The online news team of Krystal & Saagar called out the media for fearmongering over the Delta outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts. How misleading was the reporting? It was so misleading that even the the White House criticized its own media allies. .
The New York Times and Washington ____ left out a few important facts, so intent were they on engaging in yellow journalism. For example, the NYT tweeted:
Breaking News: The Delta variant is as contagious as chickenpox and may be spread by vaccinated people as easily as the unvaccinated, an internal C.D.C. report said.
Unfortunately, the yellow journalism got worse. How yellow did it get? Pretty damn yellow. The media reported Delta is more contagious than the much-feared, get ready for it, Ebola virus. Of course Delta is more contagious. One virus is spread through blood and bodily fluids while the other is spread through the air. Never let it be said the reporters are going to let science get in the way of a good scare. However, let's look at the facts of what took place in Massachusetts since the so-called media failed to do so. The CDC reported:
In July 2021, following multiple large public events in a Barnstable County, Massachusetts, town, 469 COVID-19 cases were identified among Massachusetts residents who had traveled to the town during July 3–17; 346 (74%) occurred in fully vaccinated persons. Testing identified the Delta variant in 90% of specimens from 133 patients. Cycle threshold values were similar among specimens from patients who were fully vaccinated and those who were not.
The media seized on the 74%. Indeed, this quote by Yahoo News' Glenn Garner made the rounds on Facebook:
Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study that found 346 of the 469 reported coronavirus infections at that time occurred in people who were fully vaccinated. The outbreak happened between July 3–17 in Barnstable County as large summer gatherings took place in Provincetown.
However, quite a few facts were left out of the hysteria. The same CDC report contained some useful tidbits of information a few paragraphs later:
By July 26, a total of 469 COVID-19 cases were identified among Massachusetts residents; dates of positive specimen collection ranged from July 6 through July 25 (Figure 1). Most cases occurred in males (85%); median age was 40 years (range = <1–76 years). (KF: It was a gay event, hence the overwhelming male infections). Nearly one half (199; 42%) reported residence in the town in Barnstable County. Overall, 346 (74%) persons with COVID-19 reported symptoms consistent with COVID-19.** Five were hospitalized; as of July 27, no deaths were reported. One hospitalized patient (age range = 50–59 years) was not vaccinated and had multiple underlying medical conditions.†† Four additional, fully vaccinated patients§§ aged 20–70 years were also hospitalized, two of whom had underlying medical conditions..... ReportFive hospitalized and no deaths . Funny how those numbers were conveniently omitted in the meme wars even though Mr. Garner reported them in the same article:
Of the breakthrough cases in the report, 274 were symptomatic, while four people were hospitalized. One other infected individual who had not been vaccinated was also hospitalized.
Testing found that 90% of specimens from 133 patients contained the Delta variant. The most common side effects were cough, headache, sore throat, muscle pain, and fever. No deaths were reported.
Remember, if it is on Facebook it has to be true.
A retired physician, Dr. Ingu Yun, was in Provincetown during the festivities and called the data on the outbreak "good news":
Here’s the proper way to interpret the numbers coming out or Provincetown.
First of all, this CDC report is not a controlled study. This is a report from a period of time when 60,000 mostly gay men descended on a resort town to pack themselves into poorly-ventilated bars and clubs every day for several days. Virtually no one was wearing a face mask. A couple of clubs were requiring proof of vaccination for entry, but most were not. It rained a lot those two weeks, driving the hordes indoors even more than usual. How do I know all this? I was there!...
There were 60,000 visitors to Provincetown during the period in question. That would translate to 57,000 vaccinated folks and 3,000 unvaccinated folks.
How many tested positive for Covid? Current reports say about 750 vaccinated folks and 250 unvaccinated.
This means that 750/57000 vaccinated folks tested positive, or 1.3%. 250/3000 unvaccinated folks tested positive, or 8.3%. Being vaccinated gave you a more than 6-fold protection against Covid than being unvaccinated. This is similar to the protection figures published in the early spring of 2021, before the Delta variant had any impact in this country.
What about the hospitalizations? 6 vaccinated cases were hospitalized out of 750 cases. That's 0.8% of cases. Historically, 5% of Covid cases have resulted in hospitalization in the US. That's a nine-fold improvement! Rest of article.
Make no mistake, there is indeed a Delta surge in America today but there is a big difference in how it affects the vaxxed and un-vaxxed.
19 comments:
A simple truth: Both the MSM and social media are driven by profit. Plain and simple. Now that their cash cow Trump is gone profits are down so they must ramp up the hysteria. Screw em all.
Wake me up once this article is over.
"Remember, if it is on Facebook it has to be true."
Only for those stupid enough to waste the precious minutes of their lives whoring themselves on FB.
Per the bottom chart, if you’ve been fully jabbed, you:
Can get the rona.
Go to the hospital with the rona.
Die from the rona.
As more people get their jabs, these numbers will increase like they have in other states or countries.
I’m 9 days in from first COVID symptoms despite being double vaccinated with Moderna. Moderate symptoms, flu like and lots of fatigue. Significantly worse than having a cold, but my oxygen has remained high and I don’t need to be in the hospital.
I know several others who have breakthrough infections with mild to moderate symptoms. Also, it is this delta variant is obviously much more contagious than the original COVID.
Please consider getting vaccinated. Herd immunity is our only chance to stop COVID from being a persistent scourge that adversely affects us for a long time.
They want everyone to get injected with their demon serum so badly. It is almost as if their plan requires everyone to be jabbed and the whole “great reset” plan is ruined if there are any free people left. The next step is going to have to be starvation. If they can’t get more people to voluntarily accept the cocktail then they are going to reduce access to the food supply.
This is why my family has 25 years of freeze dried food and 500,000 rounds of ammunition. We’ve been prepping since Ruby Ridge.
Unvaxxed
Unmasked
Uncompromised
I have said from the beginning, Covid is real (NOT A HOAX) but without the media over dramatizing like a bad Greys Anatomy episode, we would not have a secondary pandemic of mental illness.
Many people lost loved ones, and perhaps often...earlier than they would have if this lab virus had not been released.
But the variants that worry me most are the ones that continue to emerge around varying levels of hysteria and hypochondria.
Hey, let's make up some statistics to counter the statistics that contradict the approved narrative.
I'm seeing this same bad journalism/bad stats crop up in multiple places very recently. And the 'math' is the same faulty crap. They talk gross numbers and not percentages/rates. Saw some of this in 'articles' (propaganda) regarding Israel and Iceland.
Definitely good news that the vaccine is protecting against severe outcomes.
Definitely bad news that the vaccinated are just equal, if not more, at spreading the virus. This should permanently do away with the vaccine passport nonsense.
Thanks for making the reasons for misinformation on the Delta virus somewhat more obvious.
One event in one place is indicative of nothing. It's meaningless to both the fearful and dismissive arguments.
What it is indictive of is that science has to have time to look at many events and sort out those variables that are dominant.
The research by genome scientists studying Delta is more reliable. The occurrence of Delta in Covid confirmed cases is more reliable ( though likely way under reported). The hospital histories of patients is more reliable in terms of ages affected and how quickly it affects the infected.
And, yes, a human's right brain does prioritize the importance of information the left side of the brain accumulates when something is read or learned. That is not news. Nor is it some sort of conspiracy. And, yes, how you prioritize is both learned and cultural. But, humans are seldom self-reflective or objective enough to question their priorities in a larger environment.
What is clear from genome studies is that Delta is an " improved" version of this virus. It works better to invade the human cells and use them for fuel to increase its own effectiveness. Will it peak out? Is this the end of it's ability to evolve? Nobody knows. But, even an idiot can look at the slide of a cell and see it doesn't look the same.
It is also clear that those who are vaccinated have a better survival rate. It is clear that younger people are no longer as able to defeat the virus.
The math of the numbers of cases , hospitalizations and deaths reported nationwide are just math. It doesn't " lie". What is likely misleading is under reporting ( Florida is an example).
That so many people in our Nation do not know how science or government or research of any kind is supposed to work to work well is disturbing. That so few can recognize good research from bad research or anecdotal reporting is disturbing. When you know what is functional looks like, it's easier to find the flaws or human mistakes or working parts in anything ( machine or organizational structure) that is broken and needs fixing.
The truth is nothing in this article or the critique means anything. The big " obvious" is that no one knows how many arrived to the event who were positive. We are just now beginning to be able to do what was desperately needed at the beginning...test to see who is contagious. In other pandemics, the symptoms were more obvious. In this one, you can be contagious and have NO symptoms.
And, no one knows if the current level or resistance to the Delta strain will continue to prevent more than a few breakthroughs or even who is more or less likely to be vulnerable to a breakthrough.
So keep criticizing people for being human. Keep criticizing those who can't know unknowns but can only make educated guesses. Being a critic is certainly full time employment. But, it's useless and emotionally toxic. What is healthy is to find ways to avoid the flaws and mistakes that cause misery in the human condition and come up with a plan to either eliminate or mitigate them.
But, we find arguing , not only entertaining, but criticizing others makes us feel good about ourselves.
But, we are dooming ourselves if we can't see that at least trying to mitigate is necessary when certain elimination is not available or provable. Our best chance was always vaccination hurrying herd immunity. Until then we needed to do other things that have some limited mitigation like masks and hand washing. But, no, some of you are just to damn stubborn to do anything until it's guaranteed.
Sorry, but life is not fair and bad things happen even to those who expect and try for perfection.
We are arguing ourselves into a new Dark Ages.
Florida did not under-report. That was debunked but if you want to be a follower of Rebecca Jones, go ahead.
@ August 9, 2021 at 8:22 AM
And, that is exactly why the aliens abducted you.
@9:38
I have never been abducted by aliens.
However, in the early 2000s I worked at a clandestine pot farm in remote Oregon and witnessed the undocumented North American primate on more than one occasion. It is the most terrifying creature on this continent and it even scares mountain lions and wolves.
The biggest problem with this virus is all the liars it has created.
They want everyone to get injected with their demon serum so badly. "It is almost as if their plan requires everyone to be jabbed and the whole “great reset” plan is ruined if there are any free people left. The next step is going to have to be starvation. If they can’t get more people to voluntarily accept the cocktail then they are going to reduce access to the food supply.
This is why my family has 25 years of freeze dried food and 500,000 rounds of ammunition. We’ve been prepping since Ruby Ridge.
Unvaxxed
Unmasked
Uncompromised"
There it is, in a nutcas, er, nutshell.
If I may, allow me to point out one among many flaws with your situational planning. Even if you actually have 500,000 rounds of ammunition, it would weigh quite a bit (with containers, likely in excess of 20,000 pounds) and take up a fair amount of room of what would almost certainly be at or below-grade storage (20,000 pounds, plus or minus, is a lot of weight on a concentrated area of a residential slab, try and put it on a framed floor or in an attic, look out below!), making it a logistical problem in most scenarios. If you are faced with a ragtag handful of starving, untrained "survivors" of this impending global whateverthefuck who are armed with a mismatched variety of weapons, 500,000 rounds of ammunition is unnecessary even with high rate-of-fire suppressive-fire weapons; with semi-automatic firearms, it is preposterous. Even if you had legal or illegal full-auto battle rifles, it would be pointless. With a semi-automatic rifle firing 1 round every 2 seconds, that is over 11 DAYS of non-stop 24/7 continuous firing. Even if you could do it - and you could not - the firearm would have failure(s) of some type long before you ran through 500,000 rounds. A retort might be, "oh, yeah, it isn't just me, I've got the wife and cousin Bubba Earl mannin' the ramparts, too..." OK. Still a no-go.
On the other hand, if you were faced with any sort of "governmental force" who is determined to "take you out," 5,00, 500,000 or 5 million rounds wouldn't matter. Such a force could either simply "call it in" with drones, aerial munitions, etc. or simply overrun you with a couple of lightly armored vehicles against which any number of such rounds would be useless.
Are you sure you WORKED ON a pot farm and not that you SMOKED UP a pot farm?
In a sane world, there would be a two-way street discussing the pros and cons of treatments, vaccines, safety measures, etc for Covid. That is the very nature of science and medicine, especially when we are facing something supposedly “novel” and unknown as this virus.
Instead what we’ve seen is a complete blacklisting of alternate points of view. Facebook and other social media block, delete, and “fact-check” alternate points of view off the planet.
The mainstream media says:
Trust only in OUR science
Believe only OUR doctors
Listen to THESE politicians
Look at THESE websites
And now, people are essentially being taken hostage and force-vaccinated to keep their jobs. History does not look kindly of this type of oppression. There is no “safety” in government mandates and threats.
We went from “15 days to slow the spread” to “show me your papers” pretty fast…. All built on a media narrative of lies, panic, and fear. Our fear is their fuel.
@August 9, 2021 at 8:21 AM
Please consider getting vaccinated. Herd immunity is our only chance to stop COVID from being a persistent scourge that adversely affects us for a long time.
Can you explain how we achieve herd immunity with a vax that doesn't prevent infection? Particularly when the vaccinated are a walking petri dish to train the virus on how to evade the vaccine?
"In a sane world, there would be a two-way street discussing the pros and cons of treatments, vaccines, safety measures, etc for Covid. That is the very nature of science and medicine, especially when we are facing something supposedly “novel” and unknown as this virus."
First, while the specific virus is "new" in the sense that it was first widely observed in the last couple of years, virus science and medicine is not new in the least, nor is the science and medicine of vaccines, even the mRNA types. In lay terms, when LED lighting was "new," it didn't confused electricians as to how to wire or install LED fixtures or when a car company introduced a new engine, it didn't confuse mechanics as to how to change the oil (or even rebuild the engine). Yes, there may have been some additional information but most of it was easily and quickly understood by experienced electricians and mechanics.
As to "debate," that implies that each side is on similar footing insofar as knowledge, experience, etc. "Debate" isn't possible when one side has that knowledge, etc. and the other side is parroting what they read on social media, heard on some "news" show, their cousin's best friend's wife said she overheard at the beauty parlor. To use your example, your "two-way street" isn't - one "way" in a modern superhighway engineered and designed with the full ability of modern building and engineering for no-speed-limit technologically-advanced modern supercars and the other "way" is a washed-out dirt road that would rattle the pistons out of a semi's engine. I don't mean that as an insult, it is just two totally different "lanes" of widely divergent "abilities."
But that does introduce a significant point: there isn't any real debate among those with that knowledge, etc. It is only the untrained, non-educated, etc. who want to "debate" most of this, and when the facts (yes, the facts) are explained by those with the knowledge, training, etc., and who weren't debating it amongst themselves, it moves from "debate" to irrational argument by the untrained against that knowledge, training, etc.
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