What Story Are We Being Told About Lockdowns?
November 2 2020: Is it the full story, and if not, why not?
Introverts rejoice: looks like the world, or at least the western world, is about to plunge into another round of lockdowns: right in time (completely coincidentally I’m sure) for the US election.
In order to justify such measures, you are and will continue to see a lot of media coverage about rising COVID-19 cases: world record case numbers, exponentially rising line graphs, doom-laden projected death counts and warnings of overrun hospitals unless drastic measures are taken.
None of these things are untrue in themselves. Case numbers, by whatever criteria a case is determined by, are rising — often in dramatic fashion. Modeling does show large predicted death numbers, even if it is easy to create a model to show any desired outcome. Hospitals will surely be overrun if such numbers were to eventuate.
But neither do they tell the full story. The story they will tell is increasingly one designed to continue the promotion of a fear-driven narrative surrounding this pandemic and how we should respond to it. And just a reminder: I’m telling you all this as someone who loves the lockdown.
Many people have and likely will continue to eat up this story of fear, as engrossed and invested in it as they are (and it is a compelling story, that’s for sure — now with a suspiciously quick, perhaps a little tasteless Covid Hollywood Blockbuster). But we don’t have to. Because there is plenty more to this story that can, and should, be told.
Let’s start with the basics. These are Covid cases. Cases are not the same as having Covid; they are certainly not the same as getting sick from Covid; and they are far removed from the actuality of people dying as a direct result of Covid (hence why this has been described by some as a ‘casedemic’ rather than a pandemic)
That first distinction — being diagnosed as having Covid is not the same as actually having Covid — is one that is given far less attention than it should, because once established, the storyline starts to fall apart quite rapidly.
We are of course constantly told about how important testing is to understand who has this virus or not. Perhaps we don’t stop and think enough about just how fearful of this virus we should be when so many people only know they have it because they have been tested.
You will not be told that COVID case numbers are derived from a vastly inadequate testing regime never designed to test for a virus. These tests, which have no ‘gold standard’ to compare against, are argued to be prone to false positives (and, to be fair, false negatives) and thus are almost certainly diagnosing people who are no longer infectious, or who simply have the flu, or the common cold, or who are absolutely healthy.
As part of this story, you will not be told that it has been common practice since the beginning of the pandemic to diagnose a COVID death based on purely on assumption rather than a formal test. You will likely not be reminded that there are no unique and defining symptoms of COVID-19, and you will almost certainly not be informed that — and this is a big one — scientists have still not been able to isolate and purify the COVID-19 RNA sequence (something even the CDC has admitted), hence failing to satisfy Koch’s Postulates that this wave of disease is actually being caused by a new virus called SARS-CoV-2.
You will not be pointed towards evidence of the widespread mis-categorisation of ‘normal’ deaths as Covid deaths. You probably will, however, be accused of insulting the integrity of doctors around the world if you suggest such a thing.
You will not be told that the flu has to all intents and purposes disappeared. Actually you might be, but before you even dare wonder whether such a disappearance is due to Flu deaths being counted as Covid deaths, you will probably also be told that it is actually the introduction of hand washing/sanitizing, social distancing and mask mandates that have eliminated the flu, hence further cementing these measures as part of our New Normal. It will be interesting to see what you are then told if you ask why such measures are only preventing the Flu but not Covid, and whether this means we can do away with the Flu vaccine for the time being.
You will not be told about what the official CDC data from the US now says about the virus. That for younger and middle aged groups, the case fatality rate is lower than the flu. That 94% of Covid deaths had serious preexisting conditions that were either partially, primarily or wholly responsible for their deaths (this stat does not mean only 6% of these people actually died from Covid, as many conspiracy theorists still get wrong).
You will be told it is socially irresponsible to not wear a mask at this moment in history, and for who knows how long into the future. You will not be told how patchy the academic literature is in support of masks, and how many studies have found that masks do not significantly reduce the chance of contracting influenza-like illnesses.
You will not be told that at the same time as we have been intensely focusing on population wide lockdowns and mask mandates, we have also been failing miserably at protecting those most at risk to this virus, namely the elderly living in nursing homes.
You will not be told that many of these same lockdown and mask advocates are at the same time suppressing what many are concluding is a safe and effective treatment for Covid — directly interfering in the Doctor-Patient relationship as if the Government thinks they are smarter than the Doctors — and that such a fact really should be the main outrage of this pandemic.
You will, unless the tide is starting to turn, be told in emotional language that people who try and remind you of these things are dangerous, irresponsible conspiracy theorists. Hopefully you are getting tired of being gaslighted in this way, given how many scientists and doctors are now themselves speaking up against lockdowns as a suitable response to this pandemic.
The mainstream story about COVID-19 is important, and it is real. But as you can see, it is far from the full story. Surely we deserve a politics and media that is prepared to give us the full story.
