“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” Origin unknown, popularized by Mark Twain
As the world begins a second month of lockdown in response to the nightmare known as the coronavirus, it is essential to examine how this mess developed and how we return to some semblance of normalcy.
As part of the quest for truth, the three types of lies must be identified: lies, damned lies and statistics.
It is a lie that COVID-19 assuredly originated at some wet market in Wuhan, China. The media and most of the scientific and medical communities are holding to that theory; however, we do not know definitively. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials were not allowed into China to investigate the virus in the early stages. The communist Chinese government is notorious for lying and mistreating both its citizens and outsiders, so their statements verifying the wet market origins of the virus cannot be trusted.
Obviously, the communist Chinese had an interest in creating world havoc. At the time the virus began to spread, there were pollution protests in Wuhan and anti-government protests in Hong Kong. Not coincidentally, both of those protests have ended with the coronavirus lockdown.
Under pressure from United States President Donald Trump, China was forced to accept tariffs on their goods and a new trade deal that was fair, but not unduly favorable to their country. Trump was the first U.S. president in decades to stand up to the Chinese communists and advocate for the American taxpayer.
Sadly, with the pandemic, the United States economy has been severely impacted. This result may very well please the communist Chinese government. During the last four weeks, only essential businesses have been able to operate. With a massive increase of 16.6 million unemployed workers, a gargantuan explosion of the national debt and a historic drop in the stock market, the once solid economy is very shaky.
Some analysts believe either a recession or a depression will be arriving in our country. With a weakened economy, President Trump may very well lose his re-election bid in November. The beneficiaries will not just be the Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden, the Trump hating media and the Deep State.
If Biden wins, China wins because it will lead to a resumption of business as usual and anti-American trade deals. Biden will drop the tariffs and the tough talk and China will once again take advantage of American consumerism. However, if Trump wins, the president will continue his push to bring more manufacturing back from China to the United States. In contrast, Biden has no interest in building American manufacturing and even less interest bringing our factories back home from China.
It is a damned lie that President Trump waited too long to act in response to the virus. In January, he created a coronavirus task force and imposed a travel ban from China at the end of the month. Since then, he has been issuing more travel bans, proposing economic recovery plans and meeting daily with the media to inform the American people. Also, his administration unveiled aggressive guidelines that have mitigated the spread of the disease.
While the president acted, Democrats in Congress were more interested in impeaching and convicting Donald Trump on ridiculous charges that did not generate any Republican support, except for U.S. Senator Mitt Romney of Utah. There was not a congressional hearing on the coronavirus until February. It is absurd that Democrats would claim the president did not act early enough when he was involved in this issue weeks before they did anything.
The statistical lies are easily apparent to identify as this crisis has continued. The first models predicted over 2 million deaths in the United States. Not surprisingly, this estimate created hysteria in the country. Fortunately, it was wildly inaccurate.
In recent weeks, the estimates have been revised downward. The latest figure indicates the country will suffer approximately 60,000 deaths. If this total is realized, as horrible as it may seem, it will be much lower than the death toll from the flu pandemics of 1918, 1957 or 1968.
Even the new mortality estimate is questionable for many deaths are being wrongly attributed to the coronavirus. If a person has the coronavirus, but dies from a heart attack or cancer, their death will be counted. At a recent news conference, Dr. Deborah Birx, the Coronavirus Response Coordinator, crowed about the “very liberal approach to mortality.” Thus, the coronavirus death numbers will increase, and it may be done to generate more hysteria or more federal funding, or to continue the lockdown for a longer period.
In an April guideline, the CDC admitted that the coronavirus mortality numbers are being bolstered. If a “definitive diagnosis of COVID-19 cannot be made, but it is suspected or likely, it is acceptable to report COVID-19 on a death certificate as ‘probable’ or ‘presumed.’”
In the past few weeks, initial reports for deaths due to non-coronavirus causes show a dramatic decrease. It may be due to inaccurate accounting of these deaths as COVID-19. As we know, statistics can be manipulated to fit a certain agenda. In this case, the agenda seems very clear.
Jeff Crouere is a native New Orleanian and his award winning program, “Ringside Politics,” airs locally at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and at 10:00 p.m. Sundays on PBS affiliate WLAE-TV, Channel 32, and from 7-11 a.m. weekdays on WGSO 990-AM & www.Wgso.com. He is a political columnist, the author of America's Last Chance and provides regular commentaries on the Jeff Crouere YouTube channel and on www.JeffCrouere.com. For more information, email him at jeff@jeffcrouere.com