Coronavirus Myths

This article is written to expose various myths about the coronavirus. I am responding to an article in Vox by Nicolo Narea on July 23, 2020.

Her article is neutrally labeled:  How politics, inequity, and complacency undermined Texas’s fight against COVID-19.

Well …

In no particular order of importance, I will cover various arguments that she tries to make in her article.

1  Once again we see the argument that the reason why Texas had a spike in cases and deaths is because Texas reopened too early.  Sorry, that’s not an argument at all. It’s more a statement of fact. Attributing the spike in cases and deaths to an early reopening is like saying that the reason why John Kennedy was shot in Dealey Plaza was because he entered Dealey Plaza at 12:28 PM in the afternoon. 

Now, this is a clever argument because your authorities want you to stop right there. That’s right, they want you to stop your thinking right there. “Aha, you see, that’s the reason why there are so many cases; it’s clear now that Texas reopened too early.” 

That’s not a good answer. You would have to link that early re-opening to a physical event that is going on with the immunity of the community.  

Likewise, if New York City which had a lengthier reopening, does not see a surge, you would have to link that lengthy re-opening with the physical events that are going on with the immunity of the community; that is to say, you would have to conclude that some sort of herd immunity had developed in New York City.  

“But wait a minute, Jasper, if herd immunity did develop in New York City, then, why do we need a vaccine?” 

Aha, but you see, the authorities don’t want you to make that conclusion.  They would prefer that you stop short and attribute the increase in cases to Texas reopening too early – which says absolutely nothing.

2  Once again we see a focus on the surge of cases in Texas.  Now, I don’t look at the surge of cases as a bad thing; I view the surge of cases as a good thing. Let’s look at the glass half full, not half empty. If we are having a surge of cases, that indicates that we are spreading the virus around. That’s exactly what we want when it comes to young people.  We want young people to spread the virus around; and the more we do it the better.  

The only safe way to develop immunity at this point in time is herd immunity.  We do not have a vaccine. There is no guarantee that we will have a safe vaccine. Until that point in time the prudent course of action is to develop herd immunity.

The media though is fixated on the number of cases as a bad thing.  This is not good for us, because it’s scaring people into their houses. That’s not what we want.  We want people to exchange the virus.  

And, no, you are not saving lives by hiding inside your house. You are actually increasing the number of people who will die because you are not developing herd immunity.  

Let’s do the simple math. The number of elderly people never goes down. Every single day new people move into the elderly age bracket. That number always goes up. There is a huge baby factory pushing them up.  The virus is not going away. It’s hanging outside your door. If you do not develop herd immunity, the virus will always find it easier to find new elderly people to infect.  

3  The author focuses on a racial aspect. She states that Hispanics are being affected disproportionately in Texas. Well, this might be true, but I don’t know if that’s true; and she doesn’t either.  She states that Hispanics make up 40% of the deaths.  What she doesn’t point out is that 39.6% of the population is Hispanic-Latino (of any race).  Clearly, though, the RGV is getting hit, but there may be other factors involved.  We’ll have to wait and see before jumping to conclusions.

4  Texas has a culture focused on individualism.  Yes, that’s the reason right there why there is a spike in cases; it’s clear.  If only Texas had been Marxist and looked out for the public good, like all those Jacobins in New York City, everything would be fine.  Well, the last time I checked, the young people in New York City were human beings; and the last time I checked the news, which was a few moments ago, the young people in New York City were engaging in massive parties.  

The other day the governor was complaining about a party in which 700 unmasked New Yorkers were reveling.  Are these young people more responsive to the public good than Texans?  Why just a few weeks ago, they were tearing down statues of Columbus, were they not?  

So will all these young New Yorkers care for the public good by staying away from grandmother and grandfather?  What do you think?  I think not.  

So, if we see a surge in cases in NYC, that throws compassionate Marxism out the window; and if we don’t see a surge in cases, what does that say about herd immunity? 

Do you see you when I’m driving at here?  The authorities have boxed themselves into a corner.  So which will it be in NYC?  Surge or no surge?  A surge means the virus was always there and the lockdown did nothing.  No surge means that herd immunity is possible.

As stated previously in other columns, I’m betting that the authorities will go with surge and tell New Yorkers that they weren’t pure enough in thought.  Marxists always like to blame impure thinkers for the shortcomings in the prosecution of their nutty collectivist philosophy.

5  The author states that ambulances are parked outside the hospitals waiting for beds in temporary COVID-19 units.  She also states that crematoriums have weeks-long waiting lists.  Well, maybe what she says is so, but I haven’t seen any lines of ambulances, and I live very close to all the hospitals in McAllen.  I’ve even driven around there to do some scouting.  I wanted see what was going on.  

The death count in Hidalgo County isn’t as astronomical as you would expect.  I’ve tried to convince leaders that they are in a state of panic to no avail. I’ve tried to show them the numbers in an attempt to sober them up so that proper decisions are made.  In any given day in Hidalgo County we would expect 20 people to die.  If we look at the number of deaths that we would expect in Hidalgo County since March 15th we would multiply 0.00833 times 860,000 and arrive at a figure close to 20 people per day.  Today, July 24, we have 433 deaths.  There are 131 days between March 15 and July 24th.  We would thus expect a total of 2,620 deaths.  The death percentage from coronavirus is  thus 16% and that assumes that these are extra deaths and that these people wold not have died anyway.  It also assumes that these people legitimately died of the coronavirus.

Does this seem like a catastrophe to you?  Remember, at Antietam, the bloodiest day of the Civil War, 3500 people died in one day.

Now, with regard to crematoria, I find it hard to believe that bodies are stacking up for weeks on end. There are more funeral parlors down here than you can shake a stick at.  A cremation only takes one to three hours after a 48 hour waiting period.  

Well, that’s enough for today.  

 

Sincerely,

Archer Crosley, MD

Friday, July 24, 2020

Copyright 2020   Archer Crosley   All Rights Reserved

 

This is from Wikipedia.