Author: William

The primary article that I will be quoting today is hidden behind a pay firewall at the financially troubled SacBee however I copied and pasted the title and found an archived copy on the Internet.

Activists sue Fox News for spreading coronavirus lies. Should Devin Nunes be worried?

I wish to look at a few parts of the clearly labeled opinion piece by Bee editor Gill Duran. I wish to look at it in terms of his accusations and what we know now as opposed to when he posted it a mere two weeks ago on April 10th.

Much of this is a hit piece on Congressman Devin Nunes. I guess nobody at the Bee’s Fresno outlet was equipped to take on the Congressman, Fox News, and the First Amendment so they had to import a heavy hitter from outside of the area.

The setup of the article basically this:

Yet the Republican congressman continues to downplay the coronavirus threat in his regular Fox News appearances. Now, an activist group is suing Fox for its campaign to mislead viewers about the virus.

Ok, so a Congressman (Devin Nunes) says something people in the other party don’t believe and therefore they must sue to silence him. Clearly no Constitutional issues with this logic.

Also, we learn that the Liberal group is suing Fox News “for its campaign to mislead viewers about the virus.” Please note that the word campaign implies that Fox News is purposely setting out to mislead their viewers about the severity of the Corona virus. (This also implies that the mainstream media are truth tellers and anyone espousing a different point of view is thus a liar.)

As proof for this thesis, the author invokes the Orange Man as his star witness.

A week ago, Nunes went on Fox News to blast Gov. Gavin Newsom’s efforts to slow the virus’ spread. Nunes labeled California’s dramatic measures as “overkill.” This happened on the same day that the Trump administration said COVID-19 could kill 240,000 Americans.

Even President Donald Trump is urging Americans to stay home, but Nunes appears to think the pandemic is a joke.

OK, so the model generated by Bill Gates and company—that has never been right throughout the epidemic—proves Fox is lying. Boy, at the time that assertion was thin, and now it is ridiculous.

Oh, the logic is something like this:
Orange Man quotes the current model (which Dr. Fauci approved of). Nunes challenges said model when he appeared on Fox (as have Hannity and others). By challenging the orthodoxy of the model which Trump also quotes as authoritative, Nunes and Fox are guilty of journalistic heresy. Implied is that Fox News viewers are ill informed and mind-numbed robots (since they are conservatives). If viewers believe what they see on Fox, they will surely die. Thus, Nunes and Fox have blood on their hands and need to be held accountable. Clearly Liberals must defend the masses from Fox and conservatives. That in a nutshell is the alleged basis of the lawsuit.

The lawsuit by the Washington League for Increased Transparency and Ethics says “defendants acted in bad faith to willfully and maliciously disseminate false information denying and minimizing the danger posed by the spread of the novel Coronavirus, or COVID-19, which is now recognized as an international pandemic.”

Folks, I just want to look at the last phrase of this paragraph because I keep hearing it over and over from those on the Left. “…COVID-19… is now recognized as an international pandemic.” Somehow the fact that Covid-19 is a pandemic is the trump card (no pun intended) of the Left. It seems that in the Liberal lexicon “pandemic” is a big word meaning “its gonna kill all ya’ll.”

Sorry guys. Nice try but no cigar. Pandemic means that this Corona virus is in a lot of places all at once. Declaring it a pandemic is not a commentary on whether said microbe is lethal to the existence of humanity.

But the author has more to say:

For months, Fox’s hosts have downplayed the coronavirus, denying that it poses a serious threat and casting the pandemic as a Democratic ploy to undermine Trump. Guests like Nunes have mocked public health orders to slow the virus’ spread.

Now, Fox may face consequences.

While two weeks ago, the author might have believed this (I’m being very charitable) does he believe it now? Clearly, the virus was much more widespread than initially reported—as skeptics at the time said it was—and therefore Covid-19 is much less lethal than initially reported. In the early days of the panic, there were reports that about 4 to 5 percent of those infected would die and in those over age 70, up to 18 percent would not recover. Remember, “Italy was only two weeks ahead of us…?”

Again equating “threat” and “pandemic” is not the same thing. Also, “flattening the curve” is a measure not to keep anyone from getting sick but designed to prevent overwhelming the healthcare system which again never happened. As my wife likes to point-out, it’s the same number of people under the curve.

Here are two more paragraphs to ponder:

Ecarma reports that Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman said on MSNBC that Fox insiders felt “real concern…that their early downplaying of the coronavirus actually exposes Fox News to potential legal action by viewers who maybe were misled and actually have died from this.”

“The misinformation that reaches the Fox News audience is a danger to public health,” wrote a group of over 100 American journalism professors in an open letter to Murdoch and Fox. “Indeed, it is not an overstatement to say that your misreporting endangers your own viewers.”

Noticed the logic of the argument, Fox viewers didn’t panic as much as viewers of the Liberal media, therefore, Fox has killed people? How does any business other than Planned Parenthood thrive by killing their customers?

Towards the conclusion of this piece by a highly compensated editor of the McClatchy flagship newspaper, we read:

Can COVID-19 victims successfully sue Fox “News” for its consistent stream of misinformation about the coronavirus?

Again, I don’t subscribe to cable but I do read the Fox News website which features many points of view, something not usually found anywhere else in mass media, and I would not describe Fox’s Covid-19 coverage as a “campaign” or monolithic or predetermined. I think they generally do a better job of separating fact from emotion. On this topic, I think they are very inconsistent in their point of view. I find their radio news coverage to be different than their website or even their high dollar opinion/entertainment programs.

As Johnnie Does said here yesterday, affirmation or information?

Pandemic Panic

Folks, I’ve been having trouble for the last two months with the Liberal fixation on the idea of Corona being a pandemic. Clearly H1N1 was much worse than Corona and we didn’t shutdown anything. Is it the typical Liberal hypocrisy that Sean Hannity loves to rail about or the old saying, “ignorance is bliss?” Or something else?

I think the underlying issue is something more primal. I think the Liberal folks are panicking more because they fear death and the thought of dying, especially in a seemingly random and unknowable way. People are treating Corona as if it were a biblical plague.

Liberals think this life is all that there is. No Heaven or Hell, just this. I think Corona has hit a nerve in these folk’s souls. Think Pascal’s God shaped vacuum.

On the other hand, I’m not worried about it and neither is my wife. The wife asserts that she already had it in January or very early February and based on her occupation and symptoms, she probably did. Whether it’s been thru our family or not, I’m not worried. Folks, stuff like this is God’s department not mine. If I get it, I get it. If I don’t, then that’s life. I just need to trust in God and not be bothered about Corona. Jesus told us not to fear what kills the body but he who kills the body and casts your soul into hell. That’s the one you need to fear.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
2 Timothy 1:7

Yes, I am conscience to keep more space between me and elderly people, but I will shake hands with anybody that is willing. I don’t fear others or hoard food and supplies. When shopping, I take what I need, just like I always do. My staff here at the blog and I are in agreement that this whole thing is a function of people watching the 24/7 news cycle and our current situation is not based in reality. Most changes to my life, as a result of Covid-19, have been forced on me by others reacting out of their fears and are not by my own choosing.

Covid-19 is a tiny blip on the pandemic scale. Lots of people have had it and most of them never even missed a day’s work. OK, they didn’t miss work until their governor took their job away. Why this guy from the Bee thinks its Armageddon is a mystery.

Final Thoughts

Oh, per today’s news, 20 percent of New York City residents have had the Corona virus.

One of every five New York City residents tested positive for antibodies to the coronavirus, according to preliminary test results described by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday, suggesting the virus had spread far more widely than known.

The results also provided the tantalizing prospect that many New Yorkers who never knew they had been infected — possibly as many as 2.7 million, the governor said — had already encountered the virus and survived. Cuomo also suggested the death rate was far lower than believed.

1 in 5 New Yorkers may have had COVID-19, antibody tests described by Gov. Andrew Cuomo suggest

So, two weeks after the rant in the Bee, Fox News and Congressman Nunes have been vindicated in their skepticism for like the millionth time in the last week. Oh, and the vindication is also coming from CNN and California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Gov. Gavin Newsom during Wednesday’s daily news briefing said he has called upon coroners and medical examiners to “go back as far as December” and perform autopsies on others who may have died from COVID-19 complications before the spreading coronavirus was detected in the state, “to ultimately guide a deeper understanding of when this pandemic really started to impact California directly.”

Coronavirus killed in California earlier than known. Newsom wants to re-examine more deaths

California looking for Covid-19 deaths back to December, now that’s news, at least to liberals.

The facts are that statistically speaking, Covid-19 is very contagious but rarely fatal.

Note to readers: Nope, I haven’t been sneaking a sip of the wife’s Fireball whiskey stash in our freezer. No, it’s more like when the stopped clock is right twice a day. But, nevertheless, it happened and it’s a big deal.

Buckle-up cable news viewers because CNN has officially destroyed the CDC narrative of the Covid-19 timeline. Sorry 90-day guy but you lose again. Here’s the story.

New autopsy results show coronavirus killed two Californians in early and mid-February — up to three weeks before the previously known first US death from the virus.

These deaths now stand as the country’s first two attributed to the novel coronavirus, a development that may change the understanding of how early the virus was spreading in the country, health experts told CNN Wednesday.

Two deaths in Northern California’s Santa Clara County happened February 6 and February 17, the county said in a news release Tuesday.
The previously understood first coronavirus death happened in Kirkland, Washington, on February 29.

Two Californians Died Of Coronavirus Weeks Before Previously Known 1st US Death

Ok, let’s break this down for those of you that need this in small bites.

CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) has maintained that the first Covid-19 death in the United States was on February 29. CNN’s report is that this is untrue.

Santa Clara County’s earliest death is now confirmed as February 6th. The person who died did not go to China or any other country; therefore, he was infected here in California. With an incubation rate of about two weeks, this person was exposed to Covid-19 in mid-January by someone else in California. If you trace back, then this unknown person must have been exposed to Covid-19 in early January or late December. Thus claims of cases in California during January and February—which are confirmed by antibody testing—are confirmed also by this person’s death.

It is safe to conclude that Covid-19 was spreading beyond China in December. This agrees with other media reports this week that Covid-19 began spreading in China during a timeframe between mid-September and late November.

Last thought is why check for Corona virus where it is presupposed not to exist? Stanford researchers must be making a difference in Santa Clara County. Thanks to whoever went above and beyond the conventional wisdom in search of the truth.

We are gratified that CNN has proven yet again that we are Really Right.

Covid-19 is a Classic Hydra

Oh, while we’re bragging, take a look at this story that confirms what I said yesterday that there will be no vaccine for this virus—or rather family of viruses.

A new study in China has found that the novel coronavirus has mutated into at least 30 different variations.

The results showed that medical officials have vastly underestimated the overall ability of the virus to mutate, in findings that different strains have affected different parts of the world, leading to potential difficulties in finding an overall cure.

Coronavirus has mutated into at least 30 different strains new study finds

More than 30 different mutations were detected, of which 19 were previously undiscovered.

“Sars-CoV-2 has acquired mutations capable of substantially changing its pathogenicity,” Li wrote in the paper.

The team discovered that some of the mutations could lead to functional changes in the virus’ spike protein, the South China Morning Post reported. Spike protein is the protein that the coronavirus uses to attach itself to human cells.

Li ‘s team infected cells with COVID-19 strains carrying different mutations, of which the most aggressive strains were found to generate as much as 270 times as much viral load as the weakest strains. The aggressive strains also killed the human cells the fastest.

The results indicated “that the true diversity of the viral strains is still largely underappreciated,” Li wrote.

The study could have future implications on the treatment of coronavirus, as several different strains have been found throughout the world. The United States, which has the world’s worst death toll at 42,897, and 799,515 overall cases, has been struck by different mutations.

New York, which itself had the worst death rate in the US, and the eastern coast show a strain of coronavirus similar to that found in Europe, whereas the western US has shown similarities with strains found in China.

Coronavirus has so far been treated in hospitals worldwide as one disease and patients receive the same treatment regardless of the strain. It has been suggested by the team at Zhejiang University that defining mutations in different regions may change the way we approach combating the virus.

Note that Covid-19 in New York is a different strain than that found in California, bet you didn’t know that. Perhaps this is why you can have Coivid-19, be pronounced cured and then get it again? Or do antibodies stop all variations? Oh the depths that we could plumb on this topic…

CA to Test Asymptomatic People

Our last told ya, is this story about California planning to test people by risk of exposure and not symptoms.

California public health officials say local authorities should test people for the coronavirus in “high risk settings” even if they don’t have symptoms, a change aimed at health care workers, prisoners and the homeless.

State officials believe the new guidelines are the first in the country to prioritize testing for people who don’t have symptoms. Until Monday, California followed guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that only those with symptoms should be prioritized for testing.

California Recommends Coronavirus Virus Tests For Some With No Symptoms

Please note that California is breaking with CDC guidelines to test this group of people. The article is mute on whether testing asymptomatic people will be done via antibody testing but that will eventually follow.

Yep, here is third study in a third area of the country showing once again that a large portion of the population has had Covid-19 and most never knew it. This one from Chicago.

A phlebotomist working at Roseland Community Hospital said Thursday that 30% to 50% of patients tested for the coronavirus have antibodies while only around 10% to 20% of those tested have the active virus.

Sumaya Owaynat, a phlebotomy technician, said she tests between 400 and 600 patients on an average day in the parking lot at Roseland Community Hospital. Drive-thru testing is from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. each day. However, the hospital has a limited number of tests they can give per day.

Owaynat said the number of patients coming through the testing center who appear to have already had coronavirus and gotten over it is far greater than those who currently have the disease.

“A lot of people have high antibodies, which means they had the coronavirus but they don’t have it anymore and their bodies built the antibodies,” Owaynat told Chicago City Wire.

Antibodies in the bloodstream reveal that a person has already had the coronavirus and may be immune to contracting the virus again.

If accurate, this means the spread of the virus may have been underway in the Roseland community – and the state and country as a whole – prior to the issuance of stay at home orders and widespread business closures in mid-March which have crippled the national economy.

Roseland Hospital phlebotomist: 30% of those tested have coronavirus antibody

Also, in the article is this mention of a fourth study in Germany that agrees with the three in the US that I have cited over the last week.

A recent study of 1,000 people in the Heinsberg District of Bonn, Germany found that 15% of the population had contracted the virus, many unknowingly and without symptoms.

Of those, only 0.37% died from COVID-19, a figure much lower than those previously cited.

Folks, the stay at home order is a failure and this virus is way less dangerous than advertised by the experts—of course basing actual public policy on data from China has been one of the big failures of this whole exercise.

Let’s reopen America for business.

Around a third of participants in a Massachusetts study tested positive for antibodies linked with coronavirus, according to researchers.

The Mass. General study took samples from 200 residents on the street in Chelsea, MA. Participants remained anonymous and provided a drop of blood to researchers, who were able to produce a result in ten minutes with a rapid test.

Sixty-four of the participants tested positive – a “sobering” result, according to Thomas Ambrosino, Chelsea’s city manager.

“We’ve long thought that the reported numbers are vastly under-counting what the actual infection is,” Ambrosino told the Boston Globe. “Those reported numbers are based on positive COVID-19 tests, and we’re all aware that a very, very small percentage of people in Chelsea and everywhere are getting COVID-19 tests.”

He added: “Still, it’s kind of sobering that 30 percent of a random group of 200 people that are showing no symptoms are, in fact, infected.”

One third of participants in Massachusetts study tested positive for coronavirus

Ok, so one in three random people in Chelsea, MA test positive for Corona, so what does the city manager conclude? “It’s all the more reason for everyone to be practicing physical distancing.”

Dude, this guy isn’t a medical person, he’s a bean counter and budget nerd; and therefore, he concludes exactly the opposite of what he should. If one third of everybody has had it, we know three things:

• Corona (Covid-19) is not the boogeyman that people claim is.
• It’s not nearly as lethal as the regular flu and its also unstoppable.
• Lots of people already had it and never knew it.

Remember, flattening the curve is not about stopping the infection, its prolonging it over a period of time to lessen the impact on the medical system so we don’t overload the acute care centers of hospitals—something which has not happened anywhere in this country.

Folks, the so-called experts cried “wolf” and the political class listened and shutdown the economy for nothing. Think what would have happened if all the gloom and doom forecasts of Y2K were listened too instead of ignored and this is what would have happened twenty years ago (albeit only for a week not months on end.)

We got played. Period. Let’s get America working again.

Folks, first for context, please check-out this infographic of every pandemic in recorded history. Covid-19 is literally a blip on the screen. For those of you that remember astronomy, think how many planets the size on Mercury can you cram into the sun?

This headline tells you that something is wrong with the 24/7 news coverage (as if we needed any further proof).

Coronavirus antibody testing finds Bay Area infections may be 85 times higher than reported: researchers

A team of researchers in California found that the number of coronaviruses cases in one county may actually be up to 85 times higher than the what health officials have tallied, and say their data may help better estimate the virus’ true fatality rate.

“The most important implication of these findings is that the number of infections is much greater than the reported number of cases,” the researchers wrote, in a yet-to-be peer-reviewed study. “Our data imply that, by April 1 (three days prior to the end of our survey) between 48,000 and 81,000 people had been infected in Santa Clara County. The reported number of confirmed positive cases in the county on April 1 was 956, 50-85-fold lower than the number of infectious predicted by this study.”

Folks look at this paragraph in the story.

“This probably aligns with what overall national exposure may be, on order of about 5 percent once we do wide serology,” he tweeted on Friday. “Santa Clara was a hot spot and I would have expected exposure to be higher. Overall we’re probably diagnosing 1 in 10 to 1 in 20 infections.”

The current US population is north of 330 million, thus using the study’s conservative number of 5 percent national exposure, this translated to about 17 million people in the US have had Corona. These stats are based on numbers from 3 weeks ago (April 1) so presumably that number would be higher now.

Thus, this whole economic shutdown is overblown, and the Covid-19 fatality rate would be less than the common flu.

China’s newest gift to the world, the dreaded Corona virus, has finally caused a level of disruption in my life. It started on Monday as I stopped at the Save Mart grocery store located near my office. I happen to get there most days about 6 AM which is when they open. I typically buy one beverage item on my way to work. This week, I have been greeted with hoarders each day. As the week goes on, their numbers have increased. I estimate that today there were 60 to 70 people there to greet me. All self-check-out lines were purposely down to keep people from breaking the hoarding rules which are enforced at the cash registers. Last week, when they opened, there were only two or three folks in line counting me. I’ve never seen grown humans so excited about toilet paper in my life.

Also, in the last week, our church threw in the towel and cancelled all services. The church has many elderly members but good grief, this is ridiculous. They hope to hold services on Easter… like you better. Meanwhile, if you know a good set of catacombs anywhere, I’d be interested in going to their services. I thought we had faith not fear. See what happens when you get shaky on Predestination and Unconditional Election? Oh well, guess it wasn’t meant to be.

The last few days at work have taken a turn into the Twilight Zone. Note to self, don’t say, “it’s just a bad flu” in the presence of a room full of state workers that get their news from cable TV providers. It’s a most unpleasant feeling when they glare at you for trying to talk sense. Anyway, management is trying to implement “social distancing” by reducing the number of people in the office at any one time. Thus, they are having us work six hour shifts and then work from home for the remainder of our day. Please understand that logic and common sense take a back seat to this random directive. If you can imagine working in an accounting office with no access to your files or accounting program. We are given nothing to do at home but watch the email box for three hours at a time. No fears. We get a full check while all this going on.

The wife has it worse. Earlier this week her district cancelled school for the rest of the year. Today in a joint release, the district and their union not only told teachers that they can’t provide their children with learning opportunities—many of which are currently free on the Internet during this current social upheaval—but if any teacher knows of a fellow teacher that dares to try to help their students learn during this extended break, said teacher is to be reported by other teachers so the violator can be disciplined. Yep, we got it in writing. Teachers who try to continue teaching will be punished. Caring forbidden, conforming mandatory. Welcome to California. For those keeping tally, just another reason to leave the state.

Contrary to the instructions of the County of Sacramento and Governor, some of us boys met last night at a local “speak easy” to shoot the breeze. I think our group was below the current gathering size eligible for the automatic death penalty—currently set at ten individuals. The topics didn’t really matter, it’s just getting out of the house for our regularly scheduled gathering.

Short of the governor declaring martial law or California falling into the sea, the family will be taking a road trip in the coming months. We will get to see if the rest of the country is as worked-up about this illness as are people here in California. I have heard mixed reports on whether this is the case in other parts of the country.

Folks my most immediate gripe has been the difficulty of finding eggs and bread in the pillaged grocery stores in this part of Sacramento County. We’re not greedy, we just want our usual breakfast on Saturday morning. Last night, after half a dozen trips to various places, I finally scored a dozen eggs. Thanks, Chief for your personal recommendation and direction in guiding my quest. I’ve purposely not hoarded anything but try to buy only what I need and live life as normally as possible.

Panic and worry are not on my radar over this Corona virus. I think thousands of people are walking around with it and have no symptoms. I base that on the number of celebrities, sports figures, and politicians that are getting it. They only know because they have doctors that can use their patient’s station in life to get a test. Those of us with McDonald’s medical plans (talkin’ about you Kaiser) are just fighting over scraps. I think most folks will never know that they had it and that’s probably for the best.

Frankly, unless you’re in a high-risk group, this whole thing is as overblown for most of us as Y2K. Lest you think I’m just saying crazy stuff, take a look at the Bloomberg news article about deaths in Italy. Over 99 percent of the people dying had preexisting conditions.

More than 99% of Italy’s coronavirus fatalities were people who suffered from previous medical conditions, according to a study by the country’s national health authority.

99% of Those Who Died From Virus Had Other Illness, Italy Says

The new study could provide insight into why Italy’s death rate, at about 8% of total infected people, is higher than in other countries.
The Rome-based institute has examined medical records of about 18% of the country’s coronavirus fatalities, finding that just three victims, or 0.8% of the total, had no previous pathology. Almost half of the victims suffered from at least three prior illnesses and about a fourth had either one or two previous conditions.

The average age of those who’ve died from the virus in Italy is 79.5. As of March 17, 17 people under 50 had died from the disease. All of Italy’s victims under 40 have been males with serious existing medical conditions.

Folks, people in Italy smoke like chimneys, so many had compromised respiratory systems. Italy is also the “Florida” of Europe. Many people choose to retire to this country. Italy has a climate similar in many respects to California.

Again, for the vast majority of us, this virus is just an inconvenience. I think we could have dealt with this without putting the economy on hold and citizens under house arrest.

Today, people at work were asking me if they should be afraid of the police stopping them and whether they risk going to jail just for being outside of their house or driving to and from work.

It doesn’t help when the guys on the radio during my morning commute were joking about being issued passes proving they work for an industry designated as critical in case police ask them for papers while commuting to work.

Are we really that far gone? I hope not.

Anyway, have a good weekend.