The Non-Pandemic Panic

Be Afraid! Routine Winter Illnesses Are Spreading!

The capacity of corporate media to manufacture hysterics is truly a marvel of our times.

With a narrative that is eerily reminiscent of the early days of the Pandemic Panic Narrative, we are being fed a fresh diet of fear and alarm over diseases that everyone—including corporate media—say are routine and not at all new. Just to make sure there is the appropriate degree of paranoia, China is once again in the crosshairs.

News has broken that a respiratory virus is surging in China which is raising concerns that the world is about to be swept by another devastating pandemic.

Yet unlike the early days of the COVID-19 “pandemic”, at present no one is reporting the outbreak of infectious respiratory disease is the result of a novel pathogen. In fact, China is insisting that all cases are the result of ordinary known pathogens such as Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).

An investigation by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has since managed to allay some of the understandable panic by identifying the reported increase in infections and hospitalisations as attributable to several known pathogens.

The known pathogens include the bacterium Mycoplasma pneumoniae , respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), adenoviruses and influenza. Only RSV, adenoviruses and influenza can give rise to viral pneumonia in severe cases.

"This is not an indication of a novel pathogen; this is expected," Maria Van Kherkhove, acting director of the WHO's department for epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, told STAT News.

In other words, China is experiencing an uptick in infectious respiratory disease involving all the “usual suspects”, and this uptick has been anticipated at least by the WHO, but there are still fears of a fresh and “devastating” pandemic.

Ummm…..yeah. Sure. Right. Color me skeptical.

Presumably, China is incrementally returning to its former “Zero COVID” lockdown posture, with various provinces instituting mask mandates and distancing protocols.

Amid a new mystery pneumonia outbreak, China has reintroduced masks and social distancing measures, reminiscent of the COVID-19 lockdown era. The focal point of the outbreak in Beijing’s northern region has witnessed a surge in pneumonia cases, particularly impacting pediatric hospitals, where the number of children with symptoms such as high fever, lung inflammation, and cold is overwhelming healthcare facilities.

However, such reporting stands in stark contrast to the narrative that has been put forward since the middle of November, which is that the pneumonia outbreak in China is not all that remarkable.

Hospitals in northern China appear to be “overwhelmed with sick children” as the country grapples with a surge in respiratory illnesses and clusters of pneumonia, prompting the World Health Organization to ask Beijing for more data.

At the Beijing Children’s Hospital in the capital, long lines of people were waiting to register during a visit by NBC News on Thursday. Waiting rooms were crowded with parents and children, some of them on IV drips.

In a review of China’s data, the World Health Organization said that the increase in cases came earlier in the season, “but not unexpected given the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, as similarly experienced in other countries.”

According to the WHO, Chinese health authorities did not detect new or unusual pathogens, and the rise in respiratory illnesses has not resulted in patient loads that exceed hospital capacities.

This, of course, seemingly presents us with a contradiction: If hospitals are “overwhelmed with sick children” how is it that the rise in respiratory illnesses has not resulted in “patient loads that exceed hospital capacities.” The very use of the word “overwhelmed” itself implies that hospitals are experiencing patient loads in excess of capacity.

However, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has been emphatic in denying that there is any uncontained outbreak of disease.

“Recently we have seen some clusters of flu cases among children in certain parts of China. In fact, that is a very common phenomenon in many countries, and in China that has been put under effective control,” Wang told reporters at the United Nations in New York where he is chairing a U.N. Security Council session on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

“China’s interactions with the international community will not be affected by any factors, and we welcome more visits from friends from across the world,” he said.

In spite of China’s denials, Taiwan is taking no chances, having issued a travel advisory for the very young and the elderly against travel to the mainland.

Meanwhile, Taiwan’s health ministry on Thursday urged the elderly, very young and those with poor immunity to avoid travel to China due to the recent increase in respiratory illnesses there, a move some experts said was ineffective to manage public health risks.

Taiwan has been wary of disease outbreaks in its giant neighbor since the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak that started in China and killed nearly 800 people globally in 2002-2003.

If we go by what is presented in the narrative itself, there is no public health concern here—so why the concern in the media?

Even more perplexing is the bandwagon effect that has begun to emerge regarding pneumonia cases elsewhere in the world. With China being reported as grappling with a fresh outbreak of infectious respiratory disease a la COVID, the media is almost reflexively drawing parallels between that and other increases in pneumonia cases in Europe and elsewhere.

Several European countries have reported a sharp rise of cases of child pneumonia similar to those that have plagued mainland China.

Medics suspect mycoplasma pneumoniae, flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to be behind the horror wave of pneumonia cases that has led to thousands of children being hospitalised in China.

Mycoplasma pneumoniae, influenza virus, and respiratory syncytial virus are not novel pathogens, and so far there has been no reporting indicating a novel strain of any of these pathogens is responsible—yet there is grave cause for alarm because with the onset of cold and flu season there is an increase in cases of….wait for it….colds and flu?

At the same time, the WHO is at least intimating that there is more going on in China than an uptick in normal pediatric illnesses.

The World Health Organization is "following up" with China about its ongoing wave of respiratory infections, said Maria Van Kerkhove, acting director of the WHO's Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, on Wednesday.

Again, if the pathogens are all routine and known infectious agents, where is the concern? What is the WHO wanting to know and why is the WHO not being more transparent about it?

This also begs the question of how media outlets are able to make a connection between pneumonia cases in Europe and those in China—which they are unquestionably doing.

A new mystery repository virus ripping through China appears to now be surging in Europe as cases among children were detected in the Netherlands.

Experts are rushing to figure out what the out-of-control form of pneumonia travelling through parts of Asia is, with hospitals in the capital 'overwhelmed with unwell youngsters. Now Dutch health experts fear the alarming illness, which can prove to be life-threatening, could be in their country.

If the China outbreak is a conjunction of outbreaks of known influenza, RSV, and other infectious respiratory pathogens, on what basis is the media drawing the connection between Europe and China?

More importantly, why is it that as recently as yesterday, corporate media is reporting no increases in cases of infectious respiratory disease in India and Taiwan. Also, with only two countries in Europe reporting an increase in such cases, what is the basis for characterizing these increases as “outbreaks”?

Is it merely an artifact of timing? The media actually admits this may be the case.

"It could be a local seasonal epidemic that just happens to be co-incident with the cases in China," Professor Ian Jones from Reading University told MailOnline. "Pneumonia can have many causes so I doubt this can be analysed properly until the underlying infection(s) is defined."

Are we to panic just to be “safe”? Irony abounds.

Nor is the hysteria confined to Europe. Warren County, Ohio, is also reporting an increase in pneumonia cases.

A mystery outbreak of pneumonia has hit several parts of China, and now Ohio is the first American location to report an outbreak of the illness, with an ‘extremely high’ number of children being hospitalized.

The strain of pneumonia, now dubbed ‘white lung syndrome,’ has spawned 142 pediatric cases in Warren County since August.

Warren County Health Department told Daily Mail, that not only is the number of cases above average, but it also meets the Ohio Department of Health’s definition of an outbreak.

Yet even Warren County, Ohio, is reporting that the underlying pathogens are known and not novel.

Officials in Ohio tell Daily Mail that an investigation is ‘ongoing,’ but the illness does not look like a new disease, but rather several common infections hitting all at once.

According to the news outlet, so far, patients have tested positive for mycoplasma pneumonia, a bacterial lung infection that is mostly resistant to antibiotics, strep, and normally benign infection, adenovirus.

Despite this assurance of relative normalcy, the media is drawing an inference link between the Ohio cases and the reported outbreak in China.

A pneumonia outbreak similar to the one in China has now reached the US, where an "extremely high" number of cases have been reported.

Children are being hospitalized with pneumonia in Ohio, the first US state to report an outbreak like the one in China.

Health officials in Warren County, north of Cincinnati, said there have been 142 pediatric cases of the condition - dubbed "white lung syndrome" - since August.

However, we must make note here that the name “white lung syndrome” is media hyperbole based on how pneumonia presents in medical imaging scans.

While the exact cause of the outbreak remains unclear, the name ‘White Lung’ is thought to stem from the appearance of the affected lungs on medical imaging, akin to those seen in severe respiratory infections.

In other words, “white lung syndrome” is merely a “sexed up” description of routine pneumonia, which always shows up as a “white” lung on a chest X-Ray or medical scan¹.

This is not to say that cases of pneumonia are not severe and potentially life-threatening infections; they frequently are exactly that. It is to say that these pneumonia cases are, judging from the reporting, not something outside the norm. The number of cases may be higher than the historical norm, and they may be coming earlier in cold and flu season than the historical norm, but beyond that there is little that qualifies as unusual or remarkable.

We should note also that, as of this writing, Warren County, Ohio, is reporting “Low” for COVID hospitalizations.

Additionally, while Ohio has seen an increase in COVID mortality, that wave appears to have peaked and is already trending down.

COVID hospitalizations are, however, on the increase, albeit still very far below last winter’s peak.

Nationwide COVID hospitalizations are rising but are again well below last winter’s peak.

While the 2023-2024 flu season is decidedly underway, it is not egregiously out of step with prior years.

The uptick in respiratory illness visits is presenting as a judicious mixture of influenza, RSV, and COVID pathogens—i.e., “the usual suspects” for this time of year.

Going by the extant data, there is no abnormal increase in infectious respiratory disease in the United States.

Going even by the media reporting, there is not much of an outbreak even in China—and yet the media is painting whatever is going on in China as a major outbreak. As one reader has rather succinctly observed:

Given the lack of alarming data thus far, it is difficult to challenge that assessment.

Yet it is because of this “psyop” potential that we have to take notice of these things. The Pandemic Panic Narrative took hold because the data was obscured and misrepresented by the corporate media and then by the public health “experts” both in and out of government. Much of my early analyses of the COVID “pandemic” revolved around exactly this obfuscation of crucial detail.

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Who Needs Science When You Have Experts?

The foundational premise of this Substack is that facts, data, and evidence are the best weapons against propaganda. When we scrutinize the facts, when we interrogate the data, when we focus on what we objectively know and can positively prove, all the flaws and holes in propaganda narratives are immediately made plain.

There can be little doubt that the corporate media is once again attempting to resurrect the Pandemic Panic Narrative. Whether their motivation is purely mercenary or in service of a more malignant agenda I cannot say, but I do not need to say. It is enough to say that what is being reported thus far regarding disease outbreaks in China, in Europe, and in the United States are long on narrative and short on factual substance.

The data presented thus far is that in China, in Europe, and in the United States there are somewhat early upticks in infectious respiratory cases, but the case levels are not as of yet so high as to cause alarm. The data presented thus far is that the underlying pathogens are known infectious agents. The data presented thus far is that these “usual suspects” for cases of pneumonia are not even novel strains of these known infectious agents.

Corporate media appears to be attempting to spread an ironic “Non-Pandemic Panic.” Do not be fooled. Follow the data. Scrutinize the evidence. Know the facts. Form your own conclusions.

Trust nothing. Verify everything.

1. Koo, H. J., et al. “Radiographic and CT Features of Viral Pneumonia.” RadioGraphics, vol. 38, no. 3, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1148/rg.2018170048.