Covid-19 Diary : Thursday 1 April, 2021

The temptation to fill this with April Fool’s Day jokes is almost overwhelming, although – at least in New Zealand, where I grew up – the convention is that you only conduct such jokes until mid-day.  It is now well after mid-day, so I shall forego the temptation.

Although some of the real items of news seem almost like April Fool’s Day jokes.  Like, for example, the on-again/off-again love being given to AstraZeneca.  We’re only days past the reversal of nervous-nelly countries suspending AstraZeneca’s vaccine and reassuring us that which was obvious all along – there’s no risk whatsoever – but now we’re back in the halting AstraZeneca vaccines once more – for example, Germany has banned it for use by under 60 year olds, and Canada has banned it for under 55 year olds.  Apparently Canadian 55-60 year olds are made of stronger stuff than their German counterparts – no doubt lumberjacks (ahem), the lot of them.

Also not an April Fool’s Day joke, but definitely a joke, and offered to us by fools, is the WHO report pretending that the coronavirus didn’t come from a Wuhan bioresearch lab.  And they’ll definitely ensure they’ll never ever have this nonsense challenged because – as this article points out “The team proposed further research in every area except the lab leak hypothesis”.  Utterly shameful.

Talking about utterly shameful jokes offered to us by fools, WHO have been busy this week.  They’ve reluctantly conceded that possibly ivermectin reduces mortality by 81% in people with Covid, but notwithstanding that finding, they recommend NOT to use ivermectin for people afflicted with the virus.

Happily, at the same time, Pharmacy Magazine in the UK published a more sensible analysis of the pros and cons of ivermectin, as did the British Ivermectin Recommendation Panel, with an excellent scientific dissection of official lies.  The Argentinian Ministry of Health has also found in favor of ivermectin.

Talking about nonsense and science, the claim by the Biden administration that “we’re beating the virus” seems to be awkwardly and obviously rebutted by the rising numbers of new virus cases in the US.  Mind you, the previous administration wasn’t very good at accurately assessing the numbers, either – this is not meant as a sole criticism of Mr Biden and his people, merely a sad observation that the people at the helm of the ship of state may change, but the ship itself continues on, unaltered.

Current Numbers

If you’re a pessimist, you’d say Iowa moved one step “the wrong way” on the list of states with the most cases.  If you’re an optimist, you’d say that Utah improved its ranking by one step (I guess which you are depends on which state you reside in).

There were no changes in the US death rate list.

Bahrain moved up one on the minor country list.  France and Poland both climbed up the major country list, and Jordan appeared for the first time, while Italy dropped off the list.  Brazil dropped two places, belying the nonsense articles of a week or two ago about the apocalyptian (is that a word?) nature of its latest surge.

Although Brazil dropped two places on the new case list, its death rate is still growing, causing it to appear on the death rate list, displacing France.

US Best and Worst States

Top Case Rates Minor Countries (cases per million)

Top Case Rates Major Countries (cases per million)

Top Death Rate Major Countries (deaths per million)

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Items below include wondering about what type of international treaty, as is being proposed, could possibly be devised to protect against future pandemics, several more possible Covid treatment drugs, including one we’d not race to take, some mirthless “famous last words”, an astonishing error at a vaccine manufacturing facility, positive news on vaccine rates in both the UK and US, lockdowns in Europe again, and our urging the NY AG (and all others) to sue hospitals for profiteering when they sell Covid tests for ten – twenty times the going rate.

SUPPORTER ONLY CONTENT

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Lastly for the week, and also not an April Fool’s Day Joke, is this report that men who contract the virus have three times the risk of suffering from ED.

Another good reason to get vaccinated, right?  🙂

Please stay happy and healthy; all going well, I’ll be back again on Sunday.

Please click here for a listing of all our Covid-19 articles.