When the death rate from COVID plunged, the media started focusing on the number of people hospitalized as the “better” indicator of how serious the current COVID outbreak is.
But that measure is grossly inflated because hospitals test every patient and are required to report any positive result, even if the patient has no symptoms.
The result, as a surprisingly honest article in the Atlantic points out, is that “the overall tallies of COVID hospitalizations, made available on various state and federal dashboards and widely reported on by the media, do not differentiate based on severity of illness.”
The article points to new a new study by researchers the VA Boston Healthcare System and Tufts University, which tried to understand the severity of these hospital visits by looking at electronic records data from Veterans Affairs hospitals across the country.
That way they could see which COVID patients needed supplemental oxygen or whose blood oxygen level went below 94%, which are indicators of a severe COVID case.
They found that last year, as COVID was emerging and before there were any vaccines, nearly two-thirds of those who tested positive in hospitals for COVID had severe symptoms. But this year, only about half did.
The rest either had been admitted for other reasons or had a mild case of the disease.
And that’s not just because more of those admitted this year have been vaccinated. The researchers found that unvaccinated patients also had milder symptoms overall this year than last.
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The saga began when a virologist named Jesse Bloom at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle discovered that genetic sequences were missing from the NIH-operated database scientists routinely use to investigate the origin and evolution of viruses.
As pathogens mutate and spread from person to person, the database is instrumental in tracking such mutations, which may also provide clues into their origin.
“America has gone from fake crises under Trump to real ones under Biden — from a period of peace to a presidency of body bags, botched evacuations, and failed drone strikes. Yet the ruling class’s appetite for hysterical books about the Trump presidency hasn’t waned.
Now Washington is excited about Bob Woodward’s take on Trump’s final days. Never mind that the biggest scandal his book has unearthed comes not from Trump but from General Mark Milley’s hyperventilating about him.
“Sussman’s statement to the FBI General Counsel that he was not acting on behalf of any client was knowingly and intentionally false.
In truth and in fact, and as SUSSMAN well knew, SUSSMANN acted on behalf of and in coordination with two specific clients of [Perkins Coie], Tech Executive-1 and the Clinton Campaign, in assembling and conveying these allegations.”
“During a lengthy hearing for the conspiracy case involving 18 members of the far-right group Oath Keepers, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta for D.C. asked about the determinations prosecutors used to file a felony charge of “obstructing an official proceeding” of Congress.
“Essentially, what you said is, ‘Trust us,’?” Mehta said.
“And that is a real problem when it comes to criminal statutes, to suggest, ‘We know it when we see it, and we’ll pick and choose when it is an appropriate exercise of prosecutorial discretion.’?”
It’s hard to imagine a scenario in which the public and notable public figures would unabashedly endorse terrorism and support a prison breakout of terrorists who murdered Americans, for example.
Yet in this case, far too many people are turning the terrorists into the victims. Going to prison for violent crimes you commit is not oppression.
Former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller "did not" authorize Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley to reach out to his Chinese counterpart regarding a possible future attack: Report washex.am/3tKMnbw
Miller, former head of the Department of Defense following the 2020 election until Inauguration Day, told the outlet he “did not now and would not ever authorize” such calls.
He described the calls as a “disgraceful and unprecedented act of insubordination.” He said the chairman should resign “immediately.”