Monday, February 19, 2024

HOW COME ... NOTHING since AUGUST 2022?

 You might have asked this question? Or you might have simply turned the page. The truth is what some may not want to hear. 

I had posted an article on Cancer Acceleration with scores of references...on THIS PLATFORM.

The Article was unceremoniously removed from my site, without my consent.

This is plain and simple...CENSORSHIP.

An assault on the FIRST AMENDMENT of Freedom of Free Speech!

I am saddened by the website's approach as anyone would be. It is the most egregious action taken by this Blog Site.

If they are willing to put back the post here, I will reconsider publishing here in the future.

CENSORSHIP is not the answer to Free Speech...The real answer is MORE FREE SPEECH. Others can comment (MY comments are open) in agreement or in disagreement.

I await the response>

Thank you

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

THE CURIOUS CASE OF EXCESS



 The Curious Case of Excess 

We live in a world filled with deviations from the standards. There are, however, outlier events within those moments. They catch us by surprise and hurtle us, into confusion, data gathering, conjecture, estimation and ultimately over time, onto the true face of reality. 

What are these moments? And how are they created? We name our daily occurrences as standards that are based on past events and the averages of deviations occurring, representing the bounds of the two-standard-deviations above and below the mean. In other words, if the norm in life is a straight or curvy line, then standard deviation from that line is calculated based on previous average excursions across the line. Based on the Central Theorem those deviations occur 95% of the time. Larger deviation values, or outliers, from the mean indicate a larger excursion from that known central mean (average) and vice versa. Example: The average IQ in the USA is 98. A score of 132 is considered a “high IQ.” The two-standard-deviations rule here would imply that about 5 percent of the population will have IQ scores more than 30 points away from 100. The 95% of the population will have an IQ within the two-standard deviations around the 98-100 Mean.

1.     https://www.healthline.com/health/average-iq#average-iq 

 The curiosity is stirred when those expected norms are broken. In Wall Street terms if a manager of a Money Fund averages 30% higher than all others combined then he/she has exceptional trading/investing capability. Unfortunately for the manager, these deviations in wealth creation are also a direct function of luck, timing and knowing the information-asymmetry within (the Congress has a great little secret of “Insider Trading” where the change in future policy can be exploited monetarily for self-advantage or asymmetrical information).

https://www.businessinsider.com/congress-stock-act-violations-senate-house-trading-2021-9

 Excess it seems is the product of both hubris and desire. As the “COVID viral Cases,” increased, it was perplexing to see that the PCR tests had been used frivolously with thermal cycle thresholds at 40-45, picking up non-infectious coronaviruses’ fragments in the blood streams of previously infected individuals. The true cycle threshold for a reasonable answer was calculated at 26-28. That led to large false positive tests and increased the “numbers of infected individuals.” A scenario begging to be brought under control ‘by any means.’

The Graph below is the PCR data collection and results.


 

And looking look at the “COVID Deaths” in the past two years of the Pandemic, the review opens more cacophony of noise. The world data and that from individual countries gives us some moments of reflection. Were all deaths COVID related? Unfortunately, any posed questions, immediately pushed one into a category-defying box, where impartial and forced partial reality coexist to create a nebula of “misinformation.” The power of such a half-opaque, half-baked imposed vision dethrones the mental arches of support and throws the witness into self-delusions. Such conflicted and contradictory information creates wakeful nightmares for most individuals.

1.     https://ourworldindata.org/search?q=COVID+Deaths

 The data, as deaths are euphemistically called, suggest various causal inferences. Back in October of 2020 the pundits were adamant that everything was properly boxed and accounted for until, this stunning admission from CDC started the alarm bells ringing, and they have been ringing since March 2022 and getting louder by the day.

1.     https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/24/cdc-coding-error-overcount-covid-deaths

 This discomposition of reality contributed to a dark cloud of fear, the population of the world had never felt before. The imposed fear rendered people into a defenseless, self-preservation mode at any cost. Not only a small counting /coding error revealed the 72,000 overcount, it also revealed the willful blindness of categorizing every event during the pandemic as a COVID related death. The cost of safety bore the cost of life. Motor Vehicle Accident-related deaths, Murders and other criminal or other related deaths were reported as COVID deaths. Which brings us to the issue of how many of the deaths other than the overcounting error were unrelated to the virus? 

The answer should be of little surprise to critical thinkers:

1.     https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201117133908.htm

 When the Pandemic started there were many deaths from the virus itself. That were reflected in the CDC website and in other world data metrics. Those deaths (exaggerated or real) were clustered around the first six to nine months after the pandemic started. As referenced previously, the virus-related deaths were ballooned by agencies, however, most of the deaths were in the 75+ year old population. Outside of that cohort the risk was low except with comorbid conditions like, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular ailments, cancer etc.

The clustered deaths occurred in the Extended Care Facilities (Nursing Homes). Some of those deaths were attributable to flawed policies of the Chief Executives of the various Northeastern and midwestern states, by placing pandemic related convalescing patients and housing them in these elder facilities thus exposing the staff and the vulnerable elderly. One of the States recently settled a lawsuit for $16 Million, without admitting to wrongdoing: https://www.nj.com/politics/2022/08/state-to-pay-out-nearly-16m-to-families-over-covid-deaths-in-nj-veterans-homes-admits-no-wrongdoing.html

Nursing Home Deaths:

1.     https://apnews.com/article/new-york-nursing-home-coronavirus-deaths-a6c214f4467976efdfca9ba75f8adaef

2.     https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/nursing-home-83-residents-died-covid-still-business-new-name-rcna6189

3.     https://www.abc27.com/news/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-pennsylvania/did-state-policies-contribute-to-covid-deaths-in-nursing-homes-pa-senate-grieving-families-want-to-know/

 Given the raging “infected cases” and the “estimated” death totals, the Policy makers decided Lockdowns, Social Distancing, Work from home, Remote home schooling, restriction of travel, and other such mandates were needed to contain the contagion. In doing so, the recent history has not been kind to those policies or the policy makers. As one of them (Dr. Birx) has recently admitted: https://youtu.be/dXzHBUuo62U

Keeping children from socializing with other children has led to learning losses. An excess of mental health problems, including, depression, anxiety, drug abuse and a very high incidence of suicides were noted. 

School Closures:

1.     https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/covid-19-school-closures-fueled-big-learning-losses-especially-disadvantaged

2.     https://health.ucsd.edu/news/releases/Pages/2021-08-24-how-adolescents-used-drugs-during-the-covid-19-pandemic.aspx

3.     https://www.choc.org/news/more-young-children-are-killing-themselves-the-covid-19-pandemic-is-making-the-problem-worse/

 The workers with limited means and not in the paper-pushing realm of work as in finance etc. stayed home and through despondency also sought relief from alcohol and drugs adding to the burgeoning numbers of deaths both self-inflicted and other.  

 

Fentanyl Deaths in Minnesota (Health Department)

Lock Downs:

1.     https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7293850/

2.     https://www.healthline.com/health-news/yes-lockdowns-do-help-slow-the-spread-of-covid-19

3.     https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2020.549692/full

 As companies realized the loss of retail sales from stay-at-home consumers, jobs were cut, and workers laid off. Small business shuttered and more unhealth was created. The ball kept rolling. Some large online business models thrived, while the brick and mortar retail business shuttered their doors. Meanwhile excess liquidity (FED printed money) stormed the Streets and the resultant Inflationary Consumer Price Index (CPI) spiraled upwards in dramatic fashion and the Consumer bore the burden and still does!


 Small Business Shutdowns:

1.     https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2006991117

 Stay-at-home without social contact both for the children and adults caused an epidemic of obesity which gave a larger venue to the virus to exploit and harm.  A 3% increase in Obesity over the past 2 years is a public health debacle. Yet no one took responsibility for their scientifically unbalanced policies!

 


Besides, the effects of the virus on the human host, there was also the chronic sustained inflammation from the stored fat that created a nidus for malignancy or exploited an incipient malignant clone to reveal itself in a more advanced state of cancer. Given the lockdowns and the fear invoked by the Policy-Makers and their willing accomplices in the Mainstream Media people feared to go outdoors, even to check on their own health and well-being. 


I wrote about that in March 2021 about the impending doom for so many, yet few thought the need to address it, was an urgency.

1.     https://jedismedicine.blogspot.com/2022/08/non-covid-death-epidemic-of-future.html?spref=tw

 Obesity Epidemic:

1.     https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/09/29/1041515129/obesity-rates-rise-during-pandemic-fueled-by-stress-job-loss-sedentary-lifestyle

 Interestingly the excess deaths seemed to slow down to the norm for a period in 2020 and then re-emerged with a vengeance. Sudden Death Syndrome reported infrequently in the media, especially pertaining to the athletes and the youth could after a while not be ignored. A rash of “Myocarditis,” “Heart Attacks,” and “Strokes,” were occurring, but political distractions seem to overwhelm this information. The adolescents and athletes with sudden incapacitation and death were of consequence and they were being filmed as they collapsed to the ground never to wake up again!

 

 

Sudden Deaths in Adolescents:

1.     https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.056583

2.     https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/148/3/e2021052478/179728/Symptomatic-Acute-Myocarditis-in-7-Adolescents

3.     https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34849667/

4.     https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1052305722001318

5.     https://www.uclahealth.org/u-magazine/a-step-toward-understanding-why-covid-19-boosts-stroke-risk

 


However, the CDC on its website continues to suggest only the following side effects:

1.     https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/expect/after.html?s_cid=10509:side%20effects%20of%20the%20covid%20vaccine:sem.ga:p:RG:GM:gen:PTN:FY21

 Soon Neurological deficits and other Immune related illness started to appear at an alarming rate and the chronicity of such illness was manifest over several months. The doctors, ill-equipped to see the forest for the trees, diagnosed the local effects of the unrealized cause and failed to address the cause itself, diagnosing, a heart attack, a stroke, a pneumonia, a cancer and so on became the implied norm. But what was the overarching causality for these diverse group of diagnoses. No one could or would say and they still cannot for fear of their livelihoods.

Neurological Effects:

1.     https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34957554/

2.     https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8979721/

3.     https://www.heraldguide.com/featured/man-dies-after-developing-autoimmune-disease-from-vaccine/

4.     https://www.authorea.com/users/455597/articles/582067-sars-cov-2-spike-protein-in-the-pathogenesis-of-prion-like-diseases

 Having witnessed a rapid acceleration of a biologically slow growing malignancy, a chronic immune phenomenon in the gastrointestinal tract, a normal 40 weeks of survival shortened to a 3-months and a single event as rapid as 6 weeks from a newly diagnosed malignancy, in friends and family gives me pause. Now these deaths, in all possibility, remain anecdotal at best but other physicians have witnessed some of the same. What to make of this new plethora of hidden in plain sight information? If causal factors are known, then suggestions for Prevention can be offered. What to do, currently remains curtained at best?

 Causally one can point to the effects of the virus, but the acceleration of malignancies occurred in the recent past 12 months and were not noticed in the early phases of the pandemic. Several papers refute the potential immune weakness as a causal reason for the accelerated malignancies through statistical reasoning. To be certain that overall cancer deaths decreased between 2020 and 2021 from potentially lower surveillance due to the pandemic and people not seeking help from their physicians, the future statistics should help put that in perspective. Perhaps the acceleration of cancer, observed is the delayed effect of the virus? Or perhaps it is something else? Or perhaps we have willful blindness in critical thinking. It is hard to tell.

 There are several pieces of data that need to be considered before any judgment can be passed on these events. Time is of the essence, and eventually it will tell the tale…

 Immune Dysregulation: 

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2787643

1.     https://www.nature.com/articles/s41577-021-00656-2

2.     https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciab1024/6459155

3.     https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/imm.13443

4.    https://journals.lww.com/ccejournal/fulltext/2021/11000/multisystem_inflammation_and_organ_dysfunction.10.aspx

 In no small wonder the Director, of the same storied agency called affectionately as the CDC, has just expressed her apology and accepted responsibility for its myriads of erroneous policies. The CDC Director promises to do better in the future. 

1.     https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/17/us/politics/cdc-rochelle-walensky-covid.html

 And that leads us to the many harms cited above. Is the apology also an admission of the millions harmed, financially, physically, and emotionally from the said mistakes? If so, there is a stream of a thick red fluid flowing a river, everywhere. And the blame thirsty finger points rigidly at the source of such unallocated all-encompassing power itself.

 How many have suffered, how many have been left to despair and how many have lost a loved one, and how many have lost their lives, is a story that will certainly well up all sorts of emotions! The story we tell ourselves, given the willful excess blindness to change the fundamental force of a momentum initiated elsewhere, will be life-changing for all of humanity. How we conquer this hill and plant our flag of reason and understanding over such an excessive travesty, will show our true character and resilience as a species. 

Was the COVID pandemic related “HARM” a multi-Sigma-outlier from the two-standard-deviation? Were the policy excesses promulgated by the experts, that consumed the populace with fear and subsumed critical thinking the real underlying cause? 

 

Or was it all unavoidable?

 

Time will tell!
















Sunday, August 7, 2022

Non-COVID Death Epidemic of the Future…

 Non-COVID Death Epidemic of the Future…



 Published previously at AIER in March 2021 

https://www.aier.org/article/non-covid-death-epidemic-of-the-future/


Update from August 2022 in progress...

 

Consider the possibility that science is a process of questions and answers. Not all answers are correct and not all questions are valid. Yet all need to be considered and evaluated separately and carefully. Within that context we broach the subject of this COVID debacle that stands in our way to a free and productive life. The draconian measures undertaken have had profound and lasting impressions on the American psyche that will not be washed away any time soon. But we wish to explore the unscientific labors of a few minds that compelled the nation and indeed the world to point to a far worse intermediate term future of the health of our citizens. Although, Non-COVID related deaths include the psychological trauma to the society as a whole, including suicides, drug abuse and harm related to physical abuse, and their future impact, we will focus on the non-psychological medical harm to the people as a whole. 

 

Was this Flawed Science?

 

What has COVID wrought on our nation and the entire planet? What has become a daily treadmill of fear and peril at every fork in the road? While we do not minimize the enormous loss of life from the pandemic, we certainly argue against the mechanics used to mitigate the pandemic. We have climbed through the hoops of shutdowns and lockdowns and found that wanting. The fact that lockdowns have done harm, is not in question. Entire companies have gone bankrupt and households have lost loved ones via the egregious efforts of confinement and proximity. Restaurants have closed, movie theaters are threatened, and brick and mortar stores have shuttered. Millions have lost their jobs and most others are skating on thin ice that keeps getting thinner by the day. We were told that masks were not helpful once, not too long ago but then they suddenly defied all previous principles of apolitical science and became helpful in mitigating the viral onslaught. But that was not enough because what one mask couldn’t seem to do in regards protecting the individual, two were recommended as “common sense.” Suddenly we were told ‘science’ had proven the fidelity of such a declaration. More policy mandates were promulgated and schools were shutdown to “protect the young.”  John Ionnadis, MD from Stanford University, linked such arbitrary, yet draconian shutdowns to a greater harm on society. Skepticism of such motives would be considered blasphemy, after all the policy was made to protect the young from acquiring the infection. Somewhere in the new science world, the whole idea of facts was lost. The data showed that children less than 10 years of age had a 0.002% chance of severe illness and those under twenty years of age had less than 0.1% chance. Even UNESCO reiterated that school closures cause harm to the young.  And the 1.9 billion children were directly impacted by such measures, harming the lower income far worse. Within this dichotomy of action and reaction was buried the 1840 Farr’s Law about pandemics that everyone seemed to have missed: “Epidemics (also holds true for pandemics) events rise and fall in a roughly symmetrical pattern. The time-evolution behavior could be captured by a single mathematical formula that could be approximated by a bell-shaped curve.”

 

Further irregularities in reporting occurred in February and March of 2020, when the Infection Fatality Rate was conflated with Case Fatality Rate. The difference between IFR and CFR is in the denominator: infections or cases. All cases are infections, but not all infections are confirmed cases related to the virus, so the number of infections (of x + y infections) always exceeds the number of cases (x infection), making IFR less than CFR. The IFR for the Seasonal Flu is 0.13% (0.1-0.18%) yet in March of 2020 that number was reported by the media and confirmed by Dr. Fauci in his testimony to be 3%. The difference between the numbers is an order of magnitude that not only was alarming but overnight created enormous fear.

 

 

The Failing Diagnostics

 

In all this hubbub of the “new science” where the priors were considered to not add to the current vogue concepts, something was lost: facts! The data mining of the COVID infections was cluttered with miscues. The data mined, created a bucket of “cases both asymptomatic and symptomatic”, “hospitalizations,” and “deaths.” The “cases” we have come to know are not as were assumed in the early phase of the pandemic. Not everyone with a fever, a cough or those feeling listless was infected with the virus. Even those tested positive with the Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction or RT-PCR method were not truly infected, were based on diagnostic methodology and did not represent the actual incidence of infection. We discovered that the thermal cycle threshold used in the PCR method was the hidden arbiter determining an infection “case.” The higher the number of thermal cycles used for amplification of the RNA, the higher the degree of probability that the test would be rendered positive. In other words, a person with a non-infectious fragment of an RNA from a previous coronavirus infection could be counted positive due to the high sensitivity and low specificity based on high amplification cycles, this inherent weakness, brought into question the very accuracy of the case-count.

 

But what of the Deaths? Since deaths are considered the “lagging indicator” in the disease and determine the deadly virulence of the virus itself. What did that number actually represent? And this is where we lay our tale.

 

Excess Mortality Data

 

The CDC data suggested and continues to show the “Excess mortality numbers” on a weekly basis. Any spike above the mean is considered excess and suggests that the increased mortality is from the virus itself. Science again asks us to remain skeptical. So, we are going to question with rational arguments and factual data these question that hound us.

 

Excess mortality depends on the structure of the population demographics. The older the population, the higher the excess mortality numbers. These age structures, however, can be standardized to make valid comparisons. Based on this standardization the United States has an excess mortality of 12.9% with Expected Age-standardized Mortality 2020 (per 100,000)

 of 1020,  Age-standardized total excess mortality (per 100,000) of 1152 and  Excess age-standardized mortality (per 100,000) of 132

 

 

What Constitutes COVID Death?

 

How does a physician categorize death on a death certificate? If a person has a diagnosis of terminal cancer but on the last day of their life, the organ failure from the ravages of the cancer ends their life. How would one account for that death? Is it the organ failure, such as heart failure, kidney failure or liver failure etc.? Or is it the cancer itself? Any logical mind would say the latter. But then if the physician would write Heart Failure as the cause and Cancer as the extenuating secondary causal event, would he be wrong? The answer is simple, yes! And that problem has been circulating in the medical world for a long time. Death Certificates are full of errors, as much as 51%  based on the data, both by interpretation and sometime by intent.

 

We have over the past year seen COVID being labeled as the cause of death in car accidents, in gunshot related traumatic deaths and other organ failure maladies. Were these all COVID deaths? The answer is no. Was it contributing in nature, perhaps?  But definitely not as a proximate cause. It is a fairly remarkable statement to make, yet the facts seem to agree with that assertion.  Several cases in the newspaper articles account for such blatant incongruities.

 

We have also ascertained over the similar one-year period of time that normal causal reasons of death have decreased dramatically. The numbers of deaths related to cancer have plummeted as have heart attacks, diabetes and other chronic diseases related events. In similar vein, the number of Influenza cases have also dramatically been reduced. And in the latter case, one wonders if we are testing the RNA fragments common to other coronaviruses and calling every Influenza like illness a COVID infection? Since data exists that the SARs-CoV2 shares 96.2% homology to other coronaviruses including the bat virus and other coronavirusessuch as MERS and Influenzas. A question that should keep experts researching?

 

The Declining Screening Measures

 

Non COVID deaths are taking a back seat in counting these days. There is a large price yet to pay and has been paid if we place this concept in the crucible of reality. We have unfortunately turned back the time on preventative medicine. Several studies have identified a substantial drop in health care utility in March and April as most medical offices closed or dramatically scaled back operations, and people have generally avoided interactions with the health system in the hopes of not contracting the virus. This included reductions in outpatient visitsemergency department visits, and elective surgeries like lower joint replacement. Lesser number of colonoscopies are being performed. It is a proven fact that colonoscopy examinations save lives by removing a polyp that will over time turn into cancer. Colonoscopies, declined by almost 90% at one point in mid-April 2020 compared to 2019, and as of November 2020 are still down about 10-15% compared to last year. Similarly, mammogram and breast examinations have been reduced to a trickle. Mammograms and Pap smears were down nearly 80 % in April 2020 compared to 2019. However, both services recovered throughout the summer and fall, with Pap smears and mammograms rebounding above 2019 levels in August and November, respectively. And for males, PSA tests, which are used for prostate cancer screening, while down approximately 70% in early April, have seen a strong rebound, with delivery of PSA tests returning to 2019 levels starting in June, and reaching 25% above 2019 levels in September 2020.

 

What follows is that a treatable and potentially curable malignancy, with delay, will usually reveal itself as late stage incurable cancer. In fact, the legal profession prides itself in suing physicians for negligence due to delay in diagnoses. Our fear of catching a virus is leading us inexorably to the fate we dread the most. Who or what one faults is not the premise that we intend to uncover? We are merely bringing the conscience of all to bear on this potentially formidable looming tragedy.

 

The Actual Harm and the Science

 

Lancet study from the UK reveals: “We collected data for 32 583 patients with breast cancer, 24 975 with colorectal cancer, 6744 with oesophageal cancer, and 29 305 with lung cancer. Across the three different scenarios, compared with pre-pandemic figures, we estimate a 7·9–9·6% increase in the number of deaths due to breast cancer up to year 5 after diagnosis, corresponding to between 281 (95% CI 266–295) and 344 (329–358) additional deaths. For colorectal cancer, we estimate 1445 (1392–1591) to 1563 (1534–1592) additional deaths, a 15·3–16·6% increase; for lung cancer, 1235 (1220–1254) to 1372 (1343–1401) additional deaths, a 4·8–5·3% increase; and for oesophageal cancer, 330 (324–335) to 342 (336–348) additional deaths, 5·8–6·0% increase up to 5 years after diagnosis. For these four tumour types, these data correspond with 3291–3621 additional deaths across the scenarios within 5 years. The total additional YLLs across these cancers is estimated to be 59 204–63 229 years.”

 

What  is even more appalling is that these non–COVID-19 excess deaths are most apparent in the 25- to 44-year age group for women and 15- to 54-year age group for men as revealed in this article and here. “There are several potential reasons for this undercount," Woolf said in a university news release. "Some of it may reflect under-reporting; it takes a while for some of these data to come in. Some cases might involve patients with COVID-19 who died from related complications, such as heart disease, and those complications may have been listed as the cause of death rather than COVID-19," Woolf explained. "But a third possibility, the one we're quite concerned about, is indirect mortality -- deaths caused by the response to the pandemic," he said. "People who never had the virus may have died from other causes because of the spillover effects of the pandemic, such as delayed medical care, economic hardship or emotional distress."

 

Woolf further stated, “The demographic and time patterns of the non-COVID-19 excess deaths (NCEDs) point to deaths of despair rather than an undercount of COVID-19 deaths. The flow of NCEDs increased steadily from March to June and then plateaued. They were disproportionately experienced by working-age men, including men as young as 15 to 24.  If deaths of despair were the only causes of death with significant net contributions to NCEDs after February, 30,000 NCEDs would represent at least a 45% increase in deaths of despair from 2018, which itself was high by historical standards.”

 

The fears projected onto the public by the public health policy experts and the Media may have created the greatest tragedy of our times. “Due to fears of contracting COVID-19 or taking up space in hospitals, patients experiencing a heart attack or stroke are delaying their essential care, causing a new public health crisis,” said Martha Gulati, MD, FACC, editor-in-chief of CardioSmart.org. 

 

S.H. Jacobson and J.A. Jokela discussed Non–COVID-19 report on excess deaths by age and gender in the United States during the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Public Health, 2020; 189:  “At COVID-19's peak for March and April, diabetes deaths in those five states rose 96% above the expected number of deaths when compared to the weekly averages in January and February of 2020. The five states also had spikes in deaths from heart disease (89%), Alzheimer's disease (64%) and stroke (35%). In New York City, there was a 398% increase in heart disease deaths and a 356% increase in diabetes deaths. “

 

To complicate the picture, the British Medical Journal suggested, “during March, while age standardised death rates for COVID-19 show it was the third most common cause of death, ischaemic heart disease was 26% lower than the five-year average for March, and cerebrovascular and chronic lower respiratory diseases were 18% and 10% lower, respectively.”

 

That conclusion is emerging from new research showing deaths are increasing from causes such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes – while emergency room visits for those conditions are down. A JAMA study found huge increases in excess deaths from underlying causes such as diabetes, heart disease and Alzheimer's disease in Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania – the five states with the most COVID-19 deaths in March and April. New York City experienced the biggest jumps, including a 398% rise in heart disease deaths and a 356% increase in diabetes deaths.

 

In May of 2020, Bob Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, stated, “The data, based on death certificates from states, shows a spike in so-called “excess deaths” in the United States, split between confirmed COVID-19 fatalities and undiagnosed or unrelated deaths. Amid the pandemic, at least 66,081 more people in the United States have died than expected since January 1. More than 32,300 of the excess deaths have not been attributed to COVID-19. When you put it in context with the weekly deaths over the last couple of years, you see quite a remarkable jump.”

 

The CDC reported in late June of 2020 that in the 10 weeks after the pandemic was declared a national emergency on March 13, hospital emergency department visits declined by 23% for heart attacks, 20% for strokes and 10% for uncontrolled high blood sugar in people with diabetes.

 

Another JAMA study in July 2020, found approximately 781 000 total deaths in the United States from March 1 to May 30, 2020, representing 122,300 (95% prediction interval, 116,800-127,000) more deaths than would typically be expected at that time of year. There were 95 235 reported deaths officially attributed to COVID-19 from March 1 to May 30, 2020. The number of excess all-cause deaths was 28% higher than the official tally of COVID-19–reported deaths during that period.

 

More data from the JAMANetwork Join Point analysis revealed,in October 2020, “Of the 225,530 excess deaths, 150,541 (67%) were attributed to COVID-19. The analyses revealed an increase in deaths attributed to causes other than COVID-19, reaching statistical significance. US mortality rates for heart disease increased between weeks ending March 21 and April 11 (APC, 5.1 [95% CI, 0.2-10.2]), driven by the spring surge in COVID-19 cases. Mortality rates for Alzheimer disease/dementia increased twice, between weeks ending March 21 and April 11 (APC, 7.3 [95% CI, 2.9-11.8]) and between weeks ending June 6 and July 25 (APC, 1.5 [95% CI, 0.8-2.3]), the latter coinciding with the summer surge in sunbelt states.”

 

New data from a research letter showed that US deaths per month—a commonly consistent rate—increased by 20% from March-July of 2020. COVID-19 was a documented cause of death in two-thirds of these excess cases. Steven H. Woolf, MD, MPH, et.al. sought to update previous analysis which showed COVID-19 was cited in just 65% of excess deaths in March-April from this year, while non-coronavirus causes of deaths increased sharply in the 5 states reporting the most COVID-19 deaths. From March 1 – August 1, investigators observed 1,333,561 excess deaths in the US—a 20% increase over the estimated expected 1.1 million deaths (1,111,031; 95% CI, 1,110,364 – 1,111,697). Of the 225,530 estimated excess deaths, 150,541 (67%) were attributed to COVID-19. The 3 states to account for 30% of all excess deaths in this period—New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts

 

In October, 2020 a StatNews article showed, “There were also differences among different age groups, with the largest increase occurring among people age 25 to 44, who saw excess deaths that were 26.5% higher than average. People 45 to 64 had 14.4% more deaths, while those 65 to 74 had 24.1% more deaths. Deaths among people 75 to 84 were 21.5% higher and 14.7% higher for people 85 and above. Deaths this year for people under 25, however, were 2% below average.”

 

A more recent article in January 2021 confirmed that 78% of cancers were missed due to lack of screening. Scott Atlas, MD extrapolates this to 1 million people in the U.S. to be impacted from such lack of detection. 

 

Estimates from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and reported in the New York Times, reveal that,“40,000 extra deaths from diabetes, Alzheimer’s, high blood pressure and pneumonia. Nationwide, deaths from Alzheimer’s disease, which usually affects older adults, are 12 percent above normal this year, with several Southern states seeing larger increases. 40,000 extra deaths from diabetes, Alzheimer’s, high blood pressure and pneumonia.”

 

The total deaths make the virus look deadlier. But so far this year, three times as many people have died of heart ailments. “I’ve got about 1 million deaths from January to April,” said Bob Anderson, chief of the mortality-statistics branch of the National Center for Health Statistics. “About 230,000 are from heart disease. Nearly 200,000 are cancer deaths, 61,000 are chronic lower-respiratory diseases, 55,000 are accidents and 52,000 are strokes.” Recent research confirms that excess all-cause mortality was 2.4 per 10,000 individuals in the United States in April 2020  –  the first full month of the pandemic – which represents about 30% more deaths than the number of COVID deaths reported in that month 

 

Meanwhile in the United Kingdom, according to the Imperial College data, “Around 9,000 non-COVID-19 deaths in England during three months of the pandemic would not have occurred had the pandemic not happened.”

 

It brings us back to the question of reason and reality. Masking reality without reason lays bare the profundity of the harm that is before us. All this will be accounted for as the doctors are allowed to go back to their business of saving lives. There will be a rash of deaths that could have been prevented in the recent past and more so in the coming future, from not-screening, not diagnosing and not being able to care for. We might all rue the day when the public health policy experts did not consider the ramifications of their singular tunnel-vision focus. 

 

 

Wednesday, January 5, 2022

HUMAN MURMURATION

A Starling



Starlings are beautiful birds, yellow beaks, colorful feathers, short tails with a sense of community. They hail from Europe transported by man into America where they are known to bully other birds for their own survival. It doesn’t make them bad or for that matter good. It shows the implanted survival code in their DNA.

There is another startling yet awesome phenomena that Starlings participate in, it’s called “murmuration.” Just before sunset many starlings fly around above their roosting abode as a warning to predators about “strength in numbers” to prevent being a prey to another forager. This phenomenon is both mesmerizing and beautiful as the collective swoops about forming and deforming cataracts in the sky.

The fundamentals behind these flowing architectural waves of silky ethereal shapes remain to protect against the outside predator and via the collective force of the many impose on the lesser a sense of dread. And that is where we lay our tale.

Homo Sapiens have through history shown themselves to be capable for doing the same. Not being flying creatures, humans have resorted to a similar behavior but on land. Their movements are as mesmerizing as the Starlings. Historically we have dealt with perceived threats in a unified manner. Preventing predation is in our nature. To protect and prevent harm to ourselves and our progeny is a calling within our DNA. The World Wars are a classic example of such threats that were neutralized to find peace and harmony. Yet there is, as is exemplified in the Starling behavior a certain undercurrent of bullying that emerges with this power of a collective acting in unison. We as humans more often than not, fall prey to the “Us verses Them,” mentality, allowing the unfolding of a stage of rage.

Again, history is a guide to such a behavior. From a recent past, one can look at Mao Tse Tung’s China to Stalin’s Russia and thence to Hitler’s Germany. What this human murmuration was all about was the singular focus against a common enemy. In Germany, Hitler exploited the “Arian Race” to eliminate the rest in gas chambers and then with the growth of his power he started bullying the neighbors and finally invading neighboring countries, just like the Romans did centuries ago conquering borderlands until their empire finally collapsed upon reaching the distant Hadrian Wall. Stalin and Mao using the Communist manifesto eliminated all questioning minds and murdered hundreds of millions in their quest to find ultimate power. Even the United States was not free from such murmuration with the McCarthyism that focused on a singular enemy the Communists in the government and in thence in every house, leading to the classic family against family and friend against friend to turn over the “bad people.” Such tactics were employed as late as 2021 when New Jersey Governor suggested from his bully-pulpit that friends and families need to “out” those that were not social distancing during COVID. From similar pulpits in other countries the Leaders have used bullying tactics against their citizens, some with total lockdowns, others with policing and imprisoning and still others withdenying a livelihood if individuals are not compliant with their diktats. Some of these “leaders” have become unhinged, calling names and others are using a vengeful mechanism against the non-compliant. Even some teachers have gotten into the act of taking other’s health decisions into their hands. This all may sound unsettling, and it is. But collective human behavior is not a recent event. From collective bargaining for better working conditions and pay raises we have arrived at the Teachers Union not wishing to open schools while simultaneously enjoying the $190 Billion given by the US Federal Government during the pandemic and being aware that closing schools have resulted in a rash of teenage and youth suicides from depression and loneliness. Such a travesty should not go unnoticed.

We look to this human murmuration and wonder what makes humans do such awful things. And Professor Mattias Desmet a clinical psychologist weaves his comments such; “large-scale mass formation emerges in society when specific conditions are met—social isolation, the lack of meaning in life, free-floating anxiety, and frustration and aggression—all interacting to create a situation whereby society is extremely vulnerable to the rise of a totalitarian state.”


Indeed, when we look through the historical perspective, we find a plethora of examples that highlight and confirm his views. To find a common enemy and solely and intensely focus on it, to the detriment of all other thoughts creates a hypnotic state which commences the beginning of a murmuration. As all riots do, the initial sharp focus is deeply held by 5% of the rioting group and another 10% venerates those with such deeply held beliefs, attracting the 30%+ into the chaos of this hypnosis. This moderately coalesced large group adds to its fledgling corpus with those fearful of being left behind, with those fearful of losing their livelihoods, with those fearful of losing a promotion or bonus, with those with a mindset of go along to get along. Thus, a murmuration takes flight. Most of the latter versions of the followers are also highly educated and the collective is a means to a personal end and to not be left behind. While most in the group consider this belonging, a virtuous deed. Some are on standby to move to the next great societal wave. All in all, the cult of the many seeps into the minds of most as time ticks on, some are transformed while others stand their ground. A rational person would look for smoke or fire, when someone yells, “fire” before charging out of the crowded movie theater with the herd of humanity as it tramples on itself in pursuit of safety. But in this minor example and in such large-scale disruptions where a common enemy even if it is an invisible, is identified, reason is supplanted with fear and the marionettes in the background can play the tune to the hypnotized crowd. As Hannah Arendt so eloquently put it, “In their fear of death, those living fear life itself, a life that is doomed to die… The mode in which life knows and perceives itself is worry. Thus, the object of fear comes to be fear itself. Even if we should assume that there is nothing to fear, that death is no evil, the fact of fear (that all living things shun death) remains.” Perhaps more of us should reconcile with life and learn to experience delight in nature, in love and life with one another and escape from the shackles of this ill-found fear that so pervades the essence of our being? Forget the indignant intolerance of the few that sit in judgment enforcing their uniform obedience and demand fealty. Separating children from parents or other “un-fully-vaccinated” family members as proposed recently will be a stain on our psyche as a society, as James Baldwin wrote, “The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us, and the light goes out.” Do not let the light go out! As Seneca wrote, “we suffer more often in imagination than in reality,” is true. For all the misaligned threadbare raw emotions of fear that climb on our backs to misguide us on the wrong path, there is always the truth and reason that brings us back to reality! He further admonishes us, “Accordingly, some things torment us more than they ought; some torment us before they ought; and some torment us when they ought not to torment us at all. We are in the habit of exaggerating, or imagining, or anticipating, sorrow.” So don’t!

What of those rational ones, that stand their ground?

These are the free thinkers, who question the motives, the rationale, the reason, the beginning and who look at the projected very end and find tiny imperfections that have caused the gash in the societal fabric to release the murmuration. They are a heterogenous group, some educated, some not, some at highest level of societal echelon in universities and colleges and leadership positions while others are the quiet thinkers, thinking. They are firm in their belief and stoic in their suffering. Such are the individuals who change the countenance of the society back to reality again. It is this group that fosters advancement of the society as a whole and wrenches away the reigns from the idle and weak crowd-pleasers and takes back the power from the charlatans and deliver it to the rightful owners, the people, themselves.

COVID, the common enemy has found such murmuration. It is the common enemy of all. We as humans have shed all loyalties to each other for the sake of personal safety. We have forsaken the traditional model of do good to your neighbor by becoming “snitches” against them. We have forsaken our productivity as humans to the lull of four walls and fear. We have given up our liberties and freedoms so that the Great Wizard behind the curtain also a human, with his own embedded frailty, will provide the safety and security for our being. We have abrogated our responsibilities to be good citizens. We have become subservient to a whim, subservient to a collective, to a mesmerizing murmuration. We need not anymore!

Murmuration have meaning both away from predation (the common enemy) and towards intolerance and bullying as we learn from the beautifully feathered bird called lovingly, the Starling.