“Pulled Forward” ?

From PJ Media:

Lockdowns have drastic consequences. Small businesses closed for good at an alarming rate. Almost 100,000 were gone for good as of September, according to a Yelp survey. The impact on children and young adults is also enormous. Children were out of school, and a recent study shows the loss of learning was significant.

More heartbreaking are increases in mental health issues, abuse, and suicide. Opioid deaths are also increasing in over 40 states.

We were told this is the cost of controlling an unusually deadly virus by selected health experts and the corporate media”

When discussing the pros and cons of lockdowns, “those who know best” basically say . . . what else do you expect us to do, as we must save lives. Some, including business owners and school children, will just have to “buck up,” as these lockdowns are for the good of the team. Who can argue that individual sacrifices were necessary? Shouldn’t the saving of lives have been the ultimate goal?

Again from PJ Media:

One would think in light of these dire predictions and given the horrible toll the response has taken on the economy and young people, the excess deaths due to COVID-19 would be through the roof. But federal data says that does not appear to be the case. 

Each year for the last ten years the number of daily deaths has increased by 100-200 in a gradually steady amount. This increase is not a surprise as the number of older folk has been steadily increasing, and as we are all aware, it is mostly old people that die. The problem in 2020 is that the recent projections from The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the CDC indicate that 2020 did not meet this historic increase by much.

Wait! I am confused! If Covid is killing a dramatic number of people in the U.S., how can it be that the total number of deaths for 2020 is not way higher than in 2019?

The answer appears to be that a lot of Covid deaths this year have been merely “pulled forward.” Yes, this a new term for me also, but it makes sense. For instance if someone has six months to live, and that person dies in three months, his/her death has been “pulled forward.” He/she was going to die soon regardless, but Covid has accelerated that process.

In these deaths that may have been “pulled forward,” there has been excess deaths with dementia and heart disease patients who contracted COVID-19. Further, researchers in New Jersey found that 89% of patients who died with COVID-19 had a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order in place before testing positive for the virus in three hospitals. Having a DNR generally means an individual has a terminal diagnosis. In this study, that would mean nearly 9 out of 10 deaths were “pulled forward.”

So to me the question is:

If a large percent of Covid deaths are merely “pulled forward,” does it make any sense to cause an immense amount of misery for a large number of people by locking everything down? A more critical question is do lockdowns work? Do they decrease deaths or merely delay them, or not pull them forward?

An analysis of deaths during the height of the pandemic, from March 1st through August 1st, there is absolutely no correlation between public policy, such as lockdowns and mask requirements, and excess deaths. Georgia and Florida experienced a ratio of 1.16 and 1.17 between observed and expected deaths. These states closed late in March and opened in late April or early May.

New York and New Jersey, which had some of the strictest measures in place for months, saw a ratio of 1.65 and 1.60. Florida and Georgia have also had a persistently lower deaths-per-100,000 rate than New York and New Jersey for the entire pandemic. They come in at roughly half of the northern states, despite having almost no mandatory restrictions or mandatory lockdowns,

Hmmm!

From the American Institute of Economic Research:

In addition, a recent study (link removed or site crashed but now available at Archive.org) published by Dr. Genevieve Briand at Johns Hopkins University notes some critical accounting errors done at the national level. The study – which is still being vetted – simply examines the raw data that should have been questioned months ago. The overall conclusion is that Covid-19, at least according to collected data, is not the killer disease that it is currently hyped up to be. 

Hmmm!

[If you are intrigued by this topic, I would suggest that you read the entire article that has to do with “Alleged Accounting Error Regarding Covid Deaths,” published in the American Institute of Economic Research, 11/26/20, by Ethan Young.]