Beware of Unanticipated Consequences

The CDC has disclosed that only 6% of the deaths attributed to COVID were strictly due to COVID. The other 94% could be attributed to any number of legitimate causes, were it not for the decisions made with respect to COVID reporting.

Every patient who dies, regardless of why, is considered a COVID death if the patient tests positive for COVID.  So if someone dies of breast cancer, but also happens to be COVID positive, they count it as a COVID death.   These “2.6 additional conditions or causes per death” are conditions and causes, like sepsis and heart failure, associated with a very poor prognosis, including death.  

So we need to ask ourselves why. Why did they choose to present the data this way. Why did they want us to believe COVID was solely responsible for so many deaths? 

COVID pays more and the tradeoff in accuracy was made in favor of bringing in much needed revenue to quickly bring our healthcare delivery system up to snuff to handle the influx of patients we were told we could anticipate.  Unfortunately, these numbers, and the misleading way they calculate them, can now be used as justification for mandatory vaccination and additional restrictions if the numbers creep back up.  Unanticipated consequences.
     
Except for the travel bans on China and later Europe that came from Trump, every other decision was based on recommendations from the CDC and Fauci, whom we know is affiliated with the NIH, the organization who got nailed for 54 of their scientists failing to disclose their affiliations with China, as well as (directly and indirectly) to the Wuhan lab; the same lab that was doing the Gain of Function (GoF) research which started this whole thing in the first place.

From the CDC:

“Table 3 shows the types of health conditions and contributing causes mentioned in conjunction with deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death. The number of deaths with each condition or cause is shown for all deaths and by age groups. For data on comorbidities.”

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm…

Mrs. Monomakhos

Comments

  1. George Michalopulos says

    Folks, I learned long ago not to disagree with The Missus. Looks like she was right from the get-go yet again!

  2. Johann Sebastian says

    If COVID exacerbates an underlying condition or induces any number of physiological complications that lead to death, then the cause of death is still unquestionably COVID.
    If someone has COVID and dies from another illness that COVID didn’t aggravate, the cause of death wasn’t COVID.
     

    • Gail Sheppard says

      You’re making assumptions.  There is nothing about COVID exacerbating any underlying condition.  And if someone has COVID and dies from another illness the cause of death is COVID.  In other words, if someone falls off a ladder and breaks his neck and he has COVID, they count it as a COVID death.  

      https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm

      • Johann Sebastian says

        Perhaps, but the way this is presented seems to conflate the two possibilities–which are reflective of very different realities.
        Arguments about numbers aside, COVID was probably our best chance at demonstrating–in real time–why immigration controls are necessary and why our “relationship” with China must be rethought, despite her thorough penetration of our economy and our infrastructure.
        These repeated attempts to suggest COVID isn’t all that bad really undermine any shot we have at getting our point across about the aforementioned issues. Of course, that’s just what the Left and the Neocons want.

  3. After the initial shock I think most people with half a brain from the get-go have known this was a farce and a political grab. 
    Now that the politicians have gotten their greedy hands on power, good luck getting them to let it go
    What I want to know is WHAT ABOUT THE CHURCHES?? We are 6 months into this thing and it is obviously not the civilization doomer it was made out to be (which has always been obvious). So, why are our churches still at half capacity?? We rendered under Cesar what was Caesars for long enough now it’s time for us to peacefully protest in Church

  4. I’m afraid you are misinterpreting the data. As a consequence, your subsequent statements are erroneous.

    Recall again, that in the time span of March through July, about 215,000 more deaths than baseline occurred in the United States. Roughly three-quarters of those were attributed to covid.

    For 2020 covid is tracking to be the third leading cause of death in the United States, behind heart disease and cancer. But covid is not going to drastically reduce the numbers for other causes of death, which would be a necessary consequence of covid being incorrectly attributed. It isn’t cannibalizing the numbers of heart disease, or cancer, or strokes.

    There is no escaping the cold hard numbers, especially when each one represents a dead body.

    • Gail Sheppard says

      There ARE no “cold hard numbers.”  That’s what the CDC is saying.  

      • I believe his 2nd and 3rd paragraphs contain the “cold hard numbers.”

        • Gail Sheppard says

          No, they don’t. The CDC is now admitting the numbers were inflated. Only 6% of the previously reported deaths from COVID were strictly COVID deaths.

          The other 94% had complications and comorbidities that could have killed these people without COVID. In some cases, COVID definitely had an impact on survival. No one disputes this. However, in many other cases, COVID had no impact on mortality. These people would have died anyway.

          Even the tests were flawed. They are now admitting that there were a number of false positives.

          At this conjecture, we have NO IDEA what the true numbers are. The only thing we know for sure is the reported numbers were inflated.

      • Johann Sebastian says

        Other things that the jury’s out on:

        Modes of transmission
        Symptoms
        Physiological complications
        Treatment modalities
        Immunity
        Prophylactic measures and efficacy thereof

        It’s a Chinese opera with the world as its stage. The only thing we know for sure is that it makes people sick and kills quite a few of them.

        • Gail Sheppard says

          Actually, Johann, it doesn’t kill quite a few of them and that’s the point. This is especially true now that 80% of those who are hospitalized can now be saved because we now know how to better treat it.

      • Gayle,
        Numbers matter, but to those who live in fear, and/or darkness, facts, and truth are of no value.

        Speaking of numbers the towers fell on 9/11, a number in America that symbolizes an event that needs immediate help or rescue from. Now in the year of 2020, a number that also represents clear vision, all is clear. There is no more room for excuses. God keeps showing us the obvious, yet many will not believe their lying eyes.

        To open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me’.(Acts 26:18)

  5. From the very beginning, I was not shy in announcing that the bishops in America were all cowards and betrayers of Holy Orthodoxy. Not one of them stood up to take a stand against the politicians who shut our Churches down…then opened them again at partial capacity with contact tracing and the thermometer police. It is horrifying to see people still keeping six feet apart in the holy temple as they stare blankly from their Halloween masks. It continues to break my heart as I see the people (even monastics) continuing to subscribe to the new iconoclasm as they approach a holy Icon and refuse to kiss it. It is difficult to watch as some of the priests use multiple spoons or dip the spoon in disinfectant during Holy Communion. And when the people walk forward to get a final blessing, they are afraid to kiss the holy Cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ or the hand of their priest. They have been conditioned and brainwashed in a mere six months. How easy it was for Satan to control everyone. But wait a minute! There are those who are fighting against this tyrannical anti-Christian abomination! 
     
    The protestants. Never mind.

  6. Michael Voris agrees whole-heartedly with Mrs. Monomakhos.
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=1NxNQPs7Cew

  7. Ben David Chatfield says

    The issue with the data as presented is that there is no separation of COVID from any of the other diseases. Where are the numbers for those who have died ONLY of COVID? Yes people die all the time of multiple diseases but if they are able to separate influenza and pneumonia then they can do the same with COVID. Perhaps our numbers are artificially high.
    Maybe hospitals were only able to get funding for COVID related diseases. I am a teacher at a small charter school in Arizona. We were assured by the governor (and ADE) that our state funding would be based upon last year’s student attendance. They lied. Instead we have to apply for a grant directly from the governor’s office that only covers COVID related expenses. Because of distance learning and teaching working students who are getting a lot of overtime, we have half the number of students. So we have the financial incentive to creatively connect teacher salaries (our biggest expense) to COVID. Perhaps hospitals had a similar financial motivation for connecting more deaths to COVID. Hospitals in Europe and other places may not have had the same financial incentive so their numbers are more accurate while ours are more inflated.

    • Gail Sheppard says

      They did collect all the ICD-10s connected with COVID deaths so, at some point, they can crunch the numbers and come up with something that more closely approximates the true number of COVID deaths. But unfortunately, a lot of people they thought had COVID may not have had it due to the number of false positives with the testing.

      It’s interesting that the number of influenza cases are way down. Why? Because the mere presumption that the patient had COVID was sufficient to code it on the death certificate; some of these patients weren’t tested. Many could have died from the flu.

  8. Antiochene Son says

    Funny how everyone ballyhooing about THE SCIENCE is still using data from March, as if we have learned nothing new.
     
    From all these blue state governors, I have never heard them say, “The science now tells us…” because the current science doesn’t suit their petty tyrant agendas.

  9. Flavius
    Can you post a link regarding your baseline deaths comment? It’s at odds with a lot of what I am reading, i.e. not much of an uptick in overall deaths over that period.

  10. Michael Bauman says

    The great baseball player Tom Seaver died last night of Lewy Body Dementia  AND Covid.  Another non-Covid, Covid death.  Since everybody dies and the world is crazy maybe everybody’s death should be attributed to “death by misadventure”. 
    The only reason there are statistics is because of health insurance actuaries.  
     
     
     
     

  11. What you have demonstrated here is your lack of qualification to comment on significant research data. First, it is obvious that you did not derive your interpretation of the CDC’s discussion of “Excessive Deaths” from this <em>primary</em> CDC source, but rather derived it from some scurrilous, purposely manipulative political trash site(s) (undoubtedly including the deceivers at <em>Gateway Pundit</em>). How can I say this? Because you have no understanding of what is a fundamental, common, and frequently utilized algorithmic method in epidemiology, determining “Excessive Deaths.” You have completely misinterpreted both the motivation for, and the rationale behind the CDC’s conclusion. You then compound your error by attempting to cloak this in the mantle of purposeful manipulation. Let me emphatically state that your interpretation is not simply an “oversight” or an insignificant mistake, but a grave error that is the direct result of your lack of qualification. Fundamental to the issue here is the fact that, certainly, we will all die in one way or another, be it disease, congenital defect, accidents/falls, and so on. Likewise, no one will argue that the most vulnerable for the worst outcomes from infections with Covid-19 are elderly individuals with endemic co-morbid conditions. Nevertheless, to somehow suggest that these individuals “would have died anyway,” consequential to “any number of legitimate causes,” is to absurdly conclude that, regardless of the co-morbidity of infection with Covid-19 in already high-risk patients, the <em>same</em> number of these 186,000+ individuals would have succumbed to other co-morbid conditions in the <em>same</em> approximate period between March – August of this year. The fact is, the vast majority of those most vulnerable for the worst outcomes from infection with Covid-19 would <strong>not</strong> have died between March – August of this year were it not for Covid-19. Further, one can legitimately determine that Covid-19 was an essential contributor to patient mortality by employing the determination of “Excessive Deaths,” which is defined by the CDC as the “difference between the observed numbers of deaths in specific time periods and expected numbers of deaths in the same time periods.” Within the context of “Excessive Deaths” data, it is neither inconsistent nor deceptive/misleading to say that only 6% of individuals died with a <em>single</em>, primary diagnosis of Covid-19, and it is patently foolish to suggest that these 6% are the <em>only</em> patients to have die from Covid-19. I would also add that, if anything, the actual number of deaths from Covid-19 in the US is seriously <em>under-estimated</em> for several reasons: 1) we did not have available, effective, and accurate testing when this pandemic began in earnest ( (and we continue to lack adequate testing and rapid lab results that assist in both isolation and treatment); and 2) there is a fundamental lack of understanding of the distinction between “infection fatality ratio” (IFR) and “case fatality ratio” (CFR). The former refers to a contemporaneous estimation of the deaths of diagnosed <em>and</em> undiagnosed cases (based on population sampling of antibodies) that attempts to answer the question, “What are my chances of dying if I contract the virus?” Lest anyone forget, we knew next to nothing about this “novel” virus, and our understanding has necessarily “evolved” over time. This data is how the calculation that Covid-19 is 6x more lethal than the seasonal flu. The latter refers to a “post-pandemic” determination of the actual lethality, including the number of individuals who recovered from viral infection, but later went on to succumb from viral-related consequences.Your conclusion that the CDC’s calculation is “misleading” and motivated by profit is offensive, unsubstantiated, and completely erroneous. I have actually been to ICUs in hospitals in NYC, Paris, and here in SoCal during March, April, and June. Hospitals do not determine how deaths are coded and are simply following the protocol established by the CDC. If it is not yet obvious, your question as to “why” the CDC chose to gather data in the manner indicated is that, until this pandemic is over, “case fatality data” analysis does not assist in providing interventional clinicians with a substantive <em>snapshot</em> of the number of currency infected individuals & the current “infection fatality ratio” in order, for example, to appropriately utilize resources. I am under no illusion that these comments will ever be posted by you – and believe I will not check – and frankly, I will address this directly elsewhere, at a later time, in great detail. You have fashioned yourself an “expert” when your “science” is riddled with errors and misinformation. Unfortunately, you have either whittled your “commentators” down to a group that wouldn’t know the difference, or killed off or censored anyone who disagrees with you. I can’t imagine you should be proud of your “fiat” accomplished by censorship, but it certainly speaks to your integrity.

    ALWAYS wash your hands

    • Michael Bauman says

      Anon:  so, only “experts” know anything.  That is the problem right there.  In my life, “experts” are only valid in a small range of specific purposes. Government “experts” is an oxymoron especially when they disagree.  Many trial attorneys will probably agree that any case which depends solely on “expert” testimony is a weak case.  Fact of the matter is that “experts” can be found to support either side in almost any situation.   Public health experts, and my father was a true one, mostly do not know what the hell they are talking about.  They blow in the prevailing political wind.   

      ALWAYS wash your mouth! Expert is a dirty word.
       

       

      • “Expert is a dirty word.”
        Well said, Michael.
        Experts designed the Titanic…
        Experts built the Titanic…
        Experts sailed the Titanic…

    • Gail Sheppard says

      The CDC admitted their calculation was misleading, as it includes all causes of death in COVID positive patients.

      I didn’t say hospitals were doing this for profit or that they are responsible for the reporting protocol. I said it was because of the decisions made by Fauci and the CDC so hospitals could amp up for the influx of patients they would receive. Otherwise, there would have been no money for the additional personnel and resources (ICU beds, respirators, ventilators, etc.) needed to care for COVID patients.

      The profits will come from all the patents out there on everything “COVID,” from test kits to the vaccine(s).

      Yes, Michael, we know you “have actually been to ICUs in hospitals in NYC, Paris, and here in SoCal during March, April, and June.” We know entirely too much about you, which is why you’re so identifiable. Now that you’ve had your fix, please don’t revisit the blog unless you intend to be intellectually honest, because a lack of honesty is what got you kicked off in the first place.

      And stick to the subject matter. We do not allow commentators to go after other commentators, of whom I am one. You know this. If I see any more “you” message, I won’t post your meanderings in the future.

    • And we are supposed to have confidence in the CDC, you know, the taxpayer funded agency that sponsors transgender beauty pageants.
      I cannot believe anything the CDC says.
      Never.
      So I am blissfully free of considering valid any of their statistical shenanigans.

    • Nice to hear this, but please put your comments in paragraphs that can be actually read!!

  12. M. Stankovich says

    . . . My day started yesterday with a call from the Medical Examiner’s office at 0400, asking me to come and identify the body of an ex-patient who have a toxic level of Tramadol, facial disfigurement from rodents, and my card in his pocket. Please pray for Mario who greatly suffered in this life. I believe our worlds are very different, and I make no apology for my passion or earned expertise. 
    “Your heart is made of a good matter; I declare my works to the king; and my tongue is the pen of a quick writer,” (Ps. 45:2)

    • Gail Sheppard says

      Welcome back, Michael. Very sorry to hear about Mario.

    • M. Stankovich,
      To say I missed you, would be huge understatement.
       
      I promise you, even as weak as my faith has become in organized Orthodoxy, and declining prayer habit, I will pray for Mario tonight.
       
      I am sorry, and will pray for your pain, as well.
       
      God Bless…

  13. Memory eternal, Mario.  
    Dear Michael:
    I grieve for this icon of Christ who suffered greatly and for the love and respect you have shown him in his life and now in his death, and for the grief you bear.  I know your world a little and it is most painful and difficult.  May Panaghia comfort you and may God grant rest to the soul of His child Mario who has fallen asleep.  
    Kalo Paradiso, Mario.
     

  14. Bisop Tikhon (Fitzgerald says

    Gail:Fox News Confirms That Trump Did In Fact Call Killed US Soldiers ‘Losers’ And ‘Suckers’

    • Gail Sheppard says

      Here is her story, Your Grace: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh5tArUZ6Jw

      Per usual, not exactly as is being reported. Maybe 20% of what she said had to do with Atlantic story. Her source was also anonymous, of course. Sounds to me like Trump was having a bad day. (Most people think the Vietnam War was a stupid war! That this would be news is insane.)

    • Antiochene Son says

      I don’t know why anyone would join the military in today’s environment, where the US military exists not to defend this country’s territory from foreign invasion, but to do the bidding and be cannon fodder for globalist interests.
       
      Not sure I’d go so far as to call them suckers, but I really don’t understand dying for what our military industrial complex stands for. 

      • Antiochene Son says

        I’ve been seeing a lot of these “wounded warriors” ads on TV lately and it’s just infuriating. I’m not mad at the men, but at the pointlessness of their suffering. Lives destroyed, and for what?
         
        The Military-Intelligence-Industrial-Tech complex is evil and must be destroyed. 

    • Matthew Panchisin says

      Isn’t it true that President Trump rather routinely receives the bodies of fallen soldiers, comforts family members, visits vets in the VA hospital etc., it seems to me that such actions are not consistent with a “suckers” and “losers” type of disposition. Perhaps he was speaking about CNN reporters or the democrats.

      • cynthia curran says

        It was suppose to be about soldiers buried in France in world war I. These people have been dead for a 100 years. Whether he said they were losers I don’t know. Its not even soldiers from a recent world. In fact the Democrats never mention that Democrats on the left treated Vietnam returning soldiers the worst as child murders and so forth.

      • George Michalopulos says

        Bingo!  Seriously, this one was so transparent that it didn’t even last 48 hours.  
        Not that they’re not going to try.  I heard Sharyl Attkison say something to the effect that the Left won’t let up.  Pretty soon, we’ll hear stories about how Trump traveled to the North Pole and killed Santa Claus.

        • Matthew Panchisin says

          Dear George,
           
          I’ve never known any businessmen that would give 1.3 million people that are considered to be suckers and losers 4 pay raises and new upgraded equipment. Why give the suckers and losers the best possible guns, ammo and bullet proof vests etc.?
           
          Within the Wharton School of business ethics classes it might have been taught that it’s just not a respectful thing to do for the suckers and losers.
           
          Ethics is a branch of philosophy that aims to answer the basic question, “What should I do?” it’s important to get that right within civil societies.

  15. George Michalopulos says

    It’s worse than that:  the most salacious part of Griffin’s story was not confirmed.  This is on a par with Bush 43 2004 Air National Guard story (which was proven false within 48 hours).

  16. Michael Bauman says

    Gail if you had ever read The Price of Glory about the hellish siege of Verdun in WWI you would see that every war is stupid.  The result of the petty squabbles and competing lust for power amongst the various oligarchies.  Now we have COVID and the modern version of bleeding Kansas in a few of our large cities.  
    The inevitable 1984 collusion of the tyranny of Marxism and the greed of capitalism.  The lovers of mammon making common cause all with one satanic end.   
    No amount of military might can overcome such a confluence of passions in action. Only repentance. The weakest of weapons to the mind of the world.
    Yet, will our Lord find faith when He comes?
     
     

    • Gail Sheppard says

      I don’t think every war is stupid.

      Just the wars you can’t win or have no intention of winning. Which is why I’m so critical of the Palestinians in their ongoing struggle against Israel.

      To kill and be killed should stand for more, IMO.

      • Joseph Lipper says

        Gail, the Palestinians and their supporters (both Jews and Orthodox Christians among them) are likely the brake that has slowed down the inevitable rise of the Anti-Christ.  You’re right, the Palestinians are not fighting a winnable war.  However, their resistance to Zionism has probably bought the world some time:
        http://orthochristian.com/106805.html
         
         

        • Gail Sheppard says

          This is a great link! I’m not sure I want them to buy us some time. I wish God would roll all this mess up like scroll, as we speak. 🙂

      • Michael Bauman says

        Gail you describe WWI perfectly.  Since WWII?  FDR learned one lesson of WWI as he declared the need for unconditional surrender. Still he kept Patton from finishing off Stalin.   
        So began the nasty dance and proxy wars and posturing of our lifetime blood and treasure spent for mostly nothing. 
         
         
         

  17. George Michalopulos says

    Here’s an unintended consequence of COVID on the American university:
    https://notthebee.com/article/asked-what-hed-do-if-he-could-go-back-in-time-religion-professor-says-easy-i-would-find-and-assassinate-jesus-of-nazareth
    The quicker our institutions of “higher learning” collapse, the better.

  18. Antiochene Son says

    For a religion professor he doesn’t know much. The Jews already did assassinate Jesus, and he just came back to life.

  19. Michael Bauman says

    September the first was the feast day of one of my favorite saints, St. Symeon, the Stylilte.

    The following is a short explication on his life https://www.eighthdayinstitute.org/strange-spectacle-and-great-marvel-of-the-world-the-life-of-st-symeon-the-stylite by St. Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus

    In the light of the Epistle yesterday 1 Cor. 16:13-24 and the sermon given by my priest two things occurred to me after discussing the Epistle and the sermon with a friend.
    The Church in emulation of St. Symeon and other ascetic saints ought to call a special time of prayer, fasting and repentance leading to the elections; The Church ought to seriously consider giving a penance away from the cup to all who either run for elective office or service in elective office because government has become so imbued with evil that participating in it as an office holder is actively participating in evil. That is incompatible to being in full communion. As evidenced by the “protests” conscious demonic influence is being brought to bear.

    Government in all of its functions has ceased to be legitimate and morphed into what Anthony Esolen calls a ‘rent-seeking’ enterprise. He has a fascinating and convicting description of it in his book, ‘Up From the Ashes’

    I am actually going to mention to my Bishop at least about the time of prayer, fasting and repentance.

    May our Lord have mercy.

  20. Michael Bauman says

    AS, yup. He is an ignorant, bigoted man. I always thought a religion professor would know enough about religions and respect the human longing for God enough to present the core ethos and beliefs 9f any religion being studied in a compassionate manner. But he does not. He is instead just another adjunct of big brother.

  21. “Transmission of CV-19 occurs mostly through news broadcasting. The virus settles in between the ears and affects rational thinking. Symptoms may include hyper-vigilant cleansing, distrust of friends and neighbors, and an overwhelming urge to give up basic human rights in exchange for the perception of safety. Individuals with larger vacuums between the ears are at higher risk.”
     
    The above is a comment on the following talk.
    Lee Merritt, MD: SARS-CoV2 and the Rise of Medical Technocracy
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjYvitCeMPc
    Watch it while it’s still up.