Snuggle up with your sweater or with flu meds in your bed?

Nearly 40,000 people have died each year from seasonal influenza for the past eight years except for last year. Less than a thousand (748 deaths) were recorded from just over 2,000 confirmed cases of seasonal influenza. The Twindemic forecast for the previous winter never materialized. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2783644

Forecast for 2021/22

https://www.ncdhhs.gov/news/press-releases/2021/12/14/state-health-officials-announce-first-flu-related-death-2021-22-flu-season. The first person of this winter season has died from influenza. Warnings appear nearly everywhere, begging people to get their flu shot. Last year’s history of almost no influenza season should apply again for this year.

Would not one think? The COVID-19 virus is not allowing any other viruses to become competitors. Scientists are hard-pressed to tell you why there was no seasonal influenza season last winter. South of the equator, seasonal influenza cases were like pulling hens’ teeth – very rare!

What About Omicron?

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/south-africa/. South Africa is the source of the Omicron variant. Yes, new cases have risen off the chart higher than previous surges – and faster! For five weeks starting in mid-October, roughly 500 new cases of COVID-19 were reported. Since the last week of November, new cases of COVID-19 have been over 23,000 and still climbing.

Yet, the coronavirus death rate is unchanged – under 50/day since the middle of November. This week’s deaths have not surpassed 30/day. How can you have exponential increases in new cases and not have any increases at all in new deaths? The Omicron variant is not a killer. It is not even a variant that causes hospitalizations.

South Africa Omicron Hospitalizations

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-17/s-africa-says-hospitalizations-in-omicron-wave-much-lower. During the second week of the Delta wave surge, about 20% of the hospitalizations were confirmed as COVID-19. Barely over 1.5% of the new hospitalizations in South Africa after the second week of the Omicron surge are confirmed as COVID-19.

The Omicron variant infects people quickly, yet it does not immobilize enough to have a run on hospital services. Yes, in the United States, we are at the end of the Delta variant season and the beginning of the Omicron season. The Delta variant can increase hospitalizations and deaths. The Omicron virus is a weak-kneed stepsister in comparison.

Omicron Infecting the Vaccinated

https://www.newsmax.com/health/health-news/omicron-vaccinated-delta-spread/2021/12/20/id/1049358/. Yes, infections, breakthrough infections, are occurring in the fully vaccinated. This past week, the CEO of Southwest Airlines contracted COVID-19 after having both vaccine shots and the booster. Is there any hope for the rest of us?

Yes, viral variants come and go. The Omicron is the latest entry into the pandemic arena. It will eventually push out the Delta variant. The good news for us is that far fewer people will die from COVID-19 with the Omicron variant. Is this the path to complete herd immunity? Maybe?

The pandemic vaccines are not working. The boosters have a shelf life that is rapidly approaching. The establishment will advise us to keep getting booster shots. And they will continue to implore all the unvaccinated to get their COVID-19 vaccines – which are suitable for six months at best.

The vaccine manufacturers cut short the clinical trials to quickly get the vaccine to the marketplace. They did save lives. They did reduce the congestion in the hospitals. They worked as advertised for the first few months. The clinical trials were still tracked after the distribution of the vaccines. The manufacturers knew that the viable life of the COVID-19 vaccine was much shorted than planned – or expected. Why were we not informed sooner? The booster shot – literally the second of two vaccine shots – was designated for the most vulnerable when it should have been for everyone immediately.

Lack of good faith is keeping many unvaccinated from getting inoculations. What else are they not telling us is a common thread in many people I talk to about why they do not trust the medical authorities. We hear a constant drumbeat of the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, yet many have heart and other issues attributable to the vaccine.

Deaths from COVID-19 Vaccine

https://www.nebraskamed.com/COVID/does-vaers-list-deaths-caused-by-covid-19-vaccines. Over 14,000 deaths have been recorded that are attributed to coronavirus vaccines. This figure is as of the first week of November. The statistics cited will tell you that this is an extremely low percentage. The VAERS report does not record deaths within two weeks of being inoculated. That number is more difficult to find.

No other FDA/CDC-approved vaccine has a safety record this reckless. Do the means justify the ends? Maybe. Many thousands (probably millions) of people successfully evaded hospitalization and death after getting vaccinated.

Now they await the opportunity to become a breakthrough case. The vaccines are not preventing infections, hospitalizations, or deaths – something we tend to think vaccines should do. What do we do now?

India Might Hold the Key

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/india/. India was devastated by the Delta variant. The new COVID-19 case average blew up from around 10,000/day to nearly 400,000/day in five weeks. Vaccines were not available, and India chose to use antiviral drugs. In five weeks, the new coronavirus cases have remained less than 50,000/day.

Some states in India used antiviral drugs, and others did not. Those using antiviral drugs had and continue to have high success rates of keeping people out of hospitals and graveyards.

Deaths from the Delta variant averaged less than 100/day before the variant became entrenched in Indian society. Daily deaths average just under 5,000/day at the height of the Delta surge to around 300/day (plus or minus a hundred) since the middle of August. The December daily death tallies average just over 300/day.

Why is India Not Becoming Infected with Omicron?

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/omicron-india-covid-cases-top-developments-7678292/. The Omicron variant has been detected in India this past week. Will it explode into memories of Delta? Maybe from a new case perspective, but not from daily deaths. The Indian population has a single-shot vaccine rate of around 60% and a two-shot vaccine rate of nearly 40%. In addition, many Indians have already been treated with antiviral drugs.

The research I have done does not recognize the antiviral drugs India used to break the back of the Delta variant. Instead, they are betting on future antiviral drugs to offset the severity of coronavirus infections. Unfortunately, there is no actual data – other than the current history of India – to substantiate when some over-the-counter antiviral drugs that demonstrated extraordinary effectiveness can also protect against future outbreaks of coronavirus variants.

Or, it could be that the virus has not made its presence known yet in India. Time will tell.

Conclusion

We know a lot more this winter than we did last winter. The Twindemic became an idle thought that disappeared quickly. I believe the same is true this year – no Twindemic to worry about. It is my opinion – not a medical fact.

I do see considerable increases in new coronavirus cases (Omicron variant). Unfortunately, medical researchers and scientists have no weapons in their arsenals to combat the Omicron variant. Fortunately, it is a mild version of the pandemic virus. Nevertheless, people will continue to get sick, and some will end up in the hospital. It is a numbers game.

Even at a two percent level of new cases being admitted to hospitals, the potentially disastrous high numbers of new cases can bring a health hospital to its knees, especially when hospital administrators have sent home those trained to take care of pandemic patients.

Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. We continue to do the same things – wear a mask, stand six feet apart, wash your hands, get vaccinated, get a booster shot, etc. Yet, the fully vaccinated are getting infected (and infecting others), and some end up in the hospital.

No country has the silver bullet to address the pandemic’s spread effectively. Fully vaccinated (and boosted) people will celebrate Christmas and the New Year as carriers of the latest virus and infect many others. Unfortunately, putting the unvaccinated under house arrest will not stop the spread of the disease as we are seeing done in other countries.

Life Longer & Enjoy Life! – Red O’Laughlin – RedOlaughlin.com

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