Like many, I was appalled at the early reports that there were apparently parties going on in Walla Walla Washington where people had decided that SARS-CoV2 is essentially the same, in terms of risk to life and limb, as varicella zoster, the virus that causes chickenpox.
Well, you can relax (but not really) because the public heath officials in the very fine county of Walla Walla who originally raised the alarm have retracted/called back their original claim according to Mike Baker of the NYTimes:
...Meghan DeBolt, the director of community health for Walla Walla County, said county officials were learning more about the cases that have emerged from the recent social gatherings. She said they were still hearing reports of parties where infected people were present but do not have evidence that the people who became ill after the gatherings had attended out of a desire to be exposed...
Of course, there is a whole lot in the statement from Walla Walla County community health director Ms. DeBolt, above, to be concerned about, regardless.
But the much bigger origin story that may be contributing to the planning and execution of 'social gatherings' where 'infected people' may or may not be present is the very likely the following, as reported by Aaron Blake of the Washington Post:
It’s the notion that some Trump allies and conservative media figures just can’t kick: The idea that the official death toll from the coronavirus is being inflated. They use the argument to suggest, as Trump has, that outbreak is being politically weaponized against him. They also use it to argue for a swifter reopening of the economy.
Unfortunately, their latest theory is just as specious as its predecessors.
Over the weekend, this quest for an inflated-death-toll smoking gun focused on one page on the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Web page, which relays data from death certificates, currently shows the coronavirus death toll at 37,308 — far lower than other estimates, which have it around 66,000 or 67,000.
This led to allegations that the CDC had suddenly revised its death toll significantly downward or that the death toll is dropping off in recent weeks, as the week-by-week data on the Web page would appear to suggest. While it shows more than 12,000 coronavirus deaths for the week ending April 11, that drops to about 10,400 the following week and about 3,200 the next week.
Just The News, a website recently launched by Trump-friendly journalist John Solomon, ran with this headline: “CDC: Coronavirus, influenza deaths fall for second straight week.”
A tweet from right-wing media personality Tim Young went viral, stating, “Did I read this wrong or did the CDC just revised the national COVID-19 deaths to 37,308?!?!” Other right-wing media posts suggesting as much were widely shared.
The claim was also made on “Fox and Friends" this weekend via actress Sam Sorbo, with no pushback from the hosts. And Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Sunday night promoted an article from a random website called trendingpolitics.com that alleged the CDC had suddenly cut the death toll “Nearly In HALF.”...
{snip}
...Even a cursory look at the Web page at issue should disabuse anyone of this particular theory. At the top, the page clearly says these data are based upon death certificates and are thus a lagging indicator of the death toll...
{snip}
...The whole things harks back to another easily debunked theory floated by a Fox News personality. A month ago, some conservatives pointed to other data on the CDC website — for pneumonia deaths — to argue that the coronavirus death toll was inflated. The apparent drop-off in pneumonia deaths, they argued, suggested pneumonia deaths were being wrongly coded as coronavirus deaths to juice the numbers.
Fox News’s Tucker Carlson even did a segment on it. The only problem? The data was, again, lagging. And it didn’t even account for the time period in which coronavirus deaths began to rise significantly.
****
Cleary, every single possible viral shark has now been jumped in the still highly-populated shallow end of the American public discourse pool.
Which, all snark aside, is a very, very dangerous thing from a public health perspective, indeed.
'Innocent' or otherwise.
OK?
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7 comments:
It’s hard to overstate the harm being inflicted on the American public by the crime family infecting the White House. Graft is one thing; but there are thousands dying now unnecessarily because callous, ignorant grifters and their enablers are at the controls.
Today we learn that Bulbous Bill Barr has orchestrated the dropping of charges against Mike Flynn, who had already entered a guilty plea and was awaiting sentencing. Of the tens of thousands of cases being prosecuted by the DOJ he decides to intercede in this one.
Hopefully our neighbours will correct in 2020 the grievous electoral error they made in 2016. But a lot of the damage is irreversible, and there is likely much more to come in the next seven months.
Scary times.
Lew--
Marcy Wheeler is holding out some hope that the judge in the Flynn case will tell Barr to go to hell.
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RossK, I hope she and bmaz are right.
That’ll likely trigger a pardon, but at least Trump will have to defend it during the election campaign.
Always providing that it can be heard above the din of his other atrocities of course. Some of which are undoubtedly yet to come.
Lew /Ross,
Taking a stab at this one.
The pardon may not be a slam dunk and could be a problem for 5th amendment rights as it grants immunity for self incrimination.
The way I understand it, if questioned about trump and the grifterpaloozza he couldn’t claim 5th amendment rights and would have to testify if it were a federal case, but not a state case.
Flynn could refuse to testify but that could bring up some jeopardy by failing to comply with subpoenas if issued. If trump doesn’t want flynn to testify, he could commute his sentence, then flynn would remain convicted, as per Scooter Libby until trump pardoned him.
Could be why Barr is trying to get the charges dropped, flynn’s cleared and can remain quiet with no problems.
Got it Lew.
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Interesting point Keith - thanks.
emptywheel is definitely the place to keep tabs.
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Haven't been over to empty wheel yet today. Saw Rachel Maddox show and she and a former prosecutor were discussing the case and the hope the judge would not go along. The rule of law as we have know it is now finished in the U.S.A. My take on it is, trump finally realized Flynn had something on his he could not avoid so Barr is giving Flynn a pass.
As to the virus, I don't pay any attention to what the American government says. You can't trust them any more. There are a few other sources for the rate of death and they are more accurate With the lack of health care, the rising hunger in the U.S.A., the "opening' of the economy I expect they will reach their half million dead by election day. He'll still be blaming china while China and other countries will have far fewer dead. trump lives in his own reality. Of course the Lincoln Project ads must be a real pain for Trump. Saw the latest one, its good.
lets hope Canada keeps the border closed as it currently is.
The U.S.A. IS GOING to be worse of in a couple of months than they were in dirty 30s. and Mexico may come to appreciate that wall. it will keep Americans out trying to escape their own country.
If trump loses the election, this stunt with Flynn will be chump change to what will probably ensue in the interim to a new administration coming in, not counting out a way to avoid the election results.
The true numbers may not be known, dependant on when the count started. Some in the U.S. medical community are talking about re-examing covid possible deaths going back to November. Will this include folks that passed at home with no health care, nursing homes.? The trump admin are turning themselves inside out keeping CDC documentation adverse to their agenda from surfacing.
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