U.S. Will Cover-up Its Own Coronavirus Death Toll
DISPATCHES FROM MOON OF ALABAMA, BY "B"
This article is part of an ongoing series of dispatches from Moon of Alabama
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Trump administration has used the novel coronavirus pandemic to malign its perceived enemies. Now as the U.S. itself is at the center of the pandemic the accusations and lies come back to bite.
On March 21 the Daily Beast reported of an upcoming propaganda campaign the White House was launching against China:
As the number of coronavirus cases continues to grow at a rapid pace in the U.S., the White House is launching a communications plan across multiple federal agencies that focuses on accusing Beijing of orchestrating a “cover-up”and creating a global pandemic, according to two U.S. officials and a government cable obtained by The Daily Beast.
The cable, sent to State Department officials Friday, lays out in detail the circumstances on the ground in China, including data on coronavirus cases and deaths, the local business environment and transportation restrictions. But it also issues guidelines for how U.S. officials should answer questions on, or speak about, the coronavirus and the White House’s response in relation to China.
The talking points appear to have originated in the National Security Council. One section of the cable reads “NSC Top Lines: [People’s Republic of China] Propaganda and Disinformation on the Wuhan Virus Pandemic.”
Soon the mainstream media started to spread the new talking points. A Google News search for the search term "China Cover-up" now finds 449.000 results.
On April 1 Bloomberg was called up by "officials" to reinforce the campaign by attributing the claim of a cover-up of China's case and death numbers to a "secret U.S. intelligence report". That report is unlikely to exist at all because the New York Times reported a day later that the CIA hunt for "authentic numbers" of deaths in China was still ongoing and failing:
So far, to the frustration of both the White House and the intelligence community, the agencies have been unable to glean more accurate numbers through their collection efforts.
We used the Bloomberg report to explain that the case fatality numbers, which China reported correctly, are very different from the total number of fatalities, or excess deaths, an epidemic causes. There was no cover-up by China but naturally incomplete reporting of all deaths. A day later the BBC published a similar explainer piece.
On April 3 the Economist also discussed wrong fatality numbers though it had found those in Italy and Spain: Covid-19’s death toll appears higher than official figures suggest. It also made this snarky cover-up remark:
[W]hen Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in 2017, America recorded only 64 deaths. A study later found that the surge in total deaths was close to 3,000. Many occurred in hospitals that lost power.
The excess deaths from Covid-19 in certain areas of Spain and Italy appear to be up to three times higher than the officially reported deaths.
As the U.S. is now in its own catastrophic phase of the outbreak the media are finally waking up to the fact that their claim of China's "cover-up" is bullshit.
Today both the New York Times as well as the Washingon Post report that the U.S. is "covering-up" the number of deaths that the pandemic causes within its borders. The NYT headlines: The U.S. is undercounting the number of people who have died in the pandemic, experts say.
Doctors now believe that some deaths in February and early March were likely misidentified as influenza or only described as pneumonia.
Even under typical circumstances, public health experts say that it takes months or years to compile data that is as accurate as possible on deaths in infectious outbreaks.
The Post headlines: Coronavirus death toll: Americans are almost certainly dying of covid-19 but being left out of the official count
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counts only deaths in which the presence of the coronavirus is confirmed in a laboratory test. “We know that it is an underestimation,” agency spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said.
A widespread lack of access to testing in the early weeks of the U.S. outbreak means people with respiratory illnesses died without being counted, epidemiologists say. Even now, some people who die at home or in overburdened nursing homes are not being tested, according to funeral directors, medical examiners and nursing home representatives.
The U.S. already "covered-up" Covid-19 casualties by not testing enough. And the U.S. CDC will now do exactly what China has done during the outbreak in Hubei province. It will only report confirmed cases and the fatalities thereof. That is exactly the "cover-up" the U.S. has accused China of.
Another Covid-19 story had been used to denigrate Iran when the Washington Post mocked the country about a row a fresh dug graves in Qom that were "visible from space" just like about everything else is:
In Qom, the spiritual center of Iran’s ruling Shiite clerics, more than 846 people have contracted the virus, officials say. Iran’s government has not released an official death toll for Qom, however, where about 1.2 million people live. But videos, satellite images and other open-source data from the cemetery — a vast complex six miles north of the city center — suggest that the number of people struck down by the virus there is significantly higher than the official figure.
Now the rows of graves "visible from space" are coming to the U.S. itself. The Chair of the New York city council sadly announced that the casualties of the epidemic will soon be temporarily buried in public parks:
Mark D. Levine @MarkLevineNYC - 1:33 UTC · Apr 6, 2020
Grieving families report calling as many as half a dozen funeral homes and finding none that can handle their deceased loved ones.
Cemeteries are not able to handle the number of burial requests and are turning most down. 4/It’s not just deaths in hospitals which are up. On an average day before this crisis there were 20-25 deaths at home in NYC. Now in the midst of this pandemic the number is 200-215. *Every day*. 5/
Early on in this crisis we were able to swab people who died at home, and thus got a coronavirus reading. But those days are long gone. We simply don't have the testing capacity for the large numbers dying at home. 6/
Now only those few who had a test confirmation *before* dying are marked as victims of coronavirus on their death certificate. This almost certainly means we are undercounting the total number of victims of this pandemic. 7/
And still the number of bodies continues to increase. The freezers at OCME facilities in Manhattan and Brooklyn will soon be full. And then what? 8/
Soon we'll start “temporary interment”. This likely will be done by using a NYC park for burials (yes you read that right). Trenches will be dug for 10 caskets in a line.
It will be done in a dignified, orderly--and temporary--manner. But it will be tough for NYers to take. 9/
New York will continue to have a high death rate for some time while Iran now has a gradual decline of new cases. A beautiful light show (vid) was projected on the Azadi tower in Tehran to honor the fight against the virus.
Iran is also contributing to the research of the disease.
A large scale Iranian study found that three quarters of those who had milder symptoms of Covid-19 reported also a very sudden smell blindness and sometimes also a loss of taste. The ability to smell recovered only very slowly. Other research suggests that a specific type of cells in the olfactory bulb might be the first place where the SARS-CoV-2 virus attacks before it moves into the throat and then deeper into the body. Even people who did not fall ill, but were living with ill members in their family, often reported a loss of smell.
Those who experience a sudden loss of smell should therefore immediately isolate themselves to not infect others.
Posted by b on April 6, 2020 at 17:21 UTC | Permalink
INDEED! As someone who worked in the field, in the front line, there was a HUGE pressure not test. It has become more liberal now though. I have no idea about the reporting by higher echelons but on the frontline, there is a strict secrecy policy, towards the public; which is comprehensible for 2 reasons:
1. Some underserved hospitals get MUCH more COVID patients (40X more compared to a neighboring hospital for the affluent, in the Tri-State) but don’t want to be branded as this has commercial implications.
2. They want to avoid panic
The numbers are passed to CDC though but I have no idea what they do with it
Posted by: Amie | Apr 6 2020 17:37 utc | 2
Latest version of the "secret report" has it from the UK
https://asiatimes.com/2020/04/wuhan-lab-virus-leak-no-longer-discounted-cobra/
Posted by: Mina | Apr 6 2020 17:38 utc | 3
Besides falsificating death numbers Trump and his administration of neo-confederates are now stealing ventilators paid for by Barbados. Degenerate and incompetent Murikkkans making america great and showing the world why they're #1. When the dust settles after Covid-19, the pilgrims will stand alone on a shining pile of exceptional sh*t !
link
Posted by: Sol Invictus | Apr 6 2020 17:44 utc | 4
b,
You forgot to mention the malign accusation of being a "narco" can still go along way,
"Venezuela's democratically elected President Nicolás Maduro sent this open letter to the people of the USA, calling for peace and no war and sanctions. He warns that the Trump admin is trying to launch a war, based on lies about drugs, to distract from the coronavirus disaster."
https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1246832744493129733
btw... thank you!
Posted by: Andrew | Apr 6 2020 17:46 utc | 5
Lookit big picture. DoD sees Chine as enemy. DoD has BSL4 and "studies" CV. Closes last August Ft Det. DoD attacks. DoD lies. DoD serves masters, as Smedly said, thugs and gangsters for big business.
The rest is details.
Oplan 20 1) create righteous cause with FFA and silence public by incapacitation
2) weaken enemy states in all ways (they are doing their best!)
3) use force.
We're collateral and regrettable losses.
No antiwar demos if "chine did it" (repeat endlessly)
The more often they say chine did it the more certain that Sam did it.
Posted by: Walter | Apr 6 2020 17:51 utc | 6
New York's outcome response to nCOV to date seems to be significantly worse than Italy or Spain.
I graphed out the March 26-April 5 numbers I've been accumulating for respective mortality per 10M population
As is very clear from the top graph, New York has been accelerating to pass 2000 deaths per 10M; I time shifted the data at approximate equal start points vs. Italy and Spain (the 2 graphs below the main one) - the worse outcomes are very clear there as well.
If the trends continue, New York will pass up both Italy and Spain in just 3 days.
Figuring out how to set a curve fit to extrapolate now to get an idea how bad this can get.
Posted by: c1ue | Apr 6 2020 17:51 utc | 7
reminder: it is generally very difficult to define the cause of death. Numbers and statistics can be very wrong, I would not trust them.
Then I read recently (I don't know if it is true) that in the UK it would need two experts (a doctor and a coroner) to define the cause of death. And the doctor must have treated the deceased for at least 14 days. According to the source this has changed now. A doctor can issue a death certificate without having known or seen the deceased.
Death, positive coronavirus test, signature, done. We may very well see a huge discrepancy right now in those numbers and statistics, from today and from December to March.
Then, as shown and proven, these tests do not indicate the virus, only 'traces' of it. Which can originate from entirely different sources, for example exosomes. There's plenty of genetic material floating around in our bodies, and this material is used for the corona virus test. This is simply not scientific.
Why are so few people mentioning these obvious facts? Is this some kind of masochism? Some sort of self-flagellation?
Posted by: Phil | Apr 6 2020 18:02 utc | 8
Posted by: Mina | Apr 6 2020 17:38 utc | 3
Beware, the source is the Daily Mail (or more precisely the Sunday version). Notorious for anti-Russian and anti-Chinese stories, along with smearing anything even mildly left-wing.
Posted by: Laguerre | Apr 6 2020 18:05 utc | 9
USA For Profit health care will see to it that thousands or more die needlessly, the cover up is a secondary issue. Just 3 examples:
Hospital in Southern Arizona says it's on the brink of closure because of COVID-19 costs. Az central:
Overwhelmed Hospitals Face a New Crisis: Staffing Firms Are Cutting Their Doctors’ Hours and Pay.
“Multiple private-equity-backed staffing companies have cut hours for thousands of emergency room doctors, physician assistants and nurse practitioners.” Pro Publica:
Medical workers nationally getting laid off by the thousands: ‘It’s quite surreal for all of us,’ one says.
“A tally of out-of-work medical professionals is elusive, since the coronavirus began taking a devastating toll on jobs only in mid-March. Many institutions have said nothing publicly, quietly making cutbacks, and the monthly jobs report issued Friday by the federal government showed 42,000 job losses in health care — just a small indication of what's to come..” Penn live
Med staff fired en masse because - no profits to be made from Covid-19 patients.
Posted by: Noirette | Apr 6 2020 18:25 utc | 10
- Trump Campaign’s McEnany Told Fox, ‘We Will Not See Diseases Like The Coronavirus Come Here’
http://www.newshounds.us/flashback_trump_campaign_s_mcenany_told_fox_not_coronavirus_here_040520
Posted by: Willy2 | Apr 6 2020 18:27 utc | 11
Thanks b for shining the light.
Politicising a disease is very short sighted.
Joining the propaganda chorus - in the UK there is a demand on China to pay compensation for coronavirus.
CHINA owes Britain £351billion in coronavirus compensation
Be careful there is the 1839 opium war way deep in history that could offset. Good luck with that for Brexit trade talks.
and
Canadians are livid over Trump's banning export of 3M masks, said the US wants the masks and he doesn’t want others getting them.
Trump is reminded that the the town of Gander in the province of Newfoundland, population of 10,000, assisted 6,600 Americans diverted following the 9/11 attack.
Newfoundland Premier Dwight Ball said one of the great lessons in humanity is that in times of crisis you don’t stop being human.
“To say that I’m infuriated by the recent actions of President Trump of the United States is an understatement,” Ball said. “I cannot believe for a second that in a time of crisis that President Trump would even think about banning key medical supplies to Canada.”
Ball noted that in 2001, more than 6,600 passengers descended on Gander, Newfoundland, a town of 10,000 without warning as more than 200 flights were diverted to Canada following the attacks on the United States.
Flight crews filled Gander’s hotels, so passengers were taken to schools, fire stations, church halls. The Canadian military flew in 5,000 cots. Stores donated blankets, coffee machines, barbecue grills. Locals gave passengers food, clothes, showers, toys and banks of phones to call home free of charge.
“Newfoundland and Labrador will never give up on humanity . We will not hesitate for one second if we had to repeat what we did on 9-11. We would do it again,” Ball said.
“This is a time when we need to work together to continue to protect our residents and keep them safe from COVID-19 no mater where they live or what passport they hold.”[.]
Trudeau noted Canada supplies the U.S. with many supplies, including pulp for surgical-grade N95 masks, test kits and gloves. Canadian nurses also work in the U.S.
Question Canadians are asking. Those advising Trump, can they find Canada on the world map? Sanctions and tariffs equates loss of market share.
Posted by: Likklemore | Apr 6 2020 18:29 utc | 12
Noirette | Apr 6 2020 18:25 utc | 10
I cannot think of any words that would appropriately convey how disgusting this is.
This is a new low for america and capitalism.
Posted by: David F | Apr 6 2020 18:53 utc | 13
Noirette | Apr 6 2020 18:25 utc | 10
As stand alone datum is sad.
In context is "rational" "sacrifice" of nutzossenfolk and deadheads. Naturally the medic are withdrawn, and in a way that makes it seem "logical". But is part of design of system.
Lookit Big Picture. Is "regrettable" cull of baggage fodder units.
Apply coincidence theory....lotta coincidences?...find the agency, dude.
Target Chine...target Persia, target Rus - the rest is merely "losses" in Campaign to Glorious Victory.
Now then, remember the lies... It cannot achieve the grand goal.
It must, in Time, retreat.
Then it must undergo Changes. Quite probably at that point Regions will ask Chine and Rus to help. 5 years? 10? Nobody knows.
Thus "russian interference" while obviously a bald lie, shall occur in the future, also Chine assist also in Future. Is "echo from future".
Last time empire had big crises the Ruskie did interfere...ask Lincoln.
The geopolitic is much the same.
Posted by: Walter | Apr 6 2020 18:55 utc | 14
@Noirette
Here as long thread of U.S. hospitals firing people because their usual business no longer makes money:
U.S. healthcare system is so overwhelmed by COVID-19 that hospitals are laying off staff.
Yes, you read that right. Due to coronavirus lockdown and fears, no one's going except in absolute emergencies. Hospitals are getting slammed--by lack of business.
...
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"b" is Moon of Alabama's founding (and chief) editor. This site's purpose is to discuss politics, economics, philosophy and blogger Billmon's Whiskey Bar writings. Moon Of Alabama was opened as an independent, open forum for members of the Whiskey Bar community. Bernhard )"b") started and still runs the site. Once in a while you will also find posts and art from regular commentators. You can reach the current administrator of this site by emailing Bernhard at MoonofA@aol.com.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
In France, the sudden loss of smell is considered proof of Covid-19 infection, no further tests required.
Posted by: marcel | Apr 6 2020 17:29 utc | 1