Debunking COVID-19 Conspiracies (for Funsies)

I see a lot of silly things on Facebook:

Why am I always the horse in these fucking games?

Animal abuse aside, this use of Facebook seems harmless, if not just frivolous.

However, it’s the conspiracy theories that draw my concern.

You’ll come across all sorts of ideas, like:

While I do like a good conspiracy (what the hell IS in Area-51?), occasionally I like to see how quickly I can dispel some of these…for funsies.

So let’s talk about the coronavirus being some flu that the “libtards” are amplifying. 

The “COVID is like the flu” theory goes something like this:

That’s more or less the gist.

First things first.

Anecdotally, there very well may be loads of people who are incorrectly labeled for their cause of death.

I can see that.

Some people also go into a hospital and get the wrong leg amputated. 

Now that we’ve practiced on your left leg, let’s take care of that ulcer on the right.

Mistakes happen, and when money is involved, I’m sure it only exasperates the problem.

(Part of the CARES act funneled money to hospitals for COVID-19 related deaths.)¹More from the American Hospital Association here.

However, anecdotal evidence shouldn’t be completely trusted. That’s why I’m skeptical of anywho who says aliens abducted them so they could examine their rectum.

I want to believe.

So let’s look at some math and data, because math and data rule. 

Of the people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the United States of America, about 3% of them die from it.²As of September 2020, taken from John Hopkins.

What is it throughout the world?

While it’s a little all over the place depending on the country, it averages out to be about 2.94%. Just what you would expect if this virus on average killed about 3 out of 100 who test positive for the disease.

Note: the variation in death rates makes sense. Hospitals aren’t exactly top-notch in modern-day Syria. 

Life expectancy in Myanmar is about 56 years old. Yikes.

Okay, back to slightly less depressing topics…

My conclusion: the death rate in the U.S. is more or less what you’d expect, given the impact of the disease throughout the world. 

Now, the counterargument here is medical reporting in the entire world is off, John Hopkins can’t be trusted, blah blah blah…

To me, that’s some “lizard people control the world” type level of conspiracy, which would require some substantial evidence to support.

Like an actual lizard person that I could talk to:

I…want to believe?

But okay, I’ll bite.

If you’re not convinced by data from around the world, we can look at how mortality rates themselves have changed in America in 2020:

A study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association found there to be 122,300 more deaths in the U.S. than expected between March and May of 2020.

Meaning 120k more people died in the spring of 2020 than in the spring of 2019, 2018, etc.

The COVID-19 death tally from this period is 95 ,235, so this number is actually 28% percent higher than expected.³That article is here.

The authors of that study attributed it to the “likely undercount deaths due to the virus.”

For reference, about 12-61K die from the flu per year, and COVID-19 doubled that high tally IN THREE MONTHS.⁴Read that flu statistic here.

So when John Hopkins says this novel coronavirus is “possibly 10 times or more” deadly than the traditional flu, the data matches this expectation.⁵Read that quote here.

At this point, I need to get on my soapbox and remind you to:

Good luck everyone! Judging from my feed on Facebook, we’re gonna need it.

Love,

Paul Aguilar

PS: They probably just test weird aircraft at Area 51, but that’s for another day. 

###

Featured Image is taken from here.