Video (embedded below) of my weekly review of covid-19 in Rhode with Mike Stenhouse of The Rhode Island Center For Freedom and Prosperity. This week we focused on continued improving metrics for the state in terms of covid-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. Additional evidence-based rebuttal of the ongoing fearmongering, in particular, about covid-19 variants, specifically the B117 “U.K. variant” was also provided, including very reassuring data from neighboring Massachusetts. There the B117 variant now comprises just over 30% of all covid-19 infections, yet during this same period of “B117 ascendancy” in MA, infections, hospitalizations, and deaths have continued to plummet. (see figure below embedded video) Other matters touched upon included: Dr. Alexander-Scott’s apparent misunderstanding that SARS-CoV-2 is not a “DNA virus”, it is an RNA virus; concerns about more ”modeling” being left up to Dr. Ashish Jha et al at Brown University, upon which crucial decisions about fully reopening Rhode Island and unmasking hinge, given their sorry track record on “predicting hospitalizations” during the first wave, which were hysterically inaccurate by a factor of 6- to 11-fold; the absurdity of Governor McKee’s apparent conditioning of full reopening upon “70% of Rhode Islanders getting vaccinated,” not a rational targeted approach of just vaccinating the truly vulnerable, and failing to account for the enormous natural immunity already conferred by widespread covid-19 infections and convalescent person in the state, which could readily account for ~50% of the population given asymptomatic infections (Note: the CDC uses a factor 4.6X to expand “documented infections” to include all infections, especially those that are completely asymptomatic, or never required testing or any medical attention.) I emphasized most importantly, that while Rhode Island ranks third in per capita covid-19 mortality, Florida, a state with 10 cities whose populations exceed the population of Providence, and a comparably large elderly population, which for months has been and remains far more open, than RI, ranks 27th in per capita covid-19 mortality. Rhode Island’s political and public health “leadership” must at last transcend their anti-scientific and cynically partisan-polluted “mindset,” follow Florida’s lead, and fully reopen Rhode Island, and unmask the state—masking being a fully randomized-controlled trial DISPROVEN “intervention” for preventing respiratory viral infections.
Massachusetts: Reassuring B117 “UK variant” data shows that as variant has steadily increased to just over 30% of infections total infections https://public.tableau.com/profile/helix6052#!/vizhome/SGTFDashboard/SGTFDashboard, hospitalizations, and deaths continue to steadily decline https://www.mass.gov/info-details/covid-19-response-reporting
