What is Covid?
Covid – What Do We Know?
By Paul Agle
As Covid-19 continues to threaten us with unforeseen effects and after-effects, it is difficult, even for those with time-tested memory banks, to reach conclusions about the virus that will stand the test of time. Here are just a few of the facts:
- We aren't going to eliminate or contain Covid, a virus with an estimated spread factor of 6. We can't even stop the flu with a spread factor of 1.3. The spread factor has to be greater than 1 for a virus to even be contagious.
- To date, there have been 73,973 Covid cases and 9 deaths in the 0-19 cohort (school kids) in Maryland. The number of 0-19 Covid deaths in Maryland in 2020 was about the same as the number of 0-19 suicides in MoCo in 2020. For comparison, there have been 15,956 cases in the 80+ group and 4,235 deaths.
- Numerous studies, most of which tested 2019 blood samples, report that 20%-50% of the population has some level of preexisting immunity to Covid.
- Masks cause “mask mouth” (some combination of dry mouth, bad breath, tooth decay, and gum disease), maskne (mask-caused acne), Candida Overgrowth (a yeast infection in your mouth), etc. etc. Putting a warm moist cloth in front of your face creates a breeding ground for bacteria and is a bad idea unless absolutely necessary.
- More fun with masks: a JAMA study showed that children wearing masks average 13,120 to 13,910 ppm of carbon dioxide in their inhaled air. This is over six times the OSHA level. The dead space in the mask accumulates CO2. For perspective, global warmers claim a 100 PPM increase in CO2 (to 500 PPM) is dangerous.
- A randomized study of cloth masks showed that they only filtered about 3% of viral particles.
- Santa Clara and Alameda County refined their approach to classifying Covid deaths and dropped the Covid death rate by 25% by removing people who tested positive but were asymptomatic. Not counting suicides and accident victims who tested positive for Covid as Covid deaths is probably a good idea, but makes the number of non-Covid excess deaths that much higher.
- China effectively dealt with the virus by nailing sick people in their homes and retrieving the bodies a week or two later.
- Wearing masks and isolation has created an “immunity debt.” Other respiratory viruses will come back to haunt us.
- The U.S. has done studies to prove that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks of myocarditis (a heart condition). What is scary is they actually had to check.
- Having low Vitamin D and Zinc levels increases your risk from Covid over 100% (as does being obese).
- Studies show that children under 10 are unlikely to spread the virus, while children 10-19 are more likely to acquire it at school than by staying home. Given that common respiratory illnesses have typically killed more children annually than Covid 19, this is a weak rationale for masks or closing schools.
The vaccines for Covid are the most deadly vaccines that the U.S. has ever released to the general public, and the risk of permanent disability is 3 times the death rate. The Covid vaccines are several times as deadly as all previous vaccines combined. The heart and nervous (mostly Guillain-Barré Syndrome) system problems that can be caused by the vaccines are pretty serious. Furthermore, there is no benefit to vaccinating healthy people who have had the virus (50% or more of the population).
Should you get the vaccine... Qualified yes. If you are over 65 or have co-morbidities, and haven't gotten Covid, swing away. If you have gotten Covid, no. If you are young and healthy, it is a personal decision. There is risk from the vaccine (particularly of permanent disability) and there is risk from Covid. The risk from Covid seems greater, but you might be naturally immune. If in doubt, flip a coin. Giving the vaccine to kids (particularly under 10) serves no useful purpose.
Quarantining healthy people kills more people than it saves. Taking China and the WHO's (and the CDC's) advice on a universal quarantine was unbelievably stupid. There isn't any evidence that it saved people and lockdowns killed a large number of the under 60 crowd by driving them crazy and forcing them to live in fear and isolation (excess deaths were up to 50% of the Covid death rate for that group).
Keeping people indoors caused more Covid deaths by lowering Vitamin D levels. Closing outdoor spaces was based on deluded thinking (no one has demonstrated that Covid can be spread effectively outdoors). If the CDC had concentrated on rapid rollout of mitigation/prevention measures (Vitamin D, Zinc, Ivermectin, etc.) we could have easily cut the death rate in half. The vaccine or bust strategy was unwise. Furthermore, Sweden, which never locked down, currently has about one quarter of the daily case rate of the U.S. (per population) and isn’t reporting any deaths. That is where the US could have been without a lockdown. The CDC made so many decisions based on “don't help Trump” that it should be investigated to determine how many people they killed.
Any mask law that allows cloth masks is pure virtue signaling. Children should not be forced to wear masks, period. With the advent of vaccines, there is no reason for a mask law. There are four groups of people: Those who have had Covid, fearful people who have been vaccinated, people who are naturally immune, and people who don't care. There is no one to protect anymore.
We need to remove the power of the government to order the quarantine of healthy people.
God bless everyone and God bless America.
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Paul Agle is a farmer (Michigan), digital hardware engineer, software engineer, 6 time marathoner, 40 year Gaithersburg Resident, 30 year Republican volunteer, a close observer of the human condition and a member of the Montgomery County Republican Central Committee.