So is this really an epidemic of despair?
WHAT if this is in fact an epidemic of despair? I wrestle daily with the maze of figures advanced by all sides in the Covid-19 debate. They are hard to fathom.
How many actually die on any given day, as opposed to how many are recorded or announced? How many Covid patients in hospital have other major diseases but tested positive for Covid after arriving there? How many caught Covid in hospital? How reliable are Covid tests anyway? I know personally of several people who have tested positive only to get a negative result when they were retested. Other potentially fatal diseases are just not being tested for in the same way. And there are serious questions to be asked about the registration of cause of death, going back many months.
There is also a strange drop in influenza this year. Amazingly, lockdown enthusiasts are crediting this to the closure of our society. But if strangling almost all normal life is so effective against flu, why is it not working against Covid?
Or is it perhaps that flu is still in our midst, but under a different name? I believe figures are also showing a reduction in excess deaths from Alzheimer’s and dementia. Why is that?
At the beginning of this, on March 18, the distinguished professor of medical microbiology, Sucharit Bhakdi, issued a warning.
His credentials are impressive. An infectious medicine specialist, he is one of the most highly cited medical research scientists in Germany. He is a former head of the Institute for Medical Microbiology at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, one of Germany’s most distinguished seats of learning. He is also a prophet.
He said that older people had the right to make efforts to stay fit, active, busy and healthy. But he warned that the shutdown of society would condemn them to early death by preventing this. ‘Social contacts and social events, theatre and music, travel and holiday recreation, sports and hobbies, all help to prolong their stay on earth. The life expectancy of millions is being shortened.’
In a prediction that has turned out to be terribly accurate, he added: ‘The horrifying impact on the world economy threatens the existence of countless people. The consequences for medical care are profound.
‘Already services to patients who are in need are reduced, operations cancelled, practices empty, hospital personnel dwindling. All this will impact profoundly on our whole society.’
Who can doubt it? How many have seen parents and grandparents, deprived of the social contacts and interests that until March kept them busy and well, fade into shadows of themselves? What effect do you think this change has had on their resistance to disease?