Will The Pandemic Panic Ever Die?

Not If The Corporate Media Can Help It

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

If people take away one thing from my Substack, I sincerely hope it is this: Facts, evidence, and data are the best weapons against propaganda.

When people know the facts, the narratives become less scary.

When people know the facts about COVID-19, the narratives become infuriating and scandalous. When people know the facts, the shameless propagandizing by the corporate media becomes plain.

Well, folks, the Washington State Fair may be back but the Wildcat isn’t the only roller coaster we appear to be stuck on. After a blessedly low number of King County Covid-19 cases in the earlier half of this year, we’ve been trending back upwards over the last several months.

“Something’s definitely happening right now,” says Dr. John Lynch, medical director of infection prevention and control at Harborview Medical Center and a UW Medicine infectious diseases specialist. “You know, we’re all saying, ‘so and so has Covid’ and that’s a very informal, non-quantitative way to tell us we’re in a surge.”

“Surge”, of course, is in the eye of the propagandist. After all, it is the nature of infectious respiratory diseases that case counts will rise and fall, only to rise again and fall again. That is what they do.

Yes, more cases are being reported, and yes, more cases are ending up in hospital. But even Washington State is not seeing cases on par with cases even earlier this year, let alone a year ago.

This is what Washington State’s “surge” looks like via the CDC’s data.

That is from the beginning of 2023. Yes, it does look like hospitalizations have risen substantially since July. However, this is how this same data looks in comparison to last year.

Last year there were three distinct “waves” of COVID hospitalizations, each of them larger than what has been reported thus far in Washington State.

As regards to COVID mortality, here is how the Washington “surge” looks with regards to COVID deaths beginning from January 1 of this year.

This is how this latest “surge” stacks up against last year’s mortality data.

The statistics show an increase, but it is a marginal increase relative to what the data showed took place last year.

Moreover, both mortality and hospitalization data shows that this latest uptick is the first COVID wave in Washington State this year. By this time last year the state was on its thirst COVID wave.

Nor are the hospitals in King County, Washington, at risk of patient overflow. As of September 3rd, no hospital is reporting at 100% of bed capacity.

There’s no mystery as to what is happening: it is cold, flu, and (now) COVID season. Just as it was last year.

Cold And Flu Season Returns With A Vengeance

As it is in Washington State, so it is around the country. Yes, there has been an increase in cases and hospitalizations, but it is still a marginal increment relative to last year.

It’s worth noting that last winter there were more cold and flu cases in the US than there were COVID cases.

It’s also worth noting that, on a nationwide basis, COVID cases are starting to decline.

As for the latest “variant” hysteria, this is the current genomic surveillance for HHS region 10, which includes Washington State.

What is missing from this breakdown of variants is this latest “Pirola” variant BA.2.86, which is presumably the next dangerous bug to watch.

The newest variant du jour is BA.2.86, aka Pirola. Public health experts believe it is more infectious than its predecessors. “The question is what does this mean for us in terms of our health,” Lynch says.

It’s still too early to know what BA.2.86 will mean for hospitalizations, severity of illnesses, and death rates. The variant was first detected in Denmark in July 2023 and, as of early September, has been found in 11 countries, including the United States.

Despite having popped up over a couple of months ago, it’s not even registering on the CDC’s variant radar.

Presumably, BA.2.86 is an up-and-coming variant.

Pirola has been found in 10 states, according to data from GISAID, a global database.

So far, it has been found in Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.

The CDC noted in a statement released 23 August that the current hospitalisations in the country are not “likely” driven by BA.2.86, but added, “this assessment may change as additional data become available.”

Only….it isn’t.

When you actually interrogate the GISAID data, what you find is that Pirola quite possibly has already come and gone in the US. It was a blip on the virus radar and has since apparently disappeared. It seems to favor Europe to the United States.

In fact, one country where it does seem to be gaining a toehold is Denmark. It might also be advancing in South Africa, although the data is lagging. In just about every other country, Pirola is either fading or has faded away, or there are no recent updates available.

Outside of South Africa, no country has ever had more than 5% of its identified COVID cases be BA.2.86, but somehow this variant is something magically terrifying?

While the media is fretting over COVID, we should take note that other respiratory viruses are also circulating. Washington State’s COVID hospitalizations may be rising, but so are ER/ED visits for flu-like symptoms.

They are up even more in Texas.

They are also up in Illinois.

After having had a significant spike late last year, the current flu season percentages of ER/ED visits for flu-like symptoms has become fairly mild, running even behind even the 2020-2021 season.

Ultimately, this is what should be the takeaway from all the corporate media obsession over COVID: the disease exists, but the disease is also pandemic. It is going to make an appearance most years. For most individuals COVID, like the other forms of the flu, will make you sick, might leave you feeling like you wish you had died, but you are likely to survive—just as you are likely to survive having a case of the flu.

How dangerous is COVID? As diseases go, “not very”. People can get sick from the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its many variants. Some people will even die—although in the most recent week of the CDC data only half the percentage of deaths attributable to COVID occurred in the US as occurred this time last year.

Is COVID “making a comeback”? Of sorts, but, as an endemic pathogen is has never really left. New variants are always emerging, just as we have new variant strains of the flu always emerging.

Take your health seriously. Take the flu seriously. Take COVID seriously. Just remember that taking any illness seriously means getting the facts—all the facts—about that illness and its current impact on your community.

Taking any illness seriously does not mean going along with the corporate media’s endless efforts to resurrect yet again their tired and overwrought Pandemic Panic Narrative. The Narrative is nothing but propaganda. Focus on the facts.