Archive for December 2, 2021

All of the hysteria over the Omicron Variant is truly moronic

Posted: December 2, 2021 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,

I cannot claim credit for noticing that the anagram of the name of the latest Whuhan Virus variant is moronic.  That humorous tidbit appeared on FaceBook within minutes of the release of its name.  FaceBook went so far as to actually fact check a post I shared on that topic, proving that the FaceBook fact checkers are all partisan hacks.

After witnessing the instantaneous firestorm of panic that swept through the mainstream media immediately in the wake of the announcement of this latest variant, I felt the anagram was apt.   

Within a period of minutes of the announcement of a new variant, Joe Biden announced a travel ban affecting South Africa, where the variant was first discovered, and seven other African nations.  The governor of New York announced a state of emergency despite the fact that not one case has been documented here in the United States.  A great many other nations announced travel bans.  This was before any details about the variant were known.  This also proved that the anagram of the name is apt.

The details about the Omicron variant were released very quickly after the hysteria and the government overreaction, proving the moronic nature of the mainstream media and progressive politicians.  The title of this Newsmax article Doctor Who Discovered Omicron Slams ‘Hype,’ Travel Bans, proves just how moronic they have all been.

National Chair of the South African Medical Association, Dr. Angelique Coetzee, who made an early discovery of the Omicron variant amongst patients, says “the hype” that’s been created surrounding the variant is unwarranted.

According to Reuters, “the variant was detected and announced by South Africa’s National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) on Nov. 25 from samples taken from a laboratory from Nov. 14 to Nov. 16.”

Coetzee told Reuters that in one of the “biggest hospitals” in her “area” and country of South Africa, there is only one patient who is COVID-positive on ventilation, and there has been no confirmation, as of Sunday, that Omicron is the cause.

“The hype,” Coetzee says, “that’s been created currently out there in the media and worldwide doesn’t correlate with the clinical picture. And it doesn’t warrant to just cut us off from any traveling, and bans South Africa as if we are the villains in the whole process — should not be like that.”

Coetzee, who is also on the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Vaccines, says, “looking at the mildness of the symptoms we are seeing currently, there’s no reason for panicking as we don’t see severely ill patients.”

“I also checked with the hospital, some of the hospitals in my area, and one of the biggest hospitals they only have one patient currently that’s COVID-positive on a ventilator, and they don’t even know whether it’s COVID — you know it’s Delta- or whether it is Omicron-related.”

Even Reuters is documenting the true nature of the Omicron Variant. Check out this article, quoting the South African doctor who discovered this variant: S.African doctor says patients with Omicron variant have “very mild” symptoms

“We have seen a lot of Delta patients during the third wave. And this doesn’t fit in the clinical picture,” she said, adding she alerted NICD on the same day with the clinical results.

“Most of them are seeing very, very mild symptoms and none of them so far have admitted patients to surgeries. We have been able to treat these patients conservatively at home,” she said.

Coetzee, who is also on the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Vaccines, said unlike the Delta so far patients have not reported loss of smell or taste and there has been no major drop in oxygen levels with the new variant.

There are many reasons for the immediate hysteria from the media and overreactions from governments, here and abroad. 

During the Summer I went to many large events here in southern New England, such as agricultural fairs and concerts. I also ate out in restaurants many times.  During all of those outings I noticed only a small fraction of the people were still living in fear of the Wuhan Virus.  Only about ten percent were wearing masks.  That has held true during the surge in cases caused by the Delta Variant.  That is not good news at all for the government officials who have become drunk on the power they have exercised trampling on the rights of everyone with lockdowns and mandates.

If the media does not continue to ramp up the hysteria their ratings will suffer.

Vaccine hesitancy has remained  steady so the vaccine manufacturers need to ramp up the hysteria to increase their profits.

The midterms are looking quite bad for the Democrats.  They want to recreate the conditions that led to the steal of the 2020 election from President Trump.

There are many more reasons.  The only way to fight the hysteria is with the truth

Why Glenn Reynolds has Credibility and the MSM doesn’t One Sentence:

Posted: December 2, 2021 by datechguy in blogs, education, media
Tags: ,

The sentence?

My mistake. I’m bumping this up so that people will see the correction. And thanks, Dean Caron!

We’ve seen how the MSM will at best make “errors” and then quietly issue a correction or stealth edit a piece. Glenn Reynolds shows how to do a correction properly:

Earlier yesterday he put up a piece on how the ABA is allowing law schools to use the GRE vs the LSAT for admission and suggested this was a way to dodge the standards to get students. He got feedback from Paul Caron noting his implication was incorrect:

ERROR-CORRECTION UPDATE: I’m wrong above — this has already been taken account of. Paul Caron writes: “Your comment isn’t right — U.S. News takes GRE scores into account.” Here’s how:

Median Law School Admission Test and Graduate Record Examination scores (0.1125; previously 0.125): These are the combined median scores on the LSAT and GRE quantitative, verbal and analytical writing exams of all 2020 full- and part-time entrants to the J.D. program. Reported scores for each of the four exams, when applicable, were converted to 0-100 percentile scales. The LSAT and GRE percentile scales were weighted by the proportions of test-takers submitting each exam. For example, if 85% of exams submitted were LSATs and 15% submitted were GREs, the LSAT percentile would be multiplied by 0.85 and the average percentile of the three GRE exams by 0.15 before summing the two values. This means GRE scores were never converted to LSAT scores or vice versa. There were 60 law schools – 31% of the total ranked – that reported both the LSAT and GRE scores of their 2020 entering classes to U.S. News.

Not only did he get the correction up fast but he bumped the original piece to make sure people saw the correction.

That’s how you maintain a reputation as a credible source the MSM could take a lesson here if they were actually interested in something other than pushing an agenda.

Of course if the MSM had Reynolds standards people might still trust them.

I’m old enough to remember when Instapundit was called the NYT of bloggers but Glenn took that down as that comparison was not favorable. Perhaps if they emulated his methods of corrections someone might call them the Instapundit of newspapers.