Jan. 20: Will covid numbers suddenly shift?

FPI / January 15, 2021

There can be no doubt that Democrats and their allies in the corporate media and Big Tech used the coronavirus as a weapon to damage President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

"Much of the hair-on-fire reporting is over cases and deaths," Brian C. Joondeph, M.D. wrote in a Jan. 13 op-ed for American Thinker. "As I have previously written, a positive test is not the same as a case, and a death with covid is different than a death from covid."

But "what if these definitions suddenly change" on Jan. 20 and thereafter?

If covid numbers suddenly shift, Joondeph noted, it would give the impression "that getting rid of the Orange Man caused the case and fatality numbers to suddenly plummet, not because of anything Biden did, but simply because he isn’t Trump?"

"Rewriting history is a popular pastime for the Left," Joondeph noted. "Just ask George Orwell or observe current events including the social media purge and cancel culture. How might this play out with covid?"

It might start with testing, notably the PCR test "which is overly sensitive," Joondeph wrote.

This comes from that bastion of right-wing conspiracy, The New York Times:

"The PCR test amplifies genetic matter from the virus in cycles; the fewer cycles required, the greater the amount of virus, or viral load, in the sample. The greater the viral load, the more likely the patient is to be contagious.

"This number of amplification cycles needed to find the virus, called the cycle threshold, is never included in the results sent to doctors and coronavirus patients, although it could tell them how infectious the patients are.

"In three sets of testing data that include cycle thresholds, compiled by officials in Massachusetts, New York and Nevada, up to 90 percent of people testing positive carried barely any virus, a review by The Times found."

A positive PCR test "is not necessarily a case of covid," Joondeph noted. "There is a 'case definition,' something the corporate media is willfully ignoring. According to the CDC, a case requires, 'presumptive laboratory evidence AND either clinical criteria OR epidemiologic evidence.' Notice the AND, meaning not simply a positive test."

Coronavirus case counts "are wildly inflated and are being used to drive lockdowns, business and school closures, mask mandates, and other measures that may not be necessary or even helpful," Joondeph noted.

So, will the definitions conveniently change in the upcoming weeks?

A report by Zero Hedge last week headlined "FDA Admits PCR Tests Give False Results, Prepares Ground For Biden To 'Crush' Casedemic' notes: “The FDA today joined The WHO and Dr. [Anthony] Fauci in admitting there is a notable risk of false results from the standard PCR test used to define whether an individual is a covid case or not.”

Joondeph noted: "Did Dr. Fauci just realize this? After decades working in public health and infectious diseases, test sensitivity is something he understands only too well. If he knew, did he say or do anything?"

Will these long-known test criteria be suddenly deemed overly sensitive and revised as of Jan. 20? Will corporate media broadcast how miraculously reducing the case counts they so breathlessly report on a daily basis?

When "the Orange Man is out of the White House and Brilliant Biden is in charge," don't bet on the dishonest media making any mention of the rules for defining what is or is not a covid case changing.

Early in the pandemic, Dr. Deborah Birx acknowledged that there was no distinction made in the U.S. between death with covid versus death from covid:

"So, I think in this country we've taken a very liberal approach to mortality. There are other countries that if you had a preexisting condition and let's say the virus caused you to go to the ICU and then have a heart or kidney problem some countries are recording as a heart issue or a kidney issue and not a COVID-19 death. Right now…if someone dies with COVID-19 we are counting that as a COVID-19 death."

Joondeph noted: "How soon until the CDC suddenly realizes the distinction and starts reporting deaths more realistically, as other countries do? Again this will support the narrative that all the 2020 covid deaths were due to President Trump and it took a change of presidential leadership to miraculously reverse the death toll.

"The dropping case and death numbers will also be attributed to Biden’s vaccine rollout, which he had nothing to do with, ignoring Trump’s organization and facilitation via Operation Warp Speed. Changing the rules mid-game creates new winners and losers, just as we saw in the 2020 presidential election."

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo already showed the Left's hand when he tweeted: "We simply cannot stay closed until the vaccine hits critical mass. The cost is too high. We will have nothing left to open. We must reopen the economy, but we must do it smartly and safely."

Joondeph noted: "After locking down his state for most of the past year, destroying the economy," Cuomo "now sounds like President Trump. What changed? A Democrat replacing a Republican in the White House, meaning new rules and gaslighting."

Joondeph continued:

"Although this is the likely media narrative, perhaps the numbers won’t shift quite yet. Many on the Left are using the inflated death and case numbers to their political advantage, imposing draconian lockdowns, business closures, and ultimately control over the people they supposedly represent, of course exempting themselves from the rules they impose on their subjects.

"They travel, dine, and get their hair done as if we live in normal times, while forcefully preventing those they govern from enjoying the same freedoms. Perhaps this taste of absolute power will be difficult for American politicians to give up.

"Let’s see what happens during a potential Biden administration. Once the pandemic has served its purpose, Democrats using covid as an excuse to finish fundamentally transforming America, the rules of the game may change, providing 'proof' that the new rules, ushered in under wise Joe Biden, have finally tamed the covid beast."

"As George Orwell said: 'Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.' Watch the past year’s covid tragedy suddenly pivot to a new and more useful narrative."

Free Press International