another bird flu scare?

The media, alternative and supposedly mainstream, are all in an uproar about COVID-19, the new coronavirus that is either inconveniencing or devastating Communist China, depending on who's talking. China's official figures, which indicate a mortality rate of 2% or less, don't make sense in the context of their over the top response to the virus, so we need to look elsewhere for a clearer picture.

News outlets are claiming that Iran has the highest death rate outside of China. Of 43 cases, 8 have been fatal. That's 19%, but too small a sample to be conclusive. With this one exception, all the other large outbreaks outside of China do correlate with a mortality rate of between less than 1 and 3%, in line with what China is reporting. One thing that does jump out is that, with the exception of South Korea, all of the nations reporting high infection rates are also nations where a large portion of the population is impoverished, poorly educated, malnourished, and therefore likely to have compromised immune systems. It's a bit suspicious that nobody in the mainstream media or government has discussed this.

Other obvious facts and questions are being ignored, and data that would answer those concerns is not being reported. As far as I am aware, Chinese officials haven't identified a patient zero, or mentioned what prompted them to look for a novel virus that causes the exact same symptoms as influenza and the common cold. This lends credence to the rumor that the virus escaped from Wuhan's level 4 containment facility, but that's really moot at this point. Of much greater importance are questions such as, are there any population groups that are at greater risk of infection, and which groups are at greatest risk of fatal outcomes? At first glance, it seems that Asians are at greater risk, but there's been no investigation of these questions, at least not that's been released to the general public. The elephant in the room is that this virus, like other coronaviruses, is supposed to have an incubation period of seven to fourteen days, during which the victim is contagious. Given that modern air travel moves millions of people and millions of tons of goods all over the world every day, much of it to and from China, it's a safe bet that the virus circumnavigated the globe several times before the first cases were identified in China.

That last one puts things in perspective. Here in the United States, most people don't go to the doctor with the flu or a head cold unless it gets bad, and when they do, their doctor seldom orders any testing to identify the infection. I doubt that it's any different in any other industrialized nation, and in second and third world countries, medical care, let alone sophisticated lab tests, is often not even available. Bottom line, that cold you had last week that seemed to be a little rougher than usual, could easily have been COVID-19. Unless you went to your doctor and demanded testing, you have absolutely no way of knowing. Without comprehensive testing, health authorities cannot know how many cases there actually are, how far the virus has spread, what the true infection rate is, or what the mortality rate is. Everything we're being told is, at best, an educated guess. Which doesn't change the fact that this virus appears, so far, to be no more dangerous than the average influenza strain.

So, why all the hysterical fear porn? It can be inferred that the Chinese over-reaction is because the virus really did escape from the bio-weapons lab in Wuhan, making it a political and diplomatic time bomb for them, but what about the rest? I can only offer my opinion, which is that it's all about money and politics. I remember that the pharmaceutical industry made a killing selling panicked governments vaccines during the bird flu scare, and again with the measles panic, which ignored the fact that many of the outbreaks started with vaccinated individuals (I had to scroll down through two pages of vaccine industry sponsored propaganda to find that link, so yes, censorship of information that challenges the status quo is definitely happening). These panics also suit the political and social goals of the same special interests, using these non-events to promote everything from mandatory vaccination laws, and attacks on political opponents, to proposals to jail anyone who presents an alternative viewpoint. Fear porn is big business.

What do we do? Well, when special interests try to panic The Herd, don't join the stampede. Our only, and best, defense is our body's immune system. Do your best to stick to healthy organic foods, minimize toxic exposures, get enough rest, and make time for activities that you enjoy so you can de-stress. Study nutrition and preventative medicine. It's all out there, you just have to look for it. The last time I had any kind of respiratory infection was over thirty years ago. I intend to keep it that way. So can you.