OnTheBalance wrote: This was a rather interesting article from the Guardian in the UK ... interesting becuase the Guardian, as a left leaning, welfare state proponent has usually been printing the "scary" articles that get more eye ball hits: The World Health Organization has finally confirmed what many experts and studies have been saying for months – the coronavirus is no more deadly or dangerous than seasonal flu.
The WHO’s top brass made this announcement during a special session of the WHO’s 34-member executive board on Monday October 5th, it’s just nobody seemed to really understand it.
In fact, they didn’t seem to completely understand it themselves.
At the session, Dr Michael Ryan, the WHO’s Head of Emergencies revealed that they believe roughly 10% of the world has been infected with Sars-Cov-2. This is their “best estimate”, and a huge increase over the number of officially recognised cases (around 35 million).
Dr. Margaret Harris, a WHO spokeswoman, later confirmed the figure, stating it was based on the average results of all the broad seroprevalence studies done around the world.
As much as the WHO were attempting to spin this as a bad thing – Dr Ryan even said it means “the vast majority of the world remains at risk.” – it’s actually good news. And confirms, once more, that the virus is nothing like as deadly as everyone predicted.
The global population is roughly 7.8 billion people, if 10% have been infected that is 780 million cases. The global death toll currently attributed to Sars-Cov-2 infections is 1,061,539.
That’s an infection fatality rate of roughly or 0.14%. Right in line with seasonal flu and the predictions of many experts from all around the world.
0.14% is over 24 times LOWER than the WHO’s “provisional figure” of 3.4% back in March. This figure was used in the models which were used to justify lockdowns and other draconian policies.
In fact, given the over-reporting of alleged Covid deaths, the IFR is likely even lower than 0.14%, and could show Covid to be much less dangerous than flu.
None of the mainstream press picked up on this. Though many outlets reported Dr Ryan’s words, they all attempted to make it a scary headline and spread more panic.
Apparently neither they, nor the WHO, were capable of doing the simple maths that shows us this is good news. And that the Covid sceptics have been right all along.
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But in the interest of REAL SCIENCE, and to take apart the EVIDENCE FIASCO OF THE CENTURY (per Dr. Ioannidis, Stanford University), the more meaningful movement is this:
Over 34,000 Health Experts Sign Declaration Against COVID-19 Lockdowns, Petition by Epidemiologists Claims... Declaration by 3 epidemiologists from Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford
More than 34,000 medical doctors and health scientists from around the world have signed a declaration against lockdowns put in place to curb the spread of COVID-19, saying the measures are causing “irreparable damage,” according to an online petition initially created by three epidemiologist from Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford.
As of Oct. 14, close to 25,000 of the signatories signed as medical practitioners, and around 9,500 as public health scientists. They have joined more than 440,000 members of the general public in signing the petition. The petition requires signatories to provide their full name, city, country, zip or postal code, and email, as well as declare if they are signing as a citizen, medical practitioner, or a medical and health scientist. Some media have raised questions about the validity of some of the signatures, saying they have spotted some using fake names on the petition. The Epoch Times could not verify the status of the signatories. The petition website now says the list of signatories will be made available once it has been verified and approved. The creators of the petition could not be immediately reached for comment.
The petition is co-authored by Dr. Martin Kulldorff, a Harvard professor and epidemiologist with expertise in detecting and monitoring infectious disease; Dr. Sunetra Gupta, an Oxford University professor and epidemiologist with expertise in immunology; and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University Medical School professor and epidemiologist with expertise in infectious disease and vulnerable populations.
“Coming from both the left and right, and around the world, we have devoted our careers to protecting people. Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short- and long-term public health,” reads the petition, titled the Great Barrington Declaration, after the Massachusetts town where it was authored by the three experts on Oct. 4.
The declaration says lockdowns result in worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings, lower childhood vaccination rates, and deteriorating mental health, to name a few issues, all of which will lead to high mortality rates in the years to come.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/over-30000-health-experts-sign-declaration-against-covid-19-lockdowns_3537277.html
Letter to Ford Against Lockdowns
In late September, a group of 20 doctors in Canada issued a letter to Ontario Premier Doug Ford, arguing against a return to lockdowns amid a rise in COVID-19 cases.
“Lockdowns have been shown not to eliminate the virus,” said the letter, published by the National Post.
The doctors, which include professors of medicine from the University of Toronto, McMaster University, and the University of Ottawa, and different hospitals, say lockdowns slow the spread of the virus only as long as the lockdown is in place.
“This creates a situation where there is no way to end the lockdown, and society cannot move forward in vitally important ways including in the health sector, the economy and other critically important instrumental goods including education, recreation, and healthy human social interactions,” the letter says.
The doctors say the recent increases in cases in the province this time around are in people under 60, who are unlikely to become very ill as a result of being infected with COVID-19. While those over 60 accounted for over half of the cases during the peak of the pandemic in Ontario in mid-April, now they only account for less than 15 percent of the cases.
“In Ontario and other parts of the world, such as the European Union, increasing case loads are not necessarily translating into unmanageable levels of hospitalizations and ICU admissions,” the letter says.
“While we understand the concerns that these cases could spill into vulnerable communities, we also need to balance the actual risk.”
The doctors say officials should take the costs of lockdowns into consideration. This includes the negative health effects, such as the 40 percent rise in overdoses in some jurisdictions, delayed surgeries, delays in cancer patient diagnostics, and closure of schools.
“Our society has borne enormous pain over the past six months. It’s time to do something different,” the doctors write.
Meanwhile, a study published in the British Medical Journal last week says while initial restrictions were effective at reducing the burden in intensive care units in U.K. hospitals, maintaining the lockdowns would prolong the pandemic and increase the number of deaths.