Doctors Say The Quiet Part Out Loud: COVID Was Always "Just The Flu"
Pediatric RSV Cases More Serious Than Omicron
A small retrospective study in Sweden1 has been published in JAMA that arguably demolishes whatever credibility the foundations of the Pandemic Panic Narrative might have ever had.
This multicenter study in Stockholm, Sweden, found that pediatric RSV resulted in more hospitalizations and more ICU admissions than pediatric Omicron. Additionally, the hospitalizations rates for Omicron vs influenza were not that different.
We included 2596 pediatric patients (896 [34.5%] with Omicron, 426 [16.4%] with influenza A/B, and 1274 [48.0%] with RSV). Of patients with RSV, 990 (77.7%) were younger than 2 years vs 648 (72.3%) with Omicron and 81 (19.0%) with influenza (Table 1). Hospitalization rates were 31.5% (n = 282) for Omicron, 27.7% (n = 118) for influenza, and 81.7% (n = 1041) for RSV (Table 2). For infants aged 0 to 1 year, odds ratios (ORs) for hospitalization were 11.29 (95% CI, 8.91-14.38) for RSV vs Omicron and 1.67 (95% CI, 1.03-2.68) for influenza vs Omicron. For children aged 2 to 4 years, ORs were 3.96 (95% CI, 2.25-7.01) and 0.31 (95% CI, 0.15-0.65), respectively. For youths aged 5 to 17 years, ORs were 5.22 (95% CI, 2.40-11.81) and 1.10 (95% CI, 0.69-1.77), respectively. ICU admission rates were 0.7% (n = 6) for Omicron, 0.9% (n = 4) for influenza, and 2.9% (n = 37) for RSV. Three patients died within 30 days: 2 (0.2%) with Omicron and 1 (0.1%) with RSV.
Throughout 2022, Omicron was demonstrably not the greatest infectious disease threat facing Swedish pediatric patients. Respiratory syncytial virus was, and by a wide margin.
Equally important was that Omicron was not that much greater a threat to pediatric patients than influenza.
This study, written up as a small “research letter” in JAMA Pediatrics, is clinical proof of something I have said repeatedly since the beginning of the COVID “pandemic”—COVID quite literally is “just the flu”.
How can this one study provide such conclusive evidence?
A primary reason is the time frame for the retrospective study. The researchers examined pediatric ED visits from August 1, 2021, through September 15, 2022. Thus this study covers the entire period during which the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus emerged and the first pandemic “wave” associated with that variant.
Additionally, because the majority of hospitalizations were for patients below the age of 2, the use of the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA inoculations are excluded as possible reasons for Omicron’s lesser threat potential. While the FDA granted EUA status to the Pfizer inoculation for children 5-11 on October 29,2021, it did not include children 0-5. Thus the predominance of cases for Omicron, RSV, and influenza among patients younger than age 5 excludes any potential beneficial effect from the inoculations.
We should also note that the research letter’s authors acknowledged that SARS-CoV-2 is but one of many infectious respiratory viruses, and that SARS-CoV-2, RSV, and various influenza strains all can lead to pneumonia, which is the leading infectious cause of pediatric mortality.
Pneumonia is the largest infectious cause of pediatric mortality, and respiratory viruses, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza virus, and SARS-CoV-2, can be detected in more than 80% of community-acquired infections.
In layman’s terms, the authors are proceeding from an understanding of COVID as intrinsically being “just the flu”.
At this juncture, pretty much every active variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is some offshoot of Omicron. What this research team in Sweden has found is unambiguous evidence that not only are these active variants “just the flu”, they are not even the most serious form of “the flu” out there.
This latest bit of clinical evidence logically should slam the door shut on the Pandemic Panic Narrative. Not that corporate media will ever acknowledge their propaganda tactics in pushing the narrative, but we should never forget that the Pandemic Panic Narrative was always a triumph of propaganda over facts and evidence.
Nor should we ever forget that the corporate media reporting regarding the SARS-CoV-2 virus has never matched the reality. It does not match it now, and it did not match it in early 2020 when the “pandemic” first began.
Always remember that the data defines the reality, not the narrative. When the data shifts, the narrative must either adapt to the new data or be discarded—that is how actual scientific inquiry operates.
Which is why I cannot say often enough that it is vital for people to do their own research, formulate their own thoughts, and reach their own conclusions, not just regarding SARS-CoV-2, but every issue imaginable. Do not trust what “experts” say—and do not trust what I say.
Trust nothing. Verify everything. That level of skepticism is what people properly should apprehend as “science”.
Hedberg P, Abdel-Halim L, Valik JK, Alfvén T, Nauclér P. Outcomes of Pediatric SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Infection vs Influenza and Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infections. JAMA Pediatr. Published online December 26, 2023. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2023.5734
Lioness of Judah had an interesting image that I linked yesterday - Pictures Speak Louder Than Words - https://lionessofjudah.substack.com/p/pictures-speak-louder-than-words
Great piece, and totally agree!
Diehard Covidians will have to find a creative narrative to refute these results.