Covid-19 Diary : Sunday February 6, 2022

There’s been growing pressure on Spotify to deplatform Joe Rogan.  Ostensibly this is due to his imagined sin of daring to invite two impeccably credentialed experts onto his show to talk about Covid.  One of these two is the most published (in scholarly journals) doctor in the country (primarily in the field of respiratory diseases), and the other is one of the original developers of mRNA.  Joe Rogan simply allowed and encouraged them to explain their concerns about what is being done about Covid, and agreed with some of their scholarly and widely held opinions.

That’s no sin, other than the sin of daring to challenge “conventional wisdom” and allow open debate on matters that have reasonable uncertainty and credible alternate viewpoints.

But of course, the obscured under-current is that Rogan has become an enormously popular personality who refuses to kowtow to political correctness in many different forms, not just Covid-related.  He is not a right-wing extremist – he actually endorsed Bernie Sanders for President.  But that doesn’t stop the left-wing extremists from using every possible epithet they can come up with to vilify and attempt to silence him.

Free speech these days, in the minds of the left-wing extremists, is only the freedom to agree with whatever nonsense they are currently espousing.  It is not the freedom to rationally point out the nonsense that is being advocated.

Do you remember back when two people could rationally discuss a matter, holding opposing positions, and either find common ground, or one person changes their mind, or both people agree to disagree and remain friends?  Do you remember a time when a lying politician was vilified equally by members of his own party as well as the other party?  Progress is a funny old thing, isn’t it.

The last few days saw a significant change in the official vaccine narrative.  The CDC is now acknowledging there are negative outcomes and measurable risks from taking the mRNA drugs, but says the benefits of them outweigh the risks.  They are also juggling some of the suggested dosing intervals.

Keep in mind this data should have been uncovered, presented, considered, and responded to prior to the initial emergency use authorizations, 15 months ago.  That is the whole purpose of the trialing process.  It is of course also data that should have been acknowledged and acted on at any and all times between then and, finally, now, especially including before upgrading the emergency use status to unrestricted approval.  But like most government departments, the CDC shows no comprehension about urgency when it comes to controlling Covid.

This article, headed “Scientists admit their Covid mistakes” is interesting (and also, of course, sadly incomplete).  There is nothing wrong with scientists making mistakes, indeed, the path to discovery involves multiple hypotheses which are tested and adapted or rejected as necessary by the results of the challenge testing they are given.

A problem with many of the Covid scientists mistakes are that they failed to acknowledge the uncertainty of their claims originally, making them seem more like facts and unchallengeable truths than “working hypotheses”, resulting in of course the ridiculous claims and demands to “follow the science” when the “science” was not nearly as certain and decided as some people chose to pretend it was.  It is the pretense that “science” is absolute fact that then stokes the fires of the censors eager to de-platform Joe Rogan.

The even bigger problem of course are the scientists (and other opinion leaders) who have not yet ‘fessed up to their mistakes.

A reminder – I’m planning on stopping these twice weekly diary entries very soon.  But it is proving a hard habit to totally break!

Current Numbers

The Faero Islands had 10% of their population come down with Covid in the last week.  That’s a stunning number.  To put it in context, 130 countries have had fewer than that number of cases in total, right from the start of the outbreak.  Only 92 other countries have exceeded a 10% infection rate in total, and I don’t know of any country, of any size, that had 10% infected in a single week.

Also of note in the minor country list is how Slovenia shot up from 8th to 4th place, and while not quite so dramatic, the “vaccine success story” that is Israel climbed one place from 10th to 9th, with 4% of their country getting infected in the last week.

In the list of countries with most active cases last week, there has perhaps been a slight softening of numbers.  In Europe, climbers saw Belarus at a 158% rise, followed at a distance by Russia with 71%, then Slovakia at 42%, then the Netherlands with 33%.  Countries with dropping numbers saw Sweden enjoy a 51% drop, Spain a 48% drop, and Belgium with a 42% drop.  France had a 28% drop, the UK had another gentle 8% drop, but Germany saw its cases rise 21%.  Europe as a whole had a 9% drop in cases.

In North America, Canada’s case numbers fell 23%, Mexico had a 16% drop, and the US might have had about a 51% drop.

South Africa’s case numbers continue to drop, even when you’d think they could go no lower.  They had another 11% drop last week, with Africa as a whole dropping 20%.  Asia registered a 5% drop, South America dropped 20%, Oceania went down 27%, and unsurprisingly, the world showed a drop too, of 16%.

Top Case Rates Minor (population under 10 million) Countries (cases per million)

Top Case Rates Major (population over 10 million) Countries (cases per million)

Top Death Rate Major Countries (deaths per million)

Top Rates in New Cases Reported in the Last Week (new cases per million) for Countries over one million population

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Items below include a look at another “over the counter” readily available product that shows great anti-Covid properties, something you can buy from Walmart or Costco or Amazon, and it seems the FDA have a secret or two they wish to keep to themselves about the mRNA drugs.

SUPPORTER ONLY CONTENT

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

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