In 2020 we were inundated with news coverage about a “novel” virus that was going to cause widespread illness and death. As the year progressed, I remained skeptical whether there was an increase in mortality because hospitals were neither overwhelmed nor for the most part unusually busy. However, if there was an increase in mortality I did not believe that a “novel” virus was responsible since it didn’t fit with any model of illness I knew of.
At first I considered that an increase in mortality could support the narrative by mixing illegal alien deaths with the deaths recorded among citizens and legal aliens. The CDC was ahead of me though with a small disclaimer on their yearly mortality page stating illegal aliens were excluded.
During 2020, the internet introduced me to many people who had extensive medical, scientific or other learned credentials. Even if they were not “virologists” or “immunologists” I figured that surely their knowledge would help me figure out if there were more deaths in 2020 and what caused them.
As the calendar flipped to 2021, and “vaccines” were rolled out, many of those I heard speak on the topic of “Covid” intermixed effects relating to “the virus” with those related to “the vaccine” when describing illness and death. The only person I heard directly address that was Richard Fleming PhD, MD, JD, who interrupted a panel discussion to make that distinction. On top of that, I began to wonder if all future talk would be directed toward the vaccine and the negative effects associated with it, pushing aside what occurred in 2020, before the “vaccine” was distributed.
CDC figures state a mortality in 2019 (pre-“Covid”) of approximately 2,854,000 increasing in 2020 to 3,383,000 (“Covid” era). The NY Post recently published an article citation stating that the increase mortality in 2020 due to “Covid” was for those age 55 and over, while the increase in those 18-54 was mostly due to non-“Covid” causes. Though it is true that the older you get the likelihood increases of having a greater number of medical issues (co-morbidities) and a greater chance of dying from an infection, I wondered if in this case it was nature or a form of medical nurture that was responsible.
The Spanish Flu, occurring early in the 20th century, was blamed for the deaths of millions worldwide. The cause of death in many was likely not from a virus but from bacterial pneumonia developing from physical debilitation, therefore a secondary event. citation This was determined by an examination in 2008 of preserved tissue specimens. Even if that information was known at the time, any potentially useful antibiotic was decades away from widespread use.
Despite the progression of first world medical care over the past 100 years, it seems as if amnesia developed regarding the natural progression of untreated disease, what we call its natural history. Other than in situations where a patient’s situation is thought to be terminal, physicians intervene to stop disease progression because it is in the best interests of the patient, unethical not to, and there is medical liability if lack of action causes harm.
Today, pneumonia is oftentimes treated based on clinical symptoms. Physicians don’t necessarily obtain a chest x-ray for every instance of combined fatigue, poor appetite, shortness of breath and productive cough. An example is when someone presents with “exacerbation of COPD” meaning their emphysema is acting up. For out-patients, it is treated in part as a pneumonia-like illness with steroid containing medication and an antibiotic, often Zithromax. Even if there is an underlying viral infection it is the bacterial infection that is going to kill the patient if untreated, death often due to sepsis (blood infection with organ damage) or sometimes from blood clots secondary to associated vascular inflammation.
Understand that published statistics on pneumonia are based on actual but limited evaluation and treatment of patients. According to the CDC, in 2018 there were 1.5 million people diagnosed in the ER with pneumonia. citation Likely, millions more were treated for pneumonia-like symptoms by family physicians in office settings, nursing homes and during hospitalization for unrelated issues.
Regarding the antibiotic Zithromax, in 2019 (the last year’s figures available), there were approximately 15 million prescriptions filled. citation The most common indications for its use is upper and lower respiratory bacterial infections. It is a common drug used for common illnesses. One drawback is that it is characteristically bacteriostatic rather than bactericidal, meaning it interferes with bacterial growth rather than accomplishing outright cell kill. In a patient experiencing a rapid downhill course, bactericidal antibiotics are preferred.
During the lockdowns of 2020, medical care was restricted, especially when it came to nursing home residents, hospitalized patients, or just anyone who happened to get sick. The general public was not to blame since they were scared off from seeking medical care, being bombarded by talk and print of a novel highly contagious virus running loose. Best to stay at home or nursing home and take your chances they were told.
Many patients who died of “Covid”, again mostly the elderly, died from respiratory symptoms. By the spring of 2020, Zithromax became touted as part of the “Covid” treatment cocktail for example it was used in the “Zelenko protocol”. If Spanish Flu victims had appropriate antibiotics most would have lived. It should have been obvious, that in large part, Covid patients were dying of underlying bacterial pneumonia that if treated early, would be lifesaving. At a minimum, one has to be skeptical about why autopsies were not performed on those who died of a “disease” from a “novel” virus.
So no, the elderly didn’t die from “Covid”, whether considered nature made or human made, and “Covid” wasn’t ultimately the cause of increased mortality in 2020. The cause was lack of nurture, a purposeful combination of misdiagnosis and/or failure to treat. When those elements arise in the course of medical care it goes by another description: malpractice.
Unfortunately 2020 schooled us in the probable lower limit of how many people can die each year from bacterial pneumonia left untreated. The medical community apparently needs to be reminded about what happens when an illness is allowed to progress without appropriate intervention. The point of our schooling was to learn about the natural history of an illness. When we try to replicate that, it becomes a crime.
It would be nice if more physicians would come forward and admit these same facts. It's easier to bury their heads in the sand and take the money I guess. Shame on them!
Same conclusion https://twitter.com/TheJikky/status/1603327735853629441