 electoral count and Trump 214. I hope the President makes it to 270.
Moving on to Part 2.
The media and Democrat Party are singularly responsible for largely amplifying the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic, they leveraged the virus to damage Trump’s campaign; don’t get me wrong, you need to take COVID seriously but you shouldn’t be slicing your wrists. A little background first.
The World Health Organization is responsible for naming viruses and the formal name for COVID-19 is SARS-Cov-2 so most of the scientific literature refers to SARS-Cov-2 and COVID-19 interchangeably. SARS-Cov-2 is a new virus so when it first entered the country, the only thing the medical profession had in hand to deal with it was their genitalia. Tests had to be developed, I honestly think that Joe Biden thought that testing for COVID-19 is something that could be anally extracted. Not quite VP Biden! Part of Joe Biden’s plan of attack is to double testing, but testing provides you with only a snap shot; a couple of days after testing negative you can be infected and test positive. Those statements went unchallenged by the media, instead public fears were inflamed by reports of increasing infections with no effort at clarification and illumination.
The table below is a portion of CDC’s Table 1 on influenza by age groups. The age distribution used is very close to how COVID-19 age group data is reported. So, let’s take a look at it, for example: hospitalizations for age groups 50-64 and 65+yrs account for 65.8% of total hospitalization; deaths for the same age groups account for 85.8% of total number of deaths. Deaths for the same age groups is 7% of the hospitalizations for the same age groups. This is similar to COVID’s impact on our communities, I believe CDC quotes a 5% death rate. SARs-Cov-2 is an aggressive virus with a much higher rate of transmission and unlike influenza type A and type B viruses.
There is no reason to panic and there’s no reason to lockdown the economy which has a deleterious effect on people’s lives to a much greater extent than the virus itself. Should you keep your face covered and maintain distance, absolutely, but you need to get on with your life.
Anyone saying to you that Trump mismanaged the COVID pandemic is either stupid or thinks you are.
Note: 95% UI is a statistical measure saying that the data is presented with a 95% confidence that the actual number will fall between the given range e.g actual 0-4 yrs patients will fall between 21,371 and 57,495 with 95% degree of confidence
| Table 1: Estimated influenza disease burden, by age group — United States, 2019-2020 influenza season |
||||
| Hospitalizations | Deaths | |||
| Age group |
Estimate | 95% UI |
Estimate | 95%UI |
| 0-4 yrs |
29,920 | (21,371, 57,495) |
254 | (84, 554) |
| 5-17 yrs |
22,523 | (17,963, 31,126) |
180 | (35, 439) |
| 18-49 yrs |
86,023 | (66,223, 124,169) |
2,669 | (1,719, 4,601) |
| 50-64 yrs |
89,257 | (73,368, 114,905) |
5,133 | (3,534, 8,750) |
| 65+ yrs |
176,924 | (134,552, 262,151) |
13,673 | (10,298, 19,568) |
| All ages |
404,647 | 21909 | ||
| Source: | https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2019-2020.html#:~:text=During%20the%202019%2D2020%20influenza,405%2C000%20hospitalizations%2C%20and%2022%2C000%20deaths. | ||||||
Although infections are increasing, the critical variable remains patient age and the existence of comorbidity, that’s the population that’s at risk
Key Updates for Week 43, ending October 24, 2020
Nationally, surveillance indicators tracking levels of SARS-CoV-2 virus circulation and associated illnesses have been increasing since September. The percentage of deaths due to pneumonia, influenza and COVID-19 (PIC) remained at approximately equal levels from mid-September through mid-October. Both COVID-19 related hospitalizations and PIC mortality for the most recent weeks may increase as more data are received.
Have a great weekend, and for God’s sake schedule your own shoot the shit and give fingering your iPhone a break.
FOG HORN 