Understand the stats
Get the plain numbers, filter out the fear mongering
While anecdotes about how COVID has taken lives can be more moving and interesting than plain numbers, we should be aware that many media are using anecdotes to simply grab our attention.
To get the numbers:
Daily update: https://www.google.com/search?q=covid+death
Canada overview: https://www.jccf.ca/covid-stats/
Understand what the numbers mean
There are basically 2 numbers everyday: 1. case count 2. death count
- Look at the death count, not the new case count
While the case counts can look scary, remember many of them are asymptomatic and person who tested positive did not feel sick at all.
- Look at the 7-day average, not the daily number
The number of conducted tests fluctuates greatly depending on which day of the week it is.
Problem with the numbers
Hyper focus on them creates fear
- If we test widely among the population how many people are having a cold everyday, we are going to get a large number everyday. The same comparison goes for death count and other testing practices.
Counting students sick at home
- Many jurisdictions count all students sick at home as "COVID case"
Counting the asymptomatic
There are many mandatory testing at airports and hospitals regardless if the person is sick because of the virus
Anyone died with a positive test result for the virus were counted as death by the virus (even though they could have died in a car accident)
Flu cases have "magically" disappeared
Common illnesses like the flu was counted as "confirmed case". The number of cases and death for flu decreased significantly in 2020
In the US from 2012-2019, there are usually more than 30 million flu cases every year but in 2020, it decreased to less than 2000
In Canada, 10x reduction
Unreliable PCR test
The swab test machine just keeps spining with arbituarily high number of cycles to catch any remote trace of coronavirus. The false positive rate is high.
PCR test can be configured to find anything in anybody
Government officials testifying under oath in court that PCR tests are extremely unreliable
50% of COVID hospitalizations asymptomatic, unrelated
Overcounting "Covid death count"
Any diseased person will be counted as "Covid death" if he or she had a positive PCR test within 28 days, regardless of the actual cause of death.
Harmful test
Overcounting unvaccinated people
The unvaccinated number includes
- People who are ineligible, such as children under 12
- People who refuse to disclose whether they are vaccinated
- People who took the vaccine but have not had 14 days after the 2nd dose (a population prone to vaccine injury)
Misclassifying "vaccinated case" as "unvaccinated case"
- Cases during the 3-4 months period between someone got their 1st shot and 14 days after their 2nd shot is classified as "unvaccinated case"
