{"id":158825,"date":"2020-04-27T12:01:59","date_gmt":"2020-04-27T11:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=158825"},"modified":"2020-12-02T10:12:17","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T10:12:17","slug":"facts-about-covid-19-apr-25-2020-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/04\/facts-about-covid-19-apr-25-2020-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Facts about COVID-19: Apr 25, 2020 Update"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe only means to fight the plague is honesty.\u201d<\/em>
\n — <\/em>Albert Camus, The Plague <\/em>(1947)<\/p>\n

25 Apr 2020 – <\/em>Fully referenced facts about Covid-19, provided by experts in the field, to help our readers make a realistic risk assessment. <\/strong>(Regular updates below)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Overview<\/h3>\n
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  1. According to data from the best-studied countries such as South Korea<\/a>, Iceland<\/a>, Germany<\/a> and Denmark<\/a>, the overall lethality of Covid19 is between 0.1% and 0.4% and thus up to twenty times lower than initially assumed by the WHO.<\/li>\n
  2. A study in Nature Medicine comes to a similar conclusion<\/a> even for the Chinese city of Wuhan. The initially significantly higher values for Wuhan were obtained because many people with only mild or no symptoms were not recorded.<\/li>\n
  3. 50% to 80% of test-positive individuals remain symptom-free<\/a>. Even among the 70 to 79 year old persons about 60%<\/a> remain symptom-free, many more show only mild symptoms.<\/li>\n
  4. The median age of the deceased in most countries (including Italy<\/a>) is over 80 years and only about 1%<\/a> of the deceased had no serious previous illnesses. The age and risk profile of deaths thus essentially corresponds to normal mortality<\/a>. Up to 60% of all Covid19-related deaths have occurred in particularly vulnerable nursing homes<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  5. Many media reports of young and healthy people dying from Covid19 have proven to be false upon closer inspection. Many of these people either did not<\/a> die from Covid19 or they in fact had serious preconditions<\/a> (such as undiagnosed leukaemia).<\/li>\n
  6. Normal overall mortality<\/a> in the US is about 8000 people<\/a> per day, in Germany about 2600 people and in Italy about 1800 people per day. Influenza mortality in the US is up to 80,000<\/a>, in Germany and Italy up to 25,000, and in Switzerland up to 1500 people per winter.<\/li>\n
  7. Strongly increased death rates, as in northern Italy, can be influenced by additional risk factors such as very high air pollution<\/a> and\u00a0microbial contamination<\/a> as well as a collapse in the care of the elderly and sick<\/a> due to mass panic and lockdown measures.<\/li>\n
  8. In countries such as Italy and Spain, and to some extent Great Britain and the US, a serious overload of hospitals, notably by the flu, is not unusual<\/a>. In addition, up to 15%<\/a> of doctors and nurses currently have to self-quarantine, even if they develop no symptoms.<\/li>\n
  9. An important distinction concerns the question of whether people die with<\/em> or indeed from<\/em> coronaviruses. Autopsies show<\/a> that in many cases the previous illnesses were an important or decisive factor, but the official figures usually do not reflect<\/a> this.<\/li>\n
  10. Thus in order to assess the danger of the disease, the key indicator is not<\/em> the often mentioned number of test-positive persons and deceased, but the number of persons who actually and unexpectedly develop or die of pneumonia.<\/li>\n
  11. The often shown exponential curves of \u201ccorona cases\u201d are misleading<\/a>, since the number of tests also increases exponentially. In most countries, the ratio of positive tests to total tests either remains constant between 5% to 25%<\/a> or increases rather slowly.<\/li>\n
  12. Countries without<\/em> lockdowns and contact bans, such as Japan, South Korea and Sweden<\/a>, have not experienced<\/a> a more negative course of events than other countries. This might call into question the effectiveness of such far-reaching measures.<\/li>\n
  13. According to leading lung specialists, invasive ventilation of Covid19 patients is often counterproductive <\/a>and causes additional damage to the lungs. The invasive ventilation of Covid19 patients is partly done out of fear<\/a> of spreading the virus through aerosols.<\/li>\n
  14. Contrary to original assumptions, however, the WHO determined at the end of March that there is no evidence<\/a> of aerosol dispersal of the virus. A leading German virologist also found no aerosol and no smear infections<\/a> in a pilot study.<\/li>\n
  15. Many clinics in Europe and the US have been lacking patients<\/a> and some have had to introduce short-time work<\/a>. Numerous operations and therapies were cancelled by clinics, even emergency patients sometimes stay at home<\/a> out of fear of the virus.<\/li>\n
  16. Several media have been caught<\/a> trying to dramatize the situation in clinics, sometimes even with manipulative pictures and videos. In general, many media outlets do not question<\/a> even doubtful official statements and figures.<\/li>\n
  17. The virus test kits used internationally are prone to errors<\/a>. Several studies have shown that even normal corona viruses can give a false positive result<\/a>. Moreover, the virus test currently in use has not been clinically validated<\/a> due to time pressure.<\/li>\n
  18. Numerous internationally renowned experts<\/a> from the fields of virology, immunology and epidemiology consider the measures taken to be counterproductive<\/a> and recommend a rapid natural immunisation<\/a> of the general population while protecting risk groups.<\/li>\n
  19. The number of people suffering from unemployment, psychological problems<\/a> and domestic violence as a result of the measures taken has exploded<\/a> in the US and worldwide. Several experts believe that the measures may claim more lives<\/a> than the virus itself.<\/li>\n
  20. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden warned that<\/a> the corona crisis is used for the massive and permanent expansion of global surveillance. The renowned virologist Pablo Goldschmidt spoke of<\/a> a \u201cglobal media terror\u201d and \u201ctotalitarian measures\u201d. Leading British virologist Professor John Oxford spoke of<\/a> a \u201cmedia epidemic\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    See also<\/strong>: The Open Letter by Professor Bhakdi<\/a> to German Chancellor Merkel.<\/p>\n

    ****************<\/p>\n

    April 25, 2020<\/h4>\n
    Medical updates<\/strong><\/h5>\n