Stick A Fork In It: Mortality Rates
TL;DR - Not so different from the flu
It has long been known that covid primarily afflicts the elderly and infirm, but this fact was largely omitted from the national conversation that shaped covid policies. Drowned out by the anxiety-inducing noise of press briefings, case count updates, on-the-fly rule changes, slogans like “stay home, save lives,” and more, many missed the sensible signal broadcast by compassionate doctors and health advocates. They published numerous op-eds in the media describing the age stratification of covid and the prolonged suffering caused by restrictions, but time and again, their warnings fell on deaf ears.
In May 2020, a group of infectious disease experts wrote that “95 per cent of COVID-19 deaths occurred in those over 60, compared with none under age 20. Protection of the former group deserves the most attention; this will be easier if limited resources are diverted from other, low-risk groups.” In July 2020, a large group of current and former health leaders penned an open letter, which explained that “in overall population health terms COVID-19’s direct impact on premature mortality is small. While those under the age of 60 account for 65% of cases, they represent just 3% of deaths.” They also added that “the societal costs of maintaining these public health measures, even with some gradual relaxation, are too high.” In October 2020, a group of physician mothers literally pleaded for mercy from authorities on behalf of our youth, saying “it is with increasing distress that we have watched Canadian decision-makers de-prioritize the legitimate needs of our youth… the risk of dying of COVID for the young is hundreds of times less than dying of other things… the medical and statistical truth is that the young are not at risk from COVID-19.”
“For children without a serious medical condition, the danger of severe Covid is so low as to be difficult to quantify.”
– David Leonhardt, Senior Writer at The New York Times. October 12, 2021.
All their claims are backed up by official public health data. A StatsCan update on mortality covering the period of January 2020 to April 2021 documented a notable rise in excess deaths among those under age 65, which implied they were four times more likely to die due to restrictions than covid. In October 2021, the Public Health Agency of Canada published a fact sheet explaining that “the majority of COVID-19 deaths (approximately 80% during 2020) occurred among adults aged 65 years and older. Both advanced age and underlying chronic diseases and conditions contribute to these severe outcomes.” And as per the December 2022 Government of Canada epidemiology update, of the near 49,000 deaths attributed to covid throughout the country, 93% occurred in those over age 60, with 82.4% being over 70. Conversely, only 1.2% of deaths occurred in those under 40.
In December 2022, an extensive analysis by the world’s most credentialed and cited epidemiologist, Stanford’s Dr. John Ioannidis, not only re-confirmed age and comorbidity as determining factors of covid severity, but also that “the absolute number of fatalities are overall probably modestly higher than seasonal flu fatalities over three typical pre-pandemic years.” Astonishingly, the assessment that covid amounts to no more than a bad flu was initially shared by none other than Dr. Fauci, who published a study in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) on March 26, 2020, where he predicted that, “if one assumes that the number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic cases is several times as high as the number of reported cases… the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%).” If Fauci had followed his own research, a lot of pain and suffering could have been avoided.
Despite ample evidence suggesting covid was a molehill, those entrusted to keep the public informed remained adamant it was a mountain. They failed to admit their mistakes or consider a second opinion, even when there was material proof that the severity of the disease was significantly overstated. What does that say about their integrity? What does that say about their leadership qualities? What does that say about their scientific acumen? Shamefully, health pundits and politicians continue clinging to their misguided narrative three years into this mess, proving that their misrepresentation of covid’s mortality is no mere misunderstanding, but a monumental breach of public trust. The implications of this are as serious as a heart attack because trust, once lost, is not easily regained.
“We just got lucky that the death rate per case was like 0.2%... we didn’t understand it’s a fairly low fatality rate and that it’s a disease mainly in the elderly, kind of like the flu, although a bit different.”
This post is part an article called Stick A Fork In It: The Barbecue Rebellion & The Rude Awakening, which is available in its entirety on my Substack:
